PB’s Very Exciting Diary...!

Pink_Butterfly

The drains are clear & my toilet is now working properly! Praise the lord! My goodness, I will never take advantage of unblocked drains ever again!

That is the first bit of good news. The second bit of good news is that I’ve had the approval from my MD to stay on a 4 day week until the children are back at school Most of my colleagues are going back to full-time hours next week. Thankfully I don’t have to!

As they say that everything happens in 3s, I’ve decided to spend £5 on lottery tickets fingers crossed eh?! That would solve a lot of problems!

We’ll ignore the negative stuff today. Like the fact I’m not going to see OH or my mum on my birthday in a couple of weeks. We can discuss that when the inevitable meltdown happens & I cry about it!

Pink_Butterfly

Well, I didn’t win the lottery sadly so I had to work yesterday and today! Yesterday was not a good day - a supplier shouted at me down the phone & it was horrible. I hadn’t slept well the night before & I was already struggling with high anxiety, so I just hung up on her & burst into tears luckily my boss told the directors that we are not to use this supplier any more as she was completely unreasonable.

I’m not coping with the lockdown. It’s exactly one month today since I saw OH and I miss him so much. My mum is worried about me and wants me to move in with her. I want to move in too but obviously I’m not allowed it’s so hard.

I need to focus on the positives. I’m healthy, my family is healthy, & we have food & a roof over our heads.

Oh, some money news, the holiday company I booked with for the Easter holidays has refunded me earlier than I expected, meaning I should be in a position to pay £1K towards my loan when I get paid

Pink_Butterfly

It’s pay day! And I’ve done it! I’ve paid £1K off the loan The new balance is £5,253.33 and in a week’s time the repayment will go out, taking it into the £4Ks   Even if I make no more overpayments the loan will be finished on 1st June 2021! But of course I’ll be making more. I want to see the back of it.

Weirdly I got an extra tax credits payment today, I don’t know why. And my child benefit has increased by £2.40. The government are obviously being very generous at the moment!

I’ve got a £260.00 food budget for this new month which should be doable. I might need to be a bit more careful with what I buy though as I’ve been spending a lot on fresh fish and already chopped vegetables lately, which is expensive but I pay it because I hate chopping  So I need to be more frugal. The freezer has plenty in there and so do the cupboards. Time to be more disciplined!

Pink_Butterfly

2.5 weeks since my last update, and a lot has changed. I was really struggling and I tend to hide when I feel like that... but I need to make sure that I log onto here more & update this diary, even when I am down! I’ll talk financials first, before the more personal updates

All my direct debits went out at the start of the month, so the new balances are:

Loan: £4,867.05
Family loan: £7,000.00
Mortgage: £82,675.77
Savings: £5,000.61

It’s so nice that I can pay off my loan with my savings if I want to! My holiday with OH has finally been cancelled, so once we receive our refund I’m hoping to throw most of it to the debt. It should be gone by Christmas. Paying over £9K in 13 months is something I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do, but hopefully I can do it!

My service charge invoice has finally arrived (well, I had to chase the managing agents for it. They said they posted it out early April but I never received it, so they e-mailed it to me). They want me to pay annually now instead of every 6 months. It’s a bit ridiculous really - it’s over £1.1K! Luckily I had already budgeted 6 months worth, and it was my birthday recently & my parents gave me some money, so I can use that towards it. It means I don’t have to dip into my savings I had better things to spend my birthday money on, but never mind!

Right, that’s the money stuff out of the way. Some exciting news - on my birthday, OH asked me and the girls to move in with him  we were going to wait another year, but this lockdown has proved to us that we don’t want to live apart any more. I’ve already had my flat valued and I’ve got a couple of quotes from conveyancers, but a big problem is that estate agents and potential buyers can’t go into my flat due to the lockdown rules. One estate agent is doing his hardest to persuade me to put it on the market anyway, as they can do virtual tours online, but I’m reluctant to because 1) I have to pay his fees up-front for 12 months of marketing, and whether it sells or not doesn’t matter to him as he has already got his money, 2) I’d rather a first-time buyer purchase it than an investor as I’ll likely get more money, and I doubt they’ll buy when they can’t look round, and 3) Surveys can’t be done at the moment because of lockdown, so even if I sold it, it wouldn’t get very far. Such rubbish timing I have I just hope the housing market doesn’t crash, otherwise I may be stuck with it, and I want out.

The other big update is I’m no longer living in the flat. My mental health was in the gutter there, and so I’m now living with my mum. It’s honestly made me feel so much better. She’s got a nice 4-bed detached house, so much more space than my flat, and it’s really helped me & the kids. I love the adult company too! My brother still lives with her but he keeps himself to himself & rarely socialises with us. It’s just his way! But anyway, it’s blissful here. The only problem is I’m not going to want to go back to the flat when it’s all over   

Right, I’d better get on with my work. Which, by the way, isn’t as bad these days... my boss had to cover for me when I had a couple of days off for my birthday, and I think it opened his eyes to what I was experiencing. He called it “bullying”. As a result he’s put things in place to make it easier, which is great, but it would’ve been nice if it was 5 weeks earlier eh!

I hope you’re all ok & keeping safe x

Pink_Butterfly

Good evening readers. I hope you’re all ok and had a lovely day! I went for a socially distanced walk tonight with a friend... it was so nice catching up with her! She does my hair usually & we were laughing at how bad our roots are  haha.

An estate agent contacted me today about valuing the flat next week. I wanted another company to come out this week ideally, as I’ve only had one so far. Someone else is meant to be ringing tomorrow morning so will see what they say. I have cleaned and tidied the flat so it’s all ready for pictures and viewings. I have also wrapped DD1’s presents as it’s her birthday next week.

