Keeping up appearances.......

Honey_Bear

I don't know whether that was Carlisle's problem but it certainly was here, with PCC ballot papers in with local election ones and vice versa. It threw the validation process into chaos for hours. Lucky lucky man, your OH!

• Brain training. And once again ... forgot.
• 15 minutes a week research on the micro-business. Ditto again
  
• Practise the skills that I'm being taught at evening classes. Actually, I'm letting myself off the hook on this one for last week. I figured out that as I've made exactly the same mistake on all three halving joints (get me!), I didn't know what I was doing wrong, so it was pointless carrying on until I talked to the tutor. He gave me a tip - which, I might add, had got from one of the other students the previous week - and hey presto! my first finger joint was a marvel to behold. I need a chisel. And a sharpening stone. And etc. I will have to haunt the carboot sales. And I've got a saw that needs sharpening. More expense. And I'm gutted that the Tiling, Wallpapering and General DIY course due to start this Thursday has been cancelled, although the tutor thinks he may be able to squeeze me onto another course and then cover tiling on it, which is what I really need because if I don't learn to tile very soon I'm going to have to pay someone to do it.
  

Honey_Bear

Morning Happy, Joey and Dolphin. :wave:

Getting a bit lonely around here again and I've got absolutely nothing to be proud of. I even at a whole box of Maltesers all by myself I was so disgruntled. Hey ho.

• Brain training. And once again sort of forgot. I actually spent the whole day searching for some rail tickets I'd booked early to get a fabby deal and remembered arriving in the post, never to be seen again. I went through every single file in the top drawer of the filing cabinet, piece of paper by piece of paper, tidied it all up, chucked out some bits I didn't need, moved on to the second drawer, searched slightly less diligently because I knew very little had been filed there in the last 10 days, went through the In Tray four times, filed everything in the filing tray, searched the Portugal box including all the paperwork, and then ... at 10.45 last night, found them, tucked in neatly behind the bowel screening paperwork - one of the joys of getting to 60. That's saved me £58+ because I'd have had to rebook them if I hadn't found them, so it was worthwhile but what a waste of time searching for things is. I did manage to squeeze in a guided tree walk around the west end of the city centre and saw Ran at the arts centre as well, but really, such a waste of a day.
• 15 minutes a week research on the micro-business. See above: finally refiled all the paperwork from the filing cabinet files I didn't deal with last year, so I suppose that was about 45 minutes well spent.
  
• Practise the skills that I'm being taught at evening classes. Nuffink.

Dolphin1

Honey_Bear wrote: »

Morning Happy, Joey and Dolphin. :wave:

Hi Honey Bear :wave:.

Getting a bit lonely around here again

Sorry, there hasn't been much support from the sidelines, has there? Well, here you go...

rah rah rah

and I've got absolutely nothing to be proud of. I even at a whole box of Maltesers all by myself I was so disgrunted. Hey ho.

Hey ho indeed .

• Brain training. And once again sort of forgot. I actually spent the whole day searching for some rail tickets I'd booked early to get a fabby deal and remembered arriving in the post, never to be seen again. I went through every single file in the top drawer of the filing cabinet, piece of paper by piece of paper, tidied it all up, chucked out some bits I didn't need, moved on to the second drawer, searched slightly less diligently because I knew very little had been filed there in the last 10 days, went through the In Tray four times, filed everything in the filing tray, searched the Portugal box including all the paperwork, and then ... at 10.45 last night, found them, tucked in neatly behind the bowel screening paperwork - one of the joys of getting to 60. That's saved me £58+ because I'd have had to rebook them if I hadn't found them, so it was worthwhile but what a waste of time searching for things is. I did manage to squeeze in a guided tree walk around the west end of the city centre and saw Ran at the arts centre as well, but really, such a waste of a day.
  
  At least you managed to have a bit of a tidy up and get rid of a few bits :T!
  
