The Sea is Calling

wishus

Hello there fellow wannabes!
Starting a brand new diary for my lofty ambitions.
It's me, my husband, our cat (plus an extra one who eats his food and sneaks in to sleep in our house but won't let us go near her) and we live in a Victorian terrace of an East Mids town.
We are bookish and musical, and very social peeps, and when I had the money quite a lot went on cider. Things need to change...

I'm working on clearing my huge loan down with a variable income. I took the loan out over 7 years and I'm one year and a bit in.

The plan was: do lots of work on the crumbly house, sell it, and move to the seaside. Some of that work got done, loads more to do, but we're trying to do as much of that as possible ourselves now.

The big pain, my role was made redundant at the end of May and in June I started trying to work for myself full time, doing something I've been doing as a side hustle for many years. I've put some of my redundancy in an ISA, and I was going to have a few months to try living on a reduced amount from the rest while I build my business. Month 1 went well, but I'm starting to get the creeping fear. 

So this week, I've been seeing what the Job Centre can do to help, and have been applying for more work in a few places. I might also be able to use my PIP, but that's admin for next week.

Thanks to this site, I have renewal reminders on, and today I ate some big frogs and got home insurance sorted, much cheaper than we had been paying. I have arranged for that all to be paid in one big lump, saving even more money. Slaps on backs all round!

Thought I'd start this diary to egg myself on. We still want to live by the sea. I will make it happen.

doingitanyway

Good luck with your diary.
I was in a similar position in terms of a house that needed repairs to sell.
In the end I sold it without bringing the kitchen or bathroom up to standard. 
Did I lose out financially? A bit...maybe...but I am now living in my new home by the sea.
It can be done...

wishus

Thanks @doingitanyway - subscribed to your diary!

I've been talking with OH this morning about the seaside trip we have planned to scout for places to live, and be a little bit touristy.

We decided not to Parkrun this morning, but may go swimming this weekend instead. One of the things I've decided not to cut back on for now at least is my gym membership. I'm trying to get lots of use out of it.

The weekend's big frog is a tip to the recycling centre. It's grim, but we need to clear the brick patio so we can get some work done on it to level it up. I'm just waiting for my quotes back.

The house is worrying us because it is determined to keep trying to break down to its constituent atoms, no matter what we do.

I also got a reminder letter through from my PIP provider today, but I've got a few hoops to jump through yet before I can finalise the claim. Should come in useful though.

wishus

I must say corresponding through the Journal on the Universal Credit portal feels like sending pen pal letters through the IYS scheme in the 1980s. I have asked my pen pal some questions, but I'm beginning to think the answers I am getting - in perfect English - are just what they can say, not the actual answers to my questions. I bet they wouldn't like it if I answered their questions with "j'aime la musique pop".

My other Limbo moment is waiting for quotes from builders. I must not get stuck in this limbo, and get on with doing my other jobs, like sorting through things for charity and to sell, and getting things ready to go to the recycling centre. I'm fighting my head and energy levels a bit, which reminds me I also need to follow up on my last MH referral. The NHS is reliant on a lot of charity sources at the moment, so that's the direction I've been pointed in, which makes me feel... yeah, great. I just followed up with the builders though so that's something proactive.

I've had the discussion with my husband tonight that I think I many need to pause alcohol while I am seeking counselling at least. It doesn't go well with my meds and I have other health conditions that mean I need to work harder at taking care of my organs. I thought he'd be annoyed, but he is in fact very understanding. I'm a social person, and red wine is lovely, but 1) I'm a girl who can't say no to a round 2) it's chuffing expensive 3) It's  disinhibitory, meaning you can be more easily persuaded to break your budget on snacks and taxis, she said typing an overspend of £9 into her monthly budget. 

Dinner with friends at the weekend will be the hard one. Need to make sure there is plenty of water at the table. 

Going to have an early night and read my library book. Just had to sew the wire back into my bra, so that's one practical thing done tonight. I'm not intending to go on a new bra shop until I've lost a few more inches, so it's back to the gym tomorrow. Not been for over a week, and feeling like a slob. 

 

beckstar1975

@wishus all Counseling and much MH support here is via MIND and has been for several years, I think they are given some money from the NHS though.

I had to stop drinking a few years ago as it physically was making me really ill, full on allergy. It did help my MH hugely though, and now I don't miss it at all (but do find evenings out where everyone else drinking v dull).

If you don't mind me asking where ISH coastal are you looking? N/S/E/W? We're S London so have easy access to Kent and Sussex coasts, go often

wishus

@beckstar1975 I'm thinking of Whitby. We're actually going there at the end of the month to check out the area and get a feel for good places to live. 

My husband's work just announced changes to their factory shutdown which was a bit annoying though, as we had to rearrange our days, but luckily there's only £10 difference in the accommodation. 

wishus

Good morning, MSE!

I'm still in building quote Limbo, but I know where I am with universal credit at least and I won't get any. But this does actually mean I'm lucky, so I'm bearing that in mind. It just means I have a few months to really get my business moving and I'm applying for work via job sites and have been organizing my applications, enquiries and responses in a Google spreadsheet. I'm a nerd, but I love it.

