A new chapter, An empty nest, Drama school & Last year of Uni

Spendless

Did a fleeting visit to see DD's play which was very good. Got there at 5pm was on our way back by 8pm. Most of the time spent travelling! Was able to take DH's car after seeking professional advice over whether it could be driven with the windscreen stone chip. Repair still can't be done until end of the month and as the outing with parents takes us further afield, DH is borrowing another car from work.

FIL's bday today, called to see him yesterday in his care home before setting off but he'd gone out on a day trip.

Today is catch up on housework and pack for our outing at the end of the week.

Spendless

Glad I put my washing on the line to.dry on Wed. Yesterday morning at work.I thought it was also going to be warm. By the time I finished at lunchtime it was back cold and not line drying weather!

Id optimistically moved all my jumpers out of my wardrobe too on Wednesday!

I also visited Grandcat. He is a lot more lively, more interested in his food and let me cuddle him. Completely different to how he was less than 3 weeks ago when he just hid himself away and barely ate. Vet was correct about puss just being very nervous. It melts my heart to think the cat just wanted a settled home where he felt he belonged and doesnt care how big or small the house is or how well its decorated. Son lives close to water so cat can (and has) jumped onto the windowsill and look.out onto the view and I like to think he's day dreaming about all the fish in there.

Today is Friday so £5s have been moved. Now at £145 for xtra rent and £75 for my Friday savings.

Honeysucklelou2

Love the phrase “grand cat”…will look upon the children’s dogs I look after as grand dogs!!

Spendless

My parents look.after my dog whilst I work HSL. He is definately their Granddog. Its been the perfect balance for them, they decided when their last dog died a couple of years ago not to get another, worried about their ageing years. My dog is the perfect part time option for them.

We have taken my parents away o/n, an offer I made to them last year when they had to cancel a hol over Nan's hospitilisation. I have personal reasons for not disclosing where but will say its been full of history and chocolate and theyve enjoyed both. We will be returning home today.

Tuesday so just paid DD's student rent. That is the last week that Im able to cover from this month's wages, so next week's will be using the surplus savings I used from DH's wages.

Spendless

Back from our little trip and DH has already set off to work away, home tonight as we are attending a funeral tomorrow (parent of family friend). I have unpacking and a dog to collect today and maybe grocery shopping. Just slowly coming round with a coffee..

15th so interest has been paid on everyday savings. Only a couple of £1s and has gone into my current account for personal spends as it's over a week till I next get paid. From April though I might start isolating any interest into 1 pot, and not touching it and just watch it growing.

Spendless

Went grocery shopping and came in at under £50. I'd made a meal plan before going looking at what we still had in to create meals and stuck to my list plus a few stock cupboard items to keep them topped up. I have a run of smaller shifts rather than all day ones, which means I can eat at home before/after rather than have to take something with me.

My car petrol tank is full. I do a combi of driving/parking and using public transport to work , depending on my shifts because there aren't many reasonably priced 4+ hours car parks that would have spaces unless I'm there first thing in the morning.

Told DD that we would pay for a trip to the laundrette to bring her laundry up to date. Recently it's been a month long Easter hols from college (her last before graduating) and she only came home for a couple of fleeting o/night stays, missing both her birthday here and Easter due to the play she'd written being put on (student production). If she'd been home for the whole duration she'd have got the home comforts advantages, like food in the house that's paid for and a fully available WM and TD. Instead she was at rehearsals most days and having to fund and find time for all the household tasks too, just like in term time. The washing pile took the toll so I said we'd help out to get her back on track. It's difficult if you get behind in a shared house because you're sharing the WM with your other housemates, there's usually no TD and the washing line if you have a garden also needs to be shared amongst finding when you have a schedule to peg out and take in when the weather is decent enough, otherwise it's drying the clothes in your room.

I've not seen Grandcat either, but DS did mention he was running low on cat litter, so will contact him about giving him a lift to the supermarket.

Have asked DH to keep this weekend clear from the end of my shift on Sat till Mon morning and do not go accepting social invites or offering them!. We have xmas decs still not put away and numerous suitcases out from our trip in Jan. We are going away next month to the US again (final trip for me as DH's role there is ending) and I want to establish exactly what we'll be taking not have luggage all over the place!

Spendless

Attended funeral and was taken by surprise that I found it more emotional than my Nan's. Reflecting I think this is because Nan was 100 . whereas this person was only 6 months older than my Mum is and though with some health issues, died within 48 hours of being discharged from hospital which took everyone as a shock. I ate slightly too much buffet food and then went to work where I felt lethargic all afternoon.. DH picked me up and feeling to tired and emotional drained in the evening we ordered food in. I am working both today and tomorrow lunchtime-ish shifts. After work today Mum is meeting me and we're going to see a film.

Friday and the fivers have gone out. Xtra rent is now at £150.There is only around £40(ish) to add to this now. My own Friday savings are at £80.

Spendless

Yesterday Mum met me from work and we went to watch The Magic Faraway Tree. I read a lot of Enid Blyton's books as a child, Mum didn't but I could fill her in enough so she understood the plot line (udapted for a modern day audience to enjoy too). Cinema is licensed so I had a glass of wine and Mum paid for the whole lot - which I wasn't expecting. Really enjoyed it.

