Earthgirl's Final Battle

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Thinking of you all x

earthgirl

Thank you so much for all the well wishes. This has been a week of literally running from one stressful/emotional/difficult thing to the next. FIL funeral was Tuesday so whilst that was very emotional and difficult it was a very good service and send off. A very large funeral and a lot of people to stay here which was stressful but we coped. Just!

Children went to Funeral so a lot of emotion for them but I think they are healing a bit now.

Had loads of housework to do changing beds washing and just normal keeping in top of things. A few stressful events at work but I was able to deal with them.

Then it was ds2s birthday and birthday party yesterday. It went quite well, just had a few friends to the house as he'd had a joint party with ds1 earlier in the month.

Finally ds2 was asked to play up a year at football today for 8 matches. Was concerned it would be hard for him but he took on much bigger boys with no fear and no tears. Phew!!

Hosting a few friends tonight (but I'm going to have to go to bed early with a headache, I exhausted!) and hosting a couple of family members tomorrow too.

Next week I really need to slow down. Even though this week has been hard I've kept up with housework, eating and exercise mostly. I've spent £72 on things to cheer up us - we all got to choose one thing to do to look forward to, it really worked to help distract the children from their grief- farm park trip next week, coco pops, kfc today, reflexology for oh).

earthgirl

Also forgot to mention I've started a better weekend routine, making a packed lunch on Friday, and going out for the day 11-4 on a Saturday to make sure we do things. Sunday morning is football matches after which the kids are tired, so then they can have a friend to play, do craft /science/play a game etc. It's a better use of their energy on a Saturday and means it doesn't get to Sunday night and we haven't really done anything. I've planned 3 local days out with a different library trip to start, indoor picnic spots if it's raining and a different pool I n the afternoon.each day costs £5. The 4th weekend we might go a bit further/ do a cheap city/museum/ aquarium trip etc.with a budget of £10.

I'm thinking of getting a science centre pass for Xmas for us from my parents.

After a bit more activity on Saturdays it'll be nice to relax a bit more on Sunday afternoons but I'll need to make sure I spend time me with them to get them interested in craft /science or whatever so that it doesn't end up being boring or just watching tv etc.

Anyway enough rambling!

My weekend plans should be quite cheap and my meal plans are turning out to be pretty cheap too despite first appearances. I was not happy with shopping coming in at £62-£65 per week, but I've decided to have a top up shop only week on week 4. This is to use up all the random things that don't get eaten for whatever reason. This week the shopping bill was £35, so I've spent approx £220 over 4 weeks. It would be great to shave £5 off each week and get it for just over £200 for 4 weeks - that's my target for the next month £58 per week week 1-3 and £30 week 4.

I have done some extra tutoring (would like to improve dnd expand this) work on ohs business (looking dismal at the moment) and started planning a cheap Xmas. I've almost finished my banking switch around (has taken forever never again) and things are looking more positive in general.

Time to rein in the spends and get the savings for travel back on track.

earthgirl

So I have had a successful few days on the whole.

Things are slowly getting back to normal at home, everybody seems a little bit happier every day. I have changed my morning exerciuse to getting up and out into the woods, in the veg patch or on the beach (before it gets too dark anyway).

It just grates on me that I struggle to do the outside things and yet I'm too sedentry and need to make myself exercise every day. Surely if I do my outside jobs quickly (plus a couple of sessions of toning problem areas) the outcome will be better all round?

Anyway I was much happier to jump out of bed this morning to put on my waterproofs and collect kindling. I'm also going to collect seaweed for my veg patch, do some gardening, collect shell fragments for the hens, and stones for the areas we need re-stoning, kindling and logs.

I'm also being much more frugal, helped by my spending diary. I'm working on reducing spends on everything, especially groceries and 'entertaining the kids. I'm also sticking to my not spending on clothes and shoes ban.

MSE things to do:
Work out monthly budget and how much savings this is providing to travel fund - aiming for savings of £400/month
Look for areas to cut
Look at uping income - one idea in particular for this - add to daily routine.
Focus on reducing electricity
My phone bill has been higher this month due to using more minutes - look at reducing this or change sim etc
look at our upcoming London trip to reduce spending when there
plan birthday presents and source what is needed cheaply / make
plan xmas presents and source what is needed cheaply / make


In good news, I'm restarting with a tutee next week and she is very reliable so that should be an extra £25 in every week. I need to make sure I'm good so some time spent improving my resources would be well spent.

Karmacat

I love the idea of collecting seaweed to help fertilise the garden, how lovely that you're able to do that regularly!

earthgirl

Did it this morning Karma, its such a great way to multi task (exercise, money saving and great for my mental health too to be getting out more)!

So I have played with my budget a little and we are tight if OH can't make enough money to pay for the things he normally pays for
-his car bills, petrol etc
- oil heating
- his golf membership and equipment
- his social spends
-his phone
-his clothes

So the work I do on his business is important as this adds up to about £7000 a year.

In my household budget
- I am going to save £100/month towards moving if needed for school catchement areas.
- im going to continue to save £400 /month for travel

This means we can afford:
£50 month food
£50 month eating out/social
£50 month wine
£200 year birthdays
0 clothes
£80 kids clothes per year
£350 christmas (£170 is a meal out).

If I can make £13 extra per month surveys/extra income this budget will balance. Any extra I can make will help obviously!

earthgirl

Still really enjoying getting up and doing some quick outside task or other, A couple of days now I've hauled up seaweed to cover one of my veg patches.

All going well generally, working on kids getting on with the thingd they need to do (homework being the big bug bear) without me having to nag them. I need more support from OH on this as he just leaves it to me and I lost my temper last night. I very rarely lose my temper so this 'pain point' is on the cards to be sorted today.

On the flip side, I'd also like the kids to do just normal creative play a little more.

earthgirl

All going well just no time to keep this diary up to date, so I'll have to make time!

Kids parents night went really well and both happy and progressing well. OH bought them a book from the book fayre and I bought them a spelling app that in hindsight I didn't have to buy - I was having a problem with the free version and upgraded only 99p but I feel like we are totally out of the habit of saying no to things, or researching the cheaper option etc.

So I'm going to do a spending freeze for a week. Nothing but a few essential groceries and a donation to food bank.

I've found some great free activities for our upcoming London trip and I've made a mini scavenger hunt with pictures and fun facts for the kids.

Do I'm going to be more creative and do more research generally and keep my cash in my wallet!

earthgirl

I have learnt:
- if I look at stuff in the Internet after 9pm I can't settle myself to sleep
-if I take sleeping tablets the next day I'm groggy (and they are bad for me)
- if I don't get up at 6.30 the lodger turns the heating up full blast and opens the doors effectively heating the atmosphere
-if I don't get up at6.30 and follow my list something always gets forgotten!

So no more internet after 9, alarm for 6.30 and follow my list!

A bit of a fraught morning with a looong day ahead, tutoring after school and a football practice for one child, other to another club and the grocery shopping to do.

Falling down is an accident, staying down is a choice.

beanielou

I would be having words with the lodger!