Dilemma, Dilemma, Dilemma

beanielou

Feel better soon.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Happy Friday Morning,

I'm feeling much more back to normal today & OH is still under the weather but brighter than he has been, many thanks @beanielou for the well wishes.

I would like to share a little bit of good news in the hive. I have two CC's with heavy balances which to be fair have got me through a pretty poop time. Latest monthly statement came in for the second one this morning and I have officially been charged £7.15 less interest than last month 🤩. Its a really small thing but honestly this means a lot as I have really battled to make progress to bring them under control. I'm going to carry on this month with the same strategy - being frugal, making considered spends, use cash over cc and make sure the cc card balance is slightly lower than the previous month. I know its all pretty logical but in practice its been wayyyyy more harder! to execute.

I need to do a small top up shop this morning. Going to buy a whole chicken to roast in the slow cooker, we'll enjoy a roast with veg tonight and I fancy making a chicken curry & chicken and noodle thai style soup with the leftovers. My neighbours were cooking a curry yesterday and it smelt devine!

Our broadband deal has come to an end, OH is a gamer and I WFH so need a decent connection but the amount our current supplier is charging is way too much so sorting out a new better value deal is on the pad for today. Our council tax bill for the upcoming year is now online so this needs downloading too and adding to the budget.

Oh a bit of fun thing I started last week but forgot to mention - i've started learning Italian. Honestly its very early days but I have a romantic idea of buying a little place in Italy and kinda been spurred on by my kids and them using a quite well known "green" app to learn Spanish on, so thought I would give it a try. Am on day 8 and loving it! Its free too!

Queen_of_the_Hive

Happy Mothers day UK!

No kids today so wasn't in the mood to celebrate mother's day. We'll do something to mark it at Easter instead with mum. Instead the day went a bit Pete Tong, enjoyed a big box of Maltesers and a little glass of wine whilst reading my latest book. Also made it into the garden to do a little clean up &Finally got rid of the remains of last years sunflowers and swept the front garden path. We were going to go out but had an argument with OH. Definately hormone related and other stuff but just ended the day not as it should have been.

Tuesday I have the day off and having a rare treat, a good mum friend of mine is coming to visit. She's not seen my not so new home yet so it will be lovely! Think im going to make us quiche and salad for lunch and show her the beach. Hoping for good weather.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello Friday,

Its been a fun week in the hive. Taking a day's holiday in the middle of my working week has been a revelation! Will do this again soon.

Had a lovely day with my friend on Tuesday and it was the perk up I didn't realise I needed, we have made provisional plans to meet up again with the kids to a museum in the summer holidays. Friend lives in the peak district. She's in a gorgeous barn conversion in the middle of nowhere so getting to hers is a mission as we don't drive nor have a car so meeting in Sheffield is more realistic.

Yesterday OH and I tried and failed myserably to catch a bus to another seaside location local to us. The buses around here are not the best but we were fancying trying to widen our area knowledge. By the time we found the bus stop the bus had gone 🙈. They are infrequent so we gave it up as a bad job and will try again another day. Instead we had a "cheap as chips" lunch in M*rrison cafe, browsed in a charity shop and explored the local F@rmfoods shop. Now I have to admit, we did like F@rmfoods. Its not somewhere either of us have been before but they seem to have some food options that I think will work for us.

Today is a quiet day at home, lots of life admin to focus on. OH is away for the weekend seeing friends. I had a a virtual meeting this morning, am about to start back at some volunteering but will be moving from being an onsite volunteer to being a remote volunteer. The tasks the team do is different but having to cut down on my trips to the city this is one way to keep being involved in the overall project. Meeting went well, was lovely to catch up with the project lead and I will be sent the tasks to do next week and will start properly after Easter.

