Diary of a 30-something idiot

lucielle

Sorry to be harsh but you’ve already moved once to clear the debts….
L

foxandflowers

@lucielle I have no arguments to make. You're right. If we do move I will be spending the intervening time working strictly with my own budget. 

Mr F wants to sell the van and get something newer/that needs less work. I am very sad about it, but the lower monthly insurance would be a blessing. Someone has offered me £7.5k but it's listed for 10k. Then she said 8k, if I can deliver it to Cornwall! Which would be a 4 hour drive, and 8 hours on the way home, so unlikely to be happening tbh. 

I applied for another job yesterday, this time in Infrastructure, doing Highways Searches. It pays the same and they are only in office one day a week. I can't keep being in five days a week, it's causing havoc with my finances, my mental health, and I am always exhausted from masking. The post closes today, so hopefully I will hear something by the end of the week. I don't really want to have to do the CIPP; one of my colleagues was boasting about using ChatGPT to write his essays for his CIPP and it just made me really sad, because he will probably score higher than I would, and I would actually be doing the work. If this other job doesn't come off, then that's fine and I will just get the CIPP done and resign myself to another 2 years in Pensions, but I've got 3 weeks to find something else before the course starts. What I really need is a holiday, but that is not going to be happening. 

Just the mobile phone contracts left to pay this month. I have £200 left from my pay. Child Benefit is due in on Friday, along with rent so after bills are paid I should have £260. I'll need to do a top up shop this weekend (honey nut shredded wheat are the nicest thing I've had in ages but have disappeared at a rate of knots) but hoping not to spend more than £40. We still have Hot Dogs / Chicken Wings / Fish Finger Sandwiches / Toad in the Hole / Tuna Pasta / Chicken Lettuce Wraps as available meal options. I'll be doing spaghetti bolognese tonight. 

Sold something on Vinted, so another £4 in the pot. I'm going to sand and gloss the stairs this weekend, and try and organise the understairs kitchen pantry / kitchen cupboards. How thrilling. Have decided to count days where only bills come out of the account as No Spend Days going forward. Last month I managed 3 NSDs, but this month I'm aiming for 10 under the "new rules". 

twiggy86

Oh I definitely don't let bills factor into a NSD! I track days when I don't spend from my personal pot and grocery pot - both as separate (i.e. I buy groceries but no personal spends - which counts as a "personal NSD") and as complete NSDs. But anything that comes from a dedicated pot (so bills, petrol, gifts etc) don't affect NSDs. Complicated but hope it makes sense!!! I just find that this way, if I have a spend in one category I don't have an "oh sod it, its ruined now" mindset! 

MFWannabe

foxandflowers said:

@lucielle I have no arguments to make. You're right. If we do move I will be spending the intervening time working strictly with my own budget. 

Mr F wants to sell the van and get something newer/that needs less work. I am very sad about it, but the lower monthly insurance would be a blessing. Someone has offered me £7.5k but it's listed for 10k. Then she said 8k, if I can deliver it to Cornwall! Which would be a 4 hour drive, and 8 hours on the way home, so unlikely to be happening tbh. 

I applied for another job yesterday, this time in Infrastructure, doing Highways Searches. It pays the same and they are only in office one day a week. I can't keep being in five days a week, it's causing havoc with my finances, my mental health, and I am always exhausted from masking. The post closes today, so hopefully I will hear something by the end of the week. I don't really want to have to do the CIPP; one of my colleagues was boasting about using ChatGPT to write his essays for his CIPP and it just made me really sad, because he will probably score higher than I would, and I would actually be doing the work. If this other job doesn't come off, then that's fine and I will just get the CIPP done and resign myself to another 2 years in Pensions, but I've got 3 weeks to find something else before the course starts. What I really need is a holiday, but that is not going to be happening. 

