Buying a little piece of Middle England; Manifesting my way to mortgage free.

debtfreewannabe321

I made some effort to use up the fresh stuff yesterday for dinner before it went off. So we had new pots, steamed broccoli and cabbage with some homemade burgers. Then I went to bed at around 7 🤣 I did read for an hour but then had the most epic sleep I've had since I was ill! I feel better for it but will be glad for a week off next week to just go at my pace for a while. 
I've been constantly on indeed lately looking for new opportunities...not seen anything local enough yet. I'm happy to travel a little but I won't do a long commute. Those days are over for me, they caused me nothing but stress in my twenties/ thirties so I'll hold out for something nearby. The right thing will be out there at some point I'm certain of that 😊.
Hopefully a NSD today so I best go make a pack up for work I guess! 

debtfreewannabe321

Not a NSD but for a good cause I gave some money for a maternity present for someone and also for a charity collection that one of my students were collecting for. 
Dinner will be whatever I can find in the freezer or fridge. And tomorrow I'll go shopping again...
Budgets are all ok, £365 left in the food for the month. 
Bills have all come out and there is £20 left in there. I'm leaving that to tick over and I'll use it to make one off payments here and there for my gas/ elec bill. 
Pocket money is low but it gets more on Monday from CB. 

Work was okay and I mostly got my paperwork done in a free hour. I wasted half hour of it though searching for a missing student who was supposed to be in an exam 🙄. Found them eventually...in the exam! Someone else had delivered them there late for me. 
My shelves for the greenhouse turned up but only one pack and it clearly stated double pack so I've messaged the seller. Really so unimpressed with Amazon lately. I barely use them these days but having looked locally for shelves and not finding any I gave in... only for it to be wrong anyway. 
On the mortgage, I can't wait to dip into the £115k range it will feel like a milestone reached but I know when the interest is added it's going to go back up to around £116,500 again! Maybe next month? 
I get extra pay this month from my temp Job I did so I'll pay that across to the EF for the savings goals. 

I'm taking DS2 out this weekend..I feel like we need to broach the subject of friends and socialising etc. he's not very good at it and is making friends easily and then losing them just as easily. I think he's on the spectrum ever so slightly and he struggles with socialising he thinks everyone is dumb 🙄 and really what I think he means is, I don't understand them, they don't understand me, I get frustrated and don't know how to communicate. I don't want him to fall into a deep pit of depression as his brother did so want to talk to him before it reaches this stage. I'm just not sure how. I want him to know I'm there for him to speak to and can advise and just be a friend when he needs one. I mean I'm there all week for stranger's kids at college for the same reason and I'd like to think my own son could trust me as they do. He's spoken about going off to Harrogate to college and I really don't want him to. I have seen how the army has changed my ds1 for the worst and I feel DS2 is in Many ways like him and possibly even more inflexible and stubborn and will not survive it well. 
Anyway maybe not the place to vent about this stuff but I kinda see this place as a bit of a vent as well as sharing finance plans 😆.

slm6002

I think this a great place to vent as we are able to give any advice without any of the emotions we would have if we knew you in real life.

It is hard but don't feel disheartened if DS doesn't react like the young people you help each day.  I find my 3 will listen to outside advice much more than they listen to me as their mum, even though the advice is identical.

I agree moving away for college may not be the best idea, but he needs to see it himself.  You can certainly plant some seeds and get him thinking though.

Like you I am looking forward to only 1 more week of school until the break.

