Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

Bargainhunter30

Glad the decision was made about childcare, sometimes its worth a financial hit for the peace of mind.

Leggings look fab, do you have a pink? I'd love a go a making some.

Bluegreen143

@Bargainhunter30 here you go - I don’t know how long it will be available free so I’d get it downloaded straight away! 

https://doitbetteryourself.club/product/basic-womens-leggings-sewing-pattern/

Bargainhunter30

Thanks that's fab!

Sarahwithlove

Seems there's quite a few different free patterns on there for other stuff. Wish I could sew

Bluegreen143

@Sarahwithlove I couldn’t sew until I did those PJs at Christmas. The only way to learn is to try!

Baileys_Babe

Bluegreen143 said:

@Sarahwithlove I couldn’t sew until I did those PJs at Christmas. The only way to learn is to try!

I am in awe of your can-do attitude. I wish I had the confidence to just do it.

Bluegreen143

@Baileys_Babe could you find a small project to start with that you can make using old clothes- it is a bit nerve wracking diving in with bought fabric which isn’t cheap because you don’t want to waste it.

Well we had a leak in our guttering at the weekend and had to use £220 of our emergency fund on a roofer to fix it. But how amazingly low stress it was given the money was right there in the emergency fund. Revolutionary! 

Of course now I’m a bit further away from my £2k target but never mind.

Have a cold/sore throat and spiked a fever yesterday so had to trigger Covid testing and self isolating. I had to go get the kids from nursery but now need to keep them off til I get a negative PCR test, luckily Red needs to stay off work too so he can watch them while I work. 

I’ve already done a lateral flow test which was negative so I’m not concerned about my health but the policy is the kids can’t go back til I get a negative PCR as the LF aren’t as accurate. Because I’m on one of the vaccine clinical trials I actually need to do a PCR test daily for 3 days so another two to go (I hate getting swabbed as well 😖). 

Hoping we get out of self isolation in time to vote tomorrow but I see you can have an emergency proxy so if needed I’ll ask one of my best friends who lives round the corner as she’s going to the same polling station anyway and votes for the same party so I can trust her 😆

Red got us a KFC on his way home yesterday to cheer us all up & so I didn’t need to cook but he treated us so no impact on the budget 😂

Baileys_Babe

Fingers crossed for a negative result 🤞
Three cheers for emergency savings, they give us so much peace of mind. You will have it refilled in no time.

rugbymadfamily

Hi @Bluegreen143 been good to read your diary and hear all about what you are up to.

Exactly what the emergency fund is there for so thats great. We had a leak this week and were a bit worried it was going to get v expensive, having the emergency fund made it so much less stressful. In the end the fix was less than £20 so no real worry (as long as the fix has haha!).

Love your leggings, am also a keen sewer just rubbish at finding the time to do it. Must get myself in gear on it again as I have some soft furnishings for the house which need doing!

Bluegreen143

Sorry diary, back again!

Been feeling a bit low. Our Covid tests all came back negative last time, thank goodness, we got the kids back off to nursery and then yesterday they shut Bambi’s nursery for 10 days because of several Covid cases in other bubbles. So she doesn’t need to self isolate as it wasn’t her bubble, but now we have her at home all next week. 

We have had such awful luck with this! The kids have barely had two weeks with them both being in nursery since I started work. I’m not really enjoying work and feel glum at the thought of being a “corporate” job which I don’t find fulfilling for the rest of my life, and the ongoing saga with nurseries and Covid self isolations is making me regret taking the damn thing now! We aren’t even making as much money as I’d planned given we need to pay for extra time at nursery.

I’m strongly considering retraining to work in a nursery (would be going to college in Aug 2022, not this year so lots of time to think) which is something I was really considering before I took this job. Red is not super keen though. He said if I really hate work I can quit and be a SAHM again (sweet of him to say as I think he feels a bit sick at the thought of the income drop 😂 and I’m not hating it THAT much to do this). And if I want to retrain he will support that if it’s leading to something with a similar or higher income  than my current work. So he thinks I should do primary teaching. He basically doesn’t see the point in going to college for two years (where I’d have no income again) to qualify to do something less well paid that what I currently do. Getting a job in a council nursery is better paid than a private nursery and that would be my aim but obviously you can’t guarantee what job you’ll get. Still, after his initial shock he has said he wants me to be happy. We have a very good friend (his best friend’s wife) who like me has a degree but went back to college a few years ago to do the nursery practitioner qualification and she does really enjoy her job, she is part time & term time only now as she has a little one and is also currently doing a second degree part-time on the side through work to then qualify her as a room leader and one day to maybe become a head of centre. So I’m going to speak to her in-depth about her experiences as I know she also wrestled with the expectation from others to go into teaching instead because she already had a degree and teaching being better paid etc.

Adding to all my swirling emotions, I’d actually really love a third child and currently am feeling very sad about the unlikeliness of this happening. I did say to Red if a third baby was on the cards I’d be happy to do this job (or similar) for a couple of years to allow us to save up, but he says IF we do have another baby, which is a big IF, it would be in a few years. He doesn’t feel that we have the financial and energy resources right now.

Phew! Sorry for the big moan!! It’s out of my system now so back to moneysaving 😂

Our emergency fund got hit for another £290 because our dishwasher broke, which took it down to around £1,350 😭 but I got paid yesterday so topped it back up to £1,600. That’s why it’s there after all! One thing that is consoling me for having to work 😅 is having the extra money that things like this aren’t a stress. It was £550 I think all in for the guttering and the dishwasher this month and I literally felt zero stress at paying over the money because it was there just waiting to be needed 🙌🏼