A new royal start

Jessy103

Hope the kids are all better soon and fingers crossed for the promotion x

MagicCat

Hi Jess, that's great news on the new hours.

Sorry to hear about the illnesses, hope they are feeling better soon and you get some sleep. My middle one developed a UTI yesterday evening, so a fun night trying to contact out of hours services, so I feel your pain!

QueenJess

Just a quick check in today as I have a ton of work to do (as always!).  Everyone is now better and back at nursery/school.  Fingers crossed that's it for a while   I have been trying to concentrate a bit more on myself and so have continued with getting up early to get 30-45 mins of yoga in before work.  I feel a lot better, although I think the sunshine outside is also a big factor in that!  I think it's also helping some stuff I was targeting for gymnastics... only time will tell on that!

DS is booked in for his allergy tests (that's another £190 on top of the £200 for the initial consultation) and then there'll be a follow up consultation depending on the results.  I think it could be £600 all in   I think the savings will be taking a hit there to fund it.

In other news, my HR letter should be coming out this week to confirm my move to 4 days a week - yay!  I also had dinner with a friend yesterday who had previously offered me a job and has dropped his requirements for the office to 1 day a week (I had said no to 3 days in the office as it's too far to travel).  I'm not sure what to do at the moment as I seem to have got myself into a much better position where I am, but then it isn't a long term job as it'll be gone in a few years (timing currently unknown).  It might be long enough to pay off the mortgage though and bulk out the pension (my current pension is defined contribution, but a generous one).  I think I'm leaning on staying put, but it is on my mind to think about..

Lunch today will be clearing out much of the fridge - roasted fennel, aubergine, onion, carrots and garlic to combine with chopped tomatoes, whatever spices I fancy and some pasta.  Dinner will be fish and chips (sweet potato ones for me) and mixed veg for an easy dinner as DH is out so I am on child duty.  Dessert is the last of the pear and redcurrant crumble with vegan cream.  I still have redcurrants from last year and the bush looks even bigger than ever this year!

Must get back out into the garden to plant stuff out (including my wild flower patch), DS's bean he brought home from school and is currently attacking everything in sight, sow the courgette seeds and a few cornflower seeds around the place.

QueenJess

The end of another week and it's a bit of relief as it's coming to the end of the crazy workload.  Plus my manager and other boss are all on holiday next week, so I am hoping for a relaxing week!  No HR letter has turned up, so I await for that to arrive.  As long as it turns up before the week after next it'll be fine as my days off will be Wednesdays.

Nursery continue to be inept.  I picked up DD a couple of days ago wearing a long sleeved top and a jumper despite it being hot and she was obviously burning.  They then rang me to ask why she had a bruise on her leg that absolutely didn't happen at home, so would have been on their watch *sigh*.  We will be looking at the new nursery soon.

I stopped putting all the joint expenses into my budget sheet as it takes a while to do and I am trying to save myself time.  It may all go wrong if the money leaks away and if I look at the account now we have £0 when you take into account the credit card.  I haven't done anything extravagant, although we did pay the deposit on the holiday.  We haven't even paid for DS's private hospital appointment yet I definitely have spent too much on food though as the cupboards and freezer are ridiculously full at the moment.  I don't seem to learn my lesson there.  I think it's because I hate food shopping, so when I do it, I buy as much as I can to put off doing it more regularly.  Plus there isn't a supermarket local so I have to travel.  However, I also overestimate the amount we actually eat.  At least none of it gets wasted, but I definitely need to do better with buying less to start with.  We will be eating everything up for quite a while..  Almost all my budget goes on childcare and mortgage and I can do little about either right now.  All savings are being stored up for the mortgage overpayment at the end of the year/start of next year in the hope I can at least limit the damage when our fix runs out in Feb 2024.

Not much else to report.  Just trying to keep on top of everything and I am continuing to carve out some time each morning to actually look after myself.  I am currently enjoying a glass of wine, although need to get DS to bed in a minute and I'm having trouble typing because my forearms hurt after gym last night!  Dinner today was burgers (spicy beanburger for me) with mixed veg (and beetroot for me... any excuse ).  I don't feel like having a big dessert today, so I've made compote from one of the many bags of mixed frozen fruit to have with some greek yogurt. 