Time for bed... the long walk as made me sleepy!!! At least I’ve only got one more working day to go until the weekend

Pink_Butterfly

Hello all! Happy Saturday Hope everyone’s weekend is going ok so far. We have all just had a game of Cluedo (the junior version)... always fun but DD1 gets sooooo competitive!

I had my flat valued by an estate agent yesterday. I’ve got another one booked in for Tuesday, and then will make a decision who to go with. Or maybe both! The lady yesterday was very lovely but their fees were a bit higher than the one coming on Tuesday, according to a friend, and I want to maximise my profit. My savings are basically going to be spent on selling it with the legal fees too which is very disheartening! But there we go...

I have been thinking about getting a side job that the children can get involved with. There’s one company who I represented years ago when I was 21 that would be good - I love their products and so do a lot of people (I had to stop because I was working full-time and doing my accounts qualification and it was too much). The children want pocket money but I’m passionate about them earning it rather than be given it, so they could help me and I’ll give them a percentage of the commission I’m going to sleep on it. We could do with some more pennies, especially as once we move in with OH we will lose our tax credits 

Pink_Butterfly

Evening readers! My flat is officially on the market well, I signed the contract with the Estate Agent today & left them a key so I’m hoping it will be on the internet by the weekend. I have no idea how long it’ll take to sell, but hopefully it won’t be too long. I’ll be sad when it’s no longer mine, but I’m ready for the next step.

A relative died of cancer this morning. I wasn’t close to him but it’s still sad and I really feel for his wife & son.

I had a couple of items arrive at the weekend which I had ordered  One item fit great, the other item, which was the next size up, was too small. Same brand... go figure! So I’ll have to return it at some point. I need to order some clothes for the kids too as they don’t have many summer clothes. Mum kindly bought them some bits from F&F bless her, but they need a few more dresses and summer pjs. DD1’s birthday is coming up so she may get given some clothes then.

2 days until payday!  My account still looks quite healthy, thanks to not being able to spend anything!   I am hoping to send another £500.00 towards my loan in June. Getting closer to it disappearing for good

Right, time to wind down after my hectic day. I went for a 3-mile walk after I got back from the Estate Agents with a friend and my feet hurt - I wore the wrong sandals! Whoops x

Pink_Butterfly

Evening all, I thought I’d do a quick update before I go to bed! Not sure if I’ll be able to sleep as it’s absolutely roasting. DD1 is sweating bless her, she sleeps naked but she’s still really warm. Her hair is stuck to the sides of her face! Poor girl.

Today has been a better day than yesterday. Work was better and I’m now down to just 35 e-mails in my personal inbox! It hasn’t been that low in over 2 months, possibly more. I’m glad I made the time to go through them all, I feel better mentally when my inbox is clearer. After work I took a birthday present round to a close friend. It was nice to catch up with her, and see her big baby bump! Baby number 3 will be arriving in July/August. It’s exciting but I think she’s mad 

I’ve decided to pay my service charge invoice in instalments instead of in full due to me selling the property. If I pay it in full then I would be refunded for the months that I’m not there, but I still think it’s better this way. Means I can throw more at the debt! My spreadsheet is telling me that I’ll be able to send £1.3K towards the loan  which seems like a crazy amount of money. Imagine if I didn’t have the debt and I could boost my savings with it?!

I have ordered the girls their summer clothes so once they arrive next week and they’ve tried them on I’ll ask their dad for half the money. He already knows I’ve ordered them and how much they are, so it shouldn’t be a problem. I also ordered a playsuit for me as I don’t have much summer wear. I have a voucher from my birthday which pays for it

Right I must try and sleep now, fingers crossed I do! Night all x

Pink_Butterfly

It’s payday plus child benefit day so the account is looking great. I paid my first months service charge instalment, and transferred £250 to my mum for food and bill increases while we are here. She told me she didn’t want any money but it’s money I would’ve paid if I was living at the flat anyway. I also bought her some flowers to say thank you which made her cry lol. I just wanted her to know how much I appreciate her letting us stay here. I know it can be tiring for her when my girls are here as they’re full on.

My dad transferred £50 into my account for DD1, and her childminder sent £10 in a birthday card bless her, so that plus all the toys she got made her extremely happy! Spoilt girly. She also got a tea party like she requested and a princess birthday cake with a tiara

The estate agent took the photos of the flat today and it’ll go online next week. Apparently it’s a slightly slower process than normal because some staff are furloughed, and it’s a bank holiday weekend. Keeping everything crossed that this is relatively pain-free but selling a leasehold property in a global pandemic doesn’t give me much confidence! 

Pink_Butterfly

Morning! I bit the bullet last night and signed up with that company who I represented all them years ago I’m quite excited. I think a few of my close friends are more excited than me though as they’re massive fans  I’ve told them to only order if they want something and not to help me out. As nice as the money is I refuse to be a pushy sales person. I have set up a spreadsheet for it, and I’m going to use my nationwide account as the ‘business’ account as it was just sitting empty before (I opened it about 5 years ago for the rewards). It cost me £49.00 for the franchise and the kit (the products in the kit retail at £220 so got a bargain there!).

My brother is a PT and yesterday he made me do a mini workout with him and my legs are KILLING!!!  Remind me to never do that again lol.

My girls are going to their dad’s soon so I’m going to go and play with them before I take them round there. I think my mum’s street is throwing a little street party tonight... normally I like that sort of thing, but some of her neighbours can be a bit rude so I might not stay long  It wouldn’t be so bad if my brother was going too but he refuses lol x