Keeping on the Straight and Narrow...

savingholmes

Your totals are all heading in the right direction. 

Have fun on holiday

DancingInTheRain

Lovely first day of our holiday, caught a few showers but nothing to spoil our fun. We ended the day by watching the sunset on the beach, the boys are in bed but still awake as they're overtired & over excited but I guess that's what holidays are all about! Hope everyone has had a lovely bank holiday x

savingholmes

Lovely photo - thanks for sharing. 

Have lots of fun. Holidays can be memory making and life affirming.

DancingInTheRain

Got back Friday evening after a wonderful break, it really did us all good after the summer stresses of DS1 and his broken arm & my job application.
The weather and accommodation were both amazing so we managed to have a good combination of relaxing and taking part in a few family activities.

The washing machine has been on lots since we got back but the weather has been rubbish so it's all been inside, thankfully it's sunny this afternoon so have got everything outside.

Have also spent today ironing and labelling the boys school uniforms so we're ready for going back on Wednesday.

I came home to a big bundle of paperwork for the new job so have been working through that, got a couple more chunkier bits left to do and then will need to scan and return it all tomorrow. I'm hoping this will all get processed quickly so I can start at some point this month but realistically early October is more likely.

There will be some costs to incur for starting work, the main one being the fact that I'll need to buy some office style work wear as nothing I have fits 😳 I'm going to have a look at V!nted to get a few basics to get me started. I'll be getting a company car with the job, they'll be giving me a hire car until my company car arrives which is great but I will need to look at buying car seats for the boys. I possibly may also need to buy an office desk and chair but not rushing into this as I can use DH's home office when he's out and our dining table when he's in.

DS2 was sick all over our sofa before we went away and some of the scatter cushions haven't survived being in the washing machine. I've managed to pick up 6 for £5 from Marketplace that match our colour scheme quite well so that's a big saving on anything we may have bought from a shop.

DH and I have a night booked away early October but other than this we have no plans for the remainder of the year, no birthdays either so hoping to batten down the hatches and and keep spends under control particularly with the cost of living rises and the horrendous pending energy increases. I'm pleased we haven't got too much on as it means we can get the boys settled back into school and their clubs and then I can really dedicate myself to getting to grips with the new role. I've discovered my holiday year round Jan -Dec so I'm hoping I can take any accrued leave at the end of the year and have a decent Christmas break after 3 months or so of getting my head around it all 🤞

savingholmes

Glad you had a lovely time away.

Good luck with the start date.

DancingInTheRain

Free money lot for September is at £68.04 not bad for a week.

My contacts tell me they've been approached for reference so the job start date seems to be getting closer 😊 I got the required paperwork back so just waiting on everything being processed.

Both boys finally back to school yesterday, the silence was deafening but enjoyable. I literally did nothing other than relax, was bliss!

Currently sat in the hairdressers getting my hair cut & dyed, bye bye grey hairs 👋👋

Not a lot else to report, everything ticking over and I'm continuing to ignore the news, I'll happily stay in denial a little while longer!

savingholmes

Glad you had some time for you. We all need that sometimes.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Congrats on the new job

DancingInTheRain

Free money pot for September now at £80.03.

I don't think I mentioned I signed up for the Asda rewards app a few weeks ago, I've stuck to doing our normal shopping and I have £24.30 in my cash pot already. It has to be spent within 6 months of earning it so I think I'll let it build up and it can be used towards Xmas treats.

We're having a very lazy Sunday, just finished a full English which should keep our tummies full all day and all of us are happily lounging in our PJ's looking at screens. No real plans for today but it is dry and bright here so may get dressed and go for a walk this afternoon.

DH had an extremely busy week at work so is exhausted and the boys are equally tired from going back to school/Scouts/swimming. They both really enjoyed going back to swimming yesterday which I'm pleased about after they had such a long break away from it. DS1 in particular was really throwing himself into it, DS2 was more cautious but did well too. DH and I both feel its a worthwhile spend paying a little extra for the to be in a smaller group (only 4 children in total) as the instructor was really attentive to all the children and their different confidence levels.

Have a load of washing on the line and have ironed a few bits of school uniform, we're having smoked basa wraps and salad for our evening meal and then early nights all round ready for the new working week. 

**ETA just logged on to DH's student loan account and the interest rate has gone up from 1.5% to 2.75%  This is now higher than our mortgage rate (2.52%). Once I'm settled in to the new job I really want to tackle this loan once and for all. The remaining balance is £4480 so hopefully by manipulating 0% credit cards we'll be able to do so. One for the 'to-do' list...

Hope everyone else is having a good weekend x

DancingInTheRain

Nice little milestone hit today, the "What We Owe The World" total stands at £53,875, a reduction of exactly £6,000 since the start of the year which was my target for the end of 2022