Keeping on the Straight and Narrow...

EssexHebridean

Sorry to hear you've been a poorly household over the break - there are so many random nasties around at the moment and that's before you take into account how many people seem to have covid!  Your new year sounds lovely though - and your planning for things to achieve in 2024 too, I look forward to seeing your steps towards achieving them! 

Lovely to have presents from your jobs for Christmas too - always nice to be thought of isn't it! 

DancingInTheRain

Thanks EH and you're right, it is nice to be thought of ☺️

Well DS2 had a weird night last night, woke up crying around 11pm, he said his ears were hurting and he had a bad dream. I couldn't settle him so gave him Calpol and put him in bed with me (DH took 1 for the team and slept on the sofa) but poor DS2 slept really fitfully and either cried or tossed and turned until around 6am when he fell into a deep sleep until 10am. No mention of sore ears when he got up.

Obviously kept him off school today and he spent most of the day snuggled up on the sofa with DH, he seems okay now and has gone to bed so hopefully he'll have a better night tonight 🤞

It's my day off today so left DH & DS2 to it and took DS1 to school (after battling to get him out of bed and ready on time) then took mum for her grocery shopping.

I ended up getting some bargains for next Christmas which were paid for using part of the vouchers received - got both boys a Xmas jumper 2 sizes bigger than they are now as they're growing like weeds 😂, £16 for both instead of £32. Also picked up some Christmas crackers reduced from £14 to £3.50 and got the boys 2 packs of 30 Christmas cards, only 50p each. All safely packed away on the loft with the Xmas decorations.

Also used up the last of the Xmas cheese & cheap veg to make a batch of broccoli and stilton soup and a batch of veg soup. 

Managed to hit 10,000 steps for the first time in ages too so between that and the very broken sleep last night I'm shattered, hoping for a decent sleep tonight 🤞

savingholmes

Your NYE party sounded lovely. Happy New Year. What a lovely surprise about the gifts from both jobs. Hope your household return to health soon.

DancingInTheRain

DS2 made it into school yesterday (or rather I sent him in dosed up on Ca!pol) only to receive a phone call at 1230 asking us to pick him up as he was out of sorts - naughty mummy! Brought him home, settled him on the sofa where he promptly fell asleep for 2.5hrs. He slept last night too and has gone in and completed a full day today so hopefully he's fine now. Thinking he's simply exhausted and a bit overwhelmed after a very late night NYE.

Have been a bit productive on my day off yesterday and set off a new savings tin for small change, going to let this build up for the first half of the year for the summer holidays and then again in the 2nd half of the year for Xmas, also set up a DD for mine and DH's ISA's. Listed a few more items on V!nted and have a bag in the boot of the car ready for a charity shop. Walked to and from work this morning, 1.5 miles each way so feeling suitably virtuous  just need to make it more of a habit!

savingholmes

All sounds very positive and virtuous. Hope DS2 improves quickly. Well done on the walk.

EssexHebridean

Ahh poor DS2 - it’s probably a testament to how good your routines are usually that a single late night has affected him so much - and of course that is also something he will probably grow out of too, as you say hopefully he will be back to normal after a week of being back in the usual routines again. Good bargain hunting on the Christmas stuff, too. I’m possibly missing out on that sort of thing this year as I have consciously not been anywhere to buy anything of that type this week! 

I have serious distance from work envy - I have just under a mile and a half to walk from where I park my car for my office, but equally that parking is after a 19 mile commute that can take anything from 35 minutes to several hours! 😩 I would LOVE to be close enough to do a full walking commute! 

DancingInTheRain

Another week has passed, been busy with both jobs and have worked every day bar 2 this year! It looks like job 2 may come to an end sooner than planned due to the contract not performing as well as expected (nothing I can influence) I'm quite at peace with this as I was very conscious it was a casual agreement and have not counted the income in our regular monthly budget so will wait and see how that works out.

Haven't managed many more walking to and from work days, as is really difficult on school days owing to distances of both boys schools from our house and then onward to the office so not feeling quite as virtuous 

DH has finally returned to work this week after 3 weeks off, he's still not 100% but much better than he was. DS1 doing well and DS2 still a bit up and down but hasn't had any more time off school. Their Squirrels/Beavers/Swimming sessions have all restarted now so we're all very much in our 'normal' routine now.

In money news, have made just under £40 in sales on V!nted since my last post. Today DH and I have both applied to switch our donor current accounts to the new T$b account which should earn us £125 each plus an opportunity to take advantage of the monthly cashback attached to the accounts.

We used some of the free £'s earned in Dec and Jan to buy passports for the boys and to pay for airport parking for our summer holiday. We've also continued to put any small loose change into our savings tin, not much but it all adds up. Not had much free time for surveys recently.

It's been really sub zero temperatures here the last few days, although no snow,  so the heating has been on a lot more than usual. Tried to counteract this by using the tumble dryer and dishwasher less. Pegged washing out on dry days and hand washed the majority of the pots, pans and cutlery but this month's bill is still likely to be a shocker. 

Working tomorrow and Thursday then have a much needed 4 day weekend, no plans yet, will just be nice to have some time off and relax a little in between doing those nuisance chores that just keep popping up!

Hope everyone else is doing okay x

savingholmes

Glad DH is finally on the mend. 

Sorry job 2 is looking rocky it sounded like you were enjoying it more than job 1.

Well done as ever on the free £.

EssexHebridean

Glad to hear your DH is finally on the mend - that's really taken a while hasn't it, poor him! 

A shame about your job 2 as well - will you look to replace that with something else or just stick with Job 1 for now? It certainly sounds like you could do with factoring in a bit more down-time! 

Don't beat yourself up about the walking thing - you can only do what you can do, and if it's not practical with the commitments you have to do the walking to/from school on a daily basis, then that's just not the right challenge to set yourself, is it! 

DancingInTheRain

Thanks both, it's such a relief that DH is on the mend although his cough is still lingering. poor thing.

Still no final decision on job 2, it's looking like the decision will be made towards the end of the month following a leadership meeting. Job 1 is actually going well and is much less stressful which is what I need at the moment. I've had a good chat with management there this week and there may be scope for me to increase my hours with them later in the year so, as one door potentially closes, another may open on the income front.

In the meantime the base wage I receive is enough for our needs, both financially and in terms of time to support family needs so I can't complain. I won't be looking for anything else.

Managed to squeeze in a walk to and from the office on Thursday, it was -5 here so it was a relief to reach the warmth of the office and home at the end of each journey!

Also opened the YBS Xmas regular saver after seeing it mentioned on a few diaries. Only deposited £25 for now, undecided on whether to fund this with a regular SO, ad-hoc payments or a combination of both.

With the weather warnings this weekend we won't be venturing far, other than taking the boys for their swimming lesson and then DS2 has a party this afternoon. Really want to give upstairs a deep clean as it's been a while so may work through that slowly, I know how to live!