A Few Days of Finally Doing What Needed to be Done

On Wednesday, during my week off, after two weeks of procrastinating, (and also recovering from burnout at work) I finally started to do some of the jobs that desperately needed doing around the house.  I started work in the kitchen. It's the room I spend most of my time in and it seriously needed a good clean and declutter.

I started at about 2pm and continued until probably 8pm, interrupted only by cooking supper. I didn't get around to doing everything.  Vacuuming and mopping the floor, for example, had to wait until the following morning, as it would have been too noisy at 8pm, as our neighbours have small children, who would have been in bed by this time. I also didn't manage to clean the oven or the dishwasher, but these jobs were stand alone and could be done at any time.

On Thursday, I got up and got straight on with cleaning the kitchen floor. It felt very satisfying to get the cleaning of this room completed, as it is probably the one that takes the longest. Cleaning all the cupboard doors inside and out and deep cleaning surfaces and window sills etc., always takes quite a long time. I did deep clean the cupboards under the sink, some of the other cupboards and most of the drawers, where crumbs and clutter gather, but to be honest, there wasn't much to get rid of this time around.

After finishing the kitchen floor, I then cleaned the downstairs toilet, vestibule and stairs up to the ground floor, before taking a break for lunch. I did find a few pairs of shoes in the vestibule that I could let go of. Two pairs were worn out and three other pairs I no longer wanted to keep. So this was progress.

Whilst having lunch, for inspiration and continued motivation, I watched a couple of cleaning videos by Aurikatariina on YouTube, which spurred me on to do more cleaning. She does some very dirty cleaning jobs in her videos, but is such a happy cleaner and is super enthusiastic about it. 

After lunch, I proceeded to clean the two reception rooms. It only took a couple of hours, as I'd cleaned just before Christmas when I put the tree up, so it wasn't super dirty, but there was quite a bit of furniture to move and clean underneath. I finished for the afternoon by cleaning the hallway, which completed the whole of the lower part of the house. By this time it was time to take the dog out, so I got out for a break and some fresh air. Here's a couple of photos of these rooms once cleaned:

Later in the evening after supper, I watched a few more cleaning videos, whilst simultaneously descaling the kettle and cleaning the oven. I had just enough time before The Apprentice came on at 9pm, to get both of these jobs done.

On Friday, I did a couple of things in the morning, such as putting away the laundry, doing another wash and I set the dishwasher on a cleaning cycle with some citric acid in there. I put the extractor fan filters in there too, as they were very oily and dirty, the last little job I needed to do in the kitchen.

I took a break from cleaning for the rest of the day, as I had a few errands to do, but returned to doing a bit more on Saturday afternoon. On this occasion, I vacuumed and mopped the stairs up to the top landing, then cleaned our bedroom which was especially dirty.  I didn't do a spring clean, as in taking everything off the shelves and cleaning them, I just cleaned the bits of the shelves that were visible. The reason for this is that we are awaiting the arrival of new sash windows next week, which are going to be fitted in this room, so there is no point thoroughly cleaning, as it will need doing again, once the new windows have been fitted.

I did wipe down all surfaces, vacuum and mop the floor, change the bedding and then remove any breakables from the room, to prevent any breakages during the fitting of the windows. It felt good to get this room done and then I could hang out some washing to dry.

By way of a treat, after all my cleaning this week, we headed to the pub on Saturday night for supper. 

A Spendy Friday

The this week I've taken a week off from work. I didn't do a whole lot for the first few days of the week, but for the latter half of the week, I've spent a lot of time cleaning the house.

On Friday, however, I felt like I needed to take a break from the cleaning and with the end of a very tight month in sight, I felt like a bit of a splurge. 

It started when I passed a local charity shop on the dog walk. I saw a dress and a bag in the window and popped in to ask how much they were. The dress was way too small for me, which is just as well, as it was £22, but the bag was £7 and I really liked it. I didn't have any money on me, but the lady on the till said she would put it aside until I came back later, which was very nice of her.

