Ready For My Fresh Start

Cloth_of_Gold

PurplePhoenix62 said:

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  

Yes, the same thing - I got the name wrong.

PurplePhoenix62

Well today has just been one of those days...

Got the box out I purchased to pack up my mums birthday gifts and one of the flaps had clearly been broken off when I bought it, then I realised I couldn't find the birthday card I bought anywhere, so would need to buy a new one. Went to go into town and some sort of accident had happened and all the roads were gridlocked so had to park up and walk in, in the rain with my parcel. Got to the post office.... a few grams over the £2kg limit and the cheapest postage I could then get was £68!!!!! Told her no thank you and I would just split it into two lighter parcels and come back another day. 

On the plus side, I got my steps in, had dinner at my Uncle's after all the traipsing around and he also said if I need to catch up on any washing I can just take some loads round there any time and get them done

Home now at last to try and make some more pennies and just chilllllll....

Cloth_of_Gold

PurplePhoenix62 said:

Well today has just been one of those days...

Got the box out I purchased to pack up my mums birthday gifts and one of the flaps had clearly been broken off when I bought it, then I realised I couldn't find the birthday card I bought anywhere, so would need to buy a new one. Went to go into town and some sort of accident had happened and all the roads were gridlocked so had to park up and walk in, in the rain with my parcel. Got to the post office.... a few grams over the £2kg limit and the cheapest postage I could then get was £68!!!!! Told her no thank you and I would just split it into two lighter parcels and come back another day. 

On the plus side, I got my steps in, had dinner at my Uncle's after all the traipsing around and he also said if I need to catch up on any washing I can just take some loads round there any time and get them done

Home now at last to try and make some more pennies and just chilllllll....

Sometimes, for larger items, it is cheaper to use Parcelforce, but the staff in the Post Offices don't always tell you that.

PurplePhoenix62

Cloth_of_Gold said:

PurplePhoenix62 said:

Well today has just been one of those days...

Got the box out I purchased to pack up my mums birthday gifts and one of the flaps had clearly been broken off when I bought it, then I realised I couldn't find the birthday card I bought anywhere, so would need to buy a new one. Went to go into town and some sort of accident had happened and all the roads were gridlocked so had to park up and walk in, in the rain with my parcel. Got to the post office.... a few grams over the £2kg limit and the cheapest postage I could then get was £68!!!!! Told her no thank you and I would just split it into two lighter parcels and come back another day. 

On the plus side, I got my steps in, had dinner at my Uncle's after all the traipsing around and he also said if I need to catch up on any washing I can just take some loads round there any time and get them done

Home now at last to try and make some more pennies and just chilllllll....

Sometimes, for larger items, it is cheaper to use Parcelforce, but the staff in the Post Offices don't always tell you that.

It was Parcelforce they were giving me the price for, I think it's a little cheaper to go direct with them but ultimately it'll still be loads cheaper to do two parcels within the weight limit for the cheapest Royal Mail one

Just to top off this day, I started doing the Irish Lottery that a lot of my family do, got talked out of adding on the bonus ball by my brother, if I had done it, I'd have been £350 richer right now  would have paid off two debts! Never mind I guess. 

PurplePhoenix62

Well in a bid to spend nothing today, I've done almost literally nothing. I actually spent a lot of the day sleeping even though I got a good rest last night, it's definitely MH related as I'm also neglecting myself a tad but it tends to happen alongside renting part of someone else's home - I'm fine when I'm with family or living by myself. No progress at all today on making more money - no extra work to pick up and the only thing on Prolific all day was something in (I think) Italian  but no money spent despite the overwhelming urge to order a takeaway this afternoon but I got up and pinged a ready meal I had in the fridge, instead. 

My mini-goals for January were/are:
- Not to use UberEats (I got one KFC when visiting my sister so was a meal for all of us rather than me just being lazy)
- Make all of my debt payments (this is done)
- Not to touch my house savings (touchwood this should be fine, for the first time since I've been trying to save from September 2023)
- Do some of my other work every week (I've tried! & done it where there is some)

Tomorrow will be a busy day, my optimistic plan before my first night shift looks like:
- Sort out rubbish/recycling in my room
- Clear out car
- Do a tip run to get rid of the above
- Do at least one wash load, ideally two
- Re-package the parcels for my mum and post them off
- Prepare whatever meal I'll be taking to work for the shift
- Hoover/wipe down bedroom

Last night I started watching 'Fool Me Once' after seeing so many people raving about it and I finished it today. I did enjoy it, but then I am a fan of Harlan Coben's books! Which reminds me, I set up a Goodreads challenge to read at least 12 books this year. I do love reading but never carve out the time for it. 

