The end of the beginning - chapter 2 of my MFW journey

EchoDelta

2014 has not been very frugal so far! I sort of had a weird feeling at the start of the year, almost a cliched kind of "Mid life crisis" feeling of being all adridft and wondering what I was doing with my life. Exacerbated by hitting my 10 year anniversary of working at my office.

So there was recapturing of youth to be done! Haha! I got some lovely new clothes and we had some fun nights out and some trips away and saw a band etc. All fantastic fun! But...obvioulsy not very frugal!

And then just as we are getting back to a more frugal frame of mind Mr Delta got made redundant. He was told on Monday and today is his last day. It is a real shock!!!! Very surreal. He should get over £3k in statutory redundancy pay because he has been there for aaaages but the company is going under so I'm a bit worried there won't be any money for paying him that. So working on a worst case scenario.

The good news is that we have enough from my wages to cover bills, mortgage and groceries. But..things going to be tight. We won't have any capacity to put anything into savings so baby plans going to be shelved for a little while until he has something else. And obviously the OP pot will be rather bare.

BUT bright side! We are determined to stay looking at it. I'm sure all things happen for a reason and everything will turn out okay in the end.

Watty1

Oh no. So sorry to read about the redundancy and fingers crossed something comes up really soon for Mr Delta.

edinburgher

Sorry to hear Mr Delta's news (copying Watty1 because 'Mr Ed sounds like I'm calling him a horse!)

On the bright side, being redundant and relying on one salary looks very much like having a baby in terms of costs and reduced income. So, while you might not be able to build up a stash for maternity leave, at least you'll get the frugality and restraint practice in.

Sorry, I knopw that's not the brightest bright side ever

EchoDelta

Thanks guys, you're right.

Actually Mr Delta (the horse :rotfl:) is doing really well. He's having a whole new change of career and going to college etc. 4 week course starts tomorrow, then volunteering until the proper course starts in Sept. He's going into early years education and will be fabulous at it.

That's the good stuff.

The bad stuff is that the bad stuff I have been running from has caught up with me. I ran out of distractions and it got me! Been signed off work for a month. I only get ssp so don't know how it will quite work out but doctor very insistent I have at least a fortnight. Have to have some counselling etc.

Trying to look on the bright side but am feeling a bit bleak right now!

Sorry for the whinge.

Watty1

Wondered where you had wandered off too. Nice to see you back posting but so sorry about the fact that you are clearly having a tough time. Chin up! And just maybe the counselling and the month off will help you get through. Yes the SSP may be the downside, but just maybe the rest and some support may go a long way to making things brighter for you.

Thistlewhistle

Hi Echo,

I've just read Chapter 1 from start to finish, and then Chapter 2 and I have to say that you've inspired me greatly to keep going on my journey.

I'm overpaying by £88 every month so I'm pleased about that but as you can see from my signature, I'm having credit card rage at the moment and every spare penny is going on that. At least most of it is at 0%!!

I'm sorry Mr Delta has been made redundant. It happened to me in 2009 but I have to say that what I'm doing now is 1,000,000 times better for me and I totally love my job. I'd never have had the bottle to change so bizarrely the redundancy did me a massive favour.

Wishing you all the best and I've subscribed to your thread so I can continue to be amazed by your progress!

Thistle:D

gallygirl

Hope all works out - these things usually do :T.

EchoDelta

Thanks guys.

Am sleeping a LOT at the moment, catching up on decades of insomnia I think! Got to call the number for counselling today.

I am not okay but I will be.

Good luck with the credit card rage Thistle! Your signature looks like you are doing great things!

Our fixed rate on the mortgage is up this month so we need to sort that. We will have to have a good look together. Brain space is a bit lacking at the moment!

Watty1

Sleeping sounds good. And if you do only one thing today make it call that number for the counselling . Sending love x

EchoDelta

Thank you Watty.

I called the number and have appointment in a month.

Generally doing better although yesterday was a hard day. General upward trend. There's not much point in thinking about stuff too much until the counselling appointment really so just trying to get on with things until then. Still off work but I think I will try a couple of half days at the end of next week. Will see how I go though.

A good thing is that today I have actually checked bank (during my running and running and distraction time I didn't really, just spent!) and Tilly Tidied some odds to mortgage op pot. This feels really positive!

To the bright side! *raises glass*

Hope that everyone is having a good weekend.