Ultimate Challenge. 457 days / £16600!!!

NinjaSavingKat

Morning Kittens...


So I haven't been here properly for a few days. They say it takes two weeks for the body to catch up and regulate itself after a late night and that the hours before midnight are more important than the ones after it. So I have been taking naps in an attempt to listen to my bodily rythyms and pay more attention to what it's saying - please stop and let me do nothing!

I appreciate all the worry that is coming across from you Kittens and it's duly noted. I think the wearyness stems from the constant days on with no time to rest. I mentally prepare myself prior to weekends of overtime. Whereby I will concentrate on a heavier sleep pattern prior to a night shift or an early morning start - sounds weird but those on shifts might understand. I can't fall into a deep sleep for instance if I "know" it's not supposed to be a long-term restful period. At night it's different. If I know I am having 8-9 hours I will rest heavier than if I know it's only a 3-4 hour sleep...

Anyway... It's balancing out a little better. I think I am suffering from with-holdling the simple pleasures in life from myself whilt I am pushing myself to work so hard. Food. Yes I have enough to eat - there is nothing to complain about. I have even found the yellow sticker section in my local Sainsbury's minimart. But I think keeping simple pleasures then allows the rest of what I am depriving myself of .. ( no new clothes, no days out, no nights out, no boyfriend, no real make-up, no trips on Hercules etc etc ) seem easy to deal with. So this month on minimal food spends is thankfully the first and the last...

I think I momentarily lost my baking / cooking / surviving mojo. I haven't looked in my baking box knowing full well I have no butter and no castor sugar to play with but tonight or tomorrow I will be hitting some bread rolls... with peaches and raisons baked into them.... My burgers are going to be made up again and stored in the freezer but might hit the yellow sticker section tonight to see what I can find...

I will also be adding cheese to my repetoire. I haven't bought it for 3-4 weeks cause it ain't under a pound..:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:.. but it means I can make so much more... mini pitta pizza's being the most important!

Work have advised me that I am not getting a course that I desperatly wanted. There is no funding until the middle of next year and it's tentative at best as to whether my department will get this course. It was a great little course, something I could do independantly should I have decided to leave...

It's made me think about what I am doing - it's important but anyone could do it. There is no challenge, I am not motivated and I need a change altogether as opposed to a "chat with my line manager" about more responsibilities... and it's got to me that I technically don't have a career.. it's a job. Do I like it - not right now... so where to from here...

Perhaps I am pressuring myself unnesseccarily.. (please excuse spelling ) and things will fall into place soon enough.. I am definitly going to look into writing something somewhere for something other than this free website... just need a quiet few hours to sit and brainstorm.....

DST gets magazines every month - she paid £15 for the year to get Marie Claire, Glamour and Cosmo every month. Not a bad deal. She has suggested we have a coffee/tea afternoon whereby we just sit, treat ourselves to tea (either out or at mine ) and eat cake. I could write while she reads. It's good to sit and think sometimes. We are due a meet on Tuesday which is well over-due of course mainly down to clashing work schedules...

Lilt.. I am so glad you are liking that stew. I have made a spicy lentil mix-up for lunch. I eat it straight-up with a couple of pitta breads. Although tonight myself and a colleague are going to share a portion of chips. It's long over-due and I can't wait any longer..:rotfl:especially as we are sharing the cost....

So my crown was finally fitted this morning. I have been able to keep hold of the molds of my teeth - which amuses me greatly. I currently have them sat on my desk...:rotfl:

Right - off to work ...

Onwards and Upwards!

NinjaSavingKat

hhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm my letils today taste YUMMY!...

Lilt in case you wanna try...

100g Lentil Vertilles ( Tesco £1.09 for 500g )
2/3 Tinned Toms
Hearty sprinkle cumin seeds
1/4 red onion
Small section of courgette for greenery
Half a pepper.


I toast the cumin seeds first, then onions, then courgette with the pepper. The lentils have been cooked prior to this for 30 minutes at least and then blended with the tinned tom's ... lots of paprika and pblack pepper.

This will make you at least two-three hearty portions...

Forgive me if I am being simple and have already put this up here...

