Riding the wave

Smudgeismydog

good luck for the meeting today

Cara_

It's good you shared the news about the meeting and came up with a worst case senario plan. Best of luck with the meeting.

Keep_Buggering_On

Not sure what to make of the meeting- they are restructuring and merging my department, but at the moment the only job changes are the directors where they are going from two to one head of directorate. Nothing is happening with our roles until after the new person is in place and they have decided what the new structure needs to be- so stay of execution for now until the autumn at least. That's good news, but the whole business has highlighted how financially vulnerable we are as a family. We have agreed that when we get back off our summer holidays we are going to put the money that has been allocated for that into savings for now- if my job stays intact, then we can look at booking something for next year once we know that, if redundancy were to happen, it would be an extra buffer of cash. We are also going to really double down on paying off as much debt as we can and not taking on any more over the coming months. Without the debt the UC and any job seekers would allow us to at least live a frugal life, with the debt hanging over us we are screwed so it needs tackling urgently and making more manageable.

beanielou

Good idea to baton down the hatches & really concentrate on the debt.

Keep_Buggering_On

Well that was both cathartic, and a little depressing! I went through and cancelled about ten things I had on pre-order on both Amazon and Hasbro Pulse (I collect Star Wars figures). They were all things I was looking forward to getting, but I really can't justify them at the moment and future me has saved a few hundred pounds over the next six months so it will make a big difference. I am consoling myself with the thought that if I still want them later on, I have made my Christmas list nice and easy to put together and they might well be heavily discounted a few months after release so I can always come back to them later if I really want to. At the moment though, its good to remove some of the future financial burden for things that are really not necessities at all- paying down the debt is far more important!

AntoMac

Seems a totally sensible decision, and as you say it’s more like you’re deferring the purchases rather than postponing them. Good luck with the final outcome of the work review

beanielou

Great start. Be proud.

Catscoffeecake

That's great, well done, it would have been easy to say, well I ordered it before my lightbulb moment, but you were proactive and you are just delaying the purchase to when its cheaper and you are in a better position financially.

Keep_Buggering_On

I went to get something out of the freezer this morning, pulled out the plastic drawer at the bottom and the front came away in my hand. It had been iffy for a while, but today it finally said enough is enough. Ten minutes work with some gaffer tape and it is now back together and strong enough to use- I suspect I will have to repair it again in a few months time, but gaffer tape is a lot cheaper than a replacement freezer, especially when the one I have still works fine!

I am looking forward to my four day weekend. Me and DS are off to the cinema tomorrow to see Mandalorian and Grogu. The tickets are already bought and we have snacks and pop we are taking with us. I am also being organised and going to pop int the card shop for a Father’s Day card whilst we are in town- the ones in the city are half the price of the ones in the village and I am not expecting to go out again before Father’s Day so its worth being proactive. We are also going to swing by the free bookshop and see what they have in, people donate old books and you can take up to three each per day for free if you want so we will see if there is anything worth reading in there.

I have a list of outdoor jobs to do this weekend whilst the weather is so nice. Our garden gate is rotten and falling apart so I want to make a replacement. I have some heavy timbers in my shed I can use for a frame and some planks to make up the main gate itself, so time to crack out the chisels and make a new one and if the weather is good I should be able to get it all painted and fitted this weekend. I am also wanting to try and get the fences and sheds painted. I had planned on doing this at Easter but poor weather and a general feeling of ‘meh’ meant I didn’t. I am feeling suitably motivated so I will get on my overalls and slap some green paint around, then spend the rest of the week washing it out of places I didn’t think paint could reach!

Keep_Buggering_On

Me and DS went to see Mandalorian and Grogu yesterday and we loved it. Great fun and a good father/son day out. I also popped into the freebie book shop in town and found two more volumes of a series of books I collect for free so that was very good as well. OH was out in the evening, so I watched Eternals- I had heard it was a bad film and they weren't wrong! I am working my way through all the Marvel films, one a week, so I had reached that one and had to watch it, but glad to be onto something better next Saturday!

I made a start on the gate this morning- i got the uprights and rails cut to length and made two of the joints, but it was so hot that even by 10 o'clock the sweat was dripping off me and I was exhausted- jumped straight into the shower. I will try and get a bit more done early doors tomorrow morning, but as my workshop is tiny (7 foot by 5 foot) most work has to be done on the garden path, right in the sunshine! Its definitely going slower than I would like, but it will get done soon enough. I need to go hunting in the storage shed and see what paint I have. The aim is to make the gate for no money (because I have no money), so its just a case of seeing what I have left over from other projects I can use.