Learning to live my dreams not trample on them

bigzippy

Just to let any followers of savingholmes' diary know... she's been locked out of her MSE account after a computer crash, so won't be able to get back in to update her diary until a password reset can be done.

wisechoices

Hi guys - I am savingholmes - still locked out of my username :oso using an alternative one instead!! Hope the MSE guys fix it for me.:money:Sorry for the long post but got a lot on my mind..... If you're squeamish you might want to miss out the middle bit :rotfl:

Well it has been an odd few days.... After over-doing it at the start of last week I've done pretty much naff all since which is pretty disappointing! We did take DD to pizza hut for a treat the other day as bless her she is pretty trapped in the house at the moment. OH is working from home today.

I got a different cleaner today - and she has done 3 hours but I am disappointed she didn't get more done.... I am going to give her another chance... To be fair to her - it turned out OH had put the mop outside :mad: (in the rain for a few days):eek::eek::eek: so she couldn't use that and had to use something else instead to clean the kitchen floor. She hadn't cleaned the kitchen table properly and to me that is basic.... But she has tidied up DS's bedroom quite well but seems to have run out of time and not hoovered it or finished cleaning under his bed...:( You can see the whole floor now tho which is a major improvement. :rotfl:

She did clean the downstairs loo - but I don't think doing 2 rooms and I loo but not doing my hall floor or downstairs loo floor is a lot in 3 hours... I tend to hoover first or as I go along as I think the floor makes the biggest difference to whether a room looks clean. It's the first impression... (and obviously I'm not allowed to hoover at the moment so it is very frustrating:mad:) I did say to her Friday what I expected in 3 hours and she didn't come close... What is frustrating is my 60 year old arthritic previous cleaner did way more in the time so struggling to see why these younger cleaners can't do it..!:mad:

I am also getting someone in for 2 hours next week to provide holiday cover... It will also give me a chance to see if that person is any quicker... We'll see how we get on.... Hopefully as the house gets tidier and cleaner they will speed up....

I got OH to take me to the doctor today as I was worried... I've been in a lot more pain since last Monday... She thinks I am healing up okay scar wise... She says I am more tender on my right side - around where my bowel is and apparently one of the fibroids I had was cut away from the outside of my bowel which I didn't know before now - so that may explain the extra tenderness.:( She says most of my pain is in my groin area/tops of my legs - so referred pain rather than being in a direct area affected by operation.

She said she could refer me for an ultrasound but I will see specialist quicker than the referral will come thro - as I'm due to see the consultant at the end of next week and to talk to him then... She also gave me a month's sick note :eek: despite this being week 5 as she thinks is will manage work's expectations better... rather than them expecting me back too quickly. I think she's right but it is a scary thought that it could take me that long to get right She said I can always get signed back off as fit if I am ready sooner... I think that will give my boss a bit of a shock - I'm seeing her tomorrow...

But MSE wise - I don't know if you remember but earlier this year we got a pension refund but we got less than I expected by over £1k.... :eek:Well today the tax man gave us £1140 back!!:j:j:j Woohoo! Great timing... as I am now in half pay... :cool:

We do have some of the pension refund left in an ISA as we decided not to pay off Virgin and transferred the money to another card instead at a cost of £165. Because we're not sure how long it is going to take for me to get better we decided we wanted money in our savings more than our debt completely repaid... Martin may not agree but sometimes ready cash beats potential CC limits... Ironically though if we'd known this was coming - we would have had pretty much the right money to pay off the debt despite using £1K of it a month or two ago... So we're pretty much debt free despite having the debt if that makes sense...

Bye for now -hope you are having a good ay

clearmydebts

Good to see you back!

How frsutrating that the other cleaner wasn't much good either. As you say, with the holiday cover person in next week maybe you can see what is doable/achievable.

Can your OH not do the bits that have been missed? Or is he in dinner duties? At least if he did the hoovering and bits you can't do then you could do other bits. That's what myself and OH are doing. I am not allowed to hoover/mop/sweep and OH is doing them while sitting on a chair in his crutches. Then I am doing the lighter things like dishwasher/dinner/shredding/filing.

wisechoices

Hi CMD - he's mostly focusing on meals... (and even those are a fight... I was like at 8pm last night tea would be nice... I think we got fed at 9.20pm:( me and DD as DS is away). I'm struggling to even just sit up straight at the moment... or stand too long - it is a lot more omfortable when I sit up with my legs supported on the couch/bed...

