Reach for the stars...

Butti

Wow that's impressive. Well done.

MrsMoo2U

Good going, you are motoring along on this aren't you? Hope all is well in your world.

niccatw

I think some-one may be controlling my mind! Today I got up way too early (by my standards anyway :rotfl:).

I've gutted the living room, kitchen and bathroom (all the carp's in the bedroom!), done 4 loads loads of washing and hung it out, been to the dump, got all the bulk buy cleaning stuff I've been meaning to get online for months now, done a massive shop at Mr S's, made paradise squares and a butternut squash thingybob, got a present for a one year old, changed my haridresser's appointment and made an appointment to get my eyes tested.

I'm hoping I don't fall asleep before the end of my cuppa as I still need to bring the washing in!

I've had a weird few weeks. I'm all out of synch with bank holidays and my wee holiday, then I was at my parents for a few days (got some bad news ) so I think I just needed to spend the last few days sorting things out and feeling as though there wasa bit of order and structure to things (it also helped that my flat mate did actually go away for a few nights! :eek:).

And what was the first thing I did? I defrosted the bl00dy freezer!!!! Go figure! (Mind you it's been needing done for the last 4 years so it was about time!) Then I made a stock with all the just about past it veg in my fridge. Then I cleaned the fridge!

Any-one suspect an impending deadline???

I want to make scones and a chocolate mousse thingy and a couple of salad thingys too. The veggie magazine has been good for inspiring me. Now I've got the basics in there's no excuses! Other than my lack of organisation.

And inability to stop time :rotfl: Off to second job tonight. Tomorrow getting eyes tested between finishing second job and making my way to 1st birthday party (fingers crossed it will be BBQ weather here... )

I rather suspect tomorrow night I will collapse into bed at the first available opportunity. Just for Monday to roll right round again. And I'll have to do my first full week in about 4 weeks. :eek:

Anyway, absolutely no moneys saving going on today! I won't tell you how much I spent in MrS's :eek:.

Feeling a bit .

Butti

That's good Nic. Do pause for a cup of tea occasionally.

I was having an ok day and they I went into Mr T with a pair of faulty trousers - only worn once and have developed hole. Because I didn't have a receipt they told me they could only do an exchange, not a gift voucher just an exchange. So went to look for cropped trousers or work trousers and couldn't find either. So went back to the desk to ask again for a gift voucher (I was getting a bit irritated), No go. So they called the manager, who immediatly identified a manufacturing fault, proving it by tearing a large hole in the trousers and gave me my money back.

Then my Guardian wouldn't scan AND they had no black cartridges for the printer.

I was in a foul mood by the time I left.

You get working, stop avoiding that deadline, you can do & I can do it (Mine's Wednesday and then the following Thursday!)

B x

niccatw

Arghhhhh! No wonder you were in a foul mood Butti! Tonight I mostly been snoozing in front of the telly. Missed most of DIY SOS, only catching the end.

1st birthday BBQ was fun. As always, he was the only one with any energy left by the time we left. Actually my snoozing is likely to be as much a sugar crash as tiredness!

Butti, there's nothing in my diary for work tomorrow as I'm planning on getting some uni stuff done (shhhh, don't let the bosses know ).

Got my eyes tested today but didn't have time to choose frames (that is going to take me ages!!!! And I can almost guarantee I'll walk away with the pair that look closest to the ones I currently have!) Did have time to nip in to Jane Norman and buy a top on impulse though! I think that's the first full price top I've bought from a "proper" shop in quite some time (and, yes, it's bright blue ). I don't feel too guilty though as I've got birthday money to spend. Though was planning on getting a teapot to put under a fabby elephant tea cosy I got. Oops.

Jesthar

:hello:

Heya Just dropping in to let you know I'm still around!

Nice totals on the loans! And think, September isn't THAT far away either...

Oh, and Go Ape sounds like incredible fun! And oh, aaargh, I just discovered there's one near me... Just when I'm trying not to spend money!

niccatw

£17.51 and £14.75 paid to loan account from rounding down on "spending" and bills accounts respectively.

Jesthar, Go Ape is definitely worth it and should definitely be top of your treat yourself list!

How's the garden growing? My friend's are clearly determined to make a gardener out of me yet. I got a bonsai growing kit from one for my birthday. Sowed them yesterday, though I think I need to do something to germinate them... he got me a book on them too, so I should probably have a wee read!