Indebted2U

NinjaSavingKat wrote: »

Indebted...I love the attack mode mentality you are currently exhibiting! Since you are around the M25 and into spreadsheets and number crunching shall we just get married now assuming your aren't gay or married already....:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:...kidding... what is important is the mindset of being able to do this for yourself, make changes now rather than waiting and for the greater good. I am doing all this in order to get my own little home.. I am the only one that can change things for me and it was a case of taking hold now or never.. well done on making a change in your life..."The only limit is the one you set yourself"...(redbull ad just on Tv quote)..:T

Hi Kat, well after a 2.5 hour delay on the M25 on Monday and a 2 hour delay today, marriage and emigration sounds like a plan! As long as we can run away to somewhere without roadworks :rotfl:
Totally agree that the most important decision is deciding that the only way to change your situation is to take control. The old saying "95% of people try to change the world around them and only 5% try to change themselves" rings true IMHO

Didn't have the greatest MSE week, as I went out with friends for drinks mid week but sometimes we all need a little fun I guess? :beer:

I did however come home to a letter from my water company thanking me for writing to them after they cleared my blocked drains for free, (thanks for the MSE tip Dad ) and asking them to pass on my thanks to their engineer who was brilliant. I really believe good service should be recognised and people shouldn't just write in to complain when something goes wrong. They said they had passed on my comments and were going to reimburse me for a full year's waste water charges as an apology. I doubt they would have bothered if I hadn't e-mailed my thanks. Karma strikes again :j

Hope you all have a great weekend

liltdiddylilt

That recipe is looking excellent Kat. I need to wait until next Fridays shopping delivery to try it though as sadly I have no green lentils only red I have a fridge & freezer & cupboards stocked far too ridiculously full though I am running out of the strangest things. Should make for some fun meals until Friday when I am allowed to shop again!

Indebted how lovely for you to get the money back from them. I don't know about you but in my house a years waste water charges is over £200! I believe in letting people know when they have done well. I watched an articulated lorry driver painstakingly inch out of our office car park past some illegally parked cars a couple of months ago. He had to keep getting out and checking, reversing and starting again- it took him 45 minutes & never once did he swear or shout bless him. I emailed his company to let them know where I was & that the driver got a round of applause from our office when he finally managed to escape. I got two emails back from the company thanking me & saying they would pass on my thanks etc, and then another from the lovely driver himself saying it made his day. Amazing what a little going out of your way means for most people.

I just had a lady come to my house to collect some books which I put up for sale on a Facebook group. I asked for 20p per book as I genuinely just needed the space & she asked if she could take all of them for £10. Must have been 50+ books there which I very nearly dropped at the charity shop last week so I am very happy. Got my space back & £10 too! A lot of the books were gifts or hand me downs so I didn't pay for them in the first place!

Between that & the bread maker I sold I have done well on making extra cash this month. Unfortunately DH has used up more than our broadband usage limit for the month & cost me an extra £5

Win some, lose some!

killerpeaty

I can't imagine running out of internet allowance, I've always had unlimited (my dad needed this for work, then at uni I always lived with people who "needed" it for games- I am now one of those people lol) but I didn't realise that they fined you for it! I thought they slowed your interlols down.

As someone who works as support for a software used by high and mighty finance people who are constantly stressed and unhappy when they call me, I LOVE it when someone just says thanks. In my first two months in the job, I had this woman threaten me with going to my boss (using a wrong name for him lol) if I did not make an update to the software for her. She totally refused to speak to anyone else and was unbelievably rude on the phone. I genuinely went home and cried. Or there's some bloke who called up to tell me how rubbish the software is and that he needed help, despite using the software illegally and not going on the training. I kept telling him that if he got a license then I could help but otherwise I would lose my job. He just complained and complained, until he managed to get himself a license about a week later. Or there's a guy who refuses to speak to me because I'm female and can't possibly know about finance or software (his senior is female lol). As you can probably tell, I tend to do the minimum (but still good job done) with these people. The ones who say thanks however are treated soooo much better. I'll spend hours working with the people I like ha ha. The first time someone called up for me (by name!) to say thank you I nearly cried, he was very sweet.

