Queen Bee fighting for her Hive!

Drawingaline

Glad lo had a good birthday

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello diary, 

I'll be honest for the past week or so I haven't been very MSE but actually I have enjoyed being a bit more relaxed and being off the budgeting reins which is a nice pick me up to all the gloomy news. Haven't sat down yet and re-evaluated budget but bought some tickets for a gig in September for me and OH, have some dental treatment coming up and got a bit behind in driving lessons so that is costly. 

A week to go for payday - this will mean the last payment on the balance transfer card and then one more month just to get my O/D straightened out and yeah should be 'debt free' 

Mrs_Money_Penny

Nearly there wee done xx

Sarahwithlove

It's nice to sometimes have the odd splurge as helps me refocus again after. The end is in sight for you 😍

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello Saturday Morning! 

So this week I had that woo hoo feeling from making the last CC payment and can now breathe a phew! It feels so good to see a Nil balance! 

However as life is, where I am up in one area I am down in another. For the holiday let business we've reached a major milestone and had photos taken this week for the advert and are very close to taking the first paying guests. We have however run out of the little pot of money we had put aside for setting up and now we are feeling financial pain from it. I will be using savings to cover so no worries of going into debt but will be a bit rocky for next few months. We are very excited to see the photos though. 

I've also been a bit behind on paying for some fees related to school kids activities, so last night finally got these sorted out. The fees are shared with Ex H and he is good as I don't get any problems with his share but yeah just another bit of financial pain so I don't feel I can fully say I am debt free as I have been using a bit of my overdraft (the free part) to live on and we have school holidays and some trips planned so its going to be worse before its better. 

This morning is another beautiful day. The kids are with me and I would really like to get them back up and running with our local library so think we will go there this morning and find out how to do this. I know I have a fine of £10ish to pay but think the kids card is all good.  

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello Sunday afternoon, 

Today has been a day of getting a bit organised, which is always a good thing. So on top of my list was to sort out paperwork for holiday let. Everything was loose bits of paper. Its now filed in the new lever arch file. From this I can see we need to pay for three things related to property this week so will arrange to get this money from savings and get these bills put to bed. 

I've also bought a plant online, was a bit of a splurge as in all honesty I didn't need to spend but this plant had a special place in my heart as it was bought to remeber a close friend that passed away last year. The anniversary is coming up in autumn and I wanted a little something before the date came around. So am £27 down for this. I will also need a nice pot to put it into which is an additional cost. 

I have some family birthdays coming up in July so must buy birthday cards and get these written and sent. I am very good at forgetting birthdays so this is very much on the to do list for this week. This saturday its my eldest's birthday party. Thankfully all easy with the venue doing the lot but again this is another big expense. Also need to pay for school photos and Autumn term swimming lessons. Its basically close my eyes and hope for the best as lots of big expenses paying out for right now

Queen_of_the_Hive

July is birthday month and needed birthday cards. Bought them from the local supermarket this evening. Not the cheapest but nice ones selected. 

Struck it lucky and found mint plants being sold for 60p only to scan it through at 10p! Brought it home and immediately planted it outside in a pot. Will be magic if it takes. Fingers crossed. Perfect for mojito! 

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hi diary, 

I haven't done a diary for a while. Basically i'm feeling "money pain". OH has run out of savings for holiday let business so am now propping us up till we get going bringing in some ££, end of term activities are costing and of course going into summer holidays  

Today I have the dentist, its to crown a broken tooth. Tooth broke before covid, luckily I'd put some money aside at the dentist for the work but have to pay the remaining balance and of course just not looking forward to it generally. I think this is roughly half of the balance. 

Credit card spending is high this month but will be paid off the same month, am doing all I can to make sure I don't get back into debt. Still have a little bit of overdraft which is in the free part which I plan to get rid off as soon as I can. Suspect this won't be till Oct given current circumstances. 

On the positive, i've set up a £20 dd to LISA for pension payments. I have had a LISA since they were introduced but only chucked in bits and pieces of spare cash. The spare cash hasn't been spare for a long time however its held up against the stock market and still positive so this will help to build a little pot as part of my pension. This month am also going to start adding £20 p/m to a school uniform fund as my eldest will be starting secondary 2023 and also setting up another account with £20 p/m for Summer holidays 2023 so that should help towards costs next year. Its only by paying off debt that I have got to this stage . The other positive thing is I have cashed out £14.13 from Prolific to S&S ISA. 

