Second Time Lucky

Muser1

I'm so pleased for you. Rest up and get well x

giblet1979

Woo hoo! Lots of happy hugs amy Still, think of this as time to rest and give yourself a chance to get better!
Hope your OH and DD do lots of looking after you now xx

in_need_of_direction

Just do exactly as you're told. Some short term pain is better for long term gain for both you and dd. Lots of hugs. Take care.

amycool

Thank you you lovely people.

Yesterday I was in agony all day (I suspect it's the steroids) and could hardly walk so tonight Grandma is picking DD up and having her for an hour or so. Thursday I have paid for afterschool club. Hopefully by Friday my body will be getting used to the drugs.

It's been quite costly this ill-business! I spent quite a bit on hospital stuff and treats to keep my morale up, and now we have afterschool club to pay for. Also hospital parking and diesel to get there.

In big decision news:
I am quitting driving. It's causing me so much stress as every week that goes by it gets less likely I will pass before the theory test runs out, and even if I recover in 2 weeks, then it's school holidays, then DD's birthday, then Christmas is coming up so I don't feel I can 100% commit to it. I also don't really like it and it costs so much money. Part of me feels awful for wasting so much and not passing, but I think now I know how to drive (not to pass standard, but I can do it almost without thinking) maybe in a few years when life is less stressful I could book an intensive course.

In the short term - the £1000 I had put aside can now pay for the lounge re-decorating. I feel better for having made the decision. I guess when you're faced with illness you think twice about what is most important. Realistically, I'd only be driving at the weekend anyway as we only have one car and as DD gets older she'll be more able to walk or get public transport. I never had a car as a kid (at all) and it did very little harm. DD will at least have access to one at the weekends.

In other news, OH's job is insanely busy so more evenings being worked, which isn't ideal. He's very stressed. I also need to look into his pension. His old one had a hefty sum as life insurance but I don't actually know what this one is like. We'll get his first full pay at the end of the month so I'll have a better idea of how much is left each month.

I am so in love with our rats right now. They cost us a fortune as we buy the best food available and the best bedding etc but it's so worth it. Last night I sat playing with them for an hour and they're so lovely and funny and adorable. They seem to have stopped growing of late so maybe they're just genetically smaller than average (only 210-250g each). I think we've worked out the safest way to free-range them now, that is until Apple works out how to get out again. She's so agile she can shimmy up things and also jump very high. I was a bit perturbed last night on "The Yorkshire Vet" as a boy had a single rat (really bad for them to live alone) who constantly squeaked (ours only squeaked when we first got them and they were scared) and was overweight. He had this tiny run that was barely a foot high and the rat didn't even attempt to climb it. Ours could leap over the edge easily!

Gas is going to cost more this year. We've decided to heat the conservatory as that's the rat room in the evening and it gets freezing. Also, it's one of the biggest nicest rooms in the house and we can't use it 8 months of the year. I'm still pretty tight with the heating (it will never reach 24 degrees in my house!) but it can't be good for my health for it to be cold so I've set the boiler at 19 degrees (when we're home).

Better go and update the spreadsheet. I also need to find some time to share everything with OH as he was panicking a bit last week. He has no clue how much money we have or anything. I do try to explain but it's not in his nature to care.

Pushkin

Heating a room for rats - I love it!!!!!!!!

Hope you start feeling better soon Amy, the worst part is not knowing what is wrong, at least now they've diagnosed it and prescribed the treatment you should be on the mend.

Take care.

amycool

Very tired today. DD has one of those incredibly annoying tickly coughs that go on all night and day. None of us has slept all week and we're all getting a bit grumpy.

Anyway, here are some money things to report:

Bad news: OH was about to miss his train so thought he'd jump on and pay on the train. No ticket people on the train. £80 fine. :eek::(

Good news: We've had a cheque from the tax man as OH overpaid - £800!!! :eek::j

I'm still cross about the £80 as it's a lot of money but it doesn't seem as bad now.

I've decided on a holiday for next year. I really wanted Center Parcs or something similar but it's ridiculously expensive during school holidays and didn't seem worth it. So I've found a holiday park with lodges plus stuff like a lovely pool, archery etc and if we do a Mon-Fri again the accommodation will be less than £600. It's in the Whit holiday - we still can't afford the summer holidays. I'm pondering whether to book it now or wait and see if they have money off in the new year. Also, my Mum won't get her holiday dates until the new year. I think I'll just wait and hope they don't all sell out. The other bonus is that it's only 1hr 15mins away so no horrendous long car journey!

