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

debtfreewannabe321

Work was really busy today, I don't feel like I stopped really. Although I did make myself stop at lunch. I had only one appointment out which was good it meant I got to sort my calendar out for next week and catch up on emails and paper work which appears to be neverending.

Newbie actually beat me in and I was pretty early. I find it quite annoying she wants to be my best friend now as I have to be really careful, mindful of everything I'm saying because I don't trust her and I'm too tired to overthink everything I say. Today's rants included a parking issue, divorce, illness and not wanting to stay till 5, this is why she's so stressed apparently she has too much to think about...she also did about a quarter of the work she's supposed to do and moaned when someone pointed it out 🙈🫣🤣. I left at 4:30 having done my hours and she was following me out so didn't do her time anyway 🤷🏻‍♀️ whatevs.

I'm so glad it's Friday afternoon. I'm home. Laid down for a bit. Will have to get upright again at some point to do dinner though. Another LSD needed something from shops that was like a £1. Don't mind these little spends too much though as it was a need rather than a want and cheap 🤣.

My diary is packed for next week so I was pleased when something got cancelled for Wednesday as it means I've now got an empty day 🫣. I will soon be on countdown to my break for a week or so (hoping the new contract is sorted soon so I can have two weeks off instead of one).

Off to read a couple of diaries, I can't keep up lately. And then do dinner.

Humdinger1

Dearest @debtfreewannabe321 , the exhaustion may well be related to that wonan at work?! Or should I say that toddler? Anyhow, once that situation's resolved, you may well feel like the first day of spring. Love Humdinger xx

debtfreewannabe321

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81912477#Comment_81912477

@Humdinger1 DP and I both feel it's a lot to do with her. The level of stress I feel around her is crazy. I had heart palpitations yesterday and had to leave the room as soon as she started off on a moan (about the third one of the morning).

debtfreewannabe321

It's Saturday!

🤗😁💝🥳🎉💝

I had a bit of a lie in to start my day which was nice. I didn't wake up in deficit of sleep and managed to catch up on a few ZzzzZzzzs. I was debating going into the garden today, even if to just have some fresh air and grounding, but it's looking foggy and super cold and damp, so I might not bother. Shame the nice weather we had during the week didn't repeat for the weekend.

←---------

I wrote that and then abandoned it 🤣.

I did some gardening even though it's miserable out, it stayed dry, so I went out and tried to tackle the worst areas we see from the back of the extension. So four raised beds were weeded and the greenhouse was emptied out of old tomato plants that were pure mould 🤢 and I started on the big bed I made in the middle, but my back was starting to hurt, so I stopped, which is good for me. I am a nightmare for starting gardening and not quitting until my back is crippled 🫣. I got up and decided to have a tidy around of plant pots that had moved across the garden in winds and pick up any rubbish. Also cleared lots of branches that had been cut and piled up but we'd done nothing with them. I stopped shortly after that and a couple of other small jobs, but it looks much better out there. A nice cut on the grass would make it feel tidier too but sadly it's still too damp for that to happen yet. There are two very large beds that still need weeding, one probably 6m x 2m and the other at the widest 4m x 6m and thins to 2m x 10+m....there's a lot of bed out there to weed 😵‍💫 so I think I'll do a little at a time.

I need to buy compost, but the peat free stuff is utter rubbish so I need to do some research. Mixing crap compost (pretty much any compost these days) with top soil and manure worked well last year so I could do that again. Lots of my new beds have bedded down and don't have much in them now so really need to get some on those asap.

DP was busy whilst I did that, he's done three tip runs! The carport is almost empty (we use it to store rubbish every time we do a job inside so it stays dry) aside from some gym stuff from DS2 and the old freezer that broke. DS1 has messaged me and asked if he can bring the contents of his house to us to store 😵‍💫 I said, I need to know what there is and how much. I don't want to store in the garage if it will get ruined and I also need to know how much space I need to make. The roof on the small garage needs changing asap as we think a firework landed on it and has melted through the plastic meaning it's not watertight now 🤦🏻‍♀️ that's where I was planning on putting his stuff....so that might need fixing sooner than we planned. But the small garage is attached to the large garage so we may as well do it all at once 🤔. Hmm. The carport attaches to them too so we may as well also do this because that has holes and needs replacing. We seem to be unable to do one job at a time here and I think we just think no, it's too much and then we do nothing 🫣🤣. It does all need doing though so I guess we ought to just get on with it. I think probably starting with the two garages is a good start and putting cement on the top or felt instead of plastic. That way we have watertight areas for storing things.

