Time for a new start

Drawingaline

Passport arrived. Was applied for Monday, old one in the post at 4.55pm and new one turned up before 9am on Thursday!!! WTH! 

Am so pleased, especially as there are now talks of 5 weeks of strikes. I may have to just sort the boys now, rather than waiting. 

Had an email from car insurance. £100 increase. Damn my speeding ticket and points. Did a comparison and everyone else was £200 extra. So going to have to take the hit. 

Mobile bills are increasing, Sky is increasing (Internet only) waiting on the council tax bill. I think the monthly bill total will be approximately £50 higher than March 😭😱 

I have seent that DLA is increasing, so we will be getting a little extra a month. The weird one has two more years before we need to attempt for PIP, which I am dreading. 

The girl had her 19th birthday. Seems to have had fun. She has sent a Mother's day card. On Friday, second class 🤦‍♀️🤣 might get it by Wednesday. Ahe also rang me to assist her in filling all the stuff out for her new part time job. She had no idea where to find her sort code and account number 🤷‍♀️ I despair at her sometimes 🤣 for someone so clever, she really can lack common sense! Although it was  very in depth form for a part time temporary job! Anyway all sorted now. It's also the reason she will be doing the student finance application for her second year next week when she is home for a few days. 

Otherwise we are just plodding on. No walks this weekend, rained most of yesterday and I had a huge lie in this morning as the boy is poorly and so he rang in sick. So no 7.30 alarm for me. He has ha cold and as an asthmatic it is all in his chest and he is struggling a bit. Also he has been totally burning the candle at both ends so a day off will help I think. 

savingholmes

Eek to car insurance.

Hope your DS feels better soon 

Drawingaline

Last week flew by! No walking again this weekend. Had a busy morning cleaning the bathrooms, and them a trip to h0bbycraft to sort out some craft stuff for the Brownies. 

Tomorrow I am off to a local theme park with girl guiding. I am both looking forward to it and dreading it! I have always gone with the older girls who just cracked on, with one leader staying central and the rest just having fun! But taking the younger age group means I will be with a group all day. Hopefully I have split them into OK groups. Have had to split some girls up, who get on well some of the time, but can really rub each other up the wrong way. Anyway, I am hoping it will be fun and they all enjoy it I love giving them opportunities like this. 

Hubby was paid, everything sorted in ynab except the council tax, which will be covered by my private clients. 

Otherwise we are all covered, but hope there are no surprises coming up!

savingholmes

Best of luck with the trip.

Drawingaline

It's been far too long.

And it all feels like doom and gloom. The girl is struggling a little so every contact is her offloading onto me, so glad she feels she can, but it leaves me feeling very low and it's so draining. 

I finally did a doctors e consult this morning about some concerning symptons which are getting worse, so hoping something may come of that.

Easter was good. Quiet, but OK. But then I feel like I wasted the week I had off. I basically spent the days relaxing snd doing my cross stitching. So we didn't do much, and then I had all the mum guilt that the boys didn't get out snd about much. The oldest boy lived his best life, put nearly every night until the early hours, parties galore! We left him to it, it's his last proper holiday before he finishes college and has to start looking for a job, so let him have his fun.

I think part of the low mood is the financial situation. Everything is penny pinching. Driving lessons are killing us, and can't even get a test for him, there may be a 1k payment needed for the girl, with possible ongoing monthly payments, and then there is the whole second year accommodation in London for her hanging over us. All bundled up with middle age angst and I am not doing well at all.

Am going to try and sell a few bits online. I hate doing it, I am rubbish at it, but needs must.

savingholmes

Good luck with the selling.

It sounds like you used your holiday to relax and refresh yourself which is a valid use. 

Sorry you feel beset by financial pressures. Hope they will ease soon.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

That does sound like a lot to contend with DAL 

Drawingaline

Oh my gosh didn't realise it had been this long since I updated!

The girl finished her first year at uni this week. So proud of her, she took control of her final project and while it was a lot of angst and tears the final result was stunning.

It looks like she has a place to live next year. This has really been hanging over us, had to be involved as hubby is being her guarantor, but there was a lot of stress waiting for her friends and their parents to sort their bits out. Just got to sign the guarantor deed and they need to traipse across London to sign the tenancy agreement, but it's a nice house in a safeish area close to the new campus. Just the logistics of moving her stuff from West to East now. There is about three days overlap, but she is away for two of them, as am I, so she may end up having to shove most of her stuff in storage for a week and living light. She is staying in London for the summer. Her halls are paid until the end of August and she has her job until then too.

The boy is never in atm. He knows he needs to be paying a set amount of rent from September as he isn't staying in education. If he choses to continously work part time he will be very poor! I think he will end up just increasing his hours at his part time job if they will have him. I have been attempting to get him to look at apprenticeships but as he hasn't passed his driving test a lot are not worth applying for as he just can't get there. Still no luck changing the test and if he fails the one in August he will probably end up having to wait a further six months. Honestly the situation is beyond a joke now. 

Financially things are still not great. But am trying to plan a way forward. I have finally got a GP appointment to discuss a health issue for myself, will see how that goes but am concerned it may need a referral and depending on the wait times I may bite the bullet and see if I can see someone private. It's something that once seen will probably not need much ongoing doctor intervention, but may need to be looked at by a specialist. If so it might work out better for me to pay to get the answer (there is a specific test to see if it is one of two things) as then I will know either way while not life threatening, it's something which is uncomfortable to live with and can only be one of two things, with two very different treatment options. 

Anyway thats my update, hopefully the girl will sign her agreement in the coming week or so and that will feel like a huge weight has lifted from me. 

Am seeing her on Sat, won cheap theatre tickets for a show I have wanted to see since 2020, so I am driving to London (damn train strikes) and meeting her after her shift, will grab some dinner then head to the West end. Looking forward to it. Then trip to the cinema with my Brownies to see the new Little Mermaid film. So a bit of a busier weekend ahead. 

savingholmes

I'd pay to go private and get the answer.

Glad things are going well with family even if money is a struggle.

Crazycatlady2

Hope you get son sorted with test. Mine just passed on 3rd try so we car shopping 😱. He is doing an apprenticeship which is in walking distance and pays board 

my DD is mid GCSEs which is fun 😂

hope you get health issue sorted asap x