DH picked us up, so only paid for a single fare into work. Same today. I do a mix of commuting by car and train, dependant on my shift times, as there is limited cheap 4+ hour car parks, so only go by car when I'm sure that the time of day will mean I find a parking space!! . Return train fares are between £3.60 - £4 dependant on whether you are travelling at peak times. Initially a single fare wasn't that much cheaper at £3.30 but eventually I noticed that if I was to buy a single in advance of the time I wished to travel rather than the next train it knocked it down to just £2.

After today's lunchtime cover work shift, our plans this weekend are for the house. Today it is clean and tidy up and put away the remaining Xmas decs and the 6{!) suitcases still left out from a trip taken in Jan! Tomorrow is for life admin and paperwork, going to include looking at the CC in that, though it is not due to be paid until the beg of May.

Spendless

Got a lot of household tasks done but not all. Due to offering to help a colleague out with a shift swap, I'm now not at work till Wed PM so will get more done before then. Mr S will be away from tomorrow lunchtime till Thurs evening, so just myself to please.

Esta was done for me for my trip next month to the US. DH's will be ok for this trip but runs out late summer so he may need another though I won't.

CC bills all sorted all moved to a monzo labelled pot. Not paying it yet as I will gain interest on this account at the end of the month just before the bill is due. We just needed to take 1 of the transactions from savings - this is because I have not hear anything about my excess being refunded from my not to blame car accident last year. I am on the brink of writing another letter about it.

I think there's still not going to be a huge amount left over from wages this month. March is always expensive with birthdays/Easter but now I have moved everything into named pots it makes it clearer where the spending is going. I have very little left (£3.22!) in the birthday/occasions pot but no celebrations now till June anyway. I might end the month with enough in the petrol/travel budget (thanks to filling up when I did) and fingers crossed will break even with entertainment as am out twice this week with friends. Dog budget hasn't enough in it as he is at the groomers this week, so balance will have to come from elsewhere and I am hoping that I end up with a surplus in the grocery budget, because I meal planned from what I already had in. There's a roast chicken dinner today eldest is joining us, with roast, potatoes, pigs in blankets (bought in clearance after Xmas and frozen), stuffing, yorkies and veg, some from Aldi's super 6.

I also have a chilli in the slow cooker which will be portioned off for quick freezer meals. I still have meatballs, chicken, a small amount of diced beef as well as a rice dish and pizza to make meals with, so am hopeful I can get away with just one more small grocery shop before the end of the month till DH is paid. I am paid next week, but am aware that the following 2 paydays will be lower so need to ensure I have enough for any shortfalls for paying DD's rent.

Spendless

Chicken dinner was lush, a large plateful for 3 of us and the dog had 2 helpings, though I mixed the 2nd with dog food cos I'm mean that way! Some leftover chicken went to Grandcat, who I am calling in on later today as haven't seen him for a week or so. Grandcat is now showing that he wishes to play/interact with DS. In my younger day I had 2 cats, for much the same reason as DS, I wanted a pet and a dog wasn't possible due to my working hours. My cats though were very independant and aloof, so I'd not anticipated that a cat could show that first he was grateful for a home and then grateful for a family (owner) . It melts my heart.

I have a huge bowl full of chilli that I will put in portions and freeze. There's 10 days till Mr S gets paid, I have just over £200 left in my grocery budget and I'm going to make meals from what I have in as much as possible. There's around 6 days max between now and payday when it should be both me and DH eating evening meals. I'm going to look later but I think I have enough in to cover all this and any food shop should just be fresh/top up items.

I realised earlier that the one transaction on the CC that we've currently taken from savings, I already had plans for paying back because I said April's wages would go towards these costs as we've been away rather than paying back alternative universe savings. I'd just forgotten as we did the CC earlier than planned. Todl Mr S this morning that we didn't need a SO to pay back over time, which he had suggested. That he even suggested that is a huge difference from the early days when we were either going to deal with CC debt 'one day' and weren't on the same page about how to tackle things. Having monthly meetings and discussions about finances and costs has been hugely instrumental in agreeing,

On the downside I asked Mr S to check on his app how much elec/gas we'd used, almost £500 in the red! We'd built up last year a £1k credit, following 2 very big quarters of bills and a hefty monthly DD imposed because of it, our DD got adjusted a lot they allowed £500 refund. I'm mortified we've ran it up again and want to get to the bottom of why. It's clearly not the oven since I've been without one from Boxing day till recently. Our living room fire is broken and has been for a few years, we do have to use the CH instead but I thought we were just using the rooms we were in, maybe I got it wrong. We do use a TD but the majority of the time there's just 1- 2 people here, so it's not in constant use. I started taking more showers but recently my preference for baths has crept in, some of the time that has been because after a long shift on my feet it's the only thing I found relaxes aching muscles on the back/legs and also I find it warms me up with no living room fire. My S when he WFH does so in our summerhouse and has a plug in heater and the room like a sauna. I have complained about this a lot before! I bought him long sleeved tops as a Xmas present as a way of telling him to dress more appropriately for the weather, not in a short sleeved T shirt with the heating up moaning 'he's cold' Hmmmm. I suppose I need to ask whether we have used more electricity or gas in a hope of identifying where the issue is so it can be addressed.