YNAB robber needs help to execute the plan

elsien

Glad you had a good weekend away, you have earned it. I looked at a fake band festival for this year, but you had to have the camping even if you didn’t want it and that just hooked the price of a bit too much. Hoping to find something a bit more reasonable next time around, because it does sound like fun.

And well done for standing up to social services. If your dad didn’t have a family to call on they would have to put something in place and it’s not reasonable to expect you to simply drop everything.

if you need to draw a line in the sand about what you can and can’t do in the future that is perfectly okay. It’s easy to get drawn at the expense of your own health so give yourself permission to decide where that sits for you regardless of what other people think.

Wanna_Bee_Free

Thanks for the advice Elsien. They have arranged a carer to do 4 visits a day and the social worker will visit them monday. I'm really glad I didn't charge over there. It's been really stressful stayiung put but at least I haven't spent petrol money I can't afford as well.

PennysIntoPounds

Well that is absolutely atrocious and you are completely correct that you need to not be any more available than is genuinely convenient for you (as far as care support/social services are concerned). I know you have a lot on your plate but that sounds like official complaint territory to me. That is appalling.

Very glad festival was good though, what's the next thing you're looking forward to?

Wanna_Bee_Free

@elsien this website has lots of info all in one place which might be helpful. https://www.efestivals.co.uk I am a creature of habit now with an annual migration pattern but but used this a lot when I went to more festivals.

@PennysIntoPounds I am meeting the social worker and her boss on Thursday so I will decide after that.

In other good news my father's hearing is a lot better with his new hearing aids again.

I am hoping for an NSD and looking forward to watching Monza later. OH and I are volunteering this morning, I hope that will be interesting. I'm a bit nervous.

Wanna_Bee_Free

Our volunteering was fun. It was a lovely sunny day manning a stall for a few hours in the park. I've done two more volunteering sessions since then, one in torrential rain and the other dry. No spends and expenses claim for travel submitted.

I have found my mood lifting enormously with stepping back from my family. It has been possible now they are both out of hospital I felt able to step out of it. Plus budget wise I can't pay for any more petrol/train tickets anyway. I am going once or twice a week this month.

OH and I have decided to decorate our bedroom this week. Hard work and lots of chaos but it will be lovely when it's done. Spending on paint etc. One old tin of white had gone off so a second trip which was annoying.

I need to fill OH car up but faced with 179.9 ppl I just put a small amount in for now. As I am not shuffling other people from hospital to hospital I've switched to the train to save money. My thermos mug has saved me buying expensive coffee at the station where I change trains.

Second coat of paint today, hopefully that will be our bedroom finished and we can recover over the weekend.

PennysIntoPounds

Brilliant money saving bits there, it all adds up.

Really pleased to hear you're feeling brighter and getting your bedroom nice

Wanna_Bee_Free

The bedroom looks lovely, it took us a week to recover.

We've been on quite a few nice day walks and saw a comedian, Rich Hall last week so it's been good to do some fun stuff. We won the pub quiz last week too, with a relatively low score.

This week OH and I are planning to tackle the kitchen which is a smaller area with less furniture to shift. I shall be helping in addition to family stuff so in practice won't do my full share of this room but OH wants to push ahead rather than wait until I am around more.

I am volunteering again tomorrow and quite looking forward to it. I've got through most of or all the online training now too so feeling under control.

My 6 x 30 minute counselling sessions ended last week so I need to think about carving out a weekly review for myself somehow to keep myself on track.

I visited family today by train so a saving of at least £8.50. It looks like 3 visits this week but I think I need to be there. Two days are happening with taxis instead of me. Talking to Little Sis about which day is most important seems to have worked better.

i heard from the Office of the Public Guardian. One LPA was fine and the other needed two pages repeated which I have done and returned.

Job hunting is depressing for OH but he met up with an ex-boss and ex-colleague so they are aware he is looking.

I didn't take a sandwich today but Little Sis only had really old bread so I had to buy one. Not money saving but I had decided to trust her shopping now she is doing online supermarket orders again. I know to bring lunch with me on Thursday and Friday.

1 house viewing but they said our house is too small for them.

That's probably quite enough to juggle at the moment thank you!

Blackcats

fun stuff is really important and a good comedian or live music always lifts my spirits. (I've just blown my concerts budget pot on 2 gigs for next year but I'm already very excited about them and the savings pot builds up ready for concert announcements).

Can you login to your sister's shopping to add in essentials that she might not have thought about?

Wanna_Bee_Free

OH still job hunting 1 house viewing, nothing happening.

I am going to pay cc interest for the first time since I got debt free 15 years ago. I have paid the balancedown to £148 by leaving myself with only essential bills in my bank account. This is back to the scorched Earth plan when I started and I know it won't be possible to spend zero but I need to try my best

Looking at my spending over the last few weeks there is a lot of non-essential items. I think my stress went up 2 - 3 weeks ago, I started sleeping very badly and feeling very depressed again. I also had a week without YNAB as I was trying to save money pushing the bill from September into October and it all got out of hand that week. Looking at the spending it is drinks out and travel and food on days I visit family. Pizza, repair of my sewing mchine and some stocking up on pharmacy items ahead of winter. I am paying for an alteration for a pair of jeans to be shortened for Little Sis as she doesn't have much to wear in her size. I am trying to help her declutter for her house sale and to help her find clothes she can wear in amongst all the stuff she has that is way too big I plan to try and sell some of the stuff she's given me for charity on Vinted to recoup the cost. I need to stop committing to help other people if it costs me money

I need to knuckle down and have lots of no-spending days, My new (same old same old) plan:

take food with me tomorrow

keep hobby/quiz night spending to a minimum in the pub

stop buying treats for other people

slow down and think more in advance

keep more of an eye on prolific and increase my survey income

elsien

Do you have a repair café anywhere near you?

if fixable, they can quite often repair things that have broken down, and mine also has a sewing service. Worth looking into it for future reference.

I’ve done quite well on prolific with the AI videos. I can’t do them during the day because of Work but I earned 30 quid last night while watching TV.