Queen Bee fighting for her Hive!

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello Wednesday, 

The bank holiday has put me out of kilter with my working week as I work the earlier part of the week. Anyway so I hope to be able to shift that mindset.  

Being honest i've had the 'black dog' hanging over me for a bit, I know the triggers and in a bid to improve my situation I've got up early (was awake!) and done some stretches and bit of a cardio workout and going for a little walk before starting work and I feel a bit brighter. The kids are back today and with me for the next few days which is always a perk up. I've also been thinking about what things I can do to improve my mood longer term. I feel I should 'gift' myslef some breathing space and write down some ideas in my journal. The journal I started during lockdown and honestly its just there when I need to brain dump and not something I do on a regular basis. 

Money wise, I have finally totted up my excess spends and worked out the damage and after paying off the bits and pieces for things for holiday flat I am a good 1k over what it should be. It will be paid off at the end of the month from savings. So for the next few weeks I need to cut down the spends etc. 

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello Saturday, 

Its been a bit of a mixed bag week, very busy at work the early part and on Friday the mood definitely changed to 'winning at life'. Big team project completed and my part to play delivered in full on time. So yesterday I treated myself to a bit of Queen bee's happy place which was sitting in the garden with p*mms and a craft project while the kids were at school. Yesterday's craft project was picking up a cross stitch i'd started many moons ago but still had plenty to do on it, so chuffed with that! 

One of the parents in my kids class was having a clear out of adult thriller books - lots of good titles and no one else wanted them so I jumped at the chance. So yesterday I went around and collected them after school, all 9 books and honestly felt like a kid in a sweet shop! So very excited to be gifted these! I have so many books at home already to read but it is another guilty pleasure. Am now up and trying to finish off my latest book which is a bit mediocre ready to pick one from the new selection. 

Today we are going for a picnic to one of the big parks, taking the kids and bikes on the train. Will be interesting. It should be a fairly low spend day which is really needed after big spend April. Kids are asking to make home made pizza so will see if we have enough ingredients at home to do this tomorrow. 

Tasks to do this coming week: 

* Work out what are the phantom appliances at home and switch them off at night. 
* More work on the books for holiday let. 
* Book cheap travel upto holiday let. Trains are v expensive so look at options on the coach, def not as comfortable but needs must at times. 
* Questions for self assessment. 

Queen_of_the_Hive

Travel tickets booked, ended up going by train as managed to find some reasonable priced seats. This means I can carry a bit more with me. Will have a mirror and some lamps to take up. Mirror was a local bargain at £5! That will do nicely in the bathroom of holiday place. 

Also and additional £9.51 going into S&S ISA from Prolific. 

Drawingaline

I too like reading and cross stitch! I used to cross stitch years ago, then kids came along and I dropped it. I tried again a few years back then stalled, and started it back up again properly in the first lockdown. Have managed to complete a few in the past two years, am currently working through a largish kit and am back to enjoying it.

I have become a complete kindle convert. I used to go to the library so often, but after the lockdowns it was still stupidly inconvenient with how they were opening and I haven't really been since covid. I bought a kindle a month into lockdown and pay for Kindle unlimited every month. I love it. But do miss holding a real book sometimes.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Drawingaline said:

I too like reading and cross stitch! I used to cross stitch years ago, then kids came along and I dropped it. I tried again a few years back then stalled, and started it back up again properly in the first lockdown. Have managed to complete a few in the past two years, am currently working through a largish kit and am back to enjoying it.

I have become a complete kindle convert. I used to go to the library so often, but after the lockdowns it was still stupidly inconvenient with how they were opening and I haven't really been since covid. I bought a kindle a month into lockdown and pay for Kindle unlimited every month. I love it. But do miss holding a real book sometimes.

I have so many cross stitch projects in progress but they are so therapeutic to do. The hardest one I have I bought for my brothers wedding. It was a black, white and grey scale one and it was going well till I got confused on two very similar greys. Defo like to pick this one up again and complete but for now I have my holiday one which is the focus of my attentions. 

