And so it begins: The Pig Vs The Mortgage

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, lots of progress there PP! Loving reading about your self-care routine, and googling make up tips too - do you know it never occurred to me to do that! I've been feeling and looking rather haggard myself lately (a combination of only a temporary kitchen so barely any cooking, lack of exercise, not enough sleep, too much running around) and could well do with a better self-care routine all round! Shall do some investigating... 

Mrs_Money_Penny

Hi Pinky How are you doing? Miss you. Take care xx

pinkypig

Hello 😀

Sneaking back in looking and feeling very guilty of negligence - my poor diary🙄. No excuses just got out of the way of doing it and now really wish I hadn’t.  Will try and rectify that going forward!

What a truly bizarre and unsettling times we are living through - I’m not sure how I’ve coped with lockdown - sometimes well sometimes terribly.  So much to get your head around, I find it overwhelming at times.  In a nutshell;

Challenges

My mum, having recently lost dad it’s been so hard for her and we miss her.  We got her in FaceTime, bought her a straightforward tablet and went and waved through the window every day when our exercising but it has been great to have a relaxation of the rules recently.

Not seeing OH for months 😢. We live a two centred life and we’re making it work but lockdown put an end to that.  I missed him so much but we spoke a couple of times a day, FaceTimed and formed a bubble as soon as we could.  Made us think about the future - feel so grateful to have re-found each other and we are looking forward to a future together 🥰

The kid’s have both been furloughed and seeing them upset and stressed was just awful.  I’ve helped where I can and gently reminded that their way of life was in anticipation of something like this ( never believed it would be this extreme though) and that they have no debts, no essential outgoings and in DD’s case a nice savings buffer.  DS has learned a hard lesson regarding emergency funds but he does seem to have learned it.  DD is back at work now and DS works some weeks but is furloughed others.  I’m hoping beyond hope that he gets to finish his apprenticeship.

Vulnerable families at school losing their battles with life and a number of kids ending up in care😢. I’m fit and well so I volunteered at the hub school and had a ringside seat - heartbreaking 😢

Loneliness- I know that this is a day to day reality for a lot of folk and I will never, ever take my time with family, friends and OH for granted ever again.

A bit of a financial jolt as both my tenants went into rent arrears.  One has now caught up but the other hasn’t.  It’s a chunk of my income but thank goodness I’ve always budgeted on my salary alone .  Rents (once tax is put away) has always been split between a maintenance fund and the remainder going towards mortgage overpayments so our day to day finances have bumped along ok.

My pension fund from my previous job ( about half of my future pension income) has been decimated 😱🤢.  I’ve got nine years to go so hopefully this  will get back to where it was,

Gratitudes 

Family and friends, including the vulnerable ones are safe and well and I am eternally grateful for that.

OH - just love him.  Always knew he was a keeper 😍

My health - I’ve never given this that much thought before as I’m lucky enough to be in good health with no underlying conditions. I’ll never take it for granted again though and it has strengthened my resolve to keep myself fit and healthy.

Being surrounded by those you love and who love you.  Feel reconnected to my family, especially my nieces and nephews - we’ve had some great laughs in Zoom.  The best one was our get together to toast dad on his anniversary.  We were all sozzled by the end of the night and had such a laugh at memories we had of him.  He’d have loved it 😄

Job security - as a teacher I have some and although I moan about work sometimes I am so grateful that OH and I are both in secure employment.  The stories around the economy and job losses is truly grounding.  I feel so lucky to have my job and to be in a position to help the kids out if they need it.

Financial security- like many on here I knew that the planning, the goals, the making do was the right way to go and my goodness we were right .  Never have I been so glad of my emergency fund, my shrunken mortgage and my now ingrained thrifty ways.  Thank you MSE 😇

So many updates but feel I’ve rambled long enough!  I’m going to mull over my categories of physical health, mental health and financial health and do some updates.  From there I’ll move on to some goals.  I’m on summer holidays now and have taken a few days to decompress after a strange and challenging term but I now feel refreshed and ready to refocus.

I truly hope that you are all safe and well and that the experience hasn’t been too horrific for you and if it has then I hope that your bearing up ok.

Take care 😘

PPx

Hazelnutty

Pinky! How lovely to hear from you  

Mrs_Money_Penny

So glad your back. x

Karmacat

PP, what a gorgeous post!  And in spite of having gone through all sorts of extremes of the lockdown, including volunteering and being separated from your OH, how happy you sound!  Lovely.

Baileys_Babe

Glad your back @pinkypig

Cheery_Daff

PP! Welcome back!! How utterly spiffing to see you So glad you're ok, in spite of difficult times. Oh those poor kids in your school, how unutterably sad I hope they find good and stable families. And gosh, it must have been difficult to not see OH for so long. 

Glad you've had a bit of time to decompress. Looking forward to reading all about your goals! 

rtandon27

Welcome back PP - so good to 'see' you!

PurpleFairy26

Lovely to hear all your news.