Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

minnie2

right tomorrow i am going to consider how we can become more frugal in our household!!! i am sure we can do much better than we are! And financially we need to!!

getting the roof fixed has really boosted my moral towards sorting out our money and saving etc woo hoo!! So yeah going to give it a think!!

and on that note i shamefully have to admit that i am going out tomorrow night for dinner and also i am going to pay for my friends dinner too as she has no money! eek! But I am going to be taking a voucher that hte whoe group can use - buy one get one free!!!

I also really want to get to grips with my kitchen cupboards and buying food just for specific meals etc and making a meal plan - may have to crack on with that this weekend!!! think that will help us - rather than suddenly thinknig of something and going out and buying the ingredients hopefully we wont have as many random buys.We will already know what we are eating and the ingredients will be ready at home!


I am excited once more about being frugal! Will also strike while the iron is hot with hubby as he is still trying to appologise for not thinking to tell me about the roof. - we had another similiar incident today too which involved use having to do two unnecessary trips because he didnt take to me!! So now is my perfect chance to say no more.... or we are going to cut down on... or just plain no christopher which is my favourite one!!!!!!

minnie2

rubytuesday wrote: »

:rotfl:You are wicked!

I have had an NSD as I managed to cobble together a tuna pasta bake with what I had in. Even managed to feed niece who turned up unexpectedly too.

I took to my bed for a few hours this afternoon as I was freezing and feeling very blah!

wicked? embarrassed sometimes - when i realise what ive done! i have also been know afterwards to sigh and say oh well ho hum!!!
- I am having a bit of a realisation at the minute as to what i do say and sound like. As the kids I have are special needs and they copy me and say what I say,apparently in exactly the same way I say it too according to hubby who says they spend too much time with me! But also my family say it too. We were shopping in a supermarket the other day and my hubby was being silly as usual and one said oh christopher you silly boy! and absent mindly I said yes he is a very silly boy - then realised she was using one of my lines! its scary! Out to dinner with family the other week and one of the boys was talking and i kept agreeing etc and my mum said if it wasnt a young mans voice i was hearing id say that it was you talking!! OH DEAR!!!!!!!!!

rising_from_the_ashes

Fresian / Silva - thanks, some great tips there ... will have another bash at it over the next few days! I'm hoping to move into a Business Analyst type role (which is basically what I'm doing now) but it just doesn't tie in AT ALL with my job title of Administrator (and is what I'm worrying the prospective employers will focus on)!

mooomin

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Fresian / Silva - thanks, some great tips there ... will have another bash at it over the next few days! I'm hoping to move into a Business Analyst type role (which is basically what I'm doing now) but it just doesn't tie in AT ALL with my job title of Administrator (and is what I'm worrying the prospective employers will focus on)!

Remember to have lots of "action" words in the CV as well.

There's nothing worse than bullet-point after bullet-point of:

• I work well in a team
• I complete statistics for my department
• I manage a team of ten

It should contain a little more action and a taster of your skills:

• Demonstrated teamwork skills by leading X/Y/Z project/activity
• Deliver monthly statistical analysis for a department of 100 colleagues
• Actively manage a team, ensuring that they all hit their monthly targets by providing coaching and support

Does that make sense?

silvasava

flying_fresian wrote: »

Remember to have lots of "action" words in the CV as well.

There's nothing worse than bullet-point after bullet-point of:

• I work well in a team
• I complete statistics for my department
• I manage a team of ten

It should contain a little more action and a taster of your skills:

• Demonstrated teamwork skills by leading X/Y/Z project/activity
• Deliver monthly statistical analysis for a department of 100 colleagues
• Actively manage a team, ensuring that they all hit their monthly targets by providing coaching and support

Does that make sense?

OOOh you've definitely done this before FF :T

cw18

Well - it looks like my date's off
But at least it will save me some pennies

Was told early yesterday evening he's been asked to cover Friday night (Thursday as well) as someone's off ill, so he suggested re-arranging for some time next week - which I said was fine with me.

BUT when he called me I was on the phone to my friend. So after I got off that call I'd called him back.
After the discussion about re-arranging the meet he jokingly made some comment about thinking I was ignoring him as I'd not picked up, and I just said that I'd been chatting to a friend on the phone so couldn't pick up his call (they use different numbers!). He then referred to friend as 'she', and I corrected him (although I admit I was momentarily tempted to let it ride - just didn't fancy the explanations later). Seemed to take the wind out of his sails at first, but we then chatted some more and he said he'd call again later in the evening.

He didn't call back, hasn't responded to a general text I sent this morning, and hasn't responded to a follow-up text I sent this evening. So I guess he's someone who doesn't see opposite sex friends as being viable as just that...... his tough luck says I !!

mooomin

silvasava wrote: »

OOOh you've definitely done this before FF :T

Some colleagues at my work are facing the prospect of redundancy and I've been helping them to tart up their CVs/complete application forms.

I've never sent in an application form with my current employer (have worked in various roles with them over the years) and not got to interview stage, so my written skills are ok

miss_empty_piggy

JayneC wrote: »

DS was off school this afternoon, there's a tradition here that on Shrove Tuesday all the kids go to the sea front to skip - something to do with fishermen originally I'm told..., so they get to finish school at lunchtime to go skipping, anyway we didn't go skipping but he came for lunch with his sister and then we made pancake batter so it's been quite nice. I'm now really looking forward to working part time and being able to spend more time with him, have put in an official request, so it's really real now!!

Well better stop thing this post is probably long enough - will catch up again soon.

Jayne x

JayneC- that was why half of my 6th form students were not in lessons - because they went skipping on the beach. I didn't have a clue what it was all about, but get it now. Sounds great!!!!

cw18

Did a quick G00gle for 'shrove tuesday skipping fishermen' and this was the article I ended up reading

Aldahbra

Don't leave any unexplained gaps in your CV.

Employers are not interested in anything over 10 years old, except in very unusual circumstances, so summarise employment and group it together.

d) I'm currently "unofficially" seconded from my current job again - this is the type of work I really want to do, but how do I show this as being separate from my real job as what I'm doing bears no relevance to my job title?

This needs to be first in your employment list - this is what you are doing now and what you want to do

You could put something along the lines of:-

Employers Name; September 2009 - present time - On secondment to Such and Such company (don't call it a secondment if in the same company as you already work for) parts manager primarily responsible for blah blah blah.

August 2008 - September 2009 - Maintenance Manager blah blah
May 2008 - April 2008 - seconded to Big Company as Project Manager blah blah blah
Previous employer - Details

Or

Employers Name; September 2009 - present time - parts manager primarily responsible for blah blah blah.
August 2008 - September 2009 - Maintenance Manager blah blah
May 2008 - April 2008 - seconded to Big Company as Project Manager blah blah blah
Previous May 2003 - April 2008 Details
employer -

1975-1987 I was employed continuously with Tesco, Morrison’s then Asda as a carpet sweeper rising to supervisor.

obviously a you can lay it out better than this using a word processor.

Don't lie on a CV

Do explain any gaps in your employment in the best possible light such as career break to raise a family, or as a gap year to trek in Nepal, or to undergo training.....

Are these links any use to you?

http://www.europa-pages.com/jobs/cv.html

https://nextstep.direct.gov.uk/gettingajob/cvsandcoveringletters/createacv/Pages/default.aspx?CVID=bqyAHZMqt0U=

http://www.greatcvs.co.uk/common-cv-mistakes.html