A Ditherer's Diary (again)

Naomim

A small win yesterday, I was looking for my nail scissors and couldn't find them anywhere.  I opened a small drawer in my dressing table and found £10. I've put it into 11yo's bedroom fund.  

A couple of bits on ebay have bids so I'm pleased to get rid of more stuff. Going to list the stuff that hasn't sold on FB today if possible. 

Naomim

Payday today and my work have still not put my BUPA excess refund on😡.  This is the 2nd month running. They did remember to repay my gym membership money so at least salary was a little higher, alongside the WFH tax relief.

Had some very welcome news yesterday.  The company I work for is a big American corporate and have been very good throughout the pandemic.  We normally get a bonus in March which is performance related, however they are giving everyone a us$1,000 Christmas bonus on top this year.  Will work out about £600 after tax for us in the UK but it's brilliant news.  I'm going to top up 11yo's bedroom refurb fund with £100 and squirrel the rest into my savings account/emergency fund.

Not much else to report, Christmas shopping is plodding along slowly and I am transferring out of the Monzo pot as I go.  I've booked Friday off so I can hopefully get a few bits in the Black Friday sales, it's just knowing what I want and not buying what's there for the sake of it.

Hope everyone else is ok.

Naomim

Naomim

Last night had an email from 11yo's school to say a teacher has tested Covid positive and they are closing the whole of Year 6 down for two weeks.  15yo just went back to school yesterday after a week at home due to someone in his bubble at school testing positive. It's like a revolving door 🤦‍♀️  However I am very impressed by the 11yo's school.  They have sent out a timetable, all lessons are live online and you are expected to be there or marked absent.  It seems they learnt a lot from the last National Lockdown and were super prepared.  I'm also surprised the kids have been back since September and this is the first time they have had to isolation. 

Two items have sold on ebay so managed to get them posted yesterday. I have 4 active listings and two with bids on them.  I'm also watching a single trundle bed for DD's bedroom. Currently no bids at £25 but if I do get it I'd need to hire a man with a van but sure it would still work out cheaper than a brand new bed.

This weeks shopping has been and come in at £104 and that was after £14 of savings with the clubcard prices. Meal plan this week is:

Slow Cooker chicken curry
Butternut squash risotto
Roast Chicken + veg
Toad in the Hole
Prawn & Pea Korma
Ribs and loaded potato skins
Left over chicken stir fry

Supposed to have tomorrow off but my boss has asked if I can be online for a teams meeting at 11.30 to do with our appraisals.  We have two weeks to get them done and they go towards our bonuses come March.

Hope everyone is safe & well.

Naomim

Naomim

3 Christmas jumpers sold on ebay and all paid immediately so I shipped them off today. There's £40 in my paypal account.  I need to take out the postage money and the balance goes towards dd's bedroom refurb.  We have a man coming on the 11th December to do the work.  Unfortunately the trundle bed I was watching on Ebay got bought on a buy it now. 😖

Transferred just £6.46 out of prolific this month. Overpaid on the Barclaycard.   

Nearly all of the Christmas presents are now bought. Just a few bits and pieces to go. 15yo is mad about Japan and anime.  I have found a shop in Camden Market called Japan Craft.  Unfortunately they don't offer gift cards so I am going to make him a voucher and when it's all safer we'll take a trip there. 

Had a bit of an accident with my bank account.  I transferred money to my Monzo pots on payday then two days later a standing order for the whole lot came out. I completely forgot I'd set it up so had to transfer it back.

I'm feeling really tired at the moment.  I'm not sleeping well at all and I dont know why. I've lost a lot of motivation for work and am so behind on everything.  I really need to find my mojo.

Hope everyone is safe and well.

Naomim

Naomim

Nothing more listed on FB or ebay yet, I must get onto this tonight as I found a couple of presents that I bought when 11yo was smaller and being invited to lots of birthday parties. If I found something in the sales I would buy a few to make them cheap easy gifts.  There are two brand new still in the cupboard. Also got some clothes - jeans the 15yo never wore before he grew out of and some baby clothes that 11yo used for her dolls. I used to buy premature baby clothes in a nearly new sale as they were so much cheaper than the actual dolls clothes you could buy.  

I need to contact the vets as they are chasing me for the £1000 bill. I was hoping they would put a claim in with my insurers so need to give them a call and find out what to do. In the meantime I have been onto the credit card eligibility checker for a 0% purchase card just in case.  It says I will probably be accepted with Virgin Money.  So I have been on the Virgin Money checker and it looks like I will be accepted but no idea of credit limit. Going to ring the vets after MrM finishes the work call he's on.

Tesco shopping arrived. Came in at £100.04 

Meal plans for this week are:
Shepherds Pie
Steak & veg/chips
Paella
Katsu Curry
Toad In the Hole - didn't get to have this last week and is 11yo's favourite
Chicken roast
Left over chicken pasta bake

Hope everyone is safe and well.

