Drawing a line under the debt. Take two.

Drawingaline

So the boy has turned 17 and had his first driving lesson. I have decided to go for a bulk buy of less hours so only £150 a month for 5 months. He has two more in August and then we will probably book his theory in and get that out of the way.

School finally ended, it seemed to go on forever! And the heat 🥵 I am taking on extra work over August, and not taking the second week off I normally take which is making me feel sorry for the little two. Atm I have a list of dates showing what time I finish and a list of places we would like to go and times they shut. There are a few country park type places open late so we can do them late afternoon, and they will probably be quieter too. But some of the attractions they have asked to go to will have to be weekends, and then they will be rammed and they will be less likely to cope. Annoying. 

This month has been a killer financially, much like last month, I have got some bits for the girl to take to uni, am going to see if grandparents will be able to help out a bit with it. My in laws have bought and moved to a new property, further away again, but their move last summer has not worked out and they will be happier where they are now. Hoping to be able to go up next month sometime. 

Scotland trip on track, but literally have no money set aside for it. Will have to credit card it and then bt it to a zero deal (which won't be an issue) and pay it off over a few months. But so annoying as we worked so hard to become debt free. Can't wait for some of the financial commitments to ease.

savingholmes

Sorry it's rough balancing the books at the moment. I hope you manage to replace the lost income soon.

Well done to DS on starting to learn to drive. A vey important skill.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hi @Drawingaline and congrats to have made it to end of the school year. As a fellow parent I feel that is a victory of sorts! 

I have no helpful advice and actually feeling financial pain myself but have opted to 'close my eyes' and 'head in the sand' until September, and just enjoy the summer with the troops., which I will admit is not sound advice for MSE and for finances but this year finally feels a bit more of the back to pre covid normal so going to go with the flow a bit. Admittedly I am normally a tight wad, this is def not me and I am sure come Sept I will wish I was more tight !

Scotland trip sounds awesome, are you travelling around or just heading to one place? My mum wants to do the route 500 but she has elderly dogs so won't be doing it this year. I'd like to take the troops on the Harry Potter train but they haven't quite reached the 'Harry' stage just yet. 

Good luck to your son on his driving lessons, a great skill to have

Drawingaline

Queen_of_the_Hive said:

Hi @Drawingaline and congrats to have made it to end of the school year. As a fellow parent I feel that is a victory of sorts! 

I have no helpful advice and actually feeling financial pain myself but have opted to 'close my eyes' and 'head in the sand' until September, and just enjoy the summer with the troops., which I will admit is not sound advice for MSE and for finances but this year finally feels a bit more of the back to pre covid normal so going to go with the flow a bit. Admittedly I am normally a tight wad, this is def not me and I am sure come Sept I will wish I was more tight !

Scotland trip sounds awesome, are you travelling around or just heading to one place? My mum wants to do the route 500 but she has elderly dogs so won't be doing it this year. I'd like to take the troops on the Harry Potter train but they haven't quite reached the 'Harry' stage just yet. 

Good luck to your son on his driving lessons, a great skill to have

I think I am possibly going to be a bit the same this summer. But then I look at what I want to do around the house and my heart sinks. 

We are off to one of the inner hebridian islands. I have a friend up there and my daughter and her son get on really well so have been a few time. This time may be the last though they are 18&17 now so can sort meeting up themselves if they want! So I normally fill up with petrol just before we get on the ferry, then that gets us to the island and around the island and we fill up again when we get off the ferry on the way back. So while we do some travelling sound the island most things are free and don't take much fuel. I love it up there and as long as the rain holds off (yea, right!) We can do pretty kuchen anything. There is the most amazing beach so will spend time there, and the whole place is just gorgeous. Looking forward to it.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Morning @Drawingaline, your Scottish holiday sounds wonderful. I would LOVE to visit Shetland, my OH is a city boy so it would have to be with other like minded country lovers. 

You will get there with your home I don't know if this helps but when i've gone down a rabbit hole and overthought stuff I've looked back on where I was 12 /24 months ago and tried to remind myself things have gradually improved. Maybe not a quick as I'd like but still. Hope you have a good week. 

Drawingaline

My hubby dislikes Scotland and has no wish to go. Its a shame as I would love to spend a couple of weeks up there touring around. One day.

savingholmes

DAL - there's an article today that says tourists banned from 23 Scottish islands - worth investigating...

savingholmes

It's due to bird flu

Drawingaline

It's uninhabited Islands that run boat trips. We went to one back in 2018. But it looks like we will be OK to visit where we are going.

savingholmes

Fab - I was concerned for you