Investing in Us: Holidays, Health, and the Road to £150k

debtfreewannabe321

Thanks @slm6002 the weather is cold and rainy anyway so sofa is very enticing at this point 😆. Hope you have a restful weekend.

DP has filled and cemented where he can see signs of entry. And hopefully this will be the end of it. But if not he has a back up plan too. The mice are very cute tiny ones but the last thing we need is an infestation of mice in the kitchen 🫣.

I forgot to update on the Eur0sta7 situation with non matching passport to tickets .... Basically you scan your ticket and go through X rays. Then you put your passport onto the scanner in a different section. The tickets and passport don't seem to be seen or checked at the same time so it didn't matter in the slightest that one had maiden name and one had old married name. Same for on the way out of France too. So we didn't need to worry nor pay extra money to change names on the tickets 😊!

sunshineli

It sounds like you had a lovely holiday and made the most of it

debtfreewannabe321

Morning all,

Thanks @sunshineli we did try to make the most of it although I think I went a little too gung ho too quickly as by the last day I was exhausted 🙈🤣. But that's me I do the same every time I think 🤔 🤣.

I'm off to the gym today as I do feel recovered enough for a lighter workout. I might do 1.5 km and some weights instead of my usual aim for 3km. Then sauna again which really helps with sore muscles and achy joints. I slept really well last night, the fitb1t suggested I crashed as soon as I hit the pillow and my usual 1.30 hours of deep sleep was doubled last night 🤣 I really was tired. I feel more rested now though so this is good.

Anyway I'll report back hopefully with a NSD later and some gym training done 😊🙏🏻.

debtfreewannabe321

Gym - done ✅ 💪🏻 - jogged for most of it on the treadmill, 1.5km so half of what I usually do. Also did the leg weight machines whilst I waited for a treadmill (very busy today).

Booked for an induction on new gym machines for tomorrow ✅ (been meaning to do this since before Christmas).

Lunch - done ✅ veg omelette and hash browns with beans.

Lunch and breakfast done for tomorrow ✅

Dinner for tomorrow out of the freezer ✅

Washing on ✅

Dishwasher on ✅

Me ready to chill out for the afternoon on my sofa ✅🤣

NSD so far, although one supplement I take is almost at the end so I might just get that today whilst I remember.

I get paid tomorrow so will have a quick look at my budget to see where money is being dispersed to. And I've nothing in my diary for work tomorrow yet so hopefully a quiet one in the office. We'll see though, my job is quite reactive and I have to just do what needs doing as it comes in, so it might mean going out. I'm trying to catch up with others diaries on here after not being able to keep up whilst at work. But my goodness some of you have hundreds of comments I've missed and I just get all...omg I can't read that. And then leave it and leave it and hundreds double into several hundreds 🤣🥴...you're too popular 🤪 anyway I am working my way through them all 😊. Hopefully didn't miss anything major.

debtfreewannabe321

Caught up on a few diaries, have also got my budget planner out. This is how I'm allocating money next month - if all goes to plan. (Rounded everything up for ease so the difference is slightly bigger than below)

Household bills - £1720 (still overpaying the darned electric and gas that's got a massive balance on).

Groceries - £600

Glasses/ contacts - DD £60

Gym memberships X3 - £100

Pocket money - £400

Loans/CC - £665

EF - £200

MOP - £400

Yearly bills and car maintenance - £450

Xmas/ birthday - £150.

= £4745 outgoing

Income - £4800 (+child benefit which I always leave as a float in my bank)

Difference = + £55

Not too happy about the cc and loan situation… some of it is mine. And some is the kitchen loan. But over half is for DP personal loan for his course 🥴 but he's determined to have his career change and I don't blame him, he's currently tied to a desk 40+ hours a week so I'm not happy but I can live with it and will hope he can make something work in his new chosen path.

Once the yearly savings is up to around £1500 I'll divert away from there to EF. I felt it was better to get that up to where I need it rather than the EF as otherwise I'd be dipping into the EF to pay for yearly bills continually - like MOT servicing and car insurance, boiler services etc etc. once I hit a certain amount I'll just put smaller amounts in there each month and work on the EF and maybe some to DIY. Not sure if this is the right tactic to play but feel spreading money to too many places takes forever to get anywhere. MOP will hopefully remain that high whilst I get child maintenance. DD is 18 in July though so we'll see if it continues till Xmas as promised.

I'm also on countdown once I go back to my next break 🤣. 6 weeks... Hopefully it will fly by and I'm praying for better weather so I can spend the week in the garden centre and my garden 😃🌿🌻🌼🌷🌸.

debtfreewannabe321

£10.73 OP made to round it up to £400 total OPs this year.

£400/4500

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hey @debtfreewannabe321 , so happy you had a good break in Paris. Loving going there too! On our trip we cheated and just took photos outside ther Eifel Tower and Notre Dame! Good that the passport worry didn't amount to much in the end.

I know you have debt but you are doing soo much better than you think. Shouldn't compare but your in a better place than I am.