• 15 minutes a week research on the micro-business.
  See above: finally refiled all the paperwork from the filing cabinet files I didn't deal with last year, so I suppose that was about 45 minutes well spent.
  
• Practise the skills that I'm being taught at evening classes. Nuffink.

I really should have set some targets for May myself but I just can't seem to find my motivation again so well done you for persevering.

joeyjimbles

I'm sorry - I've been a bit preoccupied with real life and trying to keep ahead of the apparent money drain that seems to have appeared in my life.

None of it is extravagance and it is all in the budget - just three things have appeared 3 months earlier than I was expecting. So rather than use the Emergency Funds I'm trying to make as much additional money/savings elsewhere to make up the shortfalls. I can then repurpose the planned savings elsewhere as these are not annual cost.

So I've become very firm friends with the Boost Your Income board and have been doing surveys, tasks, reviewing dreadful music etc in all my 'spare time'.

On a positive note, the weather has been so glorious that I've adored my dog walks recently and its so lovely to put the washing out and know that it will be beautifully dry and fragrant in a few hours.

HappyNow

Dolphin1 wrote: »

Glad to see you are dealing with Mr H's redundancy so positively.

Tomorrow will be the real test of my positivity when Mr H's wage doesn't get paid :cool:. Luckily (but not for him!) the builder didn't get chance to bill us for the work he's done on the rental house so we got a full month's rental income. We did think Mr H would be paid quite quickly for the work he's done for the administrators, but apparently it might take months. He'll get it eventually, but we could do with it now. My wage will cover the direct debits and the credit card minimums, plus feed us for a couple of weeks. By that time he will have got some JSA through and hopefully a big pile of redundancy cash too. It will all work out but I've got a constant uneasy feeling that I just can't shake - it's like 2011 all over again!

Honey_Bear wrote: »

Morning Happy, Joey and Dolphin. :wave:

Getting a bit lonely around here again and I've got absolutely nothing to be proud of. I even at a whole box of Maltesers all by myself I was so disgrunted. Hey ho.

• Brain training. And once again sort of forgot. I actually spent the whole day searching for some rail tickets I'd booked early to get a fabby deal and remembered arriving in the post, never to be seen again. I went through every single file in the top drawer of the filing cabinet, piece of paper by piece of paper, tidied it all up, chucked out some bits I didn't need, moved on to the second drawer, searched slightly less diligently because I knew very little had been filed there in the last 10 days, went through the In Tray four times, filed everything in the filing tray, searched the Portugal box including all the paperwork, and then ... at 10.45 last night, found them, tucked in neatly behind the bowel screening paperwork - one of the joys of getting to 60. That's saved me £58+ because I'd have had to rebook them if I hadn't found them, so it was worthwhile but what a waste of time searching for things is. I did manage to squeeze in a guided tree walk around the west end of the city centre and saw Ran at the arts centre as well, but really, such a waste of a day.
• 15 minutes a week research on the micro-business. See above: finally refiled all the paperwork from the filing cabinet files I didn't deal with last year, so I suppose that was about 45 minutes well spent.
  
• Practise the skills that I'm being taught at evening classes. Nuffink.

Nothing to be proud of? YOU ATE A FULL BOX OF MALTESERS. That is an achievement - loads of people couldn't do that on their own. Respect. I could probably do it faster than you.

Phew about finding the tickets, that could have been an expensive and embarrassing disaster. My lovely mum has just presented me with £250 of euros to take on holiday and I have hidden them in a secret spot in the house in case we should get burgled, and now I'm terrified I will do the same. Hmm. Good point. I'm going to email myself the hiding place, just in case.

A Portugal box sounds exciting, I want one. Not so much the bowel screening though.

joeyjimbles wrote: »

I'm sorry - I've been a bit preoccupied with real life and trying to keep ahead of the apparent money drain that seems to have appeared in my life.

