PB’s Very Exciting Diary...!

Pink_Butterfly

Hey everyone. I hope you are all doing ok. It’s so scary at the moment... I just hope this nightmare will be over soon. It’s been 72 hours since Boris announced the “lockdown” and it’s been extremely up & down mentally for me (I imagine it’s the same for everyone). I miss my mum, my OH, friends etc so much Needless to say my anxiety has reached a whole new level & I had a horrible panic attack a few nights ago

Me & the girls have been walking to the park everyday for a game of football (just us, of course) and we’ve been successful in staying away from people. Overall they’ve been well behaved given the circumstances bless them. I’ve been able to work from home whilst looking after them & although it’d been challenging at times, it’s been better than I thought. They’re good kids.

Work is crazy busy right now - we sell safety products, so thankfully the sales and the money have been flooding in! It’s obviously a good thing but I’m very stressed with the workload. Today was meant to be my day off, but of course that didn’t happen... there’s just too much to do. I’m probably going to have to do bits over the weekend, at least then I won’t be interrupted.

My mum, brother & the kids’ dad have been doing my food shopping for me & leaving it at my door which is just lovely. I have a delivery coming on Monday and I think I have enough to last me until then. I’m very grateful that I’ve been able to avoid all shops since Saturday. The budget is ok because, well, other than food I’m spending nothing!

If any NHS workers are reading this, then I just want to say a big massive thank you to you all. You are all incredible, and if I was the prime minister, you’d all have massive pay rises & very generous pensions! You deserve so much more. Supermarket staff too... I have no doubt that it’s been so tough these last few weeks. Facing angry & anxious customers when you feel the same, worried that you’re going to catch it... I hope your employers appreciate all of you x

Pink_Butterfly

Morning everyone. It’s Saturday, and I’ve woken up alone in my flat as my kids went to their dad’s last night. They’ll be there for a few days I miss them so much and sobbed a lot last night (and went to sleep with DD2’s Mickey Mouse) but I’m going to try & “make the most” of the peace and give my flat a good clean & tidy (whilst blaring out Kisstory!), wash all our bedding, and get lots of work done. I (stupidly) worked 5 days this week despite only being paid for 4 & it left me feeling very stressed out, so I will be taking my day off on Thursday next week for sure and will spend more quality time with the children. I’ll then work the Friday, and then it’ll be the weekend, so that works out well It’s also DD2’s birthday that weekend so I need to wrap her presents and make sure I’ve got Blu-Tac for the decorations.

I have £230 in my food budget for April which hopefully will be enough. I’ve got a food delivery from Asda coming on Monday so will check it tomorrow and make any adjustments needed. I’m sure there’ll be loads of bits missing when it arrives but that is understandable. I’m almost out of bread and healthy food but I have some nice jacket potatoes to have with some grated cheese & baked beans so I might have that for lunch/dinner today

To cheer me up last night 3 close friends of mine suggested that we do a zoom call, so we did & it really lifted me. We also downloaded the app Cards Against Friends (basically Cards Against Humanity) and played that, which was hilarious... don’t download it if you’re easily offended!

I hope you & your families are all doing ok. Stay safe readers x

Pink_Butterfly

Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing ok. I imagine that pretty much all of us are feeling some kind of anxiety & upset right now. I learnt yesterday that a great uncle of mine has it. Not confirmed, but he has all the symptoms. He’s in his 70s and isn’t in good health. I also found out that another great uncle (his brother) has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He was meant to have surgery on Friday but it had to be cancelled due to the obvious. Very scary & worrying

Moving on. I have washed all the bedding & my flat smells amazing. The girls’ bedroom has been reorganised & tidied. Each room in the flat has been vacuumed, dusted, wiped down, scrubbed... you name it! Even the fridge has been deep cleaned. DD2’s presents have also been wrapped so I feel like I’m getting organised and it’s really having a positive impact on my mental health

Another positive impact is speaking to the girls on FaceTime both look very happy & well. I miss them loads & can’t wait to have them back but they seem to be having lots of fun at their dad’s which is great.

I have updated my Asda order and it’s currently sitting at over £100. I’ve never spent that much at one time in my life, but I’m expecting things to go out of stock between now & when I get the delivery which is why I’ve ordered more.

I’ve been doing a bit of work today but our e-mails have been down since Thursday night which is making my job difficult. I will do what I can but I’m going to try & not get stressed... it’s out of my control after all. I had a sales rep text me yesterday about something work related, which didn’t impress me. We all had to join the company WhatsApp group on Friday due to having no access to emails so of course now everyone has everyone’s numbers, and so this sales rep obviously thought it was acceptable to send me a message on a weekend day about work which wasn’t urgent. I replied politely but firmly saying we will discuss the issue on Monday. It’s bad enough that I worked on my day off, I’m not speaking to anyone about work at the weekend aswell!

