Moving on

Cherryfudge

I was up in reasonable time this morning as it was my drop-in-to-observe day at the debt advice centre. I had a few chats with the volunteers and was allowed (with permission from the person being helped) to sit in on a session. I have very little idea on the technical side of things (benefits, legal framework etc.) but I spotted a couple of potential £10 savings in the person's expenditure which have been left with them for consideration. That made me realise I have something to offer even if I have a lot to learn.

It turns out the team is considering the need to teach budgeting skills, and there's a course I could take to help with that, but I've arranged to go back in a couple more times and meet different clients so I get a fuller picture.

I called in at a couple of shops for eye ointment and a top from a charity shop (do I really need it? No, but it's the sort of thing I am likely to get use from and is along the lines of two I already have, one of which is past its best).

Back at home, I had some Moroccan lamb casserole and a hot cross bun for lunch, then came over so sleepy that I went to bed. Although I set my alarm, I fell asleep again after it went off and work to find it was one minute after the time I aim to set off for work! A big rush followed (running through the rain: I had to leave the latest lot of laundry out to get wet) and I arrived a minute late, but stayed a couple of minutes longer so I don't feel I owe them.

Expenditure:
Clothing £2.99
Medical £4.99

P.S. The new ISA has appeared but nothing's been transferred in. I thought that as they had the details of my old ISA as the source for funding, that that would happen automatically. Perhaps it will. I'll check again to see.

peb

Hope your head has cleared.  I do think you need to be careful not to take too much on.

The job may be term time only or the school may be used out of term time or/and deep cleaning may be done outside term time.

Cherryfudge

Thank you @peb, the head has been okay today, but I got the tiredness instead. I don't think I've slept particularly well over the last few days: nothing noteworthy but it can erode well being. Another possibility is something viral, though I feel otherwise okay.

You are right about not taking on too much, but it feels ridiculous only working a couple of hours a day, and it would be nice to have enough money too! In my previous job, I was physically active though not as much as when I'm cleaning, and I worked 25+ hours a week. That seemed to even out as okay, but I can't really separate out the effects of stress which got too much in the end - though that was brought to a crisis by a couple of things in addition to the everyday pressures of work.

If I were to help at the debt advice centre, it would be up to me how much I took on, and I've already said to them that there's some possibility I might end up with a job that would restrict how much I could be involved.

I've not pursued that job any further (too busy sleeping!) and this afternoon's planned activity of catching up on an online course just hasn't happened. Tomorrow afternoon I have my one to one with my manager. I'm not really sure what to expect as I've had very little work in that post, but loved what I did.

Cherryfudge

I've been up a good while (not sure why I couldn't stay asleep, but I couldn't get to sleep till a bit later yesterday due to sleeping in the afternoon, when I was overwhelmingly tired).

It's probably a lesson in balance: the morning was really interesting and I can see potential in it, but talking to people tends to wipe me out. I also fall asleep later if I have either something I need to be up for in the morning (isn't that always the way?!) or if there's something pending that will take me out of my normal routine.

The upshot is that I'm a bit tired but I've got various things done and there's a growing list.

Firstly, I realised the trial premium subscription for a language app was rolling over to the paid form and the app is showing me as subscribed for the next year. This wasn't forgotten, it was because I couldn't find 'settings' on the app so I didn't know how to go about un-subbing. I've now found it - took a while - and emailed them to ask for a refund. Whether I'll get it, I don't know, but it's worth a try (and if it doesn't work, I can leave negative feedback about the unusual layout of the app, which might get results).

I also contacted the bank's chat bot and was referred to the ISA transfer form. I thought I'd already completed it, but perhaps not. Anyway, I have now. No harm in doing it twice as one would simply not work as I'm transferring all the money from the old ISA so it wouldn't be there to transfer a second time, IYSWIM.

Another thing was to move money into my regular saver: I had it ready in the current account so I sent it through using my debit card and got a message that 'something went wrong, it wasn't anything you did', so I repeated it and got to the confirmation page - then discovered that whatever had gone wrong appears to have corrected itself and the money's gone through twice. From memory the regular saver won't allow overpayments, so that money will be automatically returned, though it's another thing to have to check, and at least the funds are there to cover it.

Still to do: have yet another try at ordering a green wheelie bin subscription. Both DH and I have tried now - glitches both times. It seems to be the season for them, but it's also the season for optimal garden growth and I have become green bin dependent for the things we can't compost at home or dry for the fire.

Then again - I'm running short - or have run short, I'm not sure - of days to adopt from the latest batch of battery chickens. I could make the phone call today and see if they will okay me as an adopter and ask for advice about setting up the coop at the same time. I've not asked the kids if they will feed chooks while we're away, but if they won't, I'm sure I could ask a friend.

