It's Not Ham

So in my pickup for Olio was a pack of vegan Quorn not-ham slices, and I figured it was worth a go. To my surprise, they actually taste pretty similar to ham, being perhaps just a tad less salty. They even got the texture right. Tearing the slices goes the same way as tearing ham. Not a bad effort.

I was making my dinner anyway (a potato with baked beans and pre-new-year cheese) so I thought I would chuck some of the not-ham on. Warmed up, it's just a tad less appetising, so I picked the not-ham out and ate it first. In future I think it may be reserved for sandwiches and salads. And it's quite expensive, so maybe also reserved for when it's free.

I can't believe this is a thing, but I am looking forward to buying milk tomorrow. I can stomach black coffee just fine, but I actually wanted to eat cereal this morning and while I am reliably told that apple juice is nice on corn flakes, I fear it will just be a bit much on the Crunchy Nut variety. I may even walk to the shop instead of driving. May.

Currently: trying to find the motivation for job-searching. My blistering power bill is somewhat of a cattle prod in that department.

Idle thought: since I got a free six-month Britbox subscription when I upgraded my phone plan, I have been religious in watching something every night before bed. My twisted brain has realised that since I turn off the heating and snuggle up in bed to do so, It would probably save me money to actually pay for the subscription once the freebie expires 😂

Let's see when I run out of things to watch. Tonight: Broadchurch.

HAUL!

And by haul, these days, if I get a fiver's worth of useful free food in my Olio pickup, it's a haul. There were two huge bin bags' worth of stuff to collect. There are still three crates sat in my patio for anyone to help themselves to.

Honestly I was just so excited to get some fruit, salmon and vegies. I will think about that salmon while I am drinking my last can of energy drink tomorrow morning - yes I've run out of coconut milk and forgot to buy any kind of coffee-whitening product while I was at the shop.

Unsuccessful for the local supermarket job. No reason, no communication, I just logged in to the website and saw I didn't get it. I've sent an email to the store manager asking for feedback. I really hope it was either a mistake or the role didn't go ahead. I don't really want to imagine that they said no to me on purpose.

I also enjoyed a lovely visit with the job coaches at Universal Credit. To my surprise she was quite nice and didn't tell me off for resigning. She has booked a longer session for a few weeks' time, but I'm hoping not to need it.

Forgot to mention: a new cashier has started this week at Old Job. Annoying Face was beaming all over her skull at how she was training the newbie up to be a manager after one week in the job. 😂 And not only that, she is training Clown. Clown is essentially a nice kid, but exactly as his name indicates, he mucks about and does as little work as possible. No matter what you give him to do, you turn around and there's Clown, just standing doing nothing, or playing about on his phone instead of working.

At first I wondered if AF is just exhausted, and trying to train every person around her how to do all her tasks so that she can stop exhausting herself. But then I remembered this is AF, and there is no point applying logic. Boss Lady will never promote Clown and probably won't consider the newbie either, so you'd think no harm done, but unfortunately both of those kids now think they are going places 😒

I suppose it's a good life lesson for them?

Chicagotown Fully Loaded Vegan Pizza

No.

This concludes my detailed review.

Cashew Milk Verdict

Well, I have found an acceptable dairy substitute which actually works in coffee! It suffers the same issue as coconut milk does (you need half your cup to be milk) but I am drinking my coffee right now without feeling either weirded-out or deprived. It feels lovely and creamy too. Slight drawback is that it settles. If you're slow at drinking your cuppa, like I am, you'll find a weird nut sludge at the bottom of your cup.

Would I use it permanently? Not at this price I'm afraid. But for a vegan milk sacrifice, it's the best one so far.

Olio pickup: same old thing, very lacking in cold products, and no protein. I stashed some potato salad, a mini loaf of bread, some pastries, some salad, some brussels sprouts. No fruit again apart from limes. I really don't have a good use for those unless I make cordial or start necking Gin and Tonic.

Still no answer on the temporary supermarket job! This is getting old. My own job is still advertised and I am starting to wonder if local manager is silently applying professional courtesy to my old manager in case I apply back there. I cba with this kind of silly game. If old manager wants to talk she should pick up the phone. She knows where I am.

