Dilemma, Dilemma, Dilemma

Aimingforthegoodlife

Hope you have a lovely weekend!

Queen_of_the_Hive

Its the half term in the hive and its quite a quiet one. The kids are on holiday with their dad & his partners family so this week has turned into the perfect opportunity to further unpack boxes & generally organise the clutter! Its quite a boring task to do but its something we need to do. As I have said in previous posts, we moved here with a LOT more than we thought we had esp my OH as he has so much computer tat! To aid the task, i've invested a small amount of money into boxes which will fit into our large cube units (from the big yellow, bought in old place). They are too big really & can only fit in the dining room but I need for now until we decide & have the funds for something else.

My guilty pleasure is books and have boxes full of them! Some read, many not yet read. But most of them are stuck in boxes as I don't have a bookcase & the cube unit is full of stuff, so for £55 from the forest I bought a bookcase for the living room which is due to be delivered tomorrow (fingers crossed), so tomorrow evening will be spent assembling it. This will hopefully sort out some of the said books! I do know I need to have a bit of a cull too.

My most exciting and hopefully happens purchase in this spurt is an upcycled Welsh dresser. Its going to be a drinks cabinet come hold a nice dining set inherited from my grandparents. The dresser is costing a bargain £60 and is going to be delivered for that too! This is perfect as neither myself nor OH have a driving licence!

Today was monthly payday and TBH its yuk but managed to make payments where I needed them to be made and the 4th mortgage payment will come out next week. New totals on reno & refurb pot is £116 & we've added £50 x 2  added to Aus holiday fund (we are very close to having 2k saved!) NICE!

The camping trip was fabulous! We all had a lot of fun and the weather actually was quite dry. We made lots of fires and just enjoyed ourselves! Going to see if we can go back there in the autumn.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello Saturday,

This week has felt a bit like a holiday with having the bank holiday off on Monday and only working two days this week and not having to dash to London to see the kids. As is the case when I don't get to see them, I miss them terribly but know they are happy and well looked after so its ok.

We've have a bit of a spurt on the house this week on some smaller tasks. Its a bit frustrating, i'd love to do the big refurb project to get it looking all sparkly nice but there is not yet the budget for it, so for now we are doing what we can to make it look nice with what we have. So as said on last post i'd bought a bookcase for the sea of books I have and after assembling the bookcase soon realised I think I'll also need book ends as the style of bookcase is open ended. So yesterday these were ordered and should be delivered today and then I can start putting them away & hopefully clearing some much needed floor space!

On Thursday the lovely welsh dresser was delivered and its gorgeous. I'm not too girlie but this feels like quite a nice girlie piece & i've had a lot of fun so far turning it into a drinks cabinet & somewhere to store an inherited 8 piece dinner service. The dinner service doesn't hold any money value, its just a nice design with white plates & gold rims. This sat in mums loft and used to be my grandparents although I have no memory of them ever using it. So who knows if its just something nan had bought as a fantasy thing. She was pretty badly disabled in her body so couldn't use many pretty things but her mind was very sharp which was a really tragedy. Anyway am now a very proud owner of this and some of her other things and absolutely plan to use them as much as I can.

Its funny how connections form from the most unlikely places! So the lady who we bought the dresser from, is as it turns out is a seamstress and she works locally with her skills. I have a lush winter coat which is best described as 'a wearable sleeping bag' and I LOVE IT, sadly the zip's popped and can't be worn atm. The lovely lady though said its something she can repair so yesterday said coat and a pair of my partners jeans were taken to the shop where she  will work her magic on them! So feeling pretty chuffed with that! 

This week we've also bought a small new mirror for the smallest room in the house which is our loo and bought a large overmantle mirror for our living room from a charity shop for £15. The mirror looks more expensive than it was. Its a bit battered from the back and not the best quality but fills a much needed gap . We also bought curtain poles for the main bedroom & dining room so we can then put up our curtains from our old place. So all in all a pretty productive week!

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello Tuesday,

Yesterday was mortgage day. We've paid off another 1% and added another £55 over payment taking us to over £221. Baby steps forward to mortgage freedom!

Drawingaline

It's lovely turning a house into a home isn't it. We haven't had the funds to do any of the big projects since we moved in, and that was three and a half years ago 😱😭😂

However after Xmas we should have a little bit more money free so am planning on sorting out our ensuite first. Maybe!

LadyWithAPlan

Queen_of_the_Hive said:

Hello Tuesday,

Yesterday was mortgage day. We've paid off another 1% and added another £55 over payment taking us to over £221. Baby steps forward to mortgage freedom!

How wonderful!

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello Friday,

I'm sat here in my hostel room and its amazingly very quiet, only myself and another lady in our dorm room. Normally the rooms are full. I feel I've struck gold as I was so tired yesterday with a stonking headache and was expecting it to be crazy busy but absolutely appreciating its quiet.

Yesterday was quite a normal non working Thursday which for my new normal a trip back to the city, trains for once were on time and that was good!

I am though caught in a dilemma which is bothering me and making me think. I'm currently happy & settled in my job but its only part time. My new life situation is expensive and the two don't work so am accumulating debt. I've battled anxiety at work and got myself to a good place but quite worried that im going to have to change jobs for more income and the anxiety will come back. I'm going to do some thinking and maybe consider some different options and get some advice. My partner is lovely but he too is also apprehensive about making the change as he's seen the darker times.

beanielou

Any chance you could increase hours at the current job or pick up something else part time? 

Queen_of_the_Hive

beanielou said:

Any chance you could increase hours at the current job or pick up something else part time? 

Hey @beanielou, I think it may be tricky to extend my hours at my current role, my boss is quite fixed on the number of hours I work which doesnt help. I have wondered about a second job and how to fit it into current schedule. Thinking also about some casula work too.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello Saturday,

Woke up early as is usual and enjoyed catching up on a bit of Netflx.Watched a drama version of a superb book I'd read but it was a bit frustrating as the language being spoken did not reflect the country it is set, such a foresight by the producers

On some small bit of positive financial updates. I've now recieved the Nationwide Fairer Share bonus so this has been invested in my LISA and i've cashed out £14.90 from Prolific as part of this months £25 target into reno & refurb acc. 

Kids are visiting next weekend so this weekend am working hard to get the remaining boxes in their room unpacked.