Preparing for the biggest move of our life

bellevie

catriona79 wrote: »

Hello hello

Just a thought - do you bank with HSBC? If you open a new current acc with them they will pay you £10 a month.
In a edition, if you open an ISA with £300 they will put £10 in your account each month for a year.
Have you got the Halifax reward account? That pays £5 a month.

Could be a nice little earner, maybe treat money?

I haven't but I will take a look at those - thanks for the suggestions!

I have signed up to the rewards with Barclays, which is £7 per month hopefully starting next month but they do deduct a £3 monthly fee - still the £4 per month will be more than I would get in interest :T

bellevie

Good day today, an autumn walk with DD in her witch outfit which she has worn from the second she woke up.

I allowed her to knock on our immediate neighbours who took part in Halloween and then she waited excitedly at the door to give out some sweets of her own. I was really surprised at how many sweets she got from 5 doors and felt it was a good time to stop - she was very pleased with her lot too, until we opened the door to endless kids with overflowing buckets...then she insisted she wanted to go out for some more. I had to put my foot down when she threatened to go out on her own if I didn't let her :-0

Spag bol for dinner went down a treat. We will need a top up shop tomorrow aiming for less than £9. We spent £21 in Sainsburys on Pizza for Friday night, a reusable pumkin (£12) and some treats for the pot - that was unplanned so I decided as we don't need a huge food shop this week it could come from that budget.

I decided to move most of my emergency fund over to my ISA, leaving a spare £50 in regular saver. Its very encouraging to see it all together. I figured moving may well become my emergency with the current climate so the sooner I can get to my target the better.

I will still initially move my savings to my 'regular pot' then at the end of each month if I haven't needed to dip back into them I will move 50% across to my ISA, kind of a breathing space should something go wrong in the month, then once its moved to the ISA its a no go area.

I can not wait until I cross my first thousand mark - I haven't been there since I replaced my car this time last year!

bellevie

My dinning set arrived today, it took me AGES to get it up - well table was simple, chairs should have been simple but I really needed stronger arms to get it done quicker. My thumb feels really sore from the constant twisting of screws that needed a lot of pressure.

It looks lovely now its up, its my first ever brand new table:D
My first was given by a friend when I first moved out, I kept that until DD was around 2. I decided I needed a smaller one due to moving to a smaller place so picked the one I got rid of yesterday up from a Charity shop for £25! It was in perfect condition, and served us very well for almost 5 years.
I don't generally change my furniture very often so I hope it is money well spent!

DD woke in the middle of the night with a spiked temperature - she had I discovered changed into a fleecy onsie - too warm to sleep in and had about 3 covers on her bed so I thought she had just over heated. I cooled her down and sent her off to bed.
This morning her temperature was still high and it has lasted all day. She seemed fine up until about an hour ago when her voice turned all croaky and she let out a few chesty coughs.
So first day back after half term and we may well be phoning in sick We made the decision to see how she is in the morning, if her temperature is still high I will keep her off.
The school have recently decided to give an option of coming in at lunch to give calpol but I'll never manage that in my lunch break - and to be honest medicating a runny nose to make her more comfortable fine, but a temperature I am uncomfortable with especially because she spikes after exposure to cold so after playtimes etc.

Fingers crossed a good nights sleep will help her fight it off!

Rebecca01

Sorry to read about your daughter hope she is feeling better soon and she gets some good rest tonight.

Exciting about your dining table and well done on putting it up yourself. I alwsys struggle with stuff like that.

Everyone seems to be embracing Halloween a bit more. My ex took my dd to my best friends estate. He said there was loads of kids, houses decorated and at one door they knocked at beetlejuice jumped out to scare them!

Hope your daughter feels better tomorrow. Would the school keep her in a break time if ill? Suppose its not worth the risk really.

catriona79

Hello

I agree with what you say about the savings being in one pot are more encouraging. This is a long haul exercise and needs constant motivation, so definitely I'd say! And your signature looks cool with it at the top!

Whoop whoop re your new dining set! Fantastic!