This weekend I'm volunteering at a local event, which means I get free entertainment and I'm very much looking forward to it. 

It does mean though that I have to be extra organized in getting the washing done, food shopping done and lunch for my husband prepped for Monday to avoid him making expensive food truck purchases. Hence I'm up early now to get a head start on. 

Also, it's so warm already. 🫠

wishus

Good morning peeps! What a lovely weekend!

The event I volunteered at was awesome, and the organisers kept us going with drinks and snacks, though I had to spend a bit to go grab dinner in the break yesterday. I had a chicken burger topped with mozzarella and I flipping enjoyed it. Running around the very warm venue had me accumulating thousands of steps, so I'm pretty sure the calories don't count.

My husband has been sent off to work with a savoury muffin, chicken and potato salad, cheese and pickle sandwich and some cherries. He has a 10-hour manual job so he needs good food and lots of it.

I've sent off a chase email for the builder for a quote, applied for a couple of jobs, and answered a potential work query, so that's today's frogs dealt with, and it's not even 10am. 

The rest of the day will be writing a pitch, going for a swim, and finishing my book club book. I'm trying to work out the best order to do those in. I also need to swing by the pharmacy to pick up my meds, which should be post-swim, I reckon.

beckstar1975

Gosh that's really impressive. Food sounds lovely too. 

Re Whitby a girl I was at school with runs a pie and mash shop there, small world!

wishus

Good evening all! Busy day today, as was yesterday, so I haven't managed to go swimming once! Tomorrow, I'm determined to swim...

JSA day today and gave them the good news that one of my jobs has been paid. I think they were impressed by my colourful job-enquiry spreadsheet with update dropdown buttons. You can take the girl out of IT...

I popped to the library and swapped Pinch of Nom on a Budget for BBC Good Food Cheap Eats. I went to the shop on the way home and picked up the prawns I forgot the other day and some more eggs. I am going to make falafel scotch eggs for our lunches from the new book, I think. My husband is now going to stay with friends over the weekend so I can save the meat dishes from my meal plan for next week as I'm happy to eat just veggie by myself. I've not got much left on my food budget and still 2 weeks to go almost before we go away, so I'm going to try a Zero Waste shop at the weekend. It's not close, so I should get some steps in, and I'll listen to Alice Hoffman's The Book of Magic as I'm walking (from Borrowbox).

Other frogs tackled over the past couple of days:

• Paying the last window cleaning bill so I can let them go for now. Sad, but needs must.
• Sorting out free anti-virus and firewall, as the paid one runs out in three days.
• Moving the last bit of my company pension over to my retirement investment fund.

Maybe in the morning, I will do a big declutter while I can, too.

We got offered free tickets to a big festival next weekend. Had to turn it down though as there's no way we could avoid spending loads to get there, and my redundancy needs to last months. Shame, I have not seen any of the headliners before, or most of the other acts either. I've seen Doves, that's all. I'd have loved it! Still, we have 2 gigs next month we booked a while ago, plus one in September, one in November. I won't be musically bereft.

Life is good. Progress will be made.

wishus

Yesterday's declutter happened and loads of old food and tea boxes in the cellar got binned. I found a honey and a marmite that should be okay, so they got rescued.

I finally managed to go for my swim! (Must log it in my gym app.)
Afterwards I went to the sauna. I've been really feeling the benefits of going to the sauna after exercise, and have recently mustered up the courage to try the plunge pool after, and now I love it. It can be difficult to relax in the sauna when there are other people though. There's a chap who sometimes wears a felt pixie hat or beanie who I think does hot yoga on the top shelf and it's just very odd. I'm sure all part of sauna culture that I just need to get used to, but when there's just me and him in there, I wish he wouldn't do the grunty press-ups!

I did make the falafel scotch eggs as well, but noticed the recipe calls for lots of oil to deep fry the things. How can that be cheap or healthy? I just did half the amount in the air fryer. Good job I didn't do loads - I put the eggs on, then went upstairs to do some voice recording for our creative writing group, and one of the stories was a full half hour long. I'd forgotten about the eggs! They were black inside and the kitchen was stinky. Almost ruined my Jamie Oliver pan!

Note to self, stop trying to multitask!

This morning, I have tried colouring my hair. Now I have been made redundant, I can  no longer afford to spend £150+ multiple times a year. However, my husband is nervous about me spoiling the bathroom with dye. I bought a root touch up kit and tried it this morning. I have so much hair though, so I was only really able to do the most visible bits, and the greys are blonde but the not-greys are kind of ginger instead of mid-brown. It does look better,  but I'm going to have to buy a couple of full kits for my hair, I reckon.

My husband has an interview today, and if he gets it his commute will be shorter, which will save loads. Plus slightly more money! Fingers crossed. 

I've submitted another job application today.

Today's plan for the rest of the morning involves making some banana muffins. Then I'll carry on with freelance stuff this afternoon.