retrocircles' DFW diary

Fire_Fox

retrocircles wrote: »

thanks for those amazing tips fire fox!

i think we spend a lot of our landline phone usage on calling companies! DH & i have the O2 sim where if you top up £15 a month you get free calls O2 to O2, & most of our family are on O2 so it's not the mobile calling.

i'm definitely going to look into these energy bills. i never realised how high they were, my mum lives next door in the same house layout, with brand new windows & boiler and pays £150 electricity alone!

one of our goals for 2009 is to have the windows replaced, and to have a new boiler put in. the windows haven't been a problem in the 3 years we've been here, but this year we're finding it hard to keep the house warm. we've put floor to ceiling curtains up in the conservatory, infront of the front door, blinds up in the bedrooms & we have that clear plastic that your hairdryer on in our bedroom. i live in a hoodie around the house. i hate having time off work as we tend to have the heating on all day long! :rolleyes:

08 numbers are expensive, and they like to keep you on hold. Maybe they like it so much they do it deliberately?? :rolleyes: So write instead. It gives you more time to find the money, and less time to stress out.

It's a cold year, big time: last two winters have been pretty warm. Conservatories EAT heat; do you have a wall/ door between 'the thing' and the house or is your downstairs open plan? Good one for the hairdryer plastic and the curtains, you are on the MSE wagon already.:rotfl:at the hoodie, you sound like me! I wear a bodywarmer most days, and Mr. Fire Fox has been in a beanie the last two evenings. We lurve the duvet on the sofa, and the hot underblanket on the bed.

Happy new year I am off to lose the hoodie and don high heels!

:T:T:T

retrocircles

glitterkitty wrote: »

hey!

It's Louisa (from Livejournal!)

i'm a DFW too... sounds like you are having a great start to it all, since you know where everything is going moneywise...

wish i had more i could spend on getting DF.

good luck with the £10 a day, i'm in that for £5 a day.

HEY!

*goes off to hijack your diary*

retrocircles

Fire_Fox wrote: »

08 numbers are expensive, and they like to keep you on hold. Maybe they like it so much they do it deliberately?? :rolleyes: So write instead. It gives you more time to find the money, and less time to stress out.

It's a cold year, big time: last two winters have been pretty warm. Conservatories EAT heat; do you have a wall/ door between 'the thing' and the house or is your downstairs open plan? Good one for the hairdryer plastic and the curtains, you are on the MSE wagon already.:rotfl:at the hoodie, you sound like me! I wear a bodywarmer most days, and Mr. Fire Fox has been in a beanie the last two evenings. We lurve the duvet on the sofa, and the hot underblanket on the bed.

Happy new year I am off to lose the hoodie and don high heels!

:T:T:T

You know, I never thought about writing! How odd does that sound?! I'm going to try this in future! When we were away a lot over the summer our Virgin Media bill was £45. The lowest it's ever been. I'm determined to have it like that all the time!

Yes we do have a door between the conservatory & living room. We don't feel too many draughts coming from that door, it's the best in the house! We did until recently have a big hole in the front door (not actual front door - front door before porch) & that's been repaired and we've put a curtain infront. I'm hoping that will have some impact on the heating bill.

Hope you had a wonderful NYE! DH & I had a mini party with Tesco Value cakes, sausage rolls & a tiny amount of alcohol between us! It was fun, but I was in bed for 12:10!

retrocircles

So DH is finally back at work. I love it with us being home together, but it lets me feel like I'm on holiday & I don't do anything productive!

I should have been back at work today, but I left on December 31st due to unethical working conditions. I won't go into the boring details, but mainly due to working standard 9 hour shifts with no break, often working over an hour without being paid overtime, making it 10 hour shifts with no break. Working in cold conditions (below 10 deg) with no protective gear, and MD was holding back pay 10-15 days to suit business needs. I took it for a while, but I can't carry on not knowing if/when I'm going to get paid. I actually got paid on December 30th (which was a BIG surprise) so I hastily left on December 31st. No notice needed, as I wasn't given a contract!

I would normally be suicidal in a situation like this, but after the worst 4 months of my life being employed by that company, nothing can be worst. I'm actually SO happy!

Anyhow, being unemployed surely does spice things up a little. I have an assessment centre tomorrow for an excellent ongoing temporary job with a large energy supplier. Hopefully I'll be successful, and that will tide me over until I find that 'career job'. I'm armed with my 'internet favourites' and a copy of the Guardian to start me off!

I've started reading 'The Thrift Book: Live Well & Spend Less' which was a gift from Mum for Christmas & it's an excellent read! So much I want to be getting on with from there, and I'm only on my first chapter!

