Living on a fixed income in far north

harddays

Thank you take care xx

mumtoomany

Hi, @TooMuchSnow. I'm not sure how things work, where you are, but could you turn your sons account into a joint account with you. Obviously with his permission. This worked here, UK, for both my mum with my sister, and my mum-in-law with her daughter. HTH, hugs, mumtoomany.xxx

TooMuchSnow

@mumtoomany, I hadn't thought of that! I'll look into it if the guardianship doesn't come through soon.

January budget was a bit disappointing, I had forgotten to write down a bill and and noticed it when I was doing other transactions. It means my spending money vanished in the wind again. I had also forgotten that one of my meds ran out just before New Year so I had to borrow from pipe fund and pad it up again today when I got my pension. The pipe fund is now at 1400/6000e.

On the bright side, I managed a needed purchase of gym clothes. I got two tops and two leggings and an exercise ball from sale. I've been wearing the old ones I bought when I was 3 stones slimmer and I'm always living in fear of the seams bursting!

My psychiatrist wants me to exercise daily since my meds haven't been able to budge my depression symptoms, and working out equals one pill according to her. It's easier said than done, but I think I've finally figured out a way to do it. First I tried walking, but the trails here are closed during winter and I'm not really an outdoor person. Then I tried a treadmill which I bought during Covid when I was still working, but it gets really boring to stare at a wall for an hour and it didn't seem to do anything to my mood. I couldn't get myself to do it regularly.
During the holidays I remembered that years ago I used to work out at Zuzka Light's Zgym, an online video library service which offers HIIT training videos for home workouts. I'm not in a shape I was back then but she has free Bunny Slope series on Youtube for overweight people. The idea is that each workout is 20 minutes. Even on a bad day, I can convince myself to do 20 minutes. Today I'm on fourth day of 9 week program, and my current goal is to complete the program. I've completed only one exercise program in my life and it was kettlebells. I notice I'm feeling a bit brighter for an hour or two after my workout, thanks to endorphines, and at this point of my illness we're trying anything that works because we've ran out of medicine options.

The children's holiday continues until Monday and my disabled son has gotten into a lot of mischief, which I'm not happy about. He likes scissors a bit too much and now our family computer misses several buttons. Well, he will have to buy a new keyboard, again. He did the same thing in December, and since he is non-verbal, scolding doesn't have the effect it should have.

I'm volunteering once a week at my parish, and tomorrow I'm taking the children with me to clean the church. It should keep them from having too much time on their hands! 

Aimingforthegoodlife

Hi @TooMuchSnow, I am sorry for your loss and can understand why the ex FIL behaviour hurt you, I am glad you reclaimed the container. I think the beauty of a budget is that it is fluid and ever changing. This month you are getting to know your spending, that is the first step towards building the budget! Keep up the good work!

TooMuchSnow

@Aimingforthegoodlife , thanks for encouragement. This month I decided to separate emergency fund from my pipe fund, so I could pay unexpected necessities from EF instead.

I think our family got covid. It lasted longer than a week, almost two, and I'm still coughing a bit but felt good enough for gentle exercise. DS2 returned to school today, DD went yesterday and now I'm alone at home like usually. The brightening days clearly affect my mental state. Autumn and winter are usually hard for me, having only a few hours of daylight is awful especially before snow falls down. Today I even saw a glimpse of sun, but didn't venture outside because it's warm today and the ground is very slippery.

I've written my February budget. Our house is on rental plot and the rent rises from seven hundred to 3700 euros this year. It's a major change with all bills going up, too. I calculated last year's house related bills and added 5% for inflation raises. Our housing and food costs are 1716€ in a month, excluding DH's mortgage. Food is 600€, including 100€ for home delivery. DH's car broke two months ago and it's uncertain whether it can be fixed, he will try as soon as the ice on garage door melts enough to open (the door froze and got stuck on the ground). As long as car is unusable, we have to order online and pay the delivery fees. Finland doesn't have many options for grocery shopping, we have two food chains (K and S-stores) and Lidl. 

