PennyGrabber's Path to Pecuniary Positiveness!!

PennyGrabber

Well, on my path to pecuniary positivenss, I have now finished and emailed myself the application form for a new job. It's at my current school, but is a teaching role rather than being a TA.

Positives for today:
- wrote my application letter
- met my friend's baby boy and had a lovely cuddle
- went to church and helped someone in the throes of labour
- I asked the churchwarden if he would be an additional reference for me, and he was delighted that I wanted to go back to teaching. "I've always felt you were a gifted teacher, and that your talent is being wasted with what you're doing now." Oh yeah!!!
- made a cottage pie for my friend with the baby, so they have a night where they don't have to 'cook', and there was enough left over for us to have some too. I'm just abotu to microwave mine, so watch a BBT now I've finished the form. I'm on series 3 now!!
- Finally ordered myself a panny from the forest. Was saving up for a while, then decided to just do it. The amount I'll save with buying the wrights packets will effectively bring its cost down, and I will be able to buy loads of those mixes before the voucher runs out. 18p for a loaf of cheese and onion bread? Oh, ok then!!! -5p for two ciabatta loaves? If I must!!
- DD is out for tea with a friend tomorrow, so I gave ds free choice of dinner. He chose beans on toast! God love him! I think I can stretch to that!
- paid the swimming lessons bill, now just tap and football to go!

Been a long one today - up and about since half 6, so i'm off now to eat, and then sleep! Got to get back into the routine of school tomorrow - arghhhh!!

Night all,

PG x

PennyGrabber

So, I handed in the application form, and had a sneaky look at the one at the top of the pile. It's from a friend's friend, for the same job as me! I knew other people would apply for it, obviously, but this is hard! Still, I can only do my best.

I've spent some time today googling various recipes, like english muffins, crumpets, scotch pancakes, bagels, hot water pastry, etc etc etc, and feel good about improving my repertoire of recipes with this info. May even have a play tonight with one of the recipes, to get the ball rolling!

Checked OLB, and that's fine. Blinkin well should be too, as I had to transfer money over this week to cover my overspending... :mad::mad:

Tried to print out the wrights voucher today at work, it wouldn't download. I emailed it to myself, and cba to find the link... Anyhoo, I have now saved it to my flash drive, and I'll print it from there tomorrow. That means I'll be able to get some of that bread mix tomorrow, as I won't have the children. As the voucher runs until the end of the year, my plan is to buy what I'll use for the rest of the year as I go, and then do a massive stock up in December, to get long dates for bread for next year! That's ms thinking ahead!

Positives for today:
- my toothache has stopped, thought I was going to have to go to the dentist, so that's a pecuniary result!
- ds had beans on toast for dinner, and I shall have something equally as cheap, will make some baked bean pasties with the leftover beans (he only has half a tin)
-two children (and no grown ups!) noticed that I'd had my hair cut...
- my teacher said I looked nice and rested. I actually put some makeup on this morning, usually only ever happens when I go to a wedding, so pleased that she thought that, must have meant it was a natural look. I'm not very confident as far as makeup application goes.
- handed in the job app, and a friend who's going for the other job, but who I have worked with, is going to come over next Tuesday evening, to go over interview questions with each other!

Tonight, I shall
- tidy the kitchen, it's a right mess
- maybe try a new recipe, or at least make the pasties
- make up the lunches for tomorrow
- have some dinner, before 10pm tonight, unlike last night!!
- NOT buy anything on the internet, unless it's a free book for my kindle!
- have a bit of a look through my fridge and freezer, to start making some headway/plans for headway...

Still need to stock up on stamps, couldn't get any at the weekend, so will keep trying.

Question: I don't have much worktop space, and kind of want to have my breadmaker out all of the time to make sure it's well used. The thing is, do I then move my food processor (which I got from a friend, put in the cupboard under the stairs and have never used) into it's space in the kitchen cupboard, or do I put it out of the top? Would I use it as much as I think I would? It's a fancy one, with dough hooks etc, and I could make pastry in it etc, but would I look at it, or would I use it?!?! Then again, if I left it in the cupboard, would I ever get it out?! Help please!

Hope all are well!

PG x

cleggie

Hi PG
i agree with sally, i would eBay the food processor. But if you want to keep it, then i woud out it away in the cupboard as you'd probably use it less than the breadmaker?

What new recipes will you be trying out? I have printed out a few over the last few days, and have about 50 in my 'to try' folder, LOL. How on earth do you make pasties? I'd love to try it and then freeze them, but am clueless!

Glad to hear your toothache has gone

Long_tall_sally

OOh good luck on the interview! When is it?