I’m going to make myself a drink now and then crack on with this mountain of paperwork. At least I won’t be interrupted, which I’m grateful for!

Naomim

It's good you're finding some positives, we have to take them where we can find them! 
I agree about the colleague messaging you at the weekend and good for you to be firm about leaving it until Monday.
Naomim

Pink_Butterfly

Absolutely! Sometimes it’s hard to find the positives but if you can identify them it really does help. For me, my family are healthy, as am I, we don’t have money worries (at the moment), my fridge and cupboards are full, my employers are doing well with sales so my job is more secure, I got to FaceTime my kids again tonight, plus video calls to my parents and OH... I’m very lucky!

Dinner tonight was sea bass with baby potatoes & broccoli. It was heaven in my mouth. I was craving fish, and it felt like such a treat! Thank you Asda delivery

I need to go to bed soon. I didn’t sleep too well last night & work was very busy so I’m very tired!

Pink_Butterfly

Hello everyone. I hope you’re all ok and keeping safe. I’m on my lunch break so thought I’d update on here

All of my direct debits have gone out so the balances look like this:

Loan: £6,288.78
Family Loan: £7,000.00
Mortgage: £82,817.08
Savings: £5,000.00

My dad very kindly transferred £150.00 to me, plus another £30.00 for DD2’s birthday. Bless him. I’m hoping to use the £150.00 to overpay my loan but I want to hold onto it for now.

The girls returned home yesterday morning which was lovely. We attempted a walk but there were too many people out who did not respect the social distancing rules & it felt unsafe, so we came home. Instead we did jigsaws & played & cuddled. And ate... a lot! Definitely going to need to exercise hard whenever I can!

Myself & the neighbours above me are having some issues with the shared waste pipe. We keep getting air bubbles coming up through the U bend & it keeps waking me up! I’m so tired. They’ve contacted their letting agent and I’m waiting for a call back from the management company. I really don’t want a plumber or anyone to come in here but if they have to then I’ll just close me & the kids off in the living room while they’re in the bathroom.

Hope you are all ok. I can’t wait for all this to be over x

Pink_Butterfly

After my update yesterday my day went from bad to worse. My laptop disconnected from the internet, meaning I couldn’t work & it took 2 hours to sort out. The workload continued to pile up (anyone fancy going through 500 e-mails? I wish I was joking) and the managing agents refused to sort out the plumbing issues. I broke down, I mentally couldn’t take any more. OH sent a very snotty e-mail to the managing agents & the woman rang him 2 minutes later saying that she would call my neighbour’s landlord to see if it is a genuine communal problem. I think the fact he said that they would be paying the costs should there be any damage as a result of a communal problem scared her. The toilet is blocking so the problem is getting worse

Today is a new day and I’m writing yesterday off. I woke up at 6am but the girls slept until 7:30am so I got 90 minutes of chill time which was nice. Once they got up I made breakfast, showered us all, took the rubbish to the dustbin and stuck a wash on. The girls have been watching My Little Pony and playing hide & seek, & constantly asking for snacks!

I bought my car insurance last night. It was £359.52. Hate paying that amount of money for an asset that I’m not currently using but needs must! It was £200 cheaper than the renewal quote that I got from my previous provider.

DD2 decided she wanted to spend her birthday money from my dad on a singing Elsa from Frozen 2 doll. Yay... can’t wait to hear that 1,000 times a day! I also ordered DD1 another birthday present. I’ll probably get her one more thing and then she’s done. Her birthday isn’t for another 7 weeks (ish) but I like to be prepared

I need to sort my clean washing out now and then start preparing lunch for the constantly hungry children

Pink_Butterfly

Hey readers, I hope you’re all ok. Still very worrying times right now. My OH is starting to struggle mentally. It’s so hard, because obviously I can’t comfort him. He’s living on his own, hardly seeing anyone I do worry about him.

I’ve just tried to do a workout but failed miserably... I’m so unfit! The warm up nearly killed me! I’m going to keep doing it though, I really want to get fit & when life goes back to normal I’ll join a gym. This pandemic has really made me look at my food intake & lack of exercise seriously. I’m in my early 30s and have the fitness of an 80-year-old! I think that I’ve not had the urge to change before because I’m within my BMI & don’t tend to gain loads of weight, even if I binge on junk, so I’ve got away with it.

