Trying to escape the Rat Race

picasso2

Hi Evcakes thanks for popping in.

Think it will be no nails and wood. I've got some old drawers that I've just taken to pieces and there are some lengths there I can use so I just need to get my rear end down to the DIY shop for the no nails.

I've had a lot of thinking time today and I'm going to stick out working in my job . I've only got ten years until early retirement and I am in a secure(ish) job. But in the unlikely event of a redundancy offer I will have my business plan as a back up. I'm going to keep looking and maybe do a business class so that I can maybe do something small scale part time to keep the dream alive.

I'm making steps to change my life in other ways. I want to be healthier and happier as well as less financially embarrassed. I can't afford the gym at the moment so when the weather is good i take DDs dog for long long walks. I'm also trying to be more responsible in the way I live my life so lots of reducing waste (which is good for the pocket) and recycling / up-cycling where possible.

Been a busy day today.

* Two hour long walks with dog.
* 3 loads of washing dried on line - no idea when weather will be fine again so all beds stripped and done .
* Long chat with will maker and sister - gotta make sure DD is taken care of if anything happens to me.
* picked wild blackberries while walking dog.
* made jam for first time and its scrummy.
* stew and dumplings in slow cooker to go on tonight - sis coming for tea tommorow. Stewing steak was reduced and have made about four portions of stew for about £2 :T
* have embraced my inner arty crafty self and am baking salt dough circles to turn into 'posh' labels for pressies. If they don't turn out right I've lost nothing as everything was in the house anyway.

Tommorow I'm back at the docs, gotta work out if I can get back to work soon and how. Work want me to do a stress management course first though and nothing available for another month but sitting around is driving me crazy too

Right time for a few comps and surveys then bed !

Night all

picasso2

Hellooo weekend !

Things are going slowly on the work front. Won't be back for a few weeks yet. Need to have a meeting with managers in a few weeks as ive suggested I could be interested in returning to a slightly different position for a while and they've agreed to discuss it. Its a start. The other job I applied for has been withdrawn and there are few jobs around in my field at the moment.

Its not been a bad week other than that. My mortgage deal comes to an end in a few days and I didn't want to change provider just yet so I have renegotiated with my current provider. Half an hour on the phone and I have reduced my mortgage term by 2 years and reduced my payments :T This means that I can increase what I am throwing at my cards and early retirement is viable as its likely my mortgage will be paid off at a similar time.

I started my Xmas shopping yesterday :eek: I had a voucher for £20 off an epilator which my daughter wanted. They are on offer at the moment and on top of this the checkout girl miss entered the voucher so I got the one she wanted for £35. Very very pleased.

Our only £10 on top up food shopping went well. Spent exactly £10 and that included buying a desert for when my sister came to stay. Mr T is delivering loads tommorow but there will be no top up shopping next week and back to just £10 the week after. I haemmoraghe money on top up shopping so getting this bad habit cracked will be very helpful.

Next month I'm going to look at getting a 0% credit card to do a balance transfer if I can. Ive worked out that keeping up my payments and not adding anything on will mean by December I will have reduced my debt by £5,000. However there is much more to go

On the competition front I have won a sunblush hamper. Its basically a 2 person picnic hamper with some sun dried tomatoes and roasted peppers. I love good food so this will be great but I don't think there will be any picnics now until next year.

Time for a glass of wine to celebrate the weekend

redkez2012

Hi Picasso2,

Just thought I would stop by and say Hi, congrats on the win, can you tell me which sites you use for the comps - I have tried a couple of comps in the last few months but haven't got very far.

I'm doing the surveys to earn some vouchers for amazon towards Christmas gifts so if I could find some good quality genuine comps it would be cool too.

Thanks. RK 2012 x

Itsadogslife_2

Well done on the competition win :money:

Good news about the remortgage. We are attempting a remortgage at the moment to try and reduce the monthly outgoings and mortgage term. It's such a waiting game :cool:

So with the shopping are you doing a big monthly shop and then only topping up by £10.00 per week? How much do you spend per month on groceries? I think I must be very wasteful as there is only 2 adults and a 7 year old DD in our house but I can spend on average £75.00 per week which I think sounds a lot £300.00 per month on food :eek:

picasso2

Hi there :wave:

redkez2012 I use the competitions forum on this site to enter competitions. There are thousands posted. So many you need to pick and choose what you want to enter. Its a fabulous community there. Somedays I enter more than others, I get lots of small - medium size wins but rarely big stuff. In the days I first started I won a cheque for £1000 which was timely as I had essential repairs to do on the house.You've got to look on it though as anything you win is a bonus as opposed to relying on getting anything. Its nice to dream though and DD usually gets a nice beauty stocking for xmas with mascaras and make up and the odd extra gift.

