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

Spendless

Want to get back to more frequent updates on my diary, to track spending as we go forward and also update the house.

Progress has started in the conservatory with Ikea Cupboards bought and a new light fitting. Amazing how much brighter it looks with 5 downlights rather than 3 up ones. Mr S has found an odd job man to do all the little bits we need doing but lack the skillset to do ourselves.

DD returned to drama school early due to a project shes involved in. Early return before her course officially starts though means no student loan through yet. She did make a little money over the Xmas break selling her old clothes on Vintd. Beyond that we bought her her 1st grocery shop, I had a budget in mind of £100. The food was 18p over, helped by clubcard admittedly. Amongst her and her brothers xmas gifts I bought them both a 'basics' toiletries set with the boring stuff like toothpaste and deodorant etc. Daughters included a couple of rolls of toilet paper individually wrapped in fun paper. Thats cos she has a housemate who helps herself and never contributes. This way she'll know if one of her rolls has gone missing from her room! We also sent her a little money to live on for things like fares but thats not stretching that far because theres a report of an attacker in the area. Id put in down to SM hype but the police have confirmed an attack.

Interest has been paid into 2 accounts today, which was a nice surprise as Id forgotten all about it.

Got to run now cos setting off for work.

Spendless

Payday for us both on what seems like the 591st day of Jan! We've also managed a few NDS days this week. Last night I was able to transfer just under £500 (£498.98 gutted I was £1.02 short of a round number -lol)  to our savings account from our current accounts DH has had a payrise and a bonus this month which is also very welcome and he has also been reimbursed his expenses for his flight to the USA later this year.  All of this makes our savings accounts look a lot healthier than they were doing!

We continued with updating the conservatory and found an offcut carpet roll that serves as a floor runner for only £40. I love it but think it's colour (browns) doesn't go with our grey sofa in there. We bought some sofa covers off the net to see if they'd be a quick fix, they didn't cost very much but that was for a reason. The colour is a lot lighter than I thought but the main issue is the material, it looks like something my Nan would have bought for bedding around 1952!  I   don't want the expense of replacing the sofa just to match in colour to a £40 offcut carpet end roll! We had been using blankets to cover the sofa and am tempted to stick to doing this and just get some more. 

Daughter has found things financially easier since her student load came in and worked out a budget. Together we saw that her bus fares are taking a large chunk of it, especially since she is back in class 6 days a week (no chance of finding a weekend job - again!). We have said we will pay them. DS was within  a short walking distance of his Uni for the whole time he attended and up until now DD has been. It is still walkable where she lives but a 40min one each way so adding well over an hour each day to what is a long day with homework on top is a stress we can take from her when it's both cold and dark. We can always review the situation after Easter.  

Spendless

Think I may have talked about this before but during our journey of paying off debt, I returned to 1 thought that occurred to me when I started paying DD's  student rent from wages rather than savings as we had always previously been doing for  both kids.

I returned to f-time work the week after DS had sat his GCSEs (I'd had part time/ad-hoc/agency roles until then) and remained there until the place closed down by which time DS had just finished his first term at Uni. I received a weekly net pay of £300  and wish I had saved this money over the 2.5 years I was there to fund the 'higher education costs'. that were on their way.  After I lost my job I didn't look for another because DD was ill with her MH  (we're now aware this was likely due to ADHD)  and struggling with school in her critical GCSE year. I returned to a p-time job when she had settled into sixth form only to lose it  4 months later in the first week of lockdown1 when the project I was working on was called off with immediate effect. I then didn't work during the pandemic and only returned when DD moved into higher education which is where this diary starts. In an alternative universe I saved these wages and used the money  mostly  to pay the kids student rent but also other big ticket costs from the kids as they embarked on adult life, instead we have a gaping hole in our savings that I now wish to rectify.

 I have 3 goals:  the first is to continue to fund DD student rent/expenses until she graduates. The 2nd is to make improvements to our home. There's a series of small and large costs involved in doing this. The house has been on 'hold' during the 7 consecutive years  we've been supporting student offspring  and I'm aware that should we put it up for sale (not that we have any plans to at this point on our lives) it would be priced to 'allow for improvements' and that's not something I want,  either for our own future finances if we ever want to move but for our own comfortableness. Last year for various reasons my own MH took a bashing and I became very aware that I needed to be able to sit somewhere I enjoyed on an evening especially if Mr S was working away. The 3rd is to put back into savings the amounts we took out during our 'wilderness years' to put us back in the position our alter egos in the alternative universe are in. 

