Keeping up appearances.......

joeyjimbles

All paperwork finished, receipts scanned and a rather to the point though polite email to the account manager to comment that its really not acceptable to have a job that requires £300 spend on expenses when they take 4-6 weeks to reimburse. I can only assume that the client has some say in this because they pay the job fee within a week. I'll have to leave quite a large buffer in my account for this job in future.
Have managed to get to the middle of the month with all the accounts looking reasonably healthy but very aware that boys break up next week and then it will get more expensive. Added to which OH is travelling for work and for interviews, both of which will be reimbursed but is another drain.

Dolphin1

And I'm back with an update for the last few days...

1) To have 14 NCDs - No NCDs so still on 5 NCDs for July. I really need to try and get a few more in now that the visitors are leaving.
2) To walk an average of 10,000 steps per day over each week (so 70,000 total for each week) - Success, 70,084 for the last week so just over 10,000 per day average. I may have a slow start this week though because I am shattered.
3) To put my light out by 11pm every night including weekends - Light out before 11pm all three nights but it has been so warm that I have been waking up numerous times during the night.

HappyNow

Hello, just popping in with an update, having refreshed my memory on my July targets!

• Keep the super-tight budget going Yep, good score on that one because there's no money to do anything else. A friend at work brought me in some home-grown veggies and potatoes so they've been a healthy staple. I returned the favour with some accidentally grown gooseberries. No idea where the bush came from but it's in my garden so it must be mine. Someone probably gave it to us years ago and it's just been building up to giving fruit.
• Use my fitbit every day Well it's permanently on my wrist and I recharge it once a week, so I suppose I am technically using it.............
• Seven hours in bed each night I am managing to stay in bed but I'm not sleeping for all seven. Too much on my mind, but not nightmare-type stuff and certainly nothing that NEEDS my attention at 3 am!

Off to the Job Centre with Mr H this afternoon for a meeting with his job coach about getting the self-employed work underway so hopefully might know a bit more after that. It's very exciting and he has had a couple of people offering him work already, but not enough to make a regular wage.

Dolphin1

HappyNow wrote: »

Hello, just popping in with an update, having refreshed my memory on my July targets!

:hello: HappyNow, it's great to hear from you!

• Keep the super-tight budget going Yep, good score on that one because there's no money to do anything else. A friend at work brought me in some home-grown veggies and potatoes so they've been a healthy staple. I returned the favour with some accidentally grown gooseberries. No idea where the bush came from but it's in my garden so it must be mine. Someone probably gave it to us years ago and it's just been building up to giving fruit.
  
  Oooh, lucky you to be given the veg and potatoes, wish I had a friend that grew them and then gave them away. All of the reward without the work . Sounds like a good deal getting rid of the gooseberries too <bleurgh>.
  
  
• Use my fitbit every day Well it's permanently on my wrist and I recharge it once a week, so I suppose I am technically using it.............
  
  :rotfl: love it!
  
  
• Seven hours in bed each night I am managing to stay in bed but I'm not sleeping for all seven. Too much on my mind, but not nightmare-type stuff and certainly nothing that NEEDS my attention at 3 am!
  
  Soooo annoying right?

Off to the Job Centre with Mr H this afternoon for a meeting with his job coach about getting the self-employed work underway so hopefully might know a bit more after that. It's very exciting and he has had a couple of people offering him work already, but not enough to make a regular wage.

Hope it went well with the job coach and fantastic news that there is interest already :j!

Dolphin1

Update for yesterday...

1) To have 14 NCDs - None eaten so now on 6 NCDs for July.
2) To walk an average of 10,000 steps per day over each week (so 70,000 total for each week) - Just over 8,000 steps, not a bad start to the week considering how tired I was feeling.
3) To put my light out by 11pm every night including weekends - Light out at 11pm.

Honey_Bear

I feel as though I'm rather letting all sides down at the moment but I'm so mentally frazzled by dogs, sleeping arrangements, unexpected visitors, accidental reunions, organising stuff without understanding how it fell to me .... most odd how it all adds up - that I don't feel I have anything to contribute. Rah rah rah, though.

