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

Cheery_Daff

Good on you staying away from the negativity at work - so difficult, isn't it? I try too but it's not easy in an open plan office! Sorry to hear about redundancies too, that won't help with the negativity either will it? Sadly we are out on strike at the minute but I'm trying to fill my time with other productive things (and yes, a bit of career development stuff too, just in case...). 

Just been reading back a bit - did you get your funding? I didn't sadly... so back to the drawing board for me.

Love the idea of making your 3 Most Inportant Things into a habit like taking lunch. I've been avoiding the lift at work, and more recently the vending machine, so might join in with your 3 MIT challenge if you don't mind?

ElmoR

Thanks for popping by Cheery. Our place of work voted not to join in with strikes again, we have serious existential stuff that is more pressing, though I gather other places have financial challenges too but their staff are reacting differently? I do continue to pay my union dues, so hopefully that helps others in hardship who are striking. Sorry to hear about your bid not being funded. It's always a downer, even though you know the odds are low, it doesn't stop the hope. My success rate at career start was 3 in 20 bids funded, but the funding landscape is harder now and I can well understand the pain of younger applicants. The current one is still at review...Our last one funded was to deliver a workshop in China in July, so not sure if that will still go ahead?

Good luck with the MITs!

Thanks Southern too . Some people seem to relish academia but it feels like a slow, draining death to me?! I love my research and team, I enjoy the teaching part, but colleagues' behaviours and politics are awful. I don't fit in and should never have stepped out of my battery chicken cage by taking A levels.

ElmoR x

debtfreeoneday

Sorry work isn't the best at the mo, but good news on the OP and well prom, it's a one off isn't it!

ElmoR

Getting into the swing of focused MIT days at work and definitely feeling better for it. Had a very productive week and hardly any melt downs, which is quite amazing given that we've been told another restructure is in the plans. This will be the 4th or 5th, I lose count, in 8 years, and we haven't had our current one for a year yet. :|Most importantly, it was payday yesterday and it included back pay and a small blob from external work. Guess where it all went, yep, into the mortgage OPs. Either next month, or the one after, I should be getting another small blob of external pay, so hope to make more OPs with that too. Still aiming to get the mortgage as low as possible in time for the fixed rate (1.8%) ending and the variable rate (>4%) having to kick in next October. I did spot one milestone reached this month in that the daily interest rate dropped below a £1/day this month, it was £2/day when I started this journey.

The MSE article on saving rates gave me a kick up the backside too. I've been hoarding in a bank account, not sure why, but it was only getting 0.4%. Shipped a chunk off to an Atom 1 year fix at 1.6%. Possibly put a smaller chunk in my DDs JISA too, since that gets 3.6%, but then it's hers forever. I'm never sure how much to keep in easy access for emergencies? Six months worth of bills seems a lot to leave in a 0.4% interest account.

Staying in today, foul weather outside. DH just bought me a Gardening mag, so I will daydream about being outside instead. We were wondering about buying a used greenhouse but it looks like quite an ordeal in dismantling and re-mantling (is that a word?) according to various blogs that I've spotted. Will mull it over some more. Last year (don't laugh), I managed tomatoes in a grow bag which was enough for several salads and some batch stews. I'm thinking of expanding to potatoes grown in a sack? Maybe one of those strawberry urn looking things? It has to be simple, I was born without natural green fingers.

Have a good weekend all,

ElmoR xx

Baileys_Babe

ElmoR said:

 We were wondering about buying a used greenhouse but it looks like quite an ordeal in dismantling and re-mantling (is that a word?) 

We often say re-mantle, but I don't think it is a word 🙂

the_cross_rabbit

We’ve re-mantled 3 greenhouses onto our allotment it does take time but well worth the effort especially when you’re harvesting lots of lovely tomatoes 🍅.
CRx 

ElmoR

Thanks Babe and Cross Rabbit, remantling three greenhouses is impressive. Maybe I could hire you to help out? I'm not sure my DH and I have a strong enough marriage to cope? In my imagination we end up slicing limbs off and panes of glass shattering everywhere   I bought a mini trough thing, a cheap plastic and wire job for 20 quid, and will try some spring onion and carrot seeds in it. That's on the schedule for tomorrow, along with burying the potatoes in the sacks. There is a small area behind the garage that is protected from the worst of the wind, do you think the spud bags will be ok there, or are they still going to suffer from frost? Maybe I should have them in the garage/conservatory for a few weeks? Let's see how I get on with that lot...given my level of cluelessness and natural lack of general gardening common sense, I'm not confident much will grow.

