Dilemma, Dilemma, Dilemma

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello and happy Sunday!

The ice around where I live has been awful these past few days, lets just say i've discovered each loose brick on my fellow neighbours walls! I looked liked a right turkey holding on for dear life Can report no broken bones! Lets just say I've discovered we need to invest in rock salt and those spiky things for my shoes!

On last diary entry I said I needed to do the train delay repay process. I haven't done this before but after an horrific weekend two weeks ago it was time to work out how to do this as I had 5 to do . Anyway long story short, finally kicked myself up the bum and these are now in and going forward am going to be a lot more on the game as I take the train a lot and have lots of crap journeys! Hopefully some money comes back to go back on the CC.

I've chucked myself into a bit more MB and made a bit of progress on my pot. I'd started with a small sum and its slowly making progress. Have set some bets for today so will do an 'end of week' review later tonight. In the next few days I need to take a bit of cash from the pot and put that into my credit card as I'd bought an annual membership and paying myself back each month so most profits tbh are just going into that sadly. Understanding of how it works and how to find the better deals is growing though so hoping this will pay off on my MB journey.

This week is very busy. Am off to the city later today for a 24 hr trip and then return later in the week to collect the kids. Staying in a hostel tonight so will have access to a kitchen. Going to take some cereal for tomorrow's breakfast and will pack a salad for dinner on the train. Also have a cheeky can of gin mixer to enjoy as a mini treat.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello Sunday!

Well what a week its been in the hive! Last Sunday afternoon it was a trip to the city, a 'budget conscious' overnight stay in a hostel and a full day in the office on Monday. The day in the office was wonderful. I do truly enjoy those, I actually miss not being in a more social environment. WFH works for me on so many levels but is also pretty lonely too! I was booked on the nightbus and so had a really lush evening in central doing a spot of shopping, window displays for Christmas and went to the cinema too! All was perfect until I got to the coach station to find my nightbus was cancelled! It was too late to do anything, the trains had finished etc so just spent the night in the Coach station

Nothing bad came of it, just a cold night sitting on an equally cold bench! Boss wasn't happy with situation and advised the action to take if it happens again. I'd like to think it was a one off but given my experience with the transport network I doubt it will be the case! Tuesday was a write off, basically slept most of the day or was in a bit of a tired fog!

The rest of the week was pretty straight forward. It was a short stint at home and then back into the city on Thursday to collect the kids. They are here with me for one night in the city and two back home and today its OH's turn to take them back to their dads . I wish everything was much easier, we lived closer, partner wasn't ill but its pointless to feel this way. Life is currently really harsh and I really don't know how to make it better. Sometimes wonder if I should write a life plan? Has this helped anyone?

On a lighter note, as OH is taking the kids back (which would literally have taken all day and into tomorrow as the trains are partially down for engineering works!) I have a day to myself. I have a huge admin piece we need to get done for one of our side hustles which is going to be the main focus of the day. But there are some festive events happening locally, we have the local Lions or Roundtable doing a Santa run and a lantern parade which will be lush! They are free and will partake with a hot flask of tea and puff pastry mince pie (just discovered this yr, they are wonderful).

Didn't have too much time for match betting during the week, its akward when am away but whilst the kids were playing last night I snook in some time to do this. Going to take a quick look now to see if I can place another one or two but know I will need to wait for them to go through before doing the next lot.

End of last week was payday and tomorrow is mortgage day. 2 more payments inc tomorrow and we will have owned our house for 1 year! That has really gone quick! 9 more years of mortgage to go but already planning to extend it to in part add some of our credit card debt. This was always going to be the trade off sadly!

I've been able to add £110 to the holiday fund but OH hasn't got anything to add to the pot this month. I secretly know he's bought me a new mobile phone for Christmas and birthday. It was v expensive (to us!) but needed. Mine is "in a bad place". He's paying it back over the next 5 months and am eternally greatful. 

northwalesd

Queen_of_the_Hive said:

Hello Sunday!

The day in the office was wonderful. I do truly enjoy those, I actually miss not being in a more social environment. WFH works for me on so many levels but is also pretty lonely too!

I hear you on that. Our office was closed completely a couple of months after we'd been told to 'work from home' at the start of the pandemic, so there are a group of us who've WFH for the past 4.5 years, some of them love but some of us hate it.