I returned to the shop half an hour later and dropped a bag of items that I no longer wanted at the same time. I bought the bag and a couple of other things too, spending £11.  Here's a picture of the bag:

I always use a cross body bag and I like the fact that this one has 3 zipped compartments; one for keys, one for money/bus pass and one for PPE/makeup, etc. I love my bags to be compartmentalised, so that I can find what I need easily and quickly. I also like the lovely green colour of the bag, which I thought would be nice for the spring.

The other items I bought included this licky mat for the dog, who tends to wolf her food down. I thought this might entertain her for a little while. It was new and was £3.

The final items were these bamboo beakers with a jungle print, which were also new and 50p each.

I was happy with my purchases, but when I got home, I realised that I needed to go out again, as we were out of salad and a few other items and I needed to do a top up shop for the weekend.

My first stop, was Poundland, which is always a £30 spend, as it was this day. Of this spend, £10 was a new jumper that I saw and liked in the window. I then got waylaid in the gardening aisle, as OH wanted some shallots for the allotment. I bought two bags of 10 at £1 each and I needed some more dahlia tubers, as several of mine rotted off this winter. At £1 for two tubers, I thought they were worth a try and bought these 3 packets: 

I'm hoping that they grow okay, as they make such great cut flowers in the summer, which saves me ever having to buy any.

I also bought a few bits of food and some dog treats, as we were virtually out of them. They had some Christmas ones that had been reduced, so I bought some of these. They'd been a bit pricey at Christmas, when I think they were £2 and £3, so I'd given them a miss, but were now either £1 or £1.50.

Next stop was ASDA for salad, fruit, ketchup, bread products, milk, tinned dog food, cereal, wine for OH and me - I chose a low alcohol Rose version this time for £3. That was another £25 spent. 

In all, it was a bit of a spendy day, but because I'd received last month's credit card statement, I could now use my card to pay for these things and I won't need to pay them off until March. 

I counted non-food items in next month's spending, as I didn't have any spending capacity left in any category except food this month. This is what happens when I have a very low spend month, I kind of burst out of it at the end of the month, just to cheer myself up. Having said this though, most of the things were necessary or everyday groceries (save for CS purchases and the jumper), so I'm not going to give myself a hard time.

I'm just so glad to get to the end of a difficult month and be able to treat myself just a little. I've decided to keep a tally of every non-consumable item that I buy this year, to monitor how much 'stuff' actually comes into the house. I'm hoping it might make me think a bit more before buying things and help to keep the clutter down.

Tuesday at Home and a Night Out

Tuesday, got off to a slow start. I stayed in bed for an hour reading. I'm currently reading a book about productivity, for both work and home. It's quite an interesting read. I got up and got showered and after breakfast I took the dog on a two hour walk. 

I had a couple of errands to run when I got back.  One was to post a present off to my sister for her birthday this week and the other was to pick up a prescription for LB. The Post Office and Pharmacy were next door to one another, so it didn't take long and meant I could tick a couple more things off my to do list for the week.

After lunch, I needed to do a Lateral Flow Test, as I'd been invited to go dancing in the evening, with a friend that I met at dance classes pre-pandemic. Once that was done and was negative, I could book my ticket. It is for a swing dance lesson followed by a live band, who I think play ragtime, blues and 20's jazz, which sounded good. I hadn't done any swing dancing for nearly two years, so I was both nervous and excited to return to it. The lessons and event were at a different venue that is trying to build up their events, so it was interesting to see what it was like.

To get me in the mood for going dancing, I re-watched some videos of the Jazz Solo classes I did before Lockdown. It was interesting to be reminded of the level at which I was learning, before everything shut down. Some of the steps and routines were quite tricky. Not sure if I could do them now, not without a lot of practice anyway.

This afternoon, I decided to do a bit more ironing, whilst watching the new film version of Jane Austin's Emma on Netflix. Later I started getting ready to go out. It had been so long since I'd been dancing, I had no idea what to wear. I don't really wear vintage anymore, so I needed to choose something both presentable and comfortable for dancing. I opted for trousers, flat shoes and a couple of layered tops. The first time I go anywhere, it's always a nightmare to decide what to wear.

