Ehh, Ehh

A large bill is coming up in March, so I am reassured that I have the financial organisation and "space" to make it happen. I'm simultaneously furious that it's so easy to arrange privately, in a timely fashion, via a simple phone call with my private specialist this morning... while the NHS would have me cold in the grave before they'd assist me. Mostly I am furious at our shitty government for letting our health care become such a disaster. Last time I needed something it took ten days to speak with an NHS doctor (some random GP from London) to arrange a prescription for a harmless vitamin. It was so difficult that I just bought it from the supermarket and popped 10 tablets a day instead. Accordingly, I've asked my specialist to send my new prescriptions to me urgently in case it takes me another ten days to speak with a GP again.

The long, long, long-awaited accounts for our building company are... maybe... moving somewhere? Dilemma has finally seemed to get it through her head that we are each owed about £160 by one owner who's in arrears, something we've all asked her over and over about. She will, and I quote, "...pass the information on to the accountant." When that gets fixed I'll have a month of not needing to pay maintenance fees, which will be nice. But considering she is so slow I won't hold my breath waiting.

I have a week of enforced holiday, again. At least this time all my holiday hours are scheduled over four days, so I can pick up overtime shifts for the other three. I just wish they were more decent shifts than four-hour blocks.

Spendy McSpenderson: since I don't know if my car had its last regular service, I have signed up for a service plan, and it will be debited from my bank each month over the next two years, covering a major and a minor service. I will try to book the major service soon. With a car this young, it's important I look after it to retain its value. We'll see whether I have the energy to vacuum it regularly though 😁

I haven't bought food for a week and I am trying really hard to just eat from my kitchen. Tonight I'm making jacket potato with sweet chili chicken on top. There will also be salad, mainly because via some miracle I am still "behaving" and mostly "eating clean" for my health. 👼

Harry Insomnia and the Three Dumb Dreams

1. Pipsqueak (my coworker) fainted on the shop floor. I went with him to A&E to get him checked over. He refused to let them remove his shoes because he needed them for driving home. He does not drive and nor does he have a car.
2. I was an employee of Qantas. My uniform jacket wasn't exactly the right colour. I decided to walk around for a couple of minutes, and I missed the plane to London. There was nobody from Qantas around to ask what I should do, so some airport workers then kindly gave me a chair storage room to use. I was very pleased about that.
3. Two customers seemed to need medical attention so I walked them over to the hospital next door. On arrival I realised the girl was a hospital worker pretending to be seriously ill. The older man then did the same. The staff all laughed, so I screamed at them. I then got a very serious warning from my boss, who was actually my boss from 22 years ago.

This is what happens, apparently, when I have to change my medication. Apparently somewhere in that fog, I transferred too much money onto a credit card, so it was in credit. Oops. I've now got more cash than I expected.

I did show up uninvited on that day off. Good Boss immediately asked me to run service and Blondie was thrilled. I said Bluey should be doing it (an actual trainee) but this was waved off. It went perfectly, because it is an easy job. But now all all three actual trainees are upset - Bluey and Little Fish want practice, and Model is miffed that Blondie only trusts me. So I gave Good Boss and Big Boss a headsup, and they just laughed. 💁 Weird thing: Blondie has told me in private that I have "been discussed" and if I ever applied for a management role elsewhere they would all be "telling that store she is the one they need to hire". I accused him of trying to push me out the door 😆 But anyway, they did listen, because Bluey ran service tonight. Very nervously...

Also spent another afternoon yesterday with Ratty. I had a banging headache all day which ibuprofen and paracetamol did not touch. She got ratty with me at one point for a ridiculous reason, and my response was to tell her I had a headache, which thankfully then allowed me not to speak to her for the last four hours. 😑 Fortunately she was mostly distracted by keeping an eye on Bluey, and I just did anything I wanted for the rest of the shift. 😁 At least today I've woken up without the headache!

Quackalating

This morning I've given my finances a tune-up. Coming to the end of a 0% offer, I've paid that out using the cheapest balance transfer offers that I have. I have also gone through all my cards and set them to pay the minimum each month automatically, so that any spare cash I have can be directed manually onto the most expensive card. 👌

I also checked my monthly expenses, and I will need to do ten hours of overtime each week to meet bills (or earn it through surveys, etc). This is possible at work in theory, but not guaranteed. I will get a small pay rise in April/May but I am looking at when my next transfer offers end (August) and I don't expect any new interest-free deals this year, so I'm applying for part-time cleaning jobs that would fit around my main role.

I'm feeling slightly organised now. And while I don't call the current situation comfortable (rather "survivable") there remains enough (expensive) credit in the tank to think about arranging my trip to Australia soon. I just need to figure out the dates and look at flights.

Frugal/McSpendy: I realised I had two vouchers for Big Supermarket so I drove over