#16 The Coronavirus Saga

I'm losing track of all the free food because it is so constant. I left bread loaves, tiger loaves, baguettes, croissants, apples and limes downstairs for all my neighbours. I brought home mangoes, strawberries and a rump steak! I wasn't sure it would work without a frypan but I broiled it and it was absolutely amazing. I haven't had steak in years and it was such a lovely treat.

Almost by accident I have finally managed to get J a mini fridge. It's almost new and was really cheap, the lady selling it had coronavirus two weeks ago, so I collected from the kerb. She cleaned it with anti-bac and J is cleaning it again with bleach spray (I had sanitiser gel up to my armpits before and after loading it into the car!). He's over the moon at being able to store the milk for his coffee and to eat food that hasn't come out of tins or been bought the same day.

Nothing else of note except that I work non-stop and look out on a flat, empty sea every day, wishing I could be out there in the glorious weather, paddleboarding.

Good Mood. Corona #15

Lovely sunny day, good music on the radio, and looking forward to having dinner with J, of cold chicken, coleslaw and salad. I went in for my last shift today and with half an hour to go, my manager T said "See you tomorrow" - I said, "Will you?" and she winked. Big boss has extended my contract by three more months, so I am over the moon 😊

The "deniers" are out in force at work now. Also the liars (yes I put hand gel on when I came in, yes I read the screen which said 'card only' before I hammered the button to continue). Duh.

My new board game, Hive, is brilliant and another firm favourite to play against J. He will no doubt become much better at it than I will as he had the tactics in play almost immediately.

It's almost Stocktake Time at work and we've begun a deep reorganisation of the entire shop, unearthing about 50 packets of crisps which are all past their "best before" date. J asked to take them home and was told yes - we now each have a stash, and he really made me proud when he chimed "free meal deals!" as he bagged them all up. He had realised that he could fake those £3 meal deals for 30p when he goes to work, by having a free coffee, making toast, and just buying crisps or chocolate in a multipack. And now his lunches will be free for the next month.

Free crisps and bagels: £9.80
Yellow stickers, multi deals, discounts: £7.66

Coronavirus #14: The Big Blah

Feeling pretty blah. I was fairly confident that work would keep me, so I kept asking about that contract... but wish granted, they gave me a new one and it's only for a whopping 6 extra days, meaning it looks like I'll be unemployed in a weeks' time. I knew my job was temporary when I started but I must admit I am pretty down about the fact that the five emergency newbie staff have all had theirs extended for another two months 😢

So, blechhhhh. I don't even have a day to mope about it since I've worked the past eleven thousand days in a row and won't have a day off until the contract is out. This would be my own fault, but I can hardly not take every extra shift available when I half expect to be out of work so soon.

Sigh.

The deliveries are out-of-whack right now with tons of winter soup veg arriving alongside disposable barbecues and grilling kits. The torrent of unsold vegetables is insane. So much of it was given away to staff that I brought a stack home, bagged it all up in small portions and left it in my parlour downstairs with a note for people to help themselves. Most of it was taken within a few hours. It feels nice to save it from going in the bin.

Free food £28.38, not including today's haul.

Self-Solving Problems - Corona #13

MMM said once that if left alone, problems will eventually solve themselves. I've been thinking about that lately and some of them really are horrible self-solving solutions. Like the lack of care places in nursing homes, for frail and elderly people, which will become less of an issue as undertakers work around the clock 😥

Fashion retailers are being hit hard. Debenhams is finally looking at the last nail in the coffin. It was hanging on by a thread when the virus hit, and now its sales will no longer keep it from bankruptcy. Tons of other fashion retailers are biting the dust too, and garment factories are in dire straits with orders being cancelled. People started off shopping online but are quickly running out of money and deciding there is no need to look good when you're not leaving the house.

This is good news, overall, for fast fashion and waste, but having it happen so abruptly is devastating for businesses.

I am hoping, selfishly, that property has been on a bubble which will shortly burst, as it would let me get back into the market. I have the funds ready to go but can't yet do anything about it as there's nothing much for sale. I think about the people who have been close to buying, but have now found themselves with no income and are eating through their carefully-saved deposit money. For me to be fortunate requires others to lose out.

I am hoping that the pressure the NHS is under means that it gets an increase in funding once we get through all this. I hope that politicians remember the fear and worry for their loved ones, and give our medical care the support it needs.

