EH is Back - and going Onwards, and Upwards!

EssexHebridean

Onwards......

1) Check banking Done!
2) S&S bathroom Done!
3) S&S Kitchen Done!
4) Washing from machine onto airer Done!
5) Assuming they have arrived, fit replacement printer cartridge. Done!
6) Head clean and alignment check on printer Done!
7) Print remaining Avon bits needed for this campaign. Done!
8) Drop books through to 3 of the 5 customers on Mums old territory who are a campaign behind my own patch.
9) Start working on leaflets which can be dropped to small businesses promoting my admin business. First draft done
10) Re-Read insurance documents for unemployment cover for the mortgage as almost certainly my policy will no longer be worth having with being self employed.
11) Sort out domain name for my business. In the middle of doing this now - waiting for a call back from OH for some advice. Now Done!
12) Make a batch of muffins for OH's breakfasts. Done! (They smell lush too so might have to eat one in a bit!)
13) Stick my key to my desk at my old firm in an envelope with a note to the chap who is going to sort out my personal bits. Need OH to write the envelope for this as I suspect anything with my handwriting on stands a good chance of being intercepted! Change of plan, just had a call from the chap suggesting I send the key to his home address, then once he's got the stuff together I pop over to collect it from him and have a chat and a cuppa - so that's what I'll do. A much more cheery plan!
14) Post envelope with key.
15) Get waterproof jacket in the wash, Machine is whirring away as we speak! then reproof and leave to dry Done!
16) GRRR! Go to sorting office to collect ink cartridges which were too big for the letterbox yesterday! :mad: Done! Although annoyingly I seem to have lost my morning entirely as a result of having to go into town.

Popped into Tesco to check on the reduced stuff as well as getting milk - not much reduced but I did get a piece of parmesan which I treated us to, and have just had some of with pasta & pesto for lunch! Got deodorant, toothbrushes, aqueous cream and shower gel to put in OH's Christmas box, as well as some packs of sweets in tesco to go in there too.

Right, time to knuckle down and see what I can achieve this afternoon I think.

taxi73

The fiddly jobs always take the longest.Hope this afternoon is just as productive.

EssexHebridean

Cheers Taxi - It wasn't too bad at all.

Final update for today done above, so just a couple of small jobs to carry over until tomorrow, which I will probably set as a fairly easy day as my long term plan is to be able to take some Fridays off in any case.

Nice to have a chat with my ex colleague earlier on, the one and only thing I miss about the company is some of the people, so it's great to be able to keep in touch with them.

Need to start thinking towards christmas now I think, with some serious planning for presents for people. Means we can stagger the costs a bit as well which would be helpful. Checking the banking earlier on showed that things this month will be tight, but doable (just) so long as the credit card bill doesn't come in too steep, which hopefully it won't as we have been careful with it this month. OH's "Years Supply of..." box is coming along nicely - I need another trip to Wilkinsons at some stage to get more bits from there, and possibly Poundland / 99p Stores for some more talc. The it's the market for Raspberry Ruffle bars (apparently they always had them in their stockings as kids!) and probably Morrisons for some old fashioned "10p sweets" - Sherbert Dip-Dabs, Sherbert fountains, liquorice bootlaces etc. He mentioned the other day that he'll need shampoo before long - he uses the big cheapie bottle from Tesco though so that's an easy one! I might need a bigger box!

EssexHebridean

Bit demoralised today. I've decided that I can't do anything with that insurance policy without getting OH to take a look at it as well, so that could take some time while he gets round to it! Still need to do the drop off of those Avon books but I'll do those tomorrow I think as I'll be out and about in the car then anyway so makes sense to combine journeys.

I started today well by decluttering and cleaning down a bookcase in the bedroom. That now looks good, and I've gained some space and found half a bag of books for the charity shop too. Then I decided to drag out the suitcase with my old speedway programmes in it. It was absolutely rammed full, and I had about two seasons worth which I wanted to get put away also, so was always going to need a bit of a sort out. Unfortunately when I got into it it turned out that the stuff I was going to be ruthless with and throw out, I'd already thrown, presumably on a previous occasion when I decided to undertake this task! Result is, a job that I thought would take an hour, tops, has taken nearer to 4 - and a LOT has been chucked. Of the last few years ones I decided to keep only those that had photos I'd taken published in them, as I reckon that some of the older ones were more interesting to keep than the news stuff, especially where I have carefully made notes throughout the meeting describing what was going on in each race - amazing how that brings back memories!

