Queen Bee fighting for her Hive!

Queen_of_the_Hive

AlexanderLWard said:

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Hi @AlexanderLWard thank you! Really pleased to hear your friend was sorted with a mortgage. Going to keep going and look for another adviser to speak to.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello Mothering Sunday

I've had a rather un MSE week! Was missing the kids and feeling like I needed a holiday last weekend so I booked us some accomodation for our summer holiday. This is going to be a combination of staying in our holiday let (no cost ) and staying a few nights going to a new area for my boys and OH and for me somewhere I haven't been since I was a child . We love train journeys in our house and this will include a rather exciting trip on the Settle to Carlisle railway with stop off at Ribblehead to take a walk and pics of the viaduct! Its one of my happy places so rather excited now!

Spent £300 on 3 nights accomodation & breakfast for 4 of us which I don't think is too bad. Still need to book train tickets but will sort that out another credit card month.

This week we needed to pay for the kids summer swimming lessons - this cost is shared with their dad but is still quite a big chunk & also paid for Feb electric too. The bills are never ending..!

Its been a busy working week - lots to do and deadlines to meet, ended up working in the evening which I try to avoid but happens every so often.

Weds and Thurs the kids were off school for national teacher strikes. Weds was a work day so they ended up with a lot more screen time than I like but needs must at times. Thursday we went shopping for small backpacks for day trips in the summer to carry snacks, water etc. I treated myself to a couple of tops for the gym and fleecy top for the eldest. We have a number of these tops but in different sizes. £45 spent eeek!!!

Friday was a strange day - met up with a 'friend' for what I thought might have been a nice social catch up and frankly it was awful. She's the tell you off kinda sort. Should've learn't from past history but no, yet again another telling off. Well thats the last time & she's now blocked. I've no time for toxic people to bring me down.

Was feeling a bit sorry for myself on friday afternoon so OH suggested we go to the pub to join in St Paddy celebrations in the evening. We did indeed go and get stuck in & then completely unplanned but friends of ours with their kids turned up! We laughed and laughed to the point I don't remember laughing as much as I have done for such a long time! It was magic.

Yesterday was a last minute birthday party invite for the littlest which turned into a lush social with the mums from his class. Didn't get home till the evening!

Today I'm just soooo tired but had a lovely weekend so far. We are not really doing anything today to celebrate mummy's day. My family are far and my OH's mum sadly has dementia so its just a normal day for us but the real treat is having the kids here to share the day. Especially special as co-parenting means they are not with us everyday.

Happy Sunday everyone x

lucielle

The unexpected social nights usually turn out to be the best ones!  Enjoy your family time. 

L

Drawingaline

Glad you had a good night after a disappointing social. 

Humdinger1

@Queen_of_the_Hive quite right to cut out emotional vampires! Is your other name Van Helsing?! Onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx 

Queen_of_the_Hive

lucielle said:

The unexpected social nights usually turn out to be the best ones!  Enjoy your family time. 

L

Lol @lucielle that is soo true!

Queen_of_the_Hive

Humdinger1 said:

@Queen_of_the_Hive quite right to cut out emotional vampires! Is your other name Van Helsing?! Onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx 

Thanks @Humdinger1 absolutely yes to going forward and no looking back.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Happy Friday,

This week has been very very busy in a work fog kind of way. There were 3 major time consuming tasks to get past the post. Must say its taken working till late in the evenings to get these done but soo happy they are now out of the way. Yesterday felt weird getting out of the house as I'd been cooped up!

So following on from a very expensive week last week, this one by contrast has been very frugal. So far having spent a grand sum of £6.30 on bus travel and a takeaway tea during a school trip yesterday for one of the kids. Also had some small wins on the surveying so managed to add £6.20 to the investment isa and recieved a payment for one of the investments for £2.90 which doesn't sound much but added to the money to invest meant I was able to invest another £100 in a business. So having set myself the goal of 10 investments this year I now have 7! so making some progress on this.

Today I'm just feeling very tired, drained from a quite full on few days so planning quite a quiet one. I need to catch up on studying, admin for the business and end of year admin for my tax return. Really need to get my bum to the gym but curling in a ball is more how am feeling right now

Have a good day everyone

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello Sunny Monday,

Today has really felt like a gorgeous spring day with the sun shining but it was deceptively cold, really could have done with my hat and gloves during lunchtime stroll around the park. I've also been enjoying listening to the radio this evening with plenty of talk on gardening. I'm slowly getting my garden mojo back. It'd wained a bit recently but having dedicated a bit of time the past couple of weekends to filling up seed trays to use up some out of date seeds and the added incentive of bringing inside the plastic small greenhouse bought last year its coming back. I read on a forum that Lidl seed packets are apparently very good value, so i'll take a look when going shopping next. Seeds can be quite expensive.

So this weekend just gone was actually a lovely quiet affair. The kids were with their dad and I am unashamed to say it was very much a pajamas weekend! Full of tv watching, eating naughty food, some reading and catching up on an unfinished craft kit. I did do a bit of cleaning so not all bad.

Money wise bought the kids easter eggs and some other bits which came to £7.20 and needed some groceries which were £20.18. OH treated us both to sunday breakfast in the cafe and that was about it. Next week we are away for Easter so this week the aim is to use up what we have in the house and keep spends to a minimum although we have a invitation to a birthday party on saturday for one of the kids so will need to get a present.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello diary,

Its been way too long, never intended just life got in the way.

April turned into being a very expensive month as I booked some holiday accomodation for later in the year, end of term meant paying for the kids termly activities and school holidays usually result in increased spends too. Its payday this week and just about all my wage will just be covering the credit card bill so will be drawing from savings for everything else.

This current credit card month is a bit more of a normal month although booked a birthday party for the youngest. We've been filling the chest freezer with yellow stickered items and trying to eat a bit healthier (although I'm having a "feeling fat" day).

We've made some small gains in holiday savings acc. This is a major trip we are saving up for to visit family long haul. We've now got £120 in the pot between myself and OH using the 1p a day savings method. By payday this will increase to £200. Over the weekend I opened up a regular saver and started drip feeding in the money saved so far by £100 p/m so this should also help towards the pot.

On other savings front the S&S ISA seems to be more up than down of late and the investment ISA has grown to £627.19. It was £425.94 at the start of the year. This is a combination of re-investments and adding earnings from surveying.

Currently waiting on P60 from my employer and then I need to do my self assessment for the year.

Credit card rolls on to new month around 7th of the month so next week or so going to try to eek out as much as possible without spending any more.