Staying on track to be MF and ready to support my daughter at 18

A_Frayed_Knot

Lovely to hear you are now under the 30,000 mark :T and weight is dropping at a rate too :T

Glad you managed to get an answer re the phased return, I was supposed to have that too, but shortage of staff meant, that was a No !!! Still that means I will have many, many a/l days still to take, as we have to use them for phased returns


Going somewhere nice for your holidays, wish you good weather and a lovely relaxing time.

ElmoR

Thanks AFK


Phased return was great in principle but I got sucked back in more than I probably should have, but that is perhaps my own fault for not saying no more often. Ridiculously, the Occupational Health return to work meeting isn't until August. Not much help from those quarters. Things seemed to have stalled on the recovery front and part of the leg is still numb and stairs are still a challenge, so GP is contacting specialist to ask for advice. I'm surprisingly chilled out about it all though.


It's work politics that stress me and wind me up :eek: In the past 3 years I have had shingles/with neuralgia, pneumonia and now a back injury that initially put me in a ward with senior citizens. That sounds like someone in their 70s? Yet I only just said hello to 50. What the heck is happening to me??? :eek: WAKE UP CALL!!!



On the money front, plodding along well. Batch cooking helps keep spend to a minimum at work, and helps with weight loss. :T

The bank account is looking a bit anaemic this month and I still have to pay for the hotel at the end of the month, meaning a dip into the savings pot potentially. We are off next Sunday to Scotland for 5 days


Happy holidays everyone :j

debtfreeoneday

Well done on the weight loss, easier said that done, but try to stick to the phased return to ease yourself back in!

savingholmes

Enjoy Scotland. Hope you feel better soon. Like the sound of the book you are writing - how is that going?

ElmoR

Thanks debtfree.


The second week back was a bit more relaxed than the first. Some people are really crabby with me and it makes you feel guilty, as if you are skiving. There are others who take the 'working at home' flexible working right to the limits of what is acceptable, and beyond, and totally get away with it, plus they seem to have no guilt. I must be built wrong.



On holidays now :j:j


have a good week!!

ElmoR

Thanks savingholmes


Oh dear though, I forgot about the book. Back in April, May I wrote loads but then it seemed to run dry. I get plagued with thoughts like... this is rubbish, who would want to read this... type stuff. My pattern seems to involve a little flurry of writing followed by months of nothing. I know that proper writers dedicate a set time each day to write and get it done that way. My motivation is clearly lacking.:eek:


Must try harder

ElmoR

Quick update on the MFWing. Tricky month with the holidays, reward money for daughter on recent achievements and car insurance due. I was paid for some external work and plopped half towards the mortgage, keeping the other half to help towards the holiday hotel bill.


There is a voluntary severance scheme at work just now, then probably compulsory redundancies in a couple of months. I think my job is safe because we are doing well in our area but it does make me wonder about the next 5 to 10 years, since there will almost certainly be more churning in our sector. And one or two bad recruitment years and our area would be in the firing line. I did look into pension and savings status earlier, but maybe I need to start firming up an actual plan. An escape route if needs be...:cool:



Will start reading other peoples blogs on this, please point me towards good ones if you know any


ElmoR

LeighofMar

Hello. Just catching up on your diary and wanted to say how I think you are doing so well. Congrats on the mortgage being 30k. I hope your health gets better and that you can devise a good escape plan from your job if need be. Nothing's worse than a toxic work environment. We are working on our similar plans at the moment too:D.
Wishing you well.

ElmoR

:)Thanks for dropping by LeighofMar. I would be very keen to hear any tips from you. One of my tasks for this week is to trawl through others threads for early escape plans / retirement planning strategies.
I already bought, read and started implementing the investment book that most people seem to recommend. Struggling to get my head round the big numbers and calculations involved though :eek:
Further complicated by the pension provider halting the final salary scheme two years ago and starting a new contributions scheme in its place, so I end up with a hybrid (or half a unicorn, as I'm calling it). And maths really is not my strong point.


So, the past week has been rather excellent with a holiday is Scotland, lots of tourist type activities and also revisiting some of my old haunts of 30 years ago while a young adult/student. The walking was hard work but we managed a fair distance each day with plenty of rests. Managed to stay on the slimming universe plan with one huge blow out meal at my favourite mexican restaurant from the late 1980s, and still weight off at weigh in on return :T


It was a very spendy week though, but hey, we were on holiday!


Back to work tomorrow . Batch lunches prepped, happy vibes topped up to full...let's see how long I manage before a lurch into gloom...

ElmoR

Mixed sort of week with some :mad: and some :eek: as well as some . The turmoil at work will last a long while, so best to get used to that and mitigate against it as far as possible.



Otherwise, things are tootling along. A couple of NSDs, always batch cooked lunches, flask of coffee. A legal action task has completed finally, so once that final bill arrives, it will be the end of that expense. The MSE energy alert prompted me to change our tariff which should lead to a saving of £200-300 in the next year :T
Losing pounds (but not the cash variety)...Also had my Club10 and 1.5 stone award certificates from slimming universe recently . BMI dropped down into the 'overweight' range, . I'll keep going with the batch cooking approach and am expanding into 'healthy'/low cal desserts now. Made a peach/apricot icecream (using quark/low fat yoghurt, artificial sweetener, low sugar jam and a truck load of peach halves) that tastes pretty good but not damaging on the weight loss front. Scanbran ginger cake on the menu this week...All losses help with the back injury recovery.


Oh, and I started some sums for the FIRE dream. FIRE isn't going to be possible but I might be able to aim for a FIRM, financial independence and retire "moderately" early . The years I worked abroad put a big dent in the National Insurance contributions, so will probably have to keep going til 61 at least to make up the full quota. Question is whether I want to stay in the workplace/sector I am in for all that time (Plan A) or 'drop out' early (Plan and make ends meet before that?! Ten more years of the current work environment fills me with dread so now I'll start thinking about possible Plan Bs.



So, next week is a combo of the past week, with a day of leave on Monday (shopping with my daughter :eek:) , intense work week thereafter with A Level results coming out) and survive as best I can, spending as little at work as possible, til the weekend!!


ElmoR