Hope is not an Effective Financial Strategy

South_coast

Glad to hear it should be survivable 

badmemory

Being at home long term needs preparation!  So think through what you need to prepare for.  Home schooling?  You are bright, when they close the schools even if only for 3 months you can up their achievements by over a year without even breaking a sweat.  You have overpayment type targets it just takes a different target.  It really can be done.  My mother was bored being a stay at home mother (back in the late 40s work wasn't really an option) so instead of just playing she taught me to read.  When I started school at 3yrs and nearly 2 months I could already read.  Then of course there is also decluttering, I know which I would prefer!

debtfreeoneday

Just popping in and saying hi

Karmacat

My word, Jimmy, what a difference a fortnight makes - the early ones were about analysing the overpayments over the last 5 years, and seeing what a difference that made to monthly outgoings, and now you've been caught up in the covid19 crisis.  I'm so sorry to hear it - bad memory's point about home schooling is a good one, that would certainly occupy you. 

I'm thinking about skills, and using up my craft stash: knitting fingerless gloves, socks, a little bag to hold soap ends; my sister's pilates exercises for core strength, even (sadly) tidying and cleaning. 

But your parents were upset at not having to provide child care for you?    Thats difficult to handle, hope you're okay today.

shangaijimmy

Day 2 of working from home... After some much needed thinking time (my 5 mile run last night was just the tonic) I'm actually getting my head around some tasks and things to do work wise. This morning I attended a 20 minute briefing in work with some updates, and as I'd suspected a few of the governments announcements should ease the situation. I'm fairly optimistic about our future, as it was suggested that the only way we will be in trouble is if we have a complete shutdown of society for 8 months. And lets be frank, if that happens then 75% of the population will be in deep trouble and the fabric of our country will have changed beyond comprehension.

So back to work, I probably spent 3hrs on the phone to various people which has generated plenty of tasks and planning for a few of us. Trouble is I'm now wondering how on earth I'll fit in work and getting the 3 kids through the mountain of school tasks they've been set! Mrs SJ is one of the key workers and she will be working right through providing she stays healthy. 

Moneywise I have done a fair bit of thinking. We will be stopping the OP's, scaling back the investments and earmarking some of the savings for the time being. This cash will go into a 'holding pot' to be reallocated when some form of normality returns. We have been assured full pay for 5 months (with use of annual leave) but it seems prudent to make some extra plans alongside out EF just in case. So job for tomorrow is to ring the bank and cancel our OP standing order as for some reason I can't do this via online banking. I then need to move around a little bit of cash so that I have a specific saver account as my holding account. We have an extra buffer of our 2020 holiday money as we have little chance of a holiday now this year anyway, though I can't imagine where or when foreign holidays will be options???? 

Anyway, apologies for not posting on diaries but I've been avoiding internet and so on, whilst I work things out in my mind what the next 12 weeks may look like for our family. I know that once I open the laptop I could disappear down the rabbit hole! Thank heavens for being a non social media person!!!!

Thank you for the well wishes and support. This place never ceases to amaze me. Look after your families and stay healthy.

Jessy103

Sounds like you've got a good plan in place SJ and I wish you the best of luck.

Stay safe and take care

themadvix

Sounds like a good plan Jimmy. I have pinched the idea of a holding pot for OPs Hope you get the kids into a routine at home from Monday.

In fairness to social media - and I'm a reluctant user -  there's a lot of positivity, humour and support going around there too at the moment, which makes a nice change!

Needhelpsaving

Just delurking to say I'm glad that things are looking more positive work wise, but agree that it;s prudent to keep some cash to the side as a contingency.  

Karmacat

Holding pot is sounding a very good idea.  And I'm glad your workplace is such an inventive place, it sounds like there's been a lot of behind the scenes planning going on.

shangaijimmy

Well this morning I met our CEO for a brew and a chat. We went through the whole cashflow spreadsheet for the next few months which was further reassuring. The whole thing at the minute feels like a movie, or Game of Thrones with its 'winter is coming' theme. I really hope that in 6 weeks time we're all saying 'what was all that fuss about?'. And if we are then it means there have been far fewer deaths than expected and that the government have done a great job. I fear that this won't be the case and I'm steeling myself for 16 weeks working from home.

Well I was determined that today wouldn't be a waste, so came back from meeting and had a little dig walk then set about some touch up paint work in our hall. Mrs SJ is hosting mothers day for us 5 and her sisters 4 and I thought it was about time I tidied things up for all the kids mucky handprints all over the hall and the wall up the stairs. I quickly realised it needed more a quick touch up, so ended up most of the afternoon job. I also threw in a proper dog walk, an hour or so of actual work, a 3.5 mile run, 2 school runs and another small dog walk. Overall I'd say I earned my 2 beers for the evening!

Christmas day was a bit of right off for our family this year so we're determined to make a great day of it on Sunday before we all go into full social distancing mode. I'm in the risk group with my asthma and I am definitely taking it seriously.

This post was longer than intended as I was only popping on my laptop to check in with my diary. Tomorrow morning I'll do a catch up of others. Oh we did have a £10 postcode lottery win so I OP'd it figuring it's probably the last OP for a few months.