Sh*t creek - is now in my rear view mirror...!

Skint_yet_Again

Hi Ren sorry to hear about your family disaster. Make sure you are not taking it all on your own shoulders and look after yourself too. Don’t worry about healthy eating at the moment just eat what you can / fancy, anything to fuel all the walking/ worrying. Take care xx

MovingForwards

Everything will settle down again in time, try and eat / sleep when you can.

longway2go

Ren sorry to see that you are having a hard time atm, life and food will all resettle in good time x

Irenadler

I thought I must pop in and say thank you all for your kind words. Unfortunately, the family emergency will take weeks, if not months, to resolve. It's very stressful for us all, and sadly, affecting my MH, sleep, and well, I'd say diet, but that's an oxymoron..... ha! Let's just say old habits die hard....

I will try to get back on here more often, as the self-discipline/money-saving I had been making progress on, has gone backwards. It really shows to me that a diary helps focus my brain, and the support and encouragement really helps me. That includes accountability for the health/diet too....

Poor old dog hurt herself (fell half-way across the curb when deciding she wasn't old and decrepit, and thought she'd have a go lunging and barking at another dog!), so she is back to hobbling again. I feel I am wearing a groove in the ground between walking to relatives and worrying about them when I'm home, and worrying about dog when at relatives.... 

I know we will get through this and out the other side, I am going to kick myself up the bottom, and not neglect what I have been achieving, with the help of everyone here....

Example diet yesterday:

A healthy start - breakfast of porridge, plant milk, yogurt, berries and ground seed mix.

Snack - huge bag of vegan corn puffs, sucking down handful's of nuts and raisins....

Lunch - (reduced price!) vegan pizza, added on top spring onions, falafel's, pepper, and vegan cheese. Lots of cheese.... followed by (reduced!) vegan cheesecake.... followed by nuts.... followed by bar of chocolate. Not a small bar! Argh....

Tea - Grazing on nuts and raisins again.... followed by cheesecake.... followed by big mug of cocoa.... 

I haven't been on the scales for a while! Needless to say the above eating was preceded by binge-spending at supermarket. The not buying junk didn't last long.... I can't look at the receipt so I know I have been spectacularly failing to budget. I have to get back on the budget wagon, not least because the income will probably reduce in April, but primarily because I cannot let stressful life events de-rail me. I need to 'lock-in' the good habits whatever chaos is happening around me, so they don't judder to a halt (or worse, reverse).

Keeping on keeping on is the only way....

Skint_yet_Again

Aw Ren sorry to hear you are struggling and poor doggy has hurt herself. Don’t beat yourself up about the eating, spending will fall again just take it a day at a time and try to get back to budgeting. It’s not easy especially when you have so much going on. Take care of yourself and hope your doggy feels better soon 

MovingForwards

You're burning a lot of cals with everything you are doing, so food intake will increase. Please forget about any form of diet until this emergency is resolved as you will put yourself at risk.

Hopefully with a few days rest furbaby will be better.

Try and pop on as that break / unwind period between emergency and home life.

savingwannabe

Ren i hope you are all ok. It sounds v bad. We are all thinking of you. Try to rest if you can and if possible try to eat healthily it helps. 

Irenadler

Another quick check-in... 

I realised I have taken my eye off the ball regarding finances. For some reason my B/B and landline direct debits aren't going out, so, need to chase the company up on that. And UC stopped payment (this month only?) naturally, because of final pay I received end of December. And - then local council sent me a bill because they stopped CTS for over a hundred pounds. I couldn't face querying either when I might get UC (or has it stopped) or wrestling with council about it. Must kick my own butt.....

Just when I thought it was all ticking over.... 

I think things are settling into a routine a bit more with poorly relative's; bouts of anxiety they have are a bit calmer. However, this is just the early stage of dealing with what's happened. Unfortunately they don't comprehend the disruption to come, complicated by Covid-19 restrictions, but even though I have explained it to try and prepare them, I think they have to actually experience it to realise.....

definitely tiring....

Skint_yet_Again

Sounds exhausting Ren. Hope you manage to get UC & finances sorted 

MovingForwards

Don't panic!
It's normal for CT to pounce when UC stops. Your UC will return but you may need to contact the council again to get that started. It is just because of your final pay, now the money is treated as capital for each assessment period. Provided your savings are under £6k there's now no impact on your UC.

CT will rebill you for a pro rata month where you were not entitled to UC. The bill they have sent is for the remainder of this CT year.

(I spend too much time on this forum!)

Remember, you've low outgoings and can comfortably get through until your next UC payment.

Relatives will have to adjust, no matter how u settling. Can any other relatives take a bit of the burden occasionally.