Reach for the stars...

Butti

He seems eerily calm about the whole thing (so perhaps it is on the uni system and he's being melodramatic in the hope I'll make him lots of cups of coffee).

Maybe he's on Valium, or he's like me and he's gone past the stage of panic and accepted his fate - in my case life living in a cardboard box.

Jesthar, would you like to design me a t-shirt that just says no!!! :rotfl: I'll wear it underneath my professional veneer and when some-one asks me something I can't say no to, I'll just burst open my top and show them the t-shirt! They'll be so relieved to see a t-shirt saying no, they'll never remember they asked me a question!!!! :rotfl:

You just need practice. Try saying no to everything...going out, making someone a cup of tea, lending sugar etc. Before you know where you are it will become second nature and you'll have a lot less friends asking you for anything. :rotfl:

Seriously we did practice it in an assertiveness class and it is about the HARDEST, MOST UNNATURAL thing to do! ...and the tip if you want it to stick is just say No, don't elaborate as it gives the other person a way to work round you. No is like a dead end.

B x

niccatw

Any-one ever been to Go Ape? :eek: That's what I did yesterday. It was terrifyingly awesome! There were sections where my entire body turned to jelly and I literally could not move! But what an adrenalin rush! And the zip slides were phenomenal! We all had a balst. Yes I screamed. Yes, I swore. But I didn't cry and I didn't run away .

The drive home was a little hairy though as I'd just spent three hours over-riding all logical decisions, so every time I was on a roundabout I asked where I should be turning off! My frined was getting somewhat annoyed at me until I pointed out my brain was not capable of making decisions any more (I think then she sat quietly, praying I wasn't as scatty as I was sounding). Needless to say we missed the turn off we were meant to take and took the scenic route home!

If you've ever been wondering about going, I thought it was really good value for money as it was £30 (£20 for kids) for three hours and it isn't just easy run of the mill stuff (unless you're a climber or scrambler at any given opportunity anyway), you do challenge yourself. If you do the training bit and think this isn't for me, they'll give you a full refund at that point too. So unless you know you freeze with heights, give it a go!

And my friend bought me dinner after as I was driving and she was impressed that I actually did it. Pumkin risotto, mmmmmmmm! Then some well deserved bottles of Mexican lager for me! :beer:

I'm still avoiding cleaning my flat! And checking the bank account! This has been a spendy month! I've eaten out more times this month than in the last year altogether, I'm sure of it! So I need to think of April as my holiday month, let myself of the hook and you need to help me stay on the wagon after my holidays!!! :A

Am off to email the professor now. And then check the bank accounts!

MatyMoo

Sounds like a fabby day Nicca, but you are FAR braver than me.
:j To holiday months, we have to treat ourselves every now and again or life would be sooooo boring I'm taking May off for fun, think I work about 7 days :T

Good luck with the Prof.....

Maty
-x-

niccatw

The Prof, as always was lovely and calm. He seemed genuinely surprised when I told him that I honestly didn't think he'd pass the resubmission. He said it wasn't that bad and my average is still ok because of the online assessments. He advised I send him the structure for my next case-study so he can nudge me in the right direction if there any any major omissions and told me which sections to focus on. It also transpires there's been a bit of a technical difficulty with my Athens account and accessing some of the journals, so he's going to get IT onto that for me.

He also said I wasn't the only person having similar difficulties, which is kind of reassuring, but does beg the question "what are they doing to help?". So let's see how module three goes!

I've been to Body Blance tonight. It changes evey 12 weeks, so tonight was the first time I've done the new release. Which translates as a room full of us falling over on the balance track!

Maty, how come only 7 days in May? Is that you finished then? (Oh and I baked you a cake... :bdaycake:;) Unless you'd prefer some chocolate :EasterBun Have both, it's your party! :beer:)

MatyMoo

Thanks for my cake & choccies - this greedy guts is happy to have both

I have been convinced it is a good idea for me to stay on for another 5 months so, as I had already booked a long week in Devon and 2 weeks in America they had to accept it, net result I have 7 days to work in May!

Sounds like things went well with the prof :T But I know you will still get stressed with module 3

Maty
-x-

niccatw

Does that mean in your head you can already start thinking "only 4 months to go..."?

Just caught a few minutes of "Long Lost Families", i'm in tears!! So sad is a happy way. I've made a mental note not to watch it again as I got so upset for them!

Made a payment of £58 toward the RBS today. And a scary amount for olympic tickets... but I'll declare that if I get any! We applied for the cheapest available seats on all and some of the things are very popular... so we're not really expecting to get any... only time will tell...

I sorted out my printer without covering myself in ink this time and printed of all my "money stuff" from January until now as I want to get it all on the budget planner and sort out my "new" budget. I need to know what average I'm likely to put on the cashback credit card and what my "spending" money is for a given month, or it could be disasterous! I think I may need to start taking x amount of cash out of my account too for those things that I know I always pay in cash, otherwise I run the risk of using the cashback credit card and my "spending" account independently when actually, it's that account that is set up to pay off the cashback card fully each month!

However as my friend's were staying with their wee one last night and I've been up since silly o'clock (although I suspect it'd still have been a major lie-in for Maty Moo!), and today was the first day of my holibags, I've just lazed about and done little more than walk in the park. It's sitting all ready for me to input into excel as soon as I've ran out of excuses!

I also found out there's a "cash for clothes" recyling charity in Glasgow, which will pay me some money for my clothes. I still have a suitcase in the hall, the box the hoover came in in the bedroom and another massive box in the wardrobe from my ruthless decluttering earlier in the year. I have been slowly moving them into smaller bags to put in the boot and distribute between various clothes bin, but this way I could actually get a wee bit of money for them. Ebay is good for the good stuff but not so much for the run-of-the-mill stuff and I just don't have the time (or the patience, if I could find the time) to put lots of stuff onto Ebay. And they are going to people who need to them so my conscience can be somewhat clear too.

