Scuba Shifts North and Debt.

ZTD

scubaangel wrote: »

I drank alot. Tis the extent of the Christmas Market report you'll be getting. Mainly because I barely remember the market at all (I swear I didn't drink that much - although I do recall sitting down with my friend with a bottle of sambucca each).

And no juicy gossip? I am disappointed...

scubaangel wrote: »

Christmas was weird. Nana has had a bad few days, she spent most of the day itself sleeping, but woke up as Mum was getting the last bits of dinner out of the oven so we ate in her room with her, gave her gifts from us, were given ours by which time she was falling asleep again and didn't really wake up until this morning.

That's good enough. Falling asleep after the meal is what we traditionally know as "an old-fashioned Christmas". Her dancing on the table would have been a bit much...

scubaangel wrote: »

Beyond that right now I have no plans, no ideas and have done !!!!!! all towards money making/money saving/job seeking.

Don't worry about not having plans. The time between Christmas and New Year is a time for introspection and making plans. All you need to do is sit down and start doing them.

:grouphug:

Hope you're feeling better today.

scubaangel

Not so much, I went round last night to sit with Nana so Mum and SD could get out of the house for a couple of hours, while I was there she had another bad episode with her heart. So awful, absolutely nothing I could do to help her - she was feeling alternately hot and cold, then went really clammy, it's when she gets clammy we know shes bad. Thankfully she reached that stage a few minutes before Mum got home, and her carers came to get her ready for bed.

It's starting to look like shes not going to make it to the end of the year - our guess is she was determined to last to Christmas, her reaction on being told it was Christmas Day when she woke up for dinner was such utter calm and contentment that we've not seen in her for ages. She keeps saying now she wants to be with Jim (my grandad), and talking to a 'friend' in the room with her, even when she's alone. We'd almost put money on her dying on NYE as that was Jim's birthday.

I think we all feel somewhat in limbo at the moment, which is making it really hard to start sorting out my plans for the future - jobs hunting so I can get out of Dad's house again etc.

Am hoping that she'll be lucid enough tomorrow for me to go round so we can pick the Emozioni coin I'm going to buy with my Christmas money from her, I've printed off pictures of the three I like best so we can choose one.

scubaangel

We've picked a coin

and I've ordered it along with the keeper and a chain.

Then I had an email from one of the webforums I use, I won some amazon vouchers in their Christmas competition.

ZTD

scubaangel wrote: »

It's starting to look like shes not going to make it to the end of the year - our guess is she was determined to last to Christmas, her reaction on being told it was Christmas Day when she woke up for dinner was such utter calm and contentment that we've not seen in her for ages. She keeps saying now she wants to be with Jim (my grandad), and talking to a 'friend' in the room with her, even when she's alone. We'd almost put money on her dying on NYE as that was Jim's birthday.

:grouphug:

scubaangel wrote: »

We've picked a coin

and I've ordered it along with the keeper and a chain.

That's a nice one.

scubaangel wrote: »

Then I had an email from one of the webforums I use, I won some amazon vouchers in their Christmas competition.

:T That made it worthwhile entering.

scubaangel

Yup was one of those dead complicated entry forms too - name, email and which forum you use. I just don't know what to buy with it, have a few pence short of £100 on my amazon account already and am likely to be adding about another £30 before Jan 1st from cashing out on instagc before the holiday discounts end.

Have been talked in to joining the Janus Challenge by stewby and Fmess over on stewbys diary thread so am posting the list of 'rules' and my thoughts on them.

scubaangel

1. This Challenge commences on the 1st January 2014 @ 00:00 and finishes on the 31st January 2014 @ 23:59.
2. You will aim for 20 SFD.(Spend Free Days). Any money spent means an SFD. Use your days wisely. Plan ahead. Not too difficult since I've no money to spend on the whole.
3. You will set your food budget before the beginning of this challenge and stick to it. You will need to meal plan, stock take what's in your cupboards and eat everything before buying more. Is it cheating when Dad pays for the shopping?
4. Set your petrol budget now! Can you drive more carefully and lower your petrol outage? Can you leave the car behind and walk to work, cycle? I barely use my car at the moment unless I'm doing long journeys, so will fill it up tomorrow and then try not to top it off again until the end of the month. I've one long journey to the Marine Mammal Medic course but it'll use about half a tank.
5. You must down-shift 5 brands to supermarket own brand OR if you are feeling brave to value brands...i.e. porridge oats are an easy choice to shift with minimal taste difference) Again, Dad pays!
6. You MUST bring your lunch to work every day with no exceptions. £5 of your food budget goes in an envelope and stays in your purse/wallet for the month. You will inevitably forget your lunch one day - this is called planning ahead. If I get a job I'll start this otherwise I'll be eating at home.
7. Please pre-arrange any outings with friends now before the beginning of the month and budget accordingly. Any friends that contact you after the commencement of this challenge must be politely declined. So planned events this month are the MMMC and my holiday with Mum and sister. Holiday is budgetted for with euros I was given as Christmas pressies and those I already have.
8. You will be banned (:)) from all of the following;- cafes, restaurants, rip-off vending machines, work canteens, chip-shops, take-aways, corner shops and especially Starbucks, Costa and Nero during this 31 day challenge. With being on holiday I can't possibly manage this the entire month, so I'll do it for the time I'm in the UK.
   
