Young And Dumb

Mx_Emmin

In an ideal world I would do two separate posts, one on the last day of the month, and one on the 1st of the month explaining how I’m going to work it the next month. But yesterday I had a migraine.

I was mulling over yesterday, I thought if I raided every category, I might have enough for a deposit on a flat. I would have to raid the emergency fund though. I was thinking about that on the commute home, then I walked in the door to find the dog bleeding. He was fine, but we did have to pay the vets £67 for a steroid & antibiotic cream. Because I was at work, I’m not 100% sure what he did, but I suspect he tried to crawl in somewhere too small and scratched himself. So I guess thats the universe reminding me why we don’t raid emergency funds.

~*~

On 31st May 2022:

My Bank Accounts Net Worth is £12,805.02

£1,477.96 is in my “Next Month Income” category

£2,215.13 is my H2B ISA (House deposit, though I’ve got a secondary category I’m trying to save a little more for the house deposit in by the end of the year)

£1000 is in my “Next Move” category

£950 is in my “Gym” category, waiting to see is I can get any help with that and move this money elsewhere

£810 is in my “Next Laptop” category

£657.01 is in my “Next Phone” category

£500 is in my “Canal Boat” category

And then the rest is in smaller categories

Banking Net Worth May 2022

My Investing & Pension Net Worth is £12,720.11

£12,232.20 of that is in my work pension, to which I am currently contributing 8% and my employer is contributing 12.5%

£382.68 is in my bank’s Investment service, I put £25 a month in there and some fund managers do hopefully smart things with it. It’s telling me that over time my investment through them has gone down in value by £1.63

£75.68 is in my Freetrade Account, where I like to pretend I know how to day trade. I dont contribute to this on a regular schedule, but so far I’ve put £71 in it so technically I’m making a profit.

£11.82 is in my Paypal Crypto account, where I like to pretend I know how Bitcoin works. I dont contribute to this on a regular schedule, but so far I’ve put £15 in so I am making a loss at this point.

£20.08 is in a Crowdcube account. This doesn’t seem to change in value so I think it was more of a GoFundMe rather than an Investment.

I haven’t been tracking data long to do much of a graph for Investment Net Worth, but here we are

Investment Net Worth May 2022

~*~

So when I was budgeting out my income into all my categories, I ended up being £26 over assigned, and I wasn’t able to do any short term goals. I wanted to get a shopping trolley but I wasn’t able to.

I ended up reducing my sims category by £5, my tattoo category by £5, my hobbies category by £10, and extending the goal date for refilling therapy category from October to December. Also I ended up reducing my easter eggs 2023 category by 58p, so now it only has £3.06 in. Gotta start somewhere.

So now I need a plan to try afford a shopping trolley.

The one I really want is this one VOUNOT Folding Shopping Trolley on 6 Wheels, but it’s £32. I was also looking at this one Amazon Basics 2-Wheel Shopping Trolley for £24.

Except I also found this one on Etsy that’s randomly £7? That’s tempting, I could maybe use it for a few months and save up for a better one.

Other ideas to save up for the good trolley:

If I can resist teh Bird & Blend Christmas in July sale this year, maybe I could use that money for a trolley? However that plan relies on me exercising self control around tea and…. eehhhhhh….. I’d love to say I could and will, but I think I better just wait until after the sale is over to avoid overcommitting.

Another idea – that I’ve already asked my boss tbh – is to do an extra hour of overtime per week. Just one more day. I’m probably running pretty close to my limits so we’ll see how two days a week go.

Finally, I’m going to try do another switcher offer get some cash. I’ve opened a burner account with my current bank, it was really quick because they already know me, and when the card arrives I’ll just see who offer the best money/least effort and “switch” to them, and when I get the money close the account back down again.

~*~

Anyway so thats a really long post  Have a good jubilee bank holiday haha

Mx_Emmin

Sims 4 werewolves have been announced! I’m really excited for them.

