Building The Burrow!

Pearla*Merle

Migraine resurgence, probably not surprising considering everything that's been going on. Hopefully they've flapped off for a good while now though. :cool:

Climbed the laundry mountain today, and we've done a lot more chatting about the move. We had a solid plan of action, which we might have just completely changed. :rotfl:

A change of location would massively open up job opportunities for me, though it's probably not the most relaxing place to live (though it's near some very pretty places). It makes sense travel-wise and other costs-wise though. Plan would then be to move again after 6 months/a year when we know the area better and other things have settled down. Plus Mr M gets certain travel allowances which opens up certain options.

In other general news, had a nice day watching the tennis while pottering about clearing random piles of papers and finding more things for the charity bag (onto another bag for life now!). A few perfumes & lotions have been used up, making great progress there. Found more alcohol to do away with. :A

Yummy chilli for tea (a portion into the freezer for another day), the other half of the mince is most likely going towards a cottage pie tomorrow (using up leftovers in the fridge). Pineapple ice cream was delish.

Mr M found a bargain the other day: he was given a £5 voucher after buying something small in a certain stationary shop. This was just after he'd spotted a rather charming 50's-style clock so he decided to go for it (it was already £10 cheaper than anywhere else online for some reason, oh the joy of mobile phones!) and he noticed it had a slight bump, so of course he managed to get another 10% off. It practically worked out as a 50% discount, he's a lucky one!


:www: MFW Wonderment: apart from the above, another 5p into the kittybank. Found a seam of brand new tights down the back of the chair (oops) that I'd bought for hardly anything (so no need to buy more, yay!).

:coffee: Simple Pleasures: huge big pots of tea; shredding paper; nice chats with friends (must make more of an effort to do this more often!)

:heartsmil Burrow Building: nice to know we're on the same page with financial saavyness and thoughts on moving (and thoughts on the future). Sooooo excited about starting on a new adventure together. Mr M knows the area we live really well, so when I came here he'd pretty much been there & done that. It'll be lovely to be somewhere completely new that we can discover together

Pearla*Merle

Just darting in! It's been an age - all of which has been plotting monies, travelling about the country and trying to find accommodation down south. The great news is that we found somewhere (literally don't know how we managed to find somewhere pretty lovely in no time, I'm in completely shock), but it means it's all actions go for the next few weeks!

I've been exhausted trying to tie up the loose ends of some work stuff, decluttering etc etc. Another big bag of shredded paper is making its way out of the door tonight though and decluttering of the kitchen cupboards continues apace :A

Nothing much else to report really, lots of beans on toast type teas have been on the go, I've not spent a bean as we'll need to batten the hatches to cover all the moving costs and I need extra monies to get through the next few months in case finding work stretches out a bit too much.

Starting to look forward to having some time off But hopefully I'll get over it quickly enough and get some serious pennies rolling back in. I don't want the various funds to go quiet for too long.

A very quick Simple Pleasures: seeing the fish at Wimbledon! (even if we did only make it in there for a couple of hours - when rain stopped play. So I paid for some very pretty unused rain-splashed seats. Oh well. Next year!). Billowing, thundery clouds; surprise chats with friends, finding white wine in the fridge, gardening books (am reading Life in a Cottage Garden by Carol Klein, she's actually a great writer. I didn't even know it was a TV series, something to search out at some point methinks -- on that note, no garden in new place, alas. I shall have to continue to live vicariously through others). Goldfinches darting about the treetops.

8p into the kittybank! :j

Hope everyone's doing ok - goodness knows when I'll get to catch up properly. One day I will though.... one day! xx

newgirly

Hi pearla great news on finding somewhere so quickly :T

Pearla*Merle

Thanks newgirly I can see the river, gardens, parks, trees... heaven! Also a much sought after storage cupboard and an extra room [STRIKE]to dump stuff[/STRIKE] to store our precious possessions.

Getting very excited about moving now it's all Actions Stations. I had some good news from current work place - I may be able to do a little work from home, which will be great if it means there's still some money trickling in. Otherwise I'll start looking for a new part time job down there (of which there seems to be a lot in my current field, with potentially good bonuses so fingers crossed!).

