Keep calm and carry on....

greenbee

Congrats on signing up to LI. Have you send BF a connection request yet?

You can now waste hours looking for people you know to connect to. It's worth asking for some recommendations too. I need to write a couple at some point. 

South_coast

Not yet, it'll only give him something to talk about....!

yogavibes

Morning SC, I've just finished reading your diary from the start and wanted to pop on to say hi. Huge congrats on the saving so far this year. Sorry to hear about the redundancy.  Agree with what others have said about not letting that stop your MF journey. We all have things that will come along on the path to being MF but will all get there. I sometimes doubt why I'm even trying as the amount I have left is so massive, but then I give myself a talking to.  All the best of luck with the job search x

ruby_eskimo

Yes I have a lot of nectar points but it's about 3 years worth - we used to save each year and then cash them out at Christmas to pay towards the extra food but when we moved they wouldn't let me do it because it wasn't my "home" Sainsbury's.  I couldn't be bothered changing it (didn't even know it was a thing to be honest) so just let them pile up.  Now I just have to try and convince DH that we could use them on a trip sometime next year...

I used LI for about 6 weeks before an ex-boyfriend found me and started messaging me all the time so I quickly deleted my account.  Sure you won't have such problems, I've heard how good it is for networking and getting picked up by recruiters.

South_coast

Good lord yogavibes, what on earth did you put yourself through that for 😮! Well done for getting through it though, and all my frequent changes of mind! Don't doubt yourself, you're doing brilliantly - and think how much you'll be saving in interest 😀 I mentioned to BF last week that I'm making some more payments towards it and his response was "Why on earth are you doing that, we'll be on negative interest rates soon" and my reply was "Yeah, but I'm on a fixed rate for the next 3 years 😡!!!" Anyway,  long-winded way of saying it's definitely worth it and we will be the ones having the last laugh 😀!

Ah yes, ruby_eskimo the old "home" Sainsbury's thing. I think you have to have scanned your card once in that store in the last 12 months before it recognises you to cash them in. 😮 to the ex stalking you on LinkedIn, that reminds me of the time a few years ago I spotted an ex in the crowds during the carnival at my parents' town and my Mum kept saying "Nah, that's not him" and I'm going "It IS!" and jogging along behind him to prove my point. Anyway, a few days later they had a note dropped through their door, very long and winding and saying how he often thought of the time we'd had together and this was his new number etc and he apologised that he hadn't had time to stop and speak to me the other night (I didn't realise he'd seen me following him!!!). I was very glad I'd moved away - I would have felt quite violated if that was my home at the time 🙁!

greenbee

I've blocked my ex on LinkedIn. It's easy enough to do - and LI is how I get my jobs and do my job, so it's not really optional

Busy_Mee

Good grief SC I came on here to catch up and there is pages and pages. Your diary does move quickly. Anyway you have spurred me on to start seriously collecting Nectar points again. I did really well last year with the till spits but haven't really looked at their new rewards scheme. Anyway I looked and sure enough they were offering 100 points on a 28p tin of tomatoes. I've been this morning and claimed an additional 140 points. I like to save my points for the double up week in November. I generally buy a few Christmas or wine with them.
I also clicked into Nectar canvass and quickly remembered why I stopped doing surveys. I was screened out !

South_coast

Sage advice there greenbee 😀

I am already bored with job-hunting 🙁 and BF starts his new job officially soon, so we can't even hang around together (terrible timing, he's not been working since the beginning of April 😐!) There's quite a bit about, more than I would have expected, but the salaries are 😮😮😮 I am learning that I was over-paid in my last job (always suspected it, but wasn't going to flag it up 🤣!) I need to try and focus the comparisons on the figures I worked out that I would need as a minimum rather than what I used to get and see it as "losing". The truth is, I'm losing now as I'm on a salary of £0.00! Anything would now be a massive increase! I'd set a minimum threshold of what I was prepared to look at in this early stage, but now I'm wondering whether to look a bit lower and maybe get sorted a bit sooner and in somewhere I might want to stay longer-term (the plan before was always to do a runner to something much more basic as soon as the refurb was done, but maybe less money over a longer period would work too). And at least my being over-paid before (although I definitely felt like I "earned" it) means that I'm in the position I'm in now with the mortgage. So not all bad I guess 😀

Anyway, have cheered myself up by taking £1.92 out of Qmee. I need another 62p today from somewhere to stay on track for this month's target. Off I go to check Prolific again....!

South_coast

Busy_Mee said:

Good grief SC I came on here to catch up and there is pages and pages. Your diary does move quickly. Anyway you have spurred me on to start seriously collecting Nectar points again. I did really well last year with the till spits but haven't really looked at their new rewards scheme. Anyway I looked and sure enough they were offering 100 points on a 28p tin of tomatoes. I've been this morning and claimed an additional 140 points. I like to save my points for the double up week in November. I generally buy a few Christmas or wine with them.
I also clicked into Nectar canvass and quickly remembered why I stopped doing surveys. I was screened out !

Ha! It's only moving quickly because I don't have a job to distract me any more, so can bore you all with the minutae of my life instead 🤣! The new rewards are great, love it when they pay you to take stuff away! I had a glut of tinned tomatoes from them at one point, they were going straight in the food bank collection on the way out. Win, win! I keep trying to get BF to look at the app, as that's the only place he will shop, but you can take a horse to water....

Busy_Mee

I was trying to work out if you can get it more than once, i.e on 2 tins of tomatoes but it only paid out once.
With regard to the job hunt I think the general advice is to try and get back into work quickly if you can. But you do have the chance to have a good think about what you want to do and whether you want to work full time. You might find a happier work life balance taking less money part time. 

Even if you take less money for a full time position, wouldn't the redundancy money make up the difference for a period and you never know other opportunities may come along .
I am probably going to sound like a Mum now, but  in my experience these things do have of turning out for the best in the end. In a year's time you could be sat in a job you are happier in, feeling thankful that the redundancy gave you the catalyst to do something different.