Butti

There's nothing wrong with a good cry Nic. Can't believe they used the same music in Long lost families as they use in Who do you think you are. Thought the father and daughter were both brill - very forgiving (well particularly her).

Have a nice holiday.

B x

niccatw

Hello

Had a lovely, chilled few days in Yorkshire. Particularly enjoyed driving the quiet B roads in my lovely car in the sun-shine, stopping at pretty wee villages along the way. And my friend and I spent much time in the outdoor jacuzzi, trying to figure out where we could put ours when we get it :rotfl:

I'm now freaking out at just how much money I have spent this month! Which did at least make me put all my bank statement info into the MSE budget planner thing. Crikey, it's scary! Even when I think I've been fairly careful, there's way more than I would have said coming out in the "cashline" and "food shopping" sections. So I'm trying to get my head around the best way of sorting that out!

Now I'm using my cashback card for food and deisel I do need to sort out a process because I've been using it for everything I can since it's cashback. Which is just tooooooooo tempting!

So I'm thinking I need to take a set amount of cash out at the beginning of the month and then take the debit card out of my purse. And I guess I should do the same with the credit card and only take it out when I know I need deisel or when I am specifically going food shopping! Do any of you have way you work this?

On the plus side, I have made £1,355.69 in overpayments to the RBS loan in the last 4 months. Long may it continue! I sent them another £100 over the weekend. Given the bank holidays, it'll take them a hundred years to process this one! :cool:

I still haven't cancelled the Sew magazine subscription but think I'll do that and start a subscription for Vegetarian Living (Stop rolling your eyes you carnivorous beasts ). That way I'll have lots of seasonal veggie recipes to hand, which might help me utilise my veggie box better and inspire me to find out what's happening with the community garden now... and stop me spending so much on food, which I know I don't need! I have a cupboard full of stuff but I'm too lazy to cook when I get in from work. And I've never been great at bulk cooking. When things enter my freezer, they tend never to come out again!

The weather is gorgeous here again today but I haven't been out of the house! Today I have been mostly washing... just realised I have no idea what wash cycle I put all my clothes in on (I'm one of those that changes it all the time). I hope I haven't shrank everything! :eek:

I nearly traumatised my flat-mate for life yesterday. I thought he was out (I should have known better). I was putting a wash on. I'd just come out the shower. You know how it goes! Luckily, when he came out of his room and I had seconds to spare to move like a ninja! Seriously, does that boy never go out! (The answer to that is yes, twice a week for half an hour to Mr A for his shopping. It's not enough for my liking. )

I know I've been moaning for ages now, but it is seriously becoming an issue for me. I want my flat back to myself and everything he does annoys me! In June this year I will have been in my flat for 4 years. He's been there for all but three months of that. I'm trying to stay sensible and wait until RBS and Northern Rock are paid off and he finishes his course in September, but my patience is definitely waning on this one!

I had a call from a debt management agency today! I can't actually type any of the words I'd like to use to describe them as you would just see exclamation mark after exclamation mark! I thought I'd hear them out, not because I had any intention of signing up, but because I wanted to know why people did! Basically, they make it up. As I did! I told them I had £200 on a credit card and £5,000 on a loan (you and I both know, when I get to that stage I will be jumping for joy!!!) and that I was bringing home about £1300 a month and that I was managing fine, with no missed payments. But my, the put words into your mouth. Clearly I can't afford that. Clearly the payments are too high. I don't have money left over to save every month. They told me not to worry if they sent out my financial statement and some of the amounts they put were different to what I'd said, that was just to prove to my creditors that I couldn't afford my payments! (Isn't that fraud?)

They wanted the reference numbers for my debts. "Huh?" said I. "The sixteen digit number along your credit card" said they. "No" said I.

They are seriously scary. I could easily see that two or three years ago, when I was way more stressed out about my debts, didn't know about this site or have the right information to hand, that I could have believed them because I wouldn't have known not to. Essentailly they keep your first monthly payment and then take £25 per month. They do eventually tell you it will have an effect on your credit rating, but they tell you your credit rating is screwed any way. They are persistent and vague and they play on people's fears. They are worse than the banks!

And in tue Nicca style, because I'm so rubbish at saying no, they are calling me back after 6pm, when I will ignore the phone! I think I should start telling these peope that I'm a financial journalist to trade and would they like to give me more details about ther compnay as I'm very interested in them!

I'm off to make a cuppa (a pity it won't be a Betty's cuppa! My friend and I are not posh enough to know how to work a proper sliver service tea set! We both had tea leaves in our cuppas from Betty's. :rotfl: )

niccatw

I hope you're all voting today!

Just sorted out my access to the online journals for my course. Thankfully I wasn't being completely dim and there were a few glitches there that shouldn't have been happening! The librarian is off to sort them out. It does mena I have to go back to work now. I had to sneak home to be on my laptop. I figured I'd have to change settings or something and my work computer would just shut down on me at that point! Turns out it wasn't even that complicated as the problem (thankfully) was with the publishers page and the university rather than my laptop.

No excuses for the next module then I guess.

niccatw

RBS loan sitting at £4,045.51. Transfered another £50 from "spending" account and £29.88 from bills account. Looking forward to that 4 something changing to a 3 something when they clear...

Slightly worrying that I've maybe left myself a little short for the month given it's only 11th May, but I have £40 cash in the flat and nothing I have to do until last weekend in the month. I'll also be due pay from second job at some point (it's four-weekly so I never know when it's coming, even though I did write it down somewhere...)

So I'm sure it'll be fine.

I need to recalculate my current total owed too... now sitting at £13,867.36