Courgette resets her sights

Courgette

Have just applied for an M&S account

Courgette

Last day of term today for DS2 so nipping on here before I need to collect him. This end bit of term has really dragged!

Job in miles away school just didn't work out unfortunately. The time spent commuting was just excessive and although I tried a number of different ways of travelling and ways of using the time, I just couldn't make it work. The public transport around here is pretty poor I now realise and I was out of the house for over 7 hours to earn £50 gross.

DS3 starts school in September so I'm going to sign up for more China teaching plus I've found another job in China that pays almost double my current one. Have applied for a wage rise with j!!! in any case.

I've been reading lots of books about increasing income and the related mindset and it's all been very interesting. Unfortunately it has exposed some differences between me and DH and we are not getting on that well currently. Hoping that we'll be able to work things out and he does at least now understand that I'm really very sad and he can't just brush off the things I say or worm out of his responsibilities by saying I'm better at all that stuff. I've also learnt that I have been taught from a young age that if you have money you have to keep it secret both in terms of not spending it on things other people could see but also income must be kept secret - one relative of mine has literally thousands of pounds stored in their home for no real reason. Having money appears to be a guilty secret in our family.

Never-ending kitchen project is still ongoing. If I ever do this again I would borrow the money so it could all be done in one go. I feel as though my life is on hold and have done for quite a while and I doubt this is helping my current mood and feelings of stuckness. We had to take up the floor again as the builder had done such a rubbish job then lay the underfloor heating which was a massively physical and tiring job. I also learnt that I cannot cope at all when there are structural problems with my house. The period where we didn't have a kitchen floor sent me a bit nuts and a lot more shouting happened than I'd have liked. The floor is complete now though - we went for luxury vinyl tiles on the top in classic oak which look gorgeous. Haven't been able to test the underfloor heating because it's been so warm but all testing suggests it will actually work!

I've loosened up the purse strings and I have really enjoyed buying loads of fresh fruit. I can't remember a summer when I ate as many strawberries as I have done this time! Although I also can't remember a summer as warm as this one!

Right, off to school!

PositiveBalance

Courgette wrote: »

DS3 starts school in September so I'm going to sign up for more China teaching plus I've found another job in China that pays almost double my current one. Have applied for a wage rise with j!!! in any case.

This is interesting. Where do you find out about all the Chinese jobs?

Courgette wrote: »

I've been reading lots of books about increasing income and the related mindset and it's all been very interesting. Unfortunately it has exposed some differences between me and DH and we are not getting on that well currently. Hoping that we'll be able to work things out and he does at least now understand that I'm really very sad and he can't just brush off the things I say or worm out of his responsibilities by saying I'm better at all that stuff.

Yup. Your feelings count about this type of thing, too!

Courgette wrote: »

I've also learnt that I have been taught from a young age that if you have money you have to keep it secret both in terms of not spending it on things other people could see but also income must be kept secret - one relative of mine has literally thousands of pounds stored in their home for no real reason. Having money appears to be a guilty secret in our family.

That's interesting. Consciously or otherwise, you may have inherited those traits. Think about this and your relationship with money and how you would like it to be.

Courgette wrote: »

Never-ending kitchen project is still ongoing. If I ever do this again I would borrow the money so it could all be done in one go. I feel as though my life is on hold and have done for quite a while and I doubt this is helping my current mood and feelings of stuckness. We had to take up the floor again as the builder had done such a rubbish job then lay the underfloor heating which was a massively physical and tiring job. I also learnt that I cannot cope at all when there are structural problems with my house. The period where we didn't have a kitchen floor sent me a bit nuts and a lot more shouting happened than I'd have liked. The floor is complete now though - we went for luxury vinyl tiles on the top in classic oak which look gorgeous. Haven't been able to test the underfloor heating because it's been so warm but all testing suggests it will actually work!

Also interesting: were those the original tiles you had decided upon, or did you decide to 'splurge' as a result of all the extra annoyance?

Courgette wrote: »

I've loosened up the purse strings and I have really enjoyed buying loads of fresh fruit. I can't remember a summer when I ate as many strawberries as I have done this time! Although I also can't remember a summer as warm as this one!

Me, either! Needs must, and all of that! :cool:

Courgette

Yes, always wanted lovely things like really nice flooring. Was a joy to buy something beautiful after spending around £2k on skips and concrete!

Spent the day arguing with DH yesterday. Was horrible but we've definitely started to understand each other better because of it.

We spent the whole days in the woods yesterday (we were bickering underneath trees while the children played!). Spent £4 on ice-cream. Been home mostly today except for a quick trip to the park so a NSD.

Tried DS3 on his bike but he's still too small for it, booooooooo!

juliejim

Just caught up with your diary so just thought I'd say hi!

newgirly

Glad you are getting there now with the kitchen courgette

Courgette

Been away with DH for the weekend - our first time since having DS2 almost 8 years ago. I was so worried we wouldn't have anything to talk about but it turns out that once the noise of daily life is stripped away, we were still there! :j

I've also booked to go and visit DS1 in Germany - we fly out next Wednesday for 2 weeks. Very excited and also a bit scared.

Have had a pay rise from my Chinese online company to 130 RMD per hour which is just under £15 at the current exchange rate. I've upped my hours but cut weekend working from September which means we have full weekends to do family things in - whoop!

Life is turning out to be quite spendy at the moment but September isn't far away and then I can knuckle down and get earning again. I've realised that I adore getting things for the children. Not any old tat but thoughtful, well planned expenses.

I've set a personal earning target of £2000 a week. This is huge but it also feels like the point I'll be rich and life will be totally different so I'm going for it. Not sure on the timescale yet, it needs to be realistic. Actually, a few weeks ago through a combination of a lot of income streams being payable at the same time I did have a £2000 week but I've been paid about 20p since :rotfl:

beanielou

Exciting times

Courgette

£25 qui£co payout converted to £27 claaaarks voucher which will go towards school shoes for the boys. Won't buy them until after we get back from holiday though - don't trust the boys' feet not to grow while we're away!

It's occurred to me I have loads of advantage cards points, around £40 I think. I just don't buy anything from there these days. Will try to find out this week. May spend it on nail varnish!

Incurred more library fines, no idea I even had overdue books. More work needed here to stop this happening especially as I can't even think what the books are. Was £2.70 in total, booooooooo.

Oh, we also have loads of nectar points. We're saving them up to replace an appliance since they're all quite old.

Now I've started spending on fun stuff again I'm feeling so much more motivated to save the pennies and for the first time in months and months I've even read Martin's email.

We've also fixed the mortgage for a new 5 year term. I'm going to play with numbers when we get home and see how feasible mortgage neutral will be in that period.

beanielou

Our library sends reminders when our books are due back~~luckily or I can check my account on line which I also use for reservations or renewals.