Small steps lead to big changes...

beanielou

Happy pottering. 

jwil

beanielou said:

Happy pottering. 

Thank you  

jwil

Today's PAD - £2

Jan - £74

jwil

It's nice to have a few days off now!  

Very cold and frosty here today, but it should be warming up from tomorrow thankfully.  Despite the cold it has been lovely to see the sun, so it will be a shame to lose that.

I got the replacement phone yesterday.  It still has a very slightly poorer battery than promised, but the phone itself is in a better condition.  I complained about the battery and the retailer has given me a partial refund, and said I can still return it if I want to or it will still have 12 months warranty.   I've set the phone up and am going to test it for a couple of days to see how long the battery lasts before making a decision.  Despite the phone issues, and it's always going to be a risk buying an old phone graded at the lowest condition, I can't fault their customer service.  I could of course just buy a different type of phone, but with this one I know better how to use it and set up parental controls linking it to mine to supervise it, so it's for my benefit as much as little jwil's  

Not much planned for today, visiting family and got my blood test as well.  Have a good day everyone

Sunshine_girl2

It's interesting to read about you getting your son a phone now he is in year 6. My eldest DGS is 10 next month in year 5 and is desperate for a phone. I think he should be made to wait until he is 11. 

I hope you enjoy your few days off , and don't worry about the blood test , I'm sure you will address anything that comes out of it in your own way. 

Glad to hear you have a weekend away to look forward to. 

Enjoy your weekend however you spend it. 

NeverendingDMP

Sunshine_girl2 said:

It's interesting to read about you getting your son a phone now he is in year 6. My eldest DGS is 10 next month in year 5 and is desperate for a phone. I think he should be made to wait until he is 11. 

I hope you enjoy your few days off , and don't worry about the blood test , I'm sure you will address anything that comes out of it in your own way. 

Glad to hear you have a weekend away to look forward to. 

Enjoy your weekend however you spend it. 

Hope you don't mind me jumping on jwil.
I wasn't keen on ours having a phone any time to be fair but we got one Xmas of year six. Most classmates seemed to be given in year 5 or start of year 6. He was one of the last half a dozen to get one so in some ways was isolated from certain things until he had the phone.  There's many downsides @sunshine_g2but one upside was that I still had contact with other parents in the playground so between us we could figure out cyber bullying and high jinx. And I could track him when he started to walk home by himself...School would get involved if a parent raised an issue and do a class rollicking then message all the parents to ask us to check what was going on. Highschool so far (yr 7) reminds us to be vigilant but I don't have the contacts to be aware of a problem occurring unless I snoop, by which point most of any iffy stuff has already been deleted.  My youngest are 8 and adamant they want a phone now but it's a no way till they are older!.

NeverendingDMP

jwil said:

It's nice to have a few days off now!  

Very cold and frosty here today, but it should be warming up from tomorrow thankfully.  Despite the cold it has been lovely to see the sun, so it will be a shame to lose that.

I got the replacement phone yesterday.  It still has a very slightly poorer battery than promised, but the phone itself is in a better condition.  I complained about the battery and the retailer has given me a partial refund, and said I can still return it if I want to or it will still have 12 months warranty.   I've set the phone up and am going to test it for a couple of days to see how long the battery lasts before making a decision.  Despite the phone issues, and it's always going to be a risk buying an old phone graded at the lowest condition, I can't fault their customer service.  I could of course just buy a different type of phone, but with this one I know better how to use it and set up parental controls linking it to mine to supervise it, so it's for my benefit as much as little jwil's  

Not much planned for today, visiting family and got my blood test as well.  Have a good day everyone

Hope this one works better.  And defi the best idea to get one you understand as the kids/other kids are 1000 steps ahead of me at all times I quite often feel. 

jwil

Sunshine_girl2 said:

It's interesting to read about you getting your son a phone now he is in year 6. My eldest DGS is 10 next month in year 5 and is desperate for a phone. I think he should be made to wait until he is 11. 

I hope you enjoy your few days off , and don't worry about the blood test , I'm sure you will address anything that comes out of it in your own way. 

Glad to hear you have a weekend away to look forward to. 

Enjoy your weekend however you spend it. 

Thank you   Yes, he's going to be 11 so we've done it preparing for secondary.  We did get an old style dumb phone that we would give him if he was away beforehand, but this will be the first foray into a smart phone for him.NeverendingDMP said:

jwil said:

It's nice to have a few days off now!  

Very cold and frosty here today, but it should be warming up from tomorrow thankfully.  Despite the cold it has been lovely to see the sun, so it will be a shame to lose that.

