2018 Benbenandme's Next Battle

benbenandme

First full week of the term done at school

Today Mr S is painting at his Mums house so I'm having a lazy one. I did the housework last night, did an online food order today and have walked the dog, now just chilling on the sofa with a blanket and the dog

Going to do some surveys etc while listening to the footie scores this afternoon

savingmore

well done for surviving week 1. sounds like a perfect day...

benbenandme

Well I'm not doing very well at updating here at the moment am I?   
So, the last month in a nutshell ... I've stuck to Couch 2 5k and am on week 5 at the moment, I did my very first Parkrun last weekend, I was slow but I plodded to the end and finished in 40 minutes 32 seconds. I'm planning on doing them fortnightly for now and then will increase it once I can run the full distance.  I did quite enjoy it though.
Mr S has helped me do a few jobs around the house and I have finally taken the plunge and bought a new sofa, mine is 10+ years old and is battered, it desperately needed replacing. The new one comes in about a months time. I also ummed and aahed over replacing the lounge carpet but decided it was a stretch too far, so this week being half-term I have had a carpet cleaner in and he has done a great job. I'm so pleased I didn't buy a new one, I am now nagging Mr S and ds to take their shoes off all the time instead
I have also bought 2 narrow cupboards for the lounge, they go either side of the doors to the conservatory, and it has given me tonnes of useful storage space for the iron, slow cooker, other bits and pieces that don't get used much but were taking up valuable cupboard space in my micro-sized kitchen.
Today I am at an indoor market with my cards, its a nice enough place, its warm, has a nice coffee area selling cheap cakes Most importantly I brought my laptop with me and they have a plug socket right by my table, and wifi, so I am spending the day filing and organising my documents and photos, then mooching online and hopefully earning some money at the same time
Half-term has flown by this week but I have been very productive, nothing exciting but I have gutted lots of cupboards, pulled out lots of furniture and cleaned behind it, all those silly jobs that never get done. I at least feel fairly on top of stuff now
In other news, and it wouldn't be a catch-up post of mine if I didn;t mention it .... I finally have received £29 from the csa today  It is a start ... they have finally managed to get a deduction of earnings order in place and from next month I should be getting approx £90 a month. It will still take a lot of months to clear the arrears he owed me (£2500), but it's welcome all the same!

pennywisepoundstupid

Good to hear from you and glad everything is going well, hope you make some good sales today xx

beanielou

Hope you had a good day.
Hurrah for the CSA 

beanielou

Oh & hows the holiday fund?

benbenandme

Hi Penny and Beanie  I'm struggling to get used to this new layout (and lack of emojis) ...

So the event yesterday went quite well - I had a nice sized spot, the people were very friendly, sales started off quite well and then the rain started and it killed it They let us pack up early (meant to finish about 3 but they let us go about 1.30), it did mean I got home in plenty of time to get my run done, which I'm pleased I did but it was quite an effort yesterday, (8 minutes jogging, 5 minutes walking, 8 minutes jogging), not looking forward to the next one which is a straight 20 minutes jog 
The holiday fund is pretty stagnant Beanie, with the £30 from the csa chucked in I think I still need to find about £350ish?? I need to update my signature on here, not done it this year yet at all ...

So today is kind of like the last day of half-term for me - I still have the weekend but Mr S and the kids will be around, so today is my last day to mooch and do as I please. I have done the food shopping this morning after taking Mr S to work, so todays plans look like this:

• Update signature on here
• Make a lemon cheesecake (just fancy one and am getting back on my counting calories on Monday when I go back to work)
• Hoover through
• Rubbish to the tip (Mr S forgot to put the bins out yesterday)
• See Mum for a coffee
• Make some plans / do some work on my cards

I really enjoyed doing the event yesterday and must get back to it more often. The company have a challenge on for us this year, we basically have to earn a load of points to qualify for a bonus and can earn the points in various ways. One of them is through people joining our Customer Club. Basically this just involves signing up with your email address and you will be sent an email approx once a month / every 6 weeks, with special offers, latest news etc, sometimes you get the chance to choose some of the cards in our new range etc. If you go on to place an order, (there is no obligation to do so), you will receive a free gift with it (a Flamingo card, a sheet of Flamingo giftwrap and 2 gift-tags). If you place that order before the end of Feb you also receive a Flamingo notebook. If any of you are interested in joining please either pm me your email address or have a look directly on my website:  https://www.flamingopaperie.co.uk/web/joharding/area/customer_club/?bid=6bf4c95c40c55f1f66f0fb4a2e3c5547ad985007 Any sign-ups would be much appreciated!!

pennywisepoundstupid

Signed up xx

benbenandme

Thank you Penny 

benbenandme

I'm doing quite well with my to do list today, I've done my signature on here, been to the tip, hoovered, halfway through the cheesecake (just letting the base set in the fridge before doing the top bit). I've also managed to empty the washing basket (finally!) and most of it has dried outside. Haven't seen Mum, have done a couple of bits with my cards but need to crack on with that this afternoon.