Finally I have a mortgage I can start to pay off!

themadvix

Productive day today:

* Asbestos man has been and we'll have results tomorrow - I love dealing with this company, they are so efficient (amazing what a difference being a largely trade-based organisation makes)!
* Have claimed £20 B&Q vouchers from Gfk
* Claimed £30 leisure vouchers from S&S
* Prolific balance £16.80
* 50p YG survey completed
* 10p VB poll
* 2 pieces of work done, another started
* Muchos sympathy from the people I deal with directly at the non-paying company (rather than the finance peeps, although the main one I deal with there is lovely too, the problem isn't really hers to deal with)
* Hopefully a freecycle taker for the kitchen cabinets in the garden - this saves time and petrol going to the dump, so I'm counting it as an MSE win!
* Dinner on, with enough cooking for a freezer portion (for one)
* DH has gone to collect 'free' pair of glasses which the opticians did for him as an apology for the delay on his other pair
* SBs survey completed - an actual noticeable increase in bucks today!
* Veg box cancelled - trying to save money

Kitty seems better - he had some plain kibble at lunch and it's stayed down. He was hungry, poor thing!

Hoping we might get out for a quick walk this evening before my evening class. Have a good evening all!

Karmacat

Poor little kitty! Glad he/she seems better.

Freecycling the cabinets to avoid paying out in time and petrol at the dump is definitely a win, on many levels, excellent news.

How did you find your asbestos tester, madvix? I put a query into a national site that tells you about your local options, and I just kept getting "we're looking" emails from them - I'm pretty sure there's at least two places where I have asbestos.

themadvix

Hi KC! Kitty is better and he has kept dinner and breakfast down - I think it must have been something he'd munched in the garden just before breakfast yesterday.

We use THC services for our asbestos testing - our electrician friend put us onto them. They're based in Milton Keynes though, so probably not going to cover your area. They do cover London though, so might be worth asking, or they might know the next company down?

Freecycler should be coming 'after lunch' today (I love how vague people can be!).

Work has gone mad, of course, to the extent that I had to turn something down. It was a pity as subject-wise it was right in my area of expertise, but it needed a lot of work (and was a large project) and I've already got a lot on. Payment from the late-payers is due tomorrow... we'll see.

MS things:
* SB survey already done, have hit first target for the day and it seems to be a swagcode day - yay!
* VB screen out - 5p
*Gfk tv survey done
* Plan to visit the Swedish furniture place again tomorrow - potentially to order kitchen, but definitely to pick up a base unit (we need to check 'lack of' service void/waste issues) and for free hotdog dinner (hopefully, I mean, I might win a £500 voucher instead!) (we already have one voucher).

Gratitudes
* Gorgeous weather at the moment - it was still light and warm enough to wear shorts and t-shirt when I came home from evening class yesterday - at 9.30
* Nice walk with DH in a park we'd not been to before
* New card game - exploding kittens - was great fun A good investment on DH's part
* DH and I both feeling motivated and focused at the moment - it's nice when these feelings coincide!

ETA: We're babysitting tonight for niece! :eek:

themadvix

Another productive day today:

* Swagcode extravaganza, so balance is looking good (80 SBs today)
* A hellish piece of work completed - unfortunately the time spent on this won't be reflected in the pay I get, but it goes that way sometimes (other times it goes my way)
* Another piece of work done
* Have reached £20 on prolific once it all clears, so will withdraw that
* VB back up to £2.14
* NV £1 survey done
* Saving on electricity this evening by taking dinner to sister's to eat while babysitting! Just hoping niece stays asleep!
* freecyclers turned up and took all the cupboards - result! They've gone to a new home and I don't have to make multiple dump runs. Hopefully we'll be able to do the same with most of the rest of the kitchen (base units) - when someone mentioned a skip the other day I was taken aback - why would I have a skip?! (money + landfill, not a good combination in my eyes!)