Progress on the living room is slow and painful. I'm still on antibiotics (and getting all the lovely side effects) so I'm trying to do a little bit of wallpaper stripping here and there but largely I am failing. I have got my eye on a fire surround on ebay but no idea what it will go for. I'm thinking £50 but I might be way off. Also hoping to get the materials to make the hearth this weekend. DD is off next week so I won't be able to actually make it until the week after. I'm desperate to get the new sofa as ours is so uncomfortable now but I don't want it to get ruined.

We got the bulbs planted at the weekend (I say we, OH did) and I used my garden centre vouchers to buy some discount pansies and compost. DD also spotted some personalised Christmas decorations that were extortionate but I had intended for us to get some nice special ones.

To do:

Contact mortgage provider to see how much we can overpay this year without getting fined

Order curtains

Order tile paint

Bid on fire surround

Buy hearth materials

Book dentist (so very overdue now)

Book flu jab once finished antibiotics

Strip wallpaper

To do next month:

Get electrician to fit chandelier and sort burglar alarm

Get decorator to put up lining paper

Paint lining paper

Order settee

Make hearth, fit surround and tile

Applique curtains and hang

Tropically

You can fight the fine very easily, as I have for a similar occasion. Use the Independent Penalty Fares Appeals Service (IPFAS) or the Independent Appeals Service. It's worth a try - don't pay until you try this.

amycool

Thanks Tropically - I think they make it scary with the wording and threatening to charge more. I haven't actually seen the letter OH got yet so will have a good look.

Just contacted Halifax and I have gone over my 10% overpayments! I stupidly thought it started again when you get a new deal, but of course it doesn't. Thankfully very little harm done but I can't overpay now until January. That's going to be weird.

Bought the tile paint and bondaweb but the curtains had gone up from £72 to £120 so I've left that. Doh!

debtfreeoneday

Glad you're at home recovering, boo to the fine and yes at least try and fight it. Sounds like a good decision re the driving.. have a great half term!

amycool

I've stuck DD in front of the TV so I've had a chance to update the spreadsheet and it's a bit depressing!

OH's pay from his new job is £100 less than his old job but then we are saving about that in travel (ignoring the £80 fine!!) so I guess we're even.

Next week we need to service the new car and it's going to cost a horrible £420!! Because it's 2 years old and in the warranty you have to use an approved garage and then there are all these extras. Next year the warranty runs out so we'll just go to a normal garage for a normal service.

Got the letter about the £80 today. OH tried to appeal and it said you can't appeal this kind of fine so I need to look into that.

We've spent a lot in supermarkets this month. To be fair, a lot of that could be other household items as I just lump it together as "shopping", and I have bought a lot of treats to get me through the illness and DD being ill.

We've also spent a lot at the chemist trying to help DD's cough. After 2 weeks of sleepless nights, it finally seems to be abating.

The half term holiday has been very cheap indeed as DD was too ill to go anywhere! We've just used lots of electric for the TV and PC and done some craft stuff that cost nothing. We were hoping to go to loads of NT Halloween events but it doesn't look like it's going to happen.

I still haven't booked the holiday.

I have booked the dentist.

Next week the plan is to put the settee and chair on freecycle and order the new one. We need to time it just right so we're not without chairs for too long.

I also want to contact some electricians next week for the light fitting.

Wallpaper stripping is very slow progress. Still got some of the top layer of anaglypta to remove then all the lining paper to do. Once we've finished and filled the worst of the damaged plaster, I'll get some quotes for the wallpapering.

My motivation is that I want most of the living room done before we put up the Christmas decorations.

Did I mention we won the fire surround for £35? It's massive and heavy and solid oak. We need to strip it back and re-varnish it and then we'll have to get someone in to attach it to the wall as I don't want to risk it falling on someone. We're going to buy some cheap IKEA shelves too so we can get them put up at the same time. We have very solid walls and our drill isn't powerful enough.

I've also had my flu jab and got the hearth materials, although we can't build this until the fireplace is affixed as it's too heavy to sit on top.

So I think just ordering the curtains to do from my list. Not bad seeing as it's the holidays and DD was off sick last week!

It feels weird not to be able to overpay but actually we have so many outgoings coming up that it's good timing. We have an average of £700 left each month (according to my calculations) and it's not going to stretch very far this month so the savings will go down a bit.

I forgot - next week we also have DD's birthday celebrations!