Everything is possible if you try!

Willowtree222

It's good he seems ok with what you're doing already xx

117pauline

Hi T&K

Thought I would pop in to see how you are doing.

Hope the meeting went well
Take care
Pauline

EssexHebridean

Hope everything is OK T&K and you're settling into the new role well!

117pauline

Hi Tea & Kittens

How are you doing?

Bit worried you haven't been around. Hope all is well

Take care
Pauline

Tea&Kittens

Hi all, thanks for checking in!
I've been struggling a bit with a couple of things. Not the best time MH-wise, what with the new job, and the change in medication last month. New medication doesn't feel like it's helping. I feel like an emotional time bomb. Anything random, at any time, seems to be able to elicit uncontrollable crying. Seeing GP on Thurs for a review. Money tracking has fallen by the wayside a bit. Not horrendously off the rails, but a bit of a warning for me. I guess it's a good thing that I'm thinking this now rather than waiting for the wheels to completely come off.
My brain just feels so full of everything at the moment, that the effort required to continually upkeep records seems like pulling the stick out of ker-plunk that's going to make all my marbles fall out!
Kitty and I had our London trip at the weekend, had an amazing time We packed up some food for the train journey and lunch, so we only really had to buy something to eat in the evening. This worked well. Great exhibitions in the Tate Modern, also purchased a book for my brother for christmas (it was £5 if purchased from the gallery) as it's relevant to his interests.
I kind of forgot that way back in August, before I came to my spending-senses I had backed a game on Kickstarter to the tune of £65 ...so that disappeared out of my account ... eeeek!
Also, Kitty's dad is a bit late with maintenance payments, so feeling rather short of readies right now.
Work have given me a long-term hire car (as the grade I'm now on automatically qualifies for a car but they take aaaaages to sort out), so I'm going to clean and valet my car , and hopefully I should get about £1000 for it, which will cancel out recent monetary misdemeanours and pay off a bit more on one of the cards.

Target for (rest of) November: Get back on track with recording stuff!

Tea&Kittens

Just made myself go through bank stuff and write down everything from this month. Proves that unless I log everything down, I'm completely unaware of how much I'm spending. Account is around £200 down on where I thought I was....
How do people have enough mental energy to be so vigilant about everything?? I have too many brain weasels for this!
I'm not by any means giving up on it, but hellfire, by the time I've been to work, sorted dinner, made sure there's at least something clean for us to wear I'm completely braindead. The house is a tip and I hate it being like that but I just don't have the necessary vigour required me to do anything about it. It feels like constant ongoing thankless drudgery.

EssexHebridean

It gets easier over time - I promise. There is a point where all the financial stuff goes from being something that needs constant vigilance to something that just happens with just the occasional guiding hand to keep it on the rails. At that stage you've learned enough that you almost instinctively know when things aren't right, and pick up really quickly on spending habits beginning to go off track. It's one massive advantage of doing everything on paper though - the way you engage with it - doing the calculations yourself etc - really helps you to learn your way around your own finances really quickly.

Glad to hear London was so good, and well done on picking up the warning signs of the MH stuff before it takes a full hold too - that again is one of those things that's incredibly valuable to be able to do isn't it.

Willowtree222

I agree, it sort of gets more ingrained in you and things become habit and more automatic.


Be kind on yourself though, mental health in itself is hard to deal with never mind a new job, managing money etc x

117pauline

Hi Tea & Kittens

Am I glad to see you!

London sounds as though it was fabulous. I bet Kittens had a better time with you than with school. And that's why you are doing this, to make it better for the two of you. Debt busting can be really time consuming as well as pretty boring. However think of the joy when the debt has gone.

As EH and Nicnak say, it will become habit eventually but it takes a while to replace the bad ones. Then it will become just a part of your routine.

You are trying to cope with a new job, longer commute, new budget so there is a lot of change going on. Hopefully the doctor will help on Thursday and offer some constructive suggestions for you.

Can you try to menu plan so you have some nice easy and quick meals on hand? My winter menu plan is doing well and now I have a list of ideas, it's quick to write my list. Getting out of the house is another story.

And brain weasels? Love the term. I now have a picture of several running amok, all round my body

Hope the week gets better, take care honey
Pauline

System

T&k as already said it takes time to get into the mindset of budgets, writing it down etc. I have been doing it since January but still find I have blips .

Don't be hard on yourself as Pauline says you are getting used to a new regime with work etc , nobody died from an untidy house .

The London trip sounded like a big success and quality time spent with DD .

Hope you get sorted on Thursday .

Cumbria.