Kat, I would also LOVE it if you and indebted eloped together, the thought of how MSE the wedding would be amuses me. Newspaper confetti, tescos flowers, cake a la mum and of course a wedding dress from the finest upmarket charity shops. :rotfl:

Indebted, drinks with mates on a SCHOOL NIGHT! O: :rotfl:

I'm sorry to hear about your cat his mrs. : (

NinjaSavingKat

Hi Everybody!!! :wave::wave::wave::wave:

Now then - did my last post SERIOUSLY include information about my desperate need for cheese! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:..Clearly it has been a tough week of just feeling drained!!!! Nowt quite like what Peaty has to put with..:(

Indebted .. if we go back to Northern Ireland there are no roadworks. Cause there ain't many roads...:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:..Seriously though I'd have had home made bread on the go, lentils bubbling (I can tell your excited by this prospect alone ) and el cheapo rock cakes with a cuppa for afters... but hey ho... ... how are the plans manifesting on a daily basis for you... are you living on supermarket own brand goodies? Bringing your lunch to work..?.. are you limiting activities with friends in public houses..?... I am curious...

Siouxsie where are you..?

And those lurkers out there.. Listerbelle / Shelbi... and those I might have never met... how are YOU????

I am at work. Again. I have eaten all my nibbles and am awaiting my next break for lentils and pitta bread. I am currently planning my next shop but having confessed to some seriously naughty spends on the Challenge thread I only have £27.31 until the end of the month..:eek::eek::eek:

Lilt you will be glad to know Mumsy has placed a crisp £20 in my account. £10 of which is strictly for fruit only... and the other £10 was towards my breakfast at the end of the month - however I might be tempted to buy at least ONE packet of mixed nuts with this... (shock horror)... I am curious as to how Siouxsie is getting along though with her limited budget for food spends...

I have lots of lentils to get through, a donation of black beans from a girlfriend yeaterday ready to be poured on rice, the promise of a possible yellow sticker haul tomorrow evening and the house to myself until Tuesday...:p.. so I am doing ok...

Right... back to MySupermarket...:T:T:T

liltdiddylilt

I too am a huge fan of cheese Kat. Nothing better than half a block of cheddar sprinkled over just about everything Case in point, we had a pasta bake tonight & I coated it in cheese 5 minutes before it was finished. Perfect! I have eaten (with OH) 525g of cheese in the last week and 2 days however, think I should slow down a bit!!:eek:

Your mumsy is a lovely lady. The perfect pick me up for you really eh & yes it does make me feel better. Such a shame you're in London... it's nigh on scrumping season :rotfl::rotfl: steal all the fruit you like from the orchards where I grew up. Damsens & apples in an overgrown orchard which no one ever harvested. I'd eat like 40 a day as a kid & not be ill... Lol. Nowadays it's more of a crack den than an orchard but hey, that's todays youth for ya...

Peaty I have always had unlimited broadband too but the prospect of paying only £7 per month lured me to plusnet who only give me 60gb limit. We haven't gone near it before, even with all the downloading we do on top of OH's incessant gaming but he has been downloading an exceptional number of new games this month. Bah. :rotfl:

NinjaSavingKat

Ooooh Lilt... crack or plums! I know what I'd have..:rotfl:

However once in one of my other houses I have lived in.. I awoke on the sofa in the middle of the night having fallen asleep infront of the TV.. with a sharp knife by my head and a block of vintage extra mature cheddar.... That's when I knew I had a problem....:T:T:T

Or having it on a plate whenever I had porridge in the morning...

Or nearly using 500g for a macaronni and cheese for 4 people .. with more on top "just in case" is wasn't cheesy enough...?

Or on rich tea biscuits.. the tang of the vintage cheese against the sweetness of the biscuits.... or very thick slices inbtween thick white cread and vine tomato sandwiches...

#notgoodformyskinthough.......:(

I need to stop there or I will end up searching for some when I go home...:(:(:(

NinjaSavingKat

liltdiddylilt wrote: »

Your mumsy is a lovely lady. The perfect pick me up for you really eh & yes it does make me feel better.

I am absolutely blessed with my Mumsy... really I am...:T:T:T

liltdiddylilt

Hahahahha!!! You do indeed appear to have a problem... Sod the crack, lets eat cheese!! :rotfl:

I can just see you getting home, bundling your coat off & pushing Duchess Dorothy out of the way muttering 'must get the cheese' on the way to the kitchen. Chhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeseeeee Gromit!