Then when we're all settled, I can finally get into a routine and use my days off for my other self-employed side of things. I've overhauled what I'm doing a lot and feeling so much the better for it. I can't wait to get started on the new step. I really feel like I've cut out the nonsense and draining aspects now so the time that'll be put into it in future should all reap a proper reward. Exciting

Today is all about tidying up loose ends of work stuff and getting rid of the clutter that still remains there. This weekend is sadly going to become all about tidying up the house - people are coming to view it on Monday and it's an absolute tip :eek:

misscousinitt

Exciting times...

Good luck with getting stuff sorted.

MCI

Pearla*Merle

Thanks MCI

The last few days have been rather full on - we finally got a lot of those bags off to the charity shop (a whole carbootful in the end, terrifying! And I've still found more stuff to go!).

Some other bits & bobs I used to use for work have been sold and delivered this weekend so that's a few extra pennies in the pocket.

The house is now pretty much clean for people viewing it this afternoon, though I still need to scrub the kitchen. I'm not in the best shape for it either, something I ate made me really sick last night, I've got hayever to boot or is it a cold? Who knows! Once things are tidy I'm going to sit on the sofa and not move much for the rest of the dy. Though I might treat myself to packing some boxes... I actually quite like it. Maybe it's the bubblewrap? :rotfl:

Ooh, maybe I can do some MSE catching up this afternoon! :j

In MFW news: I've balance transferred my small credit card, 0% for 18 months which has worked out splendidly. I'll work out the payments after we've moved and things have settled down and either pay it off over the 18 months or, more likely, pay big chunks off it if I can so I can get another 0% spending card to continue stoozing. :A

I must remember to check and see if our new council tax area lets me pay by credit card. :think:

I also need to do an account sort out after we move, and see how I can be making my money work harder.

Only two and a half weeks until we move. :eek:

Habibiboo

:wave:

Hi P*M ... just had whizzy coffee break catch up, can't believe I've kept missing your thread for so long and so much has been happening!

So pleased about Mr. P*M's job and your new house, you've had such a busy time! Excellent too that you can work from home for your current place for a bit, it's all coming good! :T

Best of luck with the countdown and decluttering! x

Goldiegirl

Things are certainly moving quickly.

Very exciting times for you.

You'll soon be settled down 'sarf' !

Pearla*Merle

Hello lovely ladies, thank you, I can't believe we're only two weeks away now! I am so ready for this new adventure (particularly for reasons that will soon become apparent), Mr M has set up spreadsheets galore for us and it looks like we'll be doing a lot of exploring with our railcard. Can't wait for some wonderful summery days out. Oh gosh - I've just thought - I might even get to go to the beach! I may actually have to buy a bucket and spade.

So where did I leave off last time? I think I was tidying, like a maniac, at the weekend. Well the house ended up spick and span, despite me coming over very ill on Sunday (I won't forget the end of that World Cup - running to the bathroom to be reacquainted with that night's dinner :eek:) and fighting through the increasing downwards spiral the next day. I've ended up with a full on flu-like thing and have been in a pretty rough state ever since. Thankfully it's shifting off now, though I'm still reliant on paracetamol to function. And by function I mean sit in front of the TV and watch endless Miss Marples/Pride & Prejudice etc boxsets.

Me being bedridden obviously hasn't gone down with employers as I got a baffling message yesterday that basically amounted to "don't bother coming back". Considering I was told a few days ago that I could take on a little work after I left and also that I offered to go above & beyond to ensure a smooth transition when I left (which would include ensuring the work I've done continues to be profitable for them), it was all rather a bolt from the blue. Given my agreed leaving date was the end of the month, it strikes me that they're on rather shaky ground effectively giving me retrospective notice (they said my last day then would have been last week, one day after I'd notified them I had to leave)? I wasn't expecting to be paid for the days I had to take off due to illness but still, this looks dodgy to me?

