Milli's new year

mh1923

I offered to go in to work a half day today, but my boss said not to come back until i'm 100%. So I'm studying instead. I'm taking two professional courses by distance learning. If I complete all the assignments, I get a 10% bonus on the exam score. If I don't, there is no penalty, but obviously I'm that much less prepared for the exams, in addition to not having the bonus.

Exams are in April. One of them is a re-sit of an exam I just barely failed in October. The other is a course that is absolutely kicking my tail, and I'm starting to get worried about. I found the first question on the first assignment so intimidating that I've been dragging out completing it for several weeks, when I should have been on to assignment 3 or 4 by now. :eek:

So today i'm using the timer. 15 minutes to work on the assignment, and 15 minutes to surf. And I've now completed the entire assignment except that first ugly question about judicial precedent. But the timer just went off, so perhaps if I can just force myself to say *something* about it....

mh1923

Today I discovered Boots tarting! I spent £5.61 for £30 worth of product.

I will have to make sure not to go over my fun money budget... I can see how this could get addictive.

elzie

what is Boots tarting?

mh1923

You can learn all about Boots tarting here:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=349088

LookingAhead

Hi Milli!

Hope you are feeling better now.

Do you use the Old Style boards for food planning at all? It may well help you sort out meal planning. I have to say that since myself & boyfriend starting make meal plans we've pretty much reduced our food bill by a full £10 per week (which I *know* could come down further if I could convince him even further on a few bits & pieces!)

Good luck and I hope this little blip doesn't deter you from fully attacking 2007 with much gusto!

mh1923

Can anyone explain to me where I got the idea that cooking prawns was some kind of difficult and mysterious thing that only professional chefs could do?

I am having the loveliest stir fry with prawns, zucchini, and onions, THAT I MADE ALL BY MYSELF! :T:j:D And I love it!

Straight from the freezer to the frying pan, a splash of soy sauce, and 4 1/2 minutes later, they were done. It took longer to chop the veg!

Now all I need to do is find a recipe for ginger sauce, and we may never go to a restaurant again.

I got the prawns for half price, but even at full price, £3.79 for two servings, it's quite a bit cheaper than eating out!

LA, you are right, I *definitely* need to plan meals. I try to make soup of my tired veg before it spoils, but I still end up wasting food. And our kitchen is so damp that even foods that are supposedly non-perishable perish if they aren't used quickly. Perhaps if I made a monthly rota. I think the prawn stir fry could be on it once... maybe twice

mh1923

Payday today! w00t!

But less than I should have gotten, due to a payroll error. It should be fixed in next month's check, and thankfully, it isn't one of those hand to mouth months where a £50 shortage would make a crisis.

I just moved £250 into savings. Next month is my ILR application, which will cost £335 pounds, so it feels very good to have most of that earmarked!

In addition to this weekend's overtime, I also got my £10 voucher from pigsback, and registered for 3V through Quidco, which will get me £4 cashback.

Well, off to have a nice warm bath. One of life's cheap pleasures! (About £.50 to heat the water, plus a few pennies per bath's worth of bubble foam! )

mh1923

And just got £1.75 for two Boots makeup vouchers! :j £1.02 after paying for the stamp and giving ebay and paypal their cut. But hey, it's a pound I didn't have before! :rotfl:

gallygirl

Good - I've got one up for sale too!!! No bids yet but they seem to come in at last minute.

No bids on empty perfume bottle either (guess what thread I've been reading!!!) but 1 watching.

Total of 8 bids and £19.04 on 2 other items though :j :j :j .

Oops - sorry for highjacking your thread!!! Hope you enjoyed your bath - glass of wine with it helps I find!

mh1923

Not hijacking at all... It's nice to have visitors! No wine with my bath, as it gives me migraines, but I do like to take a nice cup of herbal tea with me.

I'm thinking about pensions now, because next month I turn 35, which means my contribution will go up to 3%, and the company's contribution goes up to 6%. :j It's at 2%/4% now, and being before taxes, I'll probably never notice it going up. But it's like getting a raise for 70 year old me!

But that reminded me that I haven't contracted out of S2P yet, and I need to. There's no question of that, because being a UK immigrant, I won't accumulate enough working credits to get the second pension anyway, so I want that rebate money working for ME! And I need to do it before the tax year ends, because I already lost one year of rebates by not doing it last year.

I guess I'd better start haunting the pensions forum. And while I'm doing that, I may as well look into whether I could be managing my company pension better. I think I told them to put it in a growth fund, but I haven't looked at the paperwork lately, and I want to make sure I made the right choice for a 35 year old married to a 47 year old who have just now started saving for retirement. :eek: