Scuba's Saving the Ha'Pennies

scubaangel

Start of the new financial year budget is done, all flat related expenses are on my spreadsheet. Just need to go back to work to find out if we're getting a payrise from April or not - when I left my manager was still unsure but typically they do a small cost of living increase from what others have said so fingers crossed. After that I need to work out what I can add to my savings and what to send to the credit cards.


I've also loaded up the car with stuff to take to the tip - most of the stuff already loaded is stuff I can drop off at their reuse point, going to take my old duvet and pillows too to free up cupboard space since I don't anticipate having any one come to stay with me anytime soon and frankly the more I declutter while I'm feeling motivated the better!

scubaangel

Tip run done and a carrier bag of DVD's have been dropped off at my favourite local charity shop.


Spends of about £10, on a frozen pizza, some chicken for dinner tonight, fresh milk and some breakfast biscuits.


The male wants to swim tonight so I'll probably let him go alone and have the extra time to myself to have another go at the bathroom ceiling.

scubaangel

So far today I have decluttered a mug as I broke the handle off it when I was washing up.



I've also put all my too small jeans in to a box at the bottom of my wardrobe with a label on it saying if I can't fit in to them in 6 months time they need to go to the charity shop - had an older pair of jeans on yesterday and they were a bit tighter than they should be so time to put back on the sports kit and run more often again - hardly done any running this year after the tendonitis over Christmas flared up again at the end of Jan. But its now the end of March and I've had two weeks off and not been out running once which is shockingly lazy.


I'll weigh myself next week as I suspect some of the problem is bloat this week, last weeks sugar cravings, and simply having been home I've been snacking more than I would do if I was at work - and thats before the fact that at work I would have walked 12-15k steps daily including an average of 20 flights of stairs while at home I'm barely scraping 2k steps and 2 flights of stairs!


Male creature isn't working this weekend so not entirely sure what our plans will be - he's got a run booked on Sunday but having been injured for over 2 months and only having started running again this week not sure if he'll go or not.

scubaangel

Had a month or so away from stuff generally as things were starting to get on top of me - work, my work training course, debt. I knew I could afford to stop worrying about meeting targets on sb/insta for the cash thanks to my promotion and cost of living payrise so I just put the cards away and ignored it all for a few weeks.


But now I'm back, feeling much less under it all. Wedding season is starting at work and I've been doing alot more day shifts at weekends looking after "fact finding" visits with already booked couples, that's meant a bit more time with the bloke which has been nice.


As a result of that we've decided I'll be moving in with him after he gets his bathroom refurbished, he's only just planning it so it's likely to be a couple of months before its done - equally he decided last year to replace the carpet in his flat and had someone booked to do the job the week after. He's already emptied most of one of his wardrobes so I can use it.


Open water swim season has also started which I think has had an impact on my mood too, managed to get to the lakes twice so far thanks to my shifts and really looking forward to heading over there this evening too.

scubaangel

Got to the lake last night, swam around 2400m in about an hour (6 laps of the 400m course, so measurements are approximate), which bodes well for my planned endurance swims later in the summer (10k, a 5k followed by a mile, and the longest which is 14k). At the moment I'm using my cash tips to pay for my swims (£6 a swim at both lakes), am hoping to swim 3k+ on friday as the swim session is a little longer.


Cashed out £25 on onepoll today.



In the middle of a few self employed projects one which will hopefully be monthly.



Suggested to the male last night that he needs to find out if they still make the same furniture he has in his bedroom and the first thing we need to buy is a chest of drawers as I'll need one (his is totally full, and I have a full one here) and where we can put something like that will change what other storage furniture we can fit in the room.



In the meantime I'm about to start relisting things on gumtree and shpock as all my current listings have expired, and am more carefully considering what stuff is worth me keeping and storing. Even if I dont bother to keep the furniture I still need storage for some stuff as his place just isnt big enough for everything we both own - especially as my Dad is talking about selling his place and moving in the next 12 months - I have alot of stuff there still I'll likely need to put in storage if he does.

scubaangel

Pulled the toiletries box off the shelf again for a mini sort out. Put four mini body sprays and three full sized ones in to a bag to go to our local foodbank. I still have two deoderants in the box once they're finished I'll have another look around for something more environmentally friendly than a spray can.

Am down to two shower gel/body washes too so once they're gone I'll switch to soap until I get the 8 bars (yeah I don't know why I have 8 bars of unopened soap either) used up.



Earnings wise I've had a better day on insta than I have for a while and a couple of good surveys on sb mean I hit target early. Withdrew £1 from qmee which I'll move in to the bank later.

scubaangel

Had another look at my credit card balances, and have discovered that the MBNA since they got taken over now lets me set a payment amount so I've set my new DD to slightly over this months minimum payment. I've then decided that I'll take that set payment and round it up to create a monthly cash earnings target for myself of £100 - obviously I'll set to work on next months target now.

scubaangel

Talk of me moving in has gone quiet again but the male is still researching his plans to redo the bathroom so for now there's not alot I can press him with other than continuing the slow declutter of my place.


Not got the onepoll money in yet, and am waiting for $10 from an exersize related panel. Also sending daily emails to swagbucks as a £25 mastercard has gone astray.

scubaangel

Had a few spare minutes so decided to have a go at getting rid of a few more books - successfully this time, so there are two books packed and ready for me to drop off for ziffit (worth a little over£5) and 7 going to webuybooks again should get me a little over £5 with their bank holiday bonus. Just need to find a box small enough for the wbb trade as the boxes I have are quite large. I'll print both labels so I can try to drop off after work on Monday (last time I saw the rota I was on an earlier than normal shift so the convenience stores should still be open when I finish).


Overall the books aren't making much of a dent in the piles in the living room but every little etc.

scubaangel

Busy few days at work, currently very much looking forward to my upcoming days off!


Got an earlyish shift tomorrow so am hoping to be finished early enough to get up to the more local lake for an evening swim - only 2 weeks before my big swim event and I'm more than slightly worried!



If the weathers good I'm thinknig I might try to cycle to and from work on Tuesday, so I've packed spare non-work clothes to change in to tomorrow, which works if I'm going to go to the lake as I really dont want to be putting my work uniform back on after a swim.


I'd forgotten it was Bank Hol so I'll be taking the packages of books to their respective drop off points on Wednesday instead.


Had a letter from my car dealership reminding me it's due a service and MOT in June so will have to give them a call on Tuesday and see when I can book it for, it also means I'll have to buy insurance soon too, will spend a day off this week doing the price comparisons.