I do technically have enough for the pack, but I’m wary of another wedding stories disaster so I might let other people play test the pack for me first…

I’m worried that the pack will be essentially non-functional upon release due to massive amounts of bugs

~*~

I finally signed up for gym and have been swimming once. It was kind of bittersweet because I used to be really good at swimming, but now I’m… not.

I’ve only been swimming once (now twice) in a decade since trans body image issues kicked in. I also just dont have the stamina in general that I used to. I wanted to stay in the water for longer than half an hour, but I was getting too tired to swim by the end so I ended up doing walking laps on the pool which I saw someone else suggest in an EDS group.

I think because I’ve been told that swimming is an easier exercise, I may have conflated easier and easy in my head, and didnt into account the “exercise” part. It did take me months to work up to jogging for half an hour. I just way overdid it and was kind of reduced to mush for the rest of the day.

I was also having trouble holding my breath underwater for some reason. I just kept panicking slightly any time I ducked underwater, which I havent done since I was very small. I’ve bought sold swimming goggles, in case chlorine is the issue, and some dive sticks to practice with.

~*~

I did buy that Etsy shopping trolley in the end, its arrived. Its smaller and flimiser than ideal – but it was £7 to be fair – but it should be a good practice one whilst I save up for the good one.

~*~

I’m making progress on the PIP application, my partner is helping me review the answers to each question and has sent me away with a whole bundle of notes and things to talk out. I did buy a guide from a website that seems/seemed useful, but it didn’t tell me until after I bought it that the guide is 108 pages long! So I havent quite been able to tackle that just yet.

Mx_Emmin

Just a mini update this time. Not much been happening around here.

~*~

I’ve not had any overtime last week and potentially next week too. You need a minimum of two people to enter the branch early, and the only two people besides me willing to go in early are both off sick. Once the laptops are introduced at work, overtime will be much easier to do from home though.

~*~

That £7 shopping trolley broke on its first use  I did manage to find some money for the £30 version but I’m not sure if the dog food will last until the end of the month, so I’m holding off for now. If I have to buy dog food earlier than planned I’ll use the shopping trolley money.

Mx_Emmin

I got refund a for that shopping trolley. Hopefully next month I can buy one myself, although I am also seeing the occupational therapy team next week so maybe they can help me first. Actually the Etsy shop was very accommodating, and I felt a little bad review the item negatively. I did try mention how helpful they were in the review… but at the end of the day, the trolley literally broke on its first use.

~*~

Bad news: The dog food has run out faster than anticipated. I can’t maths.

Good news: The food was on offer, so I had enough for the dog food anyway. And also was still able to get another toy (snuffle mat) for him! He loves it so much, it’s kind of difficult to get him off it once it’s done haha, it really plays into behaviour he already had.

Bad(?) news: I accidentally discovered pet first aid kits were a thing and panicked that I didn’t have one, so I ended up overspending at pets at home anyway.

Mediocre news: It’s halfway through the month, I feel comfortable rolling with the punches at this point than earlier in the month, theres less time for potential surprises by now

…..Good news: I will shortly have a pet first aid kit for the next time I come home to the dog bleeding

~*~

I really, really, want to buy that new sims pack. I technically have enough money but I just need to see how glitchy it is first. But they all look so cool! And, yes, yes, they kind of look like furries, but tbh they match the art style of the sims 4. Its hard to imagine a different type of werewolf that still matches the sims 4 art style.

Sarahwithlove

PIP forms are hard. The best advise I can give is give as much detail as possible about what you are struggling with. Remember the person reading it knows nothing about you and what you can and can't do. The wait is sadly 6+ months for a decision but it does get backdated. If for any reason it gets refused then make sure you appeal the decision. Good luck and feel free to reach out if there is anything on the form you are struggling with. 

mary_hinge

A fellow EDSer here. My daughter was seen privately at the hypermobility unit in London by the amazing Professor G some 8/9 years ago. she went through the PIP process last year and found it was actually an easier process than DLA. We struggle with swimming from an autonomic dysfunction side of things. plenty of water and salt before and after because oddly water is dehydrating!

