Renovations and Repayments.

AlexLK

April Targets:

OSPREYS - CHECK.
PLAN EASTER HOLIDAY This weekend, planned.
Make a decision re. bathroom / holiday / potential debt.
Total Grocery Spend: £80/ £400.
Surplus Money: / £800.
Bed before 11.30pm: 1 / 31. Going to bed as soon as I've written this, so going to say 1.
Meditation: 2 / 31.
De-clutter and sell / 5 items.
New Recipes: / 4.
Books (to read for pleasure): / 3.
3 Things for Wednesday: 1. Be on time, 2. Carry on learning piano piece, 3. Three positive things...

3 Things for Tuesday: 1. Do wake up meditation, Did not do. 2. Start working on first item to sell, Did not do. 3. Practise piano Managed this! .

heartbreak_star wrote: »

Alex, if nothing else had convinced me that you're a good person despite what you may think of yourself, your reaction to that TV show would some people would be deriding the poor family but you are shocked and more determined to do your best by your pupils

Well done, good sir.

HBS x

Thanks, HBS.

cazmanian_minx

Alex, have you ever heard the (probably apocryphal) story about the starfish?

One day, an old man was walking along a beach that was littered with thousands of starfish that had been washed ashore by the high tide. As he walked he came upon a young boy who was eagerly throwing the starfish back into the ocean, one by one.
Puzzled, the man looked at the boy and asked what he was doing. Without looking up from his task, the boy simply replied, “I’m saving these starfish, Sir”.
The old man chuckled aloud, “Son, there are thousands of starfish and only one of you. What difference can you make?”
The boy picked up a starfish, gently tossed it into the water and turning to the man, said, “I made a difference to that one!”

You've already made a difference for a lot of starfish and I suspect you will go on to make a difference to a lot more

AlexLK

April Targets:

OSPREYS - CHECK.
PLAN EASTER HOLIDAY This weekend, planned.
Make a decision re. bathroom / holiday / potential debt.
Total Grocery Spend: £80/ £400.
Surplus Money: / £800.
Bed before 11.30pm: 1 / 31.
Meditation: 2 / 31.
De-clutter and sell / 5 items.
New Recipes: / 4.
Books (to read for pleasure): / 3.
3 Things for Saturday: Leaving this here and hopefully I will have three things to put here tomorrow.

The past few days haven't been so good. I'm struggling to deal with things I need to do and have had a lot of dark thoughts, not about giving up so that's something positive at least. My wife is also not in a good place, last night we were both awake at 2.30am. I know this needs to stop and we need to focus on making some money and getting the project done.

Financially things aren't very good after paying the council tax which I'd somehow forgot to budget for. We pay for the whole year, can't see there being much in the way of surplus money. My wife successfully applied for a 0% card, so if needed we can use it. I've made her promise she'll keep it locked in a box, which she found amusing. :rotfl:

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

Alex, have you ever heard the (probably apocryphal) story about the starfish?

One day, an old man was walking along a beach that was littered with thousands of starfish that had been washed ashore by the high tide. As he walked he came upon a young boy who was eagerly throwing the starfish back into the ocean, one by one.
Puzzled, the man looked at the boy and asked what he was doing. Without looking up from his task, the boy simply replied, “I’m saving these starfish, Sir”.
The old man chuckled aloud, “Son, there are thousands of starfish and only one of you. What difference can you make?”
The boy picked up a starfish, gently tossed it into the water and turning to the man, said, “I made a difference to that one!”

You've already made a difference for a lot of starfish and I suspect you will go on to make a difference to a lot more

Have heard this one before but thank you, Caz.

AlexLK

:rotfl: Re. the thought of having some time to update this yesterday morning.

My wife, son, dog and I went away for the weekend. I planned it but didn't tell my wife or anyone else. Not really helped the finances as we have eaten out all weekend and spent £150 in petrol. Saturday morning was a whirlwind of packing an overnight bag and driving. We've had a fantastic weekend and managed to get some sleep too. Mrs K has managed to get quite spectacularly sunburnt and is very sore.

April Targets:

OSPREYS - CHECK. Having an osprey update tomorrow.
PLAN EASTER HOLIDAY Rest of not planned! Tomorrow is going to be quiet. Just son and I at home.
Make a decision re. bathroom / holiday / potential debt.
Total Grocery Spend: £80/ £400. Still OK ... eating out budget (not that there was one...) completely blown. :rotfl:
Surplus Money: / £800. :rotfl:
Bed before 11.30pm: 3 / 31. Going to bed straight after writing this.
Meditation: 4 / 31.
De-clutter and sell / 5 items. :rotfl:
New Recipes: / 4.
Books (to read for pleasure): / 3.
3 Things for Monday: Leaving this here and hopefully I will have three things to put here tomorrow.

SingleSue

AlexLK wrote: »

I don't really know how to deal with this, to be honest. Watching the programme explained a lot re. behaviour and attitudes in some education settings I've been involved with. A lot of the children I teach at the voluntary school seem to have little confidence in their abilities. There are parents not buying materials which would help them with their education, I had not really considered anyone would not be able to afford to buy books or get rid of old furniture. They didn't have a car nor could they buy football boots for their son, that really shocked me. No excuses for the door, though.