And another friend got me a book on "container gardening" so I can grow stuff in my communal "garden" without digging anything up and getting in trouble with the neighbours (or more likely, the evil factos). I'm not sure Glasgow has the climate for seville orange trees though...

These same friend's know I have difficulty keeping house plants alive and have killed at least three yukka plants in the last 4 years! They are as optimistic as am (haven't killed my basil plant yet but its leaves are looking rather sun-burned).

Right, bed for me! My computer is not supposed to be on at this time of night. Naughty computer!

niccatw

RBS is now under the 4k mark; £3,965.63. :j But it doesn't half irk me that it takes them almost two weeks to complete that transfer. Grrr!

I've now got a wee paper spike for my receipts in my attempt to try and get better at recording my spending. I keep meaning to sit down on a Sunday night and update things for the week so I keep an eye on myself. But I always find something less productive to do instead!

It's all very well being able to pay of lots of my debt at the moment but I know that's because I'm lucky enough to have both a second job and lodger bringing in the extra cash for that. I'm very aware both of those could stop at any moment, without me having any control over the timing of it, should it ocurr. And in all this time, the one thing I have not mastered is writing and keeping to a realistic budget! So that's what I'm trying to change.

I'm also trying to problem solve a potential work thing that could hugely benefit me (financially) but that I think my boss will want to veto. And if I go against that, it could make things very difficult.

Essentially one of the teams I cover doesn't have the bodies it needs to cover it's entire gepgraphical area. I cover half that area but not the rest. I am qualified to do what they need and could be getting paid £25 per hour to do it! However, I probably need to register as idependent to do this, which could cost £200ish. And there's a lot of background politics going on that I don't know anything about. I do know that my boss has already said I don't have capcity to do it (not to me and off the record. I heard from some-one else). However it has also been pointed out to me that I can use flexi-time to free up one day a month that I could dedicate to that team. And the numbers we are talking wouldn't warrant more than that.

From a personal point of view, money-wise, it makes perfect sense to be earning £25 per hour over £8 per hour!!! But I don't know how feasible it will be work-wise given I am already full-time and my boss seems dead set against it. (I should point out, boss is dead set against it for said, unknown political reasons rather than anything else, or at lease I hae to assume that as I haven't talked about it to her.)

So my current plan is to find out from professional body whether I have to register as independent and what that costs. The other person is going to work out numbers so we can come up with a set amount of time per month (we think that'll sound less scary that per week). Then I put it to my boss in a way that suggests it would be instead of my current second job. (which would entirely depend on the money it brings in!)

If I did it, it'd be the company that currently pays me that would be employing me on and ad hoc basis I guess... there's still that paperework side of thingsI'd need to work out...

Arghhh! Oh to do the job and b*gg*r the politics!

niccatw

Any cash-back experts out there? My home insurance is up for renewal (this very day next month to be exact). I'm currently paying £16 something per month.

Though I've discovered I have a dfferent type of lock to the one I thought I had. And I never know how much I should cover for. I've a 2 bedroomed flat and I think my current cover is £55k, which just seems ridiculous. Everything in it cost me way less than that (begging, borrowing (thank you Mum and Dad for giving my your cast offs and taking me to the blue and yellow shop for kitchen stuff) and finding things for a steal! My favourite thing in my flat is my solid wood wardrobe I got from eBay for £250) and surely, even if I had to replace absolutely everything, it shouldn't cost me £55k, even if I do give in to decadence?! Or do I just not know the cost of things...? :think:

Any-one read The Alchemist? I've just started it and I'm wondering what my destiny is and trying to call back my childhood days to remember what I spent my time dreaming about or doing. I've discovered my long term memory is rubbish!!!

I remember taking off on adventures for the day, walking until we couldn't walk any more through the country side surrounding the town where I grew up, or cycling to nearby villages, or going up the river for a swim... do kids even get the opportunity to do that these days? My Great Aunt would be watching us during the school holidays but we were rarely in (I wonder if she'd beg to differ on those probably numerous wet summers! I must ask her.) And we would never have said where we were going because we wouldn't have decided until a bunch of us met up and we knew how many little brothers ans sisters we were having to deal with too .

So... what job can I do where I take off at the last minute and have an adventure, without necessarily knowing where the destination is?!!! Does health and safety allow such adventures these days? :rotfl:

niccatw

RBS now sitting at £3,933.37. £45 from bills account and £33.13 from "spending" account heading RBS's way, shaving another £78.13 of the total when they get there.

"Little by little one walks far."

(A proverb I will also need to keep in mind when I walk my marathon in September.)