Young And Dumb

Mx_Emmin

Humdinger1 said:

@Mx_Emmin totally agree re your Narnia point.  There are many ways to communicate and to get this stuff right; as long as your intentions are good, all are valid in my opinion- and I'm a churchgoer.  Love Humdinger xx 

Worse case scenario, if no-ones listening, I've "wasted" some rock salt, and even that depends on your definition of wasted, if it brings comfort haha

Mx_Emmin

The Decree Absolute came through on the 5th (Thursday) so I guess “applying for it” was more of “press the ‘generate document’ button”.

Obviously it’s a good thing, there’s no disputing that. If I never saw that man again I’d die happy.

But it’s also such a big thing that my brain just wanted to run away from it for a few days.

But also it’s not a big thing because he’s not been in my life for a while.

I’m scheduling in a celebratory take out night with my partner, and the wedding ring cleansing ritual. I’ve also bought a bottle of Glen Scotia Victoriana to celebrate. That’s my favourite of the whiskeys I’ve tried since buying myself the new year whiskies.

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I have £407 (£327 now after the whiskey) left in my Divorce category. After the take out stuff is done, I was hoping to use it to top up yearly goals (was hoping to use it to do crypto, but it looks unlikely), but I think may have to top up groceries a little this month – I spent badly this week and have over half my groceries money spent already.

Part of the issue is that every month I’ve been trying to refill my therapy category for the next month, about £112-£140 per month. Once I’ve finished therapy I can take 2-3 months to get category back to 100%, instead of trying to get it back to 100% in one month. But from June I need to bite the bullet and increase the groceries category to £180.

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Part of the budgeting review, I been reviewing my Bus card calculations on spreadsheet. A monthly ticket is £60, if I buy daily tickets when only walking 1/3 of time it costs £58, but if I’m only walking 1/4 of the time it cost £66…. but I’d have to commit to a £60 expenditure… In April I spent £56 on public transport…

I have an appointment later this month to follow up on whether or not I’d be eligible for the mobility pass, but if not, I might need to seriously consider buying a bus pass myself. Its really frustrating struggling with my newfound lack of mobility and agility, but its equally frustrating trying to balance every bus ticket against my budget and whether it would be “worth it” to buy a ticket, whether I’d get the most use out of it.

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Today I was cooking my meal for next week. I’m going to try empty out some of the freezer, so I only needed to cook one batch meal, but ironically this led to me spending more as I kept going “oh well since I’m only cooking one meal I can afford to buy…” Rookie mistake. I also decided to support local businesses and went to an independent vegan deli instead of the deli aisle at Tescos. Why does it feel like so many purchases have a morality tax? Anyway.

I’ve made a lentil and tomato soup. I didn’t have a specific recipe, it’s kinda freestyle, but I know how to make lentil Dahl, and I know how to make tomato soup, so I figured it out lol. It’s a bit thicker than I envisioned, more like a sauce, but it tastes pretty good.

Mx_Emmin

I was hoping my pay slip would be generated this week so I could see how much overtime works out to be, but I guess it’ll be generated next week. That’s why this was a quiet week from me, I was hoping to write about that.

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I have, however, had a mysterious credit into my bank account – not that I’m complaining, but I feel I should probably check it was genuine, which means I now have to spend time chasing people down 

The reference had my name on it, so I can at least be reasonably certain it was intended for me.

The amount would roughly line up with a Sharesave plan maturity (£180 – £5pm x 3 years), except I’ve no correspondence telling me a plan is about to mature. I believe I’m meant to be asked if I want cash or shares? I’ve recieved other correspondence from my Sharesave scheme, some within the past 2 months. So they know where I am.

It shows as coming from [X] agencies, I have no [X] Building Society products other than Sharesave.

I also believe (though I may be wrong) that it is the wrong time of year for Sharesave plans to mature.

How weird

I messaged HR, which just gave me the email address for the Sharesave scheme, so that’ll probably be next week too before I find out.

Do other countries have Sharesave schemes? It’s a voluntary saving scheme, when you sign up they lock in a share price, with an employee discount, on the day you sign up to the scheme. You pick how much and for how long you save, I remember picking £5pm for 3 years, and it comes out of your wage pre-tax. When the savings come to the end of the timeframe you chose, you get to buy shares at the share price that got locked in when you signed up, which obviously you’re hoping is now a good deal, or you can just take the cash back. I’m assuming other countries have similar schemes under other names.

Then again, this is mostly a British website, so maybe that explanation was unnecessary...

Mx_Emmin

A thought occurred to me, after the main celebrations were over, that if I take my remaining divorce fund and add it to this mystery credit (assuming I get confirmation that it is what I think it is, and I can keep it)… then that might be enough for a private EDS referral/diagnosis. I have £467, the person I know who previously went private spent £300, but there’s also train tickets and hotel.