I had to set the sat nav to find my way to the venue, as the area wasn't that familiar, even though it's only 10-15 mintues away in the car. The traffic was bad too, but my friend and I were still early, so we had time to sit and have a chat before the class began.  I enjoyed the class, it was a good mix of young and older dancers, so I didn't feel too conspicuous. At times it felt like I was actually dancing, by which I mean the steps, albeit just the few we learnt that night, were flowing reasonably well.

The band were good and my friend and I had lots of time to catch up with each other's news. I enjoyed watching the more experienced dancers too. It's inspiring, although I doubt I'll ever be as good as they are.

We left about 10.45pm, as my friend needed to get a bus and train home and I was home for just past 11pm.

I'm not sure if I'll go every week, but it has whetted my appetite to get back to dancing, so we'll see what happens.

A Day at Work and an Unexpected Start to my Week Off

On Saturday, I returned to work for just one day, before taking a week's leave. Work was okay. There was plenty of work to do, as I'd not been there for three days, but I managed to get most of what I needed to do done. In a charity shop, there is always more you can do, you've just got to be realistic about what you can achieve in a day. 

Anyway, on Sunday morning we woke up to a Whatsapp message from LB. She was on the train back from Manchester, but had cockled over and twisted her ankle on the way to the station. She sent a photo of it looking swollen and sore. I said we'd meet her at Euston station when she arrived back in London. OH had to rearrange a cycling meet up with a friend, but we couldn't let her hobble off the train and into a cab alone.

I then got up and got dressed and went down to breakfast.  I put some washing in the machine and then spent most of the remainder of the morning watching a few YouTube videos and writing a shopping list for  the weekly shop the following day. I had a very tight budget this week, as it's the last week before I get paid, so I didn't want to buy anything unnecessary. We've got quite a bit of food in the house, so I only really needed the fresh basics,plus a few items we had run out of. 

Later, OH and I set off to pick LB up. Unfortunately, we couldn't easily get anywhere near to Euston station in the car, from the front anyway, because of roadworks, so I jumped out and headed into the station on foot, and OH ended up having to go home to get back in time to go out for his cycle ride.

I was surprised at how packed it was inside Euston station. I gradually managed to make my way through crowds of people to find LB outside the platform where she'd got off the train. Luckily she could walk on her ankle, but it was painful.  We headed outside to a bus stop nearby, where we jumped on a bus back to Hackney. We had to swap buses as we got near to home, so that we could get as close to the house as possible, but eventually we got on a bus that dropped us off at the top of our street.

LB was exhausted after a weekend of going out until the early hours with her friends, so she went straight up to bed and I made her a bacon sandwich, gave her an ice pack for her ankle and then settled myself down to a bowl of vegetable soup for lunch. It made for a different Sunday morning anyway.

After lunch, I hung out the washing and then finally settled down to doing an hour or two of ironing before the afternoon dog walk called. It was satisfying to halve the ironing pile, which by now was tumbling over every time you try to take something from further down it than the top. I felt a little bit more productive than I've been for the last week. OH has recently decided that he doesn't want me to iron his clothes anymore, as he has developed a hatred of the ironing pile of doom.  Suits me, as it makes the pile a little less overwhelming, but not much, as OH doesn't go through anywhere near as many clothes as I do in any given period. Maybe one day I'll stop ironing my clothes too, but I can't see it somehow.

A Productive Monday

My week off started with a class at the gym. I ran into more problems when I got there, as they've decided to scrap a scratch card system for parking and so I am expecting to get a parking ticket this week.  They did say that they would squash the ticket if I bring it in along with my scratchcard, but it's a whole lot of bother that wouldn't be necessary if they'd just given us a bit of a warning about the change.

Anyway, it will now cost £1.50 to park each time I use the gym, instead of 75p which the scratch card system reduced it to. I know it's only a relatively small increase, but everything seems to be getting more expensive at the moment. I might consider riding my non-electric bike to the gym sometimes, but as I always combine going to the gym in the car, with doing the weekly shop, this isn't really going to be a good solution. I'll probably just have to pay up and shut up.

