Weekly Blog - W/E 27th November 2021

This week got off to a good start, as I woke up after having a good night's sleep for the first time in a couple of days. I immediately got up and sorted some laundry before getting ready for the day.

After breakfast, my first task was to put some washing on and then to walk the dog. We had a nice walk this morning. No time constraints, on a cold but bright winter morning.

When I got back, I decided to do a couple of small tasks I'd been avoiding for a couple of weeks. One was to properly clean our old salad spinner, as I'm considering donating it. After cleaning it, however, I think I might keep it as a spare or for LB when she goes to University next year.

This job then lead me to thoroughly clean our kitchen sinks, which were looking a bit grimy and clear some limescale deposits on and around the draining board. (Caused by the hard water here in London). I also used a tip I saw on YouTube to clean my silver rings, the insides of which were looking a bit grotty. Baking soda and boiling water. It works and presumably is nice and gentle on the stones.

I also planned my shopping list, as this week, I was on a very tight budget for groceries and everything else, despite. I tried to cut what I bought down to the minimum to get through the rest of the month. I had some shortcrust pastry that was just past it's best before date in the fridge, so I made some mince pies with it and I took a look at what food we did have as I wrote my shopping list, so that I didn't buy anything we didn't absolutely need. Fortunately, I had a £10 voucher to use at Lidl and a £5 voucher to use at Tesco, so they would come in useful.  We won't starve and it won't hurt for a week not to have many treats.  

I spent the afternoon chilling, catching up on YouTube favourites and generally just having some down time.

Monday, I was up and off to Zumba as usual. After class I headed off to do the weekly shop. Using the vouchers I had, I managed to keep the cost down to £75, which sounds a lot, but is less than normal. This leaves me just under £30 to spend on food next week, before I get paid on Tuesday. I seem to be broke before Christmas has even begun this year. Dentist and optician appointments have really set me back financially. 

Next year, I might go back to putting £50 aside each month to pay for Xmas/Birthday gifts throughout the year. I found it easier to budget when I used to do that.  As far as this year is concerned, I'm afraid I will be putting more Xmas presents on my credit cards. It can't be helped. I just need to make sure I don't go too crazy as I've still got to pay it off.

On Tuesday, I was working. It was a case of head down and focus on processing gift aid and pricing clothing all day. I needed to work a few extra hours this week, as I was working full days on Thursday and Saturday, due to the Manager taking a few days off.  I planned to use the extra hours to make sure I vaccuumed the shop again and got some Christmas party wear out on the shop floor.

On Wednesday morning I had a lie in, as OH took the dog out. When I got up, I sorted and hung out some washing, then proceeded to water most of my house plants before sitting down to breakfast. I much prefer their care in the winter, as they only need watering every fortnight, as opposed to weekly.

I didn't have any errands to run thankfully, and as I didn't have any money to spend, I spent the day at home catching up on some ironing, whilst watching a Christmas movie, of course. My favourite way to spend the afternoon on my day off.

Later, I went out to walk the dog. I met up with a fellow dog walker, which made it a bit more sociable and we had a good chat as we walked.

Thursday and work beckoned. There weren't too many donations, so I had lots of time to do other things around the stockroom and on the shopfloor. I decided it was time to decorate the shop for Christmas. Whilst the cat (my boss) is away, the mouse (me) will play. I hardly ever get time to do any visual merchandising or shop decorating and as it was nearly December it was long overdue.  Out came our little Christmas tree and the windows were dragged into the Christmas spirit. I also priced lots of donated Christmas related items and made a display of them with the help of another volunteer. The sparkly Christmas party dresses were also priced and hung out on a rail of their own. Although it was a busy day, I had fun and we put Christmas music on for the first time this year, which I also enjoyed. I'll probably be sick of it in a couple of weeks, but it made a nice change.

On Friday, I had to be up early, as a guy was coming round to measure our windows for new sashes and we needed to tidy around before he came. Later, after walking the dog, I had a couple of errands to run. One was to pick up a Christmas present I'd ordered online for LB. I only had to go down to a local Sainsbury's Express and as we needed a couple of food items, I was able to shop for them at the same time. I did get lured into buying a couple of extra Xmas presents whilst in there, but that was okay.

I also visited a couple of charity shops en route, despite being broke. I figured that as I had some savings in my current account, I wasn't actually as broke as I felt and in one shop I bought a dress to wear for work for £3 and a slightly thicker long sleeved top for wearing in this cold weather for £7 from another charity shop.

I booked my Covid booster jab today, for Monday, at our local chemist. I figured with all the talk of the new variant, I shouldn't hang around.

On Saturday I was back at work and in early again. I actually got there for 9ish so that I could vaccuum the shop before opening at 10am. We had a good day and I managed to get quite a lot done in the stockroom, with the help of a couple of volunteers.

I had a slight accident on the way home and came off my bike. It was my silly fault and no one else was involved, but I hit the ground hard and hurt my leg and shoulder. I managed to get straight back on the bike and get home okay though. It wasn't a great end to the week, but it could have been a lot worse.

How's your week been?