EH is Back - and going Onwards, and Upwards!

EssexHebridean

Stopping in quickly for an update - thanks for the lovely wishes for a nice trip at the weekend - we did indeed have a splendid time although I have I think discovered that 5 nights of broken sleep camping is about my limit - it's really caught up on me this week and I've been struggling to get going in the mornings.

Cornwall stayed reasonably on budget - a quick tot-up suggests we spent about £300 all told but that includes accommodation, diesel and food as well as entertainment. Eden Project was great, Falmouth Maritime museum was excellent (there was a lighthouse exhibition on which was fascinating) and Rick Stein's fish & chips in Padstow were gorgeous!

My regular client is talking about possible wanting me for an extra day next week as well, or maybe one day over the weekend - I will need to work out a deal with her for that I think but as MrEH is away it might be a good use of Saturday perhaps. LT the majority of people who do Avon just purely look on it as a bit of pocket money, or they already buy the products themselves and realise that for a little effort they can get the products at a cheaper price and earn themselves some money into the bargain. I've taken the approach that it is a job, just as much as the admin stuff - plus of course it is, at the moment, my only "personal spending money" which is a real incentive to move it forwards. I've now had my new territory confirmed as well and it is literally right up the road which is superb! I should be able to start getting my books out to that later in the month. it's another area that has had a heavy turnover of reps so I know there are customers there, it's all about winning their trust.

Karmacat

Thats a brilliant holiday spend, EH! I don't think I've ever been to Falmouth itself, must give that a go next time in Cornwall ...

Wordsmith

Hello, EH. This is going to sound awfully stalkerish, so many apologies. I dreamt last night that I met you - I have no idea what you look like, but it was definitely you. It was a bit scary because you were so efficient and I'm not, so I felt very inadequate. I'm sure you are efficient, and I'm equally sure(ish) that you are not scary. But you made me pull my socks up and now I feel I need to be more efficient. So, just wanted to say Thanks!

EssexHebridean

Ahhh Wordsmith it can't have been me then because in real life I am far from efficient - I can spend many, many hours deliberating and procrastinating over a task which, when faced, takes all of about five minutes! (We've talked about this over on Daff's thread before, haven't we!) People keep telling me here that I am organised though - maybe I put up a good front! :rotfl:

KC Really liked Falmouth - I like places on Rivers as a rule. There was a fish festival on too which was very cheery & fun!

Pippilongstocking

Ey up - excellent holiday budget!! Love Cornwall and giggled at willow on fb

Lemon_Tree

Cornwall is on mine and Mr LT's list of places to visit, i haven't been there since i was a child so though i remember bits it will be like rediscovering it again. Seriously doubt that we'll be able to do it for as little as you did, we'd be stopping either in a caravan or a b&b as i don't 'do' camping lol

taxi73

glad you had a great time and on a good budget.

EssexHebridean

Pippilongstocking wrote: »

Ey up - excellent holiday budget!! Love Cornwall and giggled at willow on fb

I KNEW you would! We walked round the corner and saw it and I said "I HAVE to take a piccy for Pippi!"


I've spent this afternoon slapping woodstain/preservative on a couple of wooden fold up tables - they now sort of match the decking tiles on the balcony and look MUCH more respectable and as we already had the woodstain it was a lot cheaper than replacing them! Went into town this morning - paid in my cheque from my clients and also as much Avon cash as I've collected so far and bought a big box of mushrooms for £2 - there's nearly 2kg in there so I just have to work out what to do with them now! They are those huge meaty ones so I've started by grilling some of them - I reckon those should freeze and then reheat really well, some more will be sliced and fried with garlic tomorrow then frozen in portions. Did my weekly whizz into Sainsbugs where I bought a Basil - hurrah! He'll need a haircut tomorrow and I'll have to find a suitable pot to re-home him into. They kindly also gave me a £2 off £20 spend voucher so that went to Tesco with me! Popped to the market but didn't get much - some foody bits and a new razor & blades for a fraction of the price just the blades would have been in Boots! Spends today:

Mushrooms - £2
99p Shop - 99p! (2 packs of Ryvita)
Sainsbugs - £2.50 big basil plant and a twin pack of lettuce
Tesco - £18.67 - this will be pretty much our grocery spend for the week although I will need to pop to Lidl for Milk
Market - £7.50 (2 x razor handles & 8 x blades) + £2 (crisps & 2 packs of crackers)
Also had to put fuel in the car which was an eye-watering £60 :eek: That'll need to last me for a while then!

EssexHebridean

Money stuff:

Have agreed with my regular client that I will adjust my invoice dates over the next few months otherwise they will get a larger than usual June invoice which will give THEM cashflow issues, and I will be putting in a smaller than usual August invoice, which will give ME cashflow issues! Invoicing a few days earlier in June and July and on my usual date in August will solve all of the problems though!

My ISA has now been ported out from the old provider and is now sitting happily with the new one - I was surprised just how quick the qwhole process was in the end - it took me longer prevaricating about filling the form in than the rest of the process took once I'd done my bit!