Best wishes for work tomorrow!

debtfreewannabe321

Afternoon all, I'm on lunch and about to go to my last meeting today. Finish at four which is nice and easy (I don't count the drive home although I have counted it as work time on my calendar) so one last push. I didn't sleep very well last night, not sure why, I don't have that awful feeling of Sunday night blues about Monday anymore. But anyway it took me an age to fall asleep then I woke at least six times and according to my watch, for at least twenty minutes at a time 🫩😴 which my energy will attest to being true. And when the alarm went off at 6 I was already exhausted.

I've got the gym induction this evening but at least it's not too late and I don't need to stay and use it this evening if I'm too 'done in'.

Payday today 😃 I've moved money around so it's not sat in my bank…£400 OP made, £200 to EF and the 'yearly bills' pot is looking healthy already as I put a large amount in there this month. I need to get that ready for all the car things that will be due in summer and I can't see DD being able to pay for servicing and MOTs just yet.

Talking of DD she came back from a Saturday and Sunday shift smiling and happy. She was tired but not bone tired like she had been. I'm really rather cross at that bully for having made DD do her work on top of DD own for so long. I wish DD had come to me sooner. She used to collapse after work and he unable to do anything for an entire day after working (very busy city cafe with three floors and she was up and down all day). 😡 Anyway let's hope that's the end of it.

I've booked my week quite solidly already. Friday is free at the moment which I need to change so I don't need to be around that colleague of mine.... esp as it's my birthday and I don't want to spend it annoyed or upset with her...so, will see if I can get some appointments in. At the moment the only day I will spend with her this week is Wednesday afternoon and Friday. Which is half of her working week filled already…this probably isn't the correct tactic to take 🤣 but I'm too tired to think of another right now. So for now, avoidance it is.

Was about to write I had a nsd but I need to pay the gym a tenner this evening so it won't be. Right, I suppose I ought to go do some work in a minute and make myself look productive.

daisy_1571

I think its a perfect tactic, you aren't her boss so its not up to you to watch her. This isn't your battle so dont feel bad about not getting involved

Glad you had a lovely holiday

Dxx

debtfreewannabe321

Thanks @daisy_1571 I feel a bit bad as one person I work with is determined to make us friends, whereas my actual boss and other person I work with have said just do the bare minimum you need to around her as she's been off and ignorant and rude to them. I will see how she is when she comes in on Wednesday - morning I am busy, but afternoon I will be with her. It's when we should be sharing info and organising our working week, calendars syncing etc but the last month she's been utterly ignorant and I've done the lion's share of everything, (no wonder I'm tired she forgets I'm also learning the job) so let's see how she is this week.

Friday I had an appointment pencilled in but it's been moved to next week, meh. I will be working with her most of the day. And in all honesty I have kept on top of my paperwork every night so don't have an awful lot to do on Friday aside from sorting my calendar for the week after and submitting expenses. I might see if I can get out to somewhere else instead of sitting in the office all day. Do you all remember the tutor who worked me to death in the kitchen? Well she's had a new helper put in with her, a new me, I spoke to a student in the class and he complained very loudly about her and how she doesn't do anything. This might explain the frostiness of the tutor towards me since I've started my new job, she has been pretty quiet around me and doesn't include me in conversations etc (sounds like the new lady huh) and I think it's because she's struggling with the class on a Thursday now I've left. Hopefully she'll quit behaving so childish soon as we have to share an office...so far that is two members of the staff that don't seem to like me 🤣🙈 hopefully I won't add anymore to this as it's a large office.

I'm home in record time from the other side of the city today. I even got caught behind an accident but it had only just happened so we could still pass by and were at the front of the queue (police were there and no one appeared to be that hurt)..feel sorry for those that left five minutes after me the queue was huge behind me..Took me ten minutes to get home instead of usual half hour because I just missed the herds leaving work at the same time. 🫡 Really happy about that as I can now get changed for the gym, sort the rice out to soak before I go and make sure the ratatouille is actually defrosted and ready to cook when I get back. And just sit and chill for the next hour. I had a very productive few hours with a student who's learning to use very complex machinery to print things and honestly it was beyond me. I don't learn well by being told I need to do it to learn. So it was good he does learn that way and then I got him to show me how it was done to cement the learning. 👏🏻

We had a slight shuffle round of furniture in the new extension, it's such a long narrow-ish room that all the furniture was up against walls (I think more because we were so tired when we moved everything back in we just shoved it where it would fit.) yesterday I got up in the middle of a film and started moving things around 🤣 the TV is now at an angle which gives the room a feeling of not being so hallway like now, I can also sit on the sofa with legs on the sofa and not be twisting my neck which causes pain, and I've moved plants on their tables into gaps to create a bit of height variation here and there to just break up the furniture. I'd like to get a couple of small rugs too. The extension is broken up into kitchen, then dining area and then living area so I'd like some rugs to distinguish each separate space. Anyway it feels better already just shuffling a few bits around 😊.

Okay I'm going to see who wants to get ready to come with me to the gym.. otherwise I'll be on my own.