I might try and have a go at another bookshelf now I think. Or maybe the cluttered top of the chest of drawers in the bedroom - if I can get that done that will also have the advantage of getting rid of some more dust from that room, which will be no bad thing considering I am still struggling to shake off this cold.

EssexHebridean

Update time....

Grocery challenge currently looks horrendous as we went to the farmers market this morning and spent £29.50 :eek::eek: Having said that, we got:

3 x packs of bacon
1 x pack of bacon offcuts
1 x large pack of sausages
1 piece of brisket
2 x packs of minced beef
1 x pack of lambs liver
1 x pack of stewing lamb (neck)
1 x quarter mutton shoulder

So that will keep us going for a good while and is all extremely good quality stuff too. I'm hoping to avoid Tesco now until at least the middle of the week - we'll be a little short of fruit but can cope through the week if necessary. Plenty of veggies in including some parsnips and potatoes that will need using up - I can see this weeks meals featuring mash quite highly!

Avon is coming along nicely - my first campaign was submitted at £270 which is reckoned to be quite good for a first one, and the second is standing at just over £100 after the first collection of books. That will mean that I don't have to pay the second half of the initial administration fee (£7.50) and I also get sent a free gift of a full-size night cream that I can either keep or use as a prize in a customer raffle at some stage. They've got some good incentives on for new reps at the moment - I will apparently get sent some samples as well which will be handy. The customers who placed really good orders last time will all get a free gift of some kind with their orders - no harm in making them feel appreciated eh!

My final pay will come through from my old company on Monday - the payslip arrived this morning. The untaken holiday part of it will get set aside into the "holiday savings" account, and the remainder will get stashed straight off into savings also as my view is still that I resigned without notice therefore they should not be paying me notice. There is £300 to come back from a Sharesave scheme I was paying into as well - I have written to the administering company to request that, and when that arrives that will also go to the holiday account.

All in all, fairly content with the way things are looking at the moment!

taxi73

All looking good there then

EssexHebridean

OK - it's Thursday so it must be time for a LIST!!! This will run over to tomorrow as well I expect

Banking
Sort out washing on airer Done!
fold duvet cover, pillow cases and sheet and put away Done!
Sort out next load of washing ready to go on overnight tonight Done!
Get dishwasher loaded ready to go on tonight
Quidco and Pigsback clicks Done!
Do two Avon deliveries where people have asked me to return today
Whilst doing one of those slip a "next campaign" book through a door where someone has specifically asked for one.
While in the area pop into Lidl and see what offers they have on
Try a further Avon delivery where there was nobody in yesterday and pop slip through door if still no answer.
Sort out next lot of books to be stuffed through letterboxes Done!
update my calling book with latest houses done.
Go out and actually deliver the next lot of books!
Hoover (So I can remind myself how carp the current hoover is!) Done! and Hoover is still truly rubbish!
Declutter one more area
Write list of stationery type bits I need to buy - both for Avon and for Matrix.
Start an accounts spreadsheet for Self-employed income/outgoings. Done!
Update regular clients running invoice with days worked this week. Done!
Give some serious though to DFW photo challenge pic for this week.
Take picture for DFW photo challenge!
Start doing promo stuff for next Avon campaign. Done! *some*
Drop some stuff into charity shop.
Write meal plan for next week - have slipped on this totally this week.
Washing up Done!
(Fri) Washing off airer
Washing from machine to go on airer.

That'll do to be going on with - bet it grows as I go on though!

I am considering using £25 of CC vouchers on the exchange as we could seriously do with replacing our hoover. I have seen a Tesco one on there for just under £50 so using the vouchers to double up would make sense I guess. That machine also seems to do as much or more than many of the more expensive ones I've been looking at. Will consult OH and make a decision I think.