Sorry you ended up spending a cold night in the coach station ☹️

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello blustery Saturday!

Storm Darrah hasn't as writing this hit the east coast as of yet but the waves were incredible on this morning's walk! Pretty much any outdoor Christmas event locally has sadly been cancelled today but I did get the pleasure of seeing a local social choir singing sweet carols in the train station. Where I live, the station has the most wonderful accoustics and isn't too busy so is a nice venue for such as thing. Even Santa made an appearance! The main church in town has been ringing church bells forthe day. Absolutely no idea why but again such a wholesome sound!

Match betting is pretty much as wiped out as the blustery conditions. Made a bit of a rookie error and used up most of the liability pot too few bets. Am now stuck until they clear and one of them includes a game that was postponed because of the weather. It'll take 24hrs for the money to come back in my account so pretty much a bit of a write of this weekend.

Other money news - refund is in process for night coach that was cancelled and have had a good week of sort out lots of odd jobs at home. Today am looking forward to sitting down and reading my book. Have been on the computer a bit too much.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Storm Darrah arrived and the living room is feeling pretty cosy! Have candles burning, the electric log burner fire going, christmas tree lights twinkling and my little heater to keep me and fur baby toasty. Read a bit of the my latest novel and had a nap...! Am turning into an old lady!! Made a bit more progress on MB. One football game completed so this has freed up a bit of cash in the market pot so was able to use one of my free bets that expire tomorrow. This game is starting soon so will have a bit more to play with to use for tomorrow.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello Friday 27th December!

Golly gosh. Definately did not mean for a 20 day gap between diary updates but December has been seasonally busy! Middle of the month and it was my birthday, we surprised the kids with a trip on the Eurostar to Paris. Was wonderful! We had Saturday as a full day and was travelling Fri evening and Sunday morning. It was still lush to do. Eldest kid is now 12 and he was chief navigator...! He did very well and we were very proud. As a family we love anything transport related so Eurostar train was fabulous, we also travelled on the Metro, (very!) briefly on a double decker train to the Eiffel Tower and saw beautiful Christmas lights down the Champs Elysees! We enjoyed brunch in a cafe and saw Notre Dame from the outside. It was a perfect day.

Christmas has been a quiet affair this year, i'll admit it wasn't how I like it but as the kids have enjoyed the main week of Christmas with their dad's side of the family and with my partner still battling through his cancer treatment its been on the much more relaxed quieter side. The kids come to us on Sunday and we get to have a family Christmas day of sorts on Monday 30th. I have the grandparents coming for a visit and we will make the most of it including presents! Its been quite surreal today, wrapping the kids gifts two days after Christmas day!!

Speaking of my partner, he's been quite poorly in December, he is immuno compromised anyway from his treatment. He picked up a cold at the worst possible time. He was feeling well when he booked the Eurostar, then started with a cold soon after. The cold developed into flu and we found ourselves in A&E last weekend. Long story short, he's now over the worst but has a lingering cough, his cancer treatment has stalled for a week but we are getting by.

Finances are blown as ever, to be fair I really didn't have any true budget for Christmas this year and I haven't been extravagent. We have some 'open its' which i'm sure will go down a treat though! On a positive note, I was running at nearly 10 train / coach delay compensation claims and all of them have been accepted, the money is slowly coming back in on to my credit card / bank acc as appropriate. This will go towards this months CC bills. With how our schedules are working, I'm on a nice break from heading to the city for nearly a month.

Match betting - progress feels very slow! I need to spend some time working out how to make the best of the offers. This will be part of January focus.

This evening checked current mortgage balance. I can see at just before making the 11th mortgage payment on this current pad we have 8k equity since taking out the mortgage. By most people, its not much but we are chuffed! Next payment is due on 1st. I'm also going to make an annual mortgage overpayment via Sprive on 31st December of £18.79

beanielou

Sorry that your partner has been unwell but glad you enjoyed the Eurostar trip. 

debtfreewannabe321

Well done on getting some compensation back on travel...
The Eurostar trip sounds fun. I think that is a planned visit for us next year. We're booking small trips away rather than big expensive ones.
Sorry DH wasn't very well, I hope he is properly on the mend soon and the C treatment does its thing. 
I bet you'll have a fab Christmas celebration with the children when you have them. I didn't have mine this year either and it was so quiet...and didn't feel much like Christmas. I celebrated early with mine as I know once they've had the big day they're not interested in anything but presents by that point (teenagers huh 😆).

