Stopping the backsliding… a family of four no longer living beyond their means

redofromstart

Oh I am so sorry to read that. Huge amounts of sympathy. 

Bluegreen143

I wasn’t personally close to her though I’ve known her 10 years since they’ve been together. So I’m feeling ok in myself, but upset for my BIL of course. 

in_need_of_direction

What a horrendous thing to happen topped off by the car problems.  Hopefully they can be easily addressed.

beanielou

Sorry to hear this. Take care x

satchmo1

Oh how shocking about BIL's partner. Poor Red, too. 

Love your "family values", these are definitely wise values to hold to throughout life - never more than right now for your family.

Bluegreen143

Tired today. Stayed up til 1am as I wanted to be up when Red got home so he could unload to me. I did doze on the sofa between 11.30pm-1am right enough! 

Finally got to bed by 1.30am - we didn’t stay up too long, because we both have work today, but I could see how glad Red was that I’d stayed up. He’d had a very long, very tough day waiting around for the body to be taken away and helping support his brother. He wisely didn’t want to leave him alone, so waited until midnight to leave, when his sisters arrived having driven up from southern England. 

He wants me to drop the car at the garage this morning as there does seem to be an issue with it. Keep everything crossed the cost is not huge 🤞🏼. We’ve got £241 in the car pot and £66.49 in the emergency fund… the car is already booked in with autoglass next weekend because of the enormous and growing crack on the sunroof 🤦‍♀️. 

I will probably be borrowing BIL’s car AGAIN because I have a really important work event in our Edinburgh office this Thursday which I absolutely have to attend and can’t get to without driving 🙄. Plus Red will need to be back and forth to his brother’s flat - it’s about a half hour drive away. 

Honestly this is what this past year and a bit have been like 🤦‍♀️. Emergency after emergency. We’ve had to replace the tumble dryer, dishwasher and fridge, had numerous car repairs and this will be the fifth funeral we’ve had to attend in 15 months. Not to mention MIL being disgnosed with cancer and diabetes too.

Bluegreen143

And I realise how moany the above sounds! As Red said when he came home last night: “who cares about the car, at least we have each other”. 

Something nicer to share: Yesterday both kids were writing stories and Monkey wrote a little story entitled “a day with the [our family name]”, including the line “[My family] are very creative. I love them so much.” 🥰

themadvix

Oh how awful for your BIL. And a very tough day for Red. Thinking of you all - it’s been a very tough time for a lately.

 Hope car is very simple and cheap to sort. X

Bluegreen143

Right. Plan for today. 

- Will drop car at the garage on the school run as it’s close to the school bus stop and I can walk home. I can walk the pick up so keep your fingers crossed for me that it’s not horrendous rain! 

- Working from home today but need to sort transport for the office tomorrow - Red said he may go and get BIL’s car after work as he will go back to his brother’s in the evening. 

- Not sure about my lunch yet but there’s plenty of food in. Dinner will be chicken pasta - I made a big double batch of sauce and air fried chicken to pop in the fridge yesterday in case BIL was coming over, and we didn’t end up eating any of it because the kids and I were stuffed after a late lunch out with my papa. I think today I may make a big batch of soup or curry too in my lunch break and then it’ll be good to know there is plenty of ready-to-go food in case things are chaotic this week. The last thing our finances need is for us to just order takeaways because we’ve got extra people to feed! 

- Beyond work, looking after the children and doing some laundry and cooking, I’m not expecting us to achieve anything else. 

Bluegreen143

Ok, fingers crossed. The mechanic thinks it might be a simple fix - cap off the fuel injector. He says it’s awkward to access but if it is that he’ll do his best to get it back to us today, meaning we don’t need to borrow a car 🤞🏼. He will call Red to confirm that’s definitely what it is once he’s sure.