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.

sashybo

I'm finally back again, kept meaning to update and didn't get round to it. 

We got our new carpet put in at the start of the week, so the whole of the upstairs looks a lot better, it feels lovely and fluffy too as our old carpet was 11 years old and very battered. We did have to take £500 out of the emergency fund in the end to pay the remaining balance of the carpets but I think it was worth it.

It was very stressful and tiring moving everything out of the bedrooms and the job had to be done over two days. We had issues getting a carpet fitter as the one booked by the flooring shop called in sick on the first day. 😩 It took until 4pm before the shop could get another fitter to take the job. Then the vinyl we had picked for our en-suite floor arrived at the shop with a big rip down it and was the end of the roll so we had to choose another one. The shop were really good though and took £50 off our total so we only paid for the fitting of the vinyl.

We also had a lot of carpet left over as the fitter was very experienced and used the cut offs from other rooms to do the stairs. We've chucked the leftover rolls into the loft for now, there should be enough there to re-do the stairs in a few years.

I've also found a company to come and clean the couches and have booked them in. They're charging £90 which seems quite reasonable for 2 & 3 seater couches. I have the money saved from surveys plus the extra £50 that should have paid for our vinyl, so we had £60 leftover. DH has used that to buy a tin of paint for the living room as there quite a few knocks and scratches that need to be re-painted.

My car has been behaving itself so it looks like the correct part was replaced and fingers crossed it will keep behaving. We will need to try and put some extra money into the car fund as DH's timing belt will be due to be replaced early next year and it's pricey getting that done. We also have our services and MOT's around the same time of the year.

It's just all been money, money, money recently. Still horrified at how expensive food is and how prices seem to be rising every week.

DD had a nice birthday  and loved her presents although she was exhausted on the actual day as it was a Friday and she's always done in from a full week at school. She had a screaming tantrum and nearly got sent to her bed early without her birthday cake being done as she was being so wild. DS also joined in and had a tantrum so that was lovely. 🤨 

I have bought both kids' main Christmas presents already as there were some good money off offers on them. Glad that we have a separate Christmas fund so that I can take advantage of offers. Trying not to buy them too much as they already have loads, every year I keep trying to whittle it down and they have never noticed. Luckily they're not teenagers wanting specific brands or expensive electronics yet.

Our break to the Lake District was stressful - again there were constant tantrums from the kids and DH was in a depression saying it was a waste of time and that he's obviously a terrible dad because why else are they like this. 🤦‍♀️ The place we were staying was lovely and was near quite a few places so we had a couple of days out despite the tantrums. I'd quite like to go back alone to enjoy it without my whole family having tantrums. 😂 

Have managed to make a few overpayments to the 0% credit card which has my car loan on it now and it's below £5k now which is great. If we can keep this up it will be paid off before the 0% deal ends in 14 months.

jwil

It gets easier as they get older though they grow out of the tantrums and just get sulks and attitude instead   And that's including the OHs.  Definitely go alone  

Glad the carpets are all ok in the end.

sashybo

Jwil, we're already starting to get a bit of attitude from DS, whenever we ask or tell him to do something his response is now "Why?" 🙄 He's discovered he can say no and argue back! He's always been a pretty good boy and just done what he's told so it's a bit disconcerting. 😂 DD has been a wildcat since she turned 3 so I'm dreading her teenage years. 😩 

Today I'm waiting on a roofer coming to fix our verge tiles - quite a few are missing due to the really high winds months ago that destroyed our garden bar. We've not been able to get a roofer to come out as it's a relatively small job - still going to cost £320 though! With winter coming and likely high winds, plus our house being on a corner at the top of a hill, there will just be more and more damage if it doesn't get fixed now. Hoping he actually turns up.

Kids were arguing all weekend which was challenging and DH was working so I was dealing with them most of the time. They went to school happy today although DD refused to wear her winter coat as she hates the colour! She wanted to wear her fake fur jacket 😂 I let her as it's dry today so why not but did say she'll have to wear her winter coat when it rains.

I did 30 mins of strength training after school drop off - legs today so I'm going to be sore - and 10 mins of core work. I'm still trying to rebuild my core to help with my prolapse and stress incontinence. Hoping to get out for a run tomorrow after drop off, I've been struggling to even get out once a week for a run. When I do go out I'm usually doing about 6km so hopefully I can be more consistent and build up the distance a bit. I'm aiming to do 3 strength sessions a week, short core workouts most days, yoga twice a week and run once a week. In addition to this I'm trying to get a minimum 10k steps which I manage fine when walking to school and back twice a day but find it harder when I'm working or at weekends, usually I manage about 7 or 8k on those days.

This week I'm also going back to the vein clinic as my right leg is sore again where my worst varicose vein was. I'm not sure if I need more foam injections or what is going on. Getting an ultrasound anyway so the Dr can advise which has cost £100 and if I need more injections I'll need to pay another £260. I've been saving some money towards this as I thought I might need more foam but hoping I won't need to go back more than once.

Hoping to get the spare room wardrobe emptied out and organised today. We got rid of a lot of stuff that was stored under our bed and I'd like to get most of what's left into the spare room wardrobe if possible. I also need to store the kids' Christmas presents in there so want them to be easy to get to but not visible!