Hazelnutty's New Start

Hazelnutty

Hello! It's been a busy week and haven't checked in here as much as I'd like. The big news is (boring but as those who read my diary know a big deal for me/fam/building project) that we have the meter move booked for 1st October! What a saga! It was so straightforward with SSE - I got a direct number for the meter move team, called, got straight though, told the guy the date I'd been given by UK Power Networks and he just booked it in. Admittedly the bar for customer service had been set so low by Tonik that anything would've impressed me, but *touch wood* SSE have come through. Actually the timing's worked out well as with delays on the garden room we'll be ready to move indoors for October. Yay!

Not much else to report. I've got two projects coming in about to start at the worst time (start of term and a crazy, unprecedented, uncertain start of term at that) but really great collaborative work, one with the local voluntary sector on COVID experiences so just what we should be doing. I won't see any of the income though as it gets moved around the university. I may get some added to my research budget but it's going to be a major struggle financially for my institution this year so it may not even be that.

Fish friday at the local pub so will be heading that way tonight after I've dropped DD at her Dad's. Really keen to support it as it's a real community pub. Tomorrow DD's bestie is coming for a shopping trip for DD's birthday so I will be shepherding 2 10yos round town. GnT will definitely be needed that evening! Sunday will be more work getting the house ready, clearing the meter cupboard and ripping up the stair carpet to investigate what lies beneath

Hope your Fridays are going well and I'll catch you later!

Karmacat

I really hope this meter thing happens the way they say it will.  And oh my, two ten year olds tomorrow ... best of luck!

Hazelnutty

Thanks, @Karmacat It's amazing how they amplify each other - each one isn't particularly loud normally but together it's quite a lot!

South_coast

Hazelnutty said:

Sunday will be more work getting the house ready, clearing the meter cupboard and ripping up the stair carpet to investigate what lies beneath

I'm really hoping it's stairs 🤣!

Yay for the meter move (and for fish Friday)!

Hazelnutty

South_coast said:

Hazelnutty said:

Sunday will be more work getting the house ready, clearing the meter cupboard and ripping up the stair carpet to investigate what lies beneath

I'm really hoping it's stairs 🤣!

Yay for the meter move (and for fish Friday)!

@south_coast ! Although I'm only at 99% certainty in this place...

Hazelnutty

Stairs are in good condition. Will need to be stripped, sanded back and varnished but they're basically in good nick. Grain looks lovely As the carpet was glued onto the bare wood they're currently very sticky so it's crocs on up and down the stairs until we can clean the adhesive off (if anyone has any top tips for doing this, let me know!) 

DD's birthday shopping trip went well and I've got to be honest, I feel like a blimmin' hero for braving 3 hours of shopping with two 10 yos! OH and I, total novices, also did the cake (DD ordered marble cake with a Trixie Mattell logo - before she saw it she asked if it looked good, I said 'it looks like it's home-made with love'). So we're totally taking the parenting win for the 24hours or so it'll last

CC cuts off this week. Bit miffed as it looks quite a bit higher than the last few months. All spends from virtual pots (like presents) I pay off straightaway, so the balance should just be monthly budgets. Will need to go through the bill closely to work out what's gone on. It's been nice to have that underspend to reallocate recently

Hope everyone's having a good Sunday evening. It's a lovely, calm, cool and blue sky day here, which is keeping everyone feeling chilled

killerpeaty

Do you know how you will get rid of the stickiness? I imagine that if you try to sand it off then you'll go through a lot of sandpaper, but I am not an expert!

I know a lot of people love Trixie, I love the idea of littly wanting a cake of her. 

Shame about the pretty-much-normal-spending. Amazing how quickly we get used to things.

rugbymadfamily

Impressive work getting through that long shopping with 2 10year olds and nailing parenting with the cake!

Its funny how quickly the spends creep up so quickly sometimes. At least you had recent underspends to fall back on, thats a definite positive. I'm really trying to keep track of every penny at the moment so its allocated a lot better to see where its going....

Hazelnutty

@killerpeaty the builder we're working with suggested using the same paint stripper we're stripped the old doors with so will porbably give that a go. It's nasty stuff though so will have to be a weekend DD's at her Dad's and we can keep the kits outside. It'll be a pain but the grain looks promising and I'm hoping the stairs will be a bit of a feature when all the work's done.

Thanks @rugbymadfamily I went through the CC transactions today and what I thought it might be (backing a really cool phone bike mount on indiegogo - I'd been in the market for one anyway and this was by far the best design I've seen) wasn't! (that's on the other CC ) I think I'm looking at around £700, which isn't massively over my budget but just leaves me less space for the creative juggling of virtual pots, which is one of my guilty pleasures!

I've decided to cut right back on virtual pots for the next 3 months, which means I can shove £1k into the house renovation fund each month. As long as I'm not short when it comes to car insurance & MOT (November) and the kittens don't have any further encounters with Mean Cat, I should be fine. TBH, I'm probably looking at keeping this going if I can for 6 months so that I can finish off the downstairs. My thinking is: get the house done to a reasonable standard (this is important to me as I'm a real introvert so some is a sanctuary to retreat to, plus with OH's mental health issues, we need that safe space) then if I need to batten down the hatches, I can do so. 

I'm keeping a low level OP going through this time, but as soon as the work's done, I'll be directly my funds into higher OPs, a safety-net fund (target: £15k), a reasonable easy access fund (say, £5k), PBs (currently £500 but can slowly build) and possibly start a S&S ISA. OH is finally looking well enough to do her PT distance learning Master's so she can retrain and work again, so will lose her measly benefits we think. This means more strain on my income but we can at least prepare.

South_coast

"If you fail to prepare, then prepare to fail" was one of my course leader's favourite sayings at Uni, so preparation is definitely good - you sound like you're making some great plans 😀

Sorry you're missing out on some pot juggling - I think we can all relate to enjoying that 🤣!