A whole new world, for now

beanielou

Great news on lots of pennies coming in :j
So chuffed for you :j

in_need_of_direction

thank you. finished my crawl with a deplorable time but an improvement on last year. this afternoon i dropped dd into work and then did a top up shop using my £5 off a £25 spend. was able to get the Christmas traditional grape juices at half price and stock up on bottled water for a lot less than it would cost in Dublin next Mon - Wed. also, paid myself my september expenses of £660.04. is it any wonder I've been struggling!
i had 2 calls from my mother so far today. she is sounding manic and i struggle to cope with her when she is like this.
today i am grateful for
a fairly dry run
encouragement
things easing on several fronts

in_need_of_direction

Today I am grateful that mr wii reported a 1lb weightloss. Yay

misstara

All sounding very positive INOD

HairyHandofDartmoor

Well done on completing the run and picking up some Christmas bits. This is always such a busy and frantic time of year.

beanielou

Great loss :j

doingitanyway

Well done on the run

jwil

Great news about all the payments coming in. Well done on the run and the weightloss :T

Seasidegal58

Glad that you remembered to pay yourself inod! Also hope things have improved with your mum. Weight loss is going in the right direction as well.

in_need_of_direction

It's been two weeks since I posted and it's been a busy fortnight. The el cheapo job has started right at the time the well paying job needs extra resource. As a result, today is my first day off in over a week but I get that I need to make hay while the winter sun shines.
I got my cheque lodged but haven't brought my expenses up to date, will hopefully get there today. I've cashed out pa, tcb and another £10 sb voucher but haven't had survey time this week so these have now slowed.
I have been using sainsbugs vouchers and extra nectar points offers from their website along with the local grocery place that offers £5 off a £25 spend. Last week however, I sent OH in, specified the £14 item needed and told him to add to it with groceries to meet the £25. Who knew that chocolate santa's, a tin of biscuits, two tubes of Pringles, etc. fell into the grocery category.
This week's £25 was a client gift at £5, 3 lbs of real butter on offer at £3 each, milk, bottled water, etc. when you stick to on offer stuff there, you really get the benefit of the £5 off. The bottled water is for me to take to dublin where I'm back working mon to wed. Unfortunately, I have to come up tues as I finally have a gp appointment that I can't forego. The driving is tiring but it sometimes gives me the chance to stop off in aldi and stock up. On Friday, I also stopped off in an outlet centre on my way home. Saw a pair of cufflinks that I think OH will like that were reduced to £7 from £20. I only had £3 left in his gift budget but decided that since that day's work had unexpectedly earned me £400, I'd go the extra £4. When I got to the checkout, there was a further reduction and they were down to £3. Total result! I also visited a well known chocolate and toffee shop to pick up some goodies for clients and for OH's staff. Via a combination of offers and a random act of kindness from another customer, I ended up with £106 of treats for £31. Proceeded to sainsbugs and got an item half price for DS that he's been hinting about for the past few years. Last time it was 25% off and I held fire. Fingers crossed that the cushions I've been eying up go the same way as this week's voucher is more generous than last week.

Tonight, we are having date night arranged by OH. Unfortunately, he's booked for 7.30, in a place I really don't want to go and when I need to be up at ridiculous o'clock tomorrow to get to dublin for around 9. It's a well reviewed place but it cooks meat at table and I don't like seeing raw meat around me. So, what to do? The thing is, DD knew how I felt and also knew that he'd booked it. I thought she would have told him that I didn't want to go. This is the first time in forever that he's made the effort to arrange something for us. It's also not the cheapest.

On other news, last week's conversation with mr wii showed a 1lb loss but nothing today. Having missed the first week, I went to Pilates on Thursday, it was good and I've scheduled local work each Thursday to make it easier for me to attend. We aren't back until 4th jan. Things remain a bit problematic with mother but some progress is being made. And OH's parents sent a Christmas card addressed to him. I've just given up where they are concerned. I will pass myself where I need to but my days of going out of my way to make an effort are over. They clearly will not or cannot accept me or my children and life's too short to pander to people who want to sit in judgement.

Today, I will properly clean my living room and will sort out my clothes for the week. I'll have to dress for work for the next four days and I was getting so attached to my PJs. I will also do a list of what's needed for Christmas versus what we have. I think I have enough between nectar and sb vouchers to finish off the Christmas goodies though will need a trip to the local bakery to stock up on the hangover curing sausage rolls that will go into the freezer until needed.
Next Friday I have blood tests for my sugar levels. As usual, I have been eating junk in the run up to these. Why am I such a muppet? Still, I can be good for the next few days and, while in dublin, will be walking more than usual which should help.