Preparing for the biggest move of our life

bellevie

My tooth hurts more today so I got slightly concerned about when I would next be able to get to the dentist out of town.

I found a different practice close to my work who also open Saturdays! Apt booked for Monday morning before work. Fingers crossed its nothing serious. I have been gargling salt water which has been helping I think.

I still really want to get to the other Dentist in the other town but I will give this dentist a go as its so close and does have the advantage of Saturday opening.

Work was good today, productive and busy just how I like it.

DD has opticians tomorrow, first eye test. I hope the test is very thorough as I think if she finds a way to be allowed to have glasses she will.

I feel like I have something planned tomorrow that I might forget - not the eyetest, no parties so I haven't a clue what Im trying to remember!

Right off to help myself to some mint choc chip ice cream- because its Friday and I can!

bellevie

Eye test was fine, DD is long sighted but not a concern. She was very disappointed not to need glasses
Not sure she will feel the same in 10 or so years

Whilst out we spent £4.50 in a present for one of her cousins, £15 in the £ store which included some little things for the shoe box appeal.

No food shop required this week as we have lots to get through from the freezer. Will just pick up bread and apples on my lunch break tomorrow.

Busy week this week with parents evening and school disco in one week - I feel tired just thinking about it

RosaBernicia

bellevie wrote: »

Eye test was fine, DD is long sighted but not a concern. She was very disappointed not to need glasses
Not sure she will feel the same in 10 or so years

I must be so ahead of my time... why oh why wasn't geeky cool when I was at school? :rotfl:

bellevie wrote: »

Whilst out we spent £4.50 in a present for one of her cousins, £15 in the £ store which included some little things for the shoe box appeal.

:T


Rosa xx

bellevie

Last week was very busy, I logged on a few times started reading but was just so over tired my mind was a blank with regards to my diary!

Dentist on Monday for the first time in 18 months - it was absolutely fine nothing needed doing! A relief on my purse as well as my nerves!

Yesterday we done a food shop which was £8 over budget but a few condiments needed replacing and I stocked up on cheeses which always adds to the budget.

We opted of a DIY pizza yesterday instead of buying prepaid I got 2 value bases and we made our own 50/50 with our favourite toppings - and both agreed it was the best we had ever tasted! I absolutely can not justify buying premade any more - the bases where 2 for £2 and our toppings cant have been more than 50p with the quantities used. Got the second base in the freezer so will be using that at some point this week!

I also picked up a reduced 'cook in the bag chicken' with the aim of saving as much as I can from the chicken to make a few meals this week as I keep forgetting to remove frozen chicken from the freezer so it keeps going to waste.
DD has requested sweet & sour and chicken pasta bake, plus I could also take the pasta meal to work with me.
We will try it, if it works I will do it again, if it doesn't its a lesson learnt!

I feel as most people do, very sad about the events that happened in Paris. I have a horrible sinking feeling that I can't see a way out of the constant happenings. If we retaliate - I say we as in for example Europe, they will come back at us and so on it will lead surely to war, but on the other hand how many more innocents all over the world will die? What will it take to make this stop?

I pondered this a fair bit yesterday. Retaliation may mean innocents loose their lives elsewhere which will cause them to come back and us to go back and it will be a vicious circle.

The Christian in me screams that we cant retaliate, we have to be the bigger person - exactly as you are taught at school - walk away with your head held high....

That hasn't stopped anything people are dying all over the world in the name of a religion - which from what I know - is a very peaceful religion, It seems to be interpreted to suit whoever is intent on causing harm.

Through my beliefs there are a lot of things I don't agree with - but who am I to judge? Does their choice on how to live their life really impact me so much? Normally - no. So I keep my mouth shut and get on with life.

I treat people how I want to be treated and if I have nothing nice to say - I don't.

There will always be people in life who you dislike for whatever reason - you don't have to let them in your life. You get on with your life and keep a respectful distance from each other. That can be applied to a family member, a neighbour a colleague or some random stranger in another country.

People forget that at the end of the day no matter where you are from, no matter what your race or your religion, we are all human. We all laugh, we all cry, we all bleed when cut, we all feel our hearts swell with pride when we talk about the people we love, our hearts all break when we loose someone we love.

Life is already so short, and sometimes hard enough as it is - why are people so intent on making it even harder than it needs to be?

catriona79

Hello Bellevie,

Good to see you back on the forum. I don't know how you mums do it, with all the extra responsibilities you juggle.

You've been a money saving whizz I see, and even made your own pizzas.

Agree re Paris, one of my lodgers is French, such a scary place to be at the moment. I was really frightened when Hollande said that France was at war. This is going to turn into a horrible disaster!
I was thinking how insignificant my little debt worries were compared to everything else going on, not only in Paris, but in Baghdad and in Syria, where so many people die every day, and the degree of anxiety people are under is completely unimaginable.

bellevie

I'm not sure what's up with me at the minute. Every time I sit down to write on my diary or another I just cant get my words together.

I think I'm sitting down at the wrong times, when I'm tired or focused on other things.

£29 on food shop today that included £4 off from a voucher I got, so a few extra things in that shop.

The chicken idea - whilst nice, didn't go to plan last week. I've been quite run down so just haven't had the energy to make proper meals after work so I've opted for quick fixes. The chicken was used one night in chicken sandwiches, and the remainder thrown away today.

This weeks shop I stocked up on soups - I do like that winter = cheap warm lunches, soup and a couple of slices of buttered bread for less than 50p.

