Earthgirl's Final Battle

Karmacat · 20 January 2018 at 10:34AM

Thanks for that earthgirl - I agree, 80% is no good! Interesting idea to photo the moles, I shall do that.

Have a lovely weekend!

earthgirl · 20 January 2018 at 8:33PM

My moisturiser already has spf15 in which is fine for Scotland, with sunblock for days I’m not inside at work, and it’s sunny, which is about 2.5 days per year

Anyway, starting to recover from the horrendous news. I already had a big focus on spending time with kids doing things that make us happy. We all had a brilliant day. Oh was golfing then out with friends. Boys were out playing at friends /here with friends and I took some of them swimming, so £6 spent but a great day enjoyed.
Leftovers for tea.

Whilst we had kids playing here I managed to finish my weekly cleaning Rota and do most of next weeks as well

I’m feeling a bit disconnected from oh and think it’s due to the new schedules the boys have for after school activities and generally being busy. I’ve decided to try to plan a night out (fairly local pub does two steak meals and a bottle for £20, or use vouchers etc) once per month. Another week I can do a date night in, and two weekends we can do a Sunday coffee date whilst the kids are at grandparents/sunday school.

Karmacat · 20 January 2018 at 8:39PM

That's a really good idea - when everyone has busy lives, you have to plan your time with your partner, to a certain extent.

beanielou · 20 January 2018 at 8:52PM

Great idea on the date nights & thats a good deal at the pub

Cherryfudge · 20 January 2018 at 11:30PM

Good idea to treat each other as you did when you first met

Unless of course you were sworn enemies in primary school... Hope you both enjoy your dates!

earthgirl · 21 January 2018 at 5:20PM

Thanks for your comments -agree it’s important to spend time together. On reflection I’d like to do it for free if I can, although £20 for meal and drinks is a good deal, it still adds up if you do it every month. On the other hand I like to support local businesses too...

A nsd today, everything was snowed off and we had a great time sledging and snowballing. Going to cook a Shepard’s pie now and parents in law might come for dinner if the weather stays ok.

Mystery shops have dried up this week

I really need to tap into other income sources. Off to come up with a plan!

earthgirl · 24 January 2018 at 12:57PM

Increasing income:
So I’m trying to make £400 / month extra to go towards my travel budget. This Might be more in summer and less throughout the year but I find the target – and the goal of more holidays – really motivating for me, and it pushes me to do extra bits of work here and there to make the target.
So in January, I have earned £40 from mystery shops, £20 from surveys. Still a lot to find to hit my £400 target! I am hoping to get some bank account switching cash but that will arrive in future months. I could make more of this and switch OH too.
I will try the job spotter app, and sell old cds and books. I could also hoard the loo rolls etc to sell as I have lots of spare space.
I need to find time to Ebay and I’d like to list our spare room to rent long term. I could revamp my tutoring business as well – only one paying client at the moment. I also need to rethink about hosting students in the summer. I said I wouldn’t but now I think it might be worth it to put in the amazing holiday and travel fund.
I also think that in the future when the kids are older, I’ll have much more opportunity to earn more when they are with their friends and out all day. It seems silly to work now when I could be actually spending time with them now and working more in the future.
OH and I have also discuss the opportunity of getting a buy to let in the not too distant future. We will need to replace windows and doors soon, and redo one more bathroom -these will be fairly big costs and we don’t have a house maintenance budget as such. The rest of the work is internal decorating which OH will do cheaply
To do:
Do banking switch for OH
Use The job spotter app
Sell old cds and books
Hoard rubbish for sale
Sell on ebay
Revamp tutoring business – facebook page, g my business and also with agencies.
Go through the rest of the up my income guide.

edinburgher · 24 January 2018 at 3:02PM

People buy rubbish?

Karmacat · 24 January 2018 at 6:45PM

Earthgirl, its probably really important to judge what will be most profitable and focus on that. None of us can do it all. Hoarding the loo rolls (which, yes, I have seen them sell, but one in a million, I don't think its regular) won't bring in nearly the kind of profit that renting out a room on airbnb will do, or getting an extra student. The hourly rate for the rental/tutoring is really different from the small stuff too.

All good ideas, but we only have so many hours in the day

earthgirl · 24 January 2018 at 7:47PM

I know, the bnb and longer term lodger doesn’t take much time, but the tutoring does and it’s time away from the kids. I’m trying to think of ways to earn than don’t impact on my time with them.

In savings I have started to review my spending every week. I’ve boticed grapes are really expensive, and quinoa is expensive and can be substituted with potato’s and rice.

Earthgirl's Final Battle

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