Looking forward to putting my feet up and relaxing as I can't remember the last time I did that... was a few weeks ago pre- the work madness I think.  My parents are round tomorrow and then the rest of the long weekend is up for grabs.  We may do a National Trust day as we've found some brilliant looking places a bit further away and we can pack a nice picnic (although DD still insists on hot food for her lunch so we'll have to buy her something).  Cucumber, tomatoes and beans are all planted out, but I really need to plant out some more.  Will try and squeeze in some gardening tomorrow whilst DD is napping.

MagicCat

Enjoy the long weekend, hope you do manage a bit of you time.

QueenJess

Well clearly I tried really hard at gym on Thursday because pretty much every muscle in my body aches today On the plus side I am making some good progress and I can see my pre-pregnancy body slowly coming back.  Not that I'm large by any definition, just not toned as I used to be - particularly around the middle!

It's been a relaxed kind of day pottering around the house and garden with the kids and my parents.  I found time whilst DD was asleep to plant out the sweet peas (need to do the black eyed susans next) and also plant about 1/8th of the wildflower border.  Tons more to do in that border as I've not actually dug the last of the grass out, but hopefully lots of little steps will see that done in a few weeks.  I also looked around the garden and although there's a fair bit to get done out there, it isn't too out of control, so is definitely doable.  I notice my out of control redcurrant bush which is now about 6" by 5" has hundreds (probably thousands) of redcurrants on it and some are starting to turn red already!  That will be a very long picking task!

Lunch today was leek, pea and cheese orzotto as I have loads of leeks to use up and everyone loves it.  Afters were yogurt and fruit all round.  Dinner was spag bol cooked by DH.  Pudding for the kids was ice cream cones with the last of the strawberry ice cream.  DH wants more compote and yogurt with a piece of shortbread I made earlier.  I will have hm mango ice cream with a piece of shortbread.  The kids already guzzled their shortbread as an afternoon snack!

A bit naughty money wise today.... I bought an expensive pie from the farm shop to have as an easy dinner in the next couple of days as we are planning to be out during the days with the kids.  I also bought a larger watering can online as the current one is not brilliant and also far too small for the million patio pots I have and I had to buy DS some socks as his are definitely far too small for him now (at least he's almost worn them all through, so they have been well used!).  Tomorrow we are off to a new to us National Trust.  We have membership so apart from DD's lunch it shouldn't be an expensive day out.  This month's finances are definitely taking a hit with a c. £600 bill to come for DS's private hospital visits.

QueenJess

Oops, I haven't posted for so long that my own diary slipped to the second page of my bookmarks!

Work finally came back to me and I signed on the dotted line, so I officially only work 4 days a week now!  I gave notice on DD's nursery and so she will be off with me from July.  Until then I have to get through a bunch of unexciting things I've been putting off.  This Weds I'm viewing the nearer nursery which we have a place for from September so we can decide whether to move her or not.  I find the current nursery irritating and a bit standoffish which really grates when they are meant to be looking after my child.  For the third time in as many months I got a call to pick DD up early on Friday, only to get there to find there is absolutely nothing wrong with her.  I feel like they tried to get an excuse to offload her early and it was flimsy at best.  It came across as though she refused to do something (she lay on the floor...) and they couldn't bothered to deal with it and rang me to pick her up.  I mean she's 2 and has little tantrums... who doesn't at that age?!

They also seemed irritated that I cut her days and told me that they couldn't say whether I could book extra days when I need them for work in September and couldn't say if I can until the week before at best because of staffing.  I understand they need to organise staffing etc, but I am giving them 3 months notice and I dislike the tone of the whole thing.  Hopefully the other nursery is better (or at least not worse!) and then I can save money by sending her there, we can walk and she'll be with lots of other kids that will end up in the same school as her.