Hurarh for self-employment! In the short term it probably won't result in anything that meets previous salaried work but it brings some money in, is gratifying in terms of self-fulfillment and has the potential to be something more. I've been living hand to mouth on the stuff I do for about 15 years, and I couldn't, simply couldn't, go back to work for someone else. (I say that, all things being equal - we can never be that confident things will stay on an even keel.) I do keep a vague eye on sits vac and I have applied for a few jobs that I thought might be interesting that I knew I could do, but in the end I was rather relieved they came to nothing. About 30 years ago I first went self-employed and stayed that way for four years and absolutely loved it. The only reason I gave that up was to boost my qualifications and I always hankered after giving up paid employment after that. Good luck to Mr Happy. I hope he finds it suits him and he establishes a niche market for his skills. Word of mouth is more important than anything else getting off the ground and he sounds like a thoroughly decent sort of a bloke so things look positive from here.

Dolphin I think you're doing amazingly well, keeping going, self-motivating. I may need to join you in on the NCD front fairly soon as I'm now back up to last year's old target weight and it feels pretty lumpy in the tummy department. The boobs are growing too. The idea was to lose a couple of inches off my waist this year and that's moved in the wrong direction which is hardly surprising as I seem to have a sugarfest every day. Tsk tsk. See how much more worthy you are as a human being? I feel like pondlife in comparison.

Dolphin1

:hello: Honey Bear, I thought you had gone a bit quiet, it sounds like you are under quite a lot of pressure. Without knowing all the details, can I advise that perhaps you could share some of the load with your 'unexpected visitors', they can really make a lot of extra work otherwise.

Thanks for your confidence in me but I'm not sure that I deserve it as the sugar cravings returned yesterday so the chocolate came out. We are hoping to go on holiday in September and I was really hoping to lose a few lbs before then, not for a beach bod (that would be impossible) but just to feel like I can do a bit more. I will persevere with my targets and see if I can get in the zone.

Anyway, update for yesterday...

1) To have 14 NCDs - Chocolate eaten so still on 6 NCDs for July. My target of 14 NCDs is starting to look very challenging indeed.
2) To walk an average of 10,000 steps per day over each week (so 70,000 total for each week) - Despite the ridiculous heat, I managed just over 11,000 steps.
3) To put my light out by 11pm every night including weekends - Light out at 10.50pm.

joeyjimbles

I will emerge from the swamp that my front garden became - 10 minutes before it was parched and after I have standing water - to say Dolphin is doing fabulously, and Honey you are coping with lots of extraneous stuff that wouldn't be what you would choose, but you are still coping. Its lovely when we come on here and cheer each other on, but we do live in Real Life and it has a habit of provoking us when we least expect it. And then we have to deal with it until the next 'new normal' comes along. I'm sorry its all feeling a bit much though, and agree with Dolphin that you might need to stop being the hostess with the mostest and allow your guests to help, or persuade them to if they are not already offering.
Personally, I'm not sure what is going to happen next in Real Life. OH is probably about to make a job change and that will necessarily impact on where we live, how we live, DSs etc. Can't say I'm looking forward to it, but its going to happen regardless so I will have to deal with it. Right now I am playing Cookie Jam on FB however.
Hope Mr H had a constructive meeting and that self employment is still looking viable.

Dolphin1

:hello: joeyjimbles, it sounds like a very stressful time for you. I am terrible at dealing with uncertainty, it makes me very anxious so I can imagine you must be feeling a bit on edge with all of those potential changes in the near future. Fingers and everything else crossed that it all works out for you though.

Update for yesterday...

1) To have 14 NCDs - None eaten so now on 7 NCDs for July :j.
2) To walk an average of 10,000 steps per day over each week (so 70,000 total for each week) - Just over 11,000 again :j.
3) To put my light out by 11pm every night including weekends - Light out at 11.00pm :j.

joeyjimbles

Thanks Dolphin but in truth, I am not coping with it at all merely going along with it. I wish I could say that age and experience have taught me not to worry, but the reality is I have little or no control over what changes will happen or at least the initial ones so I can't do anything yet.
I've had a few 'what if' moments but its all so completely up in the air that its almost too abstract to panic about. DSs finish school today, and I have work to complete this weekend as well as decorating/tidying to finish - that will do to be going on with.
Well done on targets - Hello Happy and Honey - hope you're both ok?