Keeping on the Straight and Narrow...

savingholmes

Good that you have options - and meantime can enjoy the extra time.

DancingInTheRain

The boys passports have arrived today, very fast turn around given we only applied for them last Sunday!

Also got the new T$B account info in the post so they're both set up now, both accounts are switching from the donor accounts on Friday all being well. Thanks to a tip on one of the other forum pages we've both managed to uplift the £20 cashback earned from TopCa$hback for opening these accounts to £30 as they've matched the better offer available via £co so a nice extra win there too.

The stormy weather has been pretty bad here and back with a vengeance today, thankfully no damage to our property but a number of trees down within our local area which has caused a bit of mayhem. 

Managed to get the upstairs rooms deep cleaned over the weekend and on top of other chores for the first time in quite a while. DH and I are now working on moving him out of his office and into our smaller living room which will then free up the room to create a bedroom for DS1 who is getting pretty desperate at nearly 8 years old to have somewhere he can go and chill in peace away from us all - teenager in training! 

Hope everyone else is keeping well x

EssexHebridean

Oh goodness the room to himself will make such a difference to DS1 won't it - actually, probably to the rest of the household as well, perhaps?! Good that you can shuffle rooms around and alter their uses to make that work too.

Great bank account wrangling there - have you managed to combine cashback with the account switching bonus on those? 

DancingInTheRain

You're right @EssexHebridean it will make a big difference, we've only told him that we're emptying it out so that we can redecorate so he's in for a big surprise once he realises it's going to be for him! We're very lucky that our house is reasonably flexible with how we can use the rooms, it wasn't anything we really thought about pre kids/covid but has been a godsend, especially to accomodate work from home in recent years.

Yes we've combined cashback (£30 each) with the switching bonus (£125 each) and then can earn £10 cashback each for 6 months if we meet the spending conditions of the account (20 card transactions) so will be paying £1 off the CC each day and buying lots of £1 Amazon gift card top ups!

savingholmes

Well done on the free money. Good luck with the room redecoration and the surprise - that sounds lovely.

DancingInTheRain

End of January Round Up:

WWOTW figure is £68,365: Mortgage is £63,900, Credit Card is £4465

Free £s earned this month - £220

So all going okay, also managed to get a couple of bits in the sales for next Xmas and for birthday gifts. Also had to get a new tyre on my car this week as had a puncture  so not done too bad given how long this month seems to have lasted!

Had a meeting today and job 2 has come to an end. I'm not too disappointed to be honest as it was a bit too much of a juggle fitting it in with or other commitments. It's all very amicable on both sides and I'll have a final wage from them at the end of Feb so feeling at peace with it all.

I'm also a little older than I was when I last posted! Have had a very low key birthday due to being floored by yet another cold, spent most of the weekend in bed. So not much progress made on repurposing the rooms but we'd already said we'd take it steady getting these done. Thankfully work at job 1 has been generally quiet this week so I've managed to get everything done despite feeling rubbish and am feeling much better today. 

Other than my meeting this morning I've had a quiet day pottering around the house, got some washing on the line as it was quite windy, brought it in before the heavens opened. Dreading the school run, we're going to get soaked!

beanielou

Belated happy birthday 

EssexHebridean

Belated happy birthday - sorry to hear it ended up being low key due to being poorly - there seems to be a lot of that about at the moment. 

Glad you at least know where you stand on Job 2 and that it's all ended on an amicable basis. It'll be nice to have the extra time back, I bet! 

savingholmes

Belated happy birthday. 

Good you know where you stand on job 2 and that you have another pay period to come so more time to plan. I think perhaps step back and consider  your goals in moving to job 1 and how best to achieve those moving forwards before jumping into whatever would otherwise come next.

DancingInTheRain

Wow over 2 years since I fell back into lurkdom, better blow off the cobwebs 🕸️😳

Health - Its been a busy couple of years to say the least, DH's mental health plummeted leading to him being off work for 6 months.

Thankfully he recognised he needed additional support and found a counsellor who was able to help him get on an even keel. I'm ticking over, generally over the stress I felt when DH was at his worst, still carrying a couple of stones more than I'd like & now peri-meni which is "fun" 😐

Travel - the holiday we went on was a disaster due to DH's health, in hindsight we should have rescheduled to a later date but we live and learn. We also stuck to a UK break last year which was much less stressful on many levels.

Me - I stayed in job 1, it's a really good little job in terms of flexibility, no pressure. Could be better in terms of benefits but ideal for me for the foreseeable while juggling family commitments and the dreaded school runs and holidays. I have taken on a few extra responsibilities and do extra hours where I can fit them in and, to be fair, my hourly rate has increased to reflect this, so I'm relatively settled and happy in this role.

The children - The boys are now 10 and 7 and a half (don't forget the half 😉) and continue to grow like weeds 🤣 but they're great kids and we're super proud of them.

Home - well amongst health woes, life, family, the usual, we have also continued with the renovations, given DH's health I have taken a lead on getting these completed as, if we're going to spend more time at home, then I wanted it to be a space that was finally finished after living here over a decade. This is now done and we finally have a lovely finished home 🎉

Money - Had lots going out and not always the same coming in. My car also quite unexpectedly needed replaced which didn't help matters. No longer debt free but as of DH's payday on Thursday we now have equal amounts of debt (all 0%) and savings.

So I'm back to knuckle down and get this debt down again. Debt is at 0% but scattered across a few lenders so need to gather the data, dust off my old spreadsheets and focus.

Hopefully a few of you who used to cheer me on will forgive my long absence and offer some support, along with anyone else who reads this.

This is a great community and I feel relieved to have taken the plunge and return ♥️

Well done if you read all this, future posts will hopefully be less of a monologue!