Itsadogslife There are two adults and 2 pets in our household. I realised we were doing a monthly shop every 2 weeks :eek: Portion size was a problem - we were eating for four !We had a freezer full of food but nothing in that we felt like eating so would nip to the supermarket for one thing and come away with 2 bags full. So what we are working on now is one monthly big shop that works out around £80 and £10 to top up with each week until payday. The cat is back on tinned food as those sachets last 2 seconds and I try to buy in big quantities. DD is totally on board with this as I have to say it would not work otherwise. I think we have halved our grocery bill

This morning I am hoping to get some gardening done. I am trying out growing bits and pieces of fruit and veg to supplement our diet and try to live a different lifestyle. However the weather has killed a lot of things off or they have failed to grow well. So now I am just working on trying to get the garden neat and the soil conditioned to try again next year.I have a large stash of free seeds to practice with. Monday I want to take a branch off a sycamore. Its growing close to a neighbours window and I have worked out how I can do it but I don't want them watching me as it will make me nervous so I will wait until they are at work...



The one strawberry from the garden this year. We did have a small number of salad leaves that made the lettuce more interesting on one occasion. I had a home made cloche to protect them from slugs but the rain got them in the end. I'm currently nursing some onions but not terribly hopeful. Heres to a productive 2013

Hiddenidenity

Well done on your progress and the comping, its something I've never done I'm tempted to try now

Look forward to reading *Subscribes*

Itsadogslife_2

My produce was next to zero this year, I got an ants nest in the strawberry patch they ate all of the strawberries as soon as they ripened. My carrots don't seem to be doing anything. The apples on the tree haven't flourished at all and all look a bit like they have stunted growth.

The plum tree hasn't actually bothered at all (I know how it feels!), I wonder whether maybe it isn't meant to fruit every year as we had quite a few last year

Would biscuits be cheaper than tins for the cat? I think they are better for the teeth than wet food as the crunching on the biscuits cleans the teeth slightly

I am dreadful for putting things into the freezer but then leaving it in there for a month or two and then convincing myself that it is off/out of date/when defrosted smelling funny and I end up throwing it away

redkez2012

Thanks for the tips - I'mm off to have a look at the comps forum. Sorry about the lack of fruit and veg, it's been a pants summer weather wise, heres hoping 2013 is better. See you later. RK 2012 x

Evcakes

Well done on comp win and mortgage payments, I've started entering comps again so hopefully your luck will rub off on me!

My tomatoes are growing well now, took a while but they're trying. Indoor herbs and chilis are going well.

picasso2

Hi everyone , thanks for popping in.


Its been a quiet day today. DD went to visit her freind who has had surgery and I've just pottered around. Mr T came this afternoon and was a lovely freindly chappy. I've grocery shopped online for many years and with Mr T for nearly two years now. Unlike the others I have never had an issue. I have a shop and scan gadget so that all got entered and was the highlight of my day.

Itsadogslife I can't give the cat an entirely biscuit diet as she had a bit of a run in with a fox earlier this year and damaged her teeth so needs lots of soft food. She has a mix of biscuits ad meat so about half a tin of meat a day. This does not stop her catching mice although she does tend to leave the whole body lying around now as opposed to bits of it. This led to a bit of an issue yesterday as I had left the back door open and un-noticed by me the dog brought in a corpse and left it lying on the sofa. Of course DD discovered it and now refuses to sit on the sofa. She will get over it .

I've done more 'crafting' today. My salt dough discs are dry and i've given them a base coat of white paint, tommorow I'm going to put another coat on and then paint one side with blackboard paint. I also made some plain hearts which I've strung up on twine unpainted in the kitchen and look rather cute. The main project is a wall plaque for my nephew. Its a bit of a challenge as its more painting than moulding and forming. I cut a shape from a template I made and its been cooking all day in the oven. I need to get the right paint which I think I will have to get off Amazon but in the meantime I can put on a base coat and do the outlines tommorow. I'm really nervous as my nephew is quite particular but done right this will be a niche item that he will love for as long as young teens love things.

I popped into the library yesterday and got a travel guide for Barcelona. We are going there next weekend for a few days. It is a sad anniversary and we always feel miserable this time of the year so we decided to turn it around and do something nice. I think we will be kept quite busy and I'm looking forward to eating lots of fish and authentic paella. Unfortunatley the reviews of the hotel are not brill - the underground is below and apparantly the walls shake when a train passes through :eek: I do take reviews like this with a pinch of salt . But if it turns out to be right we will have to be extra busy during the day so we are too tired to notice at night:rotfl:

Can I ask vegetable growers out there a question ? As you may have gathered I am a novice. I bought a potatoe growing kit and they appear to have grown well. Some little lilac flowers have developed but im not sure when I should be harvesting the potatoes - if indeed there are any there.....