Mini meltdown and light bulb moment

AleMrsT

Had a nice Monday today, went for a long walk with my husband this morning, it was so hot but it was nice to get out of the house, then we got home and nipped to Tesco for some bits before he went to work again, I cant remember how much I spent, its not showing on internet banking yet and I've thrown the receipt away, but I think it was around £10. Must get back in to the habit of keeping track a bit more. I've then finished my book this afternoon, it was really good, going to take it back to the hospital so someone else can buy it. I've really gotten in to reading again the past few weeks, I'd forgotten how much I enjoy it.

Going to have a more productive day tomorrow, husband is on a normal office day shift so I will clean up and get the ironing done in the morning, then my friend has said she is free to come and see me so hopefully she'll pop over in the afternoon at some point, so it should be a nice day tomorrow, hopefully it wont be so hot if I have to spend the day cleaning and ironing!

Off to bed now to read my magazine before starting on a new book, otherwise I wont want to get the chores done tomorrow and will spend another day tucked up on the sofa engrossed in a book!

misstara

AleMrsT wrote: »

Off to bed now to read my magazine before starting on a new book, otherwise I wont want to get the chores done tomorrow and will spend another day tucked up on the sofa engrossed in a book!

:rotfl: this is so me. Am always like I'll just read 1 more chapter and then do cleaning/ironing/cooking, an hour later oops better move.

Have a nice afternoon with your friend

AleMrsT

I'm so rubbish at updating my diary!
So, with 17 days still to go before its payday I have a grand sum of £71.74 in my account! I feel so stressed about how little money I have due to only getting £723.63 wages this month :eek:

We have two trips to London planned for this month too, this Friday and next week too. The one for this Friday is a trip to Wembley to see Louis CK which my husband booked a few months ago as a treat, the tickets and hotel are all paid for so its just petrol, parking and food to pay for.
The following week I have a hospital appointment on Thursday, which means we would usually travel down on the day then just drive back afterwards, and risk parking at a tesco express nearby, but I may have another appointment beforehand on the Wednesday so it will mean a last minute hotel booking, which I just dont have the money for, so OH will have to pay.

I hate this feeling, I can't believe it used to be an every day thing to counting down my last penny. I was at work on saturday so went to bootz just before 2pm as I knew thats when they reduce the sandwiches, I had 50p exactly in change that I'd found lying around the house and it various pots, so I hovered around whilst the cashier was checking the dates and putting the 50p stickers on :rotfl:

I'm going to defrost some bread rolls tonight so that I can make some cobs to take for lunch tomorrow as its much cheaper, I also got a bargain today and bought 16 packets of crisps for £1 from poundworld :T should last me until pay day if I remember to take something else in for lunch every day.

I've been trying really hard not to spend money as I just don't have it this month and we're going away in September, I do have money saved but would rather use our wages than break into the savings so I can try and use those for Christmas.

Since payday I've spent £19.94 on top of my usual monthly bills :T plus £20.11 has gone out towards the remaining balance of our caravan break in March with my sister and the children, I opted to pay in installments as there was no extra interest and it helped spread the cost.

I'm actually quite proud of my low spends, although I will need to spend £18 on another bus ticket but I can get a lift to and from work with my husband tomorrow hopefully.

I have another job interview on Thursday, working within the NHS so it is payrise and a shorter working day (but more hours over the week as I will be working 5 days instead of 4), plus its audio typing which I love doing so I'm going to spend my day off on Wednesday reading up on the trust values etc so I can really try and nail the interview!

The payrise will be between £1347 to £4074 per year depending what they set the salary as, either way we should be able to afford the second car.

Not going to get my hopes up though because I've had so many interviews now its disheartening to fall at the last hurdle, and my experience with recruitment agencies has not been very positive, I'm still waiting for feedback from the last interview I had two or three weeks ago, they always say 'we'll be letting everyone know on Friday', I don't think I've ever received feedback or a response unless I've actively asked them for it. Is this normal?!

Anyway, I'm going to catch up on diaries and then climb into bed, I'm quite tired today, its top up time next week.

misstara

Hello, fab to see an update from you. Sorry to hear your wages were so low, I'm sure you're up to the challenge of making the money you have left last until payday

Good luck with the interview on Thursday, sounds like an interesting job and great to get a pay rise.

