1 Year on

weeclick

GreenSaints wrote: »

Hi

Just popped in to say good luck with your job or jobs!

Hope your DF journey goes well

Thank you it means alot!

weeclick

Well the new job is going well. A big firm in terms of the work they offer but a small firm in terms of staffing levels. Only 4 of us in the office, myself included and so has been a lovely place and a great opportunity to make some new friends already, although I must admit they do have some weird tendancies which I havent got used to. For a start the owner has a clear obsession with cleaning, the office has nothing out of place, no paperwork laying around, infact when I got there I didnt even have a pen or sticky pad! Theres one 1 photo on each persons desk and it ends there. Its no bad thing though it gives a great impression when you walk in but the weirdness continues. No drinks allowed in the office - I say weird because working in an office most of my career Im used to 50 cups a day but at least this way I will lose weight quicker, I now only have 1 cup of tea in the morning and they drink so fast I burn my mouth and have no interest in a hot drink for the rest of the day lol.

I initially thought at the start of the week I would only be there for 1 week. I am brought in to do 1 assignment and wants its done so am I, but i was aware of this from the start so I don't mind! Looks like though theres more work than I first thought and so can see this stretching for 2 or 3 weeks which is a good steady wage anyway!

Better still between yesterday and today I have been offered a further 6 yes SIX job interviews from applications I have sent in. I am so thrilled especially in the local economy at the minute, some people are lucky to get one! The "big" one is on monday, for a large bank and in the career I am wanting to not only join but to study this year! Jobs are a bit like buses though you wait forever for one and then 3 turn up at once, Im not complaining though its nice to be in a position to negotiate a better salary and pick and choose based on travel, wages and job satisfaction, its a first for me!

Im hoping once I get my first wage from the job next week I can begin tackling my debts again. I have a £500 overdraft I would love to clear and another £350 due for wedding albums when I used to run a wedding photography business. The album money can be taken from savings and replaced easily enough I am still owed £250 from 1 client (although its also a friend so cant imagine the money coming in quick they are already due it for nearly 2 years!) and a further £65 from a commercial client and another £75 froma clients mum so I can easily replace the £350 and more in time!

I have had to pay out for a taxi for work everyday this week which I hadnt thought about when I took the job. In total Im spending about £17 a week on the taxi for one way each morning and my mum picks me up in the evening. I would love to walk as it would only be a 30 minute walk from home in the mornings but with my foot I can barely walk from the car to the desk. £17 isnt too bad as Im earning an extra £20 a week compared to my last job so it at least covers the taxi and Im closer to home so I cant put a price on being home by 10 past 5 every evening compared to 7!

Got some bad news from HMRC claiming my tax return is late even though I was advised last year I wasnt required to do a return this year as I have been in full time employmnt rather than self employed. I have appealed and given my reasons which I hope is acceptable, if not theres an automatic fine of £100 and a further £10 for every additional day its late - it could cost me a fortune!!

Anyway going to push that to the back of my mind until I hear back and just hope for the best!

Going to enjoy another big clear out this weekend so no doubt more updates of my "delcuttter of junk"

Hope youve all had a good start to the week!

mamato3

Just wanted to say a quck hello and that it sounds like things are really starting to happen for you I will keep my fingers crossed for you for all your job interviews:) I'm sure one of them will be perfect for you! But its great that the temp work is going well.

My Sis also got the same letter from HMRC as she was self-employed last year and then employed this year apparently she filled the previous form out incorrectly and they were going to fine her £100 then the £10 a day - thankfully she got it sorted out , she got some sort of extension on it, so hopefully you will to.

Hope your declutterings going well!

weeclick

hey mamato3 - I hope so to! I have actually been employed since last year so have definitely paid my taxes and my business never made enough money for part time work never mind anything else lol. I have sent off the appeal form so hopefully I will get some news back from that, until then I am paying the same fine as your sister!!

weeclick

unfortunately I took ill Thursday night. Was woke up at 4.30am with a sore throat, the type that you cant possibly fall alseep with it and so I had a restless night. I had to call in sick on Friday morning which isn't a great end to the first week but they understood which is just as well because I could barely lift my head never mind having to concentrate on spreadsheets all day! Got some TLC from mum which was nice, had lunch brought round and a nice warm cup of tea as well as HM bringing me up a tea and water bottle at 6.30am - never been grateful for such good family and friends in all my life!

Looks like I have a heavy cold as it turns out, sore throat, earache, blocked nose, roaring temp, headache and every inch of my arms and legs are in agony so beechams and vits all weekend!

I have my big interview on Monday. I am so nervous! For a start if I was fortunate to get it it will be an annual increase in salary by £3,000 - £4,000 compared to my last job! Also its permanent which is a great bonus right now! Its directly in the city centre so good transport to and from and as its within the financial field I can imagine their staff is well looked after. Apart from all the practical stuff it's exactly what I want in a career, a job I know I would wake up every morning excited to start the day! I hope my efforts pay off, I am having a full pamper tomorrow so I look nice and squeaky clean! The recruiter who I have been in contact with since the beginning of the process (I have passed 3 out of the 4 stages of application, the interview on Monday being the last stage!) called on Friday to wish me luck and reassured me that I am what they are looking for, I have great previous experience and have all qualifications they are looking for. I guess by this stage they already know what my experience levels are and they should have a fair idea what I am capable of so now its all about personality and making sure I fit their brand!

I went to a local farmers market today and boy did I make a saving or two! I said that this week I would focus on our shopping bill as after rent its our biggest weekly cost. In tescos or asdas we would easily spend £70 per week in an average shop and by average I mean the basics, no luxuries and no fancy brands just the shops own make! (I have noticed our bill has become massive since eating more fruit and veg rather than frozen meals which is wrong on so many levels!)

Anyway today at the farmers market we set off and withdrew the usual £70 that we would spend in tesos and set that as our budget and did a comparison shop. Well........wow! We got extra salmon fillets, a few new veg to sample and a slice of cake each and we still made a saving of £24.50! It would of been a saving of £39.50 only we had to go to a supermarket for toiletry stuff, cleaning products and bread as it worked out cheaper here. What surprised me was the few items we bought at the supermarket cost the same as all our fruit and veg for the week!

I am definitely going back next weekend and Im sure we will make an even bigger saving as I cant see us needing as much meat next week. Working out meal plans we have enough meat to last 10 evening meals and only cost £13! Not only that at the fruit and veg stall the lovely owner not only introduced us to "new Veg" (well new to me as I used to hate veg!) and told us exactly how to cook each one. Better still she gave us free purple brocilli, yellow plums and cherry tomatoes because we got chating away and I guess she wants us back!

So weekly food shop now down to £45 instead of £70 have to be happy with that - just under 50% saving!

Our veg seeds that I planted last weekend has really taken off we have 11 brocilli, 2 caulifower and 1 spinach sprouting so far and have been given tips about to how speed up the carrots too so I will try that out this week if I can!

To top the whole week off I also got an email saying I had won £50 experience day voucher from a comp I entered last month. I dont do them as often now (infact have done none this week) so its a nice wee boost and I might enter a few more tonight and try my luck!

Hope everyone else had a good end to the week and an even better weekend - I have a slice of homemade after eight cake with my name on it right now! Cya!

mamato3

Yummers homemade After Eight cake my fav I'm sure it was bliss

Hope your feeling better - I'm sure you will be super shiny & sparkley for your interview on Monday after your pamper day! You'll make a fab first impression:) Will have my fingers crossed for you!

Sounds like you had a good day at the Farmers Market its always good to support our local farmers and community and of course make a saving:)

Have a good Saturday evening and hope you get rid of your nasty cold.

weeclick

Hey mamato3 - I *think* the cake was nice! I ate it but I lost my tastebuds so was just like eating a plain cake but my eyes certainly enjoyed it lol.

Lastnight was awful, and much worse than the night previous. Just after dinner (which was lovely btw - steak ciabatta, veg, homemade chunky chips and a peppercorn sauce. It was a rare treat as we had sirloin steak instead of the usual £2.10 round steak for 2 portions. We only got sirloin steak because it was included in our meat pack.) I took earache again, and this quickly travelled down my jaw, into my neck, shoulder, shoulder blade and down my back! Tried hot water bottles, paracetamol, hot bath, went to bed early and even tried 2 tramadol with no luck! I was ready for callin out the doctor in the middle of the night when I eventually nodded off at 4am through pure tiredness no doubt! Woke up this morning with a sore head and has been that way ever since but I can handle that!

After eventually getting up at 10.30 this morning I got stuck into designing a wedding album ( I was a wedding photographer in a previous life) I shocked myself and made a world record for myself and designed an album from scratch within 5 hours - thats all 42 pages!! normally takes 4 times that amount if not longer but then usually i also have the phone ringing every 5 minutes so just shows what you can achieve when you have earache I switch the phone off to save it from ringing haha! I also managed to get up to date with all emails and sent off a 2nd album to our supplier.

I was considering giving the business up as I can never divide my times fairly between the full time job, the business and then to add studying to it this summer would be mad but I have come up with a solution of offer a new package which will save not only time but a bit of profit too so hoepfully I can keep the business on part time and whatever money I make from it will be put aside striaght into savings and still be able to live comfortably from my full time job! (It should work in theory anyway!)

I "Pre released" the new package idea on my facebook tonight amongst friends and obviously asked them to spread the word. Already within an hour I have had 2 interested brides email me so a good sign already!

I spent the rest of the evening getting ready for the big interview tomorrow which I keep harping on about! i'm now all ready, clothes ready and ironed, all relevant documents they have asked me to bring with are in my bag, train timetable has been planned, money ready for fare, read over general interview prep email and once Ive finished my DFD I will go onto their website for the final company read up before bed. If I dont get the job after all the build up and the extra effort put into the prep I will be gutted and theres no point in lying about it - it is, well on paper anyway, the job of my dreams!!

Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend and that the start of the week proves to be a fruitful one for you all!

weeclick

todays interview went awful! Lets start there and quickly move on. I was up nice and early, had everything prepared from lastnight all I should of done was get up put on my freshly ironed and carefully selected clothes, eat breakfast and go to work for an hour first. Then course life never works out as planned! Our cat decided that today of all days and after 5 years of having her that she would use our utility room as a toilet instead of the clean cat litter just upstairs! So with 15 minutes before the taxi arrived I was still in my pjs running around trying to bleach everywhere and putting breakfast on and then with 5 minutes to spare decided I no longer liked the top I had carefully selected more than 24 hours in advance so raced upstairs to change!

Anyway I get to work and get the cold shoulder. I don't know why. I always said from last week that office was weird! I said good morning when I first walked in and was met by tumbleweed! I was never so glad when it reached 10.20 and I had to go! So I had everything mapped out, the exact times of trains what time I would arrive how long I had between train station and interview building - all perfect. Even greeting the interviewer went well, didnt trip over bags or a loose tile in the reception area (a small victory for me at this point) Even I would even go as far as to say that the first 5 minutes of the questioning went well until BANG they start the next 15 minutes asking me very technical questions, very job specific, and very much a large missed out chunk which really the recruitment agency could of warned me of! I instead decided to be honest I just said I wasnt sure, I had a stab in the dark at some questions and actually got them right! It probably looks bad saying I dont know but by this point I already knew the job wasnt going to be mine so thought why waste half an hour talking rubbish! And just to top it all off its not even the job they describe on paper! I guess I have just seen a new take on the meaning "actions speak louder than words!"

oh well!

So got back to my home town and met my mum, granny and nephew for a bite of lunch when I experienced the worst ever popping noise in my ear, the pain shot right through my brain and out the other side! I phoned the doctor who wanted to see me striaght away. Great, had to phone the current temp job and tell them I wasnt coming bac in today, Im sure that went down like a lead balloon! I chickend out of course and emailed the agency I am employed by. They phoned striaght away (probably to hear from my voice if I was sincere or not!) I hope they soon realised I was sincere after about the 100th time of me saying "sorry what was that?" "could you speak up" "can you just repeat that please" "What?"

Get to the doctors to find the ONLY doctor in a building with easily over 100 GP rooms is the very one doctor my family has a bad history with - great - just a great way to end a perfect day! I shouldnt be scarcastic really as he was quite nice - took one look of my ear and said I had developed a really bad ear infection and that the loud "popping" noise was my ear drum leaving me partially deaf in my left ear! :O Will take around a month for my earing to come back

Anyway the story thankfully gets better from here! I had got free cinema tickets (thanks to a great thread on this wonderful forum) to see "We bought a zoo" can highly encourage everyone to see it as a treat!! Great film and better still when its free! Will be on the look out for more of those now! We went to McD's as a treat, just a drive through and striaght home. Whole night out cost just under £14 instead of the usual £75 - £100 which would of been more like us a year ago!

So now Im going to hide under the covers for the next 8 hours and pray that tomorrow turns out alot better.

I would give anything to avoid that office tomorrow, but for the sake of the £200 (yes thats really all I am left with every week!!) its worth facing them, thnkfully only temp and will only have to put up with it for another 2 weeks!!

weeclick

Ok so old me kicked in this morning but with good cause! These new antibiotics the doctor gave me aparently dont agree with my stomach! I also then weighed up the options. Take 2 days off to get better, to self evaluate the situation with work and money, to avoide grumpy people when I dont feel well myself and also allows me the time I need to go to an interview tomorrow which the agency werent originally keen on me going to (amazing how people get when they realise my own financial happiness and security could effect their bonus!)

So I realised the £140 I will lose from this week will in the long run pay off, in the hope these other job interviews will become something bigger! I applied for another 10 jobs this morning and striaght away 2 people contacted me, 1 I have to meet this afternoon the other is sending out an application form.

To keep on the right side with work and hopefully rein back some money I suggested doing my work from home between today and tomorrow. The agency loved the idea and asked me to phone my manager to check if it was ok. I phoned but got no answer so have left a voicemail. It will at least give me one days wage back if I can sort something out by tomorrow Im thinking! And I can still sneak off to my interview without them knowing

I checked our veg today and I am so pleased!! We now have 25 brocilli plants, 2 beetroot, 3 carrot, 6 cauliflower and a spinach now growing!! Havent checked potatoes yet but imagine they will take a little longer to start showing anything anyway!

mamato3

Sorry your still feeling poorly hope your temp job lets you work from home so you don't lose out on to much money.

Never worry about the job interview it sounds like you've plenty more opportunities coming your way good luck for tomorrows interview:)

Thats great your veg patch is doing so well I'm not very green fingered at all so I wouldn't even attempt to try and grow anything!

Hope your feeling better soon:)