DD2 had a lovely birthday and has plenty of new toys to keep her entertained. She has also has her Elsa doll coming, so she’s happy She had a zoom call with her class mates and they all sang happy birthday to her... bless them!

Work has been slightly better this week. The MD praised me on the morning zoom call today & everyone clapped... lovely but EMBARRASSING! Lol, I went bright red. He also said he’s going to treat me & the kids to a Domino’s pizza delivery this weekend, which the girls are very excited about! He’s come up with a solution to help me with my workload, which isn’t going to help me at all sadly, so me & my manager are going to discuss it tomorrow. The main thing is that they all know I’m drowning, so if things don’t get done then they know why.

I have plenty of food in the house but I don’t have any Easter eggs for the girls I know that my mum has got some, so I might get them from her, and then they’ll have some here on Sunday morning. I don’t want to go to a shop just for Easter eggs. This virus frightens the life out of me... I’m not going out unless I absolutely have to.

The managing agents gave finally assigned a draining company to come and sort out the plumbing issues. I hope they come out soon... the toilet keeps waking me up in the middle of the night with its air bubbles! It’s so loud

Stay safe everyone! xxx

Pink_Butterfly

Hey Diary! It’s been a week since my last update and I’m still waiting for the drainage company to come and sort out the plumbing issues we have here. I tried to contact the managing agents yesterday, twice, but they didn’t respond so that’s disappointing. Will try & contact them again later, or tomorrow when I’m off work.

I didn’t get any Easter eggs for the girls in the end as their dad had tonnes, and I didn’t want them pigging out on chocolate for the next 4 months, so I told them that the Easter bunny had accidentally left all their eggs at Daddy’s house I didn’t get any, but that’s a good thing as I’m trying to be healthy I’m still doing my exercises in the evenings & I’m finding that I’m able to do a bit more each day. My thighs are so sore though!

Work is incredibly stressful still and I doubt it’s going to change any time soon. I’m currently on my lunch break, and I can hear my laptop pinging away, which means my inbox is flooding with e-mails & demands. Ugh. The positives... I’m getting paid 80% of my wages, I’m only working 4 days a week, and even less when there are bank holidays (thank you Easter weekend!!), and I suppose it’s good job security.

I had a little MSE win this morning. I had my eye on a cute unicorn bag for DD1’s birthday, and I found it reduced from £22 to £13.60! I’ve had to pay for delivery, but it’s still much cheaper overall I’ve got all her presents now, so all I’ve got to do is wrap them, but I’ve got over 5 weeks to do that

My food bill for April is sitting at £176.19, and we are only halfway through the month! That’s £20 more than my monthly average last year! It’s to be expected though, and with the cost of childcare & the kids’ swimming & theatre classes reducing to zero, I’m still better off overall.

Speaking of childcare... Tax Credits have updated my payments as I had told them I wasn’t paying childcare any more, and even though I was paying around £100 per week to the childminder & breakfast club before, I’m only going to lose £183.77 every 4 weeks in tax credits. I checked against the online calculator and the amount they’ve stated is correct but I don’t understand why. To put it another way, they pay £183.77 to me for £400.00 worth of childcare. Not even half. And there was me thinking that they pay 70%! I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, I really am appreciative of the help I get, I just don’t understand their calculations.

Best get back to work! Roll on 4:30pm

Pink_Butterfly

Morning all. I’m very tired, I think I had about 3 hours sleep last night. My brain wouldn’t switch off

In happier news (well, kind of), the drainage company have been & have found the problem. The drains are blocked and the pump station is not working - apparently there is no power getting to the motherboard. They tried to contact the managing agents but they’re only contactable via e-mail & web chat these days (why can’t they use phones??), so they asked me to e-mail the property manager to speed things up and ask her to send a pump engineer out ASAP. I wonder how long this will take...

An extra tax credits payment went in today. Not sure why, but I’ll take it lol. Pay day is a week tomorrow & there’s plenty in the account to keep me going until then. Looking at my spreadsheet, I may be able to send £1K to my debt in May! It depends on a couple of things so I’m not going to get my hopes up just yet, but it would mean that my loan would be into the £4Ks, and that if I really wanted, I could clear it with my savings. Not that I’d do that, especially in these weird times, but it’s a good feeling!

I have tried to donate some money to Captain Tom Moore’s amazing cause for the NHS but his Just Giving page keeps crashing. Honestly though, what a brilliant man. His story makes me emotional. Such a gentleman and an inspiration. I will keep trying to donate & I have decided that me & the kids will send him a birthday card for his 100th birthday in a couple of weeks