Our forever home

bellevie

Trying to be organised with dh working yesterday I ordered a shop online via click and collect. 
Had an email to say the payment hadn't gone through. All payment details correct money in account, no notification of declined payment.
Turned out visa had gone down for a couple of hours no payments were going through.

So I waited till collection time, order had changed to back in your basket. I begrudgingly done a little shop in person for 45, I wasn't fully convinced the original shop wouldn't be charged.
And it turns out, I was right! Thankfully though it was there to collect.

That means an overspend of 45, however 95% was long dated so can be used next week, which means we will only need to top up the fresh bits next weekend.


We will be fitting ds bookcase this afternoon, I can't wait to get them all up, he loves his books so I'm hoping on display will help him to chose what he wants dh or I to read. He has a combination of English, Welsh and French books and seems to love them all.

Then I'm hoping to talk dh into moving mine. It was shoved in a corner when he rejigged the guest room, but blocked by bed, it's irritating having to climb over the bed so I hope it can be moved.

bellevie

The month has taken the most shocking turn.

I left dh the car one day last week so he could take dd into town for hospital. He returned home, parked infront of our house. Our car rolled down our hill and into a lampost, how no one was hit I do not know! 
It's unclear if the handbrake failed or he didn't pull it up enough.

Gutted is an understatement, we just don't have the money to replace it. 
Insurance say its a fault claim, as no one else to charge. Waiting to hear back if its repairable of if I'm going to have to find a car with whatever it was worth, it's value dropped from 6.5k to 4.5k in a year. It's a struggle to find a reasonable automatic for that. I remember buying my first 10 year old car for 1k, the 10 year old cars now are 6+ in our area. Bloody nightmare.

Not sure what will happen to our Insurance which literally renewed the day after accident. 

Work placement is taking its toll. I've found it very intense, stress to a level I've not felt in years, not the job as such just things that have happened. It's left me questioning really is any of this worth it? I love my job, maybe it could be enough not to progress and just stay at my level.

Childcare is really stressing me out, 8am drop off means it can take up to 20 minutes before I get out of the building. I arrive early to be first in lone but so do 5 other parents. Not to mention a £15 late fee for being 9 minutes late when I was stuck helping a lost patient. 

Just don't know what way I'm going at the minute, or how much longer I can carry this pressure.

bellevie

Bit by bit I'm working on ticking things off after a chaotic month.

We got a loan to top up the insurance money, however included enough to consolidate an existing loan and credit card, lowering our overall monthly payments debt wise.

That has made space for the  increased car insurance, car tax and expected increase in fuel. 11 year old car, low mileage.

I was feeling very pleased with the progress, until reviewing the paperwork tonight I realised the service history on our new car is fake. They've used the mot check mileage to report alleged services and poorly at that, I noticed lack of addresses, similarities in handwritting. Feel a bit sick for not seeing this on site, now weighing up options. Ultimately they could deny all knowledge, car appears to be functioning, they've just gained I guess a premium on price for claiming full insurance.

We had searched day and night since the accident for the size car we need, automatic, low number of owners etc and it was seriously slim pickings for our budget, our one back up made a whistling noise on test drive and had an error code up, that was written off right away!

I've budgeted for cambelt so I think I'll have to up that to cover a full service too. For my piece of mind if nothing else to know what we are dealing with.

I hope we've not swapped one load of chaos for another, time will soon tell!

bellevie

Service done, everything looking good, and it has a timing chain so no cambelt to worry about! I'm told chains should last the life of the engine 🙏🤞

We've done a finance reshuffle to give us a little more breathing space. In process of wrapping up a few things then will see how it works.

Health wise I'm looking into perimenopause, whilst I've had plenty of reasons to be anxious recently it's really taken its toll, I have wondered due to other symptoms if I was in it, but recently feel  very sure I am. I've got at least 5 definite symptoms I think, and I just wonder if around the more troublesome issues I can solve, the hot flushes &  insomnia especially.