The 25p Punt

So I went and did my shopping to use those vouchers. Went to a sister store so as not to be stared-at by my colleagues, but of course the vouchers wouldn't work because I went through the self-scan... which meant my plan to stay incognito was a fail. I also managed to go in wearing a Competitor Logo'd Facemask and Competitor Reusable bags, so I looked like an utter twat the whole time! They were lovely though and gave me free chocolate coins. Those are not vegan, but they were free, so.

Ah well, came away with 30-odd pounds' worth of shopping for a fiver, so that worked out ok. Included in my purchases was a 22p baguette and a massive 25p tub of rice salad. It's bizarre-tasting but edible. Also I got some cashew milk for 95p.

There were quite a few things I wanted but made myself leave behind due to the dairy content, particularly yoghurt as vegan yoghurt was expensive. I did buy a vegan pizza, and some not-chicken pieces. 

Not going to lie, Freeganuary has been incredibly easy for me but that's mostly due to the stuff I already had in my kitchen. I would have been incredibly resentful to go the whole month with only vegan food. I think once February kicks in, I will go mostly-vegetarian as my compromise. 

Health update: Although it wasn't a big shop (one trip to get it all inside) the physical act of pushing the trolley around the store, scanning my stuff, loading and unloading my car... I am wiped out and exhausted. 

Today: resigned. HR manager was very kind. They tried really, really hard to keep me. I teared up a bit, but I can't expect them to completely restructure the role in order to keep me, and I just don't want all the other roles they offered. I'm just not feeling it with this place at all. Never say never, but not right now.

Modern Musings

Today, being unwilling to waste an hour filling a bath, I decided to take the plunge (or not-plunge) and just use the shower. Long story short, I have a too-hot, unadjustable, head-disconnected fountain hose, and got water all over the floor for good measure. Unsurprisingly I've just broken my Freeganuary pledge again and spent a few pounds on eBay to rectify the lack of a curtain.

But after all that, it was nice to get clean in ten minutes flat 😂

Today: actually blowing that Freeganuary pledge out of the water, as I spend £20 of vouchers I was given for Christmas. Perhaps I can be kind on myself, and say it's not, because the vouchers were free and I haven't been shopping for three weeks. The hard part will be staying vegan in my purchases. I will also need to spend a few actual pounds of money in order to get change for the coin-operated washing machines.

Dinner: something involving the chipolata sausages defrosting in my fridge (£0.00). I am thinking a casserole with carrots and potatoes. My senses of taste and smell are still not quite right, so I'm not feeling very adventurous just yet.

I did actually apply for the temporary cashier role at Old Supermarket Chain, in my nearest store. They haven't replied yet.

Goodies from another Olio'er: chicken wraps, spinach & feta pastries, and a chocolate-chip cookie dough dessert... thing. I still don't know what it was and I've nuked and eaten it already. I think it was ok? The supermarket seemed to think it's worth £3.00 so I guess they're popular 😂

On A Good Day

On a good day I manage about £15.00 worth of surveys done. But it's a bit mind-numbing. Realistically I am far too lazy. Over the past week I've earned about £100.00 in between reading the news, playing games and watching telly. At least it was a satisfying chunk that I withdrew from PayPal. There are also several other chunks ready which can only be withdrawn into specific retailers rather than as cash.

The maths stacks up, I could go back to being a part-time cashier 20h per week and still cover bills. Or I could go back to it only 10 hours per week, and put some dedication into surveys and still cover bills. I think I prefer it that way. I want to have more time to myself, so I've resolved to work harder at feeding myself for free as much as I can.

I also have pots of money all over the place that I'm not using as best I could. I have Nectar points, a few Co-op points, several supermarket gift cards, and one of my credit cards is actually in the black. I've made a list of the six locations of this "cash" and so far, I have used £50 in filling up my car with fuel (from that credit card). Next on my hit list is Own Supermarket Chain, as I have to spend it before I resign... and then I will tackle Old Supermarket gift vouchers. The challenge is on to see how long I can go without actually dipping into my bank account.

