New job, new beginnings.

patman99

Now started my own '£ a day' challenge. I will be including all the 'cash-outs' from surveys as well as eBay/eBid/Amazon/Play sales.

End-of-year weigh-in and I put-on 6oz over Christmas to end up at 15st 2lb 6oz.

patman99

Woo-hoo, finally got round to setting-up the Wii and having a go on 'World Championship Sports'. I reckon 1/2 hour a day to start and I will start to lose weight.

Another '+', my line manager is going all-out to justify my job long-term, so things may change on the job front in the near future.

patman99

The Wii works well. Only one problem. Spent 1/2 hour playing tennis and the next day I could hardly move my arm. This caused great merth at work.

Weighed myself and am disappointed to have put-on 2lb, so am now back up to 15St. 4lb 2oz.

Financially, I have set myself a challenge to -

1. Make a pound a day from surveys (will only update total as I cash-out)
2. Reduce my energy use (£92 a month is somewhat excessive for two people)
3. Start using the Wii at least once a week.

I never got round to switching my car for the train. It would be cheaper, but would mean leaving the house at 6:30 in the morning and then not getting-back in until 6:15 in the evening. As I am currently working overtime for an hour at the end of the day, I really do not fancy a routine of 'get in at 7:15, eat tea, read paper, go to bed, get up at 6:00 etc, etc.


I was tempted to apply for a CNC setter/operator job just down the A12, but it was permanent nights and 55 hours a week (although I think this was an error, and was meant to be '55 hours a week maximum'). Even at 69p/hr less, I would save £10 a week on fuel as it would be a more economical journey.

patman99

Got my payslip today and the Agency have paid my o/t at time+half, so well pleased with that. Will now work o/t with the confidence they are not going to shaft me.

On the down side, did 2 surveys via Vivatic. One, for Populuos, went all the way to the end, then the validation link went to a dead page so lost-out there. The other, a Newvista survey completed, but then informed me 'I had not met their quality control standards'. Bullsh!t, I spent more time doing the survey than it stated it would take and really thought through my answers. Next time I will rush it and make up the answers as I go.

patman99

Well, got busy with the toolbox today. Finally got round to fitting a new thermostat to the E7 element in the immersion heater so will once again be heating water at 7p p/unit rather than 14p p/unit.
Also hoovered-out the extractor fan in the bathroom. Next up is to catch my electrician and get him to alter the timer so it doesn't run-on for 15 minutes after I turn the light out.

Given that the two of us seem to be crunching through electricity at the rate of £92 a month, I need to do some serious thinking about how to reduce the energy usage downward.
Not an easy task considering it is winter and the heating is on.

Got round to mounting some photos today. Borrowed a friends Longridge mountboard cutter. Took a couple of goes, but eventually got the hang of it.

Jobs still outstanding -

Finish Tax Return
Bring YNAB accounts up to date
Clean mold off front door
List stuff on eBay as it is free listing weekend.

patman99

My 'fix' didn't work. Next step, switching the top and bottom wires over then running the boost for 10 minutes to see if the element is heating-up. If not, then yet more expense to bear. If it does heat-up, then this will indicate a problem with the control box.
In this case, I will be getting my electrician to rip out the controller and replace it with 2 old-fashioned timers. At least then I can set the one controlling the E7 element to come on during the night.

Got my Tax Return done. This, despite my PC throwing a hissy-fit and losing the DVDR/W/Ram drive, then refusing to install any of the external ones I have.
Turned-out to be a registry issue, fixed it in 10 minutes. Good job really, considering all the stuff I needed to access to complete my Tax Return was stored on a DVDRam disc.

Started playing 'Tiger Woods 2012' on the Wii. Only bought the game because I needed to spend over £40 in my club book to use a £20-off voucher.

You know how sometimes you can get really engrossed in a game ?, well, Tiger Woods had me shouting 'go on, roll just a little further' at the TV as a green shot trundled towards the flag. I am aiming to play at least 3 rounds of golf each week as all the swinging of the 'club' exercises most of my body.

Spent a couple of hours round DSs laying a rug (not easy to do when you have to roll it out a bit, then lift the furniture over onto the rolled-out bit). Went well until we got it fully unrolled and found it went 2 feet up the wall. Right, plan 'B', tuck the end of the rug up against the skirting board, then try shuffling the rung back across the room, lifting all the furniture back over the crest of the 'wave' until we got back to the sofa. Lift up sofa, tuck rug under, drop sofa back down, job done. Easy when you apply a bit of logic to the problem.

Updated to 'YNAB 3.0' as it really is a good piece of budgeting software and you can install it on as many computers as you wish, so my DS can shove it on his Mac and use the key to unlock it.
Brought all my accounts up to date and ran a report. Nice to see this month I am in credit, having spent less than I earned. Even got round to adding in my 3 accounts I have elsewhere. Just leaves my Paypal account to add on.

patman99

Right, having thought I'd sorted-out my finances, I stopped posting on here, however, things are going off-track again.

Decided during my month-long holiday to look for a more fuel-efficient car. Found one on eBay and managed to win it. Am now owner of 'X'-reg Octavia 1.9Tdi. Due to the length of time since the timing belt/water pump were replaced, I booked it in to have the work done.
My mechanic can't fit me in until 12th, which is the day I return to work. This has meant I have had to tax the van just to be able to get to work.
Put old car up on eBay to make the cash to pay the mechanic. Car sold on Wed. Winner emailed to ask if they could collect car Thurs., I said 'yes', at this point the winner went AWOL.
Waited-up until early this morning so I could start a 'payment not received' claim.
Now have the hassle of closing the claim and doing a 2nd-chance offer.
If I can't get the cash together, the mechanic will have to wait a few days for payment.

patman99

Focus finally sold. Went to an Ebayer who mad a good end-it-now offer. This means as I cancelled the listing, no FVF to pay.

Skoda has had the cambelt and water pump done and runs like a dream. One curiosity though. It seams to run better on cheap low-grade supermarket diesel than it does on branded stuff. This may well be down to the previous owner having run it for so long on cheap stuff, that the EMS computer has adjusted the engine settings to run best on it. Will have to see if things change as I use more and more proper diesel.

Financially, things have gone awry a bit. Due to me miscalculating how much holiday I had, I ended-up having 2 unpaid days. To gain-back the loss in income, I have to do 9.2 hours o/t. So far, I have done 6 hours. Bank wise, I'm back in the red again.

Personally, I have now been at my Agency secondment for over a year and with no permanent contract in view, I'm now actively job-hunting again. It's also been a year since my cataract op. Where has all the time gone?.

Am now trying to take Ebid seriously and have 3 items listed and 12 more to go on this weekend. At least all the listings are fee-free.

patman99

Got to the point that I'm so hacked-off with not having a permanent contract that I have emailed my Agency telling them to start sticking my cv back out to any suitable jobs.

Also, applied for another job via a second agency I'm registered with as well. Got to get something quick before I go barking mad.

patman99

Can't believe I haven't updated this thread since may. Still stuck on a temporary contract, but am actively engaged in jobhunting in an attempt to gain a permanent contract.

On the plus side, I have started selling stuff on eBid again. Have sold 4 thinks in three weeks so things are looking-up.

Had a call from a mate today. He was moaning that he got a fine for driving his small German car around the greens an St. Andrews.
When the Policeman asked him why he was do it it, he replied "well, the sign said Golf driving range".

Also, on BBC Essex this morning they were talking about the prisoners in Chelmsford prison learning to read and the first though that popped into my head was 'did they start with something simple like 'Beware of the dog' and then work their way up?'.