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

Spendless

Thanks Happy New Year to all of you too.

Was a very cheap one for us as we went to my sis-in-laws and apart from DH taking along some flavoured moonshine (a xmas present from me)  for everyone to try, all food and drink was provided by the hosts( we have held NYE on numerous occasions at our house) 
DS and gf came with us. DD went to the 'friend's' place but found it very 'dead' and they went back and ordered a Chinese instead, but were limited in who would come out to them as friend lives in the sticks so that wasn't enjoyable either. She has got plans to go out with friend to friend's boyfriend's later but since he lives walking distance of our house,that isn't a concern. It was disappointing for her I admit, the first NYE where she's an adult  she'd have loved being back in her student digs in Edinburgh to experience a Scottish Hogmanay but too many restrictions to make it worth her doing. 

I am so full of cold and a cough (not covid) making it a strain on my voice to talk, I'm questioning if I'm going to be able to return to work on Tuesday as a large part of my job in answering the phone. 

savingholmes

Look after yourself. Hope you feel better soon.

Spendless

Since I can't stop coughing (to the point I've fetched up blood), I think the sensible thing to do is to get a PCR done (I used our very last LF which was negative) to just get covid ruled out. I can't see my workplace wanting me back in my current state but I'm also mindful that often lowkey and agency positions aren't thought well of or always believed if they ring in sick. I will try to book a test later today. Yesterday there was none available in the whole of our county. 

DS and gf went back yesterday, due to DS uni assignment that needs completing. Daughter is starting to get a bit fed up of being home and wanting to return to her digs too as she says 'everyone else is back' . We had already planned to take her this weekend. We have a hotel booked for us o/night which is free using husband's loyalty points just a £20 charge for taking the dog with us. Her cough has gone - hurray! Amazing that the eventual diagnosis and subsequent medicine sorted it promptly, given how many weeks, medical appts and a hospital visit she had prior to this!  One of her new years resolutions is to make herself more meals and yesterday she'd made herself a breakfast with veggie sausage and bacon, scrambled eggs and mushrooms. I've been concerned for some time about the amount of junk she was eating that I didn't think was helping her health wise, so really pleasing to see. 

Honeysucklelou2

Good news that your DD’s cough has gone. Hope you feel better soon.

savingholmes

Coughing up blood sounds pretty serious. We couldn't get a test anywhere yesterday but did today. You should tell the doctor about coughing up blood regardless. 

Glad DD's health is improving.

Spendless

savingholmes said:

Coughing up blood sounds pretty serious. We couldn't get a test anywhere yesterday but did today. You should tell the doctor about coughing up blood regardless. 

Glad DD's health is improving.

Eeeek really? I just put it down to the amount of coughing I'd been doing. I suppose blood stained mucus is more accurate and though I saw this twice in quick succession, it hasn't happened since. I will seek medical advice if it happens again though. I felt too rubbish yesterday to go anywhere, so have only booked my PCR just now. Again no slots in our town, so travelling to a nearby one instead (it's not motorway driving, otherwise I'd have had to leave and see what came available later) 

savingholmes

Hope you feel better soon

Spendless

Feeling slightly better today, though still not going in as waiting on PCR result.

Had a breakthrough with DD. Told her some of the exes claims and it all came to light what a lying toe rag he is (so me thinking DD had lied was incorrect). Huge relief that finally things can be put to rest. Feel sadness for her that her 'first love' wasn't as great as it was perceived to be, but I am now seeing huge steps in her mental health, whereas I'd always wondered why she wasn't making much progress before but had put it down to lack of support till she was 18 plus lockdowns, which I'm sure were also a contributing factor.

My agency asked me about taking some holiday days as pay, so I have wages coming in whilst I'm off sick. I've said No, because it is still up in the air if I leave in Jan or not so I'd rather they were saved till later this month. That is the fortunate part about DH's NYE payday, January isn't a struggle. 

Spendless

We now have 13 months mortgage payments left on our house. Was having a think about all the re-decoration etc that needs doing. We've had the house 20 years and it's still not finished! 

Though doing these things aren't a priority just yet, whilst we are still paying the educational costs of both DS and DD, if I do stay in work and can save up £2K by September, we could pay the mortgage early without eating into any more savings and start doing these jobs. I'm not sure we also have some cc debt which is also at 0% and after it finishes we will either have a payment plan to replay from savings or look for another deal, whichever we think best suited. I need to talk through the options with Mr S. I have tried recently but he did what I call 'snowballing' me, I suggest we need 1 thing, have a budget to get it and he starts adding in more and more things that I don't think are feasible at the minute. The only way I solve it is by slamming on the brakes and refusing to get anything done/bought. I need to make it clear that is a plan for us to do when we stop supporting 2 kids at a time and not a plan for next week!  


By September:

DS will have graduated and hopefully found work. His contract on accommodation will be up on 31st August and that should end the bank of parents paying his rent. I did say to him and his gf when home for Christmas that they were looking at an 8 month time span to put things in place. I learnt gf has some health issues creating some barriers to finding work so have suggested her starting point is a Drs appt and a review of her meds

DD should either have  a 3 year degree offer somewhere or is having to take a year out and accept another year of auditions. She is identifying areas where she needs to work on herself and is making some big strides. This included her meeting up recently with a (male) friend from her schooldays. She was severely bullied at school to the point she started experiencing suicidal thoughts and has been living with the trauma of it all since. Though I sent her well out of the way for her sixth form years, she was still not completely comfortable being out and about in our town, which then created problems once she turned 18 in where she was prepared to socialise. 

 PCR was negative, as I suspected, but my throat/cough/voice is still bad though improving from what it was. Think it sensible to remain off  today and I'm only hoping that I'm better by Monday. Want to get back to earning now I'm thinking what can be achieved.

DD returns to Scotland this weekend. She has just 8 weeks left of her course. After this she can either stay in her accommodation until the contract finishes (mid July??) or return home. Which she does I think will be based on where she finds work, there or back home, any friendships made and also the juggling of auditions. We will get her a food shop for going back. We did this at the beginning of the week for DS too as his student loan isn't through till next week and he returned early to get an assignment done. Hurray for Aldi and even better we now have one on the dorostep! 

Coxy11

Hi Spendless,
Glad to hear PCR was negative and good plan to stay off work until you feel better.
Jealous that you only have a short while left on your mortgage - we have 15 years! Sounds like you have a plan for easing back on financial support for your DS and DD too. Hope DS gf can sort some work but agree that she needs to be well for that to happen.
Hope DD can sort some work in her college town - will you have to pay the accommodation regardless? I too take DD for a food shop at A!di before going back to uni. Ours is a 20 minutes drive away but so worth it!