PinknSparkly's Mortgage Wannabe savings dairy

pinknsparkly · 6 June 2019 at 11:50AM

Thanks SW!

It's been all go around here.... I've been booked in for my operation the week after next so have been running round like a blue ars3d fly trying to arrange cover at work for the three weeks I'll be off (4 weeks in total as I'm away at a conference and then a long weekend away before having the operation on the day I should have been back at work!). I also managed to turn up to a GP appointment this morning 24 hours early :doh: Though at least I was 24 hours early rather than 24 hours late!

On a different note, I was due to have my annual appraisal this week and instead it turned into a review of my job role. I have a joint job that is split between two very different organisations with very different claims on my time. I have been struggling a LOT with trying to balance the requirements from both sides, and my managers were aware of this. Similar joint positions have been successfully in place in other departments for a number of years, but the staff in the joint positions are much more senior than I am (so are very much managerial and don't have any involvement in the day-to-day running of the department workload). My managers have decided that the joint role is not working out the way they hoped and they wish to terminate the position. From an employment point of view, this isn't an issue for me as I am currently permanently employed at one of the organisations and will simply work for them full-time rather than a 50/50 split. If I had to choose between the two organisations and job roles, this is the job role I would choose to move to. Being pragmatic and honest with myself, this is almost certainly a good thing as my workload and stress levels due to trying to juggle what is effectively two full time jobs is just immense, but I still feel incredibly guilty and disappointed that I couldn't make the joint position a success

My managers from the two organisations are going to discuss the various contract options whilst I am off sick, and we'll meet up when I'm back. There is a possibility of me retaining an honorary contract with the second organisation and doing work on am ad hoc basis (though pay would need to be discussed - currently they pay half my salary to the other organisation who are the ones that officially employ and pay me which they would no longer be doing).

But first, I need to get through the operation and hopefully start feeling like a semi-functional human being again!! In preparation for that, my sister, partner and puppy are coming to stay on Saturday and we're doing a wine tasting afternoon. Puppy is coming to become acquainted with the smell of cat (and possibly the sight of cat, our cat is very friendly and tries to make friends with everyone but doesn't really meet any dogs so he may well just hide in our bedroom until Puppy goes home!).

I am LOVING our new garden, the flowerbeds are still completely bare and empty but it's so nice to just be able to sit outside in the evening sunshine and chill with a cup of tea after work!

savingwannabe · 7 June 2019 at 7:39PM

Well done on getting the operation sorted so quickly! I hope the recovery is quick too. I hope the job will be less stressful and more doable after your return and that the salary isn't affected.

This wine tasting sounds great. I hope you are enjoying the garden - it is chucking it down with rain here. lol. My garden is full of slugs, I am trying to get them! lol. SW the snail killer.

Skint_yet_Again · 8 June 2019 at 6:32AM

Hope things work out with the job and good luck with your op. Enjoy the puppy ! Hopefully it will not be a chewer like ours and keep it away from those flower beds !!! even without flowers ours loves to dig in soil :rotfl:

pinknsparkly · 11 June 2019 at 7:51PM

Thanks guy! And Skinty - the puppy belongs to my sister. Whilst I'd LOVE one, we simply don't have lifestyles that are compatible with having a dog (we both work quite long hours, five days a week) and anyway, I'm not sure the cat would ever forgive us!!

I can't remember if I've mentioned it already either, but we've FINALLY booked time off for our honeymoon :T:T:T The year we got married was the year my PhD stipend finished so we couldn't afford it (spent a year living on my husbands income only) and then last year we were saving to buy the house so that took priority. We're going to South Africa for safari, which is going to be priiiiiiicey but safari is what I've always dreamt of doing for honeymoon. If we're fortunate enough to be able to make any small humans in the near future then big holidays will be out for several years so we figure we should make the most of it while we can! We've booked flights and time off work (we're going in September), but I really need to get round to booking the rest of it!

pinknsparkly · 11 June 2019 at 7:53PM

And SW, fortunately my salary won't be affected at all - I have a permanent contract with the organisation I will be working for full time, and the other other organisation simply contribute half my salary directly to them. So I never see the money from the second organisation, and my contract and pay are entirely coordinated by the first organisation. It's likely that the job description will need to be adjusted, but the pay will remain the same.

Skint_yet_Again · 12 June 2019 at 9:42PM

Safari sounds amaaazing !

Did you survive the puppy visit ?

savingwannabe · 15 June 2019 at 8:22PM

Safari!!!! How utterly fantastic, what an amazing thing to look forward to!!!!!!!
OMG I have always wanted to go to Botswana's Okavango Delta - OMG OMG.

One day...……….

pinknsparkly · 28 June 2019 at 7:24PM

Hi guys, sorry for going AWOL for a while. I had my operation last week and haven't been up to doing much beyond sitting on the sofa feeling sorry for myself!! I had vague intentions of doing lots of work while I was off sick but so far haven't checked a single email (I've seen them coming in as I get alerts on my phone). I'm signed off until the middle of next week so might do some work next week but in the meantime it's actually been really good for my mental health as well as my physical health to have had this time doing nothing. I was on St John's Wort before the operation (as an alternative to antidepressants) but had to come off them for the operation and the GP recommended I stay off them if we're going to try for a baby so I was rather worried I'd struggle mentally this week but so far (touch wood!) I've been absolutely A-OK

Skinty - yes, we survived the puppy visit but the cat REALLY wasn't impressed :rotfl: I think he's forgiven us now though (that, or he need to boss us around is stronger than his desire to sulk at us!)

And I'm soooooo excited about safari! Today is the first day I've felt up to much so I've been researching it - we're constrained to South Africa as we need a malaria-free area (on the rather slim, but ever hopeful chance that I may be pregnant by then and have to avoid malaria areas). Sadly, that means Kruger (north east) is not an option. I think I've settled on spending up to a week doing two parks in the north west region of South Africa (as we fly into and out of Johannesburg). The first one will be for a couple of days in a private reserve that you can't drive in so you need to have tour guides, with the idea that this will "get our eyes" in at spotting wildlife and then a second one that you can self drive, but also still have the option of joining organised tours if you want to. Then we'll head back to the airport, drop the car off and fly down to Cape Town for the second week. There we'll hire a car to do Table Mountain and a bunch more animal seeing (a beach full of penguins, cage diving with sharks, whale watching, an elephant national park and a zebra national park) and some outdoor activities mixed in along the Garden Route drive to Port Elizabeth. Fly back to Johannesburg from there for our connecting flight back to the UK Neither of us are particularly beachy or nightlifey people so we're intending to skip out the cities to spend more time in the great outdoors! Now to actually start booking stuff!!!

pinknsparkly · 28 June 2019 at 7:35PM

And I didn't mention a word about finances or money - MSE fail!

This month I finally added some money to my husband's S&S ISA - this was from two regular savers that matured. I sent the interest earned over as a mortgage overpayment and the rest went into his ISA. Nominally, this is our "early retirement" pot whilst my S&S ISA pot is our mortgage "offset" pot. At it's current size and our current expenses, it would allow us to retire maybe 2 months early but we have to start somewhere, right??

I have continued with sending all Tilly Tidies, interest and TopCashBack payouts to the mortgage as OPs, plus the fixed £12 overpayment each month (from rounding up our monthly payment) and we've managed to knock another month off the mortgage term! That's 16 months off 6.5 months! This is definitely not something we'll be able to keep up long term but I'm determined to make hay while the sun shines as the saying goes :T

savingwannabe · 28 June 2019 at 9:28PM

Pinky I can't get my head round how switched on you are. Overpaying is great. Well done on your husbands accounts. I didn't know anything when I was younger other than never to be overdrawn. Good on you!

South Africa on safari. OMG. OMG...… off to dream about giraffes, zebras and hippos. You might see lions. OMG OMG …...Life on MSE is so much better than real life.....

PinknSparkly's Mortgage Wannabe savings dairy

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