I got the replacement phone yesterday.  It still has a very slightly poorer battery than promised, but the phone itself is in a better condition.  I complained about the battery and the retailer has given me a partial refund, and said I can still return it if I want to or it will still have 12 months warranty.   I've set the phone up and am going to test it for a couple of days to see how long the battery lasts before making a decision.  Despite the phone issues, and it's always going to be a risk buying an old phone graded at the lowest condition, I can't fault their customer service.  I could of course just buy a different type of phone, but with this one I know better how to use it and set up parental controls linking it to mine to supervise it, so it's for my benefit as much as little jwil's  

Not much planned for today, visiting family and got my blood test as well.  Have a good day everyone

Hope this one works better.  And defi the best idea to get one you understand as the kids/other kids are 1000 steps ahead of me at all times I quite often feel. 

Yes, I'm sure he will be, so it's much easier to get the one we are familiar with!  I think the battery is lasting long enough on this one, so I think we shall keep it.

NeverendingDMP said:

Sunshine_girl2 said:

It's interesting to read about you getting your son a phone now he is in year 6. My eldest DGS is 10 next month in year 5 and is desperate for a phone. I think he should be made to wait until he is 11. 

I hope you enjoy your few days off , and don't worry about the blood test , I'm sure you will address anything that comes out of it in your own way. 

Glad to hear you have a weekend away to look forward to. 

Enjoy your weekend however you spend it. 

Hope you don't mind me jumping on jwil.
I wasn't keen on ours having a phone any time to be fair but we got one Xmas of year six. Most classmates seemed to be given in year 5 or start of year 6. He was one of the last half a dozen to get one so in some ways was isolated from certain things until he had the phone.  There's many downsides @sunshine_g2but one upside was that I still had contact with other parents in the playground so between us we could figure out cyber bullying and high jinx. And I could track him when he started to walk home by himself...School would get involved if a parent raised an issue and do a class rollicking then message all the parents to ask us to check what was going on. Highschool so far (yr 7) reminds us to be vigilant but I don't have the contacts to be aware of a problem occurring unless I snoop, by which point most of any iffy stuff has already been deleted.  My youngest are 8 and adamant they want a phone now but it's a no way till they are older!.

That's interesting.  I've asked him how many of his friends have phones and he says only a couple, though I see a wider range of children in the year have them.  They aren't allowed them in school here before year 5 which is when they are allowed to walk home on their own.  Little jwil walks home alone when little miss is in a club, and for example yesterday, he decided to walk with a couple of friends so was 10 minutes later home.  Having a phone will help him just drop me a text and let me know.

jwil

Today's PAD - £2

Jan - £76

jwil

DH has carried on sorting and prepping the toys today, whilst I have done some tidying and made a start on the listings.

DH sold an item so that has been packed and posted.  He's also sold a couple more this evening so they will be done once they've paid.

I've been having a look at my financial spreadsheets, and also been looking at the types of jobs that are available in the area.  We had more meetings this week, and VR will be opening up soon, but they say there will also be compulsory redundancies later in the year.  So we are still none the wiser. 

Honestly, it's so depressing, and knowing what will be left after the cuts, I'd go if I could.  I was trying to see if there was any way I could do it.  I think I need to carry on as long as I can, and hope for the best. 

If I was made redundant, I think we could manage, but the longer we avoid it the better. Realistically I need to try and hold on for at least a couple of years to get a good financial basis behind us, but there's no guarantees there, as the risk will still be there for the next few years.  I've added a section of my spreadsheet of what I need for the next 9 years (as that is when I plan to go anyway), so that it will be easier to work out at which point I have enough to go.  

Fingers crossed for a lottery or PB win! 🤞🤞

DH decided to treat us to pizza tonight so I went into TCB to order.  I discovered that there was £55 cashback in there for the boiler that had been approved.  I'd forgotten that I'd done it through there, so that was a nice surprise!  I have withdrawn it and will PAD it when it arrives.

I've updated my spending spreadsheet.  It's the first time I've done a proper spending tracker and it's interesting to see the different categories.  I must keep it up for the year, then it will be a good overall picture.  I always know what the bills are but have never really tracked the discretionary spending into categories.

I've been keeping up with the walking and the eating windows (apart from yesterday because of my GP appointment, and today, because I got out of sync this morning).  I've also continued trying to maximise my F&V content.  It's working well and I think it's helping.

I moved little miss's swimming lesson as she is doing an after school club on a Friday until Easter.  I think we'll be keeping it at the new day and time.  It's quiet, and I don't have to rush across town during rush hour.  As a bonus, little miss was the only one in the class this week, so she had a 121 lesson!  Loads more swimming time compared to her Friday group.  She really likes the teacher as well.