Was talking to some friends today who also have children, and we started reminising (sp?) about things we miss about being child-less.
- reading books for whole days
- eating toast and not having to cook anything else for a whole day
- staying out late, and then sleeping in
- being in bed in the morning without being kicked by children
- having Cversations without interruptions
They seem such little things till they don't exist anymore.
We went to the bank today, and got our approved money. Suddenly the bank account looked really very good, and just as suddenly I transferred the money and it looks completely normal again. Meaning not so good. Meaning just enough to get by on.
Strangely, at the same time as we took out a loan to pay for someting that we should have been budgeting for (the house inspection TOLD us we needed to replace the fire) we have also opended a savings account so we can start actually budgeting for these things.
I'm really quite pissed off we had to take out a loan like this. I have budgeted so carefully for all the years that I have been studying and then once we are a two income family again all the restraint disappears and we thunder firmly into debt. And I don't mean the mortgage either.
I'm going to spend some time on one of those budgeting sites, and start getting our shit together!
We are going to be able to afford to buy a fire now due to the bank giving us a personal loan. So when the money comes through we are going straight up the road to order in the new beastie. It will be great to get, as it is getting colder already. We have the electric heater going tonight.
Today was a child free day. Cn went on a bus trip to Palmy and had a great time playing at lollipops and going swimming too. H was at the usual carers and had a good time there by all accounts. We went to an ART GALLERY. How cultured is that? It would be the first time we have been to a gallery together since Cn was a baby. Babies love art galleries, so much to see and none of it makes sense. To them anyway. The local gallery has an exhibition on Maori and Pakeha history around here and it makes for an interesting collection of paintings and commentry. Some of the commentry was more feminist than ethnically based - pet topics of art historian types coming through.
We went to a cafe as well, with no children and drank wine at midday. Totally wierd.
No wonder we need more money from the bank, it is to finance our profligate life style.
We have made a commitment to each other that we are going to stop any extraneous spending (after we have worked out what that word means!) until we have some money in the bank. I am quite excited by the idea of actually having some money reserves, so doing a few less things and buying a lot less stuff doesn't feel like much of a hardship compared to the stress of not having enough money to get along on. We are in overdraft this week due to this issue, and I hate that.
The problem started in the summer holidays when we went down to one income but carried on spending money like we were a two income family. It meant we ran up a huge bill on the credit card, and then when the other income started up we spent that instead of using it to re-pay debt. So we didn't make any progress on the debt, it even got bigger.
Now I need to extend our debt levels on the house so that we can put in a new fire, as the old one is not safe. And we need to get the swimming pool out, and we need to do a couple of other things. Its not a good feeling. It feels like a heavy weight of stress sitting on my shoulders. And of course if I suddenly became unemployed we would be in very serious shit. Cos there are not a lot of options for me in Wanganui...
If the other half regards this as a real trial and totally horrible, then this is going to be a very difficult time for us. For me, the idea of belt tightening is exciting, cos what I am seeing is the fantastic feeling of actually having some money in the bank!
My hort class has walked out. In the nicest possible way, but they are certainly not here! I have to Cfess I am not doing anything about it. I have a class of three, none of whom have enough work skills to get level 2 credits. So they make approximately the same amount of progress when they are out of class as they do in. This way I have the time to myself. Time to update the blog.
This weekend is shaping up to be one where I get almost nothing done in the way of house work. R has gone up to Hlton to a Cference for American Field Scholars, and won't be back till Sunday night. A has been dumped by her Rian boyfriend, and is planning a girls night out on SAturday to cheer up a bit. I have asked she goes over just before the boys go to bed so I don't have too much time doing the solo mum thing without some support. I really like having another semi-adult in the house when R is gone. It is not that she has any authority with the boys, but I do feel like I have some company to talk to (and drink beer with).
But the beer drinking is being firmly limited to the Csumption of what is in the house. We have a very serious money drought. We need to do some very serious budgeting, belt-tightening and general battening down of the cheque-book.
today seems to be a crystal kind of day. It started with a wimper, as I feel a little overwhelmed by my own disorganisation but I arrived and the technician calmed me down and solved the problem. The fourth form are studying rocks, and today are doing fast and slow cooling on copper sulphate to imitate fast and slow magma cooling. the third form are doing crystal gardens, just because there is a small excuse for doing it. I feel positively sparkly.
The husband announced last night that he is likely to be away for the rest of the week. He won't be back till Sunday. I get to play solo mum at the end of the term when I lack energy anyway. bugger.