A couple of weeks now since my last entry. Well there was really not much to say. Last Sunday we moved our final belongings and ourselves up to King's Lynn. We managed to get everything in the two cars and roof box, including the two rabbits who we picked up from our friend on the way.
We had a lovely drive up, Kirsty was with me and Craig went with Helen. We stopped a few times because of Helen's knee but still made it in a little over 2 hours. I will not miss having to pack up on a Sunday evening to drive back to London.
This week has been quiet, I have been working and Helen relaxing from work but picking up the shopping and cooking chores. We have had our 3 things break, first Craig's guitar tuning key broke off, easy to fix once the new set arrived. The second thing was the lawn mower, whilst cutting the grass, it just started to smoke and died. I had planned to buy a strimmer anyway and got one with a new qualcast mower. The last thing was the ironing boards which collapsed whilst I was using it, the welding had finally given up, it was very old, so a new one has been brought to replace.
We have, because of this, hunted down our recycling centre. Quite a drive it is as well, right on the outskirts of the town, it did not take too long to get to but I would say it was about 3 miles aways at least.
It dawned on me yesterday that we have no secure income coming in anymore. Of course I was aware of this before but it finally hit home yesterday and it did give me a little panic. Helen gets her full salary which covers August and September so we have nothing to concern ourselves immediately, I just think it was the realisation that for the first time we would not have an a guaranteed income at the end of the month.
It also means I have to adjust the way I do the finances. My complex system revolves around a fixed income coming in, it covers bills first, then allocates an amount to various buckets, like Birthdays, Car repairs, Christmas etc, after all that we then know how much money we have spare each month. When we have a birthday present to buy it is paid out of the birthday bucket. So I have now had to look at what we have to pay each month without fail. I have x this by 3 and moved that amount into a holding fund so we have at least 3 months money. That amount will be put back into the main account each month to cover the bills. Anything we earn during the month we go into the holding fund. At the end of the month whatever we have in there over the 3 months worth will be allocated to the bucket accounts. These have been prioritised so the important ones get topped up first. Everyone has a system, mine is complex ( I think it is ) and overkill but I like to know exactly how much money we have when we need to buy something.
Of course it may not be a problem and fingers crossed Helen finds enough work to cover what we need to live as we do now. If i knew how long I had in my job it would help, but even yesterday they have cut my hours down. Instead of 5 days I now only have 2.5 days a week. So whilst it is something, it is not as good as it was, but even if that continued for the foreseeable future it would be large chunk of our monthly required total, with no mortgage now.
Anyhow the one thing we do know is regardless of how much money we have we will have a house which is ours and a roof over our heads.
Tomorrow is completion day, and once we have the keys we plan to assemble the wardrobes in each of the bedrooms and finally get all of our clothes hung up and out of the suitcases and boxes they have been in for the last 10 weeks.
On Saturday we have the family up for my birthday, and on Sunday we plan to take over the beds and assemble them and get the kitchen stuff over and put away. They are leaving us a fridge freezer so that will help and we can then sleep in new house on Sunday night.
On Monday we have electrician coming to put on new fuse panel and we will spend the day taking over boxes and all of the other stuff we can fit in the car.
Once the rented house is clear of all the stuff we can move ourselves, we will hire a man and van to take the things like sofas, washing machine, fridge and freezer and rabbit hutch. Until then we will have to do washing at the rented house.
The broadband is due to be cut off from Rented on Tuesday 31st and turned on in new house sometime the same day. I hope that goes smoothly.
Then that should be that. Check back in a few days to see how it all went.
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