Daffy's 'a nice cup of tea cheers you up' diary

Cheery_Daff

OK, HERE"S the money post! :rotfl:

So, I've been paid today! :j £786.76, which is £8.76 more than I bargained for, so I can add that to my monthly total! :rotfl: Added to the transcribing money I got the other day, that meant there was actually £1025.61 in my account today! :eek: Quite shocking :rotfl:

Not any more though

£265 rent
£25 phone
£25 emergency
£20 diesel (but I've actually already put this in the van because I didn't want to run out on my day out the other day)
£30 van maintenance/insurance etc
£70 for fees (last month next month! :j)
£325 'cash' for the month (£25 food, £15 unnecessary, £25 train fares to work each week)

= £760 :T

BUT - because there's only 4 of 'my' weeks in September, that leaves me with another £65! :T And because I already paid the diesel out of last month's money

Pah! Just realised the diesel money hasn't actually gone out of the bank yet! :eek: So THAT'S why I'm about £40 better off than I thought I was! :rotfl: oops! Oh well, that'll encourage me to be a bit more frugal since I've already transferred ALL the spare to Mr Daffs! :rotfl: Accidental overpayment of debts - that's probably the way to do it! (or maybe I should just pay more attention next time??)

Anyway, where were we? Oh yes, getting all confused :rotfl: Anyway, to cut a tedious story short, I've transferred £250 to Mr Daffs (I KNEW it should only have been £200, but I got all overexcited :rotfl:) which means I've now paid off £900 and only have £260 left! :T :j :j :j On Monday I will have paid another £70 off fees, leaving me only £62 left! :j :j :j

Which all means that by the end of October, fingers crossed (and assuming the DVLA do actually refund my car tax), I will have paid off both the fees AND Mr Daffs, and will be proper debt free all over again! :T :T :T And then hopefully will have saved up enough for my holidays too - yippee!

(Mr Daffs says not to pay him back too quickly and leave myself over stretched - I was trying to be realistic while also getting it paid off (although seem to have been TOO overenthusiastic this month by accident, lol!) but if it's looking like I won't be able to afford the holiday, he just won't get any extra til January, that's all, and he doesn't mind and would rather we had a holiday!) :T

Anyway, guess what else? My emergency fund now has £125 in it! :j :j (although I've got to pay another £30 ish at the dentist next week), AND I have a van maintenance/MOT/whatever fund that now stands at £130 (MOT due November, everything else way into next year, although it's looking like the alternator might be bust! :eek:) Anyway - I must say how UTTERLY FAB it feels to actually have SAVED for some things!!! :T :T

Before I stop waffling... a couple of little decisions made this week. I've just had my second £5 payout from lightspeed, and I think I'm going to stop. I've already stopped Valued Opinions and Global Test Market because I got screened out of pretty much every survey. I'm up to £12 with Onepoll, and think I'll carry on until I hit the £40 payout threshold. I don't really enjoy surveys, and I find it takes it too much time which would better be spent on the PhD at the minute - the payout is cheery, but I don't NEED it enough to justify the time spent.

I've just started with taste radar, which is a bit of a pest, but I think I'll carry that one on until after Christmas cos it'll pay for our holiday spends :T

Still umming and ahhhing about what to do about my other job. I do casual work, just university term times. It's easy, well paid (£10.86 an hour), no guaranteed hours, but I usually ask for (and get) about 5 hours a week on the same day. I'd considered the same again - it's a nice little earner, and I enjoy it, but I really must devote time to PhD now, and this would lose me another day a week which I can ill afford. So just deciding if I quit, stay on but say I can't do any hours this term, stay on and tell them I'll do short notice cover if they're stuck, or just ask for a couple of hours one morning and try to be strict with myself about carrying on with PhD after that... <scratches head> What do you guys reckon????

Anyway, there we are, things are looking pretty healthy at the minute! :j

Mags30

Short notice could be really annoying especially when you can live without the money. Imagine if you are having a really productive phd day and you get called away from it to work for 1 hour. If you do continue with the job it's probably better that you know when you'll be working.

Lemon_Tree

fab numbers there Cheery you've made real progress!

about the job..... we'll i'd ask myself would i honestly and truly be doing my PhD every single day of the week for all those hours, and therefore would the potential 5 hours really cut into my write up time. If you can hand on heart say that you would be doing the PhD and nothing else (apart from tea breaks of course) then i'd say tell them you just need this term off but want to stay on their books, if not then i'd take the hours. Only you know how you will be spending your time. I'm sure you'll make the right decision for yourself.

