Hopefully cruising, with focus, towards retirement

in_need_of_direction

today my weight is 12st 2lb. This is not good but not unexpected. 3 meals out, 1 takeaway and two fairly unhealthy dinners due, in part, to my purchase of reduced items not suitable for home freezing. really must do better she says after consuming bacon and mushroom sarnies for breakfast. On the plus side, the bread had been reduced, bacon was from the freezer and mushrooms were on the turn plus it delivered one of my five a day.

Not too much got done yesterday. Some more slow progress in the garden, some more tacking tarnish on silverware with ood tomato ketchup, some papers despatched to recycling / shredding. I also responded to a work matter. A dark wash also got done and mainly dried.

Today will involve deep clean of bathroom and living room, some work stuff and hopefully finding something to binge watch while continuing to deal with the tarnished silver and possibly another few garden related baby steps.

Today I am grateful for

A good night’s sleep

Bacon sarnies

Another item to the charity shop bag

Blackcats

I hope the car repairs get sorted quickly.

great gifting and pixie dust sprinkling. I've used some of my dust this week to buy some memorabilia from a sporting event to gift to someone who won't ever be able to attend the particular event. I'll pack it and post it tomorrow. I think they will be surprised and pleased when the parcel arrives.

in_need_of_direction

black cats, the car stuff will take a while to sort but hey ho, it is what it is. Yesterday my last outstanding invoice was paid which is good to have in the bank and will hopefully incentivise me to get working and issue more invoices.
Some pixie dust was sprinkled yesterday by covering postage costs and gifting a food item that will be an unexpected treat for young relatives.

Two work items got cleared and I agreed to clear something by today. DH picked up a key element, a cake pot, of ds’s birthday parcel that needs to be sent today to hopefully arrive on Friday. His birthday is Saturday but he may not be at home.
Yesterday’s downside was that I consumed by body weight in sugar.

I have identified £500 in the business account that will be used to make my first pension contribution of the year so that will go today.

Today I am grateful for

A bit more progress on the garden

The right temperature to have dinner outside

Things leaving the house

triple_choc_chip

Hi INOD, I’ve just found your new diary and subscribed. We read many of the same diaries but I wasn’t aware of your journey in detail and whilst it must of been quite the trial over a number of years, from an onlooker‘s POV today, you are a massive MSE success and still achieving more, well done.

I’m intrigued about pixie dust so I’m about to stalk Black Cat’s diary now (in the nicest possible way) and find out all about it. I will also be reading that book and will recommend another - Die with Zero. My son bought it for me it as a laugh because I’m on the verge of retiring but it’s seriously thought provoking; all about maximising your life experiences and as you are doing, sharing with dependants now if you can and not in a will so that they can also maximise their life experiences. There’s even links to working out life expectancy - as a 66 year old, apparently I still have the same remaining life expectancy as an average 46 year old Canadian - not great for them…

Blackcats

@Triple_choc_chip - pixie dust is just my description of sprinkling some magic by doing nice things for people and having a small pot of money to use (guilt free) to be kind, spread happiness or help out. It's absolutely my favourite pot of money and I'm sure I get as much pleasure from it as the pixie dust recipient does. I allocate £100 a month which gives lots of leeway for how to share it.
The book sounds good and from your description aligns with what we've started to do. We've allocated a fairly chunky amount of money this year to pay for nice experiences for our kids and grandkids. I've set myself a challenge to use a variety of ways to earn it back so we can gift it again next year.

jwil

I missed that you had a new diary, I've subscribed now. Sorry about the car, hope it's resolved quickly.

Love the pixie dust thing. These little things will really make people's days 😊

in_need_of_direction

thanks for joining me jwil. The other aspect of pixie dust I’ve found is that it eases some of the guilt caused by frittering away past money / credit card spend. It’s so easy to look at items bought previously and hold onto them because selling would only generate pennies. Instead I now look at giving them to wherever might have an actual use e.g. disposing of one of two unused fire pits to a relative who likes to bbq.

so, this week I am up 1lb. To be fair, the purchase of a reduced price profiterole stack for rapid consumption may not have been such a good idea. I also got some other reduced items after dropping off dry cleaning to benefit from a 20% off deal. I increased my sparks pot by £2, £1 from buying what was needed and £1 from items to go overseas that are now purchased. I am also getting close to another £10 cash out to PayPal.

It is currently a long weekend here while bonfires and parades occur. It is hard not to despair at the actions of a small minority. Work is steady and I’d like to get one thing a day done between now and Tuesday. Wednesday there is a locally based client meeting after which I’m keen to get write up done.
we are slowly making in roads to the freezer with previous reductions supplementing current finds and the contents of an earlier tgtg bakery bag are being used. Today’s breakfast was a six pack of potato bread that was previously purchased for 24p. We really can’t be bad to that and there are another 5 packets still in there. Today we will take out a sliced Belfast bap to defrost for tomorrow.

Progress is also being made on the pots in the garden. Some have been weeded and some have had soil extracted and put through the sieve and others have been planted. I’m slowly but surely making my way through the first problem zone next to the rear of the garage. Hopefully we will also make inroads into zone two and rescue next door’s fence post from ivy. It’ll then be a question of propping it up and planting some tall bits and pieces that are currently in pots.

Right, I could easily stay here all day formulating plans but that would lead to me getting nothing done, feeling guilty and getting depressed. Not a good approach.

Today I am grateful for

more than 2 weeks on lower dose of anti depressants without any major adverse effects

More things leaving the house

Being able to build variety into food choices through reduced items

in_need_of_direction

yesterday dh and I had a discussion about plans for the Canadian gifts and money. He sees it all as very doable which is good. Very little work has been done but we continue to chip away at the two zones in the garden.

yesterday quite a bit of money was spent on dh’s family obligations. He was agonising and trying to save £5 here and making non like for like comparisons and was getting stressed. We may have paid £50 over the total £600 costs but it was so worth it just to get things settled. It’s pretty much travel and accommodation costs for something that we would sooner duck but given the age of the people concerned, it may be the last opportunity to engage like this.

All of yesterday’s food came from fridge and freezer and involved reduced and / or on offer things previously purchased apart from the strawberries for dh’s breakfast. Tonight’s dinner needs are also addressed.
today some laundry will be done now I think we’ve gone beyond the risk of ash. A work list will also be compiled.

Today I am grateful for

DH starting the process to access our private health care

A chat with dd

Finding our sole back door key that I had accidentally consigned to the garden waste bin

in_need_of_direction

as usual, little work was done but other things progressed. Apart from a cake pot which is, for reasons of freshness, a last minute purchase, DD’s birthday parcel is in place to be sent next week. The balance of her gifts are boxed and waiting for her here. My accounts are up to date with everything reconciled.

I earned another deposit into PayPal so, through various odds and sods, was able to transfer £45 to the current account. I also got a £15 refund through so this will be spent on Canadian dollars. One of the seven gifts has been sorted and some of the bits and pieces purchased. I also got a £2 sparks offer for a £20 food spend so this will be used to purchase teabags to go with the Percy pigs already bought when on offer. It’s incrementally creeping up.
today I am with a client today so need to jump in the shower.

Today I am grateful for

No spend days

Things starting to come together

Garden progress

DancingInTheRain

Just found your new diary, have subscribed and will enjoy hearing about your pixie dust plans!