A new royal start

QueenJess

Had a nightmare end of the week. DD had a tummy bug and so I was up all night with her Weds night and some of Thurs night. All better now, but I’m absolutely shattered. My sleeping patterns are all over the place now and feeling very stressed as I am behind on basically everything at the moment and I hate feeling out of control. Hoping to start catching up over the weekend.

Work are not helping at all. They refuse to let me leave earlier, but are also doing nothing. I am going to have to force them to let me start handing over otherwise it’ll be a disaster. It’s exhausting continually managing them. They’ve already wasted a few weeks when that time could have been better spent and I still can’t tell anyone at work, which is silly.  Whilst I am waiting for DS at gym I wrote a list of the bits I think I can handover now, so I can tackle them on Monday about it. We can do most of that in the guise of moving things that never made sense to be with me in the first place since no one knows yet at work. I know they want to sort themselves out before they tell people, but I’m losing patience and can’t see that happening soon. It’s going to start getting in the way and I feel uncomfortable chatting with people at work and hiding it from them tbh. On top of that there are other bits of work that have cropped up that I need to squash that I could do without really.

Anyway, not much else to report and I am trying to think of all the things that I need to do today and partly because my parents are visiting tomorrow. Hoping I can get extra stuff done tomorrow whilst they entertain the kids and start getting under a bit more control. Later we are off out to see the local Xmas lights up. Every year people apply to be on the local lights trail, so there is a little map of the houses with the best lights up so you can just visit. A nice free activity.

Lunch today will be leek, cheese and pea orzotto and dinner is defrosted spag bol. Got yogurts for kids, but no other desserts as need to make some ice cream. Might throw some jelly together for them as it’ll set before dinner.

TallGirl

Sounds horrible with work please try not to waste energy on it. Their issues and bad planning is no longer your problem that’s exactly why you’re leaving. As for not telling people I’d just be subtle and people usually guess but understand you couldn’t say anything. Are you planning on staying in touch with any of the afterwards? If not then does it really matter. 

Xmas lights trail sounds great hope it stops raining. 

QueenJess

TallGirl said:

Sounds horrible with work please try not to waste energy on it. Their issues and bad planning is no longer your problem that’s exactly why you’re leaving. As for not telling people I’d just be subtle and people usually guess but understand you couldn’t say anything. Are you planning on staying in touch with any of the afterwards? If not then does it really matter. 

Xmas lights trail sounds great hope it stops raining. 

I know, but it’s all weird because my manager I don’t see as that as he’s a friend. I feel bad for him as he’s utterly screwed, but whenever there’s a crisis he sticks his head in the sand and I just fix everything for him. It’s an irritating trait and the clock is ticking down.

Will try and force him to start the handing over process next week which will make me feel better as I’ll have offloaded some stuff from the list. Don’t want to leave on bad terms and I can absolutely charge myself back to them anyway in my new job 😂. I realise there are limits though and they are rapidly reaching the end of my patience.

Will try and get him to force to tell people before the Xmas party as I would feel like a complete fake socialising with people knowing I’d handed in my notice weeks ago.

QueenJess

Dreading work this week because I have training to deliver tomorrow and no idea what I’m going to say yet (slides cobbled together on Friday) and I have to continue hand holding my manager towards my exit.

I have a vague plan. Will scare them into how little time is left and will force them to tell people I am leaving and get a few smaller things handed over for a start and discuss how I might do this with the chunkier work. They need to face it and I refuse to operate in the dark anymore without telling people. They have a right to know and leaving it longer is unfair on them as they won’t have time to prepare. I will also be booking some time off over Xmas as work are refusing to let me leave early and frankly I need a break. Will also book off Feb half term; that’ll save me some childcare cash and I can do some nice things with DS.

Tons going on this week as it’s the last week of school and I am definitely not prepared at all 😬. DS’s friend is coming over after school to play and go to Beavers together tonight, but DH is supervising this. Dinner for them will be homemade pizza (I will make the dough at lunchtime) followed by chocolate cake that I made yesterday for them. DH and I have defrosted a lovely M&S lazy lamb tagine for our dinner. I usually like to have one lazy meal in the freezer ready to go. Lunch will be the spicy sprout and egg meal assuming I have time today.  Surviving by the day at the moment. Back into work tomorrow as I have to face my manager to get my exit sorted out (plus training people face to face feels less like I’m just talking to myself!).

My regular saver finishes today and they’ve just added the interest to it. Just waiting until it is released and then I can take a big chunk off of my mortgage.

QueenJess

Went to the office on Tuesday and the traffic was horrific.  Spent at least 3.5 hours driving that day... I only went in really to run some training and also to bash my manager over the head to get my handing over stuff etc moving (not literally obviously!).  It's tiring hand holding him through it all, but I now have a confirmation from HR, he now has told the rest of the management team and will be telling the rest of the department today.  Definitely small steps!