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello Sunday!

I don't quite know if its right to post this in the diary but its been quite a tough time in the hive. As I said in previous diary posts my partner is on a health journey. He's battling cancer since September last year. He's been pretty poorly in December with flu and general health. We had a pretty quiet Christmas and new year becasuse he couldn't do much. He was admitted to hospital at the beginning of Jan and spent most of the week having emergency treatment. Luckily he's home and feeling much happier but its taken its toll so money and budgeting isn't as important as it normally is right now . 

Highlights from 2024

* The big one of the year was getting back on the property ladder. It did involve moving from London to a more budget friendly location out of the normal commuter routes but this did then afford us a house with garden over a flat with a deposit of less than 20k. Our mortgage is still quite similar to what we were paying in rent in London but affords us a bit more predictable monthly payments, some home stability that comes with home ownership rather than renting does and the mortgage term is pretty short (10 years) so we are benefitting from relatively low amounts of interest each month than we would in a more desirable location. We are closer to family and live within a very short walking distance of the train station, the town centre and its two beaches. So some really good plus points. A major low light though was that I left my kids with their dad to maintain consistency in schools, friends etc. I won't say its been a "walk in the park" but the kids have adapted amazingly well although I have struggled with being a distance parent.

* Most of my savings are invested in S&S ISA. The ISA is invested in one of the leading robo ISA providers, so I believe if it was in some other better fund it could make a bit more but was happy to have ended 2024 with approx 4k up. This did include some small payments into the ISA as well as some ISA withdrawals to help to cover everyday expenses.

* I've been doing a small bit of side hustling, this was a mix of surveys, market research, match betting etc and have been about £800 up. This has been partially used towards our first refurb and renovation account. There is a small £360 in this fund but considering we started 2024 without one I was pleased with this as a start.

* Reaching mini goal of saving £780 towards Australia. My partner was saving the same but he didn't have the last couple or three months available but we've added a bit more towards our holiday plans.

Lowlights from 2024

* The big one is debt, we knew from the outset that we'd gain in housing stability but as our incomes are small we just didn't have the income to cover all the travel & accomodation costs when coming to the city. Its a no brainer that visiting the city is very expensive but as the kids lived there. Its meant getting into debt. Its a weak area that I need to work on but as my partner is ill our scope for work is now limited for the time being but is something I am keen to tackle. 

* My partner is someone who is never ill, he's led a good life and was fit and active but just after his birthday last year he started getting a pain that later we found out was cancer. Its knocked us for six and impacted pretty much every aspect of our lives. The biggest one financially is that he is no longer able to work and its put him into a forced retirement. If he gets strong enough, he'd love to have a small part time job in the future but his treatment path is looking long and energy draining that I can't see if this will be an option. We will remain optimisitic. I have been spooked into investing in a small critical illness policy which in honesty I can't really afford but it feels a necessity and between the two of us we are about to sort out wills, pension beneficiaries etc. Naturally these are not cheap, but necessary financial investments. It feels a lot to do right now but will be happier when they are sorted. I've put this as a lowlight due to the unplanned 'pressured' nature of our situation.

Financial Plans for 2025

* Our home was bought needing a refurbishment. Its tired and dated with some areas of damp. Its is though in a liveable condition. We had plans for starting a bit of improvement work this year whilst saving for the bigger works. My partners condition now means the bathroom is no longer fit for purpose. He needs a walk in shower rather than a bath shower so we are going to pull what little savings we have in different pots and we believe we have enough to hire in someone to redo the bathroom to fit our needs. The bathroom was one of the rooms on our list as the sink is not fit for purpose and we wanted to install a second toilet (the first is in its own little room) etc.

* Aus savings continue.

* Tackle the debt.

* Look at other better performing S&S ISAs.

beanielou

So sorry about your partner. Can I check he is getting all the relevant benefits that he is entitled to?  I agree that wills, POA & suchlike are a top priority. 

Take care of yourself too.