I will try and get him to hoover as my boss is coming tomorrow and the cleaner didn't hoover my lounge.... The hoover is in DS's room - I'm going to try and persuade him or DD to hoover upstairs for me before they bring it down.... The floor in the kitchen feels sticky which is not a good sign - but as I say 'cos of OH she didn't have all the tools of the job...

:money:A friend of mine gave me some school stuff for DD and so I have been getting her to try that on today.... Most of it fits so just need to get her school shoes. Her nan has bought her 2 school tunics which are 2 small - will need to take them back and try and get a bigger size... She also bought her a lovely coat for school and a cardigan and pumps...

Also need to get DS school shoes and football boots - wish me luck his size are in short supply!

OH has gone back to work don't know why... He told me he was on his lunch break when he was doing something I didn't approve of... so I said oh lunch would be good and made him cook!:rotfl: He seemed surprised it was an expectation!? I don't get him... one minute he's telling me I shouldn't do anything and the next I'm waiting half an hour for a coffee... :mad:

wisechoices

Well OH did hoover the hall, stairs, landing and lounge for me so that was a result. I stuffed myself full of codeine and got OH to take me to Mr As and I bought 3 long dresses in the sales... - for £25! also got some new school tops for DD for a whole £6!... Sadly the shoes weren't the right fit for her so need to take her somewhere more expensive. OH needs to take back a load of stuff that doesn't fit...

Boss came over, she was lovely... says just wants me to get well now lol. Seriously she offered me a change of job 1 day a week there could be extra money in it too. Will help me keep my wider skills and hopefully get some new ones...I've never had a boss like her.... I think it will be good for me as was getting rather bored with existing role...

Just sent proof of id off for new company - hopefully I will start getting post for it soon

On countdown to next load of meds...

savingholmes

It just let me log in with my normal password despite blocking me numerous times the other day!! What's going on!!

anyway I am back which I am very grateful for....

So today has been okay. Still taking codeine but back down to 8s rather than the 30s at took when I was majorly in pain the other day...

DD had a friend round to play about 5 hours of today - spread over 3 visits lol!! From the same girl! before that DD and I went to the shop and the chippy for lunch and to get a cake mix. She later made cakes with the friend... I did some washing today... mostly got OH to take it out of the washer and put it in the dryer... I stripped the kids beds tho and threw all the dirty washing I could find down the stairs lol before sorting it into piles

DS comes back tomorrow and I want him to put clean sheets on his bed... sadly we don't have that many so needed to do the wash to get his favourite quilt set back... Will probably make him put it back on tho

OH has agreed to go and get him tomorrow am when he gets back to the clubhouse... I bet he will be hyper and a bit stroppy and way over-tired!!

Still can't get over how nice my boss was yesterday... Been sat here tonight tho very tempted by new sofas... would still need new flooring first tho - as the sofa I want is bright red and wouldn't go with the carpet!

savingholmes

Well DS got home safely which was a blessing. He's had a fab time but has kept asking for hugs since he got back about 11.30 so I think he missed me...:j for a 13 year old that's fab! Adventurous, confident, independent but still missed me...:T I missed him too LOL.;) He sent me lots of texts this week and was delighted when he got an almost instant response... DS had run out of credit by the time he'd got back on the £10 airtime I'd bought him for an old phone... (we didn't want to risk his contract phone being stolen).

His vodafone bill - I don't like them:mad: - on his contract phone was £58!! :mad:this month instead of £15. I've phoned Vodafone today and told them I am not impressed with how they do things compared to Virgin who have a much easier way of tracking bills than Vodafone do. They have now given me a text number DS can text 44555 to find out how much credit he's got left which hopefully will help. This week for the first time they have also got a log in screen which shows how many minutes and texts he's used... up to now Virgin did that but we didn't have that from vodafone you had to look thro loads of pre-bills and try and work it out instead...