Mx_Emmin

Sarahwithlove said:

PIP forms are hard. The best advise I can give is give as much detail as possible about what you are struggling with. Remember the person reading it knows nothing about you and what you can and can't do. The wait is sadly 6+ months for a decision but it does get backdated. If for any reason it gets refused then make sure you appeal the decision. Good luck and feel free to reach out if there is anything on the form you are struggling with. 

 Thanks I've got a couple of friends helping me with it, plus I've had an organisation reccomended to me to reach out to... I'm pretty much expecting it to go to tribunal because I dont "look disabled" so I'm somewhat prepared for that. Unfortunately.

Mx_Emmin

mary_hinge said:

A fellow EDSer here. My daughter was seen privately at the hypermobility unit in London by the amazing Professor G some 8/9 years ago. she went through the PIP process last year and found it was actually an easier process than DLA. We struggle with swimming from an autonomic dysfunction side of things. plenty of water and salt before and after because oddly water is dehydrating!

I've been told this a few times... because of POTS, right? Should I just sprinkle salt in my water bottle? Haha

mary_hinge

Mx_Emmin said:

mary_hinge said:

A fellow EDSer here. My daughter was seen privately at the hypermobility unit in London by the amazing Professor G some 8/9 years ago. she went through the PIP process last year and found it was actually an easier process than DLA. We struggle with swimming from an autonomic dysfunction side of things. plenty of water and salt before and after because oddly water is dehydrating!

I've been told this a few times... because of POTS, right? Should I just sprinkle salt in my water bottle? Haha

you could do, we use the rehydration tablets in our water bottles, like the nunns ones. 

Mx_Emmin

Apologies for the brief absence, life went a bit stressful, and then I had a four day migraine that I’m only just coming out of.

~*~

I’m starting to look at housing options after an occupational therapy visit, they reckon I need some handhelds on the stairs but we need landlords permission to install those.

But so far the landlords response has been… lukewarm. And they’ve said maybe its time for me to look for a house better suited to my needs.

If I went and rented somewhere else it’s going to double my housing expenses easily and the only place to take that from is how much I’m setting aside for a house deposit 

On the other hand if I raided every fund except the job loss fund, I’d have approx 5k, which miiiiiight do a deposit on a small flat?

~*~

When I say “raid every fund” I do mean EVERY fund (except job loss). New Laptop. Canal Boat Training. Christmas. Pride. Gym/Swim. New Mobile. Career development study. Everything.

It would be nice not to constantly worry about being kicked out.

I did a couple of mortgage calculators from a few banks whilst walking the dog… With an annual income of approx 22k (I didnt have bonus figures to hand but the bonus isn’t guaranteed anyway) and a deposit of 5k, the banks that would do 95% mortgages would lend me up 90k ish

I’m not seeing any 2bed flats in that price range so a lodger probably isn’t doable

One thing that has occured to me, mortgages are fixed for 2-5 years ish, on the assumption that you will not move in that time. 2 years, fine, that can go by pretty quick, I’m not going to put any expectations on that timescale. But 5 years… what if in that time I wanted to move in with my partner, or my partner move in with me.

So I should think about that when looking at properties in terms of space, need to keep an eye out for a flat two people can live in without falling over each other.

It would probably balance out as more expensive than my current situation, but if I had to move, buying might be cheaper than renting? Unless a boiler breaks or something

Its all going to be more expensive than my current setup. But what’s the least more expensive

Mortgage payments *could* be less than my current rent, but not by much less as my rent is currently low

Mortgage payments would be less than rent elsewhere. But I will have to pay bills, council tax, etc. But I wont have to save up for a deposit anymore. But I will have to replenish savings.

~*~

The way I see it: it looks I am moving in the next year. I am have some choices about where and when to go.

My options are essentially to rent or to own.

I’ve been looking at both options, and both options cost roughly the same.

If I rent, I will not be able to save any more towards my house deposit.

If I buy, at least I will be on the property ladder, and it will be a lot easier to make adaptations to a property I own.

But then if interest rates keep going up, what if I get on the property ladder just to fall right back off a few years later?