Adventures of the Boy & Me..

Chandelier.

Morning.

Yesterday total spends: £4 in car parking for training course. Car parking charges here are ridiculous. I'm at the same site today for yet another training course but will see if I can somehow get out of it.

I've to drop the boy off at his nanny's this morning who will drop him at school (saved me breakfast club fees) and then I'm straight off for training. Following training I'm then heading straight to work until 6pm. I have a meeting with someone today- the same person from last week. I'm not looking forward to this. However I've coping mechanisms in place to try and handle this.

I'm working a 10.5 hour day tomorrow and then a 13.5 hour day Friday. I'm exhausted from these hours but not much else I can do. I've been put forward for yet more courses and I'm agreeing to do them in hope that it gives me good stead for the future.

My plan for the future was to work 16-22.5 hours part time through bank work. A big drop in wages however it will be more beneficial for my health. I'll work something out in regards to the budget but somethings got to give right? My health is more precious/important then money.

Things to do today:-
- Make mine and boys packed lunch.
- Post the boys letter to penpal.
- Attend meeting, get it over and done with.
- Remain positive and upbeat.
- Sort out Fridays childcare.

I need to tally up my NSD. I've had quite a couple since beginning of the month. But I've kind of lost track of counting due to other things on my mind.

Happy Wednesday everyone.

Hiddenidenity

Your health is definitely more important and finding the right balance is definitely the way forward.

Have a nice day

Chandelier.

Morning.

Yesterday the meeting went as well as it could. It was nothing massively important, just more to do with a previous absence from work (hospitalised with a kidney infection that I'd had for three weeks). I just grinned and beared it as best as I could and didn't work myself up too much.

I also attended a course which was pretty interesting. However I had to pay car parking which was £5.50 . I honestly wonder why they charge so high but I couldn't find a free parking space closer to the venue. I'm not there for another while now so do not have to worry about that.

The boy posted his letter to his new penpal. I found a book of second class stamps lying around in the house so didn't have to fork out for new ones. They are so expensive these days.

The boy is off school today as his school is being used as a polling station. He's gone to his great grandparents. I just need to sort out childcare for in the morning. It may just be easier for the boy to stay at his nanny's again rather then me keep driving back and forth. His nanny (his dad's side) is very supportive and helps out alot, I'd be lost without her support. My own mum helps out alot too where she can. Without them, I'd really struggle.

I have no planned spends for today. Once I'm home I think I shall have an early night. My body is exhausted and I know it's going to be a busy day at work.

So there isn't much else to say really. My bank account is still looking healthy and all my outgoings have gone out bar two for this month.

Happy Thursday everyone

Hiddenidenity

Have a lovely day x make sure you take some time to rest and catch up on sleep x

Chandelier.

Morning.

I had quite a good day yesterday. Work is going well and I'm receiving praise from those senior around me. I'm also feeling more confident in my own abilities and this is evident through my performance. It's as if a kick up the bum last week has boosted me into action and making me prove to myself and others that I can do what is expected of me.

Yesterday was a pretty low spend day-£1.73 on a sandwich at work for lunch. Today I will ensure I take something with me as a lot of the time I forget as I usually rush out the door.

I've made a small overpayment of £20 to my MBNA card from an account which I sweep any excess pennies/pounds into (I round all accounts to nearest zero lol).That means my debt total is now £5980. It's going down woohoo :rotfl:

On the job front the person I'm working under says they have a plan for me once my fixed term contract is finished but nothing is set in stone. I'm just hoping with all I've got that it works out for me. It may still be full time hours but I may enquire about this and see if can reduce to 30 hours if possible.

I won't finish work until 9pm today. So I need to pull my finger out and start getting myself sorted for the day ahead.

My spirits are up and I'm feeling brighter and chirpier since the beginning of week. I hope this continues.

I'm also glad it's the weekend. Tomorrow I'm going on a night out with people from work which should be interesting. I was debating whether to go or not but I think I will. It will do me good to get out there and socialise.

Happy Friday everyone

Chandelier.

Morning.

I had such a busy day yesterday that I'm paying for it today, my legs are aching so much.

When I got home I discovered I had some post, one of which was a fine of £60 as I'd taken the boy on holiday during term time. I've just paid that fine this morning so I no longer need to worry about that.

I've also phoned tax credits and confirmed everything I needed to for them. They said it was auto renewal so hopefully that will go through over the next couple of weeks and fingers crossed I do recieve the overpayment they've predicted.

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I've just been looking around my credit score reports (I'm aware they mean nothing) and looked at my debt ratio to available credit balances.

I have around £19600 available on credit cards but have only £5980.00 used to date. I worked it out that I'm using approximately 30% of credit available to me. I'm going to use that figure as a goal to get it as low as possible until my debt free date. So e.g. it may go down to 29% used of total credit card limits next month and so on until it becomes 0%.

For now I shall leave the credit cards as they are and will look at closing a few at a later date. Each credit card had its uses (0% purchases, money transfers, balance transfers etc) and as mentioned up thread, only two have balances now.