Unexpected: the whack timing of my pay days between the two employers means I get £96 from Universal Credit. My latest pay from work has just missed the cut-off, so next month my UC will be wiped down to nothing even though it was mostly sick pay and is about 60% of what it would be in a normal month. Such a ridiculous system. While I certainly won't say no to the UC money, the idiotic strict monthly cycle just does not match up with real world employers and it's disturbing how often the balance swings in the wrong direction - there will have been times I should have got some and got none, and for some people that would mean not eating.

Good/Bad: I have "upgraded" my mobile phone plan for the new price of less money per month. I'm really pissed off that these clowns kept taking the higher price while offering a lower price to new customers AND they jacked up the price mid-contract. They cancelled my old Ikea staff discount 😭 but even so I've saved £2 a month plus get six months BritBox and 60Gb extra data. Why do I stay with this hideously-expensive provider? Because they have the best coverage where I am and the internet doesn't drop out. Sigh.

Not As Expected

My Olio collection. No chilled items at all. I came away with two bags of pears, a baguette and some pastries. I considered it such a skint collection that I even kept the Soreen bars which I don't even like. I suppose it was worth the few pounds of fuel but only just, and I can think of better weekly highlights than making small talk with Annoying Face, especially when Poppet wasn't there as I had expected her to be.

I suppose I will have to put more effort into checking other peoples' listings each night, although they very rarely put chilled items up, and proper protein turns up even less often. Tonight the only things I saw were a vegan wrap and some falafel, both of which I would have happily eaten but neither of which were worth driving for.

The hunt is on for another evening collection.

One more day to decide whether I apply to work at the nearest branch of Old Supermarket.

Stop Press: Absolutely gobsmacked to have received a call from Podengo market research (not an affiliate link - I don't get anything if you click/join). I don't even remember signing up for this - it must have been years ago - but I routinely just ignored their emails as they're only "traditional" market research meaning you apply and then have to wait and see if you're selected. Well, I filled in a couple of forms and I've been selected! 2h zoom call coming this week about tv viewing habits, and £50 for the trouble. Not bad!

The World Turns

I got out of the house yesterday and walked around the block, then had a bath. I'm not sure which one did me in, but that was it for the day, all energy gone. Still, I am calling it a victory that I got around the block.

I've depleted a lot of my fresh stuff, and have kind of determined to make this a no-spend January. I accidentally messed it up by buying a cooking thermometer for £3.00 off eBay, and there was no choice but to buy fuel tonight. But nothing else has been bought. This is Veganuary for me with a twist - Freeganuary. I will eat meat and meat products but not buy them. Wasting them would be even worse, an animal giving this to us and we just bin it...

So far, so good. There is a pack of bacon in my fridge defrosting for tomorrow and I will eat it with the goodies I picked up from Olio tonight from another collector: potato salad, a green salad, and cherry tomatoes from my fridge. I also got myself a baguette and a pack of bread rolls, which I'll freeze. And a bonus tzatziki plus some mini apple pies 😍 Tomorrow is my own pickup, so I hope the universe presents me with some milk and fruit. I am currently using up my store of long-life milk, which is neither tasty nor economical. Going forward, I'll try coconut milk again. And maybe rice milk. Watch this space.

Weird: workmen turned up yesterday and spent the entire day hacking the whole front hedge back. None of the directors know anything about this, nobody authorised or requested it, so we think we just got a freebie 😂

Roof is nearly finished! Just needs the skylights, new guttering, and the top section cleaned and painted. Cross fingers. At least this part is coming out of our existing funds. My latest pay was better than expected though, which means I won't have any problems for the foreseeable.

Must've Been Me

The leak that is, well not me, but my cylinder. Since it's been isolated and turned off, the puddle has ceased to be a puddle and is now a wet patch of carpet which stubbornly stays wet due to the neighbours stubbornly closing the front door every time I stubbornly try to air the hallway.

