Blinking in the brightness of the lightbulb moment

Cat2011

And in further good news it looks like the student loan early repayment penalaties have been scrapped. So if I get into medicine, and if I complete the degree, and if I get a job as a doctor, and if I earn lots then I can pay off my loan as soon as I can .... One less thing to worry about.... Now lets hope I get in!

Cat2011

February Tally of savings.
Saved £747.53

£8.72 Quidco
£0.22 Interest
£5.88 Interest
£36.68 Mystery Shop
£40.00 Mystery shop
£3.06 Round down
£8.28 Interest
£2.60 Amazon
£1.13 Quidco
£593.74 Tax rebate :j:j
£11.05 Mystery shop
£36.00 Mystery shop

Cat2011

February Tally of savings.
Saved £755.10

£8.72 Quidco
£0.22 Interest
£5.88 Interest
£36.68 Mystery Shop
£40.00 Mystery shop
£3.06 Round down
£8.28 Interest
£2.60 Amazon
£1.13 Quidco
£593.74 Tax rebate :j:j
£11.05 Mystery shop
£36.00 Mystery shop
£7.57 Interest

Cat2011

February Tally of savings.
Saved £793.10

£8.72 Quidco
£0.22 Interest
£5.88 Interest
£36.68 Mystery Shop
£40.00 Mystery shop
£3.06 Round down
£8.28 Interest
£2.60 Amazon
£1.13 Quidco
£593.74 Tax rebate :j:j
£11.05 Mystery shop
£36.00 Mystery shop
£7.57 Interest
£10.00 Mystery shop
£28.00 Mystery shop

Cat2011

PAYDAY! :j

So in February I saved/paid off £1,561.42!!

Really pleased with that amount :T , massively helped by the tax rebate of course, but it was about time I had some good news.

My new total savings are £13,731.62, bringing my debt down to February payday = -£3,933.11

Woohoo! Under the 4k mark!! :j

I wonder if I can get it under 3k by next payday. That'd be lovely . Slowly getting there....

Still need to work out my DFD, see if it's changed.

One interesting point is that I got paid £11 less this month. I normally get paid the same amount every month. Not quite sure why it's different, our payslips aren't getting here til Monday, so will have to wait til then to see what's different.

On a side note the last university considering my application for medicine has (finally!) started giving out offers according to an online forum that I watch..... so any day now I find out my fate...

Cat2011

New DFD is July 2012, using just savings from my salary, so no extra income. So hopefully with the extras I can earn I can be DF earlier than that

Cat2011

March Tally of savings.
Saved £28.65

£10.00 Mystery shop
£16.00 Mystery shop
£2.65 Bank round down

Cat2011

I was a good girl and cancelled one of my exercise classes on Saturday so that I would have time to pop to town and do 2 mystery shops at a bank before they close. Don't get to do exercise, but do earn £20.

Cat2011

March Tally of savings.
Saved £31.12

£10.00 Mystery shop
£16.00 Mystery shop
£2.65 Bank round down
£0.23 Interest
£2.24 Interest

Cat2011

So - been a while since I wrote an update.
I'm really pleased with how the money saving is going at the moment. I feel like I'm making some progress each month finally. I have a few mystery shops lined up, but need to be a bit better at looking for the shops as I don't do it that regularly, so prob miss out on a fair few. I've not been looking for a second job at the moment. I think I'm holding off til I hear back from the last uni, then once I know my future, I can make more plans.... If I don't get in to medicine then it'll be a case of saving like crazy for next years application, or if I decide to call it a day then I'll start paying off the mortgage (once I'm debt free). Either way, in another year of hard saving I'll be in a much better financial position.

If I do get into medicine (:D), then I only have a few months to put as much money away as possible and it's going to be a very lean few years... Hmm, so I really think I need to start looking for a second job now.... oh well best start trying...

As for my personal life - I've been wearing makeup and perfume to work everyday, so am managing to make a bit more of an effort with myself . Also getting better at putting outfits on rather than throwing on jeans and a jumper, I haven't worn my old favourite hoodie to work for months . Nothing really going on in the love life, but I'm sure that'll sort itself out eventually. I've lost about half a stone so far, and am doing loads of exercise at the moment. I've joined a website with some friends that is basically a social networking site for exercise freaks. You can log all your workouts, and you then earn points, and you can compete against your friends. Can also earn "Achievements" like squat your bodyweight, or cycle 100km. Or earn "Quests" where you have to do certain exercises to get bonus points. My friends and I had a "Challenge" where we saw who could earn the most points in 1 month - it ended last night and I won!! . I was up at midnight doing flipping exercise so that I could earn the most points, but it was worth it . I've been doing really well with the training in the gym. I'm loving lifting the free weights and have been to lots of classes. I've averaged 5 classes a week for the last 9 weeks. Slowly starting to look a bit better, and my clothes are fitting a bit better, so hopefully will be fit and lovely for Summer.

So, some things in life are good. And some not so good:
Work is a bit pants at the moment. My actual research is quite fun at the mo and I'm enjoying the lab work, so basically the day job. But the other bits are getting me down. I feel like I'm often being got at, and that I'm being treated like a lower member of staff. One member of staff on the same paygrade as me has started telling me what to do and taking charge all the time, which I find both annoying and patronising. Another has said the lab I look after is too messy and spoke to my boss about it. I've already spoken to the person causing the mess and asked them to sort it out, but they hadn't got round to it, and now I feel like I'm being shouted at for something that I've been trying to sort out.
I've worked really hard getting another of our labs back from a complete mess and up to scratch. It took a couple of weeks of solid work, (on top of having to do my usual lab work) I had to communicate with a whole load of people, and work really hard, and none of my bosses have even said thanks, let alone told me I've done a good job.
I've been trying to "act up" recently in a bid to look for a promotion in April - taking on things that aren't usually in my remit, using more initative, dealing with people and equipment without my boss being involved. But just recently I feel like I'm failing to even do the day job - or at least any time I haven't managed to do something just right my boss always hears about it, but when I go out of my way to do things over and above my job he never notices.

Just feel a bit frustrated by work at the moment.