Scuba's Saving the Ha'Pennies

scubaangel

Not alot been going on lately, a few more £1 wins from snatch. Another £5 from vyper, and £1 from panel app. Getting close to cashing out on a couple of survey sites but not quite there yet.

I need to start thinking about the C word as I know I won't be going home for it so need to sort out either buying and posting things or arranging with my family to do it in the new year when I can get time off work and Mum's back in the UK.

scubaangel

Still not doing a whole lot other than working and running.

Cashed out £100 from swagbucks as a mastercard, waiting for that to arrive then I can transfer it in to paypal.

Since my last post I've done three 10k events, a half marathon and have one more 10k planned for this year.

I've booked three 10k road runs for January and am contemplating a trail event on the same weekend as one of them.

Still plodding away with the surveys when I have enough time to sit at the laptop, and am 20 books away from my goodreads target for the year so looking for the novellas on my kindle and ibooks to supplement the goodreads giveaway wins.

scubaangel

Can't believe its been so long since I updated.

Not that alot has happened.

Lots of working, a couple of weeks visiting my Mum in Tenerife (she has a bad back and couldn't fly home when they planned to so paid for me to fly out to visit instead), and not alot of running.

Couldn't get to two of the three runs I had booked for January, late shifts at work and they had a really early start. But I got a ballot place for the Royal Parks Half in October so I have something to work towards. I've also booked the three Henley swims (Classic, Mile, and Club to Pub) in July. Just have to book appropriate days off work.

The male thing is finding this years marathon training better than last year - he changed the training program from 5 days a week to three and is generally less grumpy and much nicer to be around as well as hitting PB's when he goes out to race.

Debt wise I'm still pretty much stood still. New tyres on the car and the trip to see Mum mean I've not been able to make particularly large extra payments although after Nana passed I have got a reasonable size inheritance which is currently saved - it won't pay off my debt and while I'm not yet 'promoted' at work I'd rather the cash in the bank. I also need to review the money I'm putting aside to pay the lump sum for my car next summer, I need to make sure that I have enough to pay it off at the end of my finance.

Work wise, I'm still enjoying it, finding it really rewarding 90% of the time and the other 10% its frustration or boredom. The company have started advertising two internal training opportunities which my manager has said both would be beneficial if I can get on them. One is a new one day course which if I can get a spot could either be really useful or a total waste of time as it's a new course so the first people to attend are the guinea pigs. The other is an extended course, about 8 days spread over about a year with some online/at home study to do alongside - that one I have to apply for through my manager so I have the form with me put on the desk ready for Friday. I'm also booked on another 1 day course, but the date hasn't been confirmed yet.
Feels rather odd to work for an organisation who actually follow through on training for their staff.....

Hopefully at my next review I'll either get the promotion or at the very least get more guidance as to where I'm still not quite up to speed - I know what my weaknesses are and what I need to work on I'm hoping that my management team don't have too many other areas for me to work at!

scubaangel

Got a £20 Mr S voucher this morning from a survey site.
Strange evening at work but resulted in my team and I taking home a nice foldy money tip so it was worth while as well as getting away earlier than we expected to.

I've got a box of books to drop off for ziffit too, as well as having collected a couple of bigger boxes from work to try and get rid of a few more in my next attempt (including some bigger "coffee table" type books). Hopefully it won't be raining too much tomorrow so I can make the walk from the males house before work.

I need to do some shopping at some point too - am in need of new tights for work, and by the time I have my next day off will be in desperate need for fresh milk, although as I've worked today himself and I have decided we'll treat ourselves to a date night so at least I only need to sort out lunch for a couple of days.

Unfortunately that plan is hampered by the fact I currently have no debit card, somewhere along the line my card details got in to the hands of scammers, thankfully my bank didn't let them take any money but it could be Monday or Tuesday before I have a new card - make the foldy tip even more valuable to me tonight!

scubaangel

A smaller foldy tip was pushed in to my sweaty grateful little hand earlier, felt like I hardly worked for this one though as I wasn't working in my normal role so spent the shift as the gopher for the regular staff.

A couple of payments have landed in paypal this week so I've just withdrawn them, they'll cover the minimum payments on my cards still due this month meaning once I get my new debit card I can use the money in my current account to pay off extra which is a good feeling since it seems like ages since I was denting the balances beyond the minimums!

scubaangel

New debit card has arrived, and not a moment too soon!

Went to fill up the car and put 41.25 litres of petrol in to a 42 litre tank. :eek:

Couple of days off now, so out for dinner tonight with the malecreature then hopefully a lazy day tomorrow.

The two foldy tips have been deposited in my savings tin.

scubaangel

Lazy day has been appropriately lazy.

Went to the cinema this afternoon and saw Early Man, it was a typical Aardman film, although surprisingly about football.....

This afternoon have had two £5 mastercard codes, one I transferred to paypal the other I realised I could add to a paypal account as a funding source and transfer that way - net result the first one cost me the 37p fee the second didn't.

Little bit worried about my fighting fish, he seems quieter than normal, although he's also built himself an impressive bubble nest since I did a water change last night.

scubaangel

Fighting fish back to normal.

Another lovely foldy money tip given to me and my team, my part has been popped in the tin.

Other than that not alot happening, busy few days at work and looking forward to another day off which will coincide with the chance to spend time with the male.

scubaangel

Busy busy at work still, despite the weather meaning there were cancellations still plenty to get done.

I've cashed out £5 paypal on two different apps in the last few days attapoll who paid almost immediately and shoppix who haven't paid yet (although I only claimed it this morning).

Shopmium have got coffee on offer again so I picked up two of the packs of coffee bags when I saw them in Mr T, so thats £7 of coffee which will have cost me £3 (the offer is try them for £1.50), if I see the third variety I'll grab a pack of those too as the filters I bought for the coffee dripper just keep splitting which is really annoying me - have got in touch with where I bought them from to complain - but with no pre work coffee I'm not a nice human......

scubaangel

The fish are still causing me to worry.

The filter in the Fighting fish tank broke so I replaced it with a PF mini, which is definitely too powerful, poor thing just gets flung around in the currents, so I'm trying to find another alternative filter for a small nano tank ideally with a built in flow adjuster.

My other tank which by now I was hoping to be putting extra fish in to is essentially on hold until the two Electric Blue rams I bought for it are sorted out, I bought a pair, but one gets stressed easily - when I do water changes it spends the next couple of days acting lethargic near the surface which is awkward as EBR's need super clean water so I need to do weekly small changes - then the second one started to bully the stressy fish causing it to spend all its time near the surface trying to hide behind leaves and then started to lose its bright colours. So I've had to put the bully fish in to a hatchery net while stressy fish gets its confidence back and starts to look happy again.

So far they've been segregated for a week, stressy fish is slowly starting to spend time in the front of the tank, but if it sees/senses movement in the room it goes straight back to hiding behind the planted bog wood. It's colours seem to be returning too but I need to do a water change in the next day or so which I'm aprehensive about in case it reacts the same way again. I also don't want to leave the bully fish netted too long, but I'm hoping once I let it out stressy fish won't be too easily chased off.

Work wise I've done the two one day courses, and the assessment for the long course.