PennyGrabber

Hi! It's next Thursday, so got over a week to panic abotu it! And I have the children this weekend... And my mum is visiting...and I'm having a birthday party on Saturday... And it's my birthday on Monday... And I'm being observed on Tuesday!!!

Stress? What's that then?!!!!!!?!!!!!?!!!

PennyGrabber

Hi,

Well, my planned nsd turned into an sd, when I realised I was making parsley sauce, but still need milk for cereals tomorrow, and I am in the middle of my last loo roll! Milk I could've managed without, but loo roll?!

Still, those were the only things I bought, and so I was pleased with myself. It's much more well-behaved than I've been recently!

May not post very much between now and next Thursday, as time is really short to get all my prep work done for the interview and the other observation, so please don't think I'm ignoring you all! It's a necessary evil, for the chance of more money, therefore paying debts off earlier...

Take care all,

PG x

cleggie

Good luck for the interview PG, i am sure you'll do well.

Suffolk_lass

Hiya, you sound well. My first day at home since returning from hols (hellish busy all week) and just taking a break from my list of the day (waiting three calls back).

Don't let things get to you - it doesn't sound as though you are, you just have lots to think about (I write them down then there's space in my brain to think about one thing at a time without the competition because I know I won't forget the other things). If you do start feeling stressed you might try my old yoga solution - Keep calm and remember to breathe deeply and slowly 3 times as an immediate yoga relief from stress/concern/panic - count the breaths - 1-2-3 in and 1-2-3 out - it's marvellous preparation just before you are interviewed!

I really hope you get it. You are so obviously bright and organised and insightful - perfect material from where I sit.

Re the food processor. I definitely would not sell mine. I keep it in a cupboard and use it in fits and bursts. I will blitze multiple batches of crumble and freeze in plastic bags, for example. And whenever I buy cheap cheese I grate half (naturally we are talking several packs here, not half a pack) using the FP and freeze that in bags too. It is also brilliant for all cakes except fruit (chops the dried stuff too much) and pastry. BTW I saw an excellent tip to make up pastry minus the water and freeze that then just use from frozen with the water when you need it. I'll be trying that in different coloured bags to the crumble ones. n contrast I do keep my artisan mixer on the work-top with the dough hook and bowl as I use this for breadmaking (as I have a range) but if I had made enough cupboard room I would clear the decks and get stuff out as I need it, then put it away afterwards. I fancy you like your gadgets, like me so maybe the answer is to make room in a cupboard in the kitchen rather than under the stairs - so you remember to use the FP instead of hiding it away! I love mine...

Take care
SL

PennyGrabber

Thanks SL - I can't reply at the mo, as busy, but will think about what you've said and get back to you!

ps - thanks for saying nice stuff!

PG x

PennyGrabber

I made bendy soup on Thursday night. We had boiled ham for dinner, and I usually save the water, put it in the fridge and think 'I'll do something with that later...'. Well, Thurs I actually made some soup while dinner was cooking! I chopped up loads of veg while making the parsley sauce for dinner, and then just shoved the veg into the pan as soon as I'd taken the ham out. Then, when I took the plates back to the kitchen after dinner, it was done! (I added some lentils and stock cubes too.)

I had some for lunch on Friday at work, and my friends looked at it and said it looked nice, what type was it? I replied that it was bendy soup, and they said they'd never heard of it, what was in it?! I said you know, all the bendy veg from the bottom of the fridge! They all rotfl!!!

It's generally the only type of soup I make! This one was a carrot, an onion, a leek, a swede, two spuds and some celery. Was lush! Serving it to my mum and brother for lunch tomorrow. Hopefully she'll approve; either that or she'll rave about my brother who's so amazing and so skint but makes such wonderful food... Of course, she's bringing the brother who had depression so much worse than me. I'm kind of the failure of the family, never done anything quite as good as my brothers... And my sister in law is like the daughter she never had, the way she raves about her. I'm so looking forward to them visiting for my birthday!!

Whoops, I digress. Sorry.

Guess I'm off th bed then.

Night all,

Pg x

ps - spent £17 odd in a$da today, got loads of fruit for the week so no need to shop for a while.

pps - I'm kind of in a funk at the moment. That's not good for the interview prep! Hopefully tomorrow will be a nice day, and I won't feel bad about myself. I'll report back!

ppps - Positives:
- had two set of friends round. First for a picnic and a walk, second for a cuppa. Really nice to see them. They're joint friends with my ex, so it can be a touch hard, but today was lovely
- lovely cuddles from ds. Think he was tired, but still, they were lovely cuddles!
- only had to spend abotu five mins tidying before people visited. Time was, I didn't want people to come over because of the tidying involved, so I felt really proud of myself today

That's all I've got, as ds woke me up twice in the night so I'm cream crackered! Night!