Bathrooms & Budgets

The bathroom is complete! And yes it has taken nearly two weeks thanks to paint that takes 24hrs to dry between coats, and the need for three different types of paint depending on whether my brush is aimed at the ceiling, the top half of the wall or the bottom half of the wall, I have turned into some kind of mad obsessive when it comes to my bathroom and driven the hubby mad with colour charts although I think he enjoyed the many trips to B&Q.
The best news is I managed to come in under budget! £85.24 total cost which included new bath mat, shower curtain and mirror.  It has to be said however that buying the cheaper B&Q paint rather than splashing out the extra £7 for Dulux was a false economy.  B&Q took three coats before the walls stopped looking patchy, whereas having used Dulux on previous, less stingy occassions covers perfectly well with just one.

Before                                                                          After


The time involved has kept me occupied and out of reach of boredom, along with the continued good weather and subsequent runs to the seaside or round the woods, now the bathrooms finished though what am I going to do? My £100 budget won't stretch to refurb of the kitchen which requires new doors, plastering, flooring, cabinets and paint.
The next project is making a bathroom cabinet, although my belief that it must be cheaper to make my own than buy one is being thwarted by the cost of wood which seems ridiculously high, is there a shortage of trees that I haven't heard about?

Having stuck to my own budget this week, I watched George Osborne's Budget for the 2012 with trepidation, but was very relieved to hear that there is a commitment to keeping interest rates low, with two mortgages both on variable rates even a small rise would be hugely detrimental on my new vastly reduced income.  My hope for a lower fuel bill was not answered however and as such we will still be limited to local acivities for entertainment.
It seems that if my income stays the same next year I will no longer be a tax payer thanks to the new persoanl allowance increase, which is nice, but gave me a peculiar feeling as though I am no longer a contributing member of society, having worked fulltime since the age of sixteen I never thought or planned to be a part timer let alone someone who didn't pay tax!
In other news my grievance at work continues, having had the first meeting earlier this week the case is now being investigated with an outcome expected in 15days although I suspect they will take their time and drag it out.  The meeting took two hours and although not as unpleasant as expected it was emotionally draining and clear that my employer will use any loophole they can find to ensure that they come out on top.  So now we wait.