Did some shopping on Friday with Mum to spend my Christmas money (only £30 - spent the rest (£125) at B&Q on Boxing Day to finish the house!), being the sales it was a shop with benefits! Took back some broken cords (I was in a huff & decided I hadn't had them that long) & they got replaced on the spot (£15 free trousers), a Debenhams necklace (£5 down from £20) & some gorgeous bedding (which was a need rather than want - £16 down from £65!), and a bag (£10 down from £25). Mum also treated me to some Body Shop Hemp Hand Cream (£10). So spending £31 I came home with £135 of goods! Now that's a saving!

We did food shopping yesterday, I think enough to last until payday (other than milk & bread), filled up with a tank of petrol. I've just done the weekly financials, working out we have £21 to last until the end of the month. I also have £15 cash in my purse = £36! Woo! :rolleyes:

I'm going the £10 a day challenge for January so hopefully that will bring me £300 to pay straight onto a CC. I have £22.31 in my Paypal account from some small Ebay bits, which can start the ball rolling.

Plans for the day:

+ Job hunting
+ Finances DONE
+ Ebay listing
+ Enter some competitions
+ Do points clicks etc
+ Finish the mountain of ironing
+ Carry on reading 'The Thrift Book'
+ Write Halifax complaint letter
+ Send Tesco clubcard application off

Lewby

Just wanted to say well done for leaving the job! It sounds awful and sometimes people stick with things as they are beacuse it's easier than changing things .... and opportunties that are out there are never found. I hope you find yours soon. What is you choice for a 'career job'?

You sound really cheerful in your post - I agree that it is lovely to be at home with your OH ... I've hated going back to work today as we've had nearly 2 weeks together and it's been great. Lazy mornings, late breakfasts, light the fire and curl up infront of it or play a game of cards with the kids, a gin and tonic in the afternoon ....bliss!

The shopping sounds like it did the job too - it's such a buzz coming home and seeing what you've bought for so little. I got up at 5am on Sat 27th to go to the Next Sale and got £210 worth of work clothes for £82. I got a lovely suit for only £32 and I really needed one. I'm being good now though coz like you I've only got a small budget to last the rest of the month - but that's the fun of the challenge of DFW!

Good luck with the job hunting.

Lewby xx

retrocircles

Lewby wrote: »

What is you choice for a 'career job'?

Thanks for the lovely words Lewby! I'm feeling very cheerful today!

I don't really have an ideal 'career job'. I have a Marketing & Economics degree, but would love to work in the public sector or local government. I'm not really interested in working my hardest to line someone else's pockets. I'd much prefer to work hard to make a difference. I'm not harping on for World Peace like a Miss Universe, but I'd like to think that I worked for a reason other than profit.

retrocircles

Really positive day today! Had an Assessment Centre & Interview yesterday, thought it went 'just ok'. Was told to expect a call on Thursday, but had a lovely call this morning telling me I had been successful! I start work on Monday.



I just need to raise £250 to counter the lost wages I've had from having no job this week. I have a lot of potential avenues to gain this, so I'm not worried just yet.

Also got on the scales for the first time in 3/4 weeks & I've lost 7lbs! I've been concentrating on finances/house etc I haven't put my personal goals in place, or even put them on paper. Losing weight is one of them, so a head start there already!

Lewby

What fantasitc news about the job! Well done! :T

You must be so pleased and I'm sure it's down to your positive attitude. I work for a not-for-profit org that works with the Public Sector to improve social care services and I love it. You are right, it's much nicer to work for benefit - not profit but that's not where the big money lies. I think you've proved it's not all about money though by leaving your last job for ethical reasons ... I did something similar in 2007! A £5k pay cut but I'm sooooo much happier!

Very jealous about the weight loss. I've got 43lbs to lose but I'm not stressing about it ... it will come off this year as we make some positive changes to our family diet and exercise regime. We have all agreed that we need to get outdoors more so are planning to do some weekend walks as often as we can.

Set your goals and update your signature .... it's nice to see things changing and improving! And roll on Monday! :T

Lewby xx

retrocircles

Thanks Lewby!

DH had day off y'day. Went to town to buy me some work clothes (all bought with a giftcard from Xmas). We did treat ourselves to Greggs though! Simple things eh?!

Spent the last of our money for the month on a tyre puncture! Either we picked up this huge bolt/screw from the road, or some lovely soul hammered it into our tyre. :mad:

Won £10 on the lottery on Wednesday! Just need to wait for that to hit my bank account.

Received a letter from Halifax regarding my ongoing drama with them. They've taken off the interest they shouldn't have added - removing around £90 off my balance! Still have to continue the complaint, as they served me with default papers before my deadline! (It didn't reach my credit file, but still!)

Behind on my £10 a day challenge, but hopefully as my Ebay auctions end I can catch up quickly.

Now it's warmed up a little I'm going to get out into the garden this weekend to try to prepare the garden for some veg planting this year. Will order seeds cheaply online when payday arrives.

retrocircles

No work on the garden this weekend - far to windy!

Spent today listing items on Ebay in hope to catch up with the £10 a day challenge. Made another £15 for selling a few bits online.