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

Queen_of_the_Hive

Happy shiny new diary for 2026! Bookmarked and looking forward to see how you get on! 

Congratulations on the jobs for you and OH! Such a good feeling for you both! 

debtfreewannabe321

teapot2 said:

When I lived in London we used to go to a lovely veggie Indian restaurant near us and Bhel Puri was one of my favourite sides.  Crunchy and with umami flavours, yum.

@teapot2 it was really good! Bit of a faff to make but it was worth it. I think it is one of my favourites now 😃 

debtfreewannabe321

Queen_of_the_Hive said:

Happy shiny new diary for 2026! Bookmarked and looking forward to see how you get on! 

Congratulations on the jobs for you and OH! Such a good feeling for you both! 

Thank you @Queen_of_the_Hive 😊 🙏🏻 

debtfreewannabe321

Morning all, I got up ready for my drs appointment and then checked the time (I know how scatty I am and always get it wrong) and my appointment is actually tomorrow 🤣 at least it wasn't yesterday 🙈.

I think I'll go to the gym again today even if just for the steam room, the cough and wheezing seems to have eased a bit after yesterday's session so I may as well go whilst I have the time. DP is back at work today and with kids not here I've an empty schedule to do what I want for a few days. I'd like to get my book read, some gym sessions in (even if just steam/ sauna). 

DD was on my mind last night and it seems on DP mind too he barely slept as he was worried about her. We'd had a message right before bed saying that DS2 had opened his presents from me and said thanks, when DD took a picture he went to fight her and so she had to delete it. I told her not to worry about any pics and just placate him over the week. What on earth has gotten into DS 🙁 so naturally we were both worried and wondering all night what has happened to him since he's gone there. DD rang this morning and was a bit upset still, she had started her period and ex had brought back one of his gf dogs. It's a hunting dog, apparently a very good one as it woke her up in the middle of the night barking at her door. She let it in, it proceeded to circle her until she realised why. She had to let it sleep in the room to stop it barking. !!!!!!???? She was sort of grateful it had woken her and alerted her to the fact she had started but also stressed about it. On the call this morning she said she felt DS didn't want her there and was being rude. I told her if she's had enough to come home... we'll go collect her (300 miles plus round trip). She said today they had plans to go see her step mums grave with her step sister and brother. I asked if DS and her dad were going - nope. Just DD and the step siblings. Ex has no inclination to go visit the grave (I'm guessing now he has a new victim). So I've left her to it for today but will keep my phone on and by me if I can. I think I'm going to feel stressed until she's home. It's like DS wants no part of us at all any more and it's heartbreaking all over again. I hate it when there is no closure, continual guessing of what went wrong. 
Anyhow it was left as, call us if you need us. 

Today I am going to strip the beds in DD and DS room and wash the bedding. I need to hoover and mop those rooms too. But ..not promising that will be done 🤣🙈. Dinner will be mash potatoes with leftover veg we didn't use at Christmas. And whatever pie is in the freezer.....ooo the freezer, it has spent the last few months in the garage and we run out and grab things or fill it but had no idea what was in it. It's a chest freezer and I've decided I don't like them as we lose things at the bottom. Yesterday we decided to bring it indoors. We have an empty space where my downstairs toilet and utility will one day go and so it seemed silly not to use it. So we brought the freezer in and did an actual stock taken (well we emptied it and looked properly for the first time in months 🤣) and we have loads of actual meals in there! I will use what is in there for the next month to try and bring down the budget somewhat.

Talking of budgets (suppose it ought be talked about as this is an MSE diary 😏🤣) we've moved money around and I've put the grand total of zero into OPs, and savings this month. I need to try and clear my cc and also the gas/electric debt (not much but there is some there) and I've put £750 into the food budget -£150 per week, we're hoping there is some left so we can start to keep money in the account as a buffer. I'd love to be one of those people who has a whole month of money in each account ahead of pay day so they're not always on a back foot. So although the savings etc will suffer I'm hoping we have some money left from this OP into the food account. And if not at least we won't be stealing from anywhere else mid month for food money. 
If I get any maintenance, debatable really, it will go straight onto my cc and gas/electric payments. We've already spent some of our wages which is why I said let's just budget with what is left rather than robbing savings to top up wages to start Jan with. So EF stays in tact and we do start Jan with less money than we would usually have. I'm not too bothered though, it will be fine and we can make up savings with bonus that is due and new wages from us both by end of Feb. 