To be fair I haven't tried many times as I've been isolating due to Covid. I didn't have a severe case, but my dawg it is lingering and driving me insane. Tomorrow is Freedom Day and I intend to visit a supermarket, just not my own since that would be weird while still on sick leave. My sick leave is legit, since I am still coughing, sound awful, am breathless and I'm as weak as a kitten, but if I don't leave this flat I will go bananas.

My electric shower, while Not Great, does work. I can live with that. I could afford to get the cylinder replaced straight away (or even get a better shower) but I'm still pondering the money situ and what I want to do first. 

Good: permanent weekly pickup from my old store. Sadly it is an evening when I am very likely to see Annoying Face instead of Work Bestie.

Unexpected: that Annoying Face continues to call and text me when she needs help with things. I now wonder whether AF somehow thinks that we are... friends. Why? I don't think I like this idea.

Lovely: that the others call me for help now and then. One called me tonight for help with the coffee machine, one called me for help locking the sticky door, one texts and calls every now and then to try to convince me to return. They've advertised my role three times now and still can't fill it. But even so I am not sure Boss Lady would want me back, as she would probably say that I hadn't put proper effort in for my last few months there, and I'd only want back if I knew I had two cashiers with me on each shift. Strongly tempted to go back not to Old Supermarket but in a sister store, and only part-time, as a mere cashier. With a firm resolve not to run shifts, unless they'd care to pay me a premium. We'll see.

How To Save

This is really what the world has come to - we now have an entire science of teaching people how to save money. I can remember as a kid my mother would send me to school every Wednesday with 20c in a small folder, when the Banking Lady would come to our school. She would write down the new total in my passbook and I would see that amount growing, stashed away somewhere in a big building called The Bank. Well-intentioned (and forming a good habit) but since I, personally, hadn't saved that money or avoided spending it in the lead-up to Wednesday morning, I am not sure that it taught me how to save.

All of these "how to" guides seem to have the same issue. They all have different methods of dealing with your money (from the envelope system, to the snowball system, to everything in between) and portioning up your earnings into different places based on priorities. Or stashing spare change, or using an app to round up. All well and good. But they have a fundamental baseline, and that is, they assume that you don't know where your money is going. That you'll suddenly, once you have a system, discover the loose change (or the spare money for rounding up) and that the extras will go into a special place for either paying down debt or saving for a rainy day. That it's not a problem of inadequate money, just a problem of lost money.

The focus is wrong.

We shouldn't be learning how to save. We should be un-learning how to spend.

The good news is, there is more support than there used to be. We have many growing movements. People who want to protect the environment, people who love tiny houses, minimalists, people who want to spend less, we can all learn small things from one another. You don't need to become a crazy hippie who knits their own oat milk and goes barefoot all year round. (Although oat milk is really cheap to make, if it takes your fancy.)

So, the secret of how to save? Focus on not spending. I am a work in progress myself!

A Tad Stressed.

Really what's bugging me most is that I already know I've 99% decided not to stay in this job, I just can't calculate when I can afford to leave and how much I can put up with and for how long. Also, I don't know what to tell them as my reason. Pain? Boredom? Fear? Or just a general non-committal "I don't think this is the right fit for me"? I am also gutless, in that I decided to tell them but only got as far as a general chat about the direction for my role, which of course meant they reassured me and made me feel like it was too mean to leave just yet.

And then the following day they've Made Moves™, arranged someone to mentor me for several weeks, and now it'd be just so incredibly rude for me to jump ship. My feet are killing me (this is not new, but the pain is so all-consuming that it just keeps floating to the top of my consciousness). The only reason I haven't #painquit already is some vague hope that if I would just lose a bit of weight I would not be in such agony, and therefore, quitting because my feet hurt would be stupid?

Adding to my stress levels is the dead hot water cylinder. There's also a leak somewhere, probably me (but 4m away so completely unsure) and I will need to get a plumber in. Except, they're unavailable or not getting back to me. Great timing.

AND THEN! Positive lateral flow test, cough, fever. PCR is booked for tomorrow and it's an hour away. Does it get better than this?

Maybe. After my isolation to get over this stupid Covid, maybe I'll just not go back.