So advantages I have to achieving this goal. I work nearby so have minimal petrol costs. It is walkable (never done it but would guesstimate at 30 mins) however I can see this being unpleasant in bad weather as no public transport runs there. As there's nowhere to go and I get half hr lunch I have to remember to take pack up every day, however I'm not always organised (procrastination and organisation issues rather than time ones!) and that means I call to get a meal deal instead. That needs to stop and it become an occasional treat rather than the default option. To achieve this a set weekly grocery shop day will help, using store cupboard items we've had for ages up and reorganising the packed lunch containers. Another advantage is my gift list is low (8 people inc myself). I read lots of dairies and SOAs where this category can be a significant chunk and it took a number of years before ours reduced. Nowadays on it are my parents, Nan, FIL, me and Mr S and our 2 (adult) kids. The generation above us are all pensioners and have always bought for my family so I will  happily continue to do the same for them. FIL lives in a care home and Nan is 99 so very limited what we can buy. I prefer to get my parents an 'experience' even if that's just restaurant vouchers (they've recently discovered they like Nandos cos we took them there -lol). We will continue to support our adult children with the bigger items they need  as gifts until such time we have a change in our circs, ie, when they become more independent/ we retire. In addition to bdays and Xmas we also celebrate Mother's and Father' s days, wedding anniversaries and Easter (last one just me, DH and kids). The disadvantage we have is a lot of these celebrations are clustered together, so we have 5 bdays, mother's day and Easter in the first few months of the year. Then 2 wedding anniversaries and father's day in the same week in summer, followed by the last 3 birthdays   within a 3 week period in Autumn and then Xmas. For nearly 30 years I bought early when I saw items and this has helped on so many occasions but it's getting harder to do  this as the family grows older so I think we need to create a budget for this so the money accrues monthly inc months when there's no celebration in it but is there to be taken when needed. 

House wise - We need to finish both the summer house (DH's domain!)  and the conservatory (which I'm claiming as mostly 'my' space). Quite a bit of this is low/no cost such as decluttering & repurposing.   There is an inbuilt cupboard in our bedroom and it's not been used to it's full advantage so last week we paid an odd job man to put shelves up in there, cost £100 which I think has been well worth it and I can start reorganising my own personal items into there. In the next few months we shall also have some smaller medium  cost household jobs done elsewhere in the house before we move on to the larger projects such as whole room refurbs.

The goal for asap, certainly this month but not saying today just in case it's not achieved is to open a new savings account to pay back the money we still have in our 'alternative universe' so back to paying money back, this time though it is purely to ourselves. 

Honeysucklelou2

Gifts certainly take up a chunk of my budget!! You sound well planned to meet the various celebrations through the year.

How many years does your DD have on her course?

Spendless

Yes, I can imagine gifts taking a chunk of your budget HSL.

DD has just gone into her second term of yr2 degree, so will graduate next year, late spring. We have the rest of this academic years rent to find, plus all next years. In addition she will spend a term abroad later this year with all its associated costs. 

I worked out earlier if I had put all my wages away for those 2.5 years Id have had a wacking £39k by the time I left. Wow! 

Spendless

No NSD so far this week as I've needed groceries, petrol plus another couple for bits inc buying a gift in a 70% sale that will be useful later in the year . On the plus side lunches have been made at home so haven't cost anything additional. Today I have HM veg soup. I needed lentils which is my preferred thickener and spotted some grated carrot yellow stickered to 20p.  I only wanted carrot  to add to the soup with other  veg so grabbed it and I've got enough left over to make another pot tonight.


Now I pay DD's rent weekly it seems to me that it comes round so fast and I feel I'm not getting ahead with myself. I always have enough money to cover it, it's not that.  Previously all student rents were paid termly for both kids regardless of whether that was Uni hall, private halls or rented houses. This is the first time that it's been weekly. DS  student rent was always paid from our savings as was DD's at first, until I had my lightbulb moment on here that it needed to start being seen as a bill that came from wages. Part of me thinks I'm being a bit harsh on myself, because I wasn't getting 'ahead' on the termly rent, just saving till I met the goal which was usually just before it was due, paying then starting again. It just feels different this time- don't know why.

Spendless

I took packed lunches all week this week, no buying additional sandwiches etc so will take that as a win. I should have really thought through the wisdom of making HM soup with the rest of the grated carrots, an orange pepper, red onion and red lentils (my preferred thickener) the colour came out chocolate brown - lol. Normally there's a lot more green veg in my soups and it tends to  come out having a  creamy yellowy colour to it. 