I tried the kindle but couldn't get into it so stayed with paper books but can see the advantages esp for a big book

Queen_of_the_Hive

Good Morning and happy Tuesday. 

My "lovely" neighbours decided to have a massive house party last night, didn't sleep the best and am sooo tired today! 

This last weekend was fun, we did brave it and take the troops into central London on bikes. It wasn't the original plan to do so but rail replacement put pay to that and we had to quickly think on our feet so we enjoyed the Thames Path and another of the big central London parks. Kids did amazingly well considering change of plan. We got home from our adventure having clocked up a good 9 miles so was very pleased with our efforts. We made a picnic but paid for train fares, ice cream & a beer for me and OH so a pretty cheap day out. On Sunday the kids just wanted to play at home. It was nearly a NSD but having realised we had no beans in, it was an emergency dash to the corner shop for baked beans at £1.19. Gulped at the price, def. will be buying some of these from the supermarket this weekend as I expect they will be slightly cheaper. 

This week not that much is happening so not expecting any major spends except trying to book tickets for me and OH to a show at the Opera house. A family friend is linked to a particular show and feeling the need for a bit of culture am hoping to secure the cheaper tickets. I don't have a budget for these so if the cheaper seats have gone we just won't go to the higher tickets this time.  

Queen_of_the_Hive

Another no spend day today! Always a day to be celebrated  

Collected a free mirror from a friend this evening, its lovely and will go in the bathroom. 

Being kid and partner free I got one night of peace and enjoyed some quiet time at home watching some documentaries while doing a bit of the cross stitch. One programme was about the cost of living crisis and it was heartbreaking and has hit home with me that I need to make plans for this coming winter. Starting with putting some money aside for energy bills. 

Queen_of_the_Hive

Happy Thursday, 

Today is a bit of an odd day. I don't officially work on a Thursday but from bad habit have been logging on regularly, however today I made a conscious decision not to do so.

The kids are happily at school and I needed to do some grocery shopping £33.62 from Lidl and bar a little veg top up am hoping this will last us till next week. Done some simple sums based on current spending and budget for the month and have approx £9 a day left before am overbudget. Will def be trying to keep this under the limit. 

Since I last posted i've made some progress on vampire devices and locating where they are plugged in, OH is a bit extension cord happy and has them all over the place. So some of these are now being switched off when not in use and I have got better at closing down my pc too which I must admit I do sometimes just leave on during the night. 

This week I plan to make some home made soup, used to do this regularly but life got busy but now am a little let busy I have decided to give it a go again. So tomorrow going to visit the greengrocers and see what veg to buy for a good old fashioned veg soup. 

Drawingaline

Our house is full of vampire devices. I hate it. Downside to hubby and teens being 'gamers' also the jump in electrical usage when hubby is wfh is very very obvious. May finally get him to do the tax reclaim thing this year!

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello diary, 

Yesterday being Friday 13th and all the superstitions I've left it until today to check spreadsheets and frankly its not so rosy. Spent a lot of money in April, mainly on things for holiday let and activities during Easter holiday and although everything has been paid off without incurring interest its eaten into my savings and pushed my debt back up a few  hundred pounds . 

This month has been another poor month for savings in stocks and shares isa. Positive points, another £259 paid into last balance transfer card. Only 2 more payments to go!! I've also been doing some more Prolific surveys where I can and have added £8.32 to S&S ISA, have another £9.46 to add and currently waiting to be paid from some more surveys and will also add this too . 

This weekend the kids are with their dad so me and OH have been having a relatively quiet day. We went to the pub this afternoon for a cheeky beer garden drink & pub snacks. We then headed to greengrocers for veg & bought some plants at the garden centre. Completely failed to source strimmer string though.. lastly chuffed to source a much wanted piece of furniture for holiday let on the marketplace for £25. It'll need painting though in shabby chic style but yay!