Just the mobile phone contracts left to pay this month. I have £200 left from my pay. Child Benefit is due in on Friday, along with rent so after bills are paid I should have £260. I'll need to do a top up shop this weekend (honey nut shredded wheat are the nicest thing I've had in ages but have disappeared at a rate of knots) but hoping not to spend more than £40. We still have Hot Dogs / Chicken Wings / Fish Finger Sandwiches / Toad in the Hole / Tuna Pasta / Chicken Lettuce Wraps as available meal options. I'll be doing spaghetti bolognese tonight. 

Sold something on Vinted, so another £4 in the pot. I'm going to sand and gloss the stairs this weekend, and try and organise the understairs kitchen pantry / kitchen cupboards. How thrilling. Have decided to count days where only bills come out of the account as No Spend Days going forward. Last month I managed 3 NSDs, but this month I'm aiming for 10 under the "new rules". 

How is Mr F planning to fund the purchase of the newer van? 

Bluegreen143

I was wondering about this - do you mean a newer, but smaller car which you can find totally by selling the van? If so I do think this is fairly sensible because of savings on the running costs. I can’t see any obvious way for you to afford an upgraded van so I’m assuming this is the case.

foxandflowers

Yes - newer van would be smaller - think more VW caddy sized, newer engine etc so better on fuel, less rattley etc. Not half as charming as my current one, but definitely better for the family. Rock and roll bed in the back would also = seating for children / not losing out on the whole camping thing that we both enjoy so much. Would be entirely funded by the sale of the current one. 

birdsfoottrefoil

I’m not sure you’d get a newer VW Caddy under 10k. Perhaps a Peugeot etc might be better to consider. It might be best to look at a car though as they’re cheaper both to buy and tend to be in better condition (not been used as workhorses). Perhaps you could consider a Dacia Jogger or Citroen Berlingo for the camping possibility? I’m sure Mr Fox could do a conversion of the back as a project when he’s at home, it might be good for him to have a project so he can get into the mindset of working as the children get older and don’t need someone at home. He could also do the stairs as a project so you can have some time off at the weekend. 

londoner2019

Good luck on the job application!

+1 to others on what counts as a NSD. I'd even suggest to you how you look at "money left" could be altered. You say you have 200 left but child benefit is due in and other streams of income too. If those things are regular, but come in at different times of the month to your salary, then definitely include them in your money left amount. It will help with planning/budgeting across a whole month, where things fluctuate.

Wishing you every success on your journey

stymied

Well done for sticking to the meal plan. Did the current work needed on the van come in under budget?

£500 tax free for 12 hours work doesn’t sound too bad, depends on the expenses incurred. Might be worth seeing if you can negotiate their offer up a bit further :-)

foxandflowers

@stymied - work has not yet taken place. The auto electrician can't see it until the 14th. I'm half hoping to sell it before we get to that point. The trouble is it wouldn't be £500 clear as we would have to pay for fuel down and trains back (£250) plus work out timings to get there around the kids and other commitments. And honestly without fixing the brake light relay, it's not safe to drive anyway. I am very fed up.

Glossed the stair bannisters last night and they look a lot better, but still need another coat. Anything to avoid doing the ironing.

I have an occupational health review meeting this morning. I asked the training girl what would happen if I left after starting my CIPP and as long as I don't leave the council I don't have to pay it back which is a relief. She asked if I was thinking of leaving and I said I was just keeping my options open. She then asked if everything was okay to which I pointed out that my occupational health assessment had been three months ago and nobody had mentioned anything about it since and I was very tired of acting like a Normal Human Woman TM for nine hours a day, and didn't have much energy to keep that up indefinitely. And lo and behold the boss then called me over an hour later like "oh girlie, sh** a brick, we haven't done your occ health review* and then asked me if I was in today to which I replied I'm ALWAYS here. Which is a huge part of the problem. I don't feel that after eight months asking to WFH one day a week when people that started after me are home 3 days a week is too much.  However I am also absolutely awful at being assertive (can you tell) so I'm on pins waiting for the meeting.