Finances wise - I've been feeling really bored and fed up recently but i've been sticking with it and have managed to have a good month so far. Credit card spends are just over £50 for the month so far - this is really good. I'm back on my overdraft though so its a trade off. I have work in the office on Monday back in the city. Train, coach and accomodation costs already spent (but will be re-claimed) but there will be some discretary spends to watch. The kids break up for school holidays next Friday adn they will be with us for two weeks. Its typically an expensive time so we will do what we can to get the right mix of frugal and activities.

Surveys wise - still plugging away. Sitting approx half way (£10.87) on Prolific for my monthly target of £25.00. Will keep going. S&S ISA is still down which is totally to be expected given current situ.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello, its been a gorgeous sunny day in the hive 😍

Had a lovely day out with mum & stepdad and we had lunch in a large garden centre. Mum bought 2 hanging baskets and I bought one for the front of my house. They are beautiful and a lush treat. There was soooo many gorgeous plants, planters and accessories that I could have spent a small fortune on but not at this moment in time. I have thought though that maybe I should start a gardening savings pot so at least there would be something put aside for next year. There is not a lot of scope for saving at the moment so thinking it might make sense to add £5 from the reno & refurb £25 p/m Prolific surveys for that.

My partner is away this weekend with his friends and they are on a pub crawl social. Money is really tight and he called to ask me if I could move £50 into our bills account as the drinks are expensive which I really get but there as an element of me feeling pretty annoyed. I'm working hard to count the pennies and spending on beer in a pub is a luxury. I did move some money from the holiday fund account and will make sure its moved back. But just wondering what would others do? I think i'm being a bit too frugal and frustrated at the moment and wouldn't normally grouse but Easter holidays start next week and he is very low on his cashflow at the moment. The pressure is on me predominately right now.

This afternoon post the garden centre trip i've had to do some work from my job as some tasks are looming and had a bit of downtime planting some sunflower and peas seeds. Sunflowers did really last year and hoping for more of the same this year.

beanielou

You both need to have pots for entertainment I think.

Queen_of_the_Hive

I've done something brave or possibly really stupid this morning but here goes. I have been feeling quite low for quite a while and try to everyday to push through it. Last night wasn't great and I used one of the AI tools for advice on whats going on in my head. The advice was pretty good. It suggested reaching out to a friend and sharing some of the issues. So i've wrote a sensitvely written message this morning and had a good cry. I've reached out to this friend before, she is lovely and easy to talk to but is quite different to me.

Have my train to catch in just over an hour, was up early and thankfully all packed and ready to go and now just sat here with my morning cuppa whilst doing this diary update. :)

Queen_of_the_Hive

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81932414#Comment_81932414

Thanks Beanielou - this does sounds a good plan to work towards. We are really in a financial pickle at the moment but once we are more on top of things we can look into it.

peb

Your situation is hard so please don't beat yourself up about it.

Fifty pounds sounds like a lot to me for pubs as I'm using a one drink with a meal person but even 20 years ago colleagues thought nothing of spending £100 on a night out. All perception.

debtfreewannabe321

Have you recently done a SOA ? And figured out debts, interest rates etc and sorted out a snowball plan to pay it off? I am sure you have but can't remember now...

I helped my sister the other year with sorting her finances out. Her partner had to quit work after blood clots, cancer and was left unable to work. The benefits took forever to kick in and she was left using catalogues, cc etc to feed them and clothe them. She managed to pay all her debt off in just over a year. But more importantly she felt she had control over the situation, I made her put some pocket money straight in so they didn't feel deprived and then binge on a cc. They cut down their takeaways (they were a bit of a nightmare for this) and sold things around the house etc. I know you know this already but sometimes when we get in a pickle it's hard to see a way out. It might be worth revising soa and perhaps contacting some companies you owe money to to get payment holiday or arrange smaller payments to sort yourself out.

As for pub money - it's super expensive now to go out, a real luxury. I'd let him have it and see it as good for his mental health. But also, try to sort budget out so he has pocket money -you too- and next time he budgets accordingly so it's not coming out of important pots x