The alternative hive - making plan B work

Queen_of_the_Hive

Good Morning Tuesday,

Tuesday has started positively. I've now got into a good routine of getting up early and watering the garden, this seems to be working well and slowly the veggie patch is recovering from the slugs. I'm trying to grow pumpkins for halloween. No pumpkin growing yet but the plants are doing their thing!

I'm also quietly getting stuck into a bit of consistency on a beginners dumbell workout at home. Before starting this i'd not ever done workouts with them so this is a learning curve. Still working out technique and use of correct weight but this is giving us a realistic goal to work on. Consistency is also helping to build my savings £1 by £1. First goal is grow to 1k. Its sitting at £797.34 as writing. Consistency is also helping get the CC debt down, currently awaiting on CC1 monthly bill, it moves over today / tomorrow and having done some basic sums, worked out that with the interest will be consistently down in the amount I owe. This is the first month after the balance transfer so hoping for a more favourable interest. At its peak it was £170 p/m just on one card and it was starting to be crippling.

So in all my words today - consistency is helping with my MH, helping with my fitness and my financial position. Keeping consistent is the hard challenge, wish me luck!

debtfreewannabe321

To change the name of your diary click on your picture and click through to my posts, there are three little dots next to this thread you started and you can edit it there. I changed my last one's name as it didn't resonate any more 😊.

I was thinking of getting some dumbbells I've read chair exercises are good for the issues I'm having rather than exercising standing up so having some small weights to do it could help.

MH- I find routine also helps me when I'm feeling down and have that dreaded feeling of hopelessness (been there a lot lately with my health not being great). I also hermit a bit as I feel sometimes sharing and over sharing if I have a problem doesn't help me it makes me relive the emotions each time. When it's just a general, I dunno why I feel this way, I wrongly turn to comfort food, my sofa, something on the TV to focus on rather than myself. I'm not sure it's the best way as I'm not dealing with anything...I used to meditate all the time which greatly helped, but getting back into that routine is hard. I also go into the garden a fair bit just to potter and turn my focus onto something else. That helps. Big hugs, not many answers there to help you, but know you're not alone and sometimes that's all that is needed.

I hope your day is good 😊

Queen_of_the_Hive

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82060973#Comment_82060973

Wow - you learn something new everyday. Many thanks @debtfreewannabe321.Diary name changed.

Hope you feel better soon, the dumbell workout is good.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Happy hump day,

Woke up really early this morning - before 5am! Do feel tired and hormones / emotions are not where they should be so just embrasing it rather masking. Last night was so fed up i'm saying to OH we just got to sell up and move back to the city. Its really hard. I think the end of term emails etc just making everything feel worse.

I'm back in the city tomorrow, on friday check in to the caravan for the week and the kids come home with me for 4 weeks of the summer holidays. We are also seeing my sister on Saturday, going to her new home and meeting her puppy and discussing wedding plans. She's getting married in 2028 and naturally really excited for her. Mum and stepdad are also coming to hers. She lives home counties and is not the easiest to make plans with but we've finally got this date locked in. The kids are also very excited for the football too!

Hurrah @debtfreewannabe321, managed to change the diary name. Was looking for something more positive and uplifting so have shifted from 'Dilemma, Dilemma, Dilemma' to 'The alternative hive - making plan B work' which feels a bit better.

Yesterday I can say I finally experienced a benefit of the new team structure at work, I may have said this before, new structure in Jan and its not really working for me but now just getting on with it. There was an unannounced visit yesterday and the team I should be in had to pick up the workload for the visit. However as i'm on the other team I could quietly just carry on with my day. Yay! Small win.

Nothing much happening with the finances, we are enjoying meals from the freezer, last night we had Spanish style chicken using reduced veg and potatoes from Mr T and some chicken in the freezer. The cook-in sauce was in the cupboards. Tonight is leftovers and from tomorrow OH is going to have to look after himself. We have some bananas turning brown and I fancy making some banana pancakes to take tomorrow / for freezer top up.

Actually just checked the CC I was waiting on - interest has dropped from £170 to £112! This card has only been used once this month for catfood subscription. So will take this small win.

debtfreewannabe321

Woo! Glad you did it.

The drop in interest rate is huge! I'd definitely take that as a win. Well done 💪🏻

beanielou

Happy new diary name. Can you BT to a no interest account?

dawnybabes

that’s a brilliant interest drop, over a £1 a day 🥰

Queen_of_the_Hive

Happy Sunday Morning!

I'd started writing a post yesterday but never go to post it! Life has been v busy since making the trip back down to the city on Thursday am! Thursday was hot, sweaty and at points was really frazzling but we achieved what needed to achiveve. DS1 had an end of KS3 presentation evening. Every student recieved a certificate with some extra awards for stujects, good behaviour and attitude. A friend of ours (another parent, took a perfect shot of DS1 on the stage. Will definately have to get this printed. It was a lovely proud mummy moment.

On Friday I'd had a bit of a short lived funk. on collecting DS2 from school, his teacher pulled me over to let me know of some more bad behaviour. We've had a challenging year of low level bad behaviour and its been a bit of a source of stress. We've been in good coms with his teacher and its been good for a while but sadly this has cropped up again a couple of days. I make no excuses, but imagine end of term tiredness, the heat and immaturity are at play. Admittedly I wasn't in the best of moods at the time and this news tipped us momentarily 'over the edge' and not ashamed to say did have a little quiet cry on our uncomfortably stuffy bus to get our train.

All that aside, Friday pm was check in at the caravan. Train journey was really uneventful on the train, the walk to the site was a bit more eventful. There was a 14% incline hill to walk up to get to the caravan site. With our heavy suitcase and other bags it was a workout. But I must say did feel good afterwards! Caravan is pretty basic but honestly i'm really finding it good. Its clean and doesn't smell. It is a bit shabby but honestly really appreciate where we are. Yesterday was a lovely day visiting my sister & her very bouncy puppy. Today we are having bacon sandwiches and about to make a move back to the city to drop the boys back. This week i'm working from the hot caravan.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Morning diary!

I've been casually looking through some photos on FB memories and can see the weight i've put on in the past couple of years. The kids have also been giving me some grief over it over the weekend and really they are telling me 'mummy you need to do something about it'. I can see i'm really stuck in a rut and finding it difficult to find a way out. In the past i've signed myself up for some fitness challenges. Seriously considering this is what is needed here.

Finances wise - being away from home, its felt as though i'm spending a lot of money, its on lots of small transactions such as bus tickets, top ups from food shops etc. I've been using Mon*o where possible, in fact only used CC once for a bus journey which is pretty good going. All good stuff towards the debt payments. Today is 13th of the month and its finances review day. From yesterdays figures (which shouldn't really change), the cc debt is down again this month by £71 and is down for 5th month in a row! The CC debt has gone from being £21376.14 at its Feb peak to £20979.82 today. Pleased to see its gone below the 21k bracket and am now edging closer to my target for the year of this being below £19,999.99 on the last day of the year. Only £980.82 to go!

Today its back to work for one week and next week a week off! Hurrah!

debtfreewannabe321

Morning QotH, well done on the CC balance going the right way. I also look at my old photos and think, what happened….perhaps an exercise class might be a good way for you to meet some new people and help MH too 😊. Hope this week at work flies by for you. Do you have anything planned for your week off?