Keeping up appearances.......

joeyjimbles

A holiday, especially a paid for holiday, will give you some distance from which to plot the next stages of you adventure.
I'm glad Mr H is working as I'm sure it must be difficult to be suddenly unemployed and find yourself with all that time on your hands.

The job of doom is mostly monthly but one in 3 is particularly doomy as instead of the usual 30+ products, it is 50+ and this was one of those. Added to which it was the bank holiday which meant that I had a shorter window of time to do the purchasing and an even shorter one to get them processed as the courier will only pick up on certain days. It pays better than before but its still not worth the time I have to spend - but as the alternative (not doing it) would pay nothing, its all relative really. Anyway its over for another 3weeks or so.

Honey_Bear

HappyNow wrote: »

Quote:
Originally Posted by HappyNow
Update for yesterday.

• Make every penny count. Spent £23 of my non-existent grocery budget at Tessies on essentials of cat food, cat litter, milk, bread and dishwasher tablets. I borrowed it from the petrol fund. Hope I can put it back before the cars notice.

Is taking the cars' pocket money akin to 'borrowing' money from the kids' piggy banks to pay bills? Apparently there are quite a few parents who do so, so you're not alone.
I used to do it with their Easter Eggs. They always got far more than was good for them, so for the sake of their health I would help out when they went to bed at night. There was only a narrow window of opportunity though. Once they went to that pesky school and learned to count it was all over......

As you say, pesky schools teaching children to count.

• Use the Fitbit Burnt 1600 calories apparently. Ate many, many more. I stopped even counting when I saw the Gu's - they are LOADED .

It would have been unbelievably rude not to eat what your guests had so kindly contributed to the Now Family Grocery Challenge this month so I think you should stop feeling bad about it.
'Manners maketh man' and all that. As a parent, I have responsibilities

Quite.

• Neat feet Think it's me that needs the brain training. I forgot again.

Yeah, well, it's easy enough to forget something apparently ....

HappyNow wrote: »

Yesterday's May Modifications update:

• Make every penny count. I worked from home so spent absolutely nothing.

Victory!

• Healthy eating on a tight budget. Do chips count? If so, I did great. They were out of the freezer so they hit the 'tight budget' bit.......

I'm a great believer in carbohydrates, so chips are fine as far as I'm concerned. Not a fan of the Atkins, obvs. Probably less fat on the frozen ones than if you'd made saute potatoes, and very MSE if you're using up freezer stocks.

• Use the Fitbit 10723 steps taken. 1672 calories burnt, no idea how many I ate because I didn't enter them from lunchtime onwards and now I can't remember. I think two portions of chips will be pretty low calorie though.............:o

See above.

• Neat feet. Sanded and E45'd before bed last night. About time too.

HappyNow wrote: »

So, Mr H is working this week and next . The administrators of the failed business are responsible for minimising loss, so they have authorised a few ex-employees (including Mr H) to complete some half-finished orders which will bring money into the company. After that, no idea. He has completed his online claim for redundancy pay, and that apparently takes around three weeks to come through.

We have decided that the holiday in mid-June goes ahead. It's already paid for and we will need very little money while we're there. Also we haven't taken insurance out yet :cool:.

Good to hear that Mr Happy is still gainfully employed.

As for the holiday, you've already paid for it and it's something you've been looking forward to for quite a while so I can't see what good not going could possibly achieve. It's a great opportunity to see things from a slightly different perspective.

Honey_Bear

Brain training. I ran out of time so it didn't happen again. Rather worrying, actually.

• 15 minutes a week research on the micro-business.
• Get in!You're quite right. I blame the strange formatting hiccups. Nothing since.
• Practise the skills that I'm being taught at evening classes. I'd quite like to look 'tidy' in the Gavin and Stacy meaning of the word.

I had to borrow the DVDs from the library because we didn't watch it and I got irritated by everyone saying how brilliant it was - I hate missing out on good things, be it Fry's Peppermint Cream or whatever, really. I think Nessa is a genius character. Well worth the time spent catching up on what I missed first time around.

My brain is completely fried. We were at the Count last night which should have ended by 2.30 am, but for some reason was unbelievably protracted this year. We threw in the towel at 4.30 am and by the time we'd got home and I'd walked the dog meant I didn't get to bed before 5.00 am. I have no idea what I'm doing.

joeyjimbles

Wow - I'm amazed you're awake Honey Bear - the count in Carlisle was really late too apparently, but I'm not clear why. I've not watched Gavin and Stacey either - DS1 quotes it from time to time.

Honey_Bear

The consensus was that it was due to the Police and Crime Commissioner voting having to be verified (even if not counted) first, Joey.

• Brain training. Forgot, and didn't have a brain to work with yesterday at all, anyway.
• 15 minutes a week research on the micro-business. Not yet found my 15 minutes, but there's always tomorrow.
• Practise the skills that I'm being taught at evening classes. Ditto.

Hopeless.