Watty1

To be honest I think this is just the place, life as well as finance, it is all part of so many of our diaries.  I have had some of the best and most truthful feedback on mine as well as the best cheerleading ever    No advice, but share away/vent away.

debtfreewannabe321

Thanks all, 
I had a good weekend. DP and I took DS2 out together. I thought about how to approach him whether to do it separately or together and I feel we should show a united front so I decided together. We chatted to ds about his choice to go to college, and friends, and the gym and everything else. However he doesn't really understand how to have a proper conversation really 😕 so I was very mindful of making sure our conversation didn't turn into inquisition territory. I was exhausted by the end of the day. And still not really got much out of him aside from the fact he's not really got any friends and he thinks everyone is stoopid... 🙄 Hmmm. 
We watched the Accountant 2 at the cinema which we found kinda ironic considering that's what DS wanted to go into the other month as a career and he has several characteristics of the character in the film 🤭 it was good though, as was lunch and I ended up getting DS some new trainers at a running shop as he's been complaining of pain...which I think is the start of shin splints. So they put him on a treadmill and found a pair that corrected his posture when running..I did the same for ds1 at his age and well, it cost me a small fortune but DS seemed happy. I'll probably use my temp job pay to pay for that as I put It on my CC. It was a spendy day. I did get 20% blue light discount on the restaurant and a discount at another shop we popped into. And the running shop already had a 20% discount off so I was trying to look at it positively 😬. Anyway, I've promised DD a day out next week as she was a little huffy we didn't take her. But I tried to explain we always take her out because she's so amenable to it. DS never is. And I promised her a day on her own next week so that placated her a little 🫡😊.
I got a refund for half the shelves price because only one set of shelves turned up! So that should be coming back to me soon. I also sold my dining table yesterday. So that's that cleared out ready for some furniture to be moved about when the extension starts. I've been trying to sell it for months so was happy it went off to a good home to be restored. I'll bank that money and send to CC too. I also received some bras I ordered. All wrong sizing 🤦🏻‍♀️ so sent an email. I want a refund! Fuming that I've waited this long and they're wrong. 

Right anyway, work now. I've woken up with a sore throat this weekend and it's worse today. I've phlegm on my chest too which isn't good. Half the students and staff were telling me they had been for the spring jabs a week or so ago 🙄🙄🙄 and now I'm sick. This is becoming a regular occurrence that I'm getting a bit fed up with. I've taken some paracetamol for pain and hoping to just get through this week. I need a break.....

debtfreewannabe321

Not a NSD I had to get some throat lozenges. I was super organised at the weekend (Sunday as was out all day Saturday) and made three dinners instead of one. And cupcakes as well as protein balls for lunches. We also bought some easy dinners for the week that weren't pre-cooked. So all in all this week*should* be easy to get through 🙈🤔 famous last words eh 🤣. 
I've decided to start feeding the kids as soon as they're in from school that way perhaps the snacks I buy might last a while longer. 

I've been freezing rhubarb and also made lots of crumbles and things so we're using what we're growing. And seeing the price of rhubarb in the shops 🤯... Madness. 

Will go water the garden then cook mine and DP dinner. Kids are fed for today as just did it. I want an early night tonight as I'm right at the good bit of my novel I'm reading! Fingers crossed this sore throat and cough goes soon as really struggling to talk...and when I'm reading and scribing in 'practice' exams all day long it's really tough going 🙈. 

debtfreewannabe321

Off work now until Thursday 😁. Again not a NSD and again for a few quid due to bad memory/ being unorganised and me forgetting to pop something small in my trolley the other day. Never mind. 

Work was easy as more than half the students didn't turn up. And all the ones who usually give me grief. So I was happy. Especially as my throat is still sore and I'm struggling to speak nevermind raise my voice to be heard over others. 

Lots of clouds in the sky but no rain and not really much sun although I see blue poking through here and there. I wish it would rain to save me a few days watering... I've a few things in the greenhouse popping up, some cabbages, some gherkins and lettuce. I also got my first strawberry today and enjoyed it thoroughly. I felt awful for not offering it to someone else though and then thought, nah, I do most of the gardening I don't need to feel bad 🫡😁.

I've some naughty crows that keep visiting our garden. They dig up all of the white sticks with plant names so I've no idea what half the plants are now. And they've dug up half of my irises 😠 they just dig them up and discard to one side. Over a dozen times I've planted one now and I need to admit defeat. They scare all the small birds away too 😔 as do the magpies. I don't like to have favourite characters in the garden and villainize other ones but.....🙄🙈. 