Because DS is going to be getting DD from school everynight we said we'd give him an extra £5 a week that he does that... I suggested he use £5 from that to boost his call plan as it gives him an extra 300 minutes...:money: which should help prevent this kind of problem. He's agreed to that. I've not told OH about the phone bill as really DS has been so helpful while I've been off sick that he's already in credit with me if you see what I mean... DS will also save me more than that phone bill in the first month as we were paying the after school club about £7.50 a day for picking DD up! We're putting that saving towards the cost of a cleaner tho LOL.:money:

At the camp he liked bouldering the best.... Apparently the camp he went on put the costs up this year because of the amount of damage the kids did on the last camp!! :eek: Each camp's price is set based on the damages the previous camp as much as anything else! :eek: One lad did £800 worth of damage to a wall by a kicking a hole in it.... I hope for his parents sake that its not them that have to pick up the bill and felt so grateful that wasn't MY child!! He was told that the activities he'd done while there would probably have cost about £300 on the open market - I agree I think we got really good value for money £50 camp plus £20 spends:money: and he did combat training, shooting, climbing wall, museum, got to tidy things up :rotfl:, barbecues, discos, outdoor climbing. If he'd already got to the next level he would have been allowed to go up in a glider but he has to pass a couple more tests first...

He said the atmosphere there was brilliant. Apparently about 300 kids went and actually other than the swearing (which he's not used to) it had a fun, happy atmosphere like the church camp he goes on each year... He wants to go to the next camp at Easter and was worried they would clash (with the church camp which is in May) but they shouldn't its just down to whether or not the schools idea of holidays coincides with the camps... I'd let him go again... I was scared health and safety wise before hand but needlessly I think...

He seems to have had a fab time and had lots of new positive experiences from it. Some of the kids did whacky things to each other... one shaved off one kid's eyebrow :eek:- I would be so upset over that but the kid that did it had chunks of his hair shaved off so I think it was a bit "do unto others as you would be done by". It doesn't sound like kids were bullied or randomly picked on... The adults seemed to have been more relaxed than I expected... I am also really pleased that he seems to have settled in as part of the unit easily and made lots of new friends. I think it has been a really positive end to the school holidays:T

savingholmes

Just used budget brain to go back over our budget :money:- we should have about £800 spare a month when I am in full pay - and scarily we don't:eek:. We used to be spending a lot of that on our mortgage but even tho the mortgage came down dramatically (by £600) we don't have that spare.... Yet even allowing for spends on clothes, camps and all sorts we should have... I think I need to think about moving to cash spending only :money:for a while and see if triggers better habits.

I am hoping with the tax refund it will get us almost straight in our second account which has an overdraft on it at the moment... We can then have a fresh start and see what we spend in practice. I am also thinking of giving online supermarket shopping another go as a way of controlling our spending...

A friend just posted on facebook she'd spent £55:eek: on new blazer and pe kit for her DS - and I had the horrible realisation would need to do the same for mine as he has grown so much this year:eek:. he just tried his blazer on and its about 3 or 4 inches too short on the arms and there is no way on earth he could fasten it - like 30 cm gap at least LOL. I'm going to keep the blazer in the hope that DD goes to the same school and can use it. He did get 2 years out of the last lot tho so if he can get 2 years out of this one too its not tooo bad (3 would be better lol but probably unlikely!!). Could have done without it tho.

As I said earlier still need to get him shoes, football boots and get DD shoes too! I think he is 5ft8 but is due to be 6ft2!! Problem is his school doesn't have a sixth form so if I have to get him a new blazer in the last year it will seem a bit of a waste!!

savingholmes

DS has made me dinner and shouted at me for making a coffee - nice to have him back LOL

clearmydebts

Your DS defo missed you then! Lol - that is lovely that he made you dinner

£800 does sound like a lot to go astray every month alright! Do you think you will start to overpay on your mortgage when you get your budget straight or will you save instead?

I think I have OH on board with regards buying a cheaper property when we move back to Ireland and clear the debt. He had his head in the clouds about living in a particular town but has warmed to the idea of having a small mortgage and upsizing in maybe 8 years.