Prosperous soul in the making

savingholmes

Thanks MF. I will stick with him for now as he's free to me.

BIL has been. Spent about 4 hours fixing stairs. Much better now. Just charged me £25 for materials. Really appreciate him helping out.

DS is back and had a fantastic time away with work. He's found a potential place to live in London. He's had a video tour. They all liked each other. He's due to travel down to meet them in person a week on Monday.

DD still enjoying herself and making friends. She however wants to pass her driving test asap so she can drive herself to work and back and thinks that will be cheaper than airbn#b for the weeks she is at her future main base. If she lives here though post divorce I will need to charge her.... That didn't go down well...

The great utility deal I got have written to say they too are putting their prices up so not so great anymore....

MovingForwards

One task ticked off.
Fingers crossed for DS.
Depends on insurance and car purchase costs, DD may get a discount on the accommodation booking it for a few weeks rather than a couple of nights. Perhaps knowing keep is due will encourage her wings to remain spread and continue to set up her independence.

If you picked a fixed deal, how can they change it!

savingholmes

Hi MF they just hadn't updated it to the latest one... 

Been to Zumba. Enjoyed myself. Still struggle to do the moves - but aerobic exercise so all good. Planning to work on the garden today as long as the rain holds off... I've got some cyclamens to plant out that I bought last week. Planning to put some in the hanging basket at the front and give that new soil as it has gone rock hard. Have enough to sprinkle some cyclamens in other pots too. While I am out I'll pick some apples too - and plums if I can reach any!! Definitely need to get trees professionally cut back next year and then keep them at the right height so I can actually get to the fruit!

DD went out for a meal with friends last night and has a driving lesson this morning so she's keeping busy. 

It's a good job I kept some money back this month on the CC as I would have been around £20 short i.e. unable to pay BIL otherwise. Other than that hoping to get to pay day. I have about £180 on various accounts plus a little cash but put £200 on CC... Could be worse. 

Blackcats

The stained glass shed windows sound brilliant - I agree that you could paint the shed too to brighten it up.  I did mine and everyone mocked at the proposed pink and country cream colour scheme but now agree it looks fab and I've got cheap pink hanging baskets filled with pink and white flowers and bunting and I don't even care that it is full of tools, mowers and spiders because it looks so pretty from the outside 🙃

jwil

Hope you've had a lovely day.  We have cyclamen in our garden and they come out every year without fail, they are lovely.

MovingForwards

Zumba will get easier the more you attend, your body will loosen up, mind relaxes and flows with the music.

You're doing well with budgeting, it's very early days with less to play with.

Hope the weather held up and you did everything as planned.

mark55man

Sounds like you are keeping all your plates spinning during this difficult period for you.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend

savingholmes

Blackcats said:

The stained glass shed windows sound brilliant - I agree that you could paint the shed too to brighten it up.  I did mine and everyone mocked at the proposed pink and country cream colour scheme but now agree it looks fab and I've got cheap pink hanging baskets filled with pink and white flowers and bunting and I don't even care that it is full of tools, mowers and spiders because it looks so pretty from the outside 🙃

That sounds beautiful, Blackats.

I painted the shed bright blue a couple of weeks ago. I left some of the original kind of mint/sage green paint as contrast. I did consider bunting. I think in winter there will be some days when I switch the light on in the shed - and then it will be like I have a huge stained glass lamp. I managed to get another roll for £7 so hopefully I can sort the 3 remaining windows this week. I got some plug in garden lights last Christmas - so I am hoping to put them up at some point... I thought the shed might be a logical place to start - I would need some hooks or something though... Sadly the 'junction' box that Ex put outside last year seems to have got water in it and broken so my last year birthday lights are broken too... Probably should add those all to the go to the tip list. 

jwil said:

Hope you've had a lovely day.  We have cyclamen in our garden and they come out every year without fail, they are lovely.

Thanks Jwil. They are so pretty - I got 4 different colours... still not planted though.

I mowed the lawn and pruned but got interrupted by my widowed neighbour so went and had a coffee with her part way through, still did more after. I plan to take some stuff to do the tip tomorrow and then carry on. I've asked DS to dig out the bamboo for me - and miracle of miracles he said he would do it tomorrow. So really hope he does. Once that's done - we can lay four flags back down and I can focus on clearing the rest of the veg patch and what used to be a pond. That is the worst of it  the weedy/overgrown area. I've got some landscape fabric and pegs that I bought last year - so once everything is chopped back -  I can try to level the area and put that down. I can then consider bark or slate or even the compost bags I have for now - and I could just tell the valuer I was planning to plant it up shortly... Just trying to neaten it up so it looks planned / cared for. I have one bag of bark already - but that wouldn't be enough...

I may ask the neighbour on the other side if I can borrow their bin - and then perhaps mow their lawn as they haven't for about a month - and ask them if they mind me trimming one of their trees which is in a shared border between our gardens. TBF they have a new baby and a toddler...

MovingForwards said:

Zumba will get easier the more you attend, your body will loosen up, mind relaxes and flows with the music.

You're doing well with budgeting, it's very early days with less to play with.

Hope the weather held up and you did everything as planned.

Thanks MF. Zumba is getting easier as she has some songs that repeat and some that are new each week. 

I think for now I will pay the solicitor on a CC initially and then pay it before it becomes due - but make sure I'm not left literally with no £... I have no overdraft facility anymore and I wasn't aware how much unconsciously it and my EF gave me some peace... No EF currently... I had the solicitor's bill but also in the last 4-6 weeks I have given DD over £350 for things we'd promised pre-divorce like money for driving lessons, one last clothing allowance, money for food (as part of teaching her to budget) etc.. .

It did rain at times - but still got a lot done. Filled a wheelie bin, a bin bag and 2 huge plastic round things... 

mark55man said:

Sounds like you are keeping all your plates spinning during this difficult period for you.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend

Thanks Mark. I described it to my counsellor as - it's as if I'm nesting currently. Something I do at times of major change... I prettify my house and garden... All adding value too - and a lot easier to do in summer than winter so trying to make the most of the lighter nights and better weather. It also then means its done and not nagging at me.

I am frustrated by various legal delays - but if the remortgage doesn't go through until December - I would be in a much better financial position... My solicitor comes back from 2 weeks holiday on Monday so I am hoping she will get things back on track.

MSE wise - I have agreed with my sis I can give her boys some of DS's lego for xmas from when he was little. It's a pirate boat. She said that's fine. It just takes some pressure off my xmas budget. One of them is really into craft type stuff so I could also put some craft stuff together for him / them - I have loads to choose from... Might do something similar for my other little nephews... Need to do what I can to keep my financial head above water. 

DD has gone out to see friends... She seems really happy with life at the moment which is a relief given how worried I was about how she would cope with us getting divorced. She's doing an outward bound type thing next week with work... Just hope she manages that okay....

mark55man

One of my fond pre married life memories is doing an outward bound survival course (personal, not work).  still remember sleeping outside and my graveyard shift keeping the fire going (it was February in the lake district)

savingholmes

She's going to the lakes too. I agree it will be memorable and hopefully friendship bonding

I did one where you had to make a raft from barrells and rope etc... About 20 years ago now