Paid off the £31,000! BUT - still scrimping!

Seasidegal58

Hi Hairy and redo! Yes – I hope too that there's no murder count on the cruise! Redo – when I cruised up the Nile I did take along "Death on the Nile" to read and soak up the atmosphere. Along with Margaret's George's "Cleopatra" which is one of my favourites - a wonderful book to read at the time!

We all survived safely on the cruise, but there were no obvious assailants – it was a very quiet cruise actually – mostly Americans. We shared a table each night with a very nice American father and daughter and two other rather wealthy elderly American couples who were travelling together. One of the older men looked like an old version of George W Bush, but more grumpy – I think he had been coerced onto the cruise by his wife and didn't really want to be there! When I asked him if he was enjoying himself, he drawled "Weeeeelll, if you've seen one pyramid, you've seen them all!":rotfl:

The Glory Hole is now sorted! To be honest, it didn't take that long – it looked a lot worse than it was because the cupboard isn’t particularly large and most of the space is taken up by the boiler so everything was crammed in! I managed to get rid of lots of plastic and other bags and also some old tins of paint that will have to go to the tip at the weekend. It now looks a lot more dust-free and tidier!

Both my friend and I thought "Fisherman's Friends" was a lovely film – both funny and upbeat (with a couple of sad bits though). My friend said it was just what she needed to cheer herself up.

END OF SCRIMPY WEEK 3 – MARCH

End of the week today. I didn't spend anything yesterday and nothing will be spent today.

However, out of the week's £53.52, there is now a deficit of -£5.87, which will have to come from Week 4's spends.

My good friend whom I work with wasn't in today as one of her sons had a road accident early this morning whilst on the way to work and she rushed off to the hospital. She texted later to say that luckily he (and the other person involved in the accident) got away with just cuts, bruises and whiplash though it sounds like it could have been a lost worse.. The scan the hospital gave him was fine as well. I'll call her later tonight for an update. What a worry!:(

Hope everyone on here has a more positive day.

milann

Sounds as if your friends son has been lucky not to have been badly hurt.
I quite fancy seeing Fisherman’s friend. We still have some cash on a gift voucher for the new cinema in town with reclining seats:p So will head there at some point - it’ll virtually pay for 1 of us so not to be sniffed at.The cinema looks hideous from the outside and has won a carbuncle award but it’s quite nice inside.

Well done on tackling the glory hole :beer:

Seasidegal58

Hi milann – my friend's son is at home recuperating. He's obviously uncomfortable due to the whiplash and his various bruises, but fine apart from that, although as he has a manual job, he won't be back to work yet.

Your cinema sounds really nice. How funny about the carbuncle award! :rotfl:Mind you, I do find modern theatres and cinemas are a lot more comfortable to actually sit in and watch a performance. Some of the London West End theatres are truly beautiful but the seats are often cramped and small! I'm tall and sometimes feel my knees are up by my chin when I'm seated in some theatres! I tend to try and get a seat on the end of a row so I can at least stretch a leg out while the performance is on!

I forgot to post about my weigh-in yesterday. Another pound down, which I was pleased about considering the Chinese meal and lunch with my friend that were consumed last week!

SCRIMPY WEEK 4 – MARCH

Weekly Ad Hoc spends are £47.68. I haven't got anything special in the diary this week apart from DSis's OH's 50th birthday lunch on Sunday, which they are paying for. I will have taxi fares though. Birthday present wise it will be cash from the Gifts pot and I've also got to buy the card.

Also got to start thinking about Easter eggs - I only buy three - one each for little nephew and DSis and OH's grand-nephew and grand-niece.

Have a good day everyone.

Munchin

Hi SSG

Well done on the weight loss - you are doing brilliantly. I think I'm going to have to copy your scrimpy week challenges to keep me on the straight and narrow

Seasidegal58

Thanks Munchin – the weight loss is taking its time, but at least it is coming off! I could probably lose more if I cut down even more on the non-500 cal days, but I think I would probably throw in the towel after a couple of weeks. Slowly, slowly catchee monkey!:D

Ad hoc spends have been £5.10 for Pret coffees. I also winged some cash over to DSis's bank account to give to her OH for the birthday present. I've also bought birthday cards and Easter eggs – all from Gifts pot which is now in debit.:(

It has been the start of the new benefits year in work. All the employees are given a benefits pot of ex-amount of salary. This is used to fund your statutory payment into the workplace pension. The employee contribution has gone up from 6% to 9% as from this tax year but the firm have added 3% to our pots to take this into consideration. The money in the pot that is left over is for you to decide what benefits you want, apart from the life insurance which is mandatory. Anything left over in the pot after you have made your selection goes into your pension.

I have the medical insurance, annual health check, income protection insurance and, this year, a new benefit which is access to a DNA health-check! This is supposed to give you an indication of what ailments, etc, you are likely to succumb to based on your genes! It doesn't cost very much so I've selected it for this year. One other positive thing is that our firm now has enough employees for our medical insurer to grant us "claims" based insurance rather than "age" based insurance – this "age" based insurance was killing my benefits pot as I'm near to retirement and it was so expensive. The new claims structure has practically halved the cost going forward this year so more of the pot can now go into my pension! Mind you it's only valid up to the age of 65! After that you go back on the "age" structure - but I'll only have to pay it for one more year then as hopefully I will retire!:j

PPI Update - I had confirmation from all my credit card providers now that I have never had PPI on any of them. Just waiting now for news on the two old loans...............
　

HairyHandofDartmoor

Well done on the weight loss :T. I think if it goes off slowly then it's more likely to stay off.

Fishermen's Friend sounds good like a good film. A shame about the PPI but maybe you had some on the loans.

I'm glad your friend's son is okay.

Seasidegal58

Thanks Hairy – I didn't expect to get any PPI refund back from the credit cards, but just wanted to make absolutely sure there wasn't any. All hope is now focused on the loans…..:D

I have been nagging my friend who I work with to get going on the PPI front. I was going on about it at lunchtime while we were out having a coffee as she's a terrible procrastinator. She doesn't remember whether she has had it or not and hasn't got any paperwork so has been putting it off. Suddenly she sprang into action and texted one of the claims companies who immediately rang her back and went through things with her on the phone. They're going to send her the forms to complete. She said she'd rather use them as they'll do all the work for her!

Tonight I'm going to treat myself to a take-away as it's nearly payday – I think sweet and sour chicken Cantonese style and special fried rice. Not very diet friendly I know, but it's going to be my treat and I haven't had it in ages!:D

I also got an email from our HR department to say that there will be an extra £628 going into my workplace pension on payday which is comprised of 50% of the annual NI savings from my salary sacrifice for this tax year.!:j

Very quiet in work today - not much workload and Boss is away. Anyway, only a couple of hours of work to go and then it's two whole days off! Yippee!:j

redofromstart

Thats good going on the NI savings into the pension, not many places do it.

Sun_Addict

Glad all is well with your friend's son, what a scare for her.

Well done on your weight loss. I think losing it slowly is better as it's more likely to stay off. It's all about changing the way you eat rather then dieting.

Great news on the extra going into the pension pot

Have a fab weekend SSG xx

brizzlegirl

Fabulous news. Well done. Bonuses are a great thing to get.

A cruise sounds great. I know people who have done that and loved it. Any other ideas or is this the main contender?

Have a brilliant weekend xx

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