Happytogetdebtfree

Wow on the numbers well done and even more well done for potential to be free of the debt come october thats just fantatstic... i agree with the others agree to some hours otherwise short notice may effect the phd, and im sure you want to get that done and draw a line under it, i will trek through and find out what that is at some point lol .... im paying a few direct debits tomorrow so i can add some more updates to the signiture which i am very very excited about !! .... ive had more cups of tea today than any other time but i have been busy with diy chores and i have done the ironing so i am even more pleased at that ( mum lent me her iron press) they are fantatsic and really cut down the time spent i actuallt enjoyed myself lol how sad am i !!! omg im turning into my mum :O cant be so bad i guess lol xx

Cheery_Daff

Well aren't you all sensible! :rotfl:

Mags, I know what you mean about short notice. Bizarrely though, that's the kind of work that disturbs me the least! Means I can make a decision at the time about whether I'm productive or not - and there's no problem at all if I say no.

LT - the problem of course is that I very rarely have entire days when I am productive! :rotfl: So no, I couldn't say hand on heart that those 5 hours would be spent working. The problem is that they *definitely* wouldn't be spent on the phd if I was at work! And 5 hours would tend to be spread over an entire day, and I'd have to get there and back, and I'm rubbish at getting into my stride once distracted (although I rarely 'get into my stride' anyway!)

Happy - what on earth is an iron press? Sounds frightening! :rotfl: Glad you got lots of DIY done though! :j PhD is about transport choices and identity - sorry, when I get really bored and fed up with it, I just can't bear to talk about it at all! (other than to moan about it, of course). Towards the end of writing up last year people sometimes asked me what it was about face to face and I had to say 'I'm so sorry, I just can't tell you' :rotfl: I'm sure they thought I was doing some secret MI5 work or something :rotfl: Mr Daffs used to pull them to one side, apologise for me, and tell them what I was doing. I'm sure they all thought I was mad :rotfl:

I think we all take on elements of our mothers at some time :rotfl: I just try to make sure I take on the cheery attitude and the enjoyment of small things bits of my mother, rather than the depression and expanding midriff! :rotfl:

Anyway, thanks for the thoughts re job. I think I'm mostly wavering because I do enjoy having unlimited access to their library, which is actually really useful for PhD. I'll investigate if there's another way to get that. I'll also investigate if I can say no this term and still have the potential to go back next term. (I think I did the same thing last year, but so much has happened since then I can't remember!)

Anyway, must crack on with some work - tea break in 15 minutes! :rotfl:

Hope you're all good today
xx

Happytogetdebtfree

Wow what a post lol, i am ready for a brew myself ive been out walking the dog this morning up bright and early, the iron press is scary its for when oh does not do as he is told hahaha... just done a little mini sig update and im in the 57k zone so this is good stuff i may have paid off 20k in total this month which as averaged at 10k a year since i started i suppose thats not too bad but i dont want to work on that sort of set up lol it would take me another 5 years and that would be depressing for me my golly gosh !! xx

Cheery_Daff

Wow Happy, 10k a year! :eek: Gosh, even if it does take you another 5 years, that's still mightily impressive! :j :j

Happytogetdebtfree

Thanks, i know its good i just wanted to have paid off more sooner you know once you start the journey patience is hard come by lol we want it yesterday haha xx

Cheery_Daff

I know the feeling Happy! But you'll get there in the end!

Evening all :T

Got home at 7.45 <yawn> to hardly any food! :eek: Luckily there's always flour in this house, and usually milk - so you know what that means! :rotfl: I've put some bread on (with rosemary from the garden - makes it feel far more decadent!) and made some pancakes :T Wensleydale and cranberry for the first two, and now one with home made lots-of-fruit jam :T :T :T And the wensleydale was free! :T :T

(Mr Daffs plays in a band that plays at weddings, and quite often comes home with pockets stuffed with cheese... I used to be a bit embarrassed, picturing him raiding the buffet :eek: But I'm led to believe that at the end of weddings, there's generally LOADS of food left, and there's generally an anouncement that it's heading mostly for the bin! :eek: :eek: So I now think of it more as public service)

(particularly when some people spend more on cheese than on the band... :eek:) :rotfl:

Pancake anyone?? :coffee:

MrsMoo2U

Can I try a wensleydale one please? After all if you have so much it needs to be eaten before it goes off. Pah to getting home late. I am in Cardiff tomorrow so 5 oclock get up and wont be home until after 8pm. Loving the dress on Fays thread.