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It's looking wet and a bit windy today. I think I may do some baking with the boy and stay inside. I'm going to a works night out tonight which most of it has been paid for, I just owe one of the managers my contribution of a £5 and then whatever it will cost for drinks and transport home. I can't drink alcohol on the medications I'm on and plus I'm not a big drinker anyway so it will be a pretty MSE night lol.

Hope everyone has a nice Saturday

Hiddenidenity

Have a lovely day

Boo to the fine but the holiday was def worth it

Chandelier.

Morning!

So yesterday went as well as it could. The boy and I baked some gingerbread men from an old recipe book we had. We followed it by the book but it didn't seem that gingery? Maybe next time I need to add more or find a better full proof recipe. Anyone have one? Haha.

I then had a quick nap in the afternoon as I was exhausted and then got ready for the night out.

Now I said I wouldn't drink due to not being a big drinker/medication I'm on. However I thought I'd have a few and didn't suffer any side effects. I think in total I had two cocktails, one double vodka and three single vodkas and it didn't even touch me. I wasn't even close to merry if I'm honest. So there were a few spends but nothing overly extravagant. I know many people who can easily blow £100 on a night out and it was my first night out in nearly a year. Also a random man bought 7 of us a round of drinks, how kind. However he then processed to try and dance and grind up against us and he wasn't very pleasant smelling after lots of dancing. I bit my tongue and we slowly slipped away when he wasn't looking :rotfl:. Bless him. I think from the look of it he had a great night out.

We went for a sit down meal to a cabaret bar. The show wasn't really my thing but the people I was with really made the night out good.

My spends as follows:

- £5 to manager that I owed.
- £10 for two cocktails (yum).
- £8.60 for round of drinks.
- £8.60 for taxi home.

Total spend: £32.20.

That isn't too bad overall I don't think. It was worth it for the boost to my self esteem and building relationships with people I work with outside of the work environment. I also met one of my friends whom I met at a group CBT I attended for Bipolar. He's an absolutely lovely guy and tried to persuade me to stay out but once the clock struck midnight Cinderella had to leave the ball .

Today I do not forsee any spends. I need to total up my NSD so far this month. I'm becoming quite lazy at this.

It's my birthday next Saturday so I'm planning on going for a meal with close family to a local Italian. I need to book that this week and not leave it until last minute.

The week ahead looks rather busy. Its as follows.

Monday- 13.5 hours work.
Tuesday- 7.5 hours work.
Wednesday- Training.
Thursday- 10 hours work.
Friday- Day off, however having investigations done at hospital in relation to recent hospital admission.
Saturday- Day off, birthday celebrations.
Sunday- 7.5 hours work.

So busy busy, maybe I can rack up some more NSD this week ahead. I'll also probably see my CPN at some point during this or the support worker I've been newly allocated.

I've nothing planned in regards to debt repayments for the next week unless I get another random urge. I just need to sort out the times for the boy's ice skating lessons as the the rink will have limited ice time for the upcoming month due to people practicing for a show. I may also meet up with friend from bipolar group for a proper catch up on Wednesday.

Right now I have the urge to sort through all the freezers in the house. We have three freezers altogether (don't ask!) but all are full so I should really do a stock/inventory check and use up what is in there. Every so often I do this and create meal plans.

I'm wanting to start SW at home and will use old books I already have. I put on a stone since my holidays and need to shift this. The side effects from my medication is weight gain so I'm going to do my best to try and lose weight instead and choose healthier options. I also want to get back into the gym I'm paying for. I'm so unfit at the moment.

When I get into this mode I start becoming obsessed with organisation and portioning food into containers. It makes me feel somewhat better about myself and easier to grab and go. I then sometimes get an urge to batch cook meals and freeze them.

I'm funny in my own little ways.

I best get a move on whilst this outburst lasts. :rotfl:

Chandelier.

So I've done a dull stock/inventory take with the freezers and then I've organised each one so we now know where to find everything .

Garage freezer
- Ice creams/desserts.
- Frozen vegetables.
- Homemade soups.

Porch freezer
- Homemade meals.
- Fish/quick meals to go food.
- Potato stuffs.

Kitchen freezer
- Bread.
- Meat.
- Meat.

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In doing this I discovered we have around 14 portions of soup, all different varieties lol :rotfl:. We best get eating them!

I also made up another batch of vegetable soup using odds and sods of leftover vegetables (before I counted how many portions we had) and that's gone straight into the freezer and all stock rotated. As I'm on a mission to lose some weight, I'll take some soups to work with me. They're easy enough to ping into a microwave and easy on the go foods. At least they're home made .

We also nipped out to the shops. I spent £6 on some drinks for work which sounds alot but I've been guilty a few times of using the vending machine for a drink when I need an ice cold drink so overall in the long run it will save some pennies.

I'm about to make a meal plan for the week ahead using what we have in the freezers. This maybe a mixture of using up bits and bobs to get rid of things/to dwindle down some supplies. Once we start to get low we can start afresh, defrost freezers and do a proper shop and stock back up again. We used to do weekly shops but recently it's been odd shops here and there as we always have something in.

Next target on my list is the fridge! We only have one of these thank god and it's an under the counter one :rotfl:

Hiddenidenity

I love knowing whats exactly in So you're not alone.

It also means 99% of the house is always organised. I love the feeling of going to bed knowing everything is in its place and on my list