I thought January went quickly but February was also a bit of a whirlwind.
I was a little disappointed with my accomplishments in February – I can see now that I set myself too many tasks for the time available partly due to not allowing enough time for the planning of and attending the funeral – but the main reason for my lack of action must be to do with the fact that we had a sudden notification of our Legal Aid audits at work and to cover all this additional work that an audit entails I had to do extra hours and also go in on one of my days off so we could meet the deadlines. But I will not bore you anymore with the details – it is just enough to say I found February challenging.
So a quick round-up of how I performed with my February intentions –
I can only own up to the fact that I failed miserably on my appearance category and my attempts at self-care, such as booking an appointment with the optician and exercising after work, did not materialise in fact I have been so tired this month I have caught myself a few times asleep on the sofa supposedly watching TV but actually recovering from the day.
Our meandering this month took us down memory lane as we doubled up our sad trip to the funeral in Cirencester with a visit to Cheltenham – a real treat and we plan to go back for a long weekend as soon as we can. So this intention was fulfilled and enjoyed.
Unfortunately we have run out of weekends to go up to North Yorkshire and with all this snow it won’t be any time soon.
Nothing exciting to show on the creating side – I was really disappointed not to have started my hen print tea cosy by now – this will have to roll over to March – but I did get to make a Valentines card (it was a bit of a cheat though – a heart stamp, a blank card and some red ink) still it is the thought that counts!
My main decluttering and simplifying projects were to get rid of the accumulation of ‘stuff’ in the downstairs toilet that we are turning into a pantry and to make a start in our main bedroom prior to decorating.
The big news is (and I am very pleased with myself for this) that I actually, with the help of dear hubby and advice from a few bloggers, managed to get two items listed on eBay – one has already sold (some bathroom fitments that we had for the cottage but no longer need) and the other (a brand new curved shower screen to fit the bath we no longer have since the flood) has an interested enquirer from Surrey –but I have no idea how we would get it to him – so may have to relist this one. Anyway now I have gone through the procedure and understand it a bit more I just need to repeat!
In our bedroom I wanted to improve on the space and reduce the contents before giving it a good spring clean. I have put all my hubby’s clothes into the new wardrobe in the spare room and he has taken all the natural wood hangers because I decided that DH finds things easier if everything is hung. So now everything is hung – jumpers, t-shirts, shirts, suits and jackets. His jeans are the only items of clothing that remain folded and these are in one of the pull out Muji drawers within the wardrobe fitment, together with a drawer for his working clothes for gardening and DIY.
His underwear and socks are presently in the bedside drawers on his side but I have plans for these.
So now I can spread out and have the whole of the wardrobe in our bedroom for myself – but I had no hangers. I know it is lavish to buy hangers when they come free with garments but I like nothing better than opening my wardrobe doors in a morning and having uniform hangers looks more orderly to me.
After debating with myself whether or not I should buy the space-saving skinny velvet hangers (and I can see the merit in these) I finally decided on the white wooden IKEA ones for two reasons (well maybe three)
- The skinny velvet ones in TKMAX come in packs of different brands so might not be repeatable should I need more.
- The packs I looked at all seemed to have a few damaged hangers in them and some had missing hooks so I questioned how long they might last as I wanted this to be a once and forever purchase like my natural wooden hangers that I have had for donkey’s years.
- They never seemed to have white ones and for some reason I just fancied white.
- Although the white wooden ones take up more room the clothes keep their shape better on them and I just like them – so good enough reason to buy them.
- They are wood and not plastic so environmentally friendly.
- Having the wooden ones meant fewer hangers will fit in the space and therefore I will have to limit the number of clothes I can keep so I will always know when I need to stop buying.
- They are cheap for the quantity I needed – I bought 7 packs of 8 hangers – so I can hang 56 garments.
Actually that is seven reasons!
I will post some pictures soon of my wardrobe rearrangements.
My intentions for February on financial matters was to start looking at our pensions and getting some advice, continue to limit the grocery weekly spend, save some money on cards and gifts and replace some of the money I used to buy the car.
Pensions –this has moved forward a bit – but only a teeny bit and it is vital that we get moving on it – we have now booked an appointment with the government ‘Pensionwise’ free advisor for some initial advice and are then also looking at a seeing another IFA that has been recommended – if we can afford him! We have always gone for ethical investments and they have, contrary to advice in the past, done better than the ordinary investments that have been imposed on us by various employers – so we are quite pleased but now it is a gamble when to start drawing on them and how to get the best from them.
Grocery shopping –this worked out at £57 a week for the month so £7 a week over the budget I have set but I did buy quite a few offer items and we now have enough coffee to open a coffee shop. Prices in the shop are continuing to rise so it is a bit of a battle to keep the weekly spend down.
In general I have been making my birthday cards but whilst here at the caravan I actually bought 2 birthday cards from WH Smiths with the 25% off discount card – I find making birthday cards for men much more difficult and gave in and bought them! I have done much better on the gifts side and managed to get a number of gifts in the sales at very reasonable prices.
The Flexclusive saver account has only just matured so as soon as the interest is added I can now move this into my long-term savings to build this up again after the hole the purchase of the new car made.
So that is everything for February accounted for – we didn’t manage much of a tidy up in the garden at home but a good start on the woodland garden in Scotland and only the weather being against us has now delayed this. I have set my intentions for March and will be posting these in a day or two.
Kalo mina ~ Have a good month! (An expression the Greek people use to wish each other well at the start of every new month – so my daughter tells me).
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where the journey takes me 