A sense of the past explains the present and foretells the future

saorsie

Well those good intentions didn't last very long did they! However, with inspiration from SillyBilly I've decided to clamber back into diary-land once more and do regular updates (rather than the 'novels' that I started with - think that was my undoing - far too time-consuming!)

Having a very good MSE day today - made up another vat of laundry gloop - I love that stuff though it does look a little runny at the mo - hope it firms up a bit or it will be laundry liquid - far too messy

Have made 2 meals from the remains of the sunday roast chicken today and also stock for soup so that was an economical bird. Also going to attempt some flapjacks in the remoska this afternoon - am loving that kitchen aid, courtesy of the 'old-style' thread, I may never need to switch my oven on again.

Money from ebay has landed in my account today so that has been whisked over to the ISA to stash towards paying off my halifax card when it runs out of 0% in March 2011. Also received another £20 from selling my late husbands camera and lenses - it was a 35mm one and nobody wants these anymore so was quite pleased it seemed to go to a good home as the guy was a collector of such things - as you do!

Now to catch up on ironing mountain whilst watching the tennis - gotta be done unfortunately and always feel better to have a selection of clothes to choose from when I open the wardrobe - am very much of the fold nicely brigade (love folding clothes - find it very therapeutic) though and only iron what I can't get away with

-s-

sillybillyme

hi saorsie :wave:

thought id have a sneak peak at your diary!!!

you seem to be doing really well and sound sooooo much more positive than me!!! :cool:

will pop back later for an update of your diary hopefully as i can smell dinner burning!!!

xxx

saorsie

Hi Sillybilly thanks for dropping by :wave: and thank you again for giving me a hefty push back onto the diary wagon

Well the laundry gloop has thickened up nicely and smells bee-yoo-ti-ful with added bergamot and mandarin essential oils.

Ironing has been postponed till later due to CBA*s*d basically - had a call from work and now have to juggle my hours tomorrow to cover for colleagues absence. Hey ho - it involves working additional hours that I can just about sneak onto my timesheet before it gets submitted at month end and gives me a legitimate excuse to postpone my one to one session with new line manager - double bonus :j

Heading off to complete a MS - tis a foodie one so that will do for me - OH is on lates so will not have to cook later - aaaaah life is very good sometimes

-s-

carlos*the*mackem

saorsie wrote: »

...so that was an economical bird.

Wish my wife was!!! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

(Only joking dear) :A

saorsie

You're a brave man Carlos!

Well back from my travels, still looking at ironing pile and still CBA*s*d Had quite an interesting (in an MSE way which as we all know is the ONLY way!) excursion, taking in a few other venues around my Mystery Tour/Shop (as vehicle is such a gas guzzler I like to plan my journeys to take full advantage of actually starting the engine) Had the brass cheek to take a gone off peach back to Mr T's for exchange - it was a principle thing more than anything - I have long ago stopped believing the supermarkets hype that we're all in this together - we are not, they are just in it to make money out of me, the customer! Then popped in to local Co-op to have my dividend points put on from the other day when I didn't have my card with me - a princely 9p but it is mine and not theirs (above principle still applying!) Then to Mr S's at just the right time to pick up lots of lovely reduced veg for silly money and to use n*ctar points for dog and cat food - have now transferred the equivalent £16.22 out of the 'pet budget' and into my ISA - lovely as it is to see those very handy little n*ctar points sitting pretty on my till receipt, they are not earning their keep there!
Mr S also donated a £9 till spit to use before next week so am going to discuss with OH about the best way to utilise this when he comes in - perhaps not straight away though I may let him put his bag down first Would really like him to transfer £80 to me when he gets paid each month for his half of the food budget as I am a much more canny shopper than he is and would get it to stretch further however he actually likes supermarket shopping and I wouldn't want to deprive him of one of life's little pleasures!

-s-

saorsie

Just a quick post before I head back into work - not much happening on the MSE front - all scratching, fishing, clicking and ball kicking done for the day + the watching of half a dozen video's on One Poll for the princely sum of 2p each - that's 12p I didn't expect so err yeah :j
MB is going great guns at the mo as we enter the later stages of 'that tournament of which we are no longer part of' - it is a very profitable and, (oxford comma lol - what's that all about?!) for me anyway, enjoyable way of making a few bob, however appreciate that it's not for everyone and easy to see how people could become hooked on gambling as the bookie websites e mail you constantly and you can literally bet on anything - and I mean anything! :eek:
Tis a lovely day here today and I am still toying with the idea of my electric bike as an alternative mode of transport. The company that sells my £1500 dream bike do offer an interest free option however I am educating myself away from the 'credit because you want it now and don't want to wait' mentality that is my past thinking and adopting my 'save up for it because you will appreciate it more' frame of mind which is of course my new mantra - sense of the past etc etc - see what I did there!

-s-

saorsie

A fairly quiet day on the MSE front today though money from last month but ones mystery shop has been paid into my account - I always forget how much I've done as it's like 'working a month in hand' so comes as a nice surprise. Also notification from Qu*dco that they are paying a whacking £140 odd into my account - why did I only find out about these amazing cashback sites since joining MSE, they should be sung from every rooftop!? I now religiously use them for any purchase I can and it's amazing how it adds up. £60 of this lump sum does belong to OH which I will of course lovingly transfer to him - though really, I should be on commission as he was just about to renew his existing car insurance over the phone without even checking any comparison sites before I ripped the phone out of his hand before fainting at the very thought such recklessness. :eek: Of course I went via Qu*dco to use the comparison sites as well as the final quote - kerching!