AleMrsT

Well I've not posted in a while, but other half is at work so I thought I'd do a quick post.
I've had a productive afternoon, I've done the ironing, put a load of washing in, cleaned the flat, scrubbed the bathroom and got rid of the mould that was developing along the edges of the bath and the grouting etc, then I've emptied all of the food cupboards, cleaned them out and gone through every thing thats in the cupboards, checked dates and put everything back in some kind of order.

Just updated my signature, I've not updated it for a while so its nice to see the amounts going down :T

In other news, I had a job interview last week and got offered the job! :j Its an admin job at the local hospital, so I've just had the verbal job offer, I have no idea how long the recruitment process takes in the NHS but I've looked online and all the advice states to wait for an official offer letter once all references and DBS checks are done before handing my notice in, but not sure how to approach my employer for the reference without handing my notice in will have to think on that one.
I'm also a little bit worried about the reference as my sickness absence has not been great this year due to the time I had off with stress and anxiety and the two weeks I also had off for recovery time after my surgery. I made the interviewers aware of my existing medical condition so they should be aware that this involves some absences as I told them as such, but it's typical that this year so far I've had more time off than usual. Not really sure what to do, whether to let the new manager aware before the reference, or not say anything and hope its all ok.

It's all quite stressful thinking about it so I'm trying to forget about it and carry on as normal until I hear something further. Does anyone have any advice on the NHS recruitment process etc?

If it does all turn out to be ok, I'll be 20% better off overall, as its 10% less hours than I do now but 10% more pay, so all good!

Fingers crossed I didnt imagine the phone call and I do indeed have a new job!!:rotfl:

Off to catch up on diary updates then going to run a nice bath and snuggle up in bed and watch a film.

Poor_Single_lady

I don't have any advice on nhs recruitment but just wanted to say congratulations on the job offer. Hope you are a proud lady! xxx

AleMrsT

I've not posted for a while again so thought I should check in.

We went away on holiday during the first week of September and spent some time with the in laws whilst we were there. Before going I took my ID and signed forms over to the HR department at the hospital so that they can start the pre-employment checks. :j

We did ok on spends whilst we were away, I had managed to save some money for us to take but we didnt end up spending all of it so I've kept the rest in my savings pot ready for Christmas.

Its my husbands birthday next month and my sisters baby is due too so need to plan for a spendy October.

In other news, I still havent had a start date for my new job. :mad: I'm getting really frustrated about the whole thing now, I had my interview and verbal job offer on 11th August, my employer and previous employer sent off the references whilst I was on holiday, so I'm now just waiting for the HR department to confirm a start date. I think I'll have to have a medical assessment with the occupational health department to talk through the absences I noted down for the past year (there are a lot because of my hospital appointments, surgery and the two weeks I was signed off with stress). I'm concerned that these absences will be an issue which is why I havent heard anything at all from anyone for over two weeks, but maybe I'm just stressing for stressing sake now!

I am desperate to hand my notice in to work, I spend the days filling my time with useless tasks and its got to the point now where everything annoys me and I am embarrassed to be an employee for that company. I just want to go in to work, do a good job and be proud of what I do and where I work.

We had to go in at 8.45 today (we start at 9) for a 'meeting' about the results from the recent mystery shopping that was done at all of the branches. I know its only 15 minutes, but we didnt get paid for it, nor did we get offered the time back elsewhere, and it was 20 minutes of us being told we're rubbish and were ranked 100 out of 102 (branches) for customer service, and we all have to go to a 'compulsory customer service workshop'.
The whole thing is frankly ridiculous. The customers would get a much better service and have a better experience if the staff were actually IN the branch, instead of in meetings, or at training or at 'local networking' events!
I was so fed up at being involved in something that has absolutely NOTHING to do with me (I wasn't there when we were 'mystery shopped' and do not deal with customers directly) that I left at 5.55 to get my bus, a whole 5 minutes early!
I see it that technically they still owe me 10 minutes :rotfl:

Anyway, in other news, my OH has received a letter about 'pending prosecution' for being caught speeding at 72mph in a 50mph zone on the motorway when we were on our way back from our holiday. It was 11pm at night and there was hardly any traffic and although there were roadworks signs, there was no work men, but thats not the point. I'm actually quite pleased he's got it, hopefully he'll not rush around and drive at stupid speeds in the fast lane in the future, and my sister will let us take my niece out for the day, as she wont at the moment because of OH's driving! Plus, we've had this car since July and I haven't been allowed to drive it yet, so hopefully he'll change his mind when he's got 6 points on his license!