I ordered a gift for DD's birthday last night (£12) and need to get her a token too, and while in town I want to see if I can get a Gardener's World magazine for the two for one entry token. I'm aware some places now limit the days they accept the tokens so I might look at the local ones and highlight limited entry details.

There's another lot of laundry to wash and a mound of ironing too.

My one to one is in the afternoon. I doubt I'm going to get any of the training done this morning in preparation but I suppose I just might.

Work is at five.

If I think of anything else, I'll edit it in.

Laura_Elsewhere

We're really lucky - our Council collects our green wheelie bins, year-round, free... my parents have to apply and pay for their pick-ups, only for six months of the year iirc. 

I hope your day went well. I managed to sleep properly at last, after multiple nights of obedient "sleep hygiene" but little actual rest, so have spent some of today trying to catch up on everything but also trying to avoid overdoing everything... 

badmemory

Just to make the wheelie bins more interesting & the reason I rarely mention the colour.  Our green bin is paper & cardboard.  Our brown is cooking type waste & garden type cuttings.  It gets interesting when new people move in even from very few miles away because they are used to different coloured bins.  I suspect the whole larger area buys half a million of the 4 bin colours & then splits them up so the ones that get used most are different colours in different areas.

Laura_Elsewhere

badmemory said:

Just to make the wheelie bins more interesting & the reason I rarely mention the colour.  Our green bin is paper & cardboard.  Our brown is cooking type waste & garden type cuttings.  It gets interesting when new people move in even from very few miles away because they are used to different coloured bins.  I suspect the whole larger area buys half a million of the 4 bin colours & then splits them up so the ones that get used most are different colours in different areas.

Yes, my family in Scotland have brown for garden-waste, dark green for landfill waste, and grey for recycling... we have grey bins but with red lids for landfill, purple lids for recycling- and green bins with green lids for garden waste!

Just to add to it, my parents have to put their glass separately but then everything else inc paper and card in the mixed-recycling bin- we have to put our paper and card separately but then everything else inc glass in the mixed-recycling!  

No wonder people get confused... 

Cherryfudge

To add to the confusion: we have green for garden waste (if we pay for it, we get it nine months of the year plus Christmas trees), grey with a blue lid for paper and plastic and dark grey for landfill/incineration. Glass goes in a small blue box...

Cherryfudge

Our wheelie bin (green) collection is paid for. £42 till Christmas, then a  break till March/April.

I never got as far as ringing up about the chickens, but the washing got put on the line, I finished the hummus for lunch and checked my work emails, and after that I did half of one of the work courses. The one to one with my manager was fine, and I followed it up with the rest of the course from earlier and made a start on another before going to work. I've already added the time taken to my pay claim for this month.

Going to the shops and doing the ironing haven't happened.

Expenditure:
Gift £12
Garden £42.

Cherryfudge

A good night's sleep makes all the difference, and I'm feeling fine today. Those 'muzzy-headed' episodes are a strange thing and I wish I understood what they are, and even better, how to prevent them.

There seem to be quite a few things to do today, none of which is actually urgent apart from preparing for Sunday's pre-school session. I have work at 4.30 and DH is making tuna pasta for tea when I get home.

Other than that, there's the big pile of ironing, the best part of two courses to complete for work, any other study I feel like doing though I've been at the computer enough really, and some rhubarb muffins to make. That will help with freezer space as the rhubarb has been there too long. There are various vases of things to refresh, including the rest of the parsley from last weekend which isn't going to last much longer so I might have a go at the parsley and walnut pesto I've been recommended. That will freeze if I can't use it straight away.

Nearly all the food from last weekend is used up; there's a tiny bit of cream and some vegetables as well as the parsley. Some of the cabbage and carrots could go into coleslaw with a bit of cheese and I could get some ham to go with that... but as DH and I never have the same lunches, it will be down to me to eat it all. He has tuna sandwiches or beans on toast or cheese on toast. That's it. Then he always has a pastry or cake, an apple and an orange. Healthy enough, apart from the pastries, but it can mean I have a lot of whatever else needs to be used, or whatever else I fancied while wandering round the shops, which reminds me there's still a bit of cream cheese so perhaps carrot cake muffins as well as rhubarb muffins? It will save DH spending on pastries!

If I get to the shops, I still want the GW magazine and a gift voucher for DD. The app company have got back to me and asked for the receipt for the purchase for them to follow up, so I'm glad I asked. And then there's the chickens...

The new ISA is still empty, but perhaps I'm being impatient. I checked my credit card (I'm suspicious that they might charge interest on any amount left outstanding), but so far all I found was a £5 food payment made on that card by mistake so I've paid that off. In a big breakthrough, I saw how to add the debit card for the account that pays for food - it was very, very obvious, which is probably why I haven't seen it before. So that's done and I won't have to move things between accounts again.

Time I went and did something about something...