MeandO's money-shuffling

Newstartforme

So, sorry to hear about the car and all other expenses Meando , you truly deserve a break and a chance to replenish all pots, for what it's worth I think you did the right thing for safety reasons . Your son is doing so well in his sport , you must be super proud x

MeandO

Thank you for your kindness, Newstartfromme xx

I hope everyone is a little cooler today. I'm not a lover of the heat anyway, but it has been just awful the past few days. I've been concerned about my parents as my sister (who lives close to them and looks after them amazingly well) is away at the moment. OH and I visited them last weekend and did some jobs for them and just made sure they were OK. It was so nice to see them and spend time there with them and it helped my sister relax a little knowing we were there with them. I've been calling them daily to remind them to drink plenty of fluids and thankfully, they seemed to have taken note of general advice and stayed in with fans on and blinds closed. My Dad has heart failure so the heat affects him quite badly. :(

OH had a hospital appointment with a specialist in a city around an hour away from us earlier this week so we were able to time our return with going there on the way and saving money on fuel and time travelling. He is being started on a 3 year drug trial to help with his conditions, fingers crossed it will be effective.

I have been paid, thankfully. That seemed like a long month! Every penny has been accounted for and needs to work for me this month as there are none spare, so I am trying to be super-vigilant about every penny and every purchase. Yesterday was a no-spend-day, today I have done a big shop as both of my little freezers and the fridge were nearly empty and we'd practically run out of everything as I had been trying to stretch out what we did have left.

I have bought another &sda gift card via my work's benefit scheme this month again, so a £250 card has cost me £240. I knew today's shop would be expensive and came in at just over £70 which is huge for us, but as I said, we were low on nearly everything including things like washing up liquid and mouthwash. I bought several packs of chicken, mince and sausages which I will portion up before freezing later. The yogurt DS likes was on offer at 30p off per tub so I bought a couple of those as they will last. I was also grateful to find boxes of 15 free range eggs reduced to £1.14 so bought 3, as DS gets through at least 3-4 eggs daily and I need 12 to make one of OH's colleagues a birthday cake next week. Blueberries were also reduced to £1.16 (with a long date on them?!) but scanned wrong, so the lovely lady who works there corrected it for me and just put them through at £1 each. She is so nice - always chatty and kind and has done something similar before too! I think she just makes the prices up! 😂
Other than to get things like milk, bananas and berries (which we get through a lot of), I am going to try not to visit a supermarket until the end of next week as we now have plenty in.

DS's school has been closed for 2 days due to the heat so he has been at home and not overly happy for various reasons, so it's been a bit tough. He was supposed to be at his Dad's last night but I had to go pick him up as there were tensions.
Will have to finish this later - just had a call from DS's school to pick him up as not well.

MeandO

A sneezy, hayfever-y DS has been picked up and we've got various nasal sprays, eye drops and stronger tablets from the pharmacy. He is fine in himself, but he is suffering from hayfever quite badly, but I also think he has a bit of Friday-afternoon-maths-avoidance-itis too! 😏I thought my planned NSD was off the cards but thankfully the meds were free on prescription via the common ailment scheme. I had my purse ready out to pay as I thought we would be purchasing over the counter, so was very grateful for that service.

Two loads of washing are drying on the line although I'm keeping my eye out for showers as it looks overcast.

DS has demolished a whole 450g tub of yogurt,😲 blueberries, raspberries and some dark chocolate since he got home, so I'm not expecting him to be hungry that soon. The chicken in the fridge is probably safe for, ooh, at least an hour! 😂

I've started a NSD/spending diary for the month in the hope that it will help me to keep all of the budgets in order. I'm running it from payday-payday so 1 NSD out of 2 days so far. :) I'm not counting bills or DD's, just day to day grocery or other spending. I am determined to try not to have any balance on the credit card again this month. I pay it off monthly when I do, but it obviously takes money out of the budget which could be used towards overpaying the new car loan. Talking of which, I've shuffled £10.91 over to that OP pot today. Hopefully that will be the start of more OPs this month.

I received £5 off my bill in A$DA the other day thanks to the world cup promotion they have on via the app. I see the last one is tomorrow but we won't need anything. Maybe I should have left the shopping until tomorrow evening but that time doesn't really work for me so I'm glad I got it out of the way, even though I could have saved the fiver.

We received a wonderful gesture of kindness this week in the form of sponsorship for DS for his upcoming European Championships where he will represent his country once again. I cannot tell you how much this has helped and how much pressure it has taken off me. I am eternally grateful to the Sponsor for their kindness, but more so for their friendship.

Whilst at the pharmacy earlier, I picked up a package from Sainsbugs - 2 x pairs of the loveliest Scion pyjamas reduced to £8 each (but brought down to £6 each with some nectar points). I bought one pair when they were half price at £12 and they are the nicest PJ's I've ever had. They are a super-soft, lightweight cotton and are for tall people like me! It's a novelty to have long enough arm lengths and the bottoms actually reach my ankles! They wash so well too with no shrinkage. They were then reduced to £8, so I bought myself these two more pairs, one I will give to OH's mum to give me for Christmas as she always likes to start shopping early and the other I will keep to use when the first pair wear out. I would quite happily wear them all day every day and I am not a person who likes to stay in PJ's! They are so comfortable. I still feel guilty spending that on myself though when I could be putting it to better use or buying something for someone else. Old habits die hard, I guess.

I still haven't tackled the huge pile of DS's too small and won't wear clothes for vinted. I will get there. I have told him he can use the money to buy himself some other clothes he wants/likes so I need to get on with it. Perhaps I will find that flurry of motivation this weekend (I hope).

My Dad kindly gave me some white emulsion he hadn't used so I haven't had to spend anything on paint for the ceiling. I still need to paint the new plaster and rest of the kitchen ceiling. That is on the to do soon list as well.

I must dash, I think I need to retrieve the washing before it pours down… much love to all x

Mrs_Money_Penny

Lovely to hear from you. Glad your parents are ok especially in the heat. It makes it difficult to get anything done.Well that’s my excuse! Please you got some sponsorship money. Take care x

MeandO

Thank you Mrs_Money_Penny xx

Today’s been pretty ‘orrible to be honest, 😕 and if I could disappear to peace and solitude somewhere right now, I would be sorely tempted. I don’t want to ‘people’ anymore today. I’ve witnessed, and been on the receiving end of, some horrible behaviour from strangers and it’s reminded me how awful some people in society can be at times.
DS has also come home opinionated, judgemental and argumentative which hasn’t led to the easiest of afternoons/evenings, so I’m feeling thoroughly rinsed out.

It’s very strange and I’m not normally like this, but I feel like I’m craving time alone, surrounded by countryside, a stream and some wildflowers! I feel like I need to seek out some peace. I wandered round the garden and watered some plants instead for 10 minutes but the noise of the traffic ruined it somewhat. 🤨

I had to pick up more berries, milk, bananas, bottled water for DS for school, some cake ingredients for OH’s colleague’s cake, croissants for DS and some chocolate may also have snuck in the basket today, I felt in need of a pick me up - It didn’t work! I’m trying to remember what else I bought as the bill was around £25 which I thought was a lot for what I had. I’ll double check the receipt later. The gift card was used, anyway.

I made a big pan of caramelised onion & chicken pasta for DS for tea with two big portions left over for the freezer. Again, I’m finding myself cooking for DS evenings and not eating anything much myself. I’m not feeling hungry at the moment and I would rather save the ‘nice stuff’ for DS. I seem to have lost my appetite somewhat lately, all I feel like is fruit and yogurt. I didn’t even really fancy the chocolate! I don’t seem to be losing weight from it though. 😔

Right, enough of my whinging, DS wants to be dropped at the gym but we need to drive to his father’s to go and retrieve his clothes and shoes he needs first. 🙄 Still, nothing gets returned unless we go and get it.

Let’s hope tomorrow’s a better day.
x

MeandO

This evening has gone from bad to worse and I just can’t wait for the day to be over with. DS has been a ‘right teenager’ tonight and it’s worn me out. I want to go to bed but I’m sat up waiting for the tumble dryer to finish its thing as DS has a non uniform day tomorrow and told me at 7.30pm the clothes he ‘needs’ hadn’t been washed (at his father’s). I’d be shocked if they had. Once it’s finished and dried I’m off to bed.

I’ve taken meat out of the freezer for DS’s tea tomorrow. Only one portion of the pasta dish remains in the freezer now as DS wanted more when he got in from the gym. The boy can eat. At least it’s all healthy.

I’ve packages and sent off four vinted parcels today, all DS’s old clothes. I think I’ve listed all but one or two items now. He’s up to about £67 so far once all funds are in, so can buy himself some new clothes with that.
I’ve started another charity bag so am gradually decluterring a few more bits, will take it to donate when full.

Off to try and get DS out of the bathroom and off to bed after 45 minutes in there. Wish me luck!

MeandO

I had an awful night's sleep last night and only got around 4 hours of disturbed rest. The pain from my knee and leg was awful despite painkillers and it kept me awake. I do have an appointment booked to see the consultant again in a month's time after chasing up my first phone call to them last week, but I am not hopeful of much help to be honest as no-one seems to know what is causing it. An Xray and a scan last year were more or less normal. I've just taken more painkillers.

Lying awake in bed in the early hours made my brain started worrying about money again and paying down the loan and mortgage and trying to build up savings. I was getting myself so anxious about it all, so freed up a small amount of money (£15) from the 'everything else' pot and sent it to the loan. If I can overpay the loan by £80 a month I will knock 3 years off it, so I have set up a target in YNAB to try and achieve that monthly. I've pulled out a few more items of clothing to pop on vinted this morning, nothing of value, just some CS buys that are not favourites. If I can make an extra £10 with them to send to the loan I will be pleased.

I'm really tearful this morning, I'm sure a lot of it is hormonal, but I am struggling and I feel so overwhelmed by my life and spiralling health at the moment. I am finding it difficult to see anything positive for my future when facing what looks like the start of chronic illness and pain like my Mum has had for the past 30-40 years.

I am behind on things at work too so I may need to work for a few hours evenings this week. I have a week off next week as I have to get DS to his work experience placement and back across the other side of the City every day and I can't do that and get to work myself, so have had to take a week of annual leave. His father has booked a holiday away for that week so it's left to me to sort everything as usual.

I've eaten some weird sachet of protein overnight oats for breakfast that I was given for free. It was pretty awful to be honest but has saved me some pennies. I'm hoping that, the painkillers and the coffee I've just drunk will fuel me for a good few hours now.

Mrs_Money_Penny

So sorry you are feeling down and fed up.

How old is your son. If old enough I would teach him to use the washing machine. He also needs to start thinking ahead not last minute needing things collecting and washing. I know it’s not easy and quicker to do yourself. I’ve been there.Not sure if he has many years left before he goes to Uni so it would help him in the future as you won’t be there to wait on him. I don’t want to appear hard and write this with good intentions but you are not sounding as you are in a good place. We all care about you. x

in_need_of_direction

I agree with mrs moneypenny. Given ds stayed up beyond when the clothes were dry, you should have gone to bed and let him take them out of the machine. You need to look after yourself

weenancyinAmerica

I agree with the above. You aren't doing your son ( and any future spouse) a favor by not teaching him how to do things himself. Unless you want to be doing his laundry forever. The more self-sufficient he can become, the better off he will be.