Learning to walk before I run

SuperSecretSquirrel

Exciting news! Good luck at the interview! 🤞

edinburgher

£201.89 received from FIT payment and transferred to my personal spends account, of which I spent £163 yesterday booking tickets to the Stage Version of Spirited Away in London next June

DD1 and I are going to go, although the whole family will be coming down for the trip. Our current thinking is to drive there and back (will be staying in the commuter town outside of London where we used to live as it's c. £250/3 nights vs £450+ for central London). Should be c. £150 in petrol costs, will book train if we can find it cheaper. It's a long drive, so plan would be to split the trip into 2 each way, with an overnight in a different city staying at a Travelodge/Premier Inn type hotel. It will take longer but we'll try and pick 2 English cities we've not visited before so as to make more of a "journey" of it.

That will likely be our entire holiday spends for next year bar ferry ticket to Hebrides and a little spending money for mooted European freebie with extended family

I was also able to reclaim: £14.99 from my cancelled gym membership (can't justify it at the same time as attending my prepaid class) and c. £38 from eight-legged mollusc as we have a £300+ balance. The money from these will be going into the EF along with 95p of Chase cashback.

Right, best stop mucking around, I have a busy work day ahead of me.

Edit: Ooh - DB pension has been updated - that's another £3,500 or so of NW (or at least comfort of sustainable future NW). It reminds me why I tolerate public sector working!

Edit the 2nd: Vehicle tax paid, £21.15 spare from the budget line was moved to Emergency Fund. Have added 10% on for the savings target for next year, I like to end up with a wee bit left over in the budget if nasty inflation doesn't come to pass!

rtandon27

edinburgher said:

...Edit: Ooh - DB pension has been updated - that's another £3,500 or so of NW (or at least comfort of sustainable future NW). It reminds me why I tolerate public sector working!...

Ed - like you, I'm partial to a good pension - I'm also lucky enough to have a good health care plan & insurance policies through them - the job itself is stressful and thankless, but the benefits are what have kept me going! - at 12 years with my current employer, I've suddenly become one of the experienced old-timers after a slew of retirements post-covid! - RT

savingholmes

Lovely win on the pension. 

Future holidays are nice to look forward too - especially when paid in advance to be enjoyed guilt free.

Positive vibes for your interview.

edinburgher

@rtandon27 - I am also in the sometimes unenviable position of being experienced - slightly surreal for me as I'm just coming up for 5 years.

Thanks @savingholmes - I am getting nervous already

£5.42 withdrawn from Prolific yesterday and I've built up my next fiver already, time to get started on the next next one. As always, my last working day is shaping up to be the most busy, managed to do 2 hours of overtime last night (£48 before tax).

Ordered our Christmas ham for delivery in December this morning as there was a £10 off £50 spend offer at Farmison. Unfortunately prices have risen by 1/3 in a year but it is one of our few expensive food items for Christmas (wine and naice smoked salmon the others). Anyway, budgeted for and money in the pot to cover it. Not sure whether to repeat recipe from last year (simmered in barrel aged stout and then glazed with palm syrup), or to try something else? Maple syrup and a little bit of spice might be nice without being overpowering...

Back to work

rtandon27

edinburgher said:

...Maple syrup and a little bit of spice might be nice without being overpowering...

Ed, you've said the magic words

Across the pond we usually have ham for Easter, but this is a lovely recipe.  Then again knowing what maple syrup costs here in the UK, 540mL of it might cost as much as the ham!!!

savingholmes

Well done on the overtime 

savingholmes

I found for interviews taking in a copy of my application, a pen and notebook helped me settle my nerves and treat it more like a meeting 

edinburgher

£5.32 withdrawn from Prolific, next fiver already earned as I got on a generous multi-part study. 2 hours of overtime completed after the next 5 minutes of work (£64 before tax). I can almost taste the weekend

savingholmes

Sounds a great win with the study money.