Staring At Rocks

It's like a waterfall, I swear. First I got aluminium foil, plastic wrap, eggs, oven chips, peanut butter, a bread roll and cinnamon bagels. Then work #2 got me bread, milk, fruit, yogurt, desserts, croissants, crisps, blueberries, fruit snack things and ready meals. Freezer tetris time.

This is Amphibolite.

Kid #2 has managed to get some hours at my work which is good news. I'm not so sure about his enthusiasm for working with his mother.

Free kitchening (lots), yellow stickers (£1.00 off)

I have reached my February goal on day 24 and I haven't even counted in the overtime earnings yet.

I am currently in the middle of an excruciating 45 minute study which so far seems to consist entirely of "looking at pictures of rocks".  The things we do in the name of science. (And cash.) And I think this is a good reflection of my current mood. "Staring at rocks."

I miss having enthusiasm and waking up happy. Most days I am on autopilot, going through the dreary motions, thinking that eventually this mood will pass. I missed something incredibly important this week and I'm just so disappointed in myself. Even the view of the sea isn't making me happy and I'm wishing I could just crawl into a hole where nobody can see me.

This blog has been so boring lately, only posting about mundane groceries, but that's my life. Filled with nothing but blah and "I don't want to". Don't ask me anything, because I don't want to. Do anything, see anything, talk about anything. Whatever it is. Don't read this. Oh, too late.

I'm not feeling worse, but I definitely wish this fog would hurry up and leave.

Ho Hum

Well, yet again there were only three of us meeting for coffee, so I'm a bit bummed and wondering whether to even bother arranging a next time. There were four "yes" and one "maybe" who did not show up... I guess it was the weather, but still, a bit frustrating for those that came along and didn't have a lot to talk about!

I survived my extra day at work ok. I say that now but ask me again on the third day running when I've got to get up to do it all again. A good-bad thing did happen at work today though:

This. Waste. Is. Criminal. And it only shows you the stuff I brought home - there was a fair amount of half-eaten and opened food that I didn't retrieve.

It's good because SCORE. Also because I had about 2 teaspoons left of coffee and had completely forgotten it was running out, and after coming home exhausted, having to go out and buy coffee tonight would have completely pissed me off. So, I guess it's a thank you to the universe for the haul.

Enfoodenation: Like the picture (£12.65)

What's Better Than Pizza?

...free pizza, of course.

I did an 11-hour shift yesterday to help out at job #2 so I was glad of the chance to sleep in this morning!

Son and I went to a board game meetup this evening, we were late so spent the first hour watching a game that hurt my brain (it's ok, even the guys playing it said it hurt their brains) followed by playing a fun word association game called Decrypto. I think we shall go again :)

Tomorrow: coffee meetup at the pub.

Free: Pizza, milk, bread, sausages, avocado (£5.23)
Yellow Stickers: Crumpets, English muffins, bagels (£1.24)

Help To Save

Victory is mine! I qualified this month by earning enough but also not earning enough. I had a bit of overtime but my UC wasn't completely cancelled, so I am now the proud owner of a Help to Save account.

For those who missed the memo, it's a government-arranged dealio, you stash up to £50 per month into the account and at the end of the term the government will give you 50p for every pound you put away. Tax-free. INSANE. That's free money so you can see why I was keen.

To qualify, you must be working but be on a low income and also receiving Universal Credit. More info at this link.

I ran out of butter this morning while making my lunch for work and I vaguely wished that I'd gotten some free during the week. And the universe responded today, with not one but two tubs of butter. I feel like she was giving me a smug look and saying, "Don't say I never give you nothin'."

The weather is abysmal. Storm Dennis has been drenching us and I finished my work day soaked, tired and sore. Plus, I am once again slightly annoyed at the fact that I will get no weekend, again, due to agreeing to extra hours of overtime. I was SO DETERMINED that it would not happen again this week and then I was completely unable to say no when both bosses were in need. Sigh. Am physically exhausted right now and walking like an old woman. I was comparing notes with a couple of workmates who've been there longer than I have, and unfortunately, both of them related to the "getting frozen into that shape" phenomenon whereby sitting still for thirty minutes after a work day leaves you unable to stand up. Even after years in the job. And here was I hoping that I'd get used to it...

Free stuff: Orange juice, bread rolls, herb and garlic flatbread thing, butter (£3.10).

More Sandwiches

I suppose they're versatile, but there are only so many free sandwiches one can eat! I shared them with my son, who also didn't have much interest in yet another sandwich, but still ate it.

Had some extra shifts at work so goodbye to having an actual weekend (third time running... so I'm a little bit tired). On the plus side it's more money into the February £4 Challenge. On the minus side, between the fuel cost, the UC deduction of 67% and my current tax code, I will go home with nothing for working the extra hours. Something that I forgot all about when I said yes to another overtime shift for tomorrow.

Good thing: Spending time with my son. Today we did the tourist thing and went to Kent's Caverns. Interesting tour but I was perhaps a little bit underwhelmed! It was about £20 for the two us so not the most frugal thing in the world. Still, I give it an overall thumbs up.

