Yay! Then Hiss.

I have finally finished building furniture! Yay! The relief is amazing. Unfortunately my ceiling height (or lack thereof) necessitated a rearrangement. You can just make out the relocated Christmas Tree, which is presently helping to screen my desk and chair. But see that three foot gap behind the white sofa? That's the Bash Zone. All I can really use it for is stashing junk, and even that is a dangerous thing to do. I have (so far) hit my head viciously on those two beams six times and I'm not even counting the times I have bumped my head gently. It seems I haven't caused myself quite enough pain to make me actually remember to watch where I'm going (but watch this space).

Now I just need to rid myself of all the ridiculous empty cardboard boxes.

My go-to website for buying discounted gift cards (Zeek) seems to keep selling out of most of the items that I want, and only offering the ones that are one percent off - the price of popularity! - But I managed to pair it with cashback and came out in front, by first clicking through from both TopCashBack, then I spent the money on Zeek credit first, and redeemed that credit on a supermarket gift card, which will come in the mail.

A very much hiss was my disgusting foray on eBay earlier in the week, where I bought what can only be described as selfish and unnecessary items, totalling about £30. On the plus side I did get some cash back and I did finally order my toaster from a different site. I also got a small kettle and a mini oven, which should mean I use less power when I need to cook something for one person (it always strikes me as wasteful to heat that huge oven just for a little meat pie).

I sold one item for five pounds - technically I sold another item, but one of the buyers was a pain in the proverbial and decided he didn't want it. Simpler to cancel the sale than to get the negative feedback later on, ho hum.

On the right is the latest sweet treat to go into my mouth: Apple Crumble Slice with Custard (28p & 8p, respectively, from Tesco). It was delicious. And I used too much custard on this, it would have been fine with a quarter of the tin.

Freebie this week: A latte from Costa (thank you, Wuntu) and also a perfume sample in the mail.

It's Pay Week, so I plan to go grocery shopping soon, but before I do, I'm going to check out some online retailers. I shy away from them in general with the reasoning that I won't find yellow stickers, but I think it's only fair (to myself) to at least take a look for bargains.


* links are referral links, where I get a small bonus if you join. I only ever include links that I genuinely believe you can benefit from.

Slowly, Slowly

When I first got here almost a month ago I spotted a great rug in a charity shop, brand new. It was 45 pounds which was really way over budget, but I loved it so much that caution was thrown to the wind and it came home in my arms. I didn't have enough hands to carry a lovely wall picture that I spotted on the same day for £10, so I left it behind. I assumed it would be gone so I didn't bother to go back.

Well guess what was still there when I checked? Here is my living room so far and I'm quite pleased with it:

The ottoman on the left was also £10 from the same shop. The right hand ottoman was £30 and is new, and the sofa was £55 and is also new. You might have noticed my sloping ceiling there. I haven't got any wall space that can host anything tall, so allllll my storage needs to be at floor level. There are two low cabinets on the opposite wall which I'll try to remember to snap when the rest of the room is done. I also have a new sofa bed still in the box which belongs beside the Christmas tree. I'm working really hard on summoning the energy to assemble it :D

Holiday Mode: On

I am finally on holidays until the end of the year (insert wild applause). It means I can finish sorting out my flat, which has been a bit neglected and has suffered from my rampant procrastination.

Yesterday was my Christmas breakfast party with work, making it a really frugal morning with a delicious cooked breakfast served up by the managers. I also got a lovely Christmas gift of a years' subscription to Headspace, which has stacks of meditation and mindfulness podcasts. They also gifted me some Sony bluetooth headphones (!!!!!!!) which I was very excited about, but as I don't need those myself I'm going to make sure they end up under someone else's Christmas tree.

