Southernman's steps to freedom!

Southernman

Wow it's been a while!

So i made a lump sum overpayment last weekend and it's made my monthly balance drop by £13! Of course this means that an extra £13 will be overpaid each month from now on without doing anything at all!

It works out now that my mortgage is £10 if you take away the amount i get from my lodger for rent!

Applied for a new job, interview was thursday and typically the fire alarm went off half way through it! It's an internal job and the fire alarm drill hasn't happened in over a year! Will find out at the earliest next thurs but i'm not overly confident as it's a pay rise and the interviewer said that it was extremely popular and they had to bin a lot of applications even before interview stage. I may not have enough experience so i'm not really sure what's going to happen there and my current manager has filled me with self doubt

In other news i bought a new pair of work shoes today because my usual ones were starting to detach from the heel!! Went to clarks and the only pair i liked were £40! Nothing to be seen in TK MAXX and i thought i'd try Next as they have a half price sale on now and grabbed a pair for £14 reduced from £30! Bargain!

Spending the afternoon snuggled up at home, no boyfriend, no flatmate in peace and quiet- bliss!

sweetdaisy

Nice to see you back . Hope things improve on the job front and you get a new job soon.

Southernman

Wow six months since i posted in here.

I got the job where the fire alarm went off. It was a six month contract before returning to my original dept.

Those six months are nearly upon me. Have an interview for that job but as a permanent position on wednesday. I have another job interview on Thursday and i'm doing overtime all week too!

Already the fear of returning to my existing department is back but that is life. I would love to have this job permanently though because i enjoy it so much.

In other news i am at £77,000 with my mortgage. I have paid off £13k in 2.5 years.

My mortgage overpayment is currently £170 per month. I'd overpay more but i've got a holiday that i'm looking to book for Disneyworld. I'm also going to Belgium Christmas Markets before Christmas and Florence in April...

I got a letter from the water people on Friday to tell me that my water bill will be reducing by £20 a month. This is the same day i found out my company's sharesave had been announced so i shall be putting £22 towards it, making it to £75 a month over 3 of them.

I plan to do it so i have one finishing every year.I may keep the shares for the first one i did as the share price has increased now by 140p but the others i'll just cash in and use it as a mortgage overpayment.

I think my biggest spend is entertainment at the moment. Going to cut down now. It can be challenging to reduce outgoings when i don't pay that much for items anyway. Might be useful to do an SOA and get your opinions on where to cut down further.

sweetdaisy

Glad to hear that things are going well . Good luck with the job interviews and great news about all your overpayments.

elantan

Thats actually a very easy blog to enjoy and get into ... great subject matter as well

Southernman

Found out today that i have been saying the word GILET wrong my whole life.

Me and my friend went shopping and she kept saying she wanted a furry 'ZHEE-LAY' and i thought she'd made the word up until i walked into a shop and understood she meant gilet...however i pronounce it like the shaver for men!

Now i have a habit of mispronouncing words as my parents never spoke to me in English when i was young so i developed a large vocabulary from reading books, but of course pronouncing many words wrong and it still haunts me! I pronounced 'tinnitus' wrong the other day!

Still, i rang my mum up and described the item of clothing to check i wasn't going mad. She called it a giblet...!

According to her, my friend's pronunciation was the 'Yorkshire' way...the item is French!

Oh well after the excitement of that i'm going bed! Overtime for me first thing tomorrow morning!

muddywhitechicken

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Southernman

So i've had a nightmare week.

I had to apply for my current job role. I'd prepped, i'd prepared, i'd done everything i possibly could to ensure i didn't make a mistake and could answer the questions to the best of my ability.

Well, my interview was very late in the afternoon (last in fact) so i was nervous all day. When it was time for my interview, nobody had come to collect me, i didn't know who was interviewing me and i didn't know where the room was. The others got informed 5 mins before. I had to ask the top manager to find out as i wasn't notified which made me more on edge.

I did the interview to the absolute best of my ability and couldn't have done anymore. Was very proud of myself because i'd nailed it with detailed answers. They asked 4 questions in total. None were a surprise.

There was no rest as the next day i had an interview for another dept. This interview asked 3 questions (2 of which i used in the first interview) but then there were 3 more sections to it including an assessment and the whole thing lasted 1.5 hours.

So anyway i found out i'd been declined for my job in my current role but had got the second one.

The reason i didn't get the one for my current role was because i brought notes in that was detrimental. Thing is, same notes came into the second interview and it was never an issue for the original interview for my current dept. All times i email to confirm whether i can prior to interview.

I put my all into that job, i worked overtime, i was flexible, i trained other members of staff, i was never ill, i ran my section when everyone else was ill/on holiday. I couldn't have done anymore to prove myself because i wanted the role so badly.

The person who got the job, she was given the opportunity to go to london for 3 months prior to interviews, her contract isn't due to end until march while mine is november, I saw her examples because she stupidly left them on the printer. They were abysmal.

I just have to look at it as the original dept's loss, the new dept's gain. It's another secondment so i could still end up with nothing in May next year but at least it buys me time. I was looking for some stability in a permanent role though.

Something dodgy has definitely gone on. I feel like i've been taken for a ride and used even.

gallygirl

Not good, however, you are right to view it as the other department's gain. Congratulations and to be honest a job to next May is as permanent as it gets these days :T.

Southernman

Further update: turns out they twisted the rules again and offered 3 positions. 2 from the internals and 1 from an external within the group (a manager's friend).

Basically, i, someone who has been doing the job for six months, training others, being flexible, never been sick, dedicating everything to the role etc is less worthy than someone who needs 4 months training.

I'm so angry right now and feel let down by the whole department. A colleague's husband has offered me a job in his company because she knows how hard i worked and recommended me. So many people have come up to me and said how corrupt things are. The last thing would be now if they don't release me to my new role until 02/12/2013 which is when my current secondment ends. The new dept want me earlier than that as they are desperate for me.

This is the second time something like this has happened to me. Third time lucky maybe?