Slimming the Wallet... and Me!

Still slogging with studying... Accounting and Business Tax... help me!

Unfortunately this guy's style of teaching is really not in sync with how I learn, since he is very much assaulting with questions and is super time pressured, which means my brain just dies. I need to be confident I have the knowledge before I can put up with this- unfortunately, I'm not and this guy isn't helping. Luckily I have a week off work before my exam so I will do mountains of question work then.

Parked at the university again and walked to and from town at 30 mins each way. Saves on cash flow for reclaiming parking expenses and means I get an extra exercise piece in.

Yesterday at the gym was Body Conditioning, which is probably Body Pump to most people, followed by Bokwa which is a dance routine class. Similar to Zumba, except you follow patterns of steps to letters and numbers. Today was meant to be Pilates and then Spin class, but my quads are still aching from yesterday so only went to Pilates to help stretch things out. As I'm doing the extra walking this week I don't mind missing the class.

No NSDs yesterday or today... Spent £27.30 in Mr A (although some to come back from OH) on lunch bits, veggies and a bag of mini mixed chocolates/sweets for £3. The sweets were probably not required but the little small treats really help me with sugary cravings and keeping on track diet wise.

£2 spent today on a couple of notepads, as I used up the rest of the one I bought last week this morning on the revision class.

Also had to pay off a BNPL on my Very account along with a Take 3 payment to avoid interest... that was around £70 (trainers I bought for the gym like six months ago).

OH and I are off out tomorrow evening to see Jimmy Carr but he has said he will pay for parking if I drive (so he can have a beer!) and I won't bother buying a drink there as I don't want to pay almost a fiver for something sold for a pound in the supermarket! So aiming for a NSD tomorrow.

Now I should be working through some study questions but I can't really face it. My brain is mush. Early night me thinks, tucked up with OH and an episode of Hell's Kitchen US from Youtube!

Seasidegal58 wrote: »

Yum - Krispy Kremes!:D

Enjoy your show with OH tomorrow.

I never used to like Krispy Kremes then I tried the Dreamcake one... lush!

JC was a great laugh as always. Had fab seats on front row of the balcony, so no obstructions and OH could use the balcony as a drink stand! Plus we were on the aisle so I could stretch out my legs which were still aching from my weights class on Sunday.

Yesterday and today are NSD! :j

Today was my only day in the office. Started at 8:30am, finished at 12:15pm! :rotfl:OH came back for lunch which was nice, so we had a bunch of chicken dippers. Reminded me of my university days!

Had booked a half day holiday as I had to be home for the new phone line installation for the Sky internet and water meter survey man. Swapping from Virgin Media paying £23ish a month to the MSE Sky deal for half price line rental at £8.40 a month and free internet for a year. It's up and running now and I honestly do not see any difference in speed from fibre! False economy for us at least.

I've been battling with Thames Water for at least a year about getting a meter on and off (I get busy). Basically they came out last June, surveyed the house and said we could have a meter. Guy came along and done it while we were out and managed to shut off our water. Had to get the emergency team out and they didn't finish drilling until 1am! :eek: Bet the neighbours loved us for that. Fast forward a few more months and had another survey done as the water meter hadn't kicked in, the guy couldn't open the hatch. Had to get another team out to fix it, then call for another survey. Had THAT today, and the meter has been marked up and someone should come along to install it within 30 calendar days. We'll get there eventually! We are paying around £24 a month unmetered when we paid £90 for a whole year in our last metered place :mad:

Had some good news today as well. On my revision course last week we did a mock exam in test conditions on the last day. Got my script to my work email and I got 81%! :j Considering I only need 50% to pass, I'm feeling a lot better about Paper 1! Paper 2 on the other hand...

Almost forgot, had my first actual shift at Showcase last night, 6-11pm. Not hard at all, picked it up quickly as I'm on the box office and I have a ton of till experience from working in Sainsbugs during university. Everyone is lovely so I'm enjoying it so far! The extra pennies help too. Should get my first pay next Friday, which only be for that shift so around £35. I'm scheduled for around 15 hours each week though, so should have a weekly take home of around £100, so £80 after tax.

Working at Showcase tomorrow 9-6. Need to remember to make myself lunch of some kind tonight. I bought peanut butter for when my nephew came up last weekend so I reckon it may be peanut butter sandwiches! Good thing I like the stuff as there is basically a whole pot left :rotfl:

Matched betting has died down a bit, did a small reload offer today for around £5.50 profit.

Realised this morning on the journey to work that my left headlight has blown on my car- will need to do some investigations on how to change it and see how much a bulb is at the weekend. With the days getting shorter I need to have it changed sooner rather than later.

Even though I have not eaten fantastically healthily this past week I have still been monitoring my calorie intake (yes, even when I scoffed for KK doughnuts!) and I am now 9 stone 4! :j Not long until I can break the 8 stone something mark. I don't think I have seen that number since I was in Year 4...

