Queen Bee fighting for her Hive!

[Deleted User]

Good luck with the C25K, you'll love it when you get into it. It will then become part of your daily routine. Let us know how you get on x

Drawingaline

Congratulations on sorting the washing. I found buying a smaller washing basket and getting into a good routine with it helped. Then lockdown hit and my routine disappeared (used to put a load on at 6.30 before taking hubby to the station) then we moved and this house has a utility room on the ground floor and I keep forgetting it's there 🤦 (much easier when the machines were in the kitchen and you could hear them finish!) 

I hear you on the cheap month. I blew my budget on kids week and we now have a total of seven shows to see in August and the girl has aged out of our friends and family Railcard so that's an extra £10 for each journey into London 🤦😂 it will be worth it though.

Glad you enjoyed camping. As someone still involved in Girl Guiding I adore camping and would go more often but hubby flatly refuses to go. May book a couple of nights away in the holidays thought and go you doing it on a train. I did that once but it was me and my boyfriend and we were 18, younger legs and backs To carry it all!

Queen_of_the_Hive

In an episode not too distant from Motherland off we trot - i.e. me and the kids on their bikes to the park. To put it in context, the walk is only 5 mins but with littlest bee this is a war of boy against machine. We stop multiple times, tears, tantrums, the works! This run is hard work and its not started yet! 

Timer started and little bee moving we are in the 5 min warm up, all going well until little bee starts crying.'i can't go up the hill'. At the top of my voice I bellow - "just peddle!", only to turn around and see a massive line of people queuing up for the drop in jab session! Oh lordy! 

Sarah Millican gets us going but little bee is still crying for absolutely no reason! So in the end I plonk the kids down on a bench and end up doing mini laps of a triangle. Kids complain I was taking too long but victory - day 1 finished1 hurrah! Go home feeling pretty chuffed in myself! 

This afternoon I have been trying to learn to crochet, maybe one of these days I will actually get there, however it wasn't this afternoon! The kids have enjoyed playing with the kids next door. The weather stayed dry which helps! 

Queen_of_the_Hive

Good Morning Sunday, 

True to form my littlest bee is up mega early well 6am and is bright as a button whereas I'm still half asleep! My eldest went to bed after the football so i'm trying to keep the little one from waking him up! 

I've been in a bit of a mood with myself recently and struggling to break free from it if the truth be told. My partner is reducing his hours at work and taking part retirement so we are currently in a transition period and money is really worrying me a lot at the moment - don't quite know what is going to be our new budget etc and all the gubbins that goes with it & hopefully we have enough for the basics. I'm doing everything I can to keep us afloat, paying debt down, sticking to a budget, using savings as overflow etc but still finding I've lost a bit of the happy factor. Hence why I started the couch to 5k.

At the same time with everything now opening up we are just spending a bit more, but on the normal stuff which was off last year. My dad volunteers on a heritage railway and there is an event coming up which the kids would love - he keeps calling me and gave me the prices. Its not bad but at around the £60 mark, then yesterday there was a fitness studio peddling fliers. I would love to go one time but £10 - £12 for an exercise class is pure luxury. Hence why I run around a park, walk everywhere and do the You Tube! Anyway I'll be sticking with the latter. As I'm then leaving the park another lady was peddling fliers for an amateur dram show they are doing in the park. The lady was cheeky to ask the kids are you coming? I said I'm sorry but no, I can't afford it. I can't do it all. I felt poop for saying it and normally I wouldn't but I just was a bit annoyed by the direct question to the kids. It was wrong on her part to assume everyone can afford to go. She was actually lovely and gave me some tips on how to see the show for free. 

Anyway after the experience in the park I went home, had a little chat to OH and chucked myself into a bit more digging in the garden. 

In the evening I did an very un MSE thing and invested in a new pair of trainers, cost just under £40 but I really needed to replace my current well worn pair. I'll use savings to pay for these.
 
Last night I had a quick check of my current financial position (as a perk me up!) and I have now paid off 7k of debt! and by the end of July will be under 3k owing on the remaining debt. Savings growth is patchy and the next couple of months I'll be digging into savings quite a lot to keep us tied over till we are running on new budget. So I need to accept this year is a transition year where some good stuff has happened but its going to be going backwards to go forwards.  

Queen_of_the_Hive

Drawingaline said:

Congratulations on sorting the washing. I found buying a smaller washing basket and getting into a good routine with it helped. Then lockdown hit and my routine disappeared (used to put a load on at 6.30 before taking hubby to the station) then we moved and this house has a utility room on the ground floor and I keep forgetting it's there 🤦 (much easier when the machines were in the kitchen and you could hear them finish!) 

I hear you on the cheap month. I blew my budget on kids week and we now have a total of seven shows to see in August and the girl has aged out of our friends and family Railcard so that's an extra £10 for each journey into London 🤦😂 it will be worth it though.

Glad you enjoyed camping. As someone still involved in Girl Guiding I adore camping and would go more often but hubby flatly refuses to go. May book a couple of nights away in the holidays thought and go you doing it on a train. I did that once but it was me and my boyfriend and we were 18, younger legs and backs To carry it all!

Aw @Drawingaline how exciting to have a utility room, I had a small one with downstairs loo in my old house but not where I live now. The forecast was awful wet weather for a few days so I was a woman on a mission to get it done. The camping trip was great fun, quite tiring though and I didn't get much sleep but would love to go again somewhere soon. Thinking of taking the kids first week of summer holidays - even if it is only one night to a local campsite. Not booking anything until know its going to be dry. 

The friends and family railcards are fantastic, its unfortunate about the age restriction on the railcard. My youngest turned 5 this year so now we have to pay for everything (it was good getting the under 5's free)! The seven shows sound awesome! Have fun! 

CRANKY40

@Drawingaline have a look at the railcards page - there is one for 16-17 year olds with a 50% discount for £30. If you happen to be able to lay your hands on any clubcard vouchers you only need £10 worth to pay for it. 

Drawingaline

CRANKY40 said:

@Drawingaline have a look at the railcards page - there is one for 16-17 year olds with a 50% discount for £30. If you happen to be able to lay your hands on any clubcard vouchers you only need £10 worth to pay for it. 

I have the money saved for her 16-25 card, but although that gives her discount it doesn't give me any! And often it's just me and her traveling and you need a child with you to qualify for the f&f discount. So I will be getting a network Railcard as that allows other adults to have the discount who are traveling with you. But it's still £10 more than the child ticket. 

The 16-17 wouldn't be cost affective I don't think as she turns 18 in 8 months. But I will compare it....

CRANKY40

Mine is 16, nearly 17 so we've also grown out of the friends & family thing. If we ever have the chance to go anywhere ever again I'm thinking of the Two Together for us as there is only the two of us and we tend to travel from Liverpool to London or from our local station to Liverpool for shopping. I'm fairly sure we wouldn't get our moneys worth out of it just now, although we did from the F&F one when my dad was alive and living in London. 

Drawingaline

CRANKY40 said:

Mine is 16, nearly 17 so we've also grown out of the friends & family thing. If we ever have the chance to go anywhere ever again I'm thinking of the Two Together for us as there is only the two of us and we tend to travel from Liverpool to London or from our local station to Liverpool for shopping. I'm fairly sure we wouldn't get our moneys worth out of it just now, although we did from the F&F one when my dad was alive and living in London. 

There are so many different types! The boy ages out of f&f in the next year so think a network one is the best bet with the f&f for the small two as it has another year to run yet.

Queen_of_the_Hive

@Drawingaline and @CRANKY40 I love this discussion on train passes. I normally have two going, friends and family is my "go to" railcard but sometimes I travel without the kids as they are with their dad so that's when the "two together" kicks in. The two together pass has expired so currently waiting until we have a cost effective travel plan before I buy another one. 

This year I switched to Tesco Clubcard credit card as one of my main spending cards just for the Clubcard points to put towards the railcards. Only time will tell how much points I get off the card as I don't spend in Tesco's usually. Any saving is a good saving though!