2 weeks until DD's birthday, I think we are all set aside from birthday cake. I think we are all ready for Christmas too, just the actual food shop to sort but nearer the time, cant believe its just 5 weeks away.

This year has flown, I think most of the year I've been so focused on getting a job through the restructure I've almost wished the time away.

Shock to the system at feeling the difference in weather today I've been wearing my duffle coat but it wasn't nearly warm enough so will have to dig out my padded coat for the week.

Changes are well underway at work, not quite in the new structure yet but edging closer to it which is exciting.

Received my first 'new pay' yesterday. Its nice to finally know exactly what my pay will be each month after a few months of varying overtime.

DD has adjusted well to me working full time - homework is a bit of a struggle as we are both tired at the end of each day, but aside from that she really is a little superstar.

I am expecting my savings to take a bit of a hit over the Christmas period - hopefully not decrease but I think I'm going to struggle to add to them until January payday. I have been putting some change into my jar, so hopefully cover impulse buy's over the couple of weeks off work!

bellevie

Busy busy busy is the theme at the minute at work and at school.

Endless school donations requested, its a really expensive month and I know it raises money for the school but sometimes its a little too much!

Wrapping up my time in the other team now, I was writing some case studies that can be used in future at managers request and actually I am quite proud of the work I have managed in such a small space of time. I hope if I apply for other roles in house I can draw on that experience. The experience itself has been well worth the very hard work!

Not so good news, had word from the agency that the landlord is considering self managing AND a rent increase in the new year - an extra £50 'ish' a month!

I have mixed feelings about this - I really don't want the rent increase of course but I have been here just over a year so I know it had to come sooner or later.
Moving away from the agency worries me a little, I've been without an agency twice, one was fine the other was a nightmare.

Somehow I feel its an agency they can be held to account so although I have never had to do that I feel like they are a safety net.

I have set myself a target of 3 years for my shared ownership deposit & fees - childcare costs will be close to coming to an end at that point and DD would be in the last year at primary school so I will be looking to move within walking distance or easy bus ride to a secondary school.

Unless I get a better paid role at work, I will need to find other ways to cut back / boost my savings.

So I need to get back into regular surveys. The more vouchers I earn the less I spend at Christmas.

I will get back into bulk cooking to drive down our shopping bills some more.

I had the idea that I could build up more flexi to take more time off in the holidays, saving myself £25 per day in childcare costs. Turns out my manager hadn't got round to sending the request to HR for early finish on Friday, so for the time being I have told her not to worry.

I would save more having an early finish on Fridays but having a FULL day off in the holidays I'd also save petrol and most importantly get more quality time with DD.

There are rules, I think a max of 10 hours per month can be carried over, but there is a school holiday roughly every 6 weeks so I could build enough time of for 1.5 days every 6 weeks - using less annual leave meaning I can save some more towards summer holidays.

If for whatever reason I can't use it for holidays because someone else is off, the breakfast club isn't contracted unlike the afterschool club so I could have a couple of days where I drop DD at school and save on breakfast club fees rather than loose the hours built up.

No change to savings for the moment, haven't added to them unfortunately but at least they are not going down.

bellevie

Quiet day but productive day today.

We usually shop on Saturdays, but DD had a friend over in the morning & for lunch, then we chilled in the afternoon.
I was going to go today but decided against it.
We don't need a huge amount so I thought I might try and work through the freezer this week and perhaps pick up some fruit, pasta and yogurts on my lunch break, hopefully spend less that way.

Tonight we are having a quick chicken stew (potato, carrot, onion & chicken) It's a one pot meal usually done in 30 minutes Super cheap & yummy.

I checked my quidco account, £8 from Ocado in there - that was their first shop cash back reward. Went to cash it out - at the moment they have a special offer, cash back, paypal or Amazon....via amazon vouchers you get 1% cash back! I'm not going to turn my nose up at 8p for free!

I also logged onto swag bucks for the first time in ages - I haven't quite got the mindset to do full on surveys today but I did at least earn my basic points on noso and daily poll.

I received £3 voucher from buildabear which DD has put on her Christmas list. The last time I was there (February!) a mum I bumped into suggested paying an extra £5 to get a £10 gift card - I had completely forgotten about it! So I went online and ordered one of the plain bears with a Mrs Claus outfit and paid £13.75 - (including delivery) saving £13!
Santa has added a little message and will hopefully be delivering on my day off this week!

I am very much looking forward to my day off, its been a long time coming. I couldn't work out why I feel so tired and realised that I didn't get any time off in the half term as I would do normally so I think I'm started to burn out.

I will be spending my day giving the house a good clean up at a nice leisurely pace and wrapping up the remaining Christmas & birthday presents.

We have a friend visiting next Saturday, then my brother the Saturday after then one more weekend before...... :xmastree:!!!!!!

firesidemaid

It's interesting that your landlord is considering self-managing ie. saving him/herself money but then also putting UP the rent!


This might be something you could use to negotiate, as you might have expected a rent decrease

bellevie

Yes, I wondered this myself - then it occurred to me that I only have the agencies word on this. So actually maybe he has spoken about self managing, and the agency themselves may suggest a rent increase to go towards fees....

Now wish I had kept my mouth shut when they said he was considering self managing - as I think they may say that I would be willing to pay more to keep the agency there.

Truth is I would rather move that have to pay out more, but I haven't got enough saved to allow another move!

I was also working out, with agency 'admin' fees around the £500, and then £500 removals, Id have to find somewhere at least £100 per month cheaper to save that amount back up in 12 months.

I'm hoping my suggestion that I commit to another 2 years may help negotiations.

Fingers crossed!