*sigh* this is still taking a while, but moving forward (slowly!)

crunchy_time

Welcome back! Lovely to hear from you. Plans all sound good. Do you still have the itch to move someone rural? Xx

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Hi Crunchy 
Yes, we'd love to move somewhere more rural.  Not always sure it would be best for the children though and with out 2 eldest now having very good apprenticeships locally, we'll have to hold off for at least 4 years.  And by then, our 4th child will be mid GCSEs, so it may well be that we'll need to wait until all 5 are out of education.  Our youngest is only 8, so that's a long time.  We'll keep an open mind as there will be natural breaks where we could make a big move if the stars align 

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Paid off the £1500 on CC1 when we got paid last week, so we're on track.

I've made sure I've booked the 2 extra agency shifts a week throughout June and July.  I've also booked 4 weekend day shifts in total across the 2 months.  I'm not a fan of working Sundays, but it'll put an extra £1k into the mix and they're usually nice enough shifts (it's just painful getting up at 6.30am).

The agency I'm working for gives an hours annual leave for every shift, which means for every 8 shifts I work, I get a 'free' shift payment.  So I should get 2 of those over June/July and that £500 will also go towards debt payment.
According to our debt snowball, DHs CC2 is next on the agenda and it now has a £2.6k balance.  Most of that will be paid from May's salary, with the remainder gone from June's.

lucielle

Sounds like you’re still as busy as ever!
L

savingholmes

It's good you get a premium for weekend work. Well done for keeping on at clearing the debt.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Thanks L and SH

I've been pretty lucky to only work part time for the last 20 years since my eldest was born, I've averaged 2-3 days a week (with several maternity leaves  )

This current work balance suits well enough, 2 fixed days and 2 flexible days.  So during term time, I work 4 days and am home by 5.30 so we all eat together as a family.  During the school hols, I either take AL or just work the 2 fixed days.

The 2 flexible days pay 50-60% more than my fixed ones, so it makes them worthwhile.  

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Have had a week off this week, which has been lovely.  I deliberately made no plans, so have been able to chill.
I've been reading, crocheting and baking.  
I've got a list of TV shows that I keep meaning to watch, but not got round to.  I am looking forward to the new season of Br!dgerton, love a period drama and really like the adaptations so far  

savingholmes

Sounds like you've got your work life balance sorted then. 

EssexHebridean

That really is such a good work/life balance - kudos to you for working out what would suit and finding a way to make it work! 

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Hey
Such a long time since last update! 

In the last 10 months, we’ve really cracked on with the finances. We paid off all our debt and have saved £10k, so completed BS 2& 3. So pleased.
The extra shifts I took on put an extra £1-2k a month in the pot and DH got a £5K bonus.
the other thing we did was (finally) sell the second car. That helped so much… it paid off one of the £15k car loans plus we had £6k left which we put towards other car loan.
its been 6 months since we sold it and it can sometimes be inconvenient not having a second car with a 7 member family, but its ok for now 😁
Not having the 2 car loans has saved us £600 a month and not running the second car probably saves another £100 per month