Sorry to hear about little pumpkin falling ill after the Halloween weekend. Hope she is better tomorrow.

bellevie

Thank you ladies

DD seemed full of beans this morning, very minor temperature so I sent her off to school.

They called me at 2.45 said she felt ill and looked a little pale so they didn't think she should go to afterschool club.

I raced to school, in a panic they have never had to call me. Her temperature had gone but she was a little more sniffly and a little pale. I think the cold has just zapped her energy and she was just dreading having to stay for another 3 hours!
Early night and I am sure she will feel much better.

My Barclays rewards hit my account for the first time! I decided to leave them in the reward wallet and maybe use them towards next Christmas.

They also have cashback options to I will double check their rates against quidco as every little will help!

Latest birthday / Christmas request is a 'visual diary' its password protected by voice and takes little pictures and has a keyboard, cheapest I've seen is £29.99 so I will see if I can get some cashback on that, otherwise I am sure I am due another amazon voucher from shop and scan which will also help. Got to admit I would have loved one of those at 7, so I am excited at seeing her open that!

bellevie

Dd is fully recovered and was back at school Tuesday.

I have had a LSW so far, have taken lunch & breakfast to work.

I had a brainwave the other day, and worked out if I took shorter lunches all week I could leave before school ends one day a week. This would save me £44 on a 4 week month! I talked it over with my manager who said she is 80% sure itl be fine. Just waiting to hear from HR. fingers crossed!

It would be nice for dd too, 1 late night less to take the edge off me working full time.

School photos are in. Irresistible as usual. I'm always tempted by the packages but will stick to my budget.

I think I may remove netflix too as we don't use it as often as we did in the beginning and there's always YouTube for dds cartoons. That will be £6.99 saved- just need to remember my login details!

catriona79

Hey Bellevie,

Great news about your daughter - and the shorter lunch breaks idea! Your manager's support is crucial, HR will be unlikely to want to change their mind, unless it's a policy matter, which I don't think it will be, as long as you get the 20 minutes break after 6 hours. or maybe you have a minimum lunch break policy of 30 minutes. I've not seen it longer than that. I'm HR by the way please don't throw any rotten tomatoes my way.

Good to hear everything is moving in the right direction, fab news!

bellevie

Hi Catriona,

Not at all - whilst I don't know this HR dept personally I have in the past worked quite closely with HR so no rotten tomatoes coming from me

Thanks for the info though, my manager said she thinks its a good idea when I explained my reasons and she did also check with our director who also could not see any issues but did tell her to put the request forward to HR.

They are normally very good with flexible working so I am hopeful its just a matter of updating my records or something.

Yes feeling very positive now. I had a chat with myself at the weekend the cuts will happen no matter what I do so just got to do all I can to cope with them until I am earning a better wage or paying less childcare!

bellevie

It was a long day at work, my morning appointment which should have lasted 2 hours cancelled so I done my administration & callbacks in the morning leaving myself very little do in the afternoon.

My back also started to hurt between my shoulder blades - Im not in a good seat during my overtime but its not an issue as I am normally out an about. I think I mixture of bad positioning plus it being so damn cold in the office made me tense up.

I tried to register with a dentist near my work place today, the website said they accepted both NHS & private and said I could email for a registration form. So I emailed and stated NHS patient etc and rather than get an email back with the form or telling me they are not taking on NHS they asked me to call in so they could discuss options - straight away I feel a sale coming on! I'm not interested in going private, I see going to the dentist like I do the doctors its a must when needed so I will only pay what I absolutely have to pay and not a single penny more.

I think perhaps its me emailing from my work email address they ignored the NHS part. Or perhaps they haven't got any NHS spaces but would offer 1 visit?

Either way, it wasn't the response I was looking for so I wont be going!

I found another one which has amazing reviews and does NHS only - my childhood dentist was like that so I always knew there would be no trying to sell additional things to saying I needed jobs that clearly didn't need doing. Its not in the same town but I want to go somewhere they will treat me as a person, not as a sales target.

Fingers crossed this surgery is the same, the reviews are very good and they were friendly and answered my questions when I called so feeling optimistic.

That's my ramble of the day done, I am now going to sit and do nothing until bed time - at last!