I hope that benefit money will be raised now that more people are discovering how inadequate it really is.

So many hopes.

The Big Shop, Corona #12

So I went out to the Big Shop yesterday after work to take advantage of my discount. And, whoa. People were queued out the door and around the corner and I waited a good 20 minutes even to get in. It was all quite orderly and people kept their distance and I decided people aren't so stupid after all.

Unfortunately I then got inside.

Big blue arrows on the floor are too difficult a concept and people wandered around like idiots in any direction they pleased, into each others' personal space and wherever they fancied. I felt like my little trolley was a shield, as over and over again I had to reposition it to force myself some space from some fool.

And what did I buy? Well I did get the things on my list and I also got a lot that wasn't. But the total went from £40 down to £34 which was really gratifying to see at the till.

I've told myself that this is all I need for the month and I shouldn't need to spend apart from milk. Fruit, veg and bread comes up free at work, my cupboard has plenty of tins and packets, I have a huge pack of loo roll, and my freezer is absolutely chockers with meat and butter. The car is full of fuel.

I don't need to spend. Touch wood.

I'm working for all three public holidays this weekend (penalty rates! £££) and with a spectacular weather forecast we expect the idiots to be out in force and flouting the lockdown...

Coronavirus #11, Fatigue

It is mental fatigue too, and despite a good 12-hour sleep, my patience with idiots wears thin. It's hard not to be on edge at work now as our daily deaths are at the 1,000-mark and people still struggle with the concept of waiting their turn and keeping their distance. I think some of them need to take a bit of a tour through an aircraft hangar filled with coffins.

I need to set aside time to meditate and to recharge my brain.

I've ordered another game from eBay, this one is called Hive and has pretty good reviews. I paid for it with Nectar points since they were lying around unused and might as well be spent. I should also get some points back for it and some cashback.

They're teaching me new things at work, like the setups for systems, the opening and close down procedures, and how to handle price reductions and waste food. It's good to have new responsibilities. I'm still #1 Door Bitch too. Tall Coworker has been promoted to shift leader and is doing an amazing job so there are plenty of things to take on and help out with now that he's busy with new responsibilities.

Assistant boss lady #2 was wondering aloud this morning how on earth she'll ever cover the rota when the newbie contracts all end in ten days' time, so I mentioned the end of mine next week. I'm not one of the true newbies, I was employed as a temporary staffer to cover someone on sick leave unrelated to Coronavirus - but they're immune-compromised so they can't return to work anyway. I've mentioned my contract end date over and over around both bosses but somehow the immininence of it hadn't sunk in until today. I thought she would have kittens. After a while she laughed and said, do you really think we're going to let you go? And I said, well, I don't know if I'll even pass my probation... which was met with another laugh, so I think I'm safe. There is no way they're going to let me go, but I fully expect that fixing a new contract will be a complete pain in the arse. Watch this space.

My loan repayments are deferred by three months, which wasn't strictly necessary but will help with saving a bit more in case I have a chance to pounce on anything. I'm still waiting for the mega-bargain flat to come up for sale...

What To Buy?

So I told myself that when I got my staff card I would make a trip out to the Big Shop to take advantage of the extra discount in the first week of the month. Only I don't actually know what to buy. Thanks to an unbelievable haul today I have no fridge or freezer room (£33.00 worth plus a HUGE bunch of cheerful flowers which is now in two vases). As expected, customers have run out of money & space and abruptly stopped spending, and the amount of waste at work is just criminal 😢

It all means I don't quite know what to get in order to take advantage of the discount. I'll have to remind myself that I do not NEED to spend at all. So I suppose we will just get what J needs and that will be enough.

And maybe also some jam.

March Challenge: Too Tired, Too Lazy

Like the title says, I lost a lot of my enthusiasm this month due to that horrible virus going around and all the extra hours of work I've been doing. I can only make my best guess on the free food and yellow stickers and say that it's probably been around £130.00.
Testable Minds £16.92
Prolific Academic £27.87
HuYu £5.00
Shoppix £5.00
Swagbucks £3.00

Total is £187.79 which is well over target - in fact it's over £5 a day. There are some programmes that are still pending too, so it would have been higher.

While it's been sort of interesting to see if I could achieve it, I'm not sure it is affecting my spending habits anymore, so I won't be continuing with the monthly challenges from here - just the yearly one. I also now have my work discount card which adds even more of a discount - not bad :)