Verdict

I am here today to tell you all about the alternatives to having fresh milk in your coffee. I have researched these so that you don't have to. You're welcome.

UHT long-life milk: acceptable in coffee, tastes a bit odd, but acceptable

Powdered milk: if we are talking about skim powdered milk used in double strength, this is even better than UHT. Whole powdered milk tastes funny due to the cream

Coconut milk: acceptable (requires a LOT of milk to reach acceptable standard)

Almond milk: completely unacceptable

Don't get me wrong, almond milk is quite drinkable on its own and tastes fine. But in coffee, it leaves it looking mostly black even when half the cup is milk, and it then tastes like bitter black coffee with weirdness in it. I'm not even a crazy fan of coconut flavour but coconut milk, somehow, is nice.

In other news, despite having a week off work, almost no surveys have appeared on Prolific Academic, it is very, very slow. I'd love to say students are on holidays but I think realistically it's just become too popular with people wanting to do surveys.

New app on my phone named Streetbees. No idea if it's any good but if it turns out useful I will review it!

Counting down to home ownership. Thirty days to go. Maybe. I hope.

Today I Did A Thing

As I've just joined two new cash-for-receipts programmes (ZipZero and Storewards) I have updated my cool page-thingy with info on how to make money from your receipts. Clicky here to get all the info.

Does this mean I will faithfully upload all my receipts everywhere, on time? Oh dear reader of course not, I am still the same old lazy bum who procrastinates endlessly. I did manage to do my laundry on my day off, and wash up, and eat lunch rather than just binge on crisps. Small things, right?

Took my vitamins today ✓ look at me adulting like a boss!

Still on my list of stuff to do is endless shift leader training. I'm slightly irritated that I'm not being paid for this. I should be, but I realise it's something not worth rocking the boat over.

I had a £5 voucher from LIDL which has now expired... I would have to have spent £25 to get it and there was simply not £25 worth of groceries that I need. I have a full freezer and a full fridge, plus cleaning products, toiletries, washing detergent and softener coming out my ears. #firstworldproblems indeed. Oh well, I probably would have come home with novelty socks, an angle grinder and a set of maracas.

Same problem, different flavour: my new bank account which requires 30 transactions per month to net me a £5 bonus. I don't go shopping 30 times a month and can't figure out what to buy.

These are the first world problems of a non-spender!

Mood: artificial orange flavour.

Disgusting Snot Face

Predictably, not long after my blood sugar crash thing, I started feeling that my nose wasn't right, and today I am in full-blown headcold mode. I've had to undo my overtime for today and I have already called in sick for tomorrow as well. I don't think this is coronavirus (no cough apart from when I inhale my green snot) so I am not worried, just thoroughly unimpressed at my stuffed up nose and losing days of work.

It's a little bit disturbing, because I have definitely picked this up from my work colleagues - despite being careful, we have all done enough to have caught and spread a virus among ourselves and this time we are just lucky that it's only a cold.

I have been bored enough to empty and defrost my freezer. Due to me shoving it brim-full one evening, a tiny pocket of air was getting in, which started an escalating cycle of icing up around the door, making it harder and harder to close and letting in more air and ice. Iced up freezers run far less efficiently and cost money. Also, I'm astounded at what was actually in this tiny freezer, none of which I paid a penny for:

• 3 rump steaks, 2 gammon steaks, 2 chicken breasts
• 2 pizzas
• 2 trays of chicken mini roasts with sausages and stuffing balls
• pack of fish goujons
• 7 packs of butter and a half-pack of buttersoft
• 2 packs of goat's cheese
• 24 chipolata sausages
• 2 packs chicken goujons (one is hot & spicy)
• cooked sliced chicken breast
• pack of bacon
• chopped onions, spinach, green beans
• hash browns

I mean, that is an insane amount of frozen food and this could be at least 30 dinners. Half of it was too difficult to reach easily so here was me thinking I only had half a dozen dinner options! Not to mention there's an ice box compartment above my fridge which is brim-full of more vegetables.

I'm going to cook one pizza today as they've been on the "too hard" list for ages (needing to cut them up to fit them in my oven) and it's really not a great idea to keep food forever instead of using it up. Plus, it's really nice to feel organised, and the amount of space that just one pizza has freed up has taught me a valuable lesson... I need to stop hoarding pizzas 😁

Postscript: I put my symptoms into the Covid-19 tracker, including the cough, even though I don't really think it counts as a cough. Fifteen pages of questions, email verification, far too much in the way of collecting private data (I think the average user would fail to even get through it all) concluding with a message that they'll credit check me with TransUnion to confirm my identity.

