Today is not a NSD!

WishIwasstill25

Thanks Echo,

Having good days and bad days regarding how I feel about returning to work.

Trying to have a rest this afternoon, not sleeping brilliantly this week. The holiday cottage we are in doesn't have the most comfortable bed, so neither of us are sleeping very well.
I'm also watching my email account like a loon....

We are planning on having a loft conversion done on the house to create a home office, so that the current office/spare room can become just a bedroom as we have a lodger moving in with us for a few months in September.

Last week we had 4 lots of builders round to quote. The two who have put their quotes in so far are the two who I was least keen on in terms of their personalities. The outstanding ones are the ones we are most likely to go for, but they need to get their quotes in. We have no phone signal here, just wifi...

It will be lovely to have the extra space, but I'm not looking forward to the process..lots of mess.

It will also be lovely having the lodger, she's a friend who is relocating to our area as job prospects are better for her where we live, than where she lives. Hubby is going to be off back on tour in September for various events, so the company will be really good. (As will the little bit of rent she will be paying us - probably going to be used to build up our savings a little bit, rather than overpaying on the mortgage, but not entirely sure yet, depends how much the conversion costs....)

Watch this space.....

Wish

EchoDelta

Sounds like you have some cool plans in the pipeline! Hope that it goes well and not *too* messy.

And wrt work don't pressure yourself to have all the answers and solutions right now. It probably took a long time to get to wear you are and then a bit longer again to recognise the stress... so it's going to take a while to recover and sort out how you feel about going back.

Hope that you had a good nap.

WishIwasstill25

Back home now now, and hopefully we'll be staying home until October half term. I love my house, and I love my own bed.

We've had another builder quote back today and one company have come back for a second look, so tomorrow we should be able to make our decision.
I know the plan I want to go with (it involves a proper staircase, not just a loft ladder) hubby is less convinced about the mess of the staircase option, but I have two if not three cards up my sleeve.

1) he's away for the majority of the time that mess will be around, so he need to look past this.
2) accountant sister in law is on the case working out how much of the planned work can be added to the business accounts.
3) my parents are lending us the money to get this work done, I know which option my Dad would go for if it were their house.

Not very mfw to borrow from the parentals, but I've got an investment bond maturing in April next year, which will more than cover the cost. Rather than incurring a penalty mum & dad are going to lend us the money as they are both still working but have had a pension lump sum thing, which they don't need currently.

Money saving approaches are still on hold a little, until Sunday, it's my birthday tomorrow and as I've not planned anything I dare say whatever we do will not be particularly frugal. So, here's to 24 hours more of celebration.

Have a great weekend people.

Wish

BookWorm

Hi Wish

I've just popped by to check out your diary. Sorry to hear this year has been a tough one for you. You seem to be getting back on track though so well done to you :T

Not sure if you still want suggestions for in car snacking. What about banana's? They will give you an energy burst which it sounds like you need

Best of luck with your journey.

BW

Goldiegirl

Hope you continue to make progress health wise, and have a great birthday!

WishIwasstill25

Good evening one and all.
The celebrations are over, not that I did much celebrating exactly, but I've had a very relaxing day.

hubby has excelled himself on both wedding anniversary (2 days ago) and birthday pressies.

Wedding anniversary was a gift voucher for a new handbag; There was 10% off and I put £11.10 towards it to get the bag I've been eyeing up for months (and waiting to arrive in the outlet shop)

Birthday pressie is a limited edition cast iron casserole dish. I love this very expensive/famous brand of cookware; I started my collection for my 30th birthday and this is the first addition.

I'm aiming to get back on track money wise, housework wise and routine wise from tomorrow, the holiday sloth needs to be kicked into gear so....

I'm going to have a look at YNAB tomorrow, sign up for the free trial and see if it works for me.

I also need to sort some expenses from one of hubby's jobs. There is £85.00 of travel, £50 of printer cartridges and nearly £70 of incredibly helpful boxes, and that's just the big things. No wonder bank account and credit card are not in their normal state of affairs. I've also spent £200 on train fairs this month as we attended my grandfather's funeral in London. This was whilst hubby was working on a 4 week event in the Lake District - I do not recommend lakes to London and back in a day to anyone.

Need to pin hubby down on loft conversion tomorrow, we are STILL waiting for the last quote to come in. He was all for the staircase option until the outstanding quote company said they would be putting much thicker joists in. Ho hum..... At least we are going to get something done, which is a miracle for us. We've lived here for nearly 10 years. Did very little for the first 6/7. Then replaced the boiler, roof & bathroom within about 18months and it's all stalled a bit, so house was rewired last summer, loft next and probably hall/stairs/landing sorted at the same time as they will make such a mess of them.

