MeandO's pro-active pennies & positivity! :)

stepuptothepl8

You are doing a great job maybe wait with reducing your hours until you've sorted a new mortgage deal, and then you can work things out (ie if you can afford to drop some hours) once you know what the new repayments will be.

Nearly the Christmas break.. I know I'm running on empty too. Counting the days, although I don't finish til 3 PM Christmas Eve xx

mumblingtaff

How was your Christmas?
Survive the family onslaught?
Xx

MeandO

Let's just say I got through it MT! 😁
DS had a lovely time, so that's the main thing.

'Him' made it really stressful for me in the run up to it, then realised, when he wasn't going to get his own way, he had been a complete selfish 'unmentionable', so then apologised and backed down. The ex then made it quite difficult on the day. 😕

Then my mother had a heart attack, literally on me, the day I went 'home'.

Needless to say, I had great delight in ripping the Christmas decs down and cleaning through the house yesterday, it was somewhat restorative!!!

X

stepuptothepl8

hey lovely MeandO, how are you? Hope things are a bit calmer now x

MeandO

Hi Steppie, thanks for thinking of me x

Life is plodding on!

I still have my job, but it's boring me to tears and I'm really struggling to get through the days, as are my colleagues. We're all in a pretty bad place with the attitude and morale at work at the moment and each day there brings you down. Sundays are spent dreading Mondays...
I am grateful I have a job, but because it's quite specialist and I can't afford to take a pay cut, I am kind of stuck in this industry and it is sucking the life out of me.

Oh and I had a short break in Iceland again in January which was just amazing and much needed. It really recharged my batteries and we laughed a lot. I really had the post holiday blues on our return though and boy, did they linger!

Financially, it's been up and down. Savings have been somewhat depleted after taking my eye off the ball and general overspending really, but I can still cover the car tax and hopefully the MOT this month with savings - as long as the car plays nicely and passes.

I also had the news of an inheritance I will be receiving within the next few months, from a relative who passed away late last year.
I am not sure of the amount yet, but have been told it will be over X amount.
It will be sizeable enough to pay off any remaining debt, pay a couple of thousand off the mortgage, hide a little in a savings account and possibly get around £5k of building work done to my house if I decide to go ahead with that.

It's nice news and I am very grateful, but obviously with the death of a relative it brings mixed feelings, gaining financially from that.

The ex will also be throwing £2.5k at the debt soon too, so that will cut it in half.

It's DS's birthday in a few days, so I am looking forward to seeing him excited about that. I am going 'home' this weekend with him which I'm not really looking forward to for several reasons, but he will have fun and my parents will love to see him. He's been poorly this week with the sick bug, so it has been a long week and I could really do with relaxing, rather than a 300 mile drive tonight and the stress of family, but nevermind.

Basically, 2016 has been pretty gloomy and dismal so far with the odd few days of sunshine thrown in, but I'm hoping the clouds will part soon!

Hope everyone is well, off to catch up with some diaries xx

apple_muncher

Good to hear from you. Hope the travelling goes okay and ds has a good time xx

MeandO

Thanks Apple, DS had a whale of a time, a wonderful party with family and friends and I actually enjoyed too, could've stayed much longer if time permitted, but unfortunately it was just a fleeting visit.

Mum kindly gave me some petrol money, so only around £25 was spent on petrol from my pocket.

As well as lots of toys and games, DS also had lots of lovely new clothes for his birthday, so we won't need to buy him many clothes for a while. He was starting to grow out of a lot of his stuff too and was a bit sparse on a few things, so that's come at a great time.
He received some money which has gone in his piggy bank for when he wants to buy himself a new toy at a later date too.
Tonight we're having a mini party food feast, just DS, his Dad and myself. I've decorated the house for him and have some party games lined up, just to prolong the birthday celebrations a little He's also getting his third birthday cake in three days! :rotfl:

Now to money news - payday seems a long way away still and I have the MOT due next week. Hopefully nothing needs doing to the car, I had new brakes and 4 tyres in late October which cost £600. :eek:

I submitted my equal pay claim over the weekend too, so we'll see if that brings anything back. I think it will be a few months before I hear anything, but so far everyone in my place of work has received a substantial amount. I'm not envisaging getting much, but anything would be nice.

I have sold something locally, and someone should be picking that up tonight which will put £10 in the pot.

I have a pile of stuff I need to ebay, but haven't found the will to do that yet... it is on the 'to-do' list.

Hope everyone is staying safe in the storms xx

MeandO

£10 in my purse from sale last night, two more items listed now locally which should hopefullly bring in £15 if sold.

I'm starting to feel more 'Kondo' again and feel like I need to sort my house out a bit more. I don't have a lot of 'stuff' but there is lots I don't really need and a fair few drawers I need to tackle and lots of shredding to do. I kondo'd my clothing drawers some time ago, but have fallen out of habit with that one and they're a mess once again, although DS's drawers are still nicley kondo'd, to the point where I've even managed to remove one of the two chests of drawers from his room as he no longer needed it when everything was organised! Now he has much more room in his bedroom and I have better storage in my little office room Perhaps tonight I shall get back to that as I have very little else to do.

I also need to sort and photograph more of the stuff I've earmarked for ebay/gumtree.

Last night I spent £30 on party food and bits for the freezer as literally had 5 minutes to run round the supermarket, so threw stuff in the trolley - DS ate two biscuits and a slice of cake. I ended up throwing a lot, but have salvaged what I can and have brought in the perishables for a mini buffet in work today for colleagues!

I need to get back onto the healthy eating too. I was doing so well a couple of weeks ago, but DS was unwell for a couple of days and all meal planning and time to do so went out of the window and I haven't really got back on track. Boy, did I find it expensive and time consuming though. I was buying fresh fruit, veg or salad stuff nearly every day at one point as I wasn't eating processed food. I felt so much better for it, but I was also spending so much money.
I need to plan it to be more budget and time-friendly.

I am considering starting at Slimming World next weekend. It obviously costs money, £5 a week I think, but I need that discipline and a bit of support wouldn't go amiss.

apple_muncher

Go you with being tidy!

I emptied my (now damp, mouldy and home to woodlice) wardrobe a few months back, and put it in the spare room. I have hardly used any of it since!

MeandO

The 'tidy intention' is there Apple, let's see if it actually works!

Well, I've just done a SOA of sorts again for myself and I really need to cut back. It's shown I've been spending more than I'm earning basically, no wonder my savings pots have all diminished so much.

I have just attempted to switch my phone & broadband to a different provider who were half the price I was paying for a year and also offering a £75 voucher to boot. I've already had teething trouble with knowing whether they are going to give me the voucher or not, depsite meeting all the conditions, so I've been told to wait 72 hours and chase them again. Not going well is it. :mad: