Queen Bee fighting for her Hive!

Queen_of_the_Hive

Wowsers its 1st September, how did that happen?? !! I love autumn, swishy swashy through leaves in the woods is a fav family activity so we'll be out and about. 

I've also started thinking about Christmas and ashamed to say that I've bought my chicken for Christmas dinner! Just in case they do have food shortages at least we are sorted... ah the joys of a chest freezer. I want to get the eldest a bike as his main gift, buying secondhand so keeping a look out locally for a good quality bike and thinking about getting a train set for the youngest and venturing into one we could run in the garden so lots to think about. 

I'm not working today, the kids are with their dad so I have a peaceful morning so going to do some survey sites. I need to crack on again with these, they have been earning about £20 a month so not a lot but still every little helps. 

Drawingaline

I feel like the past two months have totally flown past! One day before the smallest is back at school. I am so unprepared 😂

Queen_of_the_Hive

Its Saturday afternoon and I am feeling pretty smug in myself... I've bought my first Christmas present and it was a pretty major one at that. I've bought my eldest a bike. His bike is pretty knackered and getting too small. I was going to buy him one for his birthday but it didn't quite work out that way but lady luck was on my side. Spent wisely and went for a decent make but second hand so this meant my budget went a bit further. I've been saving through the year under the 1p a day challenge so took the money out of this pot. I also managed to get a bit of a discount on the price. It was advertised for £150 originally but the seller gave a discount so dropped to £120 which suited my budget more. Now just have the challenge of being able to hide it away until the big day. 

Last night we had a bit of a treat, me and the OH went out for a curry at local curry house. We haven't been since lockdown and I was pleased to see the place was really busy. Business really do need our custom so this was great. Food was delicious. 

This afternoon I really do need to get to the supermarket for more supplies, I'm going to head to the ethnic shop too for a big bag of rice and onions too.

Tomorrow is open house weekend so going to visit a property of interest tomorrow and hopefully catch up with a friend. 

Queen_of_the_Hive

Today is first day back at work for nearly 2 weeks and tbh I have first day back nerves. 

Yesterday was one of those clean, organise & sort productive days. The kids room, office and piles of papers in the living room got sorted which was a job done good. 
 
I seem to be on fire for Christmas gift shopping for the kids, very lucky that alongside the bike for eldest, two other toys came up for sale secondhand locally which were in my watch list. So from my initial budget of £150 for bike  I bought bike for £120, toy 1 for £15 and toy 2 for £10 & character pj set for £3.99 in the supermarket. Nearly finished my shopping without meaning to 😀. 

Finances wise I finally had the push to set up JISA for the kids after watching a Y tube video. 

Drawingaline

I have also bought my first Xmas present. But it was a £15 one from Camden market. But it's for my hard to buy for child and I am sure he will love it, just his kind of thing, so got it while we were there. Having a Xmas category in ynab is so fab, the money is already there to allow early present buying. Xmas lists will start to be made this month too!

Queen_of_the_Hive

Drawingaline said:

I have also bought my first Xmas present. But it was a £15 one from Camden market. But it's for my hard to buy for child and I am sure he will love it, just his kind of thing, so got it while we were there. Having a Xmas category in ynab is so fab, the money is already there to allow early present buying. Xmas lists will start to be made this month too!

Hi @Drawingaline I love Camden Market. You are inspiring me to take a visit. The walk on the canal is a really nice thing to do as well. They do canal boat trips which has been on my to try list but we haven't made it yet. Well done on making a start. 

Queen_of_the_Hive

So we are one full week into school and so far the kids are loving being back. We had our first round of playdates yesterday with both kids having a friend over and I must say it felt nice having a bit of normality back. 

I've been back to work, it was another busy week, did a bit extra yesterday which I didn't need to do but it was a good training opportunity so did so. Today is a quiet day while the kids are in school, i've got my cross stitch out and doing this in between some surveys. 

Hope everyone had having a good week. 

Drawingaline

Queen_of_the_Hive said:

Drawingaline said:

I have also bought my first Xmas present. But it was a £15 one from Camden market. But it's for my hard to buy for child and I am sure he will love it, just his kind of thing, so got it while we were there. Having a Xmas category in ynab is so fab, the money is already there to allow early present buying. Xmas lists will start to be made this month too!

Hi @Drawingaline I love Camden Market. You are inspiring me to take a visit. The walk on the canal is a really nice thing to do as well. They do canal boat trips which has been on my to try list but we haven't made it yet. Well done on making a start. 

My daughter spent ALL her money when we went to Camden market 😂😂😂

Queen_of_the_Hive

Over the summer I have got into watching and reading more and more about having multiple income streams and so gradually this is something I am working towards but on small scale. So I have a job which tbh covers the basics and pretty much nothing else. I have invested in a rental property which is ticking along nicely and truth be told I would like to buy a second one but this is currently work in progress. I have stocks and shares isa which each month some money goes into and a LISA & pensions which too I make some payments each month. So yesterday I decided to take the plunge and try peer to peer lending. So I chose my first provider, set up an account and starting with a £100 and lets see where it goes. This particular investment type is pretty risky and it is more chance of loosing the money but being curious I wanted to give it a go. So I will update my diary with how I get on. But initial plan is start with £100 and try to re-invest this amount and see its journey. I'm a bit of a nerd with this kind of thing. 

I think its only fair to give some balance - the above is positive but on the negative side of the coin. I am paying debt down. Now sitting at £2590 from just over 10.5k with projected payback in June 2022, sadly rent where we live as we can't currently purchase a property to the size we would need. I'm working hard to change this so we no longer rent and live within our means but its work in progress .

This weekend the kids are here so the house is loud and full of life. Me being lover of plants is dragging everyone to a local plant sale at a nature reserve this morning and we'll get out on our bikes. I'm looking forward to the time we can go a bit further on the bikes but for now we just stay more local. My little one is building up to longer rides. 

Yesterday my new mirror arrived for the living room. Ordered a garden one as they are lighter than traditional ones. Its a mock copper colour and fits perfect. Makes its look more cozy! I'm all about cozy! 

Queen_of_the_Hive

Today turned into a bit of a bizarre one. We decided we'd go out on the train to see a vintage railway. They were running a weekend special but we didn't actually get there. Troubles on train route meant it was quite iffy if we would make it. Anyway off we trotted, first train was scheduled to leave before we got into the connecting station but delays on that train meant we managed to catch it and yes that was a far as we got! The train had no driver!! So after sitting down for 15 mins waiting we were all chucked off and that was it, end of day out to vintage railway. Thinking on our feet, kids love trains and transport so we took the tram on an alternative route and this seemed to rescue the day. We'd have spent approx. £40 to get into the place which tbh I could do without spending. I'd made a picnic so no lunch costs. 

Other spends today was £2.75 on the plant sale but managed to get two plants and some onion baby plants to put in the raised bed tomorrow.