Easter 2025 I’m coming to get you!

Jessy103

Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you hetty! Congratulations on the overpayments and wishing you all the best for 2020!

Hettyhound

Lovely to hear from you Jessy, hope you have fully settled in your new home now. I did some money moving yesterday so have topped up my many and various pots for things like presents, clothes, haircuts, son’s activities etc... there are a few. I paid off the credit card and bought a £125 premium bond. I get tax credits next Monday so they get diverted into another account for paying the childcare bills and then I reckon I can overpay the mortgage by £150 at the end of January.

I have 2 1/2 weeks of meal plans done which include everything even my son’s snacks. My blackboard in the kitchen is marked up with military manoeuvres detailing what I need to do each day cooking and prep wise. Did the shopping yesterday and picked up a half price large chicken for £1.54 which I roasted last night and will freeze for sandwich fillings and maybe a couple of chicken and chips teas during the month. Will be getting the slow cooker on today for honey mustard chicken thighs which will also go in the freezer. I made some bread rolls a couple of days ago and they are actually half decent so I got more bread flour (55p for 1.5 kgs) to have another go.

I start back full time on the 7th January so will need to be organised; it’s the cleaning that will suffer (no surprises there). It will probably take a few months for all my finances to settle down with proper salary and recalculated tax credits so I’m basing my budget on worse case scenario but I have my emergency fund if things get too tight for a while. I’m also challenging myself to start running with my son, no idea how it will work. He’s nearly 7 and apart from the fact he’s never still he does have a very mild learning issue. I adopted him at 10 months old and he was exposed to various unhelpful chemicals during pregnancy. He does brilliantly and is doing far better than I ever expected but he has started to notice the differences in the classroom with his peers, although he is not the only one to struggle and is by no means the worst. He says he has “angry in his head” and has absolutely no patience. He gets help at school with a session each week with their emotional learning support assistant but if I don’t try to help I can foresee mental health problems in the future. There are a couple of parkruns near where we live so that could be our aim for the warmer months. Crazy idea but fingers crossed

shangaijimmy

Running is amazing for creating space in peoples heads! Great idea.

beanielou

There is a kids park run where I live on a Saturday morning.

[Deleted User]

Happy New year, Hetty! Park run is great for kids. Our boys have been running it since they were 7 and have great fun. (Sometimes it's good to have rewards as incentives for finishing especially on cold and wet mornings )

Hettyhound

Well we have been out for our first run/walk with more running than walking. He kept up with me really well but I struggled to get him to stretch properly when we got home so I’ll put him in a bath tonight instead of a shower. Hasn’t done much to improve his behaviour/mood and I’ve been racking up the micro stress doses all holiday so I’m feeling some benefit at least. Our next one is scheduled for Friday

savingholmes

Would a trampoline help?

Hettyhound

Savingholmes unfortunately we don’t have the space for a trampoline as the garden is quite small. I have bought another premium bond tonight as I won £10 on the postcode lottery and have received £94 back from the energy supplier I’ve just left. I’ve also just bought some seeds as I’ve been planning the garden and looking forward to warmer weather! I dug over the front garden today as the bulbs are starting to poke through and the primroses are looking nice so it just loosened the compacted soil; very satisfying

Hettyhound

Just come back from run number 3. Next one is scheduled for Wednesday which will be a real test when I tell him to get changed as soon as we get home; I’ll bribe him with the promise of food when we get home! Shopping day tomorrow so hoping to not spend too much, meal plan done for the next three weeks. I’ve got an enormous amount of chickpeas so will get some bits to make a curry for the freezer.

savingholmes

Well done on the running.