Squizz's Fizzy Diary

redsquirrel80

*uncrosses legs*

I can probably get away with wandering off now and then - might just take a few detours to stretch on the way to make a cuppa

Just added up my spending diary for the last two weeks.. ouch.

I have spent...

Groceries £46.37 (that's OK for two weeks, not too far off my estimate, includes £16 for three veg boxes - special offer thingy - that we haven't had yet)
Lunches £19.60 (bad, bad, bad, hope Hypno isn't reading )
Eating out £14 (voucher for £35 spend at local Thai, not actually used yet)
Badminton £12 (fine, budgeted for)
Flute lesson £15 (again fine)
Sheet music £33.25 (OK, was needed)
Books £34.78 (for OU, so fair enough, slightly over budget but got both as cheap as I could, about half price)

Miscellaneous bits and bobs...
Seeds £17.54 (more than I intended to spend but will be used)
Dad's birthday present £10.79 (pleased with this as I expected to spend a lot more but found something perfect)
Paris apartment £411 (ouch... we are technically splitting this between us, but Mr S paid for boiler repairs and Eurostar tickets which more or less balances out)
Spa voucher £70 (will get half of this back from friend)
Spa deposit £20 (they take this to stop you just not turning up, will get back in October)
Charity donation £5
Newspaper £2.20
Notebooks £3.49

Total spent so far (on top of rent and bills)... £715.02! :eek:

Not too worried about the big holiday spend as that was expected.. although the boiler wasn't Spa thing is OK, although I've spent £90 I will get £55 back eventually. Seeds, books and birthday present were unusual spends. Won't need any more seeds until next year (if then!) and have just joined library so no buying fiction for a while.

Lunches are still clearly a problem, I can only admit laziness

Anyway, I 'borrowed' £300 out of my savings for the Paris apartment. I need to be careful in case second job messes up the simple act of paying again.. so I currently have about £150 in the bank. I still have to pay for..

Another flute lesson £30
Food estimated £50

Can't think of anything else but realistically I will spend some more money than this in the next couple of weeks I'm sure. If second job does pay (they will eventually, just not sure when) then things will be more or less on track for my targets.. if not then I need to be a little bit careful!

I am at least pleased that I haven't bought any clothes (not even the squirrel jumper.. yet )

Karmacat

Thats a brilliant analysis - knowledge is power, and this really shows it. Second job is okay, isn't it? Trustworthy?

And your only problem spend is the lunches, which are just under £15 .... thats not bad, you know!

redsquirrel80

Karmacat wrote: »

Thats a brilliant analysis - knowledge is power, and this really shows it. Second job is okay, isn't it? Trustworthy?

And your only problem spend is the lunches, which are just under £15 .... thats not bad, you know!

Trustworthy, yep, just disorganised, so don't know when I'll get the money. I will be chasing it harder this month if it doesn't turn up!

Cheery_Daff

How about a foot rest if your chair is too low for the keyboard? Then you'd be able to be high enough to reach without straining wrists, but feet would have something to sit on.

(of course, that means you wouln't be able to hide )

gilligansyle

If your chair needs to be so high that your feet don't touch the floor you should be able to get a foot rest - or its near cousin a box of photocopy paper.

Triciaxx

Karmacat wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I was giggling the whole way through this, even the claw acupuncture

As for walking around a bit at work - do it purposefully! If you need to get up and stretch your legs, and for no other reason, walk around like you're terribly important! No one will say, what are you doing, surely?

If you Google 'Desktop alarms', you will find 21,500,000 results :rotfl: I have downloaded a free and simple one 'Easy Timer' and set it for 20 minutes - I know that is 5 minutes longer than the classic Flylady time but it ties in with the theory that the max concentration time is 20 mins - probably superseded* now but it works for me!

* Yes that is the spelling according to Collins

redsquirrel80

Ahh yep a foot rest is a good idea. I will go on a hunt later.

Another good idea is weekends Friday on the way home I popped into Waitrose for 'something for breakfast', visited the reduced counter, and came out with £40 worth of meat for £14! Freezer is now full and we won't need to buy any meat until the end of the month I think. I was also given some pears by someone at work who has hundreds from their tree

Spent Saturday messing about with musical stuff - David Bowie songs on flute and electric guitar are interesting! Pain in arms was much relieved by not being on computer, bit achy in my wrists after lots of fluting but not too bad.

Sunday I wrote notes/ plan for my essay, and then we went out for a good walk in the afternoon. Back with achy legs and feeling well blown about Then made the pears into some jam, cooked the (£3) guinea fowl I'd got at Waitrose for tea, using a lovely Hugh F-W recipe to stuff it with barley. Got leftovers to have tonight with pasta too. Also made lunches for the next few days - well, Mr S did, a mass falafel cooking session! And I strained the raspberry vodka that had been lurking in the cupboard.. yum There was more fluting in the middle, then a lazy couple of hours watching a film before bed.

Today, work.. blah. Woke up really early and started stressing about some work stuff. Trying to be good about my posture but can feel the aches starting already - I don't think typing is entirely to blame but it definitely doesn't help when combined with the extra fluting. Anyway, do have some fun stuff this week, badminton tonight and a writing course at work tomorrow.

Karmacat

The weekend sounds blissful, no wonder you don't want to come to work! Let us know about the writing course, that sounds *really* interesting.

redsquirrel80

Yep am looking forward to that tomorrow.

Am trying a bit of an experiment this week to plan out my time in the evenings and keep track of what I do - I always feel like I don't do very much, but perhaps I do really... I've got a lovely multicoloured schedule for the week from 6-10 every night (get home at 5.30 and that first half hour is catching up with Mr S and having a cup of tea, checking the garden, annoying the cat, that sort of thing). Have scheduled in at least half an hour of exercise every day, badminton tonight but other than that just half an hour of pilates or something at home. Might possibly go for a quick swim on the odd lunchtime too. I've even planned in the couple of TV programmes I want to watch, although it looks a little dodgy that my diary now includes 'The Killing' on Thursday night! :eek: :rotfl:

Pooky

Really do take notice of your wrists.......My carpal tunnel was caused by bad posture for typing (before anyone really did anything about it in the work place), then a job that involved me wrestling with bedding for hours on end doing window/shop displays. I've been told I need both wrists operated on but having seen some bad results on people I try and manage the pain so that I can carry on with my sewing/crocheting....I'd also be pretty useless to DH with arms out of action for a few weeks.

If I'd have taken more notice earlier on then I'd not have got to the point now where I have to think about everything I do...ie if I peel potatoes for tea I won't be able to do any crochet.....so pasta it is! If I carry heavy bags and walk home from the shops I won't be able to put the washing out as I won't have any grip left.......not choices I should really have to think about.....so listen to your body and help it out!

Rant over

ETA - I use a mouse with my laptop rather than the trackpad which is a nightmare....I have the mouse on a cushion next to me and it works wonders.