Placement touch wood has been going well, I'm still exhausted and will really relish the rest in my mini break before I return to work.

bellevie

And that is a wrap.
Placement finished, it was a long intense 10 weeks that would have been much easier without all the ill health all round the family, car neing written off and hormonal nuances. Still although it felt like a mountain at times I got there!
Graded a 1st, and lovely feedback. 
Think I've picked up so much to take back with me to my day job, really feel grateful for the experience, I met so many great people in terms of patients and colleagues. 

I've got just over a week now, to decompress, try to shake off this cold, potter round the garden and maybe try to get through a top to bottom house sort out. I go back relatively part time for a few weeks as I have so much annual leave to take.  Planning to try to make good use of that, spend more time with the littlest whilst I still can!


My beautiful hyacinths and tulips have opened up in the front garden, absolutely beautiful. I thought my rambling roses would start soon, but when I ventured out the back I saw my mother in law had cut them back to almost nothing! When that plant was out the front I only used to take maybe a 3rd if that, I'm not convinced they'll have the energy to grow and flower this year....we shall see 🤞

peb

So glad to see your last post seems more positive.   Is the placement the last part of the course?

Unfortunately cars are unpredictable and so difficult to budget, and that's without them running down the hill.

bellevie

Hi Peb, no one more placement in September. September will be my 4th and final year!

Yes they really are. Touch wood our replacement seems good for its age, I hope it'll last as long we need it to.

bellevie

The week did not go to plan, think I'm starting to expect that now.
The unshakeable cold /cough turned out to be a nasty chest infection, little one had an ear infection, eldest had viral tonsillitis, and DH came  down with something, we will see how that turns out! No rest and relaxation in this germfest of a house.

Ds and I are on antibiotics, I did feel such a difference within 24 hours of taking them, still coughing lots but a little more productive. 1 lung was crackling so I expect a fair amount to come up.

The nursery with no notice have changed invoicing to be equivalent to individual calendar months rather than averaged out There's been a mess up as my bill came through 200 more than normal. I put it all through my spreadsheet to be sure then contacted them, looks like wrong rates and discounts applied. 
Of course there would be no answer due to Easter weekend! It's given me the final scare though, the reminder of how quickly we would go under if they make a change not in our favour, like remove or reduce a discount. So for my sanity this needs to change.

Lots of reading over the past few days trying to find a way into safer waters, sent off some enquiries and waiting to hear back.

bellevie

First few days back at my day job, it felt so nice to be back.

We all seem to have recovered, though DS has a runny nose 2 days after returning to nursery, hopefully it won't develop into anything else!

No response as yet from the nursery, I've paid what I've calculated is owed and will chased in the next week.

Council tax increase this month, gas and electricity down.

This weeks shop underbudget thanks to a voucher.

Unexpected expense replacing ds shoes, as he lost one, where we don't know!

Tomorrow friends are visiting, we will go for a walk if its dry, then back to prepare for the week.

bellevie

Enjoying a tranquil day at home, last few days of AL have been scattered throughout April!
It's the first I've managed to have both children out the house, and feel possibly 90% my 'well self' best in a long time.
I had my blood test Friday, keen to know what the results are, will try calling tomorrow.

Recent cashback 34, from car insurance through comparison site and a pre christmas purchase. 

My general & food spends account cash backs doing great, 103 in 17 months. That's averaging 6 a month, though in reality I think the biggest months were birthday & Christmas months.

Cashback is currently going into savings, as trying to rebuild my emergency savings since the car incident.

No change nursery wise, we are on 3 waiting lists. 2 we won't hear from until ds is 2, the 3rd our preferred as it does a full 8-5 day has a waiting list. 
We've adjusted our hours to try to reduce the recent increase as much as we can.

September should bring a little improvement when 15 hours kicks in though not as much as we originally forecasted as the current nursery don't pass on the full value according to their demonstrated invoice. Im hoping that will change,  I considered they might have used an old rate, so I may well be corrected in September.  Time will tell.