My journey to a debt free life

Onebrokelady

Can't believe it's nearly lunch time already,I'm looking after DGS today, he is still a bit under the weather so is having a nap,I'm going to have to wake him up for some lunch soon though
I have had a very productive day,so far I have done all my ironing,cleaned the chickens out walked the dog and cooked the gnocchi bake for tea
Tonight I am planning on relaxing in front of The Bake Off Final and maybe catch I up on here or watching something on Netflix

It's a lovely sunny day here but it's very cold out,I've had the heating on all day because of DGS visiting,I keep turning it down but then it gets cold again really quickly,using the heating has reminded me of a job I was supposed to do over the summer,I need to insulate the condensate pipe outside before the really cold temperatures other wise it will freeze again like last year and my boiler won't work ,I lagged it with bubble wrap last time and that seemed to work really well, I pulled that off a few months ago thought becasue it had become unraveled and looked a mess,I've still got it so might put that back up,if not I need to find somewhere that sells the foam lagging you use round pipes,I normally get it in the local diy store but my nearest one has closed down,so I'm not sure where to go now,I will need t9 do some investigating I think

Tomorrow I am working but I'm doing a late so won't have to get up early,I have to leave the house at 11am to get there for 12 so not too bad at all,I haven't done lates for years,I might be in clinic in the afternoon but I won't know until I get there

HairyHandofDartmoor

It has got colder in Devon hasn't it? But it's been love,y and sunny .

Do you think you will manage long term on the reduced hours money? It depends upon how much work tires you I guess.

Onebrokelady

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

It has got colder in Devon hasn't it? But it's been love,y and sunny .

Do you think you will manage long term on the reduced hours money? It depends upon how much work tires you I guess.

Hi Hairy, it certainly has got colder,it felt really wintery this morning when I took the dog out and I have felt very Christmassy all day,I've been craving a mince pie or three :rotfl:

I probably can manage on the reduced hours if I definitely get to work 2 Sundays a month, my boss says there is no reason why I can't do that but the person who does the rota doesn't seem convinced,I will have to see,im paying back money I owe on my gas/electric so when that finishes I will have more money,it's fair to say that my job is killing me and reducing my hours is the logical solution to the problem so I am going to give it until the end of November and if I'm not happy with it I will put my hours back up

Onebrokelady

I did my first late shift in a long time today and it was weird starting work at 12 instead of 7.30. I had a lovely lie in this morning though and didn't have to get up until 9.30 instead of 5.15,I. Pootled about at home until it was time to leave then strolled down to the train station to get my bus
The idea of me doing an late on a Wednesday is that I can still work in the clinic I do in the afternoon,but it wasn't on today so I worked on the ward,it was quite a pleasant shift
I spoke to the person who does our rota to remind her that our boss said I could do two sundays a month and she said " oh yes that's until she tells me I have to cover the clinics in the week first and I haven't got enough staff" so I told her I was going to speak to our boss again in that case because it wouldn't work unless i was guaranteed those sundays and she changed her tack then swiftly backtracking and saying" oh no it's ok I will sort it out"
I'm going to check the off duty on Friday to see what I have for December and I will speak to the boss if it's not right,the only reason I won't get those Sundays is because the person who does the rota wants them
It annoys me because on my old hours I had to work one Saturday and one Sunday every month to afford to live and she knows I needed that as a minimum,so why then in November has she only put me down to do one Saturday :mad: I'm going to be seriously broke in December but I'm consoling myself with the thought that Xmas is almost paid for now so hopefully I will be able to get by just for that month

Today was going to be a NSD but I had to pay a £5 deposit for our Xmas meal so can't claim it,then as I was leaving the hospital I got a sudden urge for some cheese and onion crisps so detoured to the shop to buy some,luckily they don't sell mince pies or I would have bought some of those too,I've been craving a mince pie all day

Tomorrow I need to pop into town for some bits of shopping, I don't need much just some fruit,bread marge and cereal I think oh and sawdust for the chickens
I'm hoping for a dry day tomorrow because I want to give their run a good clean and I can't do it in the rain because they have to go out in the garden and I don't want them to get wet, they don't shelter from the rain they just stand in it looking miserable,then I have to dry them off with my hair dryer and there is nothing worse than the smell of warm wet chicken:rotfl:
Its been raining on and off all day today and is currently chucking it down so I will live in hope that it stops tomorrow

Onebrokelady

:rotfl: omg I've lost count of how many times I had to edit that last post,I really need to book an eye test:eek:

System

I hope you get your desired shifts OBL , worrying about money isn't good , but when you can see the solution but other people have control it's not good.

At least you are organised for Christmas money wise that helps a lot. Here's hoping for no rain to clean the chickens out.

Onebrokelady

Cumbria_lass wrote: »

I hope you get your desired shifts OBL , worrying about money isn't good , but when you can see the solution but other people have control it's not good.

At least you are organised for Christmas money wise that helps a lot. Here's hoping for no rain to clean the chickens out.

It is definitely frustrating and the person who does the shifts is actually a nice person but she just doesn't realise the implications for me but because she is a nice person I don't feel like I can say anything,she is one of my colleague so I work with her a lot and it's just an awkward situation to be in,she shouldn't be doing our rosters really it should be a higher band then there wouldnt be a problem, no one wants to do it though so the boss asked her and another colleague to do it together, the other colleague doesn't even get a chance to look at it though as it's always done on the days she isn't there:(

I am quite calm about Xmas this year because of my savings,I'm still trying to save a bit more though because I'm not sure how far it will stretch,then if there is anything left over it will get rolled over into next years fund

Onebrokelady

I have woken up to a lovely sunny day today so I'm hoping it lasts until this afternoon when i do the chickens
I have a habit of lying in until 10.30 ish on my days off but have decided that I need to get into a routine of getting up earlier,I'm usually so tired from getting up at 5.15 on work days that I relish being able to stay in bed,I am setting my clock to 9.30 and getting up then so I haven't wasted the morning being asleep and im trying not to stay up too late the night before so I feel like getting up

Today I need to go and get some shopping but only a few bits I have run out of so it won't be a big spend,I think I'm going to start loggin any spending on here from now on,I've seen a lot of other people doing it and it seems to help them keep track,I just need to make sure I get the receipt each time
So today's plans are
Check my bank = Done
Walk the dog=Done
Shopping= Done
Sort the chickens=Done
Hoover if I have time=Done

Onebrokelady

I've updated my previous post to tick off my to do list,I've had a very productive day today and got every thing done that I wanted to

The chickens were the most pressing thing that needed doing,I cover the floor of their run in sawdust during the summer when it's likely to be dry,I use a deep litter method where you put clean stuff on top of the dirty and over time the stuff underneath rots down into something lovely for the garden,when I clean their house out I pick out all the poo then throw the sawdust on the floor of the run and just put fresh sawdust in their house,this system means I don't have to clean the run out completely every week and I don't have to store used bedding while waiting for it to become good enough to put on the garden
In the autumn and winter I use the leaves from my garden as a base for the run,because it's usually too wet to use sawdust,so today I swept loads of leaves up from the patio and dumped them in the run,the chickens are in heaven as critters will move in and the chickens will dig about and get lots of tasty snacks,they love nothing more than to dig about in a pile of leaves so that should keep them happy for a bit,I will leave it a couple of weeks and then take those leaves out to put in my bin for leaf mould which has now been boosted by lots of chicken poop :j
This is eventually going into a large square pallet that I am planning on growing a few veg in,Im hopefully going to get the pallet lined soon,I have all the bits it's just summoning up the energy to do it,it will take all winter to fill it though then hopefully by the time spring comes around I will be able to plant something

Anyway enough about chickens, I also did my banking today and although this month is going to be super tight I can afford to pay everything,I did notice though the my fuel payment has gone up from £116 a month to £134:eek: I'm already paying extra because I owe them money and I did see someone reading my meter a while ago but I'm not sure why it's gone up when we have just come through the summer and I've used no heating or tumble dryer:(

I also got an email from SC today saying I need to finish my review that I started when I phoned them last,I forgot that I told them I would ring them at the end of October to give them my earnings,so I wil have to phone them on Tuesday now because DD will either be around or I will be at work,I might email them instead actually to tell them I now have to wait until November to find out how much I will be earning,they could have this months earnings but it's very low this month

I got my bits of food today and will update on here later how much it cost,the receipt is upstairs in my bag and I can't be bothered to go and get it right now:D

I'm off to put some tea on in a bit and I'm also making a crumble out of a bag of frozen berries that have been in the freezer for ages so need using up
I'm not sure of my plans for this evening I have a programme to watch,crafting to do and a book to finish and of course catching up on here too

HairyHandofDartmoor

I like your chicken related posts OBL .

You sound as if your shorter hours will be good for you. I hope you get your two Sundays a month.

You should give regular meter readings yourself to make sure you're paying enough. They're predicting you will use lots of fuel in the winter and they're starting to charge you for it now .