22 Foxhole East

Baileys_Babe

Fingers crossed you get your hotel room for Thursday night 🤞 Could you go back to work#1 and say you have changed your mind about room for Thursday night?

f0xh0les

It was all finalised weeks ago.boo!

Baileys_Babe

f0xh0les said:

It was all finalised weeks ago.boo!

I thought that might be the case, the rooms are likely to be cheaper if booked in advance and possibly in bulk.

What would happen if you had said yes to the room and then didn't use it?

f0xh0les

Nothing would happen. 
So that is a lesson for the future.

f0xh0les

Really lovely time on Wednesday for Work1, set up the event, calmed some people down - as suspected, a lot of muppetry occured, but a major disaster was averted, good job we know what we are doing! 

At 7am on Thursday I was contacted by work2 to ask if I was by any chance able to work in Birmingham?

Then asked if I could work for them on Friday because of 'a situation' and they were now shorthanded.

 Anyway, Work1's client was happy, and everything got done on time and off I travelled back to LeShire.

So I got home from the train station at 9.30pm, ate a cheese toastie with a cup of tea (because I was too knackered for anything else), went to bed at 11, and was back up at 5am.

DH has been to the hospital for tests, they 'think' it isn't cancer, but want to do a biopsy and stuff just to check, so he has decided he might not be dying after all and has cheered up considerably.  Hooray! 

I have today completed my expenses/ pay claims for both workplaces, 

Work 2 took me nearly 2 hours (boo!) for the 3 days.  

Work 1 took over 3 hours for my 1.5 days.  Horrific. Downloading and uploading a horrific amount of receipts and attaching them to documents, then they disappeared with a message it had been saved as a draft, but half the message had disappeared!  All for less than £70, but it was MY less than £70 that I really want reimbursed for. 

Wish I could just staple the receipts to my pay sheet and let them deal with it, but I don't know when they run the December pay run, because (I suspect) I have been missed off the send-to-all-email again.  Soonest sent is the best plan.  Work 2 pay out on NYE

My huge £98  Autumn ground rent payment has not been processed yet again.  Will have to ring them on Monday and check what they are playing at.  You can't just ignore request for payment emails. Bad form!

I have no more work booked in for the rest of the year. Not one single day. Nothing. 

But my Tax Code has changed yet again!! 

f0xh0les

My little car has returned from its small service and mot this morning. £161 - I am very happy with that.  Nothing major needed to be done, and nothing imminent either.  

Had to put it on the cc because I do not have the money until expenses are paid on Christmas Eve. At least the expenses will cover it all, so technically I am still within my allocated budget - it was the work that was unexpected. 

It is looking like £210 for car insurance due mid January including breakdown insurance. That will come out of wages paid on New Years Eve, which means I have spent all my money earned in December before it comes in.  At least I will not have to rob anything back from savings this month.  DH will pay me housekeeping again as he is not on strike, which easily covers everything, and one of my regular savers has stopped this month, which leaves me an extra £250 to play with a month.  

Today 8p veg in the German supermarkets start,  or 15p with a nekktar/ clobcard and you like 2 hours of parking for 15p in a car park in a convenient location.

Which means I can go volunteering today as I have my car, and I know what is going on with my finances. 

January 2026 will see me with £110k in savings - with about £20k of building work to be done, £8k invested in a SIPP, and good prospects for  a lot more work in future, as I have 3 employers, and 2 of them are fighting over my availability. 

Not a bad position to be in, all things considered.

apple_muncher

Your 2026 diary will be full of your work dates, rather then what the boys are doing!

f0xh0les

DS4 will leave secondary school in June/July. I can't wait to leave that regimented nonsense behind.   
DS4 is 16 on Christmas Eve Eve.
DS3 is 18  ....  5 weeks later. 
DH has his tongue/mouth biopsy on Christmas Eve. Date for the diary!
DH has Estonia 🇪🇪 and Canada 🇨🇦  and his weekend camping trips all planned out for 2026.   The diary is busy for them already - plus GCSEs in Summer!! 
I fear a lot of my work is going to be last minute notice for the first 4 months, but it will come, and hopefully I will soon be in a position to pick and choose my events by this time next year.

f0xh0les

Car insurance sorted for another year, £206 including breakdown, courtesy car, replacement keys,  and all the whistles and bells of legal. £60 cheaper than last year.  Whoop Whoop, thank you meerkats, cos it also means 25% off at Cafe Nerd which is a godsend when I am working away from home (and the photographers love me for it too).  

Went off volunteering this morning, boxes packed. people will be fed, but I cannot understand the people who wait until 22nd to drop food donations off.  We close tomorrow for 5 days.  The amount of advent calendars that have come in in the last 4 days is ridiculous. Bizarrely people don't want to take them in January, until you remind them they are just a box of 24 chocolates.  It is so weird.  

We are socially conditioned not to want a mince pie (or mice pie) in February. That selection boxes are only for December, that a steamed fruit pudding is for December.  Table explosives are not for Easter, no, they are for Christmas!!  Who flippin' says they are?? Bang!

We are about to get an influx of Christmas puddings, and they are nearly impossible to get rid of because of a mindset that says certain foods are 'seasonal'.   Even to people who have no money for food.  Can't get my head around it.  

But I will be back in next week doing my thing for the last time this year. Listening to the paid staff whining about having loads of holiday / toil left to spend before April,  while complaining about the retired volunteers who have decided to go off on holiday.   Disgraceful.   

apple_muncher

Happy birthday to ds4 🍰 What cake did he want?