HappyNow

Hello

Nothing much to report here - certainly not on the healthy eating front

Signature updated to reflect the minimum payments that will be made on Friday. It's still surprisingly good, with a debt reduction of around £95 per week. Assuming we get as much redundancy as expected, I intend to make a large debt repayment once it's through. We have an apparently permanent '4.9% life of balance, no fee' rate with M8NA so I think it's best to pay maybe £10K off there, which will almost half the interest we are paying, safe-ish in the knowledge that we can borrow it back again at the same rate if needed. We will still be left with over £3K to supplement my wage/Mr H's JSA until something comes up for him. I see no benefit in having money in the bank earning nothing while we pay interest on CCs. And it will keep me focussed because I won't want to borrow it back. Ever.

One good thing that has come from this is that Mr H and I have sat down and had a very thorough talk about money. Several in fact. I don't regret keeping the debt amounts secret from him in the early days, because he would have literally worried himself sick. But now we're a few years down the line I can share quite freely. A couple of years ago he did ask me how much we owed and I told him the accurate figure, along with the repayments we were achieving. He promptly forgot and had no idea again last week! I can't honestly say I feel better for it all being out in the open, but equally I don't feel any worse.

We have to face facts that at his age and with two dodgy limbs, he might find it hard to find decent-paying work quickly. If so, that will slow down the debt repayment, but I am still aiming for Feb 2019 because I am ever the optimist . If he DOES drop lucky, the lump sum could even bring it forward. What a thought!!


Joey - thank you for referring to our new situation as 'an adventure'! It made me smile and feel very optimistic.

Your job of doom sounds intriguing and I have been racking my brains to think what you could possibly be doing that involves purchasing/processing/moving 30 or 50 products each month. I have no idea!

Honey - Hope your brain has settled down again. I know from years of experience how kn*ckering a night without sleep can be. It takes so long to catch back up. Hope you got the result you wanted after all that.

Dolphin1

Hey Mrs HappyNow :hello:!

Glad to see you are dealing with Mr H's redundancy so positively. I know it must have been difficult talking through the figures with Mr H but just think how much worse it would have been if you hadn't had your light bulb moment when you did. Mr H should be quite chuffed that you are in a much stronger position to deal with the situation than you would have been a few years ago.

Keep up the good work, more positive vibes coming your way!

Honey_Bear

HappyNow wrote: »

Hello

Nothing much to report here - certainly not on the healthy eating front

Snap.

Signature updated to reflect the minimum payments that will be made on Friday. It's still surprisingly good, with a debt reduction of around £95 per week. Assuming we get as much redundancy as expected, I intend to make a large debt repayment once it's through. We have an apparently permanent '4.9% life of balance, no fee' rate with M8NA so I think it's best to pay maybe £10K off there, which will almost half the interest we are paying, safe-ish in the knowledge that we can borrow it back again at the same rate if needed. We will still be left with over £3K to supplement my wage/Mr H's JSA until something comes up for him. I see no benefit in having money in the bank earning nothing while we pay interest on CCs. And it will keep me focussed because I won't want to borrow it back. Ever.

All of that sounds really sensible and I agree entirely about not having money in the bank while paying interest on outstanding debts. Halving the interest - what a joy!

One good thing that has come from this is that Mr H and I have sat down and had a very thorough talk about money. Several in fact. I don't regret keeping the debt amounts secret from him in the early days, because he would have literally worried himself sick. But now we're a few years down the line I can share quite freely. A couple of years ago he did ask me how much we owed and I told him the accurate figure, along with the repayments we were achieving. He promptly forgot and had no idea again last week! I can't honestly say I feel better for it all being out in the open, but equally I don't feel any worse.

I remember it concerning me that you were being kept awake at night worrying about the debts while Mr Happy was blithely unaware and therefore treating himself to bacon butties on the qt. I didn't begrudge him his butties any more than I'm sure you didn't, but I was really relieved when you said you'd had that initial discussion. You must have timed it perfectly because he doesn't appeared to have been at all worried by it! Great that you're able to have proper converstaions about it now, even if you don't feel any differently about it all.

We have to face facts that at his age and with two dodgy limbs, he might find it hard to find decent-paying work quickly. If so, that will slow down the debt repayment, but I am still aiming for Feb 2019 because I am ever the optimist . If he DOES drop lucky, the lump sum could even bring it forward. What a thought!!

Silver lining, and all that?

Honey - Hope your brain has settled down again. I know from years of experience how kn*ckering a night without sleep can be. It takes so long to catch back up. Hope you got the result you wanted after all that.

Yes, thank you, exactly the result I wanted personally and nationally the party did rather better than we had reason to hope - if you get my drift - so it was worthwhile once again. OH and I are seriously wondering if we can take another night as long as that. Age creeping up on us ....

Honey_Bear

• Brain training. Forgot, and didn't have a brain to work with, didn't have the time or the energy.
• 15 minutes a week research on the micro-business. Not yet found my 15 minutes, but there's always tomorrow. Ditto again
  
• Practise the skills that I'm being taught at evening classes. Ditto again.

Even more hopeless.

Lovely to see you posting again Dolphin and Joey.

joeyjimbles

Hi Honey - thanks for the explanation about why Carlisle was late, local friends were working on the Carlisle one and were posting on FB late after they'd finished. Yet no-one seemed to say why it had been so delayed. Apparently there was some confusion in the booths too with there being a 1st and 2nd for the the Police job. OH works for a different council and they got their count done pretty fast - he was staying over and was astounded to get to bed well before 1.30pm.