Courgette resets her sights

Betterthanever · 11 February 2018 at 11:37AM

Thanks, courgette. I am, however, no more inspirational than anyone else on here. It is a collective. A fabulous collective.

I totally get what you mean about old diaries and too much info. I had to come back with a new ID and start again because of it. But, I got so much out of that time, and I clearly needed to share it back then so it's not all negative. Plus, I have met some of my fellow MSE diary posters who have truly become friends for life.

I too am glad to be back!!

museumworker · 16 February 2018 at 8:42PM

Courgette wrote: »

Forgive me MFWers for I have sinned.....found a fabulous playmobil castle in a charity shop for £15. Just couldn't resist. We're at peak playmobil time here and I just love it so much. DS3 absolutely delighted!

Also bagged a load of great quality school uniform for £1.20.

Half term now. Need to keep focusing on building up eBay sales plus of course having a lovely (frugal!) time with my boys. Got some free activities booked in at the local library and parents in law coming down for a visit.

On the spendy side, we have decided to block a door up and replace with a wall and window. Will look great and it's really made the downstairs of the house 'click' but......£1000. Ooooooffff!!!!!!

Good charity shop deals, playmobil hardly ever appears in the charity shops near here so that was a good find.

Multiquote is the two speech bubbles, you can choose up to three then press quote to reply to them all.

Potted history was useful for me as I've pretty much slept walked through the last few years so was unaware of Mr C ditching the stressful job. Good on him!

And please do mention any good diaries you read, I'm enjoying finding new ones too. Much better reads than FB as you say!

tootallulah wrote: »

Ah Museumworker I have been following your career with interest and isn't part-time museum life simply lovely? Reallly good to 'see' you.

Hey toots, yes it's been a busy few years for me careerwise and no doubt you were sick of my face with all the press on my last project :rotfl:. Unfortunately I haven't yet experienced the true joy of part time but am planning to stick to my hours from March.

Courgette · 17 February 2018 at 10:33AM

Had a lovely half term week. In-laws visiting so yesterday they took the boys out and I have brainstormed and started to plan my next ebook. I've also spent quite a bit of time working out where the gaps in the current market is so hoping this one will sell better. It will also link well into my tuition business so will help with that if nothing else.

Had a spendy day to a museum quite a few miles away. It was one of those destination museums in a grotty place to try to entice people to visit. Anyway, was £40 for an annual pass, £17 on train and £30 for railcard (which immediately reduced train fare by about £15). Boys had a great day, we all did actually so no regrets. Plus we now have unlimited entry so some good days out coming up for just £17 train fare. DS2 especially has asked to start doing more stuff, I think he's feeling hemmed in too.

Done some tuition but not loads, just £150 earned over the week. Been nice to have a rest. Seen an uplift in eBay sales too so my tinkering is working.

Today's excitement will be taking a lump of lead back to the roofing merchant. Expecting about £130 back so well worth doing. Not quite sure how I'm actually gonna carry it though! 37kg but very small

beanielou · 17 February 2018 at 1:47PM

Hope you get your refund ok

museumworker · 17 February 2018 at 2:59PM

The museum sounds really interesting, if you can message me which one and what you thought I would be really interested to hear. And now you can have a whole year of visits, great!

Good luck with returning the lead - sounds heavy!

Courgette · 17 February 2018 at 6:19PM

Whoop £161 back from roofers! I'd forgotten to add VAT! That's nearly 20% of our current target for the next bit of building work so very pleased with that!

MW - will do!

beanielou · 17 February 2018 at 9:10PM

Great news on the refund.

Courgette · 23 February 2018 at 10:29PM

Not a huge amount to report but I don't wanna lose the habit of keeping this diary up to date.

Feeling very torn actually. I absolutely don't want to wish time away but I'm really feeling the need to be economically more productive. DS3 starts school in September so before then I really just have the 15 hours of nursery plus whatever time I can scavenge. I'm keeping on pushing forward with bits where I can but I came across an old mortgage statement from before I had the younger 2 kids. A bit weird to see all the massive OPs I used to make, one of them was £2300! Wow! It's more like £50 a month now.

I was offered a 90 hour teaching contract this morning paying well over £2000. Whoopee, I thought! Email later in the day to apologise that they'd made a mistake and it's already gone to someone else. Grrrr. It's no wonder I'm a bit down about that is it.

Anyway, what would Earthy do now (this is actually my secret mantra). She'd look for the opportunities.

So:

1. Get more organised with children. Get out and about more with DS3 on non-nursery days and really enjoy these final few months with a preschooler

2. Get more organised with my time. Write a list with the big, simple jobs I can do to improve overall earnings

3. Experiment with getting up earlier. I lack the willpower to do stuff after the children are in bed so perhaps getting up and having a very focused hour before boys get up would work for me. Getting up at 5.30 is no problem on the mornings I teach in China

4. Cheer up about tomorrow. Got a 4 hour birthday party in the park. It's February. Flaming hippy friends

Make sure I take loads of layers plus flasks of hot drinks. Get active with the children rather than sitting around talking

Oooh, actually genuinely feeling more cheerful now!

beanielou · 24 February 2018 at 7:23PM

Boo to the contract

tootallulah · 24 February 2018 at 9:59PM

Courgette I had forgotten you were recognised, me too - it made me stop posting for a long time but now I don't really care (no longer have a high profile job) and I was missing the community that doesn't care that you talk endlessly about money!

!!!!!! about the contract. Roll on Spring, getting up early is much easier in the warmer weather.

Courgette resets her sights

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