Perhaps I am naive but I cannot imagine this happening in the UK. Having taught children from disadvantaged backgrounds, the programme made me wonder how many of them have adequate space and materials to practise / do prep for school etc. etc. I cannot see how 6 children and 2 adults in a 3 bed terrace can work nor can I see how it is allowed. If a prospective tenant wanted to rent a 3 bed cottage from me with 6 children, I'd tell them the house would be too small for them.

I would be classed in the lower 10% or the disadvantaged group. There were times when the boys were at school that I would dread the letters home informing me of school trips or the need to get extra books etc for their education as there just wasn't the money spare to do so.

However, I could not let them go without the absolutely needed things. Ok, they didn't do the posh holidays via school but all other normal trips out they did and they never went without educational material, I would just budget food for 3 instead of 4 and used the saving to pay for whatever was needed and survive on cereal for the week (or just didn't eat much).

As for space, not really much here. We have a small 3 bedroom house although really it is more of a small 2 and a half bedroom house. Their choice for places to do homework was either whilst sat on their bed, the kitchen table or the front room.

Two are at university and a very confident in his abilities youngest is off to university this September (unconditional firmly accepted, so no doubt over that). My mantra to them has always been to believe in yourself, just because they don't have the same background as some of their friends, it doesn't mean they have to accept second best, they just have to work a little harder to get there.

newgirly

Glad you had a good weekend Alex, it sounds like money well spent

heartbreak_star

I'm sympathising with Mrs K on the sunburn - I'm quite bad myself BUT I got driven around in a tank and went clay pigeon shooting for the first time so it was great

HBS x

AlexLK

3 Things for Monday: 1. Prep two things to sell, 2. Plan HEALTHY meals for the week (managed to put 2kgs of the 4kg lost back on. Must be getting old as this isn't something I've ever had a problem with before ), 3. Keep schedule and finances spreadsheet up to date.

My parents are idiots. They've gone to Spain and call me to say it is far too busy. Well, they chose to go over Easter. Apparently they didn't know it was Easter. :rotfl:

SingleSue wrote: »

I would be classed in the lower 10% or the disadvantaged group. There were times when the boys were at school that I would dread the letters home informing me of school trips or the need to get extra books etc for their education as there just wasn't the money spare to do so.

However, I could not let them go without the absolutely needed things. Ok, they didn't do the posh holidays via school but all other normal trips out they did and they never went without educational material, I would just budget food for 3 instead of 4 and used the saving to pay for whatever was needed and survive on cereal for the week (or just didn't eat much).

As for space, not really much here. We have a small 3 bedroom house although really it is more of a small 2 and a half bedroom house. Their choice for places to do homework was either whilst sat on their bed, the kitchen table or the front room.

Two are at university and a very confident in his abilities youngest is off to university this September (unconditional firmly accepted, so no doubt over that). My mantra to them has always been to believe in yourself, just because they don't have the same background as some of their friends, it doesn't mean they have to accept second best, they just have to work a little harder to get there.

Sue, parental support makes all the difference.

newgirly wrote: »

Glad you had a good weekend Alex, it sounds like money well spent

Thanks, NG. We've had a good time but this month's budget has gone completely awry.

heartbreak_star wrote: »

I'm sympathising with Mrs K on the sunburn - I'm quite bad myself BUT I got driven around in a tank and went clay pigeon shooting for the first time so it was great

HBS x

Sounds like a fantastic weekend, HBS.

heartbreak_star

AlexLK wrote: »

Sounds like a fantastic weekend, HBS.

Barring the hangover and the inadvertent embarrassment, it was the best weekend ever! Stag dos > hen dos hahaha

HBS x

SingleSue

AlexLK wrote: »

Sue, parental support makes all the difference.

Youngest son gets really annoyed when others are moaning about not having the same chances as other, more well off families. As far as he is concerned, you put the work in, you get the results.

He's had it harder than most, not only is his background 'disadvantaged' (I don't agree with that title, we may have had less money but I certainly disagree that their education was disadvantaged because of it) but due to health reasons. His attendance at school and college was/is horrendous as he has multiple disabilities which require a fair amount of time off and hospital stays (to make it even more eek, he didn't actually go full time at school until he was 11!). To counter that, instead of sitting back and going woe is me, he has self taught his current courses and instead of being behind his peers in the classroom, he is in fact way way ahead of them. He has held the position of number 1 in his year for the last 18 months.

I agree though, parental support is vital. On our street mine are the only ones to go to university, other parents think of it as something only the well off do and not 'for our kind'. Maybe I think differently because my upbringing was very middle class with not a council house in sight, or maybe because my parents always told me that I could be or do anything if I put my mind to it.

I'm currently trying to support my niece in her GCSEs because neither of her parents appear to realise what is needed to give their child that extra oomph or confidence in themself.