Fuck right off. You'll do no such thing. I have zero interest in my current temporary address going onto my credit history.

This means I can't have a home postal test, there are no local test centre appointments and the nearest drive-in centre is more than two hours' drive. I was told to isolate for ten days and this would mean no income for ten days.

End result is I uninstalled the app, no Covid-19 test for me and I'm going back to work as soon as I stop sniffling. What a complete and utter bullshit farce. No wonder it's spreading across the country.

Delicious Snack Boxes

...are no longer delicious. I'm over them completely. But for half marks I am attempting to keep at them with different contents. I am currently drinking day-over milk in my coffee and when it dies an undrinkable death, it will be "switch to UHT milk" time to use up what's in the cupboard. I am grateful for all the free cashews I have in the snack stash because they make snack boxes endurable.

Work Bestie, answering the phone to Sister Store, told them I don't want their overtime because I'm already working at Home Store today. I tried not to show irritation. I went straight over to sister store when I finished work, apologised for the "misunderstanding", and ended up working until close. It was even with my favourite crew whom I adore working with. I see bestie's point, he thought I was exhausted and knew we struggle to fill shifts because people are busy elsewhere, but I can't be saying no to the extra hours right now with these kinds of bills. I will have very little left each month after my repayments and that does not make for a cushy budget.

Neighbour From Hell was a triple team this weekend, it was his weekend with his bratling. Honestly a single room isn't meant to host three humans and I shouldn't have to listen to it through paper walls... this is my life. But I am counting down the days and this shall pass.

Weird: due to the whack timing of my payday, I got £96 for Universal Credit. I (again) don't think I'll get anything next month, but whether I do or not, it will probably be the last because (touch wood) I will then be able to tell them that I no longer have rent to pay. The loss of the rent component will take my allowance down so low that even my measly contracted work hours would reduce any UC payment to zero - for every pound earned you lose 63 pence of UC. I wonder how many MPs would be ok with an effective tax rate of 63% for working as a supermarket checkout operator? Seems equitable, doesn't it... tax the living fuck out of the absolute poorest of society. Punitive measures which work so well at enticing the unemployed to get out and find a job (sic).

Currently eating peri-peri chicken crisps for breakfast (free) with plans for mango and crumpets as snacks and crackers, salsa and chicken for dinner... possibly with green beans (all free). One perk of living alone is that if you want to eat weird dinners, you can!

Dinner for a day

Chicken with peri sauce, grape cherry tomatoes, brussels sprouts ♥

I am wiped out. I decided to take a nap on my day off and the sun crept into my window, overheated me, and I awoke with my blood sugar on the floor and sweating my brain out. I still feel revolting four hours later, but at least I'm not shaking like a leaf anymore and at least it's my day off.

I am watching old episodes of Property Ladder and I just saw Sarah Beeny saying that paying a 10% home deposit with a credit card is madness... I have to wonder what she would think of someone like me whose property effectively has a CC deposit and the "mortgage" is a mixture of savings and an 11% p.a. personal loan 😂

Still, it is a calculated risk and unlike the developers that she works with, I am not (currently) planning a large renovation, nor relying on either rental income or a resale profit.

I forgot how much I love this show ♥

Wartime Preparations

In view of the fact that my debt repayments are about to go through the roof, think it's high time that I took my food spending seriously. I have an enormous perk with my job and that's of free food. I can easily get hold of all the bread, fruit, vegetables and snack foods that I need, and as long as I'm careful to strike while the iron is hot, I can also get enough free protein, which comes in a "feast or famine" pattern (for example, I might get three rump steaks and two boxes of chicken on one day and then there's nothing for another five days).

So why on earth does a card-carrying frugalist do things like buy a meal deal for her lunch at work? It's quite frankly disgusting. (Not the meal, because to be honest the mango smoothie is amazing, but you get my drift.) Every man and his dog knows you can eat cheaper than that, and when the cheaper would be "free" I am just throwing money away.

Self-brownie points.

Anyway. I have just assembled five lunchy-snack-boxes for this week. Each of them has a small carb snack, nuts, some dried fruit, and a couple of little chockies. On my ten-hour shift days they also have a Belvita soft bake, which are awesome and which were also free. My workplace always has free bread and fruit, so there's really no need for anything else. Plus I can certainly do without bacon sarnies and wraps dripping with mayo.

I have also resolved to do better with breakfast. There's plenty of cereal here and even some "on the go" porridge bars. They're almost as awful as the Soreen bars in my snack boxes, but they fill the stomach.

