Prosperous soul embraces creativity & mortgage neutrality

skint_spice

I think I need sea holly - so pretty!

savingholmes

Thanks @LadyWithAPlan

When I saw DS he didn't ask for £. I asked him about his current finances as when he was at uni he completely overspent - particularly in his year abroad which has left him with a lot of debt to repay. He's since paid to have himself diagnosed as ADHD which helps provide some insight into why that happened. We largely left him to learn his lesson including leaving him to pay 40% fees while at uni and since as we also didn't want to take the burden on ourselves. He has since paid enough off to get better rates for most of his debt. I understand what you are saying about the choice to live in London and the costs that go with that - but of his income a huge portion - close to half just goes on rent and bills and then a further 20-25% on debt repayment - which then doesn't leave a lot to live on. 

I slept on it before deciding how I wanted to help - which was an improvement for me. I accept I can be vulnerable when it come to financial decisions etc - and in future perhaps should build an extra step of taking to a counsellor or my sis first. However, when I gave him money - I warned him it was potentially instead of a xmas and birthday gift. With the loan - I gave him a grace period before he has to repay - but he is expected to repay. When I have loaned him £ in the past he's repaid.

GAP I may look at a multi-vit without iron as the last one I took (last summer) - my iron levels went sky high and my liver was unhappy so wary since. I've just napped for a couple of hours so feel slightly better. Having an off plan roast beef and salad (triple layer) sandwich. Then need to nip to Asda and pick up some prescriptions.

El - yeah all that group are what I am using as inspiration to clear my lifelong clutter habit. It's very hard to break. Especially as we were relatively poor as children - and I can see a use for everything - so it's hard to let things go. However - when I look at their after pictures - it is inspiring. One of the most irritating things about me is that even when I have storage space - it's often empty - and my stuff is everywhere. According to their styles that means I am a visual organiser. I am hoping to get around this with a label maker - and over time the benefit of habit. I am being gentle on myself though and accept that I need to take things slow. I am getting better at grouping like things with like. A lot of sentimental stuff - I'm just putting in a pile together / box rather than dealing with - however that's still an improvement!! 

WelshmansDaughter

Have you been doing much creative work? That always recharges the batteries 

savingholmes

skint_spice said:

I think I need sea holly - so pretty!

Thanks. The bees love it. I have another purple flowering plant from a wildflower mix a few years ago that they also love and keep coming back for. I think in our garden we have a huge opportunity to help pollinators by the type of things we plant / sow / allow to grow. One of my neighbours felt I should cut back the sea holly as it's messy - but I love that it grows just above the height of my front window so I can see the bees buzzing around it and having fun. The skies are watering my garden this evening - just lightly - saves me a job.

I've picked up my prescriptions and bought myself a £5 orchid which I'm going to put in my bedroom to compliment the new decor. I'm really chuffed at what my cleaner and I got through today. I still need to find a home for years worth of completed journals - but I have a cube's worth of empty storage so will see how many fit in that... they are labelled by year to make it easier to group them together.

I'm hoping I can finish painting the skirting this weekend and do some more doors. 1 of 6 doors down so far (one side only). My cleaner screwed a handle back on my wardrobe that came off years ago. There's a reason I love having her!!! She's very flexible about what she'll do and is good company.

Today they're predicting average energy could rise to £3.5-3.9K!! However there's also talk of temp removal of VAT which could help offset £160-200 off that. The gov need to do something more radical. It's wrong we're being charged so much for elec when it's supposed to be from renewable sources not gas fired power stations!! All their proposals are a drop in the ocean compared to the need. How is the 'average' household supposed to survive - what would effectively be close to a quadrupling of energy prices in just over a year?????!

savingholmes

WelshmansDaughter said:

Have you been doing much creative work? That always recharges the batteries 

That's a good point. No not really for the last week as I focused on my bedroom. I do find the design side of interior decorating a form of creativity though. I did a little bit of pattern making yesterday in my journal but definitely need to do more again.

elantan

I found I went between Dana white and hoarders 

think I need to watch some more though the creep has started again. 

so one of them says ( Dana I think) one container for stuff ... so one container for memorable stuff you dont want to lose but wont look at every day ? 

labelled and put by 

I would love to be able to afford to have an organised come in and sort all my spaces .   life would be so much better 

jwil

Loads of good progress being made.  Hope you manage to have a good rest and recharge.

savingholmes

Thanks El for the container reminder. I'd settle for getting to the point where everything had a place. Then I'd have a chance of putting it there regularly. Want to try and sell stuff I over-bought previously. That would clear some space in the garage which would also help. Also want to see if I'm in time to take some curtains back I bought for my art room. I don't like them enough. They were £12.50. I'd prefer a roman blind.

Thanks jwil. I did less tossing and turning last night which was something. Still tired today though. My weight is starting to go down again so having a better diet week which is good. Need to wake up properly, get dressed and go into work... 

Just redeemed £5.25 from £co to spend at Mr T. It all helps. Probably put towards leggings. I'm due some MnS vouchers soon - at least £40 - I plan to put it towards clothes. I've updating my spreadsheet with recent spends and predicting energy costs later in the year. I've done a tab just for energy now too.

The unions have received a 'final' pay offer will be interesting to see if they accept it or not. They are proposing a flat uplift for everyone rather than a percentage which is novel. While it's nowhere near inflation it's more than I expected - but I'll lose at least 40% of it in pension, tax and NI. For the lower paid - it will be much closer to inflation.

Just been stroking my cat - so soft... He's purring very happily now. It's all a balance.

MovingForwards

The rise will help in the future, even if you'd prefer it for use now.

Hope you do have time to return them, if not sell and see if you can recoup most/all of the cost.

Clothes would be good.

elantan

can I ask what you do? purely as it sounds familiar with what I know others to be going through, if u dont want to say that's fine