Nothing else to report so I am signing off for a lovely soak in the bath!

Seasidegal58 wrote: »

Glad that everyone is nice at Showcase - makes all the difference - -and the money sounds very useful too!

Good news on the mock exam as well!

Thank you Seaside! The mock result was a definite shock, but has certainly calmed my fears a bit for 1 November. Just need to cram this last week to make sure I deliver on the day, as I can't bear to have to resit (obviously I will if I have to!)

Shift at Showcase on Saturday, scheduled 9am - 6pm but left earlier at 5:15pm as it was a bit quiet. I'm fine with that- meant I could have a nice relaxing bath when I got in! Unfortunately I trusted my body clock that morning and thought I would naturally wake up at 7:30am as usual on the weekends- nope! Due to a wake up call from the cat at 6am and dozing back to sleep I didn't get up until 8:15am! :eek: Had just enough time for a nip to the loo, change to uniform, make some peanut butter sandwiches and grab a mini lion bar and some crackers for breakfast! I was on time, but definitely need to be more organised next time

OH treated me to a lush chinese takeaway when I got back- yum for my tum but not my waistline! Did mean a NSD though as he didn't want anything from me towards it :A

After a well-deserved lie-in and binge on a few episodes of Judge Judy in PJs, OH and I nipped to Mr A to grab some foodie bits. I only needed to pick up a bag of salad for lunch on Monday, as I'm at home on study leave the rest of the week so I'll eat out of the cupboards. May not be as healthy as my usual chicken salad but it will definitely be cheaper!

All in all about £11.50 spent as picked up some reduced meats for the freezer. Picked up a massive boneless pork shoulder for about a fiver, so I will research how to cook it in the slow cooker for BBQ pulled pork as it will go us for 3-4 meals- depending on how much OH eats! :rotfl: If anyone has a recipe it would be greatly appreciated!

Oh... did also spend £2.38 in Maccy D's... one Malteaser McFlurry for me and a Chicken Mayo for OH

I'm just in the process of printing off photos from our wedding back in August to put in the thank you cards (I know I know... it's taken a while!) and I'm using Asda photo as it works out at 5p a photo if we order 200+, so just over £10 which isn't bad. Works out cheaper than printing off just what we need oddly enough. Unfortunately the photos are taking an age to upload as the files are quite large (HD ones from photographer) so it may take all night at this rate!

That's everything to report at the mo, so I'm off to enjoy some leftover chinese for dinner! :beer:

Seasidegal58 wrote: »

Enjoy your left over Chinese! It's always incredibly moreish the next day for some strange reason..........

It definitely is! I actually prefer next day pizza... is that strange?!

Today is the first day of study leave. No alarm. No wake up call at 6:15am. Just. Nothing. It was bliss.

As I have the rest of week off and Monday I decided to have a bit of a life admin day and get down studying from tomorrow. My friend is getting married next year and needed some extra vases for her centrepieces so I managed to pick them up where I am. Unfortunately I live two hours away so can't help much in traditional bridesmaid ways, but I help where I can! I also picked up and changed my headlight bulb in the car as it had blown- no man required, and all for the princely sum of £1.86 :T

Also picked up our wedding photos I uploaded to Mr A photo- 220 photos for £11! Very cheap. I am sending a few pictures from the day to all our guests in the thank you cards. We did get married in August so they are kind of overdue- I had an excuse with all the studying/gyming but my OH certainly did not! I did say I wouldn't write out his but I probably will otherwise they just won't get done. Tried to get him to write them out for ages but still hasn't happened.

I have also finished up a few matched betting offers, so that should net me around £35 or so. I need to put some more time in to find some other offers but don't really have it at the moment.

Got my first payslip emailed from Showcase today and will get paid £41.50 on Friday. :j It's more than I thought it would be so I am happy with that. It will probably just be covering the additional expenses from when my family came up, but at least I have earned some extra money to cover it, as opposed to simply putting it on a card to figure it out later!

Pilates and then spin class today. The latter was a HIIT style and completely different to what she normally does- I was dying at the end! Couldn't even laugh as I was that out of breath :eek: Unfortunately I can't go next week as I'm working at Showcase in the evening, so I may catch her Friday class instead since I am not in the office this week.

Got my mock for Paper 2 back today- 61%. It's not as good as Paper 1, but it's still a pass! I'm going to really ramp up the studying from tomorrow, focusing on Paper 2 as it is my weak one. I'm not going for gold- all I need are 50 marks and I'm through.

A LSD overall, at £1.86 for the bulb. Not counting the spend on the vases as my friend is putting the money back on my account.

Should be a NSD tomorrow as all I will be getting is a deodorant for OH and picking up a pot of chocolate frozen yoghurt from W*itrose but will use a gift card I was given from work for the wedding. The frozen yoghurt will be my study snack- it tastes exactly like the chocolate Hagen Daiz (sp?) but is only 400 calories for a whole tub! So it won't matter if I end up devouring it all