In non - money activities am on week 2 of upping exercise and trying to loose some weight. Over the past year I have put weight on after going through some personal stuff and am turning over a 'new leaf' and trying again. I've turned over so many leaves recently but so far this one is going good. Am putting myself under less pressure, not calorie counting just yet just making sure I do some form of daily exercise whether the gym, out cycling, a YT vid, and eating better. For instance made some home made soup this week which am enjoying at lunch. Home made soup has helped me in the past to loose weight. So if anyone has any other tips they are welcome.  

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello Thursday,

With this heat am really finding sleep difficult. Yesterday was awake at 4.30am and this morning it was 4am! Am actually sat in the garden typing this diary entry as its a lovely cool temperature. I think I am getting dehydrated and its waking me up. I've also been finding my mind isn't doing so well and its churning over stuff. Hoping this recent 'black dog' will blow over soon!

Yesterday was an a rare wednesday day off work, it was meant to be the kids sports day but it was cancelled. I didn't bother to cancel my holiday at work as I still have plenty of days to take before the end of the year. It sounds odd but as I work part time I find I am not too fussed about A/L as I actually quite like to do something with my time.

The dentist work was cancelled yesterday - this is a little help as this means there is a bit extra in the budget this month. I must admit I did do an online shop with the big A. Its my eldest's birthday in the school holidays and I needed to get him his pressie. So that was the bulk of the order plus some bits and pieces for me. My hobby is very much my garden and each year I buy myself a small number of things for it and so after waiting 3 years I bought a little greenhouse as growing some veggies is something I enjoy doing so hopefully this will open up a few more opportunities to grow stuff. Fancy giving it a go to grow a chilli plant or maybe cucumbers which will def need a greenhouse. First thing that will go into the greenhouse will be some new strawberry plants from my current strawberry plants. I bought a rose recently, one of those ones "in memory" ones and its just starting to bloom which is really lovely as my garden has greenery but not much in the way of flowering blooms. Def want to work on this for next year.

Money wise yesterday was not a no spend day. I could definately do with some of those right now! Yesterday was 13th of the month which is my monthly accounts review. I can report that my outstanding credit card debt is now gone but my monthly credit card bill is quite high. Its a combination of summer time, holiday let stuff, birthday party and having to pay for the kids activities for the autumn. It will be all paid off with savings. I've now adjusted my S&S isa so that I pay in less to it but should now if I was budgeting correctly be actually saving this from monthly income. Its not happening atm but going forward this is the plan...! With everything going on with S&S my savings is going down and has been for a few months. This is stressing me out but am trying to not let it. I could def do with another income stream so hoping to find a second job maybe a Christmas one where I could work a couple of days a week to boost income. On the positive I have worked out from my various different pension pots I am now contributing a decent near £400 p/m. I will continue to try to grow this amount but was quite chuffed with myself for being able to be doing this amount.

Today am not quite sure what I will do. I have a list of things that need to be done and I am trying to get back into my studies.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello diary, 

I started writing a diary on the weekend and then the kids plus OH distracted me and then I lost it all! 

So over the past week I have found a bit of momentum and got my head into studying. I feel like this particular course I have looked at it so many times I should know it but frankly a good 18 months away from looking at it properly it feels a bit like going back to square one (which I know in reality is not true!). Heydi ho I have set myself a goal to sit the first exam in September so there we are! I've found motivation and strength in my kids persistence at their activities which has pushed my bum on this front which is fantastic! 

The kids finished school on Thursday and so far we have been quite busy. We went swimming and to the library on Friday. Ended up having lunch out which was a extravagance that we need to rein in. Saturday we have a more cheaper day, took the kids out on their bikes on a local large park & enjoyed a home made picnic and yesterday was just a mellow day at home. I finally made it to the gym and food shopping in the afternoon. Food shop was £46 and was mainly fruits, vegetables, picnic type items and healthy snacks bar the crisps. The kids are with me all week until Sunday when they go to their dads for two weeks. I'll miss them as I always do. This week is a 'normalish' working week. Swimming is booked again for Friday. They love swimming and its a reasonably cheap activity to do £15 for 4 of us in our local pool. I'll take some snacks from home so it won't cost extra. The kids were asked to choose one place to visit over the summer holidays so I need to plan this into the time we have. 

Moneywise, already over budget for the month so really its playing damage limitation whilst enjoying the summer holidays. So focus of the week is make picnics and use food we already have in.