Squirrel's Smiley, Smart and Solvent Diary

redsquirrel80

They wrote to me a while ago with a deal where I pay an amount and they 'add' 20% of it to the payments (i.e. take an extra 20% off the balance) - bit like a settlement amount I suppose but still paying in instalments. So essentially, I pay off £36 and £24 a month whilst only actually paying £30 and £20 - hope that makes sense!

Karmacat

So that extra £6 and extra £4 is literally their money? Thats not you paying it? Brilliant!

redsquirrel80

Yep indeed! Hometime.. hooray!

sallyx

Thats a great Deal squizz....wish Metropolitan would be a bit more generous, tight fisted gits!

redsquirrel80

Bored today - sigh! Really not much work to do at all.. I have some stuff I could be looking at but really I just want to go home and sleep. Got another weekend of painting ahead

Just checking my online banking (as I do most days) and thought I'd stick together a list of all the money I'd taken out/ spent on my debit card and check what I'd been spending on. I'm happy enough with the debt payments, proper food shopping, and the couple of big things I bought (tent and paintings), but I've taken £80 out of cashlines - £10 went on the sewing machine, £10 I forgot to take out of the cashline .. but not entirely sure where the rest has gone, mostly food I think! The biggest thing is that I really need to get organised with lunches again, I've let that slip and there's a few too many payments to Boots and Tesco in there for sandwiches and so on.

So, big shop tonight I think, we've got a list of stuff we need for the house anyway (why does everything run out at once?), will try to get a good mixture of bits for lunches too.

redsquirrel80

Right, I keep looking at all these different courses and can't decide what to do, in which order, so I'm going to put them all down here and see if that helps clarify things for me - at least they'll all be in one place! I'm ignoring the costs of them at the moment, although they matter, I don't want that to influence my choice too much.

Philosophy stuff

• OU Ethics in Real Life (15 week level 1 course starts Oct) - interesting, and maybe a good idea to get me back into studying
• OU Thought and experience: themes in the philosophy of mind (level 3 course, starts Jan) - really want to do this but it's a big commitment
• Oxford Uni online course Philosophy of Mind (10 week course, starts Sept) - might be worth doing before the OU one above as fills in a few gaps in my knowledge.. they have another couple of similar courses that look good too.
• WEA Introduction to Philosophy: Work, Rest and Play (10 week evening class, starts Sept) - interesting topic but maybe a bit basic?

Teaching stuff

• Doing Digital Trainer qualification through my second job, should be completed by end of year.
• Can probably also do Mentoring course through my second job, although maybe want to wait until I've done current qualification.
• Oxford Effective Online Tutoring (7 week online course) - this ties in with my second job and I've been working through the unit from it that they provide free, is very good.. is expensive though!
• OU English grammar in context (level 3 course, starts Feb) - just came across this today, sounds fascinating.. have some ideas about maybe teaching Literacy at some point so think this could be useful.
• Similarly OU The art of English (starts Oct)

Computing/ website stuff

• Doing Access and Powerpoint courses in Oct/ Nov
• Found an Adobe Acrobat one day course, need to see if work will send me on that one...
• OU Fundamentals of interaction design (level 3 course, starts Feb) - I've done the 'free' unit for this on Openlearn and it's really interesting, relevant to website things I do at work.
• Work do course in Effective Web Page Design which might be worth doing. Also Technical Writing one could be useful.

Languages stuff

• I'd like to to some basic Italian - seen a few courses around for this - also brush up my French and Spanish.

Other stuff
Have seen a herbal medicine course that looks interesting... and maybe a sewing one... I'd also like to do First Aid, and a basic DIY one at some point.

Don't want much do I...? :rotfl:

sallyx

Lol squizz your list is very varied bit like mine...mine varies from Floral arranging, upholstery, plastering and basic electrics, horticulture, teaching, sports massage, physiotherapy, the list is endless!

redsquirrel80

That's a pretty interesting list Sal - I like it!

Had another weekend of house re-vamping, painted the bedroom on Saturday, then went to find fabric for the various things we want to make/ re-cover. Found the most amazing old-fashioned fabric shop, every wall is covered in rolls of fabric, there are loads of buttons and ribbons and all that sort of thing, and a brilliant sale section. Got fabric for the dining room chairs and lots of bits from the sale 'buckets'. Spent most of Sunday making cushion covers - very pleased that I figured out how to put zips in Made myself a cloth bag as well.. I think I know what people are getting for birthday presents for the foreseeable future... I also taught Mr S how to make the cushion covers, so he is no longer impressed by me making them :rotfl: but pleased with himself, we kept looking at them on the sofa going "we made cushions!" :rotfl:

I'm sort of impressed with myself that I have been patient and worked out how to do these things, and not got upset when I've made a mistake.. I reckon it's because I really want to make these things, either that or I'm getting old and sensible!

Lovely tea last night with our first beetroot from the garden, roots and leaves.. yummy.

Got my review at work today, little bit nervous although I'm not sure why as I don't really think there's anything to worry about. Only here until Weds lunchtime this week and then off until next Monday, not quite sure what we'll be doing yet as the weather doesn't look too good. Will be nice to have a break though

redsquirrel80

My review/ appraisal thingy went really well I thought it would be fine, but apparently they are "amazed" at how quick I've picked things up, and improved things, and even the big boss had passed on the message that she was really pleased by how enthusiastic I was when she met me

I'm able to do pretty much any training that I want (as long as it's relevant obviously!) and my manager was really interested to hear about my second job stuff and think about how we could integrate that more into what I do here, helping more with training other people etc.

I'll go now cos it sounds a bit like boasting But I am really really pleased

sallyx

Thats fantastic squizz, you've done yourself proud so give yourself a pat on the back