Talking of the weekly shop, I managed to keep costs low this week and got everything we needed for just £56. I did use a £2 off coupon that I'd earned, but I think that's still the least I've spent at Lidl on a weekly shop, for at least a couple of years. This shop should easily see us through the week. I think I tend to overbuy on a regular basis, so this week is a good opportunity to use things up. We won't starve.

After getting back and having lunch, OH helped me get all of the Christmas decorations into the loft. It was good to get them out of sight, as they've been cluttering up the spare bedroom/my sewing room for the last 3 weeks. I love Christmas, but once it's over, I'm over it and want to get back to normal.

I decided to do a bit of financial filing this afternoon. I always throw all my financial paperwork that comes in during the year, into a filing box and then file it all away once per year, usually in January. It's mainly just bank statements, credit card statements, the odd pension statement, nothing very important. I just find this the easiest way to deal with paperwork and it seems to have served me well enough over the years. Once done, it was another thing crossed off the to do list and gave me a sense of satisfaction.

I then put away the ironing from the day before, did the washing up which had built up over the weekend, before taking the dog out. Days just slip past so quickly at the moment, I don't know where the hours go.

I had to cancel a dentist appointment for LB today, as her ankle still wasn't recovered enough to walk easily. I re-booked for a couple of weeks time. It worked out better for me financially, as I can't really afford to pay for her checkup this month. Next month shouldn't be quite as tight as this month has been, although it is still going to be a challenge, but at least it's a short month with only 28 days in it.

I also managed to persuade LB to contact the doctor about a skin condition that's been troubling her recently. After sending photos to the doctor via email, she had a long conversation with him on the telephone and he diagnosed her as having psoriasis, which he thinks is related to a thyroid issue she's had lately. Anyway, he's prescribed some cream, so hopefully, this should help to clear it up for now. It felt good to get on top of this issue, which has been bothering her for about 6 weeks now. At least she now knows what it is.

In all, Monday felt like quite a productive day. The house still needs a good clean, but quite a few things got sorted out, so it felt like I'd made some progress with outstanding issues. I'm hoping the rest of the week continues in the same vein.

EBAY Expenditure Audit 2021

For anyone who didn't already know, I'm an avid eBay spender. I used to be a seller on eBay and was always grateful for the support of buyers, so subsequently I've always tried to buy things on eBay where I can.  I like to spread my money around lots of small sellers and not just hand it over to large corporations. (I realise that eBay is a large corporation and takes a cut of each sale, but it also is a great enabler for people to earn money online and I respect this about the platform).

Anyway, I like to look on eBay before I buy elsewhere. Not so much when it comes to buying clothing, as I learnt the hard way in 2020, that buying clothes on eBay, especially vintage clothes, is a bit of a lottery, unless you know the brand and it's sizing well. I made many mistakes during lockdown and subsequently ended up donating some things that I bought, as they didn't fit well.

For almost everything else, I turn to eBay first, i.e. items for the dog, items for work, stationery, ppe, diy, crafts, cycling accessories, collectibles, books, vinyl, other accessories, etc., etc. I absolutely love the fact that you can find so many very niche items on there, that you probably could spend months trailing around trying to find.

For example, some of the things I have bought this year include: a rubber bung to fit a vintage ceramic money box, various vintage Christmas brooches for my collection, a phone case for my 5 year old Samsung Galaxy DS, a hanging crystal for a feng shui moment, labelling tape for an ancient Brother label machine that has been in the shed for a number of years, mounts for pictures, a hula hoop and tape to decorate it, litter picking equipment, moth traps, window film, shelves, garden chairs, cycling accessories including helmet, saddle bag, hi vis jackets, etc., face masks, a face mask case, cycling parts for OH's bike, velcro, sewing patterns, various gifts for Xmas, including a vintage Juicy Couture handbag for LB - you get the drift.