Grocery budget is fairly on track - I ought to start doing my spreadsheet again this month really to make sure that it STAYS on track. Still buying and eating lots of lovely seasonal fruit and veg and also making the most of Tesco's BOGOF on salad veg. Oddly enough there were a LOT of cucumbers left on the shelf today...?! :rotfl:

Have just started a new Avon campaign so that's a bit slow at the moment - hopefully I'll get my last bits from the past one delivered over the next few days and then I will know where I am income-wise - this time of year is starting to be tricky as there are a lot of folk on holiday. Looking forward to getting the books out around the new territory as well. I can see I will need a list for Tuesday as I have to get books out again and sort out the flyers for my new territory introducing myself.

EssexHebridean

Right - not much else happening so lets see how I'm doing with my current goals and targets:

Financial:
I have requested more territory from my Avon Sales Manager. Territory now allocated and it's pretty much exactly where I hoped it might be! :T
I have recanvassed my exisiting area - not heard from anyone wanting to start getting a book yet, but you never know! heard nothing on this but didn't expect to - and at least its now done for another 6 months
Been doing OK on the Survey sites although OnePoll has gone on a complete go-slow today! I'm determined with that one though it's "get to £40, cash in, and leave!" - it's just TOO slow! Done nothing on these for the last week as I've been too busy with other worky stuff. As from tomorrow though I get back to them!
Household:
Next tray of salad leaves is sown, as are a load of seed spuds we got cheap to add to our Pink Fir Apple ones that are already doing superbly. Admittedly we have nicked a small area of communal space for the purpose, but it looks better with stuff growing in it than just bare earth so nobody's likely to complain! Plenty of spuds now showing their leaves which is great! Salad leaves also well through and I should get a meal off those next week if not later this.
Health/Personal:
Walking is going well this week, and a group of us on MG's Matrix thread are determined to eat more healthily and hopefully lose some lb's as we go - there's nothing like having others on the same path to encourage and motivate. As I've said over there I don't "do" scales, but my first aim is to see if I can drop a dress size by the first week of August when MrEH and I will be working at the beer festival. I reckon it's doable. The healthy eating is going really well - better really than I expected, and I am also trying to squeeze a bit of exercise in as and where I can during the day.
Off the back of that, the aim to eat more healthily and actually think about what I'm eating is going well. I bought enough salad last weekend that I've been eating it a bit at a time all through the week. The same with fruit - I notice that Tesco still have their 2 for £2.50 offer on - so long as the Braeburn apples are british again I shall get a bag of those and a Canteloupe Melon again this week - yum! AND British strawbs at £1.99 - got to love that!
Toiletries - just toothpaste bought - and I needed that! In the spirit of the challenge though I did manage to get 2 tubes of Signal whitening for 99p in the 99p shop! Nothing more bought although that will be put to the test on Friday when I'm taking a friend to explore the Boots Clearance shop! :eek:
Bloggity Blog was updated at the weekend, and will be again today... Keeping up with this still - it's not *regular* but it is more so than it has been for ages, so I'm happy with that.
Fun Stuff:
Loving this bit! The 2 £10 Days out vouchers due to expire at the end of this month have gone - one was used last saturday for our day out and Mum and Dad have used the other today and will swap for one of their longer dated ones. We'll now use the June expiry ones in cornwall. A bit of extra planning has gone on to so the fun stuff list now looks like this:
1. [STRIKE]March : Trip to Chester for Friend's birthday[/STRIKE]
2. [STRIKE]April : HOLIBOBS![/STRIKE]
3. [STRIKE]May: Meal at "Smiths of Smithfield" Courtesy of lovely friends![/STRIKE] (it was fabulous!)
4. [STRIKE]May: Camping trip to Cornwall![/STRIKE] T'was brilliant!
5. [STRIKE]June: a half day hawk-flying experience courtesy of my Mum and Dad for mine/OH's birthdays! Will combine with camping trip (MrEH now knows about this and is very enthusiastic!)[/STRIKE] Cancelled for the time being....
6. June: A Girly road-trip with two pals following the Ipswich Witches on their Northern Tour - a three day trip taking in S!!!!horpe, Berwick & Glasgow - This is going to be done well and truly on the cheap though!
7. June: British Speedway GP in Cardiff
8. July: Possibly another beer festival - this time at Bishops Castle in the Welsh Marches, and again involving a tent and a group of mates! Got to get my head around driving this one forwards and organising it - if I leave it to MrEH we won;t be going anywhere!
9. July: North Norfolk Railway Beer Festival (getting a group of friends together for this as well)
10. August: Great British Beer Festival - YAY!
11. August: Eastbourne Airshow
12. September: North Norfolk Railway 1940's weekend


So all in all, not bad. I just checked the bank and there is no change there - not though I expected that there would be but it's nice to have it confirmed! Shouldn't be anything much to do on that front until Friday when my May payment from my regular client will have cleared so I can do some shifting about. I have a list of things to do written up for tomorrow, and the start of a meal plan which is currently only for this week but will be expanded to form a two week one which can eventually be a kind of rolling effort I hope.