I need to organise myself now as I have more stuff to do than I think I have Wednesdays off for, so I need to get on top of them as I have to get some things booked (like opticians).  Not sure what else is on my plan for this Wednesday, but will see if I can get something else done that day.

Not much else happening apart from that.  I need to spend more time with DS as I am the person with the routine, structure and discipline, so it's up to me.  DD is being a pain and it can make time with her really wearing.  I used to like taking her to bed and reading the books, but she messes around for ages and is so annoying that it isn't enjoyable.  Saying that I think DH is a pushover and has let it slip... so I think I will need to sort out the discipline.  She also likes to roam around the car and refuse to get into her car seat.  It means it takes an age to pick her up and I can't get her in the car seat without some help from her.  I really hope that phase will go soon!

Money wise, I am trying to accept we now have less cash as a household with two of us working 4 days a week.  The next 2 years we will just have a lot less money due to mortgage going up and DD's nursery, but after that it should ease.  My plan is to pay the full 10% off the mortgage each year and if I have anything left over it can go to my ISA as part of my early retirement plan (I think plan is too strong a word... more like vain hope!).  If I get anything in my ISA in the next 2 years I will consider it a win! 

The mortgage is currently £144k, but we haven't done the 10% overpayment for this year (which DH has in hand) since our current interest rate is only 1.14%!  It is up in Feb next year and so we will do the overpayment just before it ends.  In the meantime it sits in savings earning more interest than 1.14%.  Because of the odd way that the renewal works next year, it means that the overpayment year ends in Feb, but the new mortgage when booked in advance starts a new year 3 months later.  This means we can overpayment in March for the year and then again in May.  If we did them all at 10%, then the mortgage could be below 100k next year (so excited if that happens!).  I did get a small extra bonus this year which I have saved already and obviously the ones that time out first are the Feb one (already saved by DH) and the March one.  I am saving hard for the March one at the moment.  If we also book the mortgage in advance, they calculate the monthly payments based on an "estimated" amount of mortgage at the end of the term.  This also means that it would exclude the 10% overpayment we will make in Feb and so if we do all the overpayments at the end of the next term (probably 2 years), our monthly payments should go down quite a bit as we would effectively already be overpaying with the monthly payments.  Sadly it all coincides with the expensive nursery years, but I'm thinking that if we can do this just for 2 years then we'll be in a really good place at the end of it.

I also have to think about my work as I will eventually be made redundant when they are able to sell off.  The current climate isn't good for them so I am hoping I can cling on for another 5 years (unless I decide to jump ship of course).  I have a vague plan that in 5 years I'd like to almost have paid off the mortgage, have enough in my pension that I could just about exist and money in my ISA so that if I didn't work for a few years it wouldn't matter.  It might all be a pipe dream, but I do want to get myself to the best place I can before this happens.  Right now I have only two large monthly bills... nursery will time out in 2 years, but the mortgage I can do something about.  That's why everything is going towards that and particularly because of the rates going up and up and up..

Lunch today was tuna salad with kohlrabi, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, tuna, boiled eggs, broad beans and a piece of buttered sourdough bread.  Dinner will be sausage and mash with carrots and cabbage.  I still have a ton of veg to use up in the fridge, so will reduce my veg box this week as I make a valiant attempt to eat our way through it all.  Dessert will be the last of the strawberries, blueberries some redcurrants from outside and greek yogurt.

Better get back to work!

MagicCat

My daughter is just the same with her car seat at the moment, it took nearly 15 minutes to get her in this evening, with my older one moaning the whole time. Definitely not a good phase!

That's great that the 4 day week has been sorted, enjoy having some time to get stuff done!

QueenJess

MagicCat said:

My daughter is just the same with her car seat at the moment, it took nearly 15 minutes to get her in this evening, with my older one moaning the whole time. Definitely not a good phase!

That's great that the 4 day week has been sorted, enjoy having some time to get stuff done!

On Friday it took 35 mins to get her from the door of the nursery to be strapped into her car seat 🤦‍♀️

badmemory

How about if you won't get in your seat we will walk home but then I won't have time to make pudding, no problem.