I've spent the evening catching up on the ironing whilst OH is at work, for some reason I can only do the ironing when I'm alone in the house, and had got into the habit of ironing it as soon as it was dried rather than letting it pile up in the basket, but after having over a weeks worth of washing to get through since being back from holiday we've had 3 or 4 loads to wash so its all piled up. Should be back on track now though as the ironing basket is empty, but the washing basket is full again! Its always one or the other, it really bugs me. Need to get the washing done tomorrow so that I can iron it and put it all away on Wednesday when I'm off. A clean house and clear laundry baskets is my heaven!

Anyway, off to catch up on diaries then off to bed, in work again tomorrow so we'll see what mood I'm in when I get home tomorrow!

AleMrsT

Just thought I'd stop by and post a little update whilst OH is working the late shift tonight.
Had a lovely chilled day today, we're watching a new series on netflixks so have watched 3 episodes of that this morning, then OH got ready and went off to work, so I did a quick clean and tidy of the house, then caught up on the load of ironing that was ready to come off the airer. I much prefer ironing it before it makes its way in to the basket, it makes life so much easier!
Anyway, cleaning and ironing all done so I had a nice long soak in the bath listening to some lovely soul music, then I made a sweet potato curry for dinner, with broccoli and spinach, I ended up with 2 extra portions so thats dinner for me again tomorrow as OH is on late shift again, and also a portion for lunch at work on Monday

I've just spent the evening listening to music and reading my magazine with my candle lit, I love a nice chilled evening.

Not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow, but I might make the most of having done all the chores today and head out somewhere in the afternoon, I might go and see my sister but havent decided yet.

I've been having a lot of baths the past couple of weeks, I've felt far less stressed and have slept better too. Not sure I'll feel as relaxed when the water bill goes up, but for now its a nice indulgence

On the job front I'm still waiting for a start date from the hospital for my new job! Its dragged on for so long that my friend called me on Wednesday about a vacancy that they had received in that she wanted to put me forward for. She used to work with me but left in August and now works in recruitment, she knew I'd been offered a job but seeing as I hadnt started yet she called me on the off chance it had all fallen through. Obviously it hasnt, the HR department are just really slow! Anyway, I explained this and she went through the role with me and said there was no harm in putting me forward for it, so I agreed. She then called me the next day to say they're really interested in seeing me and can I go in on Friday for an interview!
I really wasnt expecting anything to come of it, but at least it keeps my options open! I went to the interview yesterday and I should hear back next week!

I'm a bit torn now though!

I really wanted the hospital job because it was a complete change, and is with the NHS so they have a great holiday and pension scheme etc, the job is actually a £2000 per year pay cut to my current job, but with the annual pay rises the salary would even out.

I now have a predicament, because the other job is a £3000 pay increase, and although its in the same industry I'm in now, the role itself is all of the bits of the job I like, a purely admin back office role, working for a nice company, and I know I would really enjoy the job.
When I had my interview at the hospital job I felt a little out of place in the office and when I did the initial tpying test I thought 'I really cant do this', so I was so surprised when I got offered the job.

I'm really not sure what to do! I havent been offered the other job, but if I do get offered it, I'll have to make a difficult decision.

I've been talking to my friend who used to work in HR for the NHS and part of the reason I was going to accept the job was because of the flexibility I'd have with my hospital appointments and their sick policy, however, a few people have said, including my friend, who have said that they are actually not as sympathetic as they should be with illness and absence.

I've been advised to speak to occupational health before I make a decision, but I've not had a response to my last email that I sent over 2 weeks ago, so I doubt I'd be able to speak to them before I would need to make a decision on the other job (if I get offered it!)

I think if I do get offered it, I'll accept the new role, a £3000 a year pay increase will really help us and could mean a holiday next year afterall, but if I don't get offered it, I'll stick to the hospital role and wait for this elusive start date!

After over a year of job hunting, its so typical that both of these jobs pop up at the same time!

Whatever happens, at least I'll be out of my current place!:T:beer::j

AleMrsT

Just stopping by to say I've got a second interview this afternoon for the job that my friend put me forward for fingers crossed!!!

misstara

Good luck