A few amusing things from the day - firstly he told me that they can't counteroffer at the moment.  Why?  Well because the scary horrible person very high up in the company came for a "royal" type visit to tick a box (i.e. made a speech and then left).  Was the first thing they said motivational and saying how they appreciate everyone's hard work?  No, of course not.  It was all about how people need to be in the office 🙄.  So now everyone is too scared to ask which means no counteroffer for me (not that I care anyway), but worse than that is that the work they were doing to get some exceptions has ceased as well.  I know at least one person who has specifically stated they will leave if it doesn't change and we really need them.  Given we are a department of 12 people, 1 person leaving has a big effect.  The second thing that happened was that before I left, someone told me they had just handed in their notice (not the same person who said they will leave).  Amusingly there are 4 people in the "management" team (including me, although I am merely senior and don't actually manage anyone) and now two of us have resigned entirely independently of each other!  It's going to be a total disaster!

Aside from that I am trying to not do too much work right now and catch up on the million home things I need to do.  As work refuse to let me leave early, I've been booking in to use up all my holiday.  I'm taking off half term, so I'll pointlessly be working for a week after that.  Should be a relaxing week though!  Thought I may as well use it for that as I can spend time with DS and also save on childcare.  Plus I should be nice and relaxed before the new job starts.  Also taking a bit of time off around Xmas and need to work out where is best to put the rest.  I may take off a couple of days before DS's party as we are having it at home and I'll need to get everything sorted.  DH will be really busy at work, so I'll be on my own there.

Everyday I've been checking my regular saver, but it isn't ready to be released yet.  It does say it can take up to 5 working days, but I'm hoping it'll be ready by the end of the week so I can push the mortgage into the 130's.  Got a message from the nursery to say they understand the whole thing around having to pay for the days your kids aren't even in nursery.  It's standard practice to pay for all the week days (including bank holidays), even if they aren't there.  However, they have decided that as there is enforced closure between Xmas and NY they will not charge us for that.  We already paid, but means we will get a small discount off from next month's bill.  At the same time I got a message to say our electricity charges are going up in January (the worst time as that is when our bill is highest due to the cold).  Not a surprise, but feels like any wins are immediately taken away with the other hand.  I did a huge stocking up shop yesterday and spent a fortune, but am hoping that aside from the turkey and usual milk/veg deliveries, I will no only need to pop into shops for a bit of top up shopping.  I hate shopping when it's really busy, so I try to avoid December shopping as much as possible.  I will go to M&S at some point though as I have vouchers, so can make some free purchases.

Yesterday I made some fig, spelt and pumpkin seed bread (I bought a special flour) and it tastes pretty amazing, although was very slow to rise.  Need to make lots more bread to stock out the freezer over the Xmas period, but I have around 6 different flours to use.  I do like a bit of variety   Today is a busy day... work calls, then it is DS's Xmas fair straight after school, followed by a Xmas event thing at DD's nursery, then it's the last gymnastics session of the year for me.  School finishes at lunch time tomorrow!

Right, better run as I should be turning on my laptop for work soon and I haven't had breakfast yet or thrown on some washing.

QueenJess

Still waiting for that regular saver to be released... it's going to make me wait until Monday now...

Being lazy today and tired, so an M&S meal at home is in the oven and I've broken open the wine.  Lazy food.  Back to normal regime tomorrow!

QueenJess

Gosh, it’s the run up to Xmas chaos here. I’ve so much to get done that I’ve actually resorted to writing a list!

Firstly the good news… on Sunday my regular saver finally released and so I topped up my savings to meet my target and put £1,500 into the mortgage. It now stands at £138,500. Hoping I can find £500 a month to pay this down going forward, although secretly hoping I can squirrel away some extra into this from somewhere. DH may put his savings in there as he had saved the whole 10% overpayment over the year, but he’s a bit of a law unto himself. I also get paid on Thursday, so will start squirrelling into my savings and will pay off the mortgage in small round chunks, although I will also be rounding the mortgage down to nice numbers when it comes out at the start of the month. Hoping 2024 will be the year I make serious inroads into the mortgage and finally get a job I love!

I have booked holiday from work and still have 3.5 days to use. I could get them paid, but considering taking a day or two off quite frivolously just to do whatever I fancy. Work gets worse by the day and so I have timed my exit fabulously. I told an external service person I’m leaving and took them a bit by surprise. They were genuinely sad about it and it was quite touching. I am having fun telling people now though

DD is off nursery, although DH is not working anyway so he’s trying to deal with both kids whilst I do some work. She can go back tomorrow after 48 hours of antibiotics, but it’s my work Xmas party at lunch time today so I’ll be gone all day. Not sure she’s going to take medicine without me, but DH will have to bribe her somehow. She may or may not have an ear infection and it’s a precaution with a follow up post Xmas. I’m not too concerned as she seems fine, but her ear had been bleeding which obviously isn’t ideal 😬.

Lots to do before the end of the week and I am knackered as I’m busy doing stuff and the kids keep getting me up at night with one thing or another. On the plus side, the house is almost tidy and I’m pretty much keeping up with the washing (will put some on before I leave for work today). Winter definitely requires more clothes and therefore more washing.

Absolutely no cooking for me today as it’ll be supplied by work Yesterday I made vanilla ice cream, a loaf of heritage flour bread and a batch of granola to keep us going over the Xmas period. More baking to come later this week and I’ve still got a big basket of apples from our tree to deal with in the garage at some point.

