Best wellyboot forward. Pips frugal edible garden adventures.

mooomin

Mine's a strong coffee, please, Pip. The blooming wind woke me at 5am and I've been like a half-shut knife all day as a result.

Pippilongstocking

mooomin wrote: »

Mine's a strong coffee, please, Pip. The blooming wind woke me at 5am and I've been like a half-shut knife all day as a result.

Passes cafetiere - strong and black steamy coffee on the go here.

Sadly, I camped in living room near garden to keep an 'eye' as it was forecast not great and I've lots of bruck, erm I mean pots etc on my back terrace thing. And, a newly erected greenhouse.

and yes looking at it at 5am is perfectly acceptable, even if the chickens were quite alarmed.



Are you all festivalled out? Had fun?

lionheartedgirl

Afternoon Pippi, waving from windy whirly Glasgow - I won't shout hello as you just wouldn't hear even me

Just popped in out of lurkdom, will sneak back in now but will pop back soon. Toodle'oo XX

Pippilongstocking

Afternoon LHG - I hope Glasgow isn't so windy as here! Lovely to see you and nice moto

Wee list for me

Don's hat and scarf and jacket for a bracing walk
Sort a few bits at flat and walk after that
Banks
Scan letter for DD
Store meals for us all - boys had a lovely packed lunch today, fish curry tonight
NSD?
Fire on in a bit (free wood) and a cosy night ahead.

Small but necessary progress rather than sinking into a duvet of procrastination, self loathing and denial.

Although its very tempting.

Hounds at the ready I guess!

mooomin

Pippilongstocking wrote: »

Are you all festivalled out? Had fun?

Not even close! I've done 15 shows so far, mainly stand-up although there was one rather wonderful gentlemen's burlesque troop who would have pepped me up more than the coffee

I think we've gotten off lightly here by the looks of it. The pictures online from the Proper North look worrisome :eek:

Pippilongstocking

Mooomin! Festival sounds fun and yet to see up north pics on news must look poor folks. Tree's etc here a bit burnt and a few branches down but nothing serious.

So I shook myself off and....

Sorted a couple things at the flat to get it closer to selling (this is adding to my inner worries, we're not there yet but plodding closer, each month is two mortgages but both 'in hand' and whilst tight, were costed on unletting flat so we're OK if squeaky)
Spoke to a chum by text (free) and arranged to catch up
Negotiated a second hand fridge/freezer for flat at a good price
Took photos of table/chairs to get out of flat
Had a nice walk on the beach
Picked 1lb of brambles free jam in the offing I think currently sitting on table to rid itself of any freeloading wildlife.
Bought some local milk.
Mulled life a bit - must do 'proper' sums regarding job interview next week its at the low end of pay and an hours drive away. Need to fathom if that's worth it and the extra miles/car upkeep. Whilst its an interesting job, I need to be sensible about earning/contributing to community. Might be that working from home and doing some proper volunteering would be better on me purse.

ponder-tastic.

am now cooking a pollock (valoo frozen yet delish 1.67/kg) and courgette (garden/free) curry left to stew a while and then half boxed for freezer and some value basmatic rice cooked in 7 minutes to perfection (polishes halo).

The chaps are on the way home.

Messaged (free) dd
Done an hour of work earlier
Had a nice bath

So life is ticking along.

All the better for getting out for a bit I think.

Time to check out that rice.

Petrol 129.1/ltr all good
Milk/sandwich gubbins/dug fud £6.98
75p on some reduced bacon

A bit of progress, I think I'll write a list today for tomorrow.

Maybe that will give me a bit of focus and a bit less miss pity-party-pants.



****Review spends/petrol etc from last couple months - set realisitic budget if I can****

[end of broadcast )

Pippilongstocking

So I did the salary deductor thing and I have a net figure for the job, I'm using the lowest range end of the salary to start give me a figure.......

http://www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/salary.php

Ball park lowest salary in the range take home £1,236.86 money with deductions and student loan etc off.

Need to find out how much to travel as I have to take me car as part of the job (if offered).

23.6 miles door to door and a journey time of 56.8 minutes.

Country roads and bridges eh! Gotta love them.

So 57.2 miles a day, est cost £9.25 per day just petrol.

http://journeyprice.co.uk/

With insurance/maintance

Your estimated commuting cost is:
£194.47
Monthly
£2,333.64
Annually

https://www.a4carshare.com/Public/PublicPage.aspx?ItemName=CommuteCost&FileType=ASCX

Two hours commuting (at least) a day. 35 hours a week on the job = 9 hour day.

£1,236.86 net pay
(£194.47 travel assumes no parking costs)

£1042.39 after travel deducted.

I need to work these things outloud to fathom a plan.

What I'm trying to do is fathom if I'm better of staying self employed or working part-time/full time.

Sorry if TMI just how me noggin works.

I currently earn c£400/month minimum self employed at the moment and I think I'd have to give that up.

So the net increase for leaving the house is £642/month, or the 'need to find' to have an equivalent current working from home job + any patchwork/p/t income.

Ponders some more.

A bit of headscratching as I'm pondering self employment largely at home/contracting and getting a f/t job.

Or anything inbetween.

I like being at home but I also want to actively contribute to community whether that's paid or volunteering.

Also keep to grow own etc.

F/t jobs with a large commute require sacrifices and I need to make sure I'm not wasting anyone's time before I head and face the red shoe brigade. Even if its a charity I really admire and I'd love the job.

Ponders some more. Oddly its not the money that petrol etc bothers me, its the 2+ hours out of each of my days that does.

Pippilongstocking

ETA a job near home with minimum commuting would be equivilant to £14.1K

Or

a local job just over the min wage at 7.25/hour

Interesting.

All about choices and sacrifices eh?

I can see where this might go you know.

c£650/month from self-employment/part time work shouldn't be too difficult eh?

Pippilongstocking

Thanks for listening.



That's helped a whole bunch!

Greying_Pilgrim

Pippi - I have an additional couple a questions to throw into the mix. Is it a full-time post? I'm guessing yes, by salary. And what is the 'route to work' like in the winter months? I realise you're still in the vicinity of it getting dark 'early' but I meant more in terms of likelihood of snow/flooded roads/sparsely populated countryside etc etc.

Not intended as 'scaremongering' just, you'll need to travel everyday, in all weathers, need breakdown cover, and as you say, to maintain your car well....... All factors we all of us need to consider, but you'd have different considerations if you were commuting 5 minutes up the road, in a densely populated area, where if push came to shove, you could walk if you broke down/the weather was bad etc etc etc.

Greying