Won another quiz on Pigsback which gave me enough for another £20 M&S voucher so have ordered that. We've decided that we will probably use those on foodstuffs (reduced if I can get to the store at the right time to take advantage!) unless anything christmas pressie-ish jumps out at us. I'll continue with PB for a while although short of winning quizzes I'm going to be a long way to another voucher. It doesn't take long though and I've had fair returns in each of the three years I've done it so far. OnePoll is another matter though - there never seems to be anything on there recently and I'm so far from payout it's untrue! decent results coming from ItsYourView on TCB at the moment so shall make sure I click on that each day to see if there is a survey I can complete. I've been thinking a lot about these sorts of sites since Karmacat was mentioning them on her thread - whilst I have the time to do the fiddly stuff it's fine but I think you have to be careful that it doesn't take time you could use doing something more constructive. I must make a mental note to keep an eye on the situation I think.

EssexHebridean

Update:

List coming along nicely:

Banking Done!
Sort out washing on airer Done!
fold duvet cover, pillow cases and sheet and put away Done!
Sort out next load of washing ready to go on overnight tonight Done!
Get dishwasher loaded ready to go on tonight Just this evenings bits still to go in
Quidco and Pigsback clicks Done!
Do two Avon deliveries where people have asked me to return today Both now Done!
Whilst doing one of those slip a "next campaign" book through a door where someone has specifically asked for one. Done!
While in the area pop into Lidl and see what offers they have on Decided if I didn't go in, I couldn't spend anything, so skipped this one!
Try a further Avon delivery where there was nobody in yesterday and pop slip through door if still no answer. Done!
Sort out next lot of books to be stuffed through letterboxes Done!
update my calling book with latest houses done. Done! And also up to date for those done today as well. :A
Go out and actually deliver the next lot of books! Done!
Hoover (So I can remind myself how carp the current hoover is!) Done! and Hoover is still truly rubbish!
Declutter one more area
Write list of stationery type bits I need to buy - both for Avon and for Matrix.
Start an accounts spreadsheet for Self-employed income/outgoings. Done!
Update regular clients running invoice with days worked this week. Done!
Give some serious though to DFW photo challenge pic for this week.
Take picture for DFW photo challenge!
Start doing promo stuff for next Avon campaign. Done! *some*
Drop some stuff into charity shop.
Write meal plan for next week - have slipped on this totally this week.
Washing up Done!
(Fri) Washing off airer
Washing from machine to go on airer.
Go to building society to pay Avon money & a cheque in.

Just realised that I've done well on the NSD's this week - 3 I think, I don't remember spending anything on Tuesday, and I know I didn't yesterday. Nothing today either. :A

As I seem to have done fairly well on the list I shall probably leave it at that for today now - the rest is nice and manageable for tomorrow. Apart from one more delivery this evening, and then one tomorrow, I've got nothing more to do on the Avon front now until Tuesday so I think a nice lazy weekend will be in order.

I forgot to mention - we went to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford on Sunday - I had CC deals vouchers set aside to do it, but was still really pleased to find out on arrival that it was free admission on Sunday as it was remembrance Sunday. Not sure if they always do that or if it was to do with the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain. We were able to attend the remembrance service there as well which was lovely. As a result of that I now have £30 of days out tokens I can use for something else so need to get our thinking caps on as to what to do with them. I have sent for some Pizza Express vouchers as OH and I usually use those for a meal out on the day we do our christmas shopping, so hopefully they will arrive in time as apparently Tesco have a backlog! Just been drooling over their menu......! :rotfl: I'll do another exchange of vouchers for general days out ones just before the deadline in December to get the best value I can.

boredofbeingathome

Well done on list EH

I went to Two services on Sunday-so moving and one old soldier brought a definite tear to my eye. My heart does go out to them.

EssexHebridean

I know what you mean Bob - I recently did a bit of research into members of my family who had served in the two world wars - my Great Grandfather served in WW1, died in 1932 from the after effects of being gassed. Knowing stuff like that makes you think even more.