QueenJess

I think I was perhaps over optimistic about paying at least £500 a month on the mortgage since we are still trying to claw back some savings into the joint account so we’re not on the limit every time, then the mortgage payment and the electricity payments will be going up next year. I’m sure council tax will do the same. I need to rework the budget for 2024, but I really am reluctant to put any more into the joint account. I will rework it soon and may see what happens. Looks like electricity prices may drop from April and we will also get some free childcare hours from then, so may just be an extra squeeze for a few months.

I am already giving myself some leeway to try and not beat myself up about savings/overpayments next year as the best thing I can do money wise will be to spend my time concentrating on the new job. I have a 6 month probationary period and tons of opportunity for good bonuses/promotion. Saying this though, I will do what I can until then and I’ve already saved £100 rounding payments in my account. Trying to find a way of making some sort of saving most days. I had forgotten about another current account I don’t use much anymore and so will be taking £80 out of there to savings as well.

I’ve also been playing with the overpayment calculator. If both me and DH overpaid £500 a month each, we could pay off the mortgage in 6 years! I mean actually we let our monthly payment drop so the term doesn’t change, but I like the choices that brings and we can just feed all the savings back into the mortgage anyway. My 2 year term from Feb has unlimited overpayments, so I’ll be putting in whatever I can in that period to break the back of it. After then, DD will be going to school and it should mean life will be a lot cheaper! In any case, my mortgage payments are going up from £860 at the moment to £1,160. As they adjust each time the BoE changes the interest rates, I am hoping to get this down. Below £1,000 would be a good start.

On the other side, my car has developed an amber warning light. The worst time ever since all the garages are rammed with work and they can’t look at it until 11 Jan! So only very short journeys for me until then and I definitely won’t be venturing as far as work. It’s a real pain and I’m considering whether I should take my car in so if there are any cancellations I will be bumped up the list, but then I will be completely car less. Going to be tricky once the kids are back and DS needs ferrying to gymnastics/swimming/Beavers. The first two are not within walking distance (bus not an option), Beavers is impossible to walk to/from and get DD picked up if DH is at work. Will have to think about that. Hoping it isn’t too expensive 😬

QueenJess

Been very busy cooking and clearing up the house before DD finishes nursery today.  Was up all night with DD who had a temperature all over the place.  I think it's teething and am really hoping it will have gone tonight (usually it's 2 nights and last night was the second one) so I can actually get some sleep.  Spent all night putting on/taking off blankets etc even after giving medicine to try and control her temperature.  Eventually went to bed at 6:30am and have had 2 hours sleep   DD got some good sleep though, so I sacrificed mine for hers.

Yesterday I made celeriac soup (for lunch), 2 batches of banana drop scones (now frozen), 2 massive batches of chocolate brownies (now frozen) and a big stew that I had for dinner (DH and DS ate out yesterday, so was just me).  I used an absolutely enormous amount of veg in all of that.  Then today I've made the world's largest batch of braised purple cabbage (now freezing in individual portion sizes using a muffin tray) and another bread is about to go in the oven.  Lunch today was some of the celeriac soup from yesterday with homemade bread and dinner will be the vegetable stew I made yesterday (with veggie sausages for DH and DS who will otherwise not consider it an appropriate meal!).

Almost up to date with washing, house almost tidy, presents wrapped, most the cooking done (will make shortbread, apple crumble and another bread at the weekend) and so will be ready for the holidays.  Just need some actual sleep!  Looking forward to tomorrow evening as we booked for an expensive garden light show tomorrow that sounds really amazing.  Going to have a big farm shop beef pie for lunch (with veg) so we can give the kids a quick beans on toast or sandwich dinner as the light show is obviously only after it gets dark.  DH and I will finish the celeriac soup and then we might be able to move a bit in the fridge which is currently rammed full.

Almost got £150 in savings and have got another £80 to move across from an unused bank account.  Close to halfway to my £500 target for mortgage overpayments ready for Jan.  No idea where the rest will come from at the moment, but hoping I can do a bit more rounding down in my current account once my credit card payment comes out next week.

Potentially some good news - the garage sent out someone to check what the fault said on my car so they can pre-order any parts before my Jan booking.  Apparently it hasn't logged anything, so they said to continue driving it and if it comes up again email him directly and he'll come back out to check it.  If nothing happens, then cancel my booking to avoid being charged.  Fingers crossed it doesn't come up again.

QueenJess

Well the good news is that DD was sleeping beautifully last night and no temperature.  Once I'd established that, I went to bed and slept for 10 hours.  Still feel shattered though.  Have sneaked away for an hours rest before we go out to our garden light display that I've been looking forward to for ages.

Decided to tackle washing, shortbread, apple crumble and another loaf of bread tomorrow and today I've been doing bits and pieces of tidying only.  To be fair I would be happy for anyone to come into our house and nosy through the rooms at the moment, so it's relatively minor tidying.  Just trying to keep on top of it.

If I'm not back before, I hope everyone has a lovely Xmas.