I'm a firm believer in 'looking after the pennies and the £'s will look after themselves' - a good old mum saying there, but it's true! It's not the actual value of the said pennies (though that helps too!) it's the mindset I reckon and yes I appreciate that if one of our 'sharing caring banking organisations' are baying for your blood, taking in a jar of 1p's that you've lovingly stashed is not going to appease them, but £365 of them ie £1 a day for a year (made up of coppers from the street, out the washing machine, back of sofa etc, saying no to that chocolate bar, doing the freebie scratchcards, clicks and surveys) may well help calm their anguish temporarily - just my thoughts anyway

Tis very muggy here today so think I shall make use of my gym membership this evening and go swimming after work - aaaaaah lovely

catch y'all laters

-s-

saorsie

Wow - it's a warm amd muggy one today! Have been budget tweaking this morning prior to work and managed to squeeze an additional £6.50 out of my bills account so that has gone winging off to my ISA to contribute to the Halifax 0% fund come March 2011.

No further activity on the accounts so to keep an MSE mindset decided to have a bit of a tidy round financially speaking. First on the list was the MBNA card which did sterling work as a balance transfer vehicle at 5.9% LoB but has been standing idle since being paid off last month. On phoning them to cancel, they suddenly offered me 0% on all purchases until January 2011 - thank you very much - I will have some of that! Have nothing particularly in mind to buy but never being one to look a gift horse in the mouth it seemed churlish to turn them down and as the very nice lady advised - they did from time to time offer very preferential rates and deals to certain customers so will hang on in there until next year and then review the matter.


Next on the list was Orange - now I have been with this organisation forever, however as we all know, loyalty does not pay ...... mmmmmm or so I thought On threatening (actually it wasn't - a threat that is - I really was intending to clear off to O2 who had a much better deal) they then proceeded to offer me a SIM only contract of £7.50 a month - get in!


Soooo am a well happy teddybear today and cannot wait to return home from work to adjust my spreadsheets - I know, I know indulge me!


-s-

saorsie

Well have been at work all weekend so not much scope for money-making, however have been concentrating on money-saving strategies and squeezing every last penny out of my budgets till they squeak

A little bit cross with myself as have failed to renew 3 of my library books incurring a fee of £3 :mad: - I usually keep on top of these things so that has taught me!

Combined gas and electricity DD monthly payment with Sc*ttish P*wer is £87 which is ok (and a damn sight better than Br*tish G*s who, at their prime were charging me over £200 per month on some over-inflated fixed tariff I was on :eek:) however I am determined to get it down so have investigated the workings of the boiler (not before time I'm ashamed to say as have lived in house for 3 years ) and turned the water temp down to 50 degrees, also getting into the habit of switching the hot water off after morning showers etc. Have been caught out a couple of times in my early attempts with OH 'enjoying' a tepid shower later in the day however have resolved this my turning the water on for 20 mins if required and setting the kitchen timer to remind me to turn it off again . Am also turning everything off at the wall, charging phone at work, washing on easy care at 30, not using big oven, not putting extra lights on in the evening because it 'makes the house look cosy' - how mad was that?! Have entered a comp to win an energy monitor but failing that have the heads up that my library will be lending them out within the next month or so - so will be snapping up one of those bad boys when they become available - can feel it becoming my new favourite addiction

Angl*an W*ter is also about to become my next target, £25 per month DD for metered water is again ok, but I like a challenge and am currently following a top tip from friends who saved £10 per month by not - errr flushing the loo unnecessarily if you get my drift

Oooooh there has been a spot of moneymaking today with £8 won on the t*ki fishing game - had £6 odd already in the account so £14 heading my way sometime next week - thank you very much - I can even put up with that irritating monkey chattering for that!

Planning a lovely day out tomorrow with OH to Norfolk as we are both off together for a change - so that will be very pleasant indeed and hopefully MSE - however we shall see.

-s-

saorsie

Well it wasn't - that MSE that is, but very enjoyable nevertheless. I did have a momentary thought about where I could have PADded the £1 worth of 2p's that I fed into the amusement arcade in Cromer and when OH insisted on buying a dressed crab for £9 my face must have been a picture :eek:

Anyway am firmly back on the wagon now having menu-planned for the next 7 days and a trip to s*insburys to buy the necessary provisions courtesy of a £7 off till spit combined with a double n*ctar points voucher - yippeeee

A little blip has occurred in saorsie's big scheme to take over the world - well perhaps not quite but indulge me The first minimum payment for my Halifax 0% card was meant to come out of my account on the 3rd and on checking today I note that it didn't - hasty cross check on the halifax website also proved fruitless so a frantic rummage through the paperwork revealed that although they had written to confirm that they had set up my DD, I had to continue to make manual payments until they advised me on my statement - how mad is that!! :mad: A phone call to a very nice man in Dundee (Craig may be my new BFF) has resolved the problem and he has promised to stop the £12 late payment charge :eek: and reinstate the 0% deal as I had technically broken the terms of the agreement and the interest would leap to 21.9% :eek: :eek: Needless to say I have paid my minimum payment on line as well. What makes the whole system more crazy is that I had set up a manual payment to go out on the 3rd but then cancelled it after receiving the DD letter as I wanted to keep the money in my ISA earning interest for as long as possible :mad: That'll teach me!

There is good news however in that Qu*dco money has landed in account + a couple of m*tched bets paid out - so all extra pennies heading towards the ISA pot. Also OH donated £60 to the food pot which was handy.

Have also e mailed Sc*ttish P*wer and sent them my current meter readings, suggesting that they might like to reduce my DD - don't think they will as I've only been with them since February so not much history but we'll see - I am in credit by over £180 though so they may have a rethink

-s-