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

milann

I’m attempting to work from home - but been having lots of problems with my e-mails. Because we are support staff in a school and don’t have school laptops - we are using our own.....I pick mine up once a month to do my banking usually- it’s quite old and I never send any e-mails and doesn’t have any decent writing programs. So I’m finding it tricky to say the least. It’s a good job dh has been home to help me.....he needs to be put on the school payroll as my technical assistant.
Your  working day sounds much more organised than mine.... 
We had Christmas presents to see The Halle playing Elton John next week, a booking at Tom Kerridge's restaurant which have both been cancelled. We also have ticket for Phantom which I’m presuming will also be cancelled. A tad annoying but we are safe and well for now and that’s how we need to stay.....it’s certainly a scary world atm. 

Take care .

Sun_Addict

The novelty of working from home wears off after a bit when it’s every single day. Trust me I did it with the broken leg for 7 weeks and was climbing the walks by the end of it. You start to miss the interaction with people. Normally I work from home twice a week which is great. Of course we have no choice right now.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Sun_Addict said:

The novelty of working from home wears off after a bit when it’s every single day. Trust me I did it with the broken leg for 7 weeks and was climbing the walks by the end of it. You start to miss the interaction with people. Normally I work from home twice a week which is great. Of course we have no choice right now.

I agree SA as someone who did it for 15 years. I love going out to work now and would never want to work from home again. DH on the other hand loves it and is clearly less social than I am.

Seasidegal58

Hi there @HairyHandofDartmoor and @milann!

It's early days yet as to whether I would like to work from home permanently- I certainly don't miss the commute.  If I had more room in the flat for a proper desk and chair and monitors that would be a plus, but I haven't alas!

However, the firm had a Zoom conference call for all staff yesterday and in a roundabout way the MD intimated that as working remotely had been working well there would be some changes when we all get back - perhaps more people working from home, hot desking and more email based correspondence rather than postal correspondence to clients. Watch this space!

 

When I take my lunchtime constitutional I walk briskly down near the seafront. It's quite hilly in places so that's an extra bonus health wise. It's a lovely route when the sun is out as it's been this week - the tide has been in and the water glitters. However slightly different story when it's raining or dismal and the tide is out exposing all the estuary mud!😀.  Funnily enough there's hardly anyone about - those who are are walking their dogs or jogging. So plenty of space for social distancing!

I'm sorry to hear of your IT problems milann. It's so frustrating isn't it?  At least you have your OH as your standby teccie advisor!😀

it's rotten too about your theatre/concert cancellations.☹️ I've just remembered I've got tickets as well in November for a Pink Floyd tribute band - I do hope everything will be back to some semblance of normality by then for everyone. 

SCRIMPY WEEK 1 - APRIL (which was Wednesday)

it's odd but what with this all going on I nearly forgot about payday!  I've sorted out my YNAB categories - emphasis on certain categories have changed. I won't be funding hair, nails clothes, eating and drinking out and have suspended the Ad Hoc Savings category. Extra spends have been at the supermarket, kindle and film downloads and food bank. I've been picking up extra bits for the food bank when I've been shopping, including some Easter Eggs, so I have three carrier bags to take over to the church on Sunday. 

And the clocks go forward tomorrow night - nearly forgot about that too!🕰

beanielou

Seasidegal58 said:

Hi there @HairyHandofDartmoor and @milann!

It's early days yet as to whether I would like to work from home permanently- I certainly don't miss the commute.  If I had more room in the flat for a proper desk and chair and monitors that would be a plus, but I haven't alas!

However, the firm had a Zoom conference call for all staff yesterday and in a roundabout way the MD intimated that as working remotely had been working well there would be some changes when we all get back - perhaps more people working from home, hot desking and more email based correspondence rather than postal correspondence to clients. Watch this space!

 

When I take my lunchtime constitutional I walk briskly down near the seafront. It's quite hilly in places so that's an extra bonus health wise. It's a lovely route when the sun is out as it's been this week - the tide has been in and the water glitters. However slightly different story when it's raining or dismal and the tide is out exposing all the estuary mud!😀.  Funnily enough there's hardly anyone about - those who are are walking their dogs or jogging. So plenty of space for social distancing!

