The alternative hive - making plan B work

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello Sunday Morning,

Friday afternoon I had one of those emabarassing school playground moments. I saw a couple of mum friends chatting and went up to say hello. They were though knee deep in conversation (didn't notice from a distance). So I was stood there being frankly ignored and felt totally stupid. Don't think it was anything personal, just that wrong place wrong time moment. School playgrounds come with such unwritten rules.

We had a fabulous day at Ally Pally. We set off a bit later than we had hoped though and made an expensive mistake, we thought we'd find a shop nearby the train station to buy some picky bits but couldn't find anywhere so OH ended up buying pizza's & drinks for £77 - eeek! They were decent quality but still frustrating. The views are amazing. We loved it, the kids were a bit less enthusiastic but for myself and OH we were fascinated. We recommend for a day out and take a pair of binoculars.

Today is our last day with the kids until July. We were up late watching the football last night so will make full use of our midday checkout time.

I am really feeling I need to do something about my weight. I've hit the skids on wanting to do something about it and loosing momentum by the evening most days and I just can't seem to shake this "don't care" attitude. Last night I downloaded the NHS weight loss app and have ordered myself some weights to start with some strength training. I've said to myself tomorrow (Monday) its time to get serious. Writing this here for a bit of accountability!

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello Sunday,

Happy summer solstice 2026! Myself and OH were a bit a spur of the moment and went out last night to chaise the mid year sunset. We kinda missed the setting by minutes due to silly cat that was following us. We live close to a main road and there is an invisible "stress line" that silly cat crossed so we had to make a short detour home to take silly cat in the house! When we finally made it to the beach we had a short walk enjoying the remaining red darkening sky. We made a pledge to get up and see the sun rise!. To which we woke up at 4am this morning and quickly dashed out on our bikes to the beach and cliffs. It was thick, dense fog and so we didn't see anything! We did though manage to buy a cuppa from a cliff top cafe that opened at 4am!! We took some memory shots, came home and went back to bed. The rest of the day was a lot less eventful. There was a village fete going on in a part of town so we ventured there and bumped into our neighbours who had a stall selling their wares.

So life at the moment has been pretty busy with work, we are in very busy period and we are all feeling grumpy and tired frankly feels like a slog. This weekend I did need a break from the screens. We were invited to friends house on friday night for "firepit friday". This was a lot of fun. Saturday we went to our local cafe. We haven't been for ages, mainly because of timings and partially we have just been slaying our spending. It was lovely to see familiar faces and have a chat! I'd sworn to OH this weekend was going to be no cleaning doing as I needed to zone out but did actually feel a bit guilty and cleaned the living room which also functions as my office.

Money and spending wise - I really do feel mentally that the reins have been loosened (which frankly is dangerous). This is quite normal for this time of the year. I've just spent nearly £200 on train tickets for July and as mentioned before I've also booked the caravan to cover us for cheap accomodation whilst in the city.

We've also had some semi unexpected sad news. OH's mum has passed away after a period of being unwell. She's done amazingly well considering her ailments and she was just shy of her 91st birthday. What a woman. The funeral will be abroad in the Carribbean where she lived. We'll be busy making arrangements for OH to go once we know more in the timings. We are in a way greatful this happend this year and not last year as OH would have been too ill to travel.

northwalesd

Condolences to your OH, I think it's always hard losing a parent at any age. Glad he feels well enough now to attend the funeral.

Queen_of_the_Hive

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82043614#Comment_82043614

Thank you for your kind words x

Queen_of_the_Hive

Its Tuesday morning and day 1 of anticipated heat wave. Luckily we are located outside of the hottest anticipated zones.

We are having a bit of a mare of it. Our list of expenses continues to grow. Our fridge freezer has packed up. Stepdad is coming over this morning to take a look, check the fuse and obvious stuff. Its less than 2 years old and wasn't our preferred type as its pretty small. Luckily mum has a spare small one we can use as a temporary if needed. For now we are grateful for the plug in coolbox.

This is on our current expenses to do:

• Shed base materials.
• Back roof repair.
• Travel for OH to Carribean for funeral.
• Replace kitchen hob (current one broken ☹️).
• Replacement fridge freezer (expect its broken ☹️).
• Summer School holidays.
• Rewire.

There are some other things but this is our main issues at the moment.

Fingers crossed everyone that the fridge needs a simple fix.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Thank goodness for stepdads! Lovely stepdad arrived before 9am, took a quick look at the fridge and diagnosed the problem. It was a really simple issue that was very fixable. Happy to report we are back in business!

Line dancing tonight was very hot. Keep cool everyone.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello Thursday Morning,

Today is the first real aahhhh day after a very busy period at work. Today is my non working day and its started very early with a garden watering. My veggie patch has been decimated by slugs and snails and one of the tips gleamed online was to water in the morning instead of night as slugs and snails are attracted to the wet and dark. I'd added some new seeds to the raised bed and hoping for a chance for them to grow. Wish me luck!

I've been in a real dilemma this week over how to balance our growing list of home maintenance problems and the best ways to deal with it in the most cost effective way, trading short term and long term wins and frankly keep changing my mind! Our plan this year was to cut down and get our debts down but as happens in life things have come up and we have conflicting short term issues we are not sure where to go.