Right off to get started with my day ☺️💖.

debtfreewannabe321

I've been to the gym! 26 minutes on the treadmill and got to my 1.5 miles. I was really quite tired when done but I did it and did it at my pace rather than feeling like I needed to go faster. I need to get my cardio health back to a good point and walking is quite low impact so starting there. Can't quite believe I'm struggling with a mile and a half though 🙈 I used to walk three miles daily with my dog. - NB to self, get another dog. DP has been going on about this too as he thinks it will help him have regular screen breaks, as he works from home a dog would have someone here pretty much all day every day...anyway need another saving pot for that. 
Back to the gym, I did ten minutes in the steam room, had a cold shower and then ten minutes in the sauna and cold showered again (I don't like that part but omg does it wake you up!)
I've fasted all morning so I'm about to have some breakfast/ lunch.

I've decided to try fasting again as I found this the most useful when trying to lose weight. If I eat breakfast I find myself hungry all day, so I'm going to skip that again and go straight to two meals a day and stopping eating by 8pm latest. 

I weighed myself before the gym and nearly 😭😭😭😭 cried. I'm going to use this diary for accountability now for losing weight (might see if there is a weight loss thread somewhere too) I want to lose around half a stone at a time I think (around 3kg). So here we go I guess..I need to get my BMI down 🙈 asap. 

debtfreewannabe321

Signature update.

Emergency Fund goal - £717.77/1500

Weight loss goal 1 - 0/7 lb 

Mortgage OP goal 2026 - £4500 

KajiKita

I’m with you on the needing to shrink thing … If you find a (friendly!) weight loss thread give me a shout 😊 I’m going with the glucose goddess hacks for shrinking glucose spikes after eating and gently upping my exercise levels. 

Don’t be too hard on yourself for struggling with a mile and half - you’ve had a stinker of a cold which you are not fully recovered from which is probably affecting your lung capacity still. Less oxygen, less oomph! 😉😊❤️

Would you not consider a rescue dog? Wouldn’t need nearly so much of a savings pot … 😊

KK

debtfreewannabe321

Well I stripped one bed! DD had clean washing all over it so I will put that away tomorrow and then strip hers. 
Instead of sitting and catching up on my show I wanted to watch i decided to de-christmas the house 🙈🤣. So three Christmas trees are down, plus all the other decs. I've hoovered one room and am having a little break before tackling the other two rooms I took trees down from (DP office and DD room). Exhausted now and half way through the job. Why do I never ever start these jobs at 9 am when I have some energy 🙈.

@KajiKita I'd possibly take a rescue but after seeing my sister and a friend with rescues who all had their problems with either nerves or illness I'm loathe to. I have a bit of a fear of dogs so it would have to not only be a small dog but also hypoallergenic and I think they're probably harder to come by. Saying that I am on mailing lists for two rescues local-ish but I am a bit fussy because I'd hate to re-home it here and me being allergic/ or it have temper issues and I'd have to re-home again. So probably not but I would never say never. Definitely still struggling after this cold it's absolutely knocked DP and myself down. And as we think it's on its way out we wake up with a new stronger bout of it! 

KajiKita

Ah, to be fair I’d forgotten about the hypoallergenic thing. Well, you never know, something might come in at one of the rescues … 🤞😊

KK

daisy_1571

Have a look at oldies club website.  They only deal in dogs 8 and over, they don't have kennels so their own dogs are all in foster homes, they also advertise any other rescue's if the dog is 8 or over so be careful as some are only just in the country, check each advert carefully to see where the animal is and what its circumstances are.  As far as British ones are concerned, they are often small dogs that are absolutely fine, only issue is owner has died or gone into care, older owners tend to have smaller breed dogs.   

The benefits of getting an older one is the personality is already there so you can get more info on what kind of a home they would fit into.

Another possibility is research the breeds that would likely be best for you then search if each breed has its own rescue, they often do.  Also check with breeders as good breeders will ask owners to give dogs back to them so they may know of older dogs that are now in need of a new home.  Again lots have no issues and are genuinely needing a new home without them being a problem.   Finding out the back story is key

We had a bonded pair 10 and 11 and had the younger for a year, the older for a further 18 months.   They were fabulous dogs, owner had gone into care.  We now have a 15 year old cat whose owner couldn't manage eye drops any more.   

Older dogs often are soooo much better than puppies, cheaper to buy, already house trained and over the chewing stage, you know if they are high energy or a couch potato, a lap dog or a more self contained etc etc

Dxx