None of it is extravagance and it is all in the budget - just three things have appeared 3 months earlier than I was expecting. So rather than use the Emergency Funds I'm trying to make as much additional money/savings elsewhere to make up the shortfalls. I can then repurpose the planned savings elsewhere as these are not annual cost.

So I've become very firm friends with the Boost Your Income board and have been doing surveys, tasks, reviewing dreadful music etc in all my 'spare time'.

I signed up for Yougov recently and I quite enjoy those. I joined a few other survey sites back in 2011 but found them so frustrating I gave up. I might have a wander over to Boost Your Income tomorrow - my income could certainly use a boost right now.

Major disaster on Monday when I decided I'd better check when my car MOT was due, only to discover it ran out five weeks ago and I'd been driving it illegally:eek:!! Luckily the garage could fit it in today and it has actually PASSED with absolutely no work required and cost just £48!

HappyNow

Update for the last three days, which means I have forgotten most of it.......

Make every penny count. Yep, still doing well with this, more through necessity than enthusiasm.
Eat healthily on a tight budget. I seem to be comfort eating crap. I must get a grip on this urgently because it's only four weeks to our holiday. My summer clothes are too tight and I absolutely will not be buying any more.
Use the fitbit I still love this and it does show that I'm active but I have completely stopped entering my food into it, mainly because I know I am eating far too much.....
Neat feet Nope!

Hmm, that catch up shows I need to try a bit harder. I'm going to focus on it properly tomorrow.

Honey_Bear

Dolphin1 wrote: »

I really should have set some targets for May myself but I just can't seem to find my motivation again so well done you for persevering.

Tbh I'm not getting anywhere and I'm really, really puzzled by how little I'm managing. Yet another chocolate orange bit the dust yesterday on top of a tube of fruit pastilles to say nothing of all the other things I'm unmotivated to do.

joeyjimbles wrote: »

So I've become very firm friends with the Boost Your Income board and have been doing surveys, tasks, reviewing dreadful music etc in all my 'spare time'.

Thank you for my rah rahs! I hope you make loads of dosh and the temporay cashflow hiccup gets sorted really quickly.

On a positive note, the weather has been so glorious that I've adored my dog walks recently and its so lovely to put the washing out and know that it will be beautifully dry and fragrant in a few hours.

I'd be the same but sadly the day we were in France and the dogsitter looked after Kelpie she took him on a very long walk. He still hasn't fully recovered. I finally took him to the vet's last week after a couple of really bad nights and he's been diagnosed with arthritis in his hips (no surprise) and his spine: an unpleasant surprise, and not a lot of fun for the dog. She's prescribed him some green-lipped mussel extract stuff but that takes 2/4 or 6 weeks to kick in depending on the dog, so he's on anti-inflamatories and very short walks. I cannot tell you how frustrated I am - every morning I was walking him around The Citadel capturing the view of Plymouth Sound, past the West Pier and Cap'n Jasper's, through The Parade and up the lane back to our house. It was a glorious walk all the way through the winter and would spectacular right now - and I'm missing it all. It wasn't the dogsitter's fault; I hadn't warned her how finely balanced his exercise regime was because I didn't really know, but very frustrating nonetheless.

But yeah, laundry is getting done. I know I should be pleased because it's been a long cold wet winter but - Oh good.

Honey_Bear

HappyNow wrote: »

By that time he will have got some JSA through and hopefully a big pile of redundancy cash too. It will all work out but I've got a constant uneasy feeling that I just can't shake - it's like 2011 all over again!

But this time you know that the money will come in, and it will cover the necessities. I know that uneasy feeling, but the reality of it is that when the vet's etc bill arrives they won't expect payment for a couple of weeks at least, and then if the redundancy money still hasn't arrived, one discreet phone call to explain the situation would be met with great understanding. And if not, it's time to find a new vet.

Nothing to be proud of? YOU ATE A FULL BOX OF MALTESERS. That is an achievement - loads of people couldn't do that on their own. Respect. I could probably do it faster than you.

