Mini meltdown and light bulb moment

Thanks Fortune and MissT. We now live near some lovely open spaces perfect for long walks, we overlook a golf course at the front, and the estate is huge and some of the development is still being built, so it's lovely to have a walk round. Hubby and I ventured out in the sunshine on easter monday, we walked all the way through the estate which eventually leads out to where my gran lives, and then walked back, it was a good hour and a half walk, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it.
I think we both need to get more active, OH is even more sedentary than me, as I at least walk to the bus stops and back and walk round town on my lunch break! He gets FREE use of the gym facilities at work but has never used them in the two years he's been there! There's no discount for family though so I'd have to pay full price which is a bit rubbish.

Holiday wise, there are so many places I want to go, but we just can't afford it, and sadly I won't get adequate travel insurance cover for me to go to some of the destinations further afield.
I think if we do book it would be one or the Greek Islands or the canaries, we'd love to go to Italy but it's so much more expensive than Greece and Spain.
My travel bucket list is Thailand, bora bora, Bali, Cambodia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Canada, Iceland.... San Francisco, New Orleans.... All over
We all have to dream!!!:rotfl::cool:

We still have no Internet so brief update on my phone.
I saw a job I wanted to apply for but mu log in details expired and the recruitment office was closed over the weekend so I couldn't get it sorted in time before the application deadline closed. Gutted.

We've had a bit of a splurge and bought some new furniture. Its solid wood and will last ages, although it was £950! :Eek OH paid a £250 deposit, then it's 0% interest over 12 months, so as long as we pay the remaining £700 before next April it will be interest free.
I'm a bit scared that we've taken on more debt, but at least it's affordable and we will be selling our current furniture to pay towards the new stuff. If I can sell everything we now have in the 'get rid of' pile, we shouldn't have too much of it left to pay.

In other news, I FINALLY GOT MY MUSICMAGPIE CHEQUE!!! I've paid that in today, so that's £40 to put towards something, not sure what yet.
When the Internet is back up and running I'll do a check on the bank account etc and update my signature to include the furniture payments.

Hi twiggy.

it's taken nearly 7 weeks to get the cheque from musicmagpie. At least I have money I wasn't counting on this month, and I managed ok last month without the planned income.

It doesn't sound so bad payment wise when you break it down over the 12 months, it's only £30 each per month so It's all good. I think OH would rather pay it off as soon as possible to avoid any risk of paying interest, so any extra money we get from sales or pay rises etc will go towards the furniture.
After our holiday in two weeks we can focus on car insurance and tax (which we have some money saved towards from the remainder of the deposit from the old house), then furniture. That's the plan now. Saving for holiday has Now been pushed even further down the to do list, but we'll get there!

I had noticed the reduction into the 6's, but it had passed me by without celebration really. It will be better this month when it shoots down even more

Got lots to do on my day off today, including changing the address for the car insurance and registering with a new gp.
I'm hoping they'll be no admin fees for the car insurance update, its up for renewal in a couple of months anyway!

Yay, we're finally back online!! Just in time to be going away on holiday tomorrow.

Just a quick post this afternoon as nothing much to report really, apart from I need to get back on track with money saving and being frugal.

We've got back into terrible spending habits, I've not been able to check my bank balance properly so not been planning well and I havent managed to meal plan either as we saw no point doing a huge monthly shop as last weekend we were at a meeting, then we're away for a week as of tomorrow, and the following weekend we're away again at a charity conference!

Will get back on track and do a full update soon.

Hi All.

I'm back and we're fully up and running with the internet at home so all is well. OH is at work today, so I've got a day of cleaning and job applications, may even have a little walk as the sun is shining.

Trying to get my head back in the game with money saving, I still have plenty of money to last me the month so I've transferred some in to my savings account to stop me spending unnecessarily. I've budgeted for work transport and up coming bills, so we should be ok.

I've started a programme with a personal trainer to try and lose weight and increase my fitness and stamina. I've downloaded myfitnesspal again, (I lost a stone just logging on this previously), and also a pedometer app, which is really interesting!
The trainer is setting up a program that fits in with my hospital schedule so that I can still do something each week, and the sessions are only half an hour instead of an hour. It works out at £10 per week, but I figure that I'm not paying any slimming club fees and no gym membership, so the cost is comparable. I still have all of the diet books from my last attempt at slimmingworld that lasted all of three weeks, so I can refer to the books and log on my fitness app, all is good so far, so we'll see.

In other news, I got back to work after my holiday to find out that the new manager has just left with no warning, to go to another company joining his ex colleague as a senior partner. Although I was gutted, I was not the least bit surprised. He left his previous company having sold off his share of the business when it got taken over by another company, and he holds senior positions on various industry boards, it was actually a massive step down for him joining our company as sales manager, (imagine the manager at the Ritz taking a reception job at Ibis) which really surprised me at the time. Obviously everyone else is completely shocked etc etc, but honestly I am so pleased for him because he's a wonderful guy and he is worth A lot more than he was getting, the boss was VERY lucky to have him as long has he did!
I almost considered emailing him to ask if they are looking for staff at his new place, but I decided against it as I want out of the industry really.
It is a massive shame for our company, things will creep back to how they were back in to old habits, more secrets, no staff reviews, even less chance of getting to hear about this apparent company pension scheme that is written into the new contracts, and certainly absolutely no chance for a pay review now!

Coincidentally, there is an admin job being advertised at one of the local solicitors, in the conveyancing department, my mum worked at the same firm for about 5 years, and I did a few weeks of summer holiday work there, helping out with envelope filling and filing etc.
I'm not getting my hopes up too much, but I really want this job! Its equivalent pay to what I get on my reduced hours, if not more, with no weekend work and a decent employment package.

I'm adjusting my CV today then going to send the application off, we'll see what happens!

Our new furniture is being delivered on Tuesday, so I need to list our existing furniture to get it sold and collected, now we have the internet we can also sort the spare room and get all of that stuff listed and sold too.

I have been getting the 'FB memories' pop up on my FB notifications each morning, and looking at today's one, I cant believe where a year has gone, and I can't believe I have nothing interesting or exciting to look back on. We have done almost NOTHING since this time last year, apart from watching TV box sets and going away for our wedding anniversaries. No notable nights out, no interesting days out, nothing really achieved. I know life isn't always thrilling, but apart from two days in Wales at the back end of last year, I don't think we've left the house I feel like our life is just passing us by with absolutely nothing (apart from moving house) to show for it.

The problem is that everything outside of our little house involves spending money. How do people manage? What do you DO?

Anyway, off now to get the job application sent off then do some cleaning, may then venture into town afterwards instead of walking round the estate, as a new shop has opened that I really want to go to, I want to get some little bits for the house, (light shades etc) so that we can at least brighten the house up a bit.

Hope you all have a lovely Sunday.