I went to the cinema with my friend and we had a 2 course lunch and shared a bottle of wine and the food and drink only came to £22 each which I thought good. The tickets had been bought in advance before Xmas so already been budgeted for in  a previous month. Return transport was £3.30 and I picked up a bottle of water and some choc in HB for just under £2, so cost of day out £27 plus the cinema ticket previously bought.

DH got ahead on housework whilst I was out, so we haven't a huge amount of 'Sunday reset' to be doing. The TD hasn't been working too well recently Mr S is going to look at the pipework first to see if that solves it before we give in a buy a new one. Grocery shop needs doing and  a meal plan of the week ahead  which is mostly just me midweek nowadays. There's also a parcel needs putting together of items to send to DD, something we forgot to take down last visit and a couple of other items that may be helpful in her next show. We buy her costumes etc because we see this as an educational cost that she needs for her course, so if we already have items at home it saves us money. It's a totally different ball game the items DD needs for her degree compared to what son needed for his STEM one, he didn't need anything  beyond him having a computer to get him through his FE and HE years. 

This week it's my Dad's bday and unsure what to get him. Due to my 99yo Nan going into hospital following a fall, my parents cancelled a hol they were due to go on last month for my Mum's 80th. Nan has now been discharged and is back home but the carers who were calling have now stopped as Nan was considered to 'not need them' However this isn't quite accurate because it's not safe for her to cook anymore  (she fell whilst cooking)and she refuses to get to grips with a microwave, so a combo of a 'meals on wheels' set up, family inc Dad and Nan's cleaner are all sorting out Nan's midday meal which is her main of the day . Cereal she can manage herself for bfast and evening either something she can pop in a toaster or family doing the midday meal also make a sandwich for later. All this means my parents have to be very much 'on call' so rules out my usual go to of an experience as gifts. I am considering something like Nandos vouchers,  as that is easily fitted in them going  and, they recently discovered liking there when we took them. Just not the most exciting of stuff to buy!  

Today's expenses should be the grocery shop, cost of DD's parcel sent, her weekly bus fare sent over and Dad's bday present. Once those are accounted for we can look ahead to the rest of the month's expenditure and work out how much we can hopefully be able to transfer to savings at the end of the month. 

dawnybabes

Would Nan use a soup maker ? Then you could just load it up and leave it ? 

Is she scared of the microwave ? 

Spendless

Unfortunately Nan isn't keen on anything that comes with a plug! She doesn't even have a freezer, just a fridge with an ice box. It's a shame because I actually have a spare soup maker. When my l(ate) MIL became aware she was terminally ill she gave away her belongings, the soup maker we'd bought her as a Xmas present months earlier she gifted to DD, who isn't bothered about using it, so it's still new and in the box never used. 

Spendless

Interest paid into 2 savings accounts today. I have moved it and put it towards daughter's next week's student rent. I wish to have as much as possible left over from my wages at the end of the month.  I have to pay the rent each Thursday so the last one of this month is (unfortunately) the day before payday. Going to see how much I can save towards it between now and then. Hope my coin purse(s) work their magic - lol.

Tonight we are going for a takeaway at my parents as it;'s my Dad's bday. Not as glam as what I did for Mum's bday a few weeks ago as we went to London for hers, met with DD and watched a play at the National Theatre. Had to shelve the original plans of going down by train when there was Eng works and the cost of rail tickets soared. Instead DH drove us (he has a company car and doesn't pay for petrol) thanks to an offer he had enough hotel loyalty points to get 2 rooms so the only costs that weekend  were meals, tube fares and some souvenirs at the giftshop. Mum gave me some money towards the meals which I still have most of in cash and will go towards the last week fo the month's student rent.  It was Mum's 80th which is why we did something special. Have told Dad, who is younger that we will do something for his too prob a long weekend away but we can't put that into place whilst the current situation with Nan exists. 


Definitely need to be more organised with packed lunches, took them 3 days this week then believed 'I had nothing in' so bought prepared only to find this morning an unopened packet of ham with yesterday's use by date!  I have put my early rising even on weekends to good use though and sorted out a shelf in a cupboard and put an assortment of 'buffet' type  non food items all into a picnic hamper that I picked up in a charity shop a few weeks ago. That is giving me a knock on effect of needing to sort out the containers etc for packed lunches - that's one of the goals for this weekend.