Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

themadvix

Just come back from your lovely West End and wish I was still there - melting here and a curry sounds far too hot/heavy but knowing how nice the weather was with you, it sounds ideal!

 Not everyone without kids shares that view - if you’re not getting paid for it, I think it’s entirely reasonable for you to have extra time off if you want to take it! The answer for that lady, who has a fraction of the worries you have (as a parent - both financial and emotional) is to arrange her finances so she doesn’t have to work full time - far easier when you don’t have children and what we’re aiming for! The cost of children, childcare, holidays out of term time - parents are definitely worse off financially and freedom wise (but I’m told the children make up for it - I prefer the ‘have a niece and hand her back approach’ 😂).

 Enjoy your curry! 😋

savingholmes

Hope your parents recover quickly

Bluegreen143

Sunshine_girl2 said:

Hi delurking re the parental leave etc. Not all employers are the same , we have parental leave and unpaid leave for all staff regardless . We also have a brilliant flexible working policy. Take what they said with a pinch of a salt , I read what you do with your children and it's a lot more than some do. 

Good to hear you have enjoyed a sociable weekend , hope your parents stay well with Covid . 

Enjoy your curry later . 

Some employers are certainly far better than others - another lady at the party said she got paid 50% salary for parental leave rather than it being unpaid, your employer also sounds very fair!

@themadvix thanks for the lovely comment. I think it doesn’t occur to many people without kids to try out part time work, despite being more likely to afford it. I’m personally hoping I can stay part time once the kids get big though if I can overpay the mortgage etc. More time to garden and make jam 😆

Bluegreen143

Here’s a quick spending update for the month:

FAMILY

Food £278.06 
Non Food £38.94
Diesel £49.60
Other Travel £17.60
Fun £138
Home £12.24
Kids education/activities £44
Misc £86

ME

Fun £48.50
Clothes £15

SAVINGS POTS 

Holiday £130
Gifts & celebrations £34.66
Kids £48.76
Car repairs £871.31

Been to Lidl today and we’re going to visit one of Red’s sisters Thu-Sat so probably won’t need more groceries til Sunday. But will use tons of diesel to get there alas 😆 as she lives about a five hour drive away. Will be lovely to see her though.

Bluegreen143

It’s not been as hot here as it’s been down south, but it’s still been hot enough I can’t sleep at night and I’ve given up on the gym for the week 🙈 honestly I’ve just felt done in each evening and my gym isn’t air conditioned. Will definitely get back on it once we’re back from our weekend visiting Red’s sister. Feeling the healthy habits slipping too much and I’d like to refocus and lose a few more lbs. 

I’ve been working on my 2020 photobook which is nearly done, have read two books already this week and only have one sleeve left to knit on Bambi’s cardigan, so at least I’ve used my slothful evenings to my advantage 😜 needless to say the cleanliness of my house has suffered, but it’s hard to get up the energy to clean when you’re hot, very tired and grumpy!

The weekly budget is looking grim, but it’s the first month of experimenting with portioning out spending money weekly, so that’s fine. I do think it’s helping me be more aware of how spending will affect the rest of the month. At this point I’m mainly looking forward to getting to reset the budgets next month though 😜

savingholmes

I think many of us will have skipped the gym in this heat. My pulse was higher than normal anyway as my body just tried to cool itself down.

I like your weekly budget idea. I think that could help me as I have a tendency to over-spend when I first get paid and then spend the rest of the month cutting back.

Bluegreen143

That’s the plan @savingholmes, I have that tendency too - I nicked the idea from another diary. We’ll see how it goes. 

Finished my 2020 photobook 🎉 🎉🎉 have ordered it now, it would have been £45 because I added so many pages 😮 but I had a 40% off code, so including delivery it was just under £34. Still not cheap but I’ve done one for each year since Monkey was born and we really love looking through them. I’d also like to do the 2021 book over the next few weeks to finally catch up 🤞🏼 It does take a bit of time to make them though.

Tomorrow we’re going to visit Red’s sister - will need to fill up the car and will also offer to pay for a takeaway, but otherwise will be a cheap weekend away as we’re staying with her. So nice - we don’t get to see his sisters often, especially since the pandemic hit. Unfortunately the other sister lives right down on the south coast so a bit far for us to drive with the kids just now, but she’s coming up in August which is great.

Bluegreen143

Argh. Woke up with an insect bite yesterday - I think a mosquito, which I’d never heard of in Scotland until 3 years ago but both DH and I have had several mosquito bites at home/in the garden now for the last three summers. He got one on his leg the other day too. I heard that high pitched whine in my room the other night and didn’t get to sleep for ages as I kept leaping up to try to swat the damn thing. 

Anyway I tried not to scratch it but I think it’s infected as it’s now got a absolutely massive hot red circle round it. Wouldn’t mind so much but the same thing happened last summer on my hand and my whole hand swelled up!

As we are away just after lunch I’ve booked a phone appointment with a virtual GP through my work, hoping they will prescribe me antibiotics. It means I need to pay the prescription charge - which are usually free in Scotland - but they will deliver it to my SIL’s local pharmacy within four hours so I can pick it up when I get there. If I managed a phone appointment with my own GP today (doubtful) they make you wait til the end of the day to pick them up (from the GP or a pharmacy here) so I either wouldn’t have got it til Monday or would have to cancel going away tonight. I think it’s worth paying to get it today but still annoying that it’s happened now of all times 😒

joedenise

Definitely worth paying for a prescription so you can get away for the weekend to see your sister.  You have to look after your health and waiting until Monday would have meant that the infection would likely spread further.  Far better to nip it in the bud

Hope it doesn't ruin your weekend away.

Baileys_Babe

Definitely worth paying for the prescription in those circumstances.

In the long term, it might be worth finding ways, maybe with plants, to deter the mosquitos.

I hope you have an enjoyable weekend.