However that means I cant use any of it for topping up slightly underfunded yearly goals. Decisions decisions. my initial thought was to wait until June to decide, see how I can tackle my yearly goals next budgeting day, see how I feel.

Unfortunately this morning I spoke to the NHS Social Prescribing team re bus pass etc, and all the mobility passes etc all hinge on a successful PIP (benefits) application. It’s kind of a Gateway benefit, once I have that, I automatically qualify for a whole bunch else.

She was saying I could try apply for PIP without a formal diagnosis, but… we all know the government. Time to look into private diagnosis I guess! So I’ve booked something in for July, I may have to move the exact date because of work. And, yeah, I was quoted £300 for the consultation.

Google maps says it’s a 3 hour train journey, but it’ll probably still be a 3 day journey for me, I’ll need to go down the night before or I’ll be too exhausted to talk to the Dr on the day. I can come back the same day after the appt but I’ll be dead the day after.

Luckily, the mystery credit was confirmed to be mine. Apparently they emailed me last November and told me I had 6 months to exchange it for shares, or they’d just give me the cash, but every email they’ve sent me this week ended up in spam so I assume that also happened in November.

Mx_Emmin

My salary and payslip finally came in – the overtime came out to about £116 pre-tax, and my salary was about £70 post tax more than last month. It’s been hard to figure out an average salary this year, each month has been so different.

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I’m upset about having to apply for PIP. I was just hoping to avoid that application process, I’ve seen people go through it, it’s a !!!!!! process. And theres a good chance I’m going to have to confront and write down all the things I’m struggling with, only to get denied.

Instead of “batch cook meals” I am “eating frozen meals due to an inability to cook”, and I’ve got to write about my selective mutism/autistic shutdowns. And all I wanted was a damn bus pass. I just need to get the appointment stuff sorted with work, then I’ll start downloading forms and whatnot.

Humdinger1

@Mx_Emmin I'm woefully under informed about PIP; once you've done the process, does it get easier? I think I've read somewhere that it's a gateway to a lot of other things? Keep going; you are doing wonderfully xx

Mx_Emmin

Humdinger1 said:

I think I've read somewhere that it's a gateway to a lot of other things? 

This is essentially why I've been told to apply for it, all the things I need are locked behind it  thanks for the encouragement, this is going to be a long slog

jusferbrowsing

When filling forms or spending time on the phone I try to think of the potential financial savings then work out the 'hourly rate' for my efforts. Can be a great motivator.

PIP is a bit of a nightmare when applying from what my brother tells me but he got it and so do many others. I'm sure you will grit your teeth and get it done.

Here's to a successful outcome

Mx_Emmin

So I've booked an appointment with a private doctor on Monday 4th July, and here’s what I wanted to do:

Travel down on Sunday, stay overnight in Travelodge or whatever, appointment on Monday, travel back on Monday evening. Unfortunately both those train tickets are very expensive for some reason.

By comparison:

A same day return is £110

Or if I travel down on Monday, do the appointment, stay overnight somewhere, then travel back on Tuesday, the train tickets are £20-£30 each. Accommodation prices very, I’ve used £80 as an estimate which seems about middle of the road.

I really didnt want to travel down the same day as the appointment, I’ll be wiped, but I think I’m going to have to at those prices

I have decided to buy a phone power bank to keep my phone running on the journey though, and I am buying a train discount card.

I don’t have much to say on finances this week, I’m just low on energy and focusing on this PIP stuff. My partner has been through the process before and has suggested I keep track of all my symptoms and struggles each day to show how I need help. You know those positive thinking exercises where you sit down and write three good things that happened each day? It’s essentially the opposite of that. It’s pretty depressing.

Mx_Emmin

The other day I was telling my therapist about stuff I was struggling with, in regards to the PIP application

And I guess I hadnt talked too much to him about that before because he was just looking more and more concerned the more I talked

And then I was talking to a friend who’s gone through the PIP process before and after we’d been talking a little he told me I “definitely qualify” but at that point I’d only told him a third of the things I’m struggling with

So those sure are some emotions. Its quite possible that I’ve been struggling more than I’ve given myself credit for

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I’ve read that apparently It can take up to 6 months from when you first contact the DWP to when you get your first PIP payment

I’m just going to have to go ahead and buy a monthly bus pass from now on. I dont have the energy to constantly be doing calculations on whether it’s most efficient to buy a single or a day ticket

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I took the money for the phone power bank from my “new phone” category, so my phone will just have to hang 1 month longer than originally planned – but I’m not concerned about that. Worse case scenario I end up on another contract if my phone cant live that long.

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In regards to this Crypto crash – I guess I’m technically affected by it, as my Bitcoin has fallen to £8.95 from an investment of £15

If anything, I think may be a good time to buy in? I dont think it’s going anywhere, I think it’ll recover eventually… but right now my focus is on EDS and PIP, I dont have the brainspace/funds for anything else