I'm going to have a look and see how much EF I have today, so need to find my passwords and log in details. Once I've done that DP and I can make a plan on what to do first. I will be taking a paycut again if I get my new contract. But it also means I will have time to do the garden, and smaller jobs around the house rather than paying for them.

DP has been looking at putting money into stocks and shares and has done a lot of research on how to make some money from that so he's going to have a play around with that too. He's also needing to choose tax free benefits from work for new tax year so we'll have a look there and see what we need/want. He will get a small pay rise soon which pushes him into higher tax band we think so will try to use the tax free benefits to pull it back down to just below.

I might be back depending on how much I've got in my EF and if I can make a plan.

daisy_1571

Pension would be the first thing to up his conts on to limit the 40% tax i think???

I'd look at the 3 roofs as one job. Sounds very sensible to do them as water ingress is a bad thing where ever its happening. Are you getting any help from ds1 in rent once he's with you? Could that be used to fund the house maintenance pot again if it gets depleted with this job?

Dxx

debtfreewannabe321

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81913428#Comment_81913428

@daisy_1571 If DS1 moves back in he will help out with rent. He's currently in the middle of a split up with his ex and is in a bit of debt, so he's handing back the army house considering it is just him now and he's sold a lot of furniture, given bits away, packed up his stuff, will sell all white good and wants me to hold on to his personal stuff so he can move into barracks and pay the debt off……..I'm just unsure whether it is a small van we are talking about or a large one. He currently resides in a 3 bed semi which is pretty big. So I am thinking the small garage once it has been made watertight should be big enough, it's around the size of a box room so if everything was piled high it should be alright. I don't really want it in the house, but will take in anything valuable to him as a worst case scenario the garage flooded or whatever. His notice will be a year long so if he does move in it won't be until next year (around Spring). I've asked a few times now for how much he's bringing and had nothing back. So if it's too much/ too soon, he will have to put it in a storage facility until we have made enough space. We have a whole tonne of space, we just seem to have inherited garages, and summer houses, and sheds FULL of everyone else's stuff. We like to save a penny or two by doing skip runs but I feel at this point we should probably just hire a skip, empty out everything that isn't ours, get the roof off and replace. Job done. Feel like I make things too complicated sometimes from stressing about how to do it all on the cheap.

I've just checked my EF it is at £553. so less than what I had at the end of last year, really want to get that up to a grand asap. Then I will concentrate on other pots because I will soon have on top of me car insurances, house insurances, and servicing etc as well as paying for a summer holiday, wedding rings and whatever else and I would rather not touch any of the EF once it hits a grand so that is there for actual emergencies instead of whatever I used it for last time (don't think it was an emergency! Oops). Okay………….I have just transferred money from smaller pots, all to the EF. I now have £1000. I will update signature in a mo.

This can be my DO NOT TOUCH unless REAL emergency. So although my goal is £2k I will make do with £1k right now and fill other pots first before coming back to this one.

daisy_1571

Is there anything you can make shelving out if? Eadier to store if you can get it up rather than all over floor or boxes on top of boxes. And send him some big marker pens 😆 🤣 we always think we'll remember what's in boxes - we don't 😆 😄

Is there anything you could put out in drive with a note to take away? Maybe save you one trip

Dxx

debtfreewannabe321

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81913444#Comment_81913444

most of what we have is rotten wood or broken stuff that needs to go, also a few bits of furniture still need to be sold or given away. DP has just come to collect me for a look at his handy work, he was very proud of himself- he's started smashing the summer house up 😂 i mean it needed doing but wasn't really on the list to do today. The corner the summer house is in is pretty big though now he's cleared lots of rubbish out of there, so our plan is to pull it down - we were going to refurb it but the joists are rotten as well as the frames and it obviously has no roof since it blew off shortly after we moved in 😂 so we will pull it down and get something big and cheap and cheerful to go there, then we can use it to empty the garage out completely and then work on the roofs there. Okay we have a loose plan, that's a start, right.

daisy_1571

Sounds like a plan ! Go for it! (But mind your back and energy 😆)

beanielou

Absolutely get a skip. So much less hassle. Think of your back!