Our forever home

bellevie

I can well imagine that being the case! We both work full time and it's exhausting working every weekend too.

That said today I decided to commit 2 hours so stripped the walls. Dh fitted 2 extra cupboards we picked up. We have the tiles and base coat paint set aside ready for our next energy surge!

The kitchen is second hand, it was a fb bargain, but existing kitchen was so so old it feels like new kitchen to me....until we go walking round stores with kitchens on display 😂 I have to look the other way.

bellevie

Payday is here!

Money is all in the joint account. We dropped to £66 in the joint account before payday, a small improvement on last months £38.

I worked out after bills and budgeted spends we should have 90 left minimum in joint if it only funds one takeaway a month (others coming from our own account.) And grocery keeps to budget!

Mortgage payment goes out tomorrow my last check of the month : 280740, we paid 721 interest last month, which means 703 went to the debt.

If I put £40 from our left over budget on before  next payday I should be able to keep the debt in the 279990 area. Its not huge but I've been counting down the days to end the month on less than 280k!

 Current Overpayments stand at 344, with our usual 25 and a hopeful 40 extra payment, that'll bring our overpayment total to 409. 
I'm thinking an achieveable target might be to try to get that figure rounded up to 500 before end of the year.

powerspowers

Good luck on the OP target 🎯 

bellevie

So many days until payday 😩
Budget has not gone to plan at all this month.

Council tax dd bounced back last month for absolutely no reason the credit was there. I made a manual payment when I realised but of course in the meantime the council had adjusted the direct debit and they collected 180 instead of 150. 

One of our dogs was due a groom that I had missed from budget.

I done a large foodshop last weekend, expecting a 25 top up this weekend and next. The last week should be a full shop but our budget will still be 25ish I might need to get creative! 25 used to be a good budget for DD and I, I have never with all the meal planning managed that with dh! At a push we've gotten by at around 50 but usually leaves Dh scratching around the kitchen for snacks, leftovers rarely exist even when I try 😅

With a bit of luck we should still be in credit end of the month but it will be tight.

bellevie

And we can finally count the days to payday on one hand woohoo!
It's been a tight month.

We haven't spent anything other than food budget. Got the fireplace painted at last, we were dithering on the colour but now it's on it looks great.

I have a study day booked tomorrow, need to get my anatomy assignment finished. I can't lie it's been such a hard module I'm really quite nervous about part 2 in Jan. Looking forward to getting it submitted though, then we have one more assessed piece the week later. I haven't really been able to focus on that bit at all. One thing at a time.
Every now and then I start to really freak out that I've taken on too much, but speaking to other students it seems to be quite the feeling across the board with number of assignments, hours of homework all whilst working full time. 
I've noticed by our shared pages we don't seem to be doing a less than full time students despite working in the roles already, well lower grades than qualified staff but still hands on experience with our own caseloads.

I'm going to see the outcome of these two modules now have a break over Christmas then think about whether I've got it in me to carry on.

I could stay in this role, its rewarding enough on its own but I am at the top of the pay grade, I still have 20 years of work ahead I can't imagine being satisfied at this pay, particularly with our effort to shift our mortgage before retirement. Dh is in a manual job, it's hard on his body, although he earns a good wage now I can't see him continuing at that pace until his late 60s. When I made the move over to this role, progression was a big factor, so at at one point when I earn what DH earns now, he can think about cutting back a bit.

I know I need to keep on really. It does make sense when I remind myself why I started this. Its just so bloody hard.

Kakiste

Good luck on the assignment! It'll be worth all the grind once you're finished.

powerspowers

Woohoo bring on payday!!

studying whilst working is hard, it really is a slog but worth it in the end. Is there any flexibility to take study leave from work? Do you have a tutor you can talk to who might have some suggestions? I did a masters degree whilst I was working and found it incredibly difficult to juggle the two. The uni were really supportive and helped me extend the time I studied over to make it easier for me to complete it. You don’t know if you don’t ask. Good luck with it x

bellevie

Gosh well done Powers! I'm not sure I'll do any more studying if I can get through this!

It's an OT degree I'm doing. We have got 6 days study leave for the year, I took 2 for this paper. We had another module running at the same time which has been split into 3 assessments pretty much every 3 weeks and they've been harder to take study leave for as some were group work we just couldn't sync our days off work so crammed it into evenings and weekends,  ontop of preparing for anatomy and working it left everyone pretty burnt out.

We did feed back and apparently our feedback is similar to the year before us so they are thinking of changing it up next year.

Anatomy assignment in, one more due in next two weeks then that's it for the year 😊

powerspowers

You’ll get there B and it’ll be worth it when you do!! At least the assignments are due before Christmas so you can get them out of the way 

bellevie

It's been a busy few weeks.
Assignments now in, one result due this week the other in January. I am a little worried about the second one but hey-ho it's done now.

We had family over 2 weeks in a row, first DH brother & family stopped for a weekend, first time they've seen our home. It was a great visit. 
This weekend my brother & his family visited for DDs birthday, we have a teen in the house! It's been a great weekend but we are all tired now.

This month has been full of spends with extra visitors and DDs mini party.

That will slow down though, we are all set for Christmas so no major more expense planned.

I have a quiet couple of days at home now using some time owed. Tomorrow planning to return something for a refund and get the Christmas cards posted  then a little wind down time I think 😊