Five Year Fix, Five Year Plan

killerpeaty

You should get your dad to show you. I kept meaning to get my uncle to show me how to do things and sorta missed the boat there! Can he show me too!?

Also vets clearly know how to have a good time...!!

newgirly

Hi Merlins Beard, just caught up with your diary and wanted to wish you good luck with your new home 😊

Merlin's_Beard

End of month spending update: additions to savings this month, basically nothing. I've actually taken out of savings to cover committed future costs (flooring/survey) but that's balanced out by pension contributions.

Surveys: £70.39. That's overwhelmingly Prolific with one £15 from i-say for their annual household spending survey. I think I'm probably not going back to i-say again, though - they've been trending towards the swagbucks "ask 9/10 of the survey then screen you out for 3p" over the last few months and I've had enough of it, to be honest. Which is a shame, because they used to be pretty good before they revamped.

I do have a lot waiting to be approved for Prolific though so hopefully a good August ahead? 40 points in ylive so maybe a payout soon there as well if I'm lucky?

Plan for August:

• Organise removal firm
• Organise an aerial - literally couldn't believe that newbuilds don't come with them, but I guess a lot of people just stream everything. I literally have no idea what this might cost because it's totally outside my experience.
• Give notice on my current house (I am definitely checking they are not changing things up again before I do this)
• Pack
• Complete 
• Get floors installed
• Sort out blinds - I'm literally sat next to a bunch of samples. I need to pick which ones I want, go back into the house, do some careful measuring and order them so they're ready to go when the house is. But I've been in a massive slump for the last couple of weeks so I'm just ignoring them.

Plan for the weekend: Let myself wallow in this slump for the weekend - insomnia has hit hard (side effect of anxiety which normally follows a bad week at work) - so I'm not at my brightest, and there's motorsport and a world cup final on the tv so that's my sunday sorted. I haven't watched any of the world cup so far, but I feel that I don't want to miss it if they win! I'll pretend I'm just being very MSE instead of lazy  

(I have managed to drag myself out for week 6 of C25K so I'm not wallowing excessively)

savingholmes

It's hard when money just seems to be going out - but you will be living in your new home soon - and that spend will become a tangible reality that you can enjoy.

FlacosFloozie

Sounds like you need a recovery weekend. I found the first month or so after moving money just evaporated! There were so many little bits. However, fairly quickly we were able to get back to saving. Within a year our mortgage was less than our rent would have been on a smaller house. Realising that a large chunk of that payment was still ours (buying equity) made me feel better even on those months we didn't manage to save much.

Merlin's_Beard

Work choosing to throw a spanner into the works and suddenly have a lot to think about what I might think re pay rises vs hours worked and work/life balance.... essentially may have to weigh up smaller pay rise and a few less hours vs larger pay rise and a few more hours. But entire pay scale is being reworked so have very little idea what either involves.

(Lots to think about... obviously more money is good, but... part of earning more money is thinking a bit about FIRE and eventually having more time, so a few less hours a week would give me that straight away and perhaps give me more time to do things myself and save money? Opinions welcome!)

killerpeaty

Personally I would go for a few less hours. RE is the goal but don't wanna kill myself getting there. Having said that, the worry that comes with getting a place lies very heavy for a while until you're used to it.

Would you say that your work would take advantage of lower hours, try to get you to do longer hours for less pay? Without wanting to sound like a conspiracy theorist, you need to keep in mind your works antics.

Merlin's_Beard

killerpeaty said:

Personally I would go for a few less hours. RE is the goal but don't wanna kill myself getting there. Having said that, the worry that comes with getting a place lies very heavy for a while until you're used to it.

Would you say that your work would take advantage of lower hours, try to get you to do longer hours for less pay? Without wanting to sound like a conspiracy theorist, you need to keep in mind your works antics.

Oh they already do that as industry standard! 

But, two answers to that - given differing attitudes at different work sites, I'd probably do less work outside my rota'd hours. But the FT salary in this mystical pay scale shuffle seems to have gained some extra hours over what is proposed being rota'd? (typical small business chaos/shenanigans) So tinfoil hat on, if I'm agreeing to a reduction, I'll need to make sure it's a fair reduction that reflects the actual change in hours. Also that it doesn't impact anything else (training opportunities etc)

killerpeaty

It just sounds really weird. Maybe it's because I am in a different industry, but this would presumably make staffing more confusing (on the side of the employer). So I'm not 100% understanding why they want the change anyway.

What do your colleagues make of it?

savingholmes

I would be wary and negotiate the best deal for you and then explain why it's a win:win for you and them. I have written my own job description a few times...