Still basking in the glow of the back dated pay winging its' way into the mortgage OPs. Had some travel reimbursements too, so punted that the same direction. Meanwhile, I'm trying not to look at the markets having only recently started paying into a V**guard LS60 account, but it's like watching a car crash, you cannot tear your eyes away. The other small pot I have in the markets has been slowly accumulating there since 2004, so I can just look at the graph from the very beginning and the recent major plummet is just a tiny blip in the long term scheme of things, so much less worrying. It must be upsetting for anyone about to retire though. Think I will go and read up on how to mitigate for that, since I'd like to aim for a retirement at 60 ish, 8 and a bit years to go...if I can survive that long without going crazy...

Have a good weekend all,

ElmoR x

the_cross_rabbit

Bit early for your potatoes to go out. I'd wait another week or 2. Where abouts in the country are you roughly?
CRx

ElmoR

Took your advice CR and kept the potato sacks inside for now. Potted some carrot and spring onion seeds. Fingers crossed some seedling appear at some point. I'm up in the North East, if heading here from the south, you turn right at Donnie and keep going for an eternity across rolling countryside. Our geographical isolation seems to be having many advantages right now.

The week has been ticking along as normal. Batch lunches continue, MITs still work well, and tidy Friday turned into mini tidies most days in my work office. Desk drawers sorted, now I'm working my way through 3 shelves of books/paperwork and seeing if I can reduce it down to just one. At home DH was able to fix some kitchen lights that went out, saving the need for an electrician.  The bath tub side panel and bathroom floor repairs seem to have stalled though, but that is W*ck*s fault for failing to deliver parts. I find having jobs half done quite stressful, but that goes back to a childhood where the entire house was a job not even quarter done, let alone half DIY nightmare zone.

DD is upset that her GCSEs might be impacted, especially if they get delayed at all, since then we will have to postpone the big trip we have planned, flights and hotel booked and all. And the prom...She asked why did it have to happen this year? I didn't really have a very good answer for that other than that it affects everyone, it's not something we have any control over, and we just have to adapt as best we can. Sh*t happens. 

Have a good weekend all,

ElmoR x

ElmoR

Wow! Couldn't have predicted or seen any of that coming.

DD has finished school, last day there ever and it only become obvious 2 days before the close. No exams. No prom.Yearbook will be posted out if/when the school can. She's in weird state of 'not sure' how she feels. There is a feeling of loss I think? She has always been very studious and self motivate to study and do her best, so not being able to now sit the exams that she has poured all her energies into preparing for is ...weird? Don't get me wrong though, she is thrilled about not having to do the french speaking exam. The sixth form college also sent a very reassuring email to her to say that she is accepted there no matter what, their place for her (and the others who had offers) will be honoured. So she knows that life will continue as it was planned, sort of.

My working routine has shifted like many others to working from home. The past few days has mainly involved reassuring emails to students in dismay. Luckily, my own teaching has no exams and can all easily move online/remote. Reading Cheery's update, I can also vouch that I seem to be sitting too long at the laptop, including answering emails in my nightclothes, and my back is deeply unhappy about this. Am thinking I will need an egg timer to go off every 20 minutes to remind me to get up and move about. Will have to come up with some daily work structure, which adds in time with DD too, since we are home together. DH still needs to physically go to work.

Finances? Incidental spending obviously down. House heating is on though, eating too much rubbish too since it's easily accessible now. Will continue to take regular walks to counteract the imposed sessile lifestyle change, it's easy to keep a good distance from others, we aren't in a highly populated area thankfully. Am glad I took half our money out of the markets last year and bunged it in the child JISA account. I thought I was being stupid, missing out on 2 years of market gains before DD reaches 18, but the advice seemed to be that a year or two before you expect to need the money, start moving it to safer places. Thank you whoever gave that advice! The rest will just have to stay there now for a decade or so until this is all just a memory we talk about. Said to my DD, you'll have something to tell your grandchildren in that you were the generation who dodged exams.

Stay safe and well everyone

ElmoR x