I've had the worst of times - now for the BEST of times!

giblet1979

That sounds like a good plan then - something flexible in the short term, and coming up to Christmas there may be a bit more about? Hope you find something soon x

peaceandfreedom

Sorry for the long absence folks. I will be back to post again after work - I really must keep using this diary as it helps to keep me on the straight and narrow.

The summary is that I'm doing fine, budget is a bit tricky over the next two months but balances out beautifully in October. Will be even better if I get a Christmas job. :beer:

I've actually done quite a bit of walking, have lost another 1 pound in weight and I'm feeling good. Hopeful of another pound this week.

Work is busy but good, learning loads and notching up lots of good experience. I intend to get a new job in the Spring which pays me what I'm worth - in other words, considerably more than I'm earning now.

Gotta go, catch up with you all later.

giblet1979

Lovely to hear from you p&f and glad that things are going well. Looking forward to more updates x

peaceandfreedom

Well, I've had an extremely good day of cleaning, got absolutely LOADS done and now feel like the house is clean and shiny. It just makes me feel so much better to walk into the rooms and feel that nice, clean, warm feeling.:j

Still loads of decluttering to do everywhere, and the garden is getting VERY unruly but I am pleased with my day's work.

The garden is look a bit scruffy but it's very productive - courgettes are taking over the place, tomatoes galore, cucumbers, runner beans, beetroots, raspberries - it's all good. :beer:

Work is going really well and I am also doing some freelance work at the moment, which I will be able to invoice next month. Have an interview for a Christmas job coming up in September which I really want to get. DD2 is going on a school trip next year which is costing an eye-watering amount of money. She is paying half but that still leaves a lot for me to come up with. :eek:

Have done a bit of a credit card shuffle as my 0% balance transfer was about to run out. Managed to get the PO one at 0.7% transfer fee, pleased with that.

So it's all going pretty well at the moment but with Christmas and lots of large bills still looming, must keep focused.

giblet1979

What a lovely positive post; really inspiring. You sound like you're working really hard and are very focused. Very envious of the garden; my spring onions and salad died (and to be fair, in the salad pot I wasn't sure what was meant to be edible and what was weeds) and my coriander is on the way out now too. There's always next year

Hope you're having a lovely rest of the bank holiday x

peaceandfreedom

giblet1979 wrote: »

What a lovely positive post; really inspiring. You sound like you're working really hard and are very focused. Very envious of the garden; my spring onions and salad died (and to be fair, in the salad pot I wasn't sure what was meant to be edible and what was weeds) and my coriander is on the way out now too. There's always next year

Hope you're having a lovely rest of the bank holiday x

Thanks Giblet, had a lovely bank holiday despite the torrential rain. Had the whole family here for dinner so did a 'Sunday' dinner and it was delicious. Kept getting confused thinking today was Sunday actually.

Also managed to clean the kids' bathroom that I didn't get around to on my cleaning spree yesterday. Actually, I need to 'deep-clean' their bathroom - the limescale in the water is turning the tiles sort of orangey.

Work tomorrow - however it's a 3-day week because I have Thursday off to go on a jolly with a friend. :j

Now must go and hang up the washing that's been languishing in the machine all day.

Sun_Addict

What a productive couple of days you've had. The rain was just awful yesterday wasn't it. We were housebound all day. We used to grow our own before Mr SA got ill last year. Last year nothing got done and this year we've only got tomatoes and mangetout. Maybe next year. Funny that giblet said that about the salad leaves - last time we grew some there were some strange "leaves" I wasn't too sure about.

Enjoy your jolly on Thursday

liltdiddylilt

Hooray I have made it!!!

Hiiiiiiiiiiiii P&F - I know you a lot better than you know me (Who is this weirdo wandering in?!) since I have now fully caught up with your diary! I subscribed about 2 weeks ago and since then my 'unread posts' has been very grumpy with me. No more, I am here, at the end *dances*

Bathroom cleaning too fills me with dread. You know that lovely feeling you get after you have just scrubbed it all? I don't get that, because no matter what I do, my bathroom is still ugly haha! More of an excuse to let the tiles go orange however...

I am so jealous of your gardening skills and all of your homegrown veggies. I have had some courgettes and marrows (overgrown courgettes) from the in-laws and have loved it. So much nicer when it is homegrown! I've got zero outdoor space unless I bolt some flower trays to the window sills. Maybe next year...

Anyways. I love your targets each month and your good, bad & ugly. This may have to be adopted in my own diary. I too am a YNABber and an addict. Sooooooo many pots! :rotfl: I have to fight the urge to open up a bank account for every sub-category however.

I should be asleep. I too am not sleeping nearly enough.

Night night, I shall be back once you are. Hope you aren't too busy!

Lilt x

peaceandfreedom

liltdiddylilt wrote: »

Hooray I have made it!!!

Hiiiiiiiiiiiii P&F - I know you a lot better than you know me (Who is this weirdo wandering in?!) since I have now fully caught up with your diary! I subscribed about 2 weeks ago and since then my 'unread posts' has been very grumpy with me. No more, I am here, at the end *dances*

Greetings Lilt - what a lovely hello from you and how kind of you to read through my diary. :wave:

I'm not sure I have much gardening skills but I am lucky enough to have a reasonably big garden so it's easy enough to grow courgettes and runner beans and suchlike, they largely grow themselves to be honest.

I am getting addicted to YNAB, I love it and can spend ages just sort-of staring at it, occasionally tweaking things here and there. It has certainly been very useful in straightening out my spending, though I am still over-spending.

Hope you stick around Lilt, it's always nice top have new people to chat to. I'm off now to round up August's targets (not pretty reading) and to come up with some rather late targets for September.

peaceandfreedom

I set some targets in August and even as I was writing them I think I knew I wasn't going to meet them. So here's the grim results:

Financial targets were (and I'm kind of embarrased writing the results ):
Ebay selling................100.................. 29.45
Non-ebay selling .......100 ................... 2.80
Other income ..............50 ..................25.00

Pretty pathetic I'm sure you'll agree. Must admit though that I didn't try very hard. :cool:

So my other targets (brace yourselves):

1. Raise £300 extra through the various means outlined in an earlier post.

   ---

   I think I've covered how abysmally I failed on that one.
2. Lose 4 pounds in weight.

   ---

   1 pound.
3. Finish decluttering the garage.

   ---

   Didn't even start.
4. Finish sorting out the back flower bed.

   ---

   Errmmm - it's a mass of weeds yet again.
5. Paint back fence.

   ---

   Yeah right. :rotfl:
6. Get out mountain-biking again.

   ---

   Nope.
7. Go for 4 small walks, 1 long walk every week.

   ---

   Now, I did go for a lot more walks, at lunchtime and in the evenings. Not many very long ones but I think this one deserves a smiley face.
8. Get back into studying for my Microsoft certification.

   ---

   Have actually started, can't say I've done a huge amount.
9. Start playing badminton again.

   ---

   Nope but this is not possible until I have got fitter by walking/cycling.
10. Go for at least one day out just for ME ME ME .

    ---

    Yes, funnily enough I did this one.:D

All in all, it was hardly worth setting these targets as I made so little effort to actually meet them.

Nevertheless, I will set some more for September and see what happens.