Unfortunately in the afternoon I realised that there was no lunch happening. I think I sort of expected morning tea to be a feature. But no, and it meant I had to buy lunch. I'll admit I was lazy and shelled out the £3 for a "meal deal" meaning that along with my sandwich was a packet of Doritos and a bottle of Coke, two items I realistically could have done without. Oh well, I'm excusing it by saying it was my last day of work for the year.

I have absolutely zero excuse for what I did on the way home. I went into a pound shop and emerged £14 poorer. These shops are a trap, I tell you! Sure, I can pretend I needed all the things I bought, but really, I could have done without most of them. Except the chocolate. That was an essential.

In other news, after a tip from an EE rep, I got Experian on the phone to ask about my missing credit score. The nice lady on the phone did something magic, and my credit score suddenly appeared. This missing credit score was probably the reason the bank knocked me back for a home loan earlier in the year. I have a rubbish score mostly due to me not having lived here very long, but it's a score, which is better than no score at all. Within two minutes I had applied for and been approved for a credit card at 56% p.a. interest, and I have applied at a second bank as well, which will let me know shortly. (Danger danger Will Robinson: don't go nuts with credit or loan applications, as the applications themselves could harm your credit rating.)

I can hear the gasps. No, I don't plan to spend that credit. I am not crazy - 56% interest for goodness' sake!!! - I simply need some way to begin improving that score, and credit cards are all I can really do for now. I did read the fine print and provided I pay out the balance in full every month, I should have no fees or interest. So I plan to actually load it with my own money in advance then use it while shopping.

PS. Considering how many of my posts are arriving late, I'm dropping back to posting twice a week.

Temptation

I argued to myself that if I buy myself some treats from the supermarket, I'll stop wanting to buy food at work. This sort of mostly works. I went ALL last week without buying anything during my work days (dance). And then on Monday I accidentally left my treats AND my lunch at home, and it was on a day that free breakfast didn't happen.

Boooo.

So I bought myself a mushroom omelette (30p) and it was lucky I did, because there was no free protein meal at lunch either. I had the free fruit and salad. And a free latte for the trip home.

So I bought a Tesco four-pack of muffins on the way home for my treats for the rest of the week (£1 coin from my remaining change stash). Salted Caramel! They are amazing. And then I really just wanted something hot for dinner and I wasn't in the mood to eat another omelette but I really haven't got cash to spare. So I dangerously went into Sainsbury's knowing there was £10 left on my Sainsbury's gift card, and came home with a reduced instant Hoisin Duck meal for $1.49. Oh and a whole lot of other things, but hopefully I have enough meals now to last me the 12 days left until payday.

I put a tenner onto my electric key.

I have enough in the bank for my bus tickets, thirty pounds in my purse, a handful of coins, and two pounds on my Sainsbury's card. I'm equal parts horrified and energised by the budgetary challenge. As soon as I get paid I'm planning to buy a new Sainsbury's £50 gift card for my grocery shopping. In theory this will stop me spending over my budget (let's see how that goes).

The Single Room Thing

So I happen to have a one-bedroom flat, with "heating". But the heating in the living room just... isn't up to the task. It tries, but the best it really achieves is taking the chill out of the air, and on keyed electric (boooo!) I was spending about £20 a week just trying to stop from freezing. I kept waking up shivering and then having to turn the blow heater on in the mornings just to get dressed, and that's not so fun when you're heading out into temps close to zero.

I'd intentionally kept the bedroom door shut and out of use until I received all my furniture, which happened yesterday, so I have boxes everywhere. But when I switched on the heating in there to help dry the newly-cleaned carpet, it's like an oven! So... guess what I've done for the past two days? Yep, set myself up in the bedroom. I have my desk and laptop in here, and my bed. I figure the space is smaller and it should save me some money if I just keep the living area at about 15 degrees during the week. Realistically I only need the living room for making my meals - maybe I'll feel differently once all my lovely living room furniture is in place in there! :)

I've also gotten cheeky a couple of times and left my front door open for half an hour when I arrive home from work... being at the top of the warm stairwell, it helps warm up a cold room nicely.