Naomim

FootyFanDan

Hope you are keeping safe and well

Absolutely loving your meal plans - this seems to be an aspect I am struggling with at the moment. I put some of this down to my shift work but also some down to never finding the time to plan it. 

Ps Katsu curry is my fave! I came across this by accident but now I am obsessed with the stuff haha. I am hoping to try find more time to start cooking from scratch a bit more so hoping that once I am in control of that I can learn to meal plan better.

Naomim

FootyFanDan said:

Hope you are keeping safe and well

Absolutely loving your meal plans - this seems to be an aspect I am struggling with at the moment. I put some of this down to my shift work but also some down to never finding the time to plan it. 

Ps Katsu curry is my fave! I came across this by accident but now I am obsessed with the stuff haha. I am hoping to try find more time to start cooking from scratch a bit more so hoping that once I am in control of that I can learn to meal plan better.

One your shifts stop with the new job, fingers crossed you can get into the swing of planning. 😊

As I do my shopping online I find it's much easier to plan a weeks meals and shop for them.  If I wander round the shops I pick up so much rubbish!  Also my 15yo is a complete foodie. Spends all his time saying he hates British food as it's too bland so I am trying to mix it up a bit.  I find so many recipes on the Tesco website, BBC Good Food and Allrecipes.uk   It helps that 15yo loves cooking and has just applied to study catering & hospitality at college next year.  His dream is to go to Japan and be a chef there.  I will do everything I can to encourage him.   He usually cooks about once or twice a week. I get him to pick a recipe and then I get the ingredients.  Last night he made prawn & pea Korma.   I must admit I do cheat with the katsu curry as I buy 4 breaded chicken steaks and then a pre-made sauce.   I also keep a spreadsheet - (sad I know) but I write the weeks meals down then I can refer back to things we like and try not to repeat too much.  I found when I wasn't planning we were eating the same food week in week out and it really was boring!  

I forgot to add in my previous post a small couple of bonuses.  My professional qualification requires a yearly subscription. I was putting £9.50 a month into my pot. Renewal just due and it's only £60 this year leaving me with a £35 balance.  I was going to pay it off on the credit card but have moved it to my vets pot instead.

I called the vets about the bill. They said they didn't have the paperwork to enter a claim - even though MrM gave it to them when he went to the appointment.  They are going to send over the paperwork again but I know the insurance wont cover the whole cost as I will have £99 excess as policy renewed in Nov and they only pay upto £200 for a consultation and this one was £330!  Hence moving the £35 extra money from the professional fees to the vets pot.

I also switched my energy supplier last night via the MSE energy club.  Hopefully a saving to be made. I only owe this months usage on my current supplier as I read the meters and pay monthly.  However with MrM and I working from home, the heating is starting to be on a lot more than if we were out all day.  

Stay safe 

Naomim

lucielle

You've just reminded me to submit an electric reading.
L

Naomim

Just a quick one.

I know the reason my overdraft is going up. It's because I started smoking again.  I know. I know I'm stupid. I'm not even sure why I did. Lockdown? Boredom of working at home? So, I have bought a £25 vape to help me stop.  I cannot afford to buy them. 

There are a few things I want to get done this weekend so putting the checklist here.  Also going to put it on a spreadsheet and stick on the fridge to tick off.

Build unit I have bought for the hallway - we currently have one of those ugly plastic drawer things. one drawer is broken as I think 15yo kicked it in temper at some point.

Bling up the Christmas garland I hate and MrM loves.  I have bought some silver baubles in B&M so going to try this at the weekend.

Do some decoupage - I have cleaned out a couple of old glass candle holders and would love to try this.

Clean the oven!! - this is in a disgusting state.  Generally my idea of cleaning is if you can't see it then.... but it really does need taking in hand.  I have white vinegar and bicarb (I think that's what I need) and bought some microfibre cloths.

Get more bits on ebay & FB selling.

Edited to add - get the box of winter hats and scarves out of the under stairs cupboard and see if the old chest of drawers in the garage will fit in there to tidy it up.

Think that's all for now.

Naomim

Naomim

Afternoon all,

I have contacted work about my BUPA excess refund. Hopefully it will be given with the December salary. 

I have also posted off my latest Ebay item.  I have taken the cost of postage out of the paypal account and now I'm just waiting for the ebay fees to see how much profit I have made.   Prolific is already looking better this month with a balance of £11.10 and I'm not too far away from a £10 Amazon voucher on Shoppix.

Yesterday I was very good in Sainsburys. I went to buy a jumper for FiL to gift to MiL. He just doesn't do shops so I get them and he gives me the money.  I added a pair of fleecy pyjamas for myself to my basket.  But then I put them back after a wander round so that's £18 not spent on a whim.  I did get myself  and some 15yo some much needed underwear and managed to get myself a 3pack of socks for £1.  They didn't say reduced but when I scanned them they came up as £1. I looked around for more but couldn't find any.

Looking forward to a quiet weekend just doing the bits I planned to do alongside the usual housework (yawn).

Hope everyone is safe and well.

Naomi