Daffy's 'patchwork dreams' diary

Cheery_Daff

Thanks EH :T What a good point - am I going over budget? NO! I have no overdraft etc, am not dipping into savings funds, and there's money available for emergencies, car repairs etc :T

I do, as you suggest, just feel like I *should* be saving all the extra if I can

That's exactly what I might do - put it into a separate pot at the beginning of the month (if there's a week 5, plus all the extra train money) - then it's available to use if I *do* need to go to work 3 days a week, but it's separate if I don't.

I was thinking yesterday that I needed some kind of fund for longer term patchwork type activities (eg I'm off to a conference next week that has nothing to do with work, but is actually to do with PhD, and therefore potential future patchwork activities - I'm taking annual leave, and can stay with a friend, and the conference itself is free - but I'll need to pay about £30 for the train fare. Where does that come from? Perhaps my new patchwork activity fund (separate from patchwork fund - maybe needs a new name :rotfl:) -

Having a proper wobble today All anxious and wound up about work things - absolutely no need to be, nothing personal at all Can't wait to get to the hospital tomorrow morning and start sorting out this darn thyroid - and if the consultant says 'why has it taken you 4 weeks to get here?' like he did the first time I went, I shall give him a good talking to!

MrsMoo2U

Cheery couldnt agree more with the posts. As long as you are within budget then there is no need to worry. You are saving a large chunk of that earnings so you do need to get out of the Should mine set. I like the idea of a patchwork activity fund (kind of like a career loan). Why not set up a seperate account called your Patchwork Personal Development Fund and use it for things like the conference etc. I am sure that you will work it out.
By the way, I have started following a blog recently (life on a small island I think) and the lady lives one one of the islands near Pippi and works as a freelance researcher for universities.......... I thought of you when I found the blog (think it might have been via Pippis)

Cheery_Daff

Oooh - maybe it's my future self :rotfl: :rotfl:

Good plan :j :j At the minute I don't have lots of different separate accounts - have a current, a bills, and a savings one - which has all of different savings pots in and I keep track via spreadsheets. But yes - a separate patchwork activity fund :j :j Consider it done! :j :j :j

Going to stop working now and disappear to have a cup of tea with a friend Back to it though - lots to do this week!

vl2588

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Our tea - unanimous winners - with....


... a dead furry mouse in an ice cream cone.... :rotfl:

I want to use the 'g' word for that level of thinking! :T

Cheery_Daff

There were two 'g' words used on the day VL - one slightly more complimentary than the other... :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Just been to a cheery cafe up the road I haven't been to before :j :j :j Did eat rather a large cup cake though :eek: And rescued my re-heeled boots from the cobblers :T And posted my fathers day card, letter to friend in Belgium, application to join the natural history society, council tax direct debit form, and a postcard :T :T Look at me making full use of the postal service! :rotfl:

Back home and got the next couple of hours to myself. So - do I:

(a) do another hour of work to make up for the one I missed (or add it on to tomorrow)
(b) have a quick tidy up
(c) put the water on for a bath

Actually, forget that list, I'm going to:

* set the timer for 15 mins and tidy downstairs
* spend 30 mins doing cheery things to forward my 18 month plan (haven't told you properly about that yet!)
* do internet banking - including setting up patchwork activity fund :j :j :j

then maybe I'll have a bath too - we'll see

Mint1955

Wow lovely diary. I have trouble planning today let alone 18 months!! :rotfl:
Sheila

Cheery_Daff

I'm good at planning Sheila, it's the execution I struggle with

Speaking of planning.... been playing with my spreadsheets

Have transfered first 3 weeks of June's spare trains budget into new patchwork personal development fund . Also, bizarrely, found an extra £100 in the bills account! :eek: Goodness knows what happened there :rotfl: (suspect it'll come back to haunt me...). After doing a few calculations, I've put £50 into the car maintenance fund just in case (there's always something wrong with the darn thing, and insurance is due in August), and transfered the other £50 into my new patchwork development fund , so that now stands at £86 :j :j :j

Also realised I haven't ordered graduation robes yet (£54 :eek: I want to keep them at that price!), and that the university STILL haven't requested my fees. Given that I'll be graduating in 5 weeks, and that they supposedly won't let you graduate if you owe them money, you'd have thought they'd mention it by now! Am completely torn between ringing up and asking when they want it, and just staying quiet in case they've forgotten in which case I'll have an extra £250 for my patchwork development fund :rotfl: :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

So.... do you want some details of my 18 month plan?? Still in the planning stages at this point...

I already do 1, 3 and 6 month plans, for 7 different areas of life (house, garden, health, money, for me, for us, and for everyone (charity/community stuff)). These work pretty well - although there are things that roll from month to month to month... :rotfl:

This is different though. My contract at work is for another 18 months full time - after that I would love to stay - although there is no guarantee that I'll be able to. However, I do NOT want to work full time in one job, and I do NOT want to panic about having to find something else quickly! So - I need a back up fund to cover me if I have to not work (or not work very much) for a while - this is the patchwork life fund and will be at £10,000 by the end of the contract :T :T

What I also need is to move forwards with developing skills that I'll be able to use in my patchwork life, ways of making an income, different things to do to make me as resilient as possible :T :T And things that I actually want to spend my life doing

So I had a bit of a think... and came up with 4 areas I want to develop a bit more. These aren't set in stone, and I'm still at the planning/info gathering stage, so they may well change. I also realise they won't all have income potential, but are things I want to spend time doing and want to get better at!

So... here's the 4 areas and the 3 directions I want to chase for each of them (in red is what I've done already this week! :T) For each I've got a list of next steps (but I'm not going to write all those in):

(1) wildlife
a. identification - joined local natural history society
b. surveying - am taking part in traditional orchard survey
c. wildlife watch group - have emailed about volunteering as assistant

(2) running
a. races
b. park run - (national weekly timed 5k run - there's one 20 mins walk down the road) - registered and printed stuff and will go on Satuday
c. womens running network - no local group - emailed about leader training (LONG way off, but you never know!)

(3) music
a. lessons - spoke to a woman this evening who lives round the corner and will teach me (I did grade 7 at school - 13 years ago this week :eek: and have barely played since, so she'll have a job ). Also got number for someone who will give flute an overhaul (he'll be earning his money too...)
b. playing more - have set up a date with the lovely squizz :T
c. teaching

(4) research
a. phd stuff - going to workshop in Newcastle next week
b. transport
c. charity/community project - have emailed people I used to volunteer for about a project I started off last year that I could potentially do more with

So - I've got a job on my hands! At this stage I'm just gathering info (phone numbers etc, dates of things), and deciding which bits I'll take forwards etc, and will then start planning properly (putting in maybe not deadlines, but dates etc). All very exciting :T :T

Will keep money updates in purple, and do patchwork life updates in, er, teal All very jolly! :T :T

vl2588

WOW that is a good plan. A good way to learn survey skills is to join NARRS as they ask for people to carry out volunteer reptile and amphibian surveys and for this they usually give free training (although this is area dependent). It is probably too late for this year but check out their website, as there may be something you can attend this year, or if not, next year. http://www.narrs.org.uk/

Pippilongstocking

Brilliant plan. If you want botanical surveying techniques, I can teach you quadrat and habitat surveying and anything planty/horticultural you want to know which fits with your first strand. I know *some* bird survey techniques too happy to help if any of that is useful x

Whilst I. In up north uk, a lot of the species are the same and I can teach you the basic techniques and have spare books x