In other news I have sadly failed in signing up to a contract for my mobile phone. I get a corporate discount if I join EE. But I keep failing the address check verification when EE tries to confirm my card, even though I've confirmed that EE have the correct billing address. The bank says it's EE's fault. EE say it's the bank. I'm tired of making phone calls... will try again once I have received and returned the official "change of address" form for the bank. In the meantime I had to buy more pay-as-you-go credit with my current provider, so that's twenty-five extra pound down the drain that I really didn't want to spend... hey ho, not much I can do about it now!

The Washer Debacle

I've mentioned my washing machine more than once... I love the idea of that tiny washer, but truth be told this particular one has been a nightmare. It arrived banged up, broken, dirty and definitely not new. The seller had seemed willing to split the cost with me, but after repeated requests I'd gotten nowhere. Long story short it's now been returned and I'm waiting on a full refund from eBay.

That refund will come in handy, since ka-ching-wise, I'm scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel.

I must admit, it's easier not to spend money when you simply don't have it. But I'm a little bit nervous about finances and lasting until payday. I haven't bought a single Christmas gift either, but I'm trying to put that aside until I get paid... all my gifts will be bought online (and apparently all on the two days before Christmas).

I do already have one gift... bought with Nectar points. Thumbs up there, I know I could have used those points more efficiently on something for myself that I needed, but never mind, it's one less gift to worry about.

Remiss

I'm late with this update, but I've been pretty busy.

This week I've been updating my Level 3 First Aid. It's amazing how much I remember, how much I had forgotten and how much has changed since I last did my training. I am thoroughly in awe of new defibrillator machines, they now talk you through and are quite reassuring considering it's what most people would consider a scary thing to witness.

So how is this frugal? I'm adopting poetic licence here. I am going to say instead that First Aid Training is incredibly good value. Think about it, people. What is the point of paying all our bills, saving all our pennies, getting financial independence, if we don't have our health and the health of those we care about?

If there is one extravagant purchase you make in 2018, make it a first aid course. Humans only have three minutes of oxygen saved up. Ambulances never arrive in that first three minutes. Putting it quite simply, you need first aid to live. If you're in trouble, your life - or the life of someone you care about - depends on someone near you knowing what to do. And watching "House" on tv is not good enough!

First Aid Saves Lives.

Please do this for your loved ones.

Whirlwind

...my days, that is. Or should I say, my weeks. Only one day off work this week and a day of rest and relaxation was not to be had!

I've been busy still trying to arrange my flat (suitcase living is not so fabulous) and also get the caravan ready for the winter... rather late. More than once I've caught myself thinking: what's this full-time malarkey?

Anyway. Unsurprisingly there have been unexpected spends, but on the plus side I've been reasonably good at bringing lunch from home. I only have a four-day week (thank dog!) and as I'll be off-site there will not even be free fruit or salads or coffee, so the gauntlet is thrown: can I manage to stick to packed lunches for the whole week? (Challenge accepted!)

Unrelated purchase with no excuses offered: Christmas tree £2, baubles £2 (half are still in the box as they're too big for the tree), lights £7.

It's December Already

Eeek! Of course I'm aware that Christmas is around the corner but even so, I still do a double-take to see Christmas decorations up in the shops. I think it's because I'm mostly disconnected from it this year, I'll be off work and spending Christmas by myself (no sympathetic responses please as I'm perfectly ok with this).

I suppose I should update on my latest purchases?

Jumper £2, scarf £1, hat 50p and a belt 50p which somehow escaped the photo. Nothing fancy but some basics so I look vaguely respectable when leaving the front door.









Casserole dish £1 so that I could feed a guest.

Entertainment which I'll leave in the caravan for guests - £12.50 for the three (Trivial Pursuit was a tenner, which was a bit of a nostalgic indulgence).







I cannot wait until I'm in walking distance to my local car boot sale!