I've done an outline meal plan for next week. I need to check whether what I think is in the freezer is actually in the freezer before I go shopping. The freezers are quite full with 1 person homemade ready meals, but there are some ingredients lurking in there. Def going to need those 1 person meals as 1 company has asked for hubby's available dates for Sept/Oct/Nov

I am also determined to make Christmas the cheapest ever.
There will be the £600 I put aside over the year, plus at least £30 of J0hn L3wis vouchers from survey sites, hoping to get at least 1 more, but Valu3d 0pi0ns are putting out far too many non iOS friendly surveys at the mo, which isn't helping.
I've got £75 of supermarket saving stamps, which I aim to make up to at least £100 by Christmas.

And I'm knitting pressies for all the godchildren/Nieces/nephews & best friends Kids, need to have a bit of a count up, but i can knit 1 set of toy components over two evenings, then I'm going to have a mass stuffing session when I've got my loft office.....
For female friends/work colleagues I'm knitting little pouches which can be used for makeup, pencil cases, anything really. I can knit one of these in an evening, then they just need lining, stitching up and putting the fastenings on. Another job for when I've got some office space to work in.

It's payday on Tuesday, and although there will be no overpays available from my monthly bills account this month (due to those rail tickets) there should still be money left in the spends account, and when those expenses have been paid to me I'll be able to add that to the mortgage.

I also need to start packing up the current office, having a mass shredding session of financial stuff from 10 years ago and emptying the cupboard of doom, I have already wittered on enough this evening, so shall tell you all about the cupboard of doom another time.

Have a lovely evening and feel free to say hi, I don't mind talking to myself, but the encouragement is really motivating.

Happy saving everyone

Wish

gallygirl

WishIwasstill25 wrote: »

I love this very expensive/famous brand of cookware; I started my collection for my 30th birthday and this is the first addition.

So, quite a manageably sized collection then .

Good luck with conversion plans, I know I haven't the nerves for something like that .

WishIwasstill25

It has been a bobbing along type day today…

1) Expenses owed sorted £284!!!!!!:eek: Just need to get the forms in the post.

2) Loft conversion….. still waiting waiting waiting

3) YNAB - spent about an hour messing around with this, took me a while to get around how to record money I've already got saved, but think I've got it now. If I'm using it well at the end of the free trial I may subscribe (but where do you record it in YNAB??)

4) I didn't go shopping today, but we've eaten from the fridge & freezer today, so not a disaster, it will be tomorrow though, we've got fruit, but no veg.

5) The room of doom has begun to be packed up, but I can't face the cupboard of doom yet. Hubby needs to sort his cable boxes out. (no shredding today though)

6) Hubby has put the cake request out to his crew for a job starting in a couple of weeks. Crew food on tours can be awful, so on longer jobs I try and pack him and his colleagues off with some home baked goodness. I'm trying to think of baked goods that are almost meal substitutes for this one as the food is genuinely teriible and they are in the middle of a field with no supermarkets, or restaurants for miles. So it's flapjack, granola & carrot cake on the list so far - maybe some oaty muffins as well, putting my thinking cap on.

7) Off to knit those legs & ears….

Happy sunday one and all

WishIwasstill25

FInal loft quote finally in…. decisions, decisions, decisions…….

WishIwasstill25

I'm feeling really positive about today's achievements.

1) all financial transactions have been ynab'd. The app on my phone is great for spending, and the income bit I'll do on the computer I think. Not entirely sure whether to give the cat his own category, or just leave it in 'household goods' as I've done today.

2) Freezer inventory done this morning, and as well as looking like the north west office of meals on wheels, I could probably open a butchers. All of which means a light grocery shop for the next few weeks.

3) mr Ald1 cost me £21 whoop woop, then mr m next door was £6.50, so I bought another £10 Christmas savings stamps as I am soooo within my food budget.

4) next stop the bank.. I counted up the change pot yesterday evening..a massive £92 so, £50 to the mortgage and £42 to emergency fund (all now on ynab)

5) had to get a Letter weighed before it could be posted. 73p, so told ynab it was £1 and put the change in the coppers pot to start rebuilding that stash.

6) the room of doom..... Have made a start on the shredding of paperwork from before we got married (10years) but the shredder needs to rest after around 5 mins, so this is going to be a long, slow process. Planning on getting rid of everything older than 7 years, unless it's really important, does that sound ok? my friend has suggested burning it, as that will be quicker, so think I may get the BBQ going at the weekend and get that to take care of it.... If that is a bad idea, please tell me now...

7) loft..... Hmmmm husbands.......

8) knitting, running a little behind on the knitting challenge, if I can have a good go this evening, in between shredding, I may be up to where I want to be.


So all in all a good mfw/mse day.

Keep saving everyone.

Wish