I was so ill I wasn't really aware of the above until later - I was pretty much forced into replying immediately and of course I couldn't do much else but accept and be polite about it. But to think that I gave them a month's notice (legally you only need to give one week) out of courtesy and then to be cut like this is rather cruel. I'll now have lost out on around £500 that I would have had if I'd left it until the last minute to tell them. Thankfully I should be able to cover the next few months of potentially being out of work, but it makes things incredibly tight

I feel pretty hurt & upset by it, not about losing out on potential extra work as that was something I hadn't really expected, but such an unexpected turnaround was such a shock to the system. I do feel like I'm being punished for something I literally couldn't have helped.

Mr M said it was their loss, and I do tend to agree. I know I did my best and have a skillset that's a great fit for their business; the chances of them finding anyone else who can do the wide variety of things I can do is fairly unlikely (oh dear, that sounds pompous but it's a small business with several strings to its bow), but it's left a very bad taste and it's not a great way to leave somewhere. After all the work I'd put in and that was starting to produce some serious results just in the last few days I feel it's just been so badly done.

Despite feeling rather irked by all this, I'm trying to be philosophical - I'm not having to rush back anywhere and can let myself get properly well instead of becoming rundown before moving, more time to pack & sort other things out, lots more time to properly look for jobs and start applying. I should get paid more down there, also I might be able to specialise instead of taking on as much as I've just been doing. This would be good as my plan in taking on a part time job was simply so that I wasn't doing a million things at once at breakneck speed (which is what I got sucked into a bit with this job). I want to be able to go in, do my work, leave at the end of the day and that's it. Then all my free time will be for living my life, spending time with friends, and working on my streamlined self-employed stuff and building that up into something I'm happy with.

Oh dear, I've chatted about that a lot longer than I intended. It boils down to one thing though - I'm now even more determined to get MF/finanicially free and will do what I can make sure this happens asap! I want the freedom to work how I want and not have to deal with this kind of petty nonsense for longer than I have to. I'm now 4 for 4 when it comes to working with companies in this area and being completely and utter screwed by them. I don't know if it's just bad luck or something in the water here, but I'm so glad to be leaving! Onwards and upwards!

In happy news, Mr M found a local selling site and made £60 last week, which inspired me to get things listed and I've made about £50 already! Woo hoo! Wish I'd started to use it an age ago. Regretting some of that stuff I gave to the charity shop now, oops. :rotfl:

Seriously though, it's very nice to have that in my pocket considering recent events. I've got a few more things to sell so fingers crossed I can make some more wads of cash before we leave.

:www: MFW Wonderment: in addition to the fifty quid, I chased up Quidco and they've finally sent me through my £70, hurrah! 5p into the kittybank. Mr M's going to buy my travel pass off me (I only just shelled out £100 for it the other week, and now I obviously don't need it). Have got some new jobs leads to follow up, so once I can think straight again I'll spruce up my CV and start applying.

:coffee: Simple Pleasures: I've had a lovely time catching up with MSE diaries over the past day or so, I've not posted as I was in a state of delirium and would only have confused all concerned but I'm feeling more connected again now and I feel all inspired MFW-wise (and no time was it ever more needed!). I'll try and post some proper hellos soon.

:heartsmil Burrow Building: Love having Future Plan chats with Mr Merle, we're both on the same page with wanting to get some BTLs/make other investments and I think all this Life Simplifying is really helping to free us up and give us space to make interesting decisions about not just this, but the more mundane things in life (just how we spend our time and money - experiences over Society Says Buy This And Do That).

I'm sure I had some other happier money news to relate but it's all evaporated from my brain now. I think I'm due more painkillers, suppose I'd best meander for now. :wave:

ETA: Oh dear LORD! I didn't realise that was so long(!)

Habibiboo

:wave:

So sorry you've had the poorly grots and that it's shown the employers in their true colours. Mr P*M has it right, they don't deserve you. With luck you'll find something brill here darn sarf with us friendly folk and your own biz will come on a dream too.

Try to take it easy, despite all you've got to do. Big hugs x