1. Back roof is leaking water when it rains. Looking forward to winter, this really worries me now. It will need a repair as minimum.
2. Travel costs - OH mum's funeral. 2k as an estimate. Funeral date - July DATE TBC.
3. Travel costs to see OH family in Aus - April 2027.
4. House re-wire - lower priority.
5. Building the shed. Base costs.
6. School holidays with the kids.

I know some will say use the Aus trip funds for OH mum funeral. We've very slowly saved for this trip and its a priority as its to see my OH's son & family. Possibly the only trip we might be able to afford and with OHs health we just don't know how long he will be in good health so this is ring fenced.

School holidays - I am really looking forward to a simpler school holiday but need to make it fun for the kids. Already have some days out planned but it will have to be cheap as chips. We don't mind a picnic and going on a walk.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Well its Friday morning and woke to rumblings of thunder. Despite said sounds have been up and watered the plants. Sadly water butts are now basically empty so back to watering from the tap. We do collect the water from the shower water heating up which really does help. Hoping the threat of rain downpours does not amount to much.

Priorities for today:

• Book for the gutters to be cleaned out. This will def help situ with the roof.
• Book for roofers to come and look at roof.
• Today is pay day so its distribute the money into the various pots.

A little update on my S&S ISA - moved some "fun money" from original S&S ISA and to this years S&S ISA.

Surveys have been very slow this month and terribly behind my goal of £102.70 and currently sitting at £27.60 inc £2.55 pending. Will be trying to up this over the weekend.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello from a sunny Saturday,

There is a lot of things happening in our town this weekend so it should be a good one. We've made arrangements for tomorrow to meet up with mum & stepdad to venture to a 'new to us' pub in the historic part of town. The pub looks to have an great sized beer garden. Tomorrow they are having a band on during the day so should be fun. Its also vintage day too tomorrow.

The back garden had a little trim yesterday in a bid to keep the slugs and snails at bay. OH had found a scrappy piece of wood (when cleaning the yard). The piece of wood has a couple of massive nails in it which needs removing or flattening but will be rested against the raised bed (and hopefully be more attractive than the plants). This was a garden tip seen online to try. I'd already set up a beer trap but hasn't been used. There is some positive signs of the newly planted pea & courgette seeds growing and the pumpkin plants are growing nicely. The sweet peas around the arch are growing wonderfully and first cuttings were taken on Thursday. I'd love to see them grow all through the arch. You never know!

Fitness wise, after a first attempt at a home dumbell workout - a Joe Wicks one I was worried I'd be feeling like a sideboard today but actually not bad at all. Admittedly I went very easy on the weights as strength training with dumbells is brand new. Will do this routine again tomorrow and if still feeling ok will slowly up the weight of the dumbells. Getting technique is important at the moment.

Money wise, most bills and pots were sorted yesterday. I do need to ring Trainline again though. Had a bit of a disaster booking a group of train tickets. In a nutshell first booking on the app, the tickets all showed up as cancelled and automatic refund, then re booked a few days later and again some tickets went through and some cancelled. Called them up to check the status of each journey and looks like I have duplicate tickets for one of the journeys so the person was setting up the refund but i've had no confirmation email and nothing showing on CC. Totally frustrating :(

Last night while doing some life admin I watched an episode of Diary of a CEO titled 'Retire early on a small income'. Really stuck a chord when the speaker was explaning the power of automatic savings and how little is needed to be invested to become a millionnaire. I'm no where near that but ironically have just in the past couple of weeks started saving £1 a day into my S&S ISA just because of reading up on dollar cost averaging. Its a good watch if its your kind of thing.

Had a little bit more progress on the June survey challenge. Now sitting on £32.91 / £102 and will be hoping to grow it a bit more this weekend.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Good Morning Tuesday,

Its another glorious sunny day in the hive. I was up early to write my goals for work and really have not made a lot of progress so updating my diary instead. I'm in two minds on work. I've enjoyed where I have been and it offers a lot of flexibility but feel am not really growing anymore and as I WFH I do miss the interactions from others. In a way am a long term lonely which is quite common in WFH. So not sure yet what will do but must write something.

Last night after work I spent a bit of time in the garden, sweet pea plants are amazing. They are my love of the summer, so easy to grow and stunning. On the weekend OH de-weeded the backyard area. He didn't put everything back so that was the goal of last night. I've moved the 4 sunflower sapplings into position where the 6 from last year was placed and also moved the mini barrel planter to next to the sunflowers. The yard is a lovely suntrap. The concrete floor is in a terrible state and desperately needs re-doing but its one amongst many repair jobs the house needs. I have a vision to replace the concrete for Indian / Yorkshire flagstones.

Not much to say on money front atm. Trying to eat from the freezer and avoid making a big food shop as I'm away for a week from the 9th. The local bakery does some really good magic bags so may end up buying one or two of those in between here and the 9th. I still need to complete meal plan for the 4 weeks the kids are here. Tomorrow awaiting a call from gutter cleaning company. Still haven't sorted out roof repair yet but OH has made a decision regarding the funeral for his mum. The family are a big family and most live in UK. As said before funeral is in the Caribbean. The family are going to have a small funeral in Caribbean and a celebration of life in the UK later on. Some of my OH siblings can't travel for health reasons and for many the cost is too much too. So OH has decided to not go and I totally respect his decision. We'll light a candle and raise a glass to her instead. I didn't know OH mum that well but we did meet once and she was so happy OH was settled down. We visited her once as part of a cruise to see cuba. She wasn't very well with dementia but she loved our hats and its a fond memory for us.