A good day for a catch up

All Saints' Day was the patronal festival of the church in which I grew up, so it does mean something to me for that reason, if no other. It's hard to sort all these saints out, and sometimes easier just to think of them all!

This past month has been a challenging one.......the YFG has been to Aberdeen to have a look at the geography department, and loved the uni, but thought it would only be ideal if it were closer to home. It's on her list, but UEA at Norwich is looking as if it might be the favourite.  She went there for a Geography Summer School in July and got on really well, so hopefully she might score a place there.

The EFG came home for the weekend and just went back yesterday - we had lunch with Grandypops whilst she was here, and we generally had a good weekend together.  She's doing well, and has to keep her nose to the grindstone for another 7 weeks now until the Christmas break.

The FH's best mate died at the end of the week before last, and we have his funeral this week.  He was an amazing old gentleman, who lived almost 86 years but his last days were spent at home, as he wanted, in the busy household with his daughter and her family. I have had the privilege of supporting them through this time, and taking the funeral.  He and the FH went on all sorts of adventures together, and we are sure that they are together again now.

The FH's son has been and FINALLY taken the FH's old banger of a car away!  That feels like a major achievement in life, and the old car is no longer cluttering up the gravel driveway at the back of the house. Next step is to get a skip in and clear out some more rubbish.......whether he will ever clear out the tools and machinery that the FH left him from the workshop is another matter...

Financially, as we approach the end of the year, I am relieved to see from the charts that we are just over £2000 up in addition to the new-to-us car which I bought in March, so doing very well at saving again this year.  Frugality has its moments, and we are looking ahead to the time next August when the bereaved parents' allowance, the child benefit and the tax credits all end as the YFG will turn 18, and making sure that everything is doable within the income that we will have left, so we are saving as much as we can now, not only as a cushion for then, but also to prove to ourselves that we can live on less.  The YFG will have much less than the EFG in terms of income, as Aberdeen has a very generous financial package for low-income English families, which the YFG will not get elsewhere.

Keeping our priorities in order is a significant part of that - the post has just arrived with a £22 text book which the YFG needs, so that has been put in her room, but the Boden catalogue which arrived at the same time has gone straight in the bin.

We have also reclaimed the dining room as a usable room in the house - the girls are thrilled and I am looking forward to Christmas lunch in there this year.

I hope that you are all well - I do have a nosey around your blogs occasionally when I sit down for a cuppa.  Toodle pip for now though x