Very occasionally, I have a not so great experience with sellers, but I'd say that in probably 95-98% of transactions, I am very happy with the outcome, hence why I continue to use it on a regular basis.

The other day, I randomly decided to total the amount I'd spent on eBay in 2021. I spent a lot in the lead up to Xmas last year and I also spent quite a bit during Lockdown at the beginning of the year, as I couldn't always find things elsewhere and I make a conscious choice not to buy on Amazon where possible.

Anyway, the total came to £737.53, which was divided between about 80 different purchases. That probably averages to about 6 or 7 per month. This is less than I spent in 2020 when the total was more like £1200, but this did include a bike for £120. I was able to glean this total from a previous post I wrote in November 2020, by the time Xmas was over this figure was probably more likely to have been £1500, so I think I curtailed my spending on eBay by quite a bit last year. 

(So far this year, I have only purchased one item, which was for work, as I'm on a very low spend month. I  just haven't been able to justify buying anything else. I know, however, that as soon as I get through this month, there are a number of small (i.e. less than £10 items in my watch list, that I would love to place an order for. I think I may resurrect my old series about the random things I buy on eBay, when I do eventually buy a few things.)

On occasions, I've probably paid a bit over the odds when postage has been taken into account, but the ease of clicking a button and getting something sent to you, is so much more convenient and is worth paying extra for sometimes. Besides, you can't expect small sellers to soak up the postage costs. I try to buy items with free postage where I can, but it isn't always possible and the price usually includes an adjustment for postage anyway.

I know that eBay have made lots of changes in recent years, that have made it harder for sellers to use the platform. I think this is regrettable and it would probably put me off ever selling on there again, but I still think that it is a very useful tool for finding what you need, especially the more obscure things in life.

How do you feel about eBay?

A Few Days Off (Again)

This week my work schedule has been the same as last week. I took Thursday off again, so that I could get back some of the extra hours I worked in the New Year. I quite like having 3 days off together. I haven't had that for a couple of years now, as I tend to work alternate days and then have 2 days off on Sunday/Monday. The extra day makes all the difference in terms of feeling rested, but I'd better not get too used to it. 

Next week, I'm taking a week's leave, as I need to use up my annual leave before the year end at the end of March. I haven't got anything planned as such, but I may do some cleaning and sewing and decluttering. The usual really. We may go away for a few days at some point to get a break from London and blow away the cobwebs.

This last three days, haven't been particularly exciting. Wednesday, I took the dog, or rather she took me, for a long walk. I then needed to pick up a prescription from the chemist. I tried to go to our local library, but it was shut for staff training. I haven't been for at least two years and just felt like picking up a few new to me books to flick through.

I had to wait in in the afternoon for a parcel arriving. A present for my sister's 60th birthday next week. I hope she likes it. I'll have to send it on to her. I ordered her some orchids today too, which she had asked for. 

I was contacted by a friend that I used to go dancing with pre-Lockdown. She suggested a new venue to go swing dancing and we may arrange something in the coming weeks, which would be good. I've wanted to get back to it, but seem to have lost my nerve somewhat.

I spent most of the afternoon binge watching Netflix and iPlayer. A lost afternoon really, but sometimes you just need to do it and enjoy it. As I've now finished a lot of the series that I was watching, I'll have to find other things to do with my time. The ironing basket calls as always, but I just keep batting it away until I run out of clothes.

On Thursday, I had a lie in. The dog wanted to go out for a walk super early (well 8 am, which is too early for me) so OH took her. I stayed in bed and read my current book, which is a really good read. It's called Untamed, by Glennon Doyle and talks about how from the age of 10 girls are taught to be 'good' and compliant and to tame their personalities to please and placate those around them. I can relate to that.

As I wasn't under any time constraints this morning, I decided to get my new yoga mat out of it's wrapping  (I've only had it 7 months!) and do some weights and floor exercises for 20 minutes. I stuck to the routine I devised during Lockdown. I really enjoyed it. My arms are definitely much weaker and were struggling to manage the weight exercises, which emphasised the need to do them. It helped to create a positive start to the day. 

