22 Foxhole East

apple_muncher

Just as well you 'rescued' the buddleia before it destroyed the wall. Very invasive roots - great self-preservation.

in_need_of_direction

thanks for that knowledge re the buddleia. i've one growing from a chimney

f0xh0les

Ooh, get it out quick! They will grow anywhere and pull the bricks apart with their roots. I loved walking around Manchester and seeing them sticking out of the old abandonned red brick factories 6 floors up. They don't need soil at all, they are the cockroach of the plant world.

f0xh0les

I am loving being a single parent this weekend. There! I said it!
I have given up. If the kids don't want to go anywhere then fine. I don't care. So they decided they wanted to go and see Avengers Endgame yesterday, and I can't get tickets as they are all sold out until Tuesday. Good job I checked before we left.

Made scones, buns and rice pudding this morning. Veg stew for supper to use up all the fridge bottom veg.

We lost the football match this afternoon (boo!) so I am going to curl up on the sofa with a book. I have no money until chb comes in on Monday and payday on Tuesday. I have a long list of things to come out of that money. I have split my savings into 2 accounts, one which goes into the £5k+ balance draw, and the rest into another account. The aim is to get £5k in there too, and then call a builder. So far I have £1,500 (and £5001). I think I may have cut my cloth very tight this month as I have just felt poor the whole time.

I have turned off the heating. I have cleaned and tidied the house. I have worried about money (which is daft cos I just need to rob a different account, I have the money, but still I worry) I am being bombarded with stupid questions about step-gran's insurance policy - what would happen if I ......? questions. I thought the whole, if a tree fell in the night during a storm, and nobody saw it, but it fell on the verge and killed the postman, would I be covered - scenarios, were bad, but now it is with her hearing aids - so I have had to email p.o.a forms, as although I took the policy out, they cannot discuss her theoretical scenarios with me until seeing the p.o.a, and then they said they would not deal with her if she rang, even though she is physically incapable rather than mentally incapable, ugh! they do not make it easy on a person to help someone else! Anyway, it looks like her hearing aids are going to put up the price, even though she is housebound, they still have to be insured in case she has a hospital appt somewhere, and hearing aids are classed as a high risk item. So had to ring boots to find out if she only lost one, would she need a new pair, or if they do them separately. Which would cost £1,015 each, and she is complaining she still can't hear properly. So, B00ts lady is going out to her again on Wednesday (the poor woman), and hopefully they will sort her out. She would get much better service if she wasn't such an unpleasant old bat to everyone. It is customer service, not customer servants.

Anyway, DH is off in his field, I did have a chuckle as the wind blew the haunted double glazing bagpipes and I lay warm and toasty under my duvet last night. I won't be laughing when I end up doing all his muddy laundry and falling over his kit, and have a drying canvas tent hanging off the balustrade and smelling of charcoal and wood smoke.

So, I have plans, I am happy, I have half a tank of petrol and 2 and a half days until payday. I just need to stop being anxious about money. How do I do that?

apple_muncher

Are the kids back on Monday?


Has it been a good/better holiday with not having the in-laws visit?


Hope you can reduce the anxiety.

f0xh0les

Hey Apple!

Yes the kids are back at school on Monday, all kits and uniforms sorted, all bags packed, all lunchbox tat arranged in alphabetical order in the pantry (or not), yes, it is a million times better than seeing the in-laws, who have been badgering dh about when I am taking the kids over this holiday, or next half term, and when in summer, but they have not spoken one single word to me, not on their birthdays, not when they ring dh ... nothing. One obviously does not speak to the mere driver.

Dh was a star and told them I was not taking the kids back over to see step-gran. She wants to see them, but the house is not suitable, and they are getting too big to be content to rock up and sleep on a floor for a week, and be shouted at. So in-laws have changed tack, and are talking about renting a cottage somewhere and we all meet up . It is a variation on a theme that has been going on for over fifteen years, but it never materializes. I know, they have been disappointing my kids for years, telling them about things they will never do.

The anxiety will go, I know it will, either with a larger bank balance, or the building works starting. I feel like I am in limbo and am trying to just keep on pushing through. I think I am frightened of getting stuff done in the wrong order, or screwing it all up. But there is not much that could make the bits left, to look worse!
Yesterday I ripped out another woodwormy skirting board in the kitchen (I have the rest gone already,) and I found, eugh, sorry, ......silverfish...... :eek:- now I know they like damp wallpaper, and that is what I am telling myself, so after a jolly good hoover and clean up and double bagging, and reminding myself practically everything in my kitchen is stored in glass jars or glass containers, or plastic cereal containers, and there is no sign of the blighters in there.
I think I will need to begin another round of wallpaper stripping on the kitchen walls. :mad: Damp proofing is now rapidly romping up on the top spot of my lists. I refuse to share my kitchen with beasts. A girl has to have some standards, and that is a big one! also I can't tell DH, as he is practically phobic about sharing his living space with insects (he grew up in Africa)


Stupidly, I am anxious about saving, anxious about the amount of savings I have, and at the same time anxious about spending the savings. What the heck is that about?

I think I may just be a total nut. :T

Meanwhile, DH is out lunching with colleagues at a local restaurant a couple of times a week and and indulging his p4ypal and 4mazon habits and spending £3k on his tooth. Good job he still looks good naked :jor he might need to start worrying.:rotfl:

apple_muncher

We found silverfish (such a pretty name!) amongst my dad's belongings. But we'd approached it all wearing thick marigolds anyway, so were just able to get on with it.


Anxiety is so unpredictable, isn't it. Sorting out the kitchen does seem a top priority. Maybe if you did mention the critters to dh then he might spend less on himself for a wee while, and put more into the renovation pot? Just for the kitchen, mind. Wouldn't want to clip his wings too much...

greenbee

The anxiety about savings is perfectly normal (at least, it is for me - I moved mine into a couple of pensions and an ISA and I still miss them!).

In theory I'm saving for a kitchen, a back door, a front door and then to get the drive done. But I'm not sure I'll actually be able to bring myself to pay for them! Particularly given that the kitchen was plastered and the floor and ceiling done in Jan 2018, so it's actually not too bad. Just lacking any of the normal things you find in kitchens, like running water and a working cooker, and storage.

It's hard spending savings, but remember, you can save up again.

in_need_of_direction

i totally get where your head is re the money. We have bigger pots than we have ever had but I’m waiting to hear from a builder and a gardener (we need serious work). I’m currently spending more on groceries because there’s a lot less on ad hoc spends due to better planned meals but I’m constantly anxious. I would put this down to my self employment except I have more regular guaranteed income over the next 6 months than I have ever had. I know it doesn’t make sense but logic isn’t making it go away

f0xh0les

yay! It seems I am not the only basketcase in the MSE village! :j

Last day of the holidays today, and don't the kids know it. They are acting like complete muppets.

Last night was windy and rainy and I lay in my bed, able to read with the light on until 2am, listening to Kerrang radio, listening to the rain pounding on the front window and I was just so happy. Still am tbh, even with the kids being daft - well, 75% of them, the other 25% is still asleep. I wonder if other people think of their kids as percentages or if it is just an ' unusually large family' TM thing?

We have a strange and unusual phenomenon in my house, it is like the Bermuda triangle, only in Leicester, so not as tropical. Scones disappear into it. Oh well, it nearly swallowed two half full jars of m-i-l's jam too. Making more space in the pantry for bikes:rotfl:.

Tomorrow £300 goes off to the remaining kids' 5% savers accounts. £247 comes in in child benefit. I need to pay the credit card (sub £70). Next month should show a big decrease in the gas bill as the heat is off. The water is on 3 x day for 20 minutes each, which is enough to heat the tank and keep it hot all day and do a bath at bedtime. Will re-evaluate as the weather gets warmer.

I managed to get a sh0ckabs0rber running bra for £3.99, brand new, I was suspicious. I kept getting a £10 discount email from ebay if I paid via paypal, and I needed a larger one, until I can get back into my smaller one, so I gave it a whirl, and the code worked. My nasty suspicious nature radar was wrong! Bargain! Colour is awful, like a 1990's rave, but hey, who is going to see it?

Feeling like the last day of the holidays, but next weekend is the 3 day holiday and Wednesday is May the first already. So practically Summer.
****random question alert****
Has anyone been to Bletchley Park and would you recommend it? It is close enough to do a day trip, and I need to start putting in little one or two day fun things for DS1 to look forward to either before or after the exams.

There is also skydiving place I got an email thing from nearbyish. It was something like £25 for 2 x 2 minute flights or something reduced from £80, I thought it might appeal, plus there is stand up paddleboarding sessions 15 minutes up the road from us too. about £8 for an hour's session. So plenty of plans for when the weather is a little better.

Right, off to paint my toenails (as glam as it get 'round here) electric blue, and then I fear the washing up has my name on it. - Only the pots and bowls from last night's veg stew, so nothing major - and then I need to find DS3s passport, which was on the side in the kitchen and has fallen off and disappeared under something. :mad:

So, this girl has a plan!
Dh will come home at some point, probably totally knackered and wanting a hot bath, hot food, and his bed. Not necessarily in that order.

I might amuse myself by writing a list of what I can afford to have done to the house /replace furniturewise, with the money I currently have. See how many jobs I could theoretically knock off the list in one fell swoop.

But first, blue toes.