I'm sorry to hear of your IT problems milann. It's so frustrating isn't it?  At least you have your OH as your standby teccie advisor!😀

it's rotten too about your theatre/concert cancellations.☹️ I've just remembered I've got tickets as well in November for a Pink Floyd tribute band - I do hope everything will be back to some semblance of normality by then for everyone. 

SCRIMPY WEEK 1 - APRIL (which was Wednesday)

it's odd but what with this all going on I nearly forgot about payday!  I've sorted out my YNAB categories - emphasis on certain categories have changed. I won't be funding hair, nails clothes, eating and drinking out and have suspended the Ad Hoc Savings category. Extra spends have been at the supermarket, kindle and film downloads and food bank. I've been picking up extra bits for the food bank when I've been shopping, including some Easter Eggs, so I have three carrier bags to take over to the church on Sunday. 

And the clocks go forward tomorrow night - nearly forgot about that too!🕰

I agree about changes ahead re working from home that lots of firms will rethink this going forward as they realise how much people can actually do from home.

Thanks so much for the foodbank donations.

Seasidegal58

Hi @beanielou - re food bank -  I think it's the least that people with some disposable income can do. I've made a conscious decision now to double my food bank contribution.

You're right also about more firms working from home. Our firms rents office space in one of the most expensive commercial areas in Europe, if not the world - if they could lose one floor it would save them a bundle.  I think firms like ours were loathe to try working remotely until now but this virus has proved that we can manage. 

beanielou

I am so very humbled at how generous hpeople have been to us in the last week.
So many donations of different types.

Seasidegal58

The positive coming out of this virus @beanie is how it is bringing out the best in people. 

Seasidegal58

Sorry @Sun_Addict and @HairyHandofDartmoor - I seemed to have overlooked your last posts!  I'm keeping an open mind re working from home although my cramped working conditions are not exactly conducive for the long term.  There is the subject of interplay with others as well.  I think I'm quite a gregarious person, but I must say I wouldn't miss face to face interaction with some people I work with though others are lovely!  For example, one of my best friends works on our team and I will miss her once retired as she doesn't live very close to me.  The main bonus as I've mentioned before is no commute. I'm going to find it extremely hard getting on that train again each day. ☹️

I suppose the big thing I have going is that my retirement isn't that far away in the scheme of things so this whole conundrum will be taken away from me eventually. 

I forgot to mention I went to Waitrose on Thursday. My boss said take a longer lunch hour so I had a 20 minute walk to the store. its not one of our biggest stores and they were only letting 30 people in at a time. there wasn't that many in the queue which surprised me -  I waited about half an hour and found it was pretty well stocked. Again no toilet rolls apart from some left that had patterned flowers!  How weird!  Plenty of fruit and veg - hardly any dried pasta, not a lot of choice tinned wise,, no long life milk - the usual!  I got all I wanted and managed some of the food bank stuff too - jar of coffee, tea bags, tinned tuna, tinned rice pudding, dried pasta, dried rice, pasta sauce, baked beans, bottled orange squash and a couple of Easter eggs.   The shopping trolley has been a godsend lately as I don't drive.   Though I had to put some of the lighter stuff  in a shopping bag. 

i also received a letter from my doctors surgery re my annual health review!  They want me to have a video consultation with the nurse but I'm to have a blood test first !  I rang them and said are you still carrying out blood tests at the surgery In the circumstances?  She said no I would have to go to the hospital for that!  I said I was quite loathe to do that at the moment plus I was sure the staff there are run off their feet!  I said I would call the surgery back in a month to review and basically dictated my file note to her over the phone!  How bizarre!🤔

So it's now the weekend or what exists as 'the weekend' in these strange times.  Today I'm going for my walk later - it's still nice and sunny this morning.  I'm going to fire up the hand steamer (rather than the laptop!) and hit the bathroom for a good deep clean!  I've also got the new Hilary Mantel on kindle to read which I haven't looked at yet !  Plus I'm going to knock up some veg stew and dumplings later as I feel like some comfort food.  Then touch base with family and friends to see how everyone is faring. 

Have a good day all! X

in_need_of_direction

Seems like you have a well structured day planned.  Take care