EH is Back - and going Onwards, and Upwards!

Lemon_Tree

hope you don't get too wet doing your Avon. There's bloomin cats and dogs falling out of the sky round here. Probably a fair few frogs and fish as well there's so much rain.

EssexHebridean

I got distinctly damp! Mind you I did dash to the chemist at the same time to get my prescription so that saved a FOURTH trip out in it - LOL! Clearing a bit here now - in fact there is even blue skies and a smidge of watery sunshine as I type. Glad I'm not heading to Ipswich for speedway tonight though - I suspect there is only a slim chance of it being on!

Just picked up my second Avon order from the new area of territory - so far I've collected back 10 from 16 books delivered, and got two orders out of it - which is not a bad take-up at all.

Credit card bill just arrived and is actually *not* as bad as I thought. Phew. I was a bit twitchy because it had the Cornwall trip fuel etc on there. I'll trundle into the online banking in a while just to see what needs to be done on that. Will also do my VSP transfers for this week at the same time and update my signature.

NSD yesterday and there will be another today (prescription was a freebie) so will update the sig on that at the same time.....then I CAN'T be tempted to spend today, can I!

EssexHebridean

Just a quick post as I felt it worthy of mention....MrEH is now officially DF after 17 years. Student loan, graduate loan, and a couple of other bits all now sorted, all by his own work. I've deliberately shied away from mentioning it in any detail on here as it's his business and I don't feel it appropriate to talk about it too much, but what I will say is that I am EXTREMELY proud of him - he has paid off a considerable sum and has done it without grumbling or groaning about it, but simply by knuckling down and getting on with it. Congratulations MrEH - I love you loads! xxx

vl2588

:T congrats to Mr EH indeed!

Pippilongstocking

Yay mr eh have a glass of pop on me !

EssexHebridean

Thanks Ladies - I'll point him in the direction of this later!

Lemon_Tree

Congratulations Mr EH yippee another one who is debt free!

EssexHebridean

Grrr...well weekend went a bit pear-shaped........the first of our three speedway meetings (Sc*nthorpe - Friday) was called off at 11am, so we had a hasty conflab and decided to skip going up Friday abnd save the money on the accommodation, opting to set off early on Saturday morning instead. That all went fine although on the way up we really thought that the weather was going to mean that meeting being called off as well - we were in contact with Palema who was north of where we were headed, and we were a similar distance South at one point and both having the same sort of rubbish weather! :eek: Thankfully when we got to the track at Berwick it had been relatively dry there and even the rain that started falling from 4.30pm and continued all evening wasn't enough to stop the action. Sadly our team didn't even put up a fight and got soundly beaten but it was lovely to see Palema and we had a laugh regardless. We had accommodation just south of Edinburgh so spent yesterday morning there before heading across to Glasgow for the meeting.....pulled up at the track and it started raining (We already knew there had been a lot of rain but both sides had agreed to ride) then the heavens opened and it was just too much and had to be called off. We couldn't believe it - all that distance and we only got one meeting! Not all bad though - it was a good weekend - we had a laugh on Twitter with our Team Manager updating one another on the weather over the two days, and it means we get to see Palema two weeks on the trot! :T

Weekend wasn't too spendy in the end - Diesel will be about £30 each I think, the one nights accommodation is about £25 each, admission at Berwick £14.50 - Pizza on Sat night £4.50 (and delicious!), about £5 in Tesco on Drinks and stuff and that was about all I spent I think - as I was driving my friends insisted on standing me lunch both days and my tea last night was an M&S salad and bottle of juice on one of their deals which I paid for with a gift card. Bit of a bargain considering what good fun it was in spiute of the weather-related frustrations.

Avon delivery day tomorrow so I shall have to sort that out - it'll be a busy day too as I also have books to collect....hopefully they won't be TOO wet!

EssexHebridean

Quick financey-type update first I think:

Bank just checked and to coin a phrase from Pippi it's "squeaky, but doable" I think. Next money coming in now will be OH's pay, then my invoice wil be paid arround the end of the first week in the month. Only money heading out between now and MrEH's pay incoming is the credit card bill and that's accounted for. £46 surplus showing at the moment but £41 of that is because British gas have forgotten to take the electricity DD this month. :mad: Bunch of incompetent numpties they are. I'll leave that sitting there until they write to me and say they forgot to take it dso they're increasing the DD for the rest of the year to take account, at which point I'll say "Guess what - here it is, so now you can leave my carefully calculated DD alone!"
My invoice this month will have the benefit of one days extra paid work for my clients but the intention is to throw this straight into the holiday account. MrEH has also now set up the regular monthly feed into the holiday account which will make up the main cost of it next year. I'm working my invoices around over the next few months so that there won't be *much* of a shortfall in August when I will miss two of my regular days thanks to the beer festival.
The current Avon Campaign has started well - picking up a few orders from my new territory already and that means that I've reached £100 in orders before the regular customers even got their books! Got more books to put out and collect tomorrow so fingers crossed some more orders will be forthcoming from that lot.

Food has been pretty good again - I'm pleased to say that I am definitely starting to feel a difference in some of my clothes now - the combats I have on at the moment are feeling distinctly looser than they were so :j for that. Lunch today was a roast beef roll with a nectarine, kiwi fruit, banana and carrot. Dinner was pasta with fresh tomato sauce and veggies and some cheese on top (the rest of it was so flipping virtuous I thought I deserved the cheese!) followed with the most delicious slice of fresh pineapple. I could easily have snacked this evening but have managed to resist. Also I am still watching my portion sizes on things like rice and pasta - I always weigh it anyway and am now cooking 180g rather than 200g - this is then split roughly 40%/60% to me/MrEH.

As mentioned elsewhere I am making a conscious effort to make *at least* £1 a day from surveys etc. Doesn't sound like much but if I can average out to hitting or passing that target every day then that's nearly £400 extra in a year. worth having.

The quote for the shower has come in at more than we hoped so we intend to hold fire on that for a bit - we've been coping OK with the bath and a jug at the moment but I will sort out getting some more quotes I think.

Will tick off one more thing on the "Fun Stuff" list at the weekend as we head off to the British Speedway GP in Cardiff. Accommodation called me to confirm yesterday AND I've managed to sort out us getting in there earlier than they would normally arrange so we will be heading off from here at around 8am and hoping to hit Cardiff sometime before midday. Sunday is MrEH's birthday so we will be coming back via the Railway centre in Didcot - entry being paid on CC Days out vouchers - via tesco to pick up something reasonably frugal for lunch!

Lemon_Tree

yay to your Avon orders already that's really good going.
My hat is off to you on the surveys, £1 is great they're the one thing i've never gotten into, i think i started them but quickly got sick of all the junk mail.