Our dining room looks so empty now without the dining table. It's good to see the space before we plan to move the kitchen there to see how it could work. It will make a lovely size kitchen when it's done. I'm still trying to sell a few other bits of furniture and have decluttered and skimmed down on certain things I'm keeping. It's helping me with the overwhelm I'm feeling every time I try to clean the house. 

I'd like to go into the garden but the neighbour is out and aside from a few awkward exchanges I've nothing to say to her, and her to I, so it all gets awkward with a 5ft fence between us (so need to get new ones and put bigger ones in). I need to re-pot the irises. I'm taking them away from the ground and the bed they were in and hopefully they will rejuvenate in a pot but it might be a bit late for them as the crows have done a right number on them when digging them up. However they survived over winter in a washing up bowl so I reckon I should give them a second/ third chance.

One refund came through for greenhouse shelving.. I've had an email back from bras I bought as they sent wrong size and I followed up with pictures, not heard anything back yet though. I'm still waiting on Quidco. They're absolutely useless and I think after I've got the money this time I am just going to abandon them. They take forever to pay out and the pay out date changes and changes and the customer service is useless. 
I need to pay my CC and I think I'll use my pay from the temp job. I get paid right before the holidays which is good but obviously I've pushed our month to 1-31 not from the 20 something whenever my pay lands. So I need to be really good over the half term and not touch it 🙈.

Right neighbour has disappeared I'm going out... 

daisy_1571

I understand the awkwardness but its ok to use your garden after a quick nod good morning or afternoon to keep neighbourly and just get on with your own tasks or sitting enjoying the sunshine.  If you can,  try to get used to it otherwise you'll feel they are in charge of whether you can be in your own garden over the summer 

Dxx

debtfreewannabe321

@daisy_1571 I would usually do this, she was hanging her washing out yesterday and for some reason her rotary airer literally touches the fence so she was stood so close she was looking over the fence twas a bit awkward as I was right over the other side of that fence sorting out the strawberries. 

Today is my day off. I have woken up with a horribly sore throat, it's worse than it was yesterday, so I am glad I am not at work. I will make a salt gargle soon and use it as often as I remember today. My voice is very crackly which isn't good and a cough has kept me up all night. 

I have been on indeed many times the last few days, and although I haven't found anything for me I have managed to find a few jobs suitable for friends that I know are looking so sent them on, and promised to help one next week with an application. And I will keep looking. I am mindful of jumping out of the pan into the fire......my job isn't awful, I am grateful for all the holidays, the weekends off and the hours I do. I am fed up of being ill ever since I started there though, I am either low level feeling rough all the time or have caught something from one of the students - like this cough. I know which student passed it on too, she has been in hospital with a chest infection this last week and has the same cough I now do. So ideally my next job won't be with students quite as much, my immune system is not what it used to be. 

DP is away all day today, I think I might try and get a nap in at some point as I'm super tired after that bad night. I will do an easy dinner of fajitas. I might do a bit more decluttering, it gives me a sense of satisfaction to see clear spaces again and helps me to feel less overwhelmed. Little and often is the best way to tackle it I think. I remember when I was first on this site many years ago and I did the full on konmari, getting out every book onto my living room floor to sort through. Same for clothes, and DVDs, and music, kid's toys and other things I had too much of. It was so overwhelming but also cathartic when I had done it. I haven't managed to amass the amount I had back then but over the years things do creep in don't they? So I think I will go round today and find a dozen things that don't spark joy and have no actual purpose aside from being a 'filler' of space in my home and put those in the charity shop bag. I can already spot two things just sat where I am 😏🤭....
Also planning on some gentle pottering in the garden, nothing strenuous as chest is sore from this cough....I also want to meditate and just relax. Quite looking forward to having the house to myself once the kids go to school.  

debtfreewannabe321

I am looking at my ynab. I am overwhelmed with it. I have taken time to watch videos and try and make it work but I am officially giving up on it- decision made. I won't be renewing my yearly subscription in August. I'll redirect the money I had saved for it to another pot and find another spreadsheet that isn't so complicated to use.