The Mental Debt Struggle...

Newstartforme

Well done Keedie on your new job , your friend certainly thinks very highly of you indeed , be kind to yourself when you first start even if it means ignoring things in the house or asking for help as you will be tired at first . Totally with you on the quieter type of holiday . Hope your boys knee is continuing to improve,  he must be so delighted for you xx

beanielou

Lovely news on the job.

Keedie

Sorry for the radio silence, but thank you all for your kind words of encouragement about the new job and your advice. I've been absolutely shattered every evening after finishing work. The commute is nice and easy, but sitting up for all those hours and my brain trying to learn everything has left me feeling incredibly overwhelmed.I can now see why everyone was suggesting breaking up the 3 days of work. 

And I now have a Chronic Fatigue Syndrome flare up 🥺. My glands are up, I'm in a lot of pain and I've been struggling to get out of bed. Luckily the placement only goes up to 12 December 2025. So I can rest over the Christmas period and then start my bookkeeping course around mid-January 2026. I must say, being an agency worker is really nice. I don't feel pressured to do too much as I'm not on probation. I can understand the pain points that everyone has, but I don't need to care enough to try and be a saviour and to figure out efficient processes. I pack up at 17:02 and then I just chat to my friend for a little bit (the one who hired me), then I make my way home and crawl in my bed for a few hours.

I've seen a few people that I used to work with and that was a bit of a strange experience, but ultimately really nice. I left the council 9 years ago and I was there for nearly 12 years, so it's an odd feeling being back and things being so different, yet in some respects, nothing has changed at all. 

I got my laptop yesterday and it is nice and small so won't weigh too much as I have to carry it back into work on Monday. Apparently there's a team locker, and so I need to see if it can hold the laptop. If not, I'll have to schlep it back and forth whilst I'm still at the office. Once I'm confident in what I am doing, I will be able to work from home some days. 

I was meant to have an appointment this morning with the council, a surveyor and the subcontractors regarding my wet room. But the contractors called to say that the surveyor was sick so they're coming next Friday instead. I'm super excited that at least I finally have an appointment for things to get moving. It's been 3 years since I've asked about a wet room and it's been a really tough time, often with limited hygiene due to inaccessible bathing equipment plus poor mental and physical health. But I'm so excited that within the next 2 months, it'll all be sorted. It takes about 6 weeks or so after they visit to get it all sorted. I'm going to take before and after pictures so I can show you all once it's all done.

Also, I had a Universal Credit claim review today. I had to give all my bank statements from 1 April 2025, and there was a LOT of statements, as I have several accounts so that I can manage my finances. But although it was stressful trying to get everything together, the guy who called me today said that despite having multiple accounts which is a headache for him to go through, my record keeping is spot on. So that was nice to hear. 

Also, I figured out my finances and how to get everything sorted so that I have a flexible budget that takes care of all of my expenses and helps me to look towards the future. I'll type it all up when I can over the weekend. And I think I need to bring The Sunday Summary back, so that I can get on top of everything. It used to really help me having that check in. And I now have savings goals/focus and a balance to how I need life to go. So the check-ins will keep me on track.

beanielou

Good to hear from you & glad the contract is going well.

Cherryfudge

I think starting a new job is always extra tiring because it's a new routine and your brain is working overtime to learn everything - and you also have health issues to cope with so I think you are doing fantastically.

And it's great to hear your wet room may soon be happening!

I hope the weekend enables you to catch up a bit.

Makingabobor2

Good news on the wet room

Keedie

Thank you all, it's been a tough week, but I am still standing. And I am very excited about the wet room! 

I'm working Monday, Wednesday and Thursday this week as I am on a mental health course on Tuesday. The course is about advance plans for my care should I end up in hospital or be unwell enough to lose meaningful capacity. So I'm looking forward to that. And I should hopefully be able to work from home by mid-September 2025 when I feel more confident about everything.

Me, my mum and my sister are going to Cambridge on 13 September, so I'm looking forward to a nice city break. My mum is treating us. She does a one on one trip or meal with each of us and it's really nice. They're looking forward to doing the hop on and off bus tour. And I'll be showing my mum and sister the restaurant that I usually got to with my friends that live in Norfolk and Suffolk when we meet in Cambridge for the day without the kids. 

And the weekend coming up, I'm hosting Boy's Night for my youngest nephews. They're 7, 10 and 10 and they're super duper excited! We're having a movie night on Saturday and a take away and then on the Sunday we're going to a gaming complex and they'll go on the arcades and I've booked for them to do the electric go karting. My son is going to do the go karting with them. He's just as excited. I hope they don't beat him and crush his ego 😂.

My eldest sister is 55 on Thursday and so we're going to Nando's for a big family meal. Hopefully we won't wait too long for a table as there'll be 13-16 of us depending on who is able to come. I still need to figure out what I am getting her for her birthday. She doesn't really need anything as her tastes are fairly simple. But maybe I'll get her some make up. She likes it when we do her make up 😁.

I'm at the end of an era of sorts. As my son is not remaining in education this academic year, his child benefit has stopped. It's almost like he's now an official adult 😂. Luckily I've been mentally and financially preparing myself for having no child benefit or child element of universal credits since December 2024. By giving him the money, it's kind of helped him to budget (he got better as time went on), and it helped me to not be dependant on that money in the budget. 

I figured out how I can get on top of my savings for me to go to the Phillipines and Japan in 2026 and how I can reach my sinking fund goals. And I figured, that as I accumulate money to live on for the next month, once I hit the £2,000 that I need to budget, then I can split any surplus that I have accumulated. As I am not in debt, I can't do Freely Debt Savings. But I figured, I can follow the same principle and split it based on a Freely Flying Future. With the Free part going towards guilt free reserves, the Fly is to travel and the Future is the sinking funds. I'll need to work out the split between the three areas in any month that I have extra, and that can be flexible based on what is happening. As one month may need more in sinking funds, one more so for travel or I just may need to have some back up money to enjoy lie. I'm not attached to the Freely Flying Future, but those are the areas. And I need to think of something that is catchy for my mind to look forward to trying to bring in more, so that it goes on the things that I want/enjoy as well as what we need. 

AntoMac

Plenty going on and to look forward to Keedie,
I THINK you can get a bit of a deal for Nando’s with an All 4 1 Gift card via Perks@work??? I.  Could well be wrong but it might be worth a Quick Look. 

I would imagine the Philippines and Japan would be expensive and take quite a bit of saving up wouldn’t it? 

Hosting your young family members sounds like it will be great fun 

Cherryfudge

It's going to be a demanding week with the course in between your work days - I hope you can do minimal extra stuff to conserve energy. It's lovely you have all these nice things coming up to look forward to.

Makingabobor2

Japan & Phillipines sounds great. We have always said we would love to go to Japan but can't see anyway we'd ever afford it. Think its probably one for if we ever win the lottery. But you are younger than me, so have more years to save up. Good luck with the plans, and your new job