Free food: Sandwiches, mushrooms, spinach and cake (£6.15)

Major Oops

So I took my eye off the ball (I am still not quite sure how) and missed my due date for my credit card, and have incurred interest this month plus a late fee. It's incredibly frustrating because I have nobody else to blame! Lesson learned, direct debit is now set up to pay it in full automatically - so it will pay a bit earlier than before, but since I always have the money ready it won't matter too much.

My son came over for dinner - we watched comedy videos together and had a giggle 😀

I was also late posting my last entry here on my blog. That probably points to why I missed the CC date, I've been adjusting to this whole business of working two jobs and I only had one day off in almost two weeks - but this is temporary and it shall pass. Now that I have two jobs I will count my overtime - so I'm going to go back and calculate the extra earnings and update my challenge totals.

Storm Ciara is blowing an actual gale out there and it woke me at stupid o'clock this morning - I am not looking forward to going out in it later today. There are trees down all over the place and roads closed along the sea front.

Freebies: marmalade, chocolates, potatoes, green beans (about £1.90 worth)
Yellow stickers: hot cross buns (18p off)

I thought I was running behind in my February challenge of trying to achieve £4 per day, and I know it's because I am so busy, and then I remembered why I'm so busy. So I'm going to count overtime earnings in my challenge and I've updated posts to show that. As for the 2020 £2020 Challenge, the only way I'm likely to hit that is if I get fulltime work and somehow keep one of my other jobs... which isn't on the horizon right now. But still, we do what we can 😊

Irrational Guilt

Me, that is, in saying no to extra shifts that I can't do in the first place because I'll be at my other job. It makes about as much sense as feeling guilty when you see a police car when you haven't done anything wrong! (Which is still something that happens to me.)

I also shouldn't feel guilty at wanting two days off work each week, but it still happens. I think it was because I accepted everything last week and was exhausted, spent almost no time with my son, and then got annoyed at bringing it all on myself. In an effort to be more organised, I've volunteered to work a regular, recurring extra shift and I will attempt to remind myself that this is Enough (capital E).

For some reason I forgot to schedule this post to actually go live - which is why it's late. It's been a blur of a week!

Free from work: punnet of strawberries, 2x baby plum tomatoes, 2x sandwiches and a bunch of chrysanthemums (£3.00 worth).

The Price of a Sandwich

I think quite a lot about the lunchtime "meal deals" in every supermarket. You know the ones, where £3.00 gets you a sandwich, crisps, and a soft drink. Bargain.

At my work, we sell an absolute truckload of these deals (and you can switch it up, for pasta salad, a chocolate bar, and a smoothie). There's even the option of fruit, coffee or an energy drink. We get all kinds of people buying these, from harried mums shopping with toddlers, to tradesmen, high schoolers and older people. They save somewhere between one and three pounds off the price of the individual items, so it's great value. Or is it?

I'm not going to get all negative about the original prices, since I do like my workplace and would quite like to stay employed. In any case, the prices are similar in other supermarkets too. But I can't help noticing the alternatives. Most days I make a jam sandwich and bring it to work for my lunch (cost, about 10p) plus I have a refilled water bottle. If I wanted to add a snack into the mix, it would be another 10p for a piece of fruit. Total cost: 20p.

If I really felt deprived, I could have ham salad on my sandwich (40p), bring a muesli bar or a bag of crisps from a multi-pack (20p), and add in a can of soft drink also from a multi-pack (40p). Total cost: £1.00. If you did this for a year, that's a difference of £520, or £728 for the first option.

There is nothing wrong with a business making a profit. It's what they do. They're not cheating anyone when you can clearly see the prices on the shelves. But I can choose exactly how much profit I give to supermarkets by voting for the option which is kinder to my wallet.

Free food: baking potatoes, 3 mangled sandwiches (£2.90 worth)
Yellow stickers: two chicken pies (54p off)

Round Up: January £3 Challenge

Here's the total list of my extra earnings for the month of January.

£15.00 LifePoints Panel
£14.16 Bank Interest
£2.00 Tesco voucher redeemed
£6.00 Tesco Clubcard Points
£10.00 e-Rewards (as Nectar points)
£8.00 Opinion Outpost
£11.09 Testable Minds
£29.89 Prolific Academic
£0.45 Book royalties
£56.20 Overtime on second job
£15.65 Free food and yellow sticker savings

Competition wins:
10p on TopCashBack

This last number looks a little bit sad but I dramatically changed my comping this month and spent far less time entering them. I've dropped it back to about five hours a week and almost all of that is in visit-daily sites (like free lotto sites) and on postcard entries for larger-value prizes with much better odds. This is part of my master plan to win myself a big-ticket item 😉

The surveys too have not been top of my priority list. I now work four days a week, so there's less of the sitting about at home now. I'm sure I missed out some of the free food I've brought home too, but never mind. I'll have to get better at always writing it down. I've also decided to count overtime on my second job.

All up, I'm pleased that I defeated the January Challenge of £3 per day, and for February I have decided to set the bar at £4. I think that the free food will become a bigger proportion of my "earnings" which suits me just fine, since I can't stand waste.