Prosperous soul in the making

Drawingaline

Glad your return to work is going well. 

I managed to figure out the notifications and bookmarks, but I can't see dates on anyone posts! Which is not helpful at all. 

savingholmes

Thanks Drawingaline - I can see dates on a laptop - are you using a phone? Some people said they could see better in landscape mode on phones or okay on !pad. I like that you can now add photos - but will need to make sure that if I use it I don't blow my anonymity.  

DS made a couple of fantasy style acrylic pours earlier - beautiful turquoise, purple, pink, orange and yellow - kind of marbelled / oil type look. I love them and its nice to share a hobby with your grown up kids. He's gone out with his mate for a drink now. Roast beef dinner was gorgeous. Other tasks like the washing are underway. Dishwasher employed multiple times today - catching up. Ooops. Pain has been better today - hopefully that's a good sign for being back at work - although I do notice it gts worse if I don't elevate it regularly.

I've been beating myself up over spending this month. As you know I was originally planning to start a sipp this month - and put £1.5K into it. Instead:

• Topped up EF by about £600
• Paid extra £200 off CCs. (Total paid off this month should be around £690.)
• Paid £424 for brand new double bed and mattress (should get cashback eventually too)
• Paid £233 deposit on 2 new chairs for the lounge. (Need to pay remaining £2K by around mid April). 

So although I have fritter spent on top - it's not as much as it feels. The bed and the chairs are the big items but at least they should last years - and only delay our DFD by 2-3 months. Will see how it pans out. Doing crafts again definitely boosted my wellbeing and broke some of my obsession with £ and retirement plans. 

For Feb payday (next Friday onwards) - want to focus on making sure we can pay the chairs when they are available for delivery. I still want to set up SIPP for DH and move his pensions. If and when I get around to that - Ideally I still want to pay £1K into it before the tax year ends. I still haven't done the tax reclaims... Have a good week all.

DancingInTheRain

Don't beat yourself up, your pension plans are sound. So you didn't achieve your SIPP target but on the other hand you've increased your EF, paid down CC's by nearly £700, invested in furniture that will improve your quality of life in the present (and not added to the debt to do so...) All this while dealing with everything life has thrown at you recently I'd say stop being so hard on yourself and well done for what you've achieved!

savingholmes

DancingInTheRain said:

Don't beat yourself up, your pension plans are sound. So you didn't achieve your SIPP target but on the other hand you've increased your EF, paid down CC's by nearly £700, invested in furniture that will improve your quality of life in the present (and not added to the debt to do so...) All this while dealing with everything life has thrown at you recently I'd say stop being so hard on yourself and well done for what you've achieved!

Thanks Dancing - I am very hard on myself - so genuinely need people like you to say that to me. 

DS was challenging me today to get my book on Amaz**. He offered to have a go at sourcing a suitable cover for me. I need to work out what I would put in the blurb that goes on the back - and the description that would go on Amaz... I do have an idea of what I want on the cover - but I want it to be part of a trilogy - so want to also think through what I want on the other two covers upfront too so they match. Having said that - I can always change the cover later - it is more important to let it loose on the world. I would be more motivated to carry on writing book 2 if people started reading and showing an interest in book 1. Bless him. I will aim to follow up with him on that tomorrow. DH is keen on me self-publishing too as Xmas 18 I spent £690 on getting it edited!! I've been stuck on this step for a while....

jwil

I agree, you are doing great.

I'd be interested to read your book, so let us know if you do put in on there!

Blackcats

I agree with others about how well you are doing.  I think that craft hobbies help health and wellbeing and we all need to put on our own oxygen masks by looking after ourselves in order to look after others.  

Transferring pension was much, much easier and quicker than I expected - less than an hour, wait 10 days and money was in new account.  Might be worth doing it so that you can clear that from your mind's "to do" list.  

savingholmes

jwil said:

I agree, you are doing great.
I'd be interested to read your book, so let us know if you do put in on there!

Thanks Jwil - I'll pm you when I put it out there... Thanks too for the vote of confidence. In pain tonight which isn't great. Worked 4.5 hours but ended up driving about 1 hour. It didn't help that it snowed part of my way to work and I ended up picking up DD. Even though I elevated my leg for about  60-90 minutes of my time at work it wasn't enough. Helping DS cook tea turned out to be a bit of a mistake too - pain wise. Maybe one day I will learn. I slept really badly last night due to DH having a cold and snoring incredibly loud - got to sleep about 5am!! Chucking him into DS's room tonight so I can get some sleep.

Blackcats said:

I agree with others about how well you are doing.  I think that craft hobbies help health and wellbeing and we all need to put on our own oxygen masks by looking after ourselves in order to look after others.  

Transferring pension was much, much easier and quicker than I expected - less than an hour, wait 10 days and money was in new account.  Might be worth doing it so that you can clear that from your mind's "to do" list.  

Thanks Blackcats. I met with 3 people separately at work today. They all went okay - but I have too much work to do in the time available. Hoping that BB transfers okay tomorrow or it will make things harder. I was hoping to have all of Wednesday off - but don't think I can now - will potentially need to swap it for Friday instead. I think I will take an extra tablet when I go to bed to try and keep pain under better control. Have 2 hours of driving tomorrow. i can then elevate my leg for my first meeting but probably not the second. Not looking forward to that.

New bed arrives Wednesday pm. Still need to prepare the room (ask DH too) but that will need to wait now.

I will talk to DH about moving the pensions.

Msmoneyspider

Your book sounds fascinating, are we allowed to ask what the genre is?  It is so difficult to get the balance right between our own needs and that of others, including employers.

savingholmes

Msmoneyspider said:

Your book sounds fascinating, are we allowed to ask what the genre is?  It is so difficult to get the balance right between our own needs and that of others, including employers.

It's a young adult fantasy. 

I agree about it being hard to get the balance right - also I don't always realise I've overdone it until it's too late. I took an extra naproxen and 1 cocodomol at midnight. Slept well though. Only just got up. I don't have to be at the site until around lunchtime. I may even use my £2.87 ! remaining voucher towards lunch at a pub on the way. 

£158 gone out to CC. That's the last one before pay day. Will update my signature. Getting close to the £24K mark now. I should get there by Monday next week. 

savingholmes

DS has made a mess of his finances with going to Oz. What a surprise! There has been a further delay in him getting his tax back (May/June) and his NI equivalent (after October!!!). He can't get the latter back until his tourist visa expires so going back at Christmas really messed things up. I gave him £66 of what I planned to give him in March yesterday to help him cover his dentist. I will give him the other £200 on Friday. I've agreed to bring forward the £267 we were due to give him for term 3 in March. That will mean that when we've paid his accommodation £934 at the end of March that that will be the last payment we should have to make other than for graduation. Once he gets his next student loan in April he should then be fine (other than that he is massively overdrawn so really all it does is wipe that out temporarily). I have warned him about the OD charges changes coming in and he just gave me that how I can move it look I have no income! He has one interest free OD and one that he is already paying interest on. Similar with CCs.

I told him about receipt apps and surveys he could find through MSE and suggested he signed up. I also asked whether he was signed up with agencies. He claimed his uni town was too small to have any and then googled. There were 14! He has promised to go and sign up for some. Let's hope he does. I pointed out that if he wants to go to London to lodge at his aunt's from the summer - he needed to be able to give her 2 month's rent - 1 as deposit and have some living money and it wouldn't be coming from us. Being so OD and not making on time payments are not helping him. Let's hope he heeds the warning.