Lately, I'm a super fan of trainwithjoan on Instagram. She is so inspiring, looks fabulous in her 70's and has totally transformed her body in the last 7 years. I'm starting to think that adding some strength training into my routine might be the way forward for me too.

After breakfast, I watched a few YouTube videos and then what do you know, it was time for an early lunch.

After lunch, I checked the opening times online and headed out to the library again. I walked up there this time, as I needed to get out of the house and get some fresh air. I stopped off to buy some bird seed, peanuts and suet balls from a local discount store. A bit of a luxury on my very low spend month, but I just felt like feeding the birds today, after seeing a tit bathing in the bird bath this moring.

Thankfully, the library was open today, so I had a good mooch around the non-fiction section. (I rarely borrow anything else) I checked out these books, which should keep me going for a while:

I wasn't sure if my library card would still work, as it had been so long since I last visited, but it did.

I set off back home. En route, I was thinking about why I just can't seem to settle down to do anything productive at the moment.  The house is screaming at me to clean it, there's lots of decluttering and ironing to do, but I just can't face it. I think I'm still a bit burnt out from work and very selfishly need more me time. Books do it for me when I get like this. They've always been an escape for me.

When I got home, I filled all of the bird feeders and then started reading the Dawn O'Porter book. It's a kind of diary of her Lockdown life in LA. I'm not sure how I feel about this one, but I'll give it a go. I'm also part way through one of her fiction books called So Lucky and have kind of got stuck with that one. I'm not sure if I'll continue to read it or not.

Later, I took a break from reading and did a bit of blogging to break up the day.  It's actually nice to have more time to do it. It's something I enjoy and I've neglected my blog this past year, just keeping it ticking over instead of making more effort.

An afternoon dog walk, and another day had slipped by.

On Friday, I woke up early to see LB off, as she was travelling up to Manchester for the weekend, to visit a friend who is at university there. OH dropped her off at our local station, from which she had to make her way to Euston to catch a train. I went straight back to bed after she left and surfaced a couple of hours later, when I read in bed for a while and then got up, got ready and took the dog out.

Today, was a day when I decided to get serious about looking into the costs of LB going to University later this year. I watched a few Money Saving Expert YouTube videos about how the Student Loans system works, which were very enlightening and then took a look at the halls of residence that LB will be applying to. I even watched some videos about her course, on the YouTube channel of the University department where she will be studying. It was all very informative and interesting stuff, and I'm very excited for her. I think it will be very challenging too though. In a few months, LB will have to start making applications for Student Loans and for places in Halls, so I thought it was about time that I got myself informed about the whole process.

It's going to be a very exciting time for her, but it is going to be expensive too, as she is staying in London, but wants to live in halls to be nearer to her University campus and to enjoy the full student experience. She will be living and studying in a part of London that is very unfamiliar to us, so it should be an interesting experience for her to live and study there.

I got an email from my sister today. She'd received her orchids for her birthday and she was very happy with them. She sent me some photos and they looked very nice. I still need to post another gift to her next week

I popped out to ASDA later in the day, to get a few bits, and picked up a bottle of Vegan rose wine, which was just £3. It sounded interesting and was very inexpensive. I was curious to know what non-vegan ingredients are usually used in producing wine, so I googled it and found that certain animal products, such as albumin and milk proteins are used in the fining process where the wine is made clear and often then filtered out. They do not need to be mentioned on labels as they are removed, but traces may still be present in the wine, making wines non-vegan. 

I'm not vegan, but I thought it would be interesting to try a vegan wine and see if there was a lot of difference in the taste. From an ethical point of view, I think it must be better to drink a wine that doesn't have animal products in it if you can, but then I'm no wine expert either.  I'm sure that there are many people out there that might disagree with me here. Anyway, I tried the wine and it wasn't the best. I probably wouldn't buy it again, but saying this I managed to drink two glasses.

In the evening OH and I finished watching a series on Netflix called Stay Close and then started watching series one of Ricky Gervais's After Life. We enjoyed it and will continue to work our way through the three series that are available.