Time for a new start

Honeysucklelou2

What a great idea Ohsh…shoe shopping with children has to be my dread of August! 

DAL - joining you on trying not to spend!

savingholmes

That does sound a game changer Ohsh...

Drawingaline

What a good idea ohsh. Anyway, neither had grown, I think it is just the smallest pe trainers looking small on him. They are proper cheap ones, his school shoes snd normal trainers seem fine. Good job, I have nothing left for shoes. I sent £67 to the driving lesson debt, will have an extra £33 once hubby gets paid this week, so that will be down to £100. I may be able to pay an additional £100 off it by the end of the month so that will be gone, and will be left with £300 for my glasses and £1100 (minus minimum payment due) on the virgin cc. Getting there.

Although have been talking to the girl about accommodation for next year, and I am dreading it tbh. I think it is going to be expensive and very very stressful trying to find somewhere. Not helped by them being 5 art students, two with possible adhd, and all being rather laid back about life things amd prioritising their art over real life. Being an organiser I can see me getting over stressed by it all tbh.

Anyway nothing I can do about it I suppose.

Me and hubby have booked tickets to go to the theatre next Saturday, the boy has just told us he has booked the weekend off work as he is going to two house parties 🤦‍♀️ I had said we would be out, but we don't pay him for staying in with the younger two, and he does tend to be around, so this is somewhat frustrating. My mum is struggling with mobility atm and as we are in a townhouse I don't like to rely on her to babysit, so think I will ask my sister. Either her, or one of my neices. One of them is 14, and only a few weeks older than the wierd one, but is super sensible and would know how to react in an emergency, whereas the wierd one wouldn't perhaps chose a sensible option. I am happy to leave them if we pop to the shops, but not if we sre out properly. My sister lives about 10/15 min walk away, so will see if she is happy for one of them to come for the evening (my other niece is 16, but may not be available). But we will have to pay them. So much for a nice cheap night out.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

That's a shame on the babysitting front DAL.

We now have 3 DC over 14, so one of them always tends to be around if we want to go out luckily.  Even now though, we only tend to go places that we could be home within 10 mins if needed.  But I remember the days of trying to source babysitters well, we often just avoided it and one of us stayed in just because the logistics were such a pain!

With uni accommodation, it might be worth them starting to look now.  One of my relatives owns a student let and it's often booked by Christmas for the following September!  She pays her tenants a £100 finders fee if they can source tenants, either by signing up for the next year themselves or by finding students from the year below  
She bought the house 15 years ago as it was in a cheap area (but a v good uni) and 2 of her children wanted to go there.  She's held onto it as it's more than paying for itself and has doubled in value over the 15 years.  It's a lovely place though, we've used it in the summer hols before as a holiday home and it's definitely nothing like the student accommodation I remember!

Drawingaline

The girl is in London and student accommodation there is very very different to the rest of England and Wales, so while there a few student let's available now, most tend to just come up around May for August move in. Most stuff is classed as available now, which is of no use. Which is beneficial with chosing who to live with, not being tied into a tenancy with someone you have known for a month, but will be stressful trying to sort it in a shorter time frame. Her halls are paid up until the end of August, and worse case we are close enough for her to commute if needs be, but I don't really want her living at home 😆 I just keep reading about how difficult it was last year to find accommodation in London. 

She was originally planning on staying on in halls, but then she was invited to join this group and she is super keen so will have to figure it out. 

Drawingaline

So this past weekend I finally managed to gey out for a proper walk. My walking shoes are leaking. No pennies for new ones though. Was nice to walk, and it actually wasn't too wet and boggy, I had to go at quite a pace as had to get back by a certain time to pick the boy up from work! Quite the motivation. 

I had lost just over 4Ib since the beginning of Jan, but it's my birthday this week, so cake, chocolates, meal out etc will put paid to anymore coming off atm. 

14yr old niece booked to come over on sat, her sister is busy apparently. My sister lives a few minutes drive away, so if anything happens my niece can ring home, and she will take £10 apparently. It feels odd getting someone in who is only a few weeks older than the weird one, but he is so unpredictable and wouldn't think to call anyone in an emergency so think it's best someone a bit more responsible is with them. 

Hubby is being paid tomorrow, so hoping to pay the last £100 off the driving lessons to leave the debt at £1400, but it will have to slow down now due to some upcoming expenses. But am so pleased to have got as much paid off as possible. Since September I have paid off £2500 and managed to pay £250 to have a tree removed and £450 to have some electrical work done. 

Not bad I think 

Pollie

You could try putting your feet into polythene bags before putting walking shoes on to keep feet dry.

savingholmes

Hope the theatre trip goes well. Glad you've sorted a sitter.

Drawingaline

Had a lovely meal out on Wednesday. Even hubby enjoyed it. Theatre trip tomorrow.

Hubby paid on Wednesday, all categories filled, managed to pay £200 extra to the debt, so now the total is £1300. So all good. Hubby's tax bill all paid up too. So all up to date. 

Have the possibility of earning an extra £40 a month, will see how it goes as a trial first. 

Car needs some work, debating taking it to my normal garage rather than the dealer. The quote from the dealer was reasonable and as it's on a pcp plan I was planning in having it done there so the paper trail is all good for when I hand it back (won't be keeping this one, maybe the next one) but as its brake pads and I have another 2.5yrs to go I will probably get them done again before then, and the dealer is in another town, so not convenient. May pop into my normal garage next week and see what they say. 

Either way much less going towards debt next month as will need to get it done somewhere. Also will end up posing a days pay wherever I get it done. Need it to do my job. Was thinking of trying to get it booked in for half term. 

Anyway it's the weekend now, am shattered, not a lot planned. Need to get some new school uniform, and a new hat for the smallest, his has shrunk in the wash. Also want to do another walk too. 

Weight lose isn't going great, but I am still less than I was at the beginning of the month, so taking that as a win. Slow and steady. I want to always be less at the end of the month than I was at the beginning. 

Honeysucklelou2

That’s a great achievement in clearing and paying for what you have since September.