Never a good time but here goes..

ladysummerisle

It seems like it’s been a very long time since pay day yet still 3 weeks off the next one. I wonder if I’ll be like old Mother Hubbard by the end of the month!

I was off for half term and there’s been a flurry of birthdays too. Husband claims not to want anything for his at the end of the month. He does like it when I find him ultra cheap CDs though so might have a look. 

My mortgage is down to 17050 and interest on savings was a tiny bit more than interest on mortgage this month so one positive. 

I have dentist and a filling / possible root canal this week though 😭 

South_coast

ladysummerisle said:

My mortgage is down to 17050 and interest on savings was a tiny bit more than interest on mortgage this month so one positive. 

This is a massive positive, well done 😀!

Good luck with the dentist and generally making the money last the month 🤞

beanielou

Pay £51 ~~. You know you want to! 

ladysummerisle

beanielou said:

Pay £51 ~~. You know you want to! 

Ha @beanielou - it is tempting but I’ve already paid the 10% allowance for this year. The tricky thing for me will be resisting paying it off when I’m mortgage neutral. I fixed for 10 years at 2.44% but I’m sure I’ll be itching to clear it!

Thanks @South_coast - dentist is done, face is no longer numb and I only had £47 to pay. That’ll cover my follow up in a few weeks time too. 

ladysummerisle

Brief update for me: the mortgage now stands at £16597 so that’s pleasing.

I’m trying to ignore work news - widespread strike action as the whole sector goes down the pan. Voluntary redundancies offered so waiting to see how many takers. An old colleague has due to rising debt, tough time had. He’s getting a year’s pay and has another job lined up, albeit for lower pay.

in good news, we managed to fix the toilet flush for £3.87 yesterday!

ladysummerisle

Time for a quick update. I’m off for two weeks with the kids and money has been flying out. They’re not all unexpected expenses though so I’m hoping it’ll balance in the end.

I contemplated going away but didn’t book anything so instead have a long list of activities to keep them occupied. I transferred £500 from savings as a buffer so we can play it by ear. 

I also had tree surgeons round to tackle my overgrown silver birch. It’s bigger than the house and I watch it sway in the winter storms. Paid £500 but other quote was £900! They also came back as I wanted more off (but for it to be still tree-like).

Wheel alignment on the car set me back another £40 (cheaper than major chains) and they’ve quoted £75 a tyre for my two that came up with advisories. I think I’ll make a call to another place before deciding. The other two were done just before the first snow came.

I’ve bought two soft play passes so £24 a month for that. Just need to go twice a month to save. Another friend has too so I might end up there in the late afternoon through the summer. They have wifi so I can bring laptop! 

Wishing for sufficient patience and energy to get me through 😊

ladysummerisle

Just been catching up with diaries over the past week or so, as I surface from the summer holidays.

i had to take a couple of days off this week as I think it all caught up with me in a “flare”. Some rest was had. Some prolific was too!

Summer was a bit of a blur and we survived. I haven’t bankrupted myself.

The hefty 1.4% cost of living pay rise came in 😂

This week my daughter started school and tennis lessons! Tennis is a group thing with my son in the same slot, only £29 a month. Went well, she high-fived them and only ran over for a hug once in the hour.

School was a bit more hit and miss. She doesn’t like the hall at lunchtime and seems to find it overwhelming. She also said she didn’t like one of the ladies as she was “fat” - putting that down to fatigue induced mean-ness!

On the positive, she only cried on the way into school on Friday and sauntered in as usual
no problem. There is much to be said for attending preschools that are attached to the school. What they lack in hours, they more than make up for when it comes to transition time.