9. £3 from your food budget to be spent on your local foodbank (since you are giving up Lattes / Cappacinos etc). Please attempt to take items in there in person otherwise you can donate on-line with the Trussell Trust. Giving a little back helps in the long run! I'll make sure I buy some extras myself when Dad and I go shopping and drop them in the box in the supermarket.
10. Exercise is now your friend. Food is not. 3 x 20 minute sessions of exercise a week please. Don't care how you do it but get your heart rate up. Avoid joining gyms - you can't afford it. I need to step up the training for the 3 mile run and 1.5km swim weekend so while I'm UK home I'll run and the Tenerife home I'll swim in the sea (the apartment complex pool is too small for me to swim properly in).
11. Choose a Debt Free Date now. Put it into your signature with your FULL DEBT AMOUNT that is outstanding. This is your motivation when you see those numbers reduce each month. I'll have to update my whatsthecost and see how bad it is after Christmas.
12. Use a spreadsheet, notebook or your phone. Document every single spend that you make. You might be surprised as to where you money is going. I already do.
13. No beauty spends over £10. I am sure Christmas saw you earn a few smellies that should see you through. Use up what you have. Beauty spends? I rarely buy more than £1 shampoo or conditioners so that ones a given (I also can't remember the last time I actually needed to buy anything, my stash is still going strong).
14. No purchasing of alcohol unless it is out of your food budget. You MUST stay out of the pub for 31 days. Better if you stay off the alcohol altogether? Not a hope. A week on holiday and I'm not giving up Thursdays for the quiz or I'd never leave the house in the company of other people. I will however go back to not drinking at the quiz.
15. Lastly put all your budgeted money (food / petrol / outings) into separate envelopes now. Keep them separate and receipts as well.You need cash for this. I have none. Makes it easier not to spend.
    

scubaangel

Yesterday was a little spendier than planned, went out for a coffee with a friend (they bought the coffee which was nice). Then had to pick up some bits from the supermarket, which ended up costing me £12, then got home and realised there was nothing for dinner, ended up in McDonalds as the local chippy was closed and couldnt find anywhere else to get food for me and my sister.

Today has been significantly better as I haven't even got dressed yet, the sofa has been my friend.

ZTD

scubaangel wrote: »

1. This Challenge commences on the 1st January 2014 @ 00:00 and finishes on the 31st January 2014 @ 23:59.
2. You will aim for 20 SFD.(Spend Free Days). Any money spent means an SFD.

That's seems a strange definition of a SFD...

scubaangel wrote: »

14. No purchasing of alcohol unless it is out of your food budget. You MUST stay out of the pub for 31 days. Better if you stay off the alcohol altogether? Not a hope. A week on holiday and I'm not giving up Thursdays for the quiz or I'd never leave the house in the company of other people. I will however go back to not drinking at the quiz.

If you keep winning the quiz - there's no reason to stop drinking free drinks at the pub.

scubaangel

True I'd not noticed that, I shall however work on the assumption that any day I don't spend money is an SFD - that said I do plan to discount any money spent while mystery shopping as long as it'll be reimbursed.

Again for clarity I shall stop drinking alcohol.

Email recieved this afternoon saying my hot diamonds order has been dispatched, hopefully I'll get it by the end of the week.

I've also started writing reviews on dooyoo and ciao again after a few weeks of not even going on site to read and rate others. Got a couple of drafts put to one side on ciao too for another time.

scubaangel

Had a quick look around over night for jobs, and found one which is very local albeit only part time, so am currently writing an application. It's on the universal job match site but it's on their own website too so am planning to apply direct (and then get moaned at by my advisor for not going through the UJM system but as I hate it they'll just have to suck it up as the application is in which is the priority).

Thanks to having a night in for NYE I've cashed out £30 amazon from instagc using the holiday discount, which means I now have £150 sat in my amazon account and no idea what to spend it on yet.
I also hit the redemption threshold for swagbucks so have redeemed for £25 paypal, once that arrives in the account I'll as always shift it across in to the bank towards this months debt repayments.