TMWM

Howdy folks!! How’s everyone’s week going?

It has been super-hot here in the UK and I’ve enjoyed getting some much-needed vitamin D in my lunch breaks. Taking an actual lunch break outside does absolute wonders for my mental health, especially as my job can be quite challenging at times. I still love it though.

Sunshine is the best!

One week today and we will be moving into the new pad. I’m so excited. I’ve been busy packing and still have lots to do. Today I booked a ‘man with a van’ to help with the move, as there are just some things I can’t lift on my own. So apart from more packing, I’m nearly ready.

I’ve luckily been able to book next week off work, so apart from the weekend where I’ll do my overtime, all the rest of the time I’ll be packing. My daughter is off school next Friday as well, so our first night in our new home will mean that we don’t have to rush out first thing to get her to school.

I have decided to keep her at the same school for year 6 as she wants to finish primary school with her friends. As we are moving out of the area, I also think it will be better for her to not have too much upheaval.

I can’t wait to be settled though. I’ve felt that the last three months whilst waiting for the house process to complete, everything has been up in the air. All the previous focus I had with money has stopped as I’ve directed all my funds to the house and to be honest, I can’t wait to get all organised again. I’ve decided that I will start my YouTube channel once I’m in the house. I’ll lay all my income and expenses out with full transparency and accountability ready to tackle the rest of the debt, build savings and increase my current investments.

I also want to take The Money Wise Mum forward with more finance related posts, even more free printables and much much more. I feel it’s time to combine my previous careers as a financial advisor and secondary school teacher and produce something amazing!

But first, I need to move house lol.

What I Have Spent This Week

• £7.30 Home Bargain
• £5.64 Farmfoods pizza and snacks
• £1.90 Post Office Father’s day cards
• £20.03 Petrol
• £5.50 Coop snacks
• £3.50 Parking Cinema
• £11.38 Macdonalds
• £2.20 Snacks
• £7.59 Tesco
• £2.07 Morrisons
• £40 Cash for carnival
• £24.61 Petrol and snacks
• £4.00 Coop snacks
• £9.00 Prosecco
• £3.50 Ice Cream
• £4.00 Drinks
• £18.70 Prescription
• Total £170.92

I am definitely being caught out by having my card in my purse as all these little amounts are snacks. Grrr damn you snacks for being so nice!! Both me and my daughter have a snacky side, as you can tell, so I need to take my card out of my purse, start using cash again and have a look at what snacks we can start making at home to keep costs down.

I have always said, if you’re new to budgeting, best thing to do first is to use cash for your shopping and petrol and put your cards away. And that’s what I’ll be doing from the next week. One of the reasons I kept my card in my purse was so that I could gain Airtime Rewards (Download Airtime Rewards for free with my code BXNJQKCA and save money off your phone bill every time you shop with brands like Boots, Greggs, Wilko, Argos and loads more) but I found out this week that they have stopped using Morrisons as a retailer now (they don’t use Tesco, Asda etc either) and as that’s where I do my food shopping so there really is no point in keeping them in my purse anymore.

I had both a scary and wow moment this last week when I renewed my Tax Credit award as I was informed that due to my income there were reducing my Child Tax benefits from £230 a month to £32.00. I knew it was coming though since I got the promotion a few months ago. On one side I am going to miss the extra £198 but then on the other hand I feel proud that I am slowly but surely coming off benefits and able to support us on my own.

I am so grateful for the help I’ve received over the last ten years though and I’ve relied on it so much, especially when I became a single parent and then decided to go to university. But now it’s time for that money to help someone else, just like it did for me ten years ago. I plan to ring them up after the house move and arrange to come off them completely. We are so lucky in this country to have benefits that help people to help themselves or help those more vulnerable. It’s just such a shame so many people abuse the system and give people that receive benefits a bad name. I have experienced so many derogatory and hurtful comments about being single parent, that for a long time I felt very much a second class citizen.

There is no shame in asking and receiving help and it’s important to remember that.

I have a list of blog posts that I either want to write or am working on at the moment and one of them will be aimed at parents and the help out there if you are single parent or parent on a low income. I mean my income isn’t huge now but I’m not on minimum wage anymore and I think that really helps a lot. Especially when you look at the cost of living right now, which seems to be getting more out of control every day.

I’ve stopped watching the news every night now as I was making myself worry just before bed. In uncertain times like this it’s important to protect your mental health and if what is happening in the world is playing on your mind, switch it off. Like if you have a toxic person in your life, just get rid. That negativity can be so damaging.

Anyway, I don’t want to end on a low. I will of course be moving next Thursday, which is my normal posting day for Money Wise Talks so I’ll write it the day before to capture my week and have it set for 8pm on the Thursday to go live! Ekk, me a new homeowner!! So excited!! Will send the pics very soon so keep an eye on my Instagram account 😊

Hope you have a wonderful week and thanks for reading.

H x