I am much more confident that I'll eat the snack boxes than whether I'll actually stick to a breakfast routine... we shall see.

Behaving: I have run out of coke and not bought any more. I'm waiting until pay day but let's see whether I can wait longer.

Accepted!

Cautiously excited! Also scared. Also internally singing. They have to announce my successful offer by public notice and allow five days for anyone wanting to gazump me. So I'm going to sweat for five days, at which point I will relax back a bit into mere stress. 

Then I'll be on don't-spend alert.

I've just eaten a free chicken pasta (it's not very nice but it was free) with some free salad and I'm drinking free coffee and contemplating some free fruit. I had cereal for breakfast then stuck to my freebie snack box today, felt starving and ate a free donut. I told a friend this evening that I might spend all my leftover cash on a can of coke for Christmas!

I Made An Offer

of £40K. The agent got "some" figures from the management company - I'm not really sure which one is the slower communicator here - indicating that I'd be up for about £4-5k in a cash call. So I made my offer. There is another offer on the table from yesterday, which I'm told is slightly higher, but they are in a chain. The agent says that makes me the (perhaps) better offer.

I now have to show him proof of funds, so I've spent the afternoon moving money about and thanks to stupid Covid the banks were closed early, so I'm off to deposit a cheque tomorrow and do a bit more cash money moving.

I should hear back from the agent by Friday or Monday on whether my offer has been accepted, touch wood. Even if it's a yes, there's a big danger of gazumping here if a chain-free moneybags turns up, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it (read:cry).

My current landlord told me they were coming today to bleed the radiator. She didn't show up. She's a nice enough person but if I manage to buy that flat, I'm going to conveniently not tell her I've bought a place of my own. I'm just going to indicate that I'm moving (with plenty of notice) and that living next to Hell Woman was hell. I feel sorry for the lady in flat 6 and whoever next rents my place and I feel like they deserve a bit of peace!

Upcoming: truly spending nothing. I am initiating myself tonight by eating a pie from the freezer with a salad which is two days past date. I've already had a croissant and grapes this morning, and a chicken wrap for lunch. Total spend: nothing. I have a full freezer, a full cupboard, and long-life milk. I can behave. It's almost a proper challenge.

Scared. Excited. Impatient. Hopeful.

Coronavirus Revisited

So it never really went away, but I suppose we have been lulled into a false sense of security. We finally have the Covid-19 app. It eats your battery non-stop. I've had it installed for a week and it lit up for the first time last night, advising that I'd been in contact with someone who has tested positive.

That's it. No advice on what I should do, no indication where this was, when it was, or who it was.

Ten minutes of googling indicates that it isn't even a genuine notification. Great. I have a useless battery-sucker on my phone. I can't wait for next time.

Something new and different: my arsehole neighbours are still arguing, screaming day and night, waking me up, and keeping me up, and they still reek of pot. Yay. Neighbour three-doors-away and I got chatting this afternoon and he's going to put in another complaint. You know it's bad when it annoys someone through three walls.

My Extra Cash For September

PA £14.86

I am sure I am missing one other payout and I can't remember what it was. But either way it's clear my motivation is lacking! I have hit 42 hours this week and I will admit to being exhausted. I still love my job but I'm frustrated with corporate types which have completely blocked my manager from employing extra staff when it is 100% clear they are needed - in theory, eight checkout operators is all we need, but in reality six of them are inflexible and refuse to work any overtime. End result is that only two of us will fill all the missing shifts and the problem is replicated in other stores, so they're all desperately trying to poach us for their own missing shifts.

Eh.

I have just spoken to the agent selling not-right ground-floor studio (45K asking price which SSTC for 54, then fell through, then SSTC for 45). It is back on the market for the third time, this flat has fallen through twice. He admitted that the roof problem, which I've known about for a year, is why the last SSTC fell through. When I first viewed the building a year ago (different flat) the leaking roof had ruined a newly-renovated top-floor flat and pulled down the ceiling in the flat below. Another resident in the building told us that the whole building is freezing cold in winter and the roof repair was going to be very expensive, with a cash call for every flat in the building.

The agent unfortunately has been given no cost figures by the property's management team and thus the last seller pulled out. He even let slip that they had offered 45K, learned of the roof problems then offered £40 and it had been rejected. These are useful figures for me to know.

It is in a truly lovely area and a short walk to the beach. On a regular sale taking around three months, I can meet the asking price, but I'd be inclined to offer the same 40K if I don't know the roof cost. He's going to keep me in the loop.

Free from sister store: five bunches of flowers (I already have a bunch here so I put them out for my neighbours).