PurplePhoenix62

I should moan more often about not being able to make any more money - I got 2 Prolific surveys last night one of which gave me a £3 bonus so £6 cashed out this morning and squirrelled away into my Car Insurance Chase pot. I also got a minuscule amount of extra work done this morning before it ran out but something is better than nothing. 

1 wash load in, at least one more to go. Going to catch up some diaries (I do read a lot of others even if I never post, never much useful to add!) with my coffee then get cracking on sorting out this room...

PurplePhoenix62

Taking a quick break from my to-do list, two wash loads done and the third and final for today currently in the machine. Will do some more tomorrow when I wake up when there is more drying space available. 

Room mostly sorted out, have a black bag of rubbish for the tip and a smaller bag of recycling but this can probably just wait until the bins get emptied this week, it's not urgent. 

Parcels re-packaged, just need to make my food for work later and get myself showered and sorted, then tackle my car. Once that's all done I can head off and get all of the other tasks done. Won't probably get any naps in before work tonight but I'm quite used to not getting any extra sleep before the first one s it's not the end of the world. 

Also now have £5.29 pending on Prolific, hoping this clears by tomorrow so I can cash out some more for my car insurance pot - fiddled around with my signature so a few of my pots and their goals are on it now including my sealed pot which I finally emptied out my bags/purses/old money jar and potted into

PurplePhoenix62

Good morning all, fleeting post whilst I wind down after my night shift. 

Currently £4.77 in Prolific with another £3.75 pending thanks to a survey I spotted on my phone just before leaving and was still here when I got home. Fingers crossed I wake up later and some has been approved for me to squirrel away. 

Some good news - I told the lady I rent my room from the date I'll be leaving next month and as it's about 2/3rds of the way through the month she's going to calculate next month based on that rather than a full month, so I'm expecting an extra £100-£120 in the budget, really lovely surprise,  I was just expecting to pay the full month. Think I'll put half of it into the Car Insurance pot and the other half as a small overpayment on one of the debts. 

Have declared today a NSD already as I'll be asleep for a good chunk of it and then just pottering around at home before it's time to go back to work again. Have enough food at home to have lunch and prep a dinner for work so no reason to spend anything at all!!!

Have a great day all  

PurplePhoenix62

As expected, stuck with a NSD today. £5.52 cashed out from Prolific and squirrelled, also managed a very small amount of my other work. It'll all add up eventually. 

I didn't get to the tip yesterday or clear out my car, they'll be my jobs for tomorrow or Thursday depending which day they re-open again. I just didn't have the energy to be standing around in very cold and slightly snowy weather if I got one of the guys that demands to look in your rubbish bag before you can throw it away. 

Got stiffed at the post office yesterday anyway, I asked for the cheapest postage and for some reason they put it through as Standard rather than Economy but as much as I winced I just couldn't be bothered to argue. The gifts will definitely arrive in time at least, going forwards I'll just find someone/somewhere with a printer and buy the postage online before I take it down to post it. I did use my Chase card for the cashback as a slight comfort then just transferred the money out of my main account to top it back up. 

Right, time to get up and showered and cook some pasta to take to work

PennysIntoPounds

That's great you won't have to pay the full rent, it'll be such a nice feeling knocking some of your debt off with the Brucie Bonus!

Annoying about the post office, I know sometimes one just does not have the time or energy but do try to train yourself into being 'that' annoying customer, it's your money not theirs. You can always say 'I'm so sorry, PennysIntoPounds made me!' to the cashier or queue 😁 
In all seriousness though, every time you do something mse that doesn't feel natural, you can pay that money saving to your debt, it all adds up. I felt like a right wally asking for my exchange and refund on accidentally picking up the more expensive painkillers the other day especially as I hadn't realised until I'd paid and it was only 24p, but that was my 24p, not the shops'!