This is my second marriage so we keep separate finances. My first husband liked to live on his credit card and when he left, I went through a hard phase with my boys who were toddlers. I was still a student but my financial support had ran out. There weren't enough money for food always, and I decided never to rely on a spouse again. I stayed home for several years with DS2, but when he got in a school for disabled children, I started working and saving as much as I could. I managed to pay off my mortgage and save a nest egg of 40 000€. I used to keep it in passive index funds, but cashed out luckily before the market crashed and bought a piece of land by a lake. Before I got sick, I bought a timber frame for a little summer cabin and we started building on our own. It took all my savings and when they ran out, I was on sickness leave and couldn't contribute to build anymore. DH took over, and has bought most of the materials (and done the work, I couldn't build anything more complicated than IKEA bed). In hindsight, I should not have started building it but I had no idea I would get sick and lose my ability to work. However, the plot is good, the lake is clean and the place is not too far away from nearest big city, so I expect I could sell it if I have to. 

My problem with finances is that I'm stuck with remnants of my working life instead of living a life I can afford. I bought our house and the summer cabin when I was still working and my income was 40% higher. Now I can pay the running costs, but saving for inevitable repairs is slow, and if something unexpected happens (like the pipes burst now or something) I don't have means to pay my share and I'm not eligible for a loan since my pension isn't permanent but fixed term. The house is too big for us after DS1 died, but it's close to DH's work, and he doesn't want to move. Nobody in our family wants to move except me. I would like a cheaper and smaller house further from the city, not on rental plot.

DS2 begins to pay his share of food and housing expenses as soon as his guardianship goes through,  so my share will go down a bit and I should have 330€ left after bills and saving 400€ for the pipes. I started EF in January, currently I have 400€ in the account and my savings goal is 1000. It looks like the summer cabin could be completed this year, and I would like to save money for furnishing it so DH wouldn't have to pay everything. He is planning to build the beds and a kitchen table, and I think I should buy a sofa-bed. But I'll start with that after I finish EF.

TooMuchSnow

11 months later I have 3900€ in house repair fund and 1,19€ in EF. My ability to save for house repairs improved a lot after I moved house funds to very low risk money market fund. It takes three days to get money to my account, and there might be tax consequences so I'm not doing it simply because I want a new blush! I recently moved my EF to Revolut, a Lithuanian online bank, hoping I wouldn't use it as easily as my main bank but it's too early to say whether the tactic is working.

I got my son's financial guardianship, but it took until May! He pays 1/4 of house bills and 150€ towards his food every month, and having only one child to support financially has eased my budget considerably.

It's New Year here and I'm watching fireworks from my window. This year I started a weight loss medication (Rybelsus) and managed to lose 2.5 stones, but regained 1 stone which I'm trying to lose starting from tomorrow. Still, I'm much happier with my weight now. Trying to lose 1 stone is much, much easier than 3 which was my original goal.

Because I lost several sizes, I needed to update my wardrobe, including my winter gear. I found a wonderful Hilfiger down jacket from second hand site, costing only 23€. The previous owner didn't dare to wash it, so it smelled like flowery parfume and had several makeup stains on the collar. I've successfully washed down jackets at home before, so I dared to take up the challenge. A gentle cycle and two rounds of tumble dryer, a lot of fluffing by hand and I had a very warm, nice jacket.

I'm not certain if this forum is a right place to keep a diary, since I have no connections to UK except being an  occasional guest and culturally curious reader, but MSE is a very nice place and I've found other FIRE forums very focused on numbers. Sometimes they feel a bit too competitive for my  taste. I'm not young, succesful IT engineer, I'm a middle-aged carer who retired early due ill health. My needs are different. I like knitting and take online cooking classes to become better cook, I'm not travelling around the world to work as a digital nomad.  I love to read other's diaries and try to stop lurking.

Now to work on my new knitting project, a vest I could wear over my tricot shirts when I'm cleaning the church on Wednesdays