Hope is not an Effective Financial Strategy

shangaijimmy

My positivity is that we have 1 more birthday left for the month, which is DS1, and out current account has survived it!

I only had 9p to tidy this morning, so added a bonus £1 on for motivational purposes! After sleeping on it for a night I'm currently leaning towards OPing the full council tax amount. I have £520 going into ISA and this is achieving our savings objective for this pot, so I'll give the MFW goal a massage!

Right, I have some live lessons to make sure are started on time and then I can tackle emptying the wardrobe (that was only filled yesterday), take the doors back off and get it positioned ready for removals!

Karmacat

What a shame about the wardrobe, Jimmy, all that work!  But if you left it when it doesn't suit, it would be horrible.  

Current account survival is a good thing 

shangaijimmy

Wardrobe removed with a great deal of difficulty. I can definitely say its the last wardrobe and stairs that my Dad will be tackling! Getting rid of the wardrobe means I have a bagful of hangers to declutter as well. Actual house reclamation has taken a mini pause for 2 days, however I have a big wardrobe shelf in DS1's room to attack. I'm confident that there's a weeks worth of items to get rid of that are hiding up there. DD's bed has now been ordered and with less furniture we had some more options open to us.

Its been a hectic couple of days really with schooling and work, but thankfully I managed to get my dog walks and runs in, so getting my time 'away'. Its official that I have an issue with DS2 and his pencil dropping ability! This afternoon I sellotaped his pencil to his hand 

I should have a day with no meaningful work to do around home schooling so hopeful of some diary catch up time ahead.

Suffolk_lass

I really feel for you regarding DS2's fidgeting with the pencil. Teachers are taught about tactical ignoring and there is a short article in the Times Education Supplement but it seems to me that this is more about the potential impact on the rest of the class and not confident it would work for you at home.  

You could try distractions techniques - DH suggested 10 minutes drumming (with wooden spoons not pencils) periodically with both of you together. The received wisdom is that it helps them to concentrate (unless he is deliberately trying to annoy you, in which case ignoring is the way to go) - so this blog starts to suggest ways of managing it. If he was unaware of it, taping it to his hand may not be helpful for him (despite the relief for you). I think it comes down to whether he is being productive when he does it, and whether he knows

shangaijimmy

I can confidently say that he is not trying to annoy me! He is a constant 'pencil' (insert any item really) drummer for concentration and I suppose the question of "have you seen my pencil?" and "have you looked on the floor?" answer that gets to me! Always when I'm in mid e-mail. The sellotape was very much a joke and only lasted for a minute or two. It was a good lesson break as he ran round the house to show DD, Mrs SJ and DS1 as he thought it was amazing that he could still write with it.

Thursday today, so all moving downhill towards the weekend. Both DD and DS2 have PE this afternoon, which makes a massive difference in how the day ahead 'feels'. I'm just hoping that the rain will have passed through by then so PE can be out on bikes and scooters.

Viking_mfw

You can get things called fidget cubes which are good for an outlet for that pencil tapping energy but are much less obtrusive to others. They have little things to wobble and press on each side. 

shangaijimmy

We all survived the school week, and all with full limbs intact. We actually had a very productive school week, and I think I have the level about right now with DD (5yrs old). I've also worked out which 'topics' that are not good for me to help her with and Mrs SJ takes over for those things, which amounts to about 1 topic a day.

Bank account suddenly looks anaemic. We have 1 more week until Mrs SJ payday and will borrow money from savings. We've tried our best to get through the month with 5 family birthdays (1 a 50th and 2 of our own kids) and not dip into the savings (even the savings allocated for birthdays), and we've probably managed 4 of them. So we'll borrow a little cash from savings, but will replace it all on Friday.

£10 overpayment today from our postcode lottery win  , and also got notice that our £25 utility switch payment will get paid next week. That will be a lovely start to Februarys pot. I'm already looking forward to closing January's figures and looking at our neutral deficit. I know that we've dropped into the £50k's but I'm purposely not looking until Sunday

Clutter wise, yesterday we threw away a tatty clothe-less barbie doll that we have no idea where we inherited it from. It has offended me for months and is too big for the dolls house anyway. Then today we got rid of a dress of DDs that she refused to wear as it was too tight, or itchy, or both...or maybe none of them and she was just being awkward! I also emptied the salad drawer in the fridge and found a bag of easy peel clementines with 21st Oct as the date, and a bag of mini apples that were similar. So I'm counting that.

I also decluttered Mrs SJ's favourite Baileys glass when it fell from the cupboard and I opted to catch one of the kids falling plastic juice bottles...and watch the Baileys glass fall to the floor in slow motion!  Apparently Baileys doesn't suit being in a pint glass 

Baileys_Babe

shangaijimmy said:

  Apparently Baileys doesn't suit being in a pint glass 

I think you find it does, lots of ice and masses of Baileys 😆

Pleased the home schooling is going well and you are finding a balance.

shangaijimmy

Baileys_Babe said:

shangaijimmy said:

  Apparently Baileys doesn't suit being in a pint glass 

I think you find it does, lots of ice and masses of Baileys 😆

I suggested just cramming the ice directly into the bottle, but that didn't go down too well either!!

Just added a kids penguin hot water bottle cover to the declutter list. Well past it used by date, and it suddenly appeared from the abyss of DS2's bedroom!!

Karmacat

I'm just loving that decluttering