All the work means I haven't got out to do various jobs... if I get caught up tomorrow I'll try to do some then. But :T to work!

themadvix

Afternoon all!

Not a lot to report - niece was fast asleep and as good as gold last night, have even offered to babysit again! (We enjoyed the use of sky!). Looking forward to an evening out (I know how to have, going to Ikea for the second time in two weeks!) - we go through Woburn deer park to get there, so going to take our camera and hopefully get some good sunset shots on the way home

MS things:
* 50p and 25p YG surveys
* Awaiting approval and then will be able to cash out £20 from prolific
* Made some garibaldi biscuits - this is definitely MSE as I think it must be war-time recipe, hardly any sugar involved. Used the rest of the egg glaze and the ends of the bread to make eggy bread for lunch (not entirely healthy, but very economical!)
* Lots of work done
*VB poll and 20p YSP survey done, screened out of MM survey
* TV survey done
* SBs daily goal reached

Gratitudes
* Niece didn't wake up! (Although I'd have loved a cuddle, I'm not sure my sister would have been thrilled to come home and find her awake)
* Springwatch last night - I've hardly seen any this series
* Another game of exploding kittens - which I lost, again!
* Early morning walk this morning... am going for another one shortly, trying to actually reach my step goal today (Ikea will help!)

Have a good afternoon all! x

themadvix

Morning all!

Can't quite believe it's Friday already - where did the week go? I'm hoping to finish up the last few bits of work on my desk in the next hour or so and then get some of the 'out and about' jobs ticked off my to-do list - it's building up! Fortunately apart from seeing fathers on Sunday we've not go much planned for the weekend - so we'll crack on with stuff then.

In great news, the Americans have paid! :T (Until Sunday, that is, when another invoice comes due and I can start the chasing all over again... I did mention this to my contact but I haven't been paid that invoice). Hopefully this means that at the end of the month I can settle some of the many 'debts' between my accounts and tidy up my spreadsheet (which is full of notes say 'I owe XX to XX account'). Anything left over will be used to start topping my buffer fund back up - it's taken a beating over the last few months. It will be nice to be square again.

MS things:
* 10p VB poll, 6SBs earned
* receipt uploaded to S&S (I'm bad at remembering to do this, so this is a good win)
* won a hot dog with purchase at IKEA last night, so DH and I had free hotdogs (see below)
* balance on Prolific about £28, but waiting for the last £3 to clear before claiming £20
* am trying very hard to self-care for leg/hip (it has been playing up again) - I really can't afford to keep spending £40/week on osteo. She gave me some good tips, so I need to keep going with them.

Not-so MS things:
* hotdogs weren't enough to feed us so we ended up having meat/veg balls in the restaurant - with a drink between us and half price Family Card discount it came to £4.75... pretty good for dinner for two!
* I need some trousers for next weekend - going to an event which starts and ends at a Cambridge college - I live in jeans and I just don't think they'll cut it. May need some sandals to go with them (due to nature of event). Have seen some on DP website for £17.60 (reduced) - hoping I can find them when I go out later.

Gratitudes:
* Saw lots of deer in the deer park last night and took some photos. We weren't the only people there enjoying the view.
* A tawny owl flew across in front of us on the way home (who needs Springwatch?!)
* A good night's sleep - these have been few and far between recently
* Brown Owl has been excellent at organising Brownie stuff lately - my brain just hasn't been there!
* A week till we see Robbie!! :j

themadvix

Whoops, duplicate post!

Karmacat

Owls and deer :j

And payment :j

blackste

Hi Vix.

Just caught up with the diary after a few days away. kitchen project sounds interesting, but the asbestos issue sounds to be a pain in the a$$. Did they come back and confirm if it was asbestos?

Other than that some great results this week. keep up the hard work.

EatingTheElephant

Karmacat wrote: »

Owls and deer :j

And payment :j

Seconded, sounds wonderful