Ready For My Fresh Start

PurplePhoenix62

Morning world - had more of a ‘nap’ before work than any solid sleep. Thankfully work will be so busy that’ll it keep me awake and make the shift fly by. 

My brothers land back this morning from visiting our mum so agreed to catch up with them, they’ll be jet lagged no doubt so tired siblings all round…! 

Managed an hour of SE work last night but had to acknowledge that I needed to turn the laptop off and try and get some sleep. 

Still sounds a bit windy out there, but much less so than it was yesterday. 

PurplePhoenix62

Good evening had a nice catch up with my brothers, I did spend £15.99 to do so as we went for some food however that was for all three of our meals and I could chase them for their shares but they got a couple of softs drinks each for me whilst we were out so it balanced out to an extent. Plus the old me would have faffed around with trains or taxis and had some drinks with them too, so still progress. 

Only had about 2 hours sleep last night so nodded off a couple of times once I got home this evening but still plenty tired enough to fall straight asleep again once I've had a shower shortly. 

Just did quite a good PA survey for just over a fiver, when it clears my balance will be just short of £10 and I'll squirrel that away into my car insurance pot. Didn't get much extra work done tonight, there just wasn't a lot to pick up but hoping for more tomorrow. I also have no plans for tomorrow other than coming straight home from work and doing what I can to make some extra money, so hoping for a NSD too

PurplePhoenix62

Evening all

Fell asleep AGAIN when I got in from work today early shifts are honestly the worst for me. I actually had quite a fun day at work today, I'd forgotten to pack a lunch but was so determined to have a NSD I took advantage of the free fruit we have delivered then just ate when I got home. My mini-goals for January are mostly food based - no UberEats and no walking to the staff canteen and getting food - £3.99 just for a basic sandwich   

I know we are only 4 days in but I am truly feeling positive that I can make my money last this month without dipping into of my savings, and I don't think I've ever done that to be honest. 

The PA survey cleared this afternoon so a whopping £9.81 squirrelled over to the car insurance pot in my Chase account. My favourite thing about Chase is that you can 'hide' your savings accounts and it just shows a total of zero so you can sort of just forget it is there. Across those pots and my Zopa one for Christmas I have £538.78 in savings  

Not much else to report, really, hoping for another NSD tomorrow. Will need to spend on Saturday to post off my mums birthday present and I need a couple of toiletry bits but should have enough on my Boots card to not technically pay for those. Last shift at work tomorrow then the weekend off so will have to keep myself busy trying to make money to avoid spending it 

PurplePhoenix62

PS I know I don't have the most interesting updates, but posting loads is keeping me focused on the goal 

PennysIntoPounds

That's great you're in the mindset to resist temptation even when things don't go to plan, well done. Hope your shift goes smoothly, see if there's any spare fruit that needs a good home!

Cloth_of_Gold

You are doing really well and as PIP says, your mindset is good - keep it up!

PurplePhoenix62

Thank you @PenniesIntoPounds and @Cloth_of_Gold

I ended up spending on breakfast at work today, I’ve been taking in some protein porridge this week and they’re frankly just not very nice and with being very tired and TOM I caved 😂

The plan is now to make today my ‘Spendy Day’ and pick up the postage box for my mums present and buy the postage online so that all that is left to do tomorrow is to take it to the post office. I should be able to get that in Tesco so will do a mini food shop whilst I’m in there too and that should be it for the weekend.

I have a little mental to-do list today mostly to put away all the gifts I got whilst away as I only have a tiny room anyway and have no room to navigate and try to get a few wash loads done as well if no one else has got anything in the washing machine. After that’s all done, will be watching PA like a hawk and trying to get some other work done. Two hours left until I’m off the weekend and I am counting the minutes!

I want to fit in some self care bits this evening too, have a bath, face mask etc lots of food and drink whilst away and being on now is wreaking havoc with my skin and just leaving me feeling a bit rubbish 

Cloth_of_Gold

Have you tried overnight porridge? Each evening I put 3 dessert spoons of porridge oats in a tupperware box and add about 150ml of liquid (you can use water but it's a bit boring, or milk, plant based milk etc.) and put it in the fridge and eat the next day.  It soaks up the liquid overnight and you could easily take it to work. You could add some fruit (preferably the free stuff) and it would make a nice healthy lunch (or part of it) and would be pretty cheap.

PurplePhoenix62

Cloth_of_Gold said:

Have you tried overnight porridge? Each evening I put 3 dessert spoons of porridge oats in a tupperware box and add about 150ml of liquid (you can use water but it's a bit boring, or milk, plant based milk etc.) and put it in the fridge and eat the next day.  It soaks up the liquid overnight and you could easily take it to work. You could add some fruit (preferably the free stuff) and it would make a nice healthy lunch (or part of it) and would be pretty cheap.

Is that similar to overnight oats? I think I used to make something similar with some yoghurt in it, too, which I really liked. I shall make those for the next sets of early shifts that I have  

PurplePhoenix62

I'm not sure if addictive personality is a thing but if it is,  I definitely have it to a degree. There's been various things over the years - one month I couldn't stop playing a slots game online (I know, only happened the once thankfully) and spent £300!! I've done smaller amounts playing non-stop on a game on my phone as well. Thankfully, at the moment it seems to be reading everyone's diaries on here and going onto the challenges - much healthier!

For some reason I'd transferred £15 too much to my Nationwide account for the payments due to come out of there, I've put that into my Car Insurance pot as I wasn't missing it, anyway. So that's sitting at just over £30 after transferring the few quid from my Round Ups pot into it, too. 

2 loads of washing done, I can move around in my room now and sat down and put all my expenses into my budget planner - makes every penny a lot more real when you are physically writing it down. 

Just did quite a mentally taxing survey on Prolific which if I get a few bonus pennies on it will allow me to withdraw another £5 odd which will go straight into my Car Insurance pot with my wages at the end of this month I'll be able to put a bit more in there and also into my Christmas 2024 pot plus whatever I then make next month from Prolific, so they should build up quite nicely