But you didn't and I did so I am a bad person and you are a good, saintly person. And I feel very uncomfortable in the tummy area this morning.

Phew about finding the tickets, that could have been an expensive and embarrassing disaster. My lovely mum has just presented me with £250 of euros to take on holiday and I have hidden them in a secret spot in the house in case we should get burgled, and now I'm terrified I will do the same. Hmm. Good point. I'm going to email myself the hiding place, just in case.

I like the sound of your mum, and nifty tip about the email.

A Portugal box sounds exciting, I want one. Not so much the bowel screening though.

The Portugal box is the repositry of all things packed to go to stay elsewhere twice earlier in the year and then slotted straight into the next stay away box, plus tickets, passports, travel insurance, health cards etc. I can't be doing with starting from scratch each time. And all my holey knickers are in there so I don't have to bring them back, etc.

I'm delighted to be able to say that the screening result came back and put a smile on my face. (The screening programme is for people over 60. The whole thing was done and dusted within four weeks of my 60th birthday. When the NHS gets something right, it really is impressive.)

I signed up for Yougov recently and I quite enjoy those. I joined a few other survey sites back in 2011 but found them so frustrating I gave up. I might have a wander over to Boost Your Income tomorrow - my income could certainly use a boost right now.

I started getting junk phone calls after I signed up to do surveys, so that was the end of that. Does everyone else just ignore their phones?

Major disaster on Monday when I decided I'd better check when my car MOT was due, only to discover it ran out five weeks ago and I'd been driving it illegally:eek:!! Luckily the garage could fit it in today and it has actually PASSED with absolutely no work required and cost just £48!

Wow, that's seriously scarey! Just goes to show that you've probably got a bit too much on your plate and need a holiday.

HappyNow wrote: »

Update for the last three days, which means I have forgotten most of it.......

Make every penny count. Yep, still doing well with this, more through necessity than enthusiasm.

But you're doing it, so High Five. *smack*

Eat healthily on a tight budget. I seem to be comfort eating crap. I must get a grip on this urgently because it's only four weeks to our holiday. My summer clothes are too tight and I absolutely will not be buying any more.

Snap. I really, really need to find the motivation to stop eating chocolate and sugary stuff.

Use the fitbit I still love this and it does show that I'm active but I have completely stopped entering my food into it, mainly because I know I am eating far too much.....

... which is why I've skipped the expense of buying one. This way I don't have anything to feel guilty about. Result!

Neat feet Nope!

I clipped my hooves yesterday so that's done for another month. God I hate doing them.

Hmm, that catch up shows I need to try a bit harder. I'm going to focus on it properly tomorrow.

Very Scarlett O'Hara: 'Tomorrow is another day.' Style!

Honey_Bear

A shiny new page, I believe.

Morning Happy, Joey and Dolphin. :wave:

• Brain training. And once again sort of forgot. In fact, I probably did remember but I was busy catching up on all the radio programmes I'd missed, so technically I didn't have time.
• 15 minutes a week research on the micro-business.Nufink.
  
• Practise the skills that I'm being taught at evening classes. Nufink.

Honestly, I'm at the stage of thinking I need to abandon all my May targets - which need doing but I'm not, so I need to throw in the towel. New target, one and only:

• Stop eating sugar.

joeyjimbles

Honey Bear - I don't get phone calls but to be fair if asked to give a phone number I do typically give my old work number from 15 years ago - I know its a dead number so it isn't that awful.

Prolific Academic, Panelbase and Populus Live are all good survey panels - the latter sometimes will screen you out, but the first one never does. I tend to make at least £5 a week from PA and a good £10-15 in the first two terms of the academic year. Despite the name you don't need to be a student to do their surveys.

Sorry about Kelpie - sounds like zinc is what he is missing given the supplement (I'm allergic to mussels and cannot take zinc as it is so often derived from fish). I hope he gets better soon.