Sashybo - Back Again

jwil

Belated happy birthday and hope you have a lovely time with DH.

sashybo

Hi all, have been MIA again.

Lots going on as ever, kids are back at school and both seem happy in their classes. DS is now using a special online program at school that helps kids who are struggling with reading and spelling and his reading seems to be improving a bit. The teacher has given us his login so he can do a bit more at home, each exercise is only 5 mins long so we're hoping to do at least one most days.

DD's behaviour is still so-so, she was really good for a while then had a nightmare week when she had several screaming meltdowns. She's still good at school though, the horrible behaviour is just with us. She is still waking me up most nights although we did have 4 nights in a row where she slept through.

I can't remember if I mentioned that we were thinking of moving the smaller car loan over to my CC with a 0% cash transfer, we did that anyway. It gives us a bit more flexibility, for now we're paying £200 pm off the card plus any extra income from selling things/surveys. We have also paid off all of the previous cash transfer for the wills and POA's so that's one less thing to worry about.

Finally got around to getting prices and measurements done for new carpet for all of the bedrooms, the upstairs hall, the stairs and new vinyl for our small en-suite. Including removal & disposal of the old carpet, new underlay, carpet and vinyl it's costing us £2550. 😦  A lot of money but it seems reasonable compared to other places and is a local company with a good reputation. We need to get it done over 2 days so that we have time to shuffle all the bedroom contents around. I'm looking forward to getting new carpet but dreading moving all of our stuff around. 😩

sashybo

Have been having some issues with my car as it was jamming and either getting stuck in first gear or unable to go into any gear except reverse. Only happened twice but was quite worrying so we got it booked into the garage, our usual garage had a 3 week wait but managed to get into another with a week's wait. So have had a part replaced but they can't guarantee it will fix it as the fault wasn't happening at the time! Cost £330 so I really hope it's fixed. Thankfully we had the money saved in our car account to pay for it.

Have had a couple of lunches out with DH recently and both times have ended up with terrible stomach ache and cramps. My body can't seem to cope with eating out as well as having a couple of alcoholic drinks and coffee. When I eat out with friends I don't drink alcohol or coffee and never get the stomach pains. I'm unsure whether it's the alcohol, the coffee or both combined with eating out that's causing it. It's not like we're binge drinking, I'm talking about 2 or 3 drinks. I've never had this reaction before but it's really rubbish as it ruins our days out and we don't generally get time away from the kids on our own. Next time we go out I'm going to cut out the coffee and see if that helps.

Also having a stressful time at work trying to sort out days off and annual leave. Our rostering has been centralised and the new team don't make any effort to get cover so we can have our days off. Both DH & I get set annual leave and if we can't swap dates to match then I use my lieu leave so we can at least get time off together with the kids.

If I can't get these days and can't swap my annual leave weeks then we'll never have time off together and can't go on holiday. It's really awful and I'm at the point where I'm just going to have to tell work I won't be in regardless of whether the leave is granted or not. They say lieu leave is not confirmed until the week before which is no use when we have to plan holidays months in advance so we can budget for them (like most people!).

I applied for 2 days off at the end of the October week in February and now I'm worried I'm not going to get them - we're going to the Lake District so I won't be there! We're also booked to go down South next April and again if I can't swap annual leave I'll need lieu leave. The annual leave system is archaic and really opaque so no one knows what's going on, the new team we have obviously couldn't care less about helping us get leave and stick very rigidly to the "rules". My job role also has less people trained in it so there is less coverage for me to get time off as well. Very annoying.

beanielou

The getting annual leave sounds a total nightmare. 

jwil

That sounds like a ridiculous system for annual leave!

I bought my car with a 0% money transfer (or two of them!) so that I could have that flexibility to overpay and send over little extras. 

sashybo

Thanks both, yes it's a very old fashioned way of dealing with the annual leave and really needs to be updated. Panic over (for now) as I am getting the 2 lieu days I need for the upcoming break. Heading off in 12 days time for 4 nights in the Lake District and think we all need the break.

Jwil, our 0% cash transfer which we used to pay off the smaller car loan runs out in January 2027, I'm being very ambitious and hoping to have it paid off by then. I'm not sure it's doable with all of the other things we need to save for and the rising price of everything. 

Just finished a run of 3 early shifts so am feeling very tired, I can't sleep properly on early shifts and end up getting around 6 hours of sleep a night if I'm lucky. This is also usually interrupted by DD at some random time like 2am so I'm like a zombie after 3 shifts. I was going to go for a run after school drop off but couldn't face it so will try again tomorrow.

Have hoovered upstairs and then the couches plus cleaned the bathrooms and have done a few washings so the house is looking a bit better now. Hoping to get my couches cleaned professionally at some point in the next month or so but unsure how much it's likely to cost and where to go. There are so many different companies and don't know anyone who has used one to get a recommendation. Depends on whether we can put any money aside but I really need to get recommendations and then can get some quotes I suppose.

Also managed a few surveys so the money can go towards the new carpets - we have paid half the cost (not including removal & disposal) which was most of what we had saved for it. We currently have £200 towards the rest so still need to find roughly £1200, once that has been paid for we need to start saving towards our next UK holiday after the Lake District (that one is all paid for plus spending money put aside). I think we already have around £200 saved towards that.

DH back to work today for his next round of shifts so doing school pick up on my own and also have to get DD out to rainbows and back later. She joined last month and has really been enjoying it, it costs £55 per term so it could be worse, some kids activities are wild prices. DS is still refusing to join any sort of club so only goes to his swimming lessons, both kids have moved up a level in swimming so it's good to see progress with that. That costs £52 p/m for both kids which is very reasonable.