Money Out

It's been a bit of an expensive month.  The cost of the petrol while emptying Mum’s flat seem to have hit us, as well as I’ve had to use the car to go to work as my colleague (who has a work vehicle and normally gives me a lift) with has been on annual leave for two weeks.  Also, still car related, the MOT and insurance were due.  The MOT cost £365 and I managed to save just under £200 on the car insurance from their initial renewal quote, bringing it down to £274.  Next month the tax is due.  Last year when I first got the car I worked out how much all these things cost me at the time, divided it by 12 and set up an account so the money comes out of my wages before I get them and have been saving that amount each month so I can pay for everything upfront. 

Mum is still doing well, has good and bad days but overall the improvement is incredible.  She has even started knitting again but laughed when I asked what she was knitting as she said “I don’t know”.  It doesn’t matter, the fact that she is sat just knitting away like she use to is great.  We managed to sit out in the garden for a bit today and she said that she would like me to take her out one day as she feel’s up to it.

My greenhouse blew over taking everything with it!!  So back to the drawing board with the planting.  I thought it was secured enough but guess not.

I’m back to the hospital tomorrow, having a chest x-ray and ultrasound on my tummy.   A couple of friends have been great and offered to come with me but I’ll be ok, my OH might come depending on his work.  What has made us laugh, is I have to not eat for 6 hours before, and only to have a light meal tonight and not to have milk but drink 1 litre of water 1 hour before the ultrasound.  All the people that know me know that the not eating and not being able to have a cup of tea with milk will be the worse bit J  Also the appointment is not until 4pm,they could have made it first thing in the morning lol.

Another Festival

We had been looking at having a short break in May to Barcelona and had managed to find some reasonable flights however….

I was browsing on the net when I found out that one of my favourite bands are going to be playing at a festival in July.  This lead to looking at the line up and with a bit of gentle persuasion, manage to get the OH to agree to come with me.  He hasn’t been to a festival before and I think that camping might have been a step to far, also the price inc. camping was ridiculous so will book into a bed and breakfast near the festival.  To be honest its not too far from where we live so we could always drive back if we can’t find anywhere to stay.

So the money we had started to put aside for Barcelona has gone on a festival.  I know that money wise it would have been more economical to go to Spain but I love seeing live bands and the fact the lineup included bands that we both love was too good an opportunity to miss. 

What I’ve be Up To

The main thing has been clearing mums flat.  We managed to empty it this weekend.  Most of her things are now in our home and I need to sort through everything.  We only have a small house and it is choc-a-block, wardrobe on the landing, one in the lounge and a chest of drawers in the conservatory!  We already had too much stuff and now it’s just ridiculous, to be honest I don’t know where to begin.   

I managed to get out in the garden on Sunday and got the lawn’s cut for the first time this year.  I also planted some more seeds and a couple of fruit bushes.  We are still going to our course; I think we have about two weeks left.  I’ve enjoyed it and have learnt a bit more about what to grow.

Redundancies are coming around again at work and whilst I’m not losing sleep over them you never know if you are going to be next, and I know that I would struggle to find a job with the same level salary.  With this in mind we are considering using a sizeable chunk of our savings to bring the balance of our mortgage down.  We need to do a few more sums but it is something we are leaning towards.

I’ve been having a few blood tests over the last few months, which resulting in my GP referring me to hospital.  I met with the consultant last week and she wants to see me again in about 6 weeks after I’ve had an x-ray and ultrasound.  I think I was a bit in shock as don’t even know that they are x-raying or ultrasounding!  All this started when I went to get some iron tablets (I’m anaemic) and the lady behind the counter said they don’t give them out if you’ve not had a blood test in the last 3 months, which I hadn’t.  So I asked the GP to test my blood so I knew what dose of tablets to take and the result’s showed up something else.  Anyway I’ll find out soon what is wrong.  As I haven’t any symptoms (subclinical and abnormal blood the doc said!), I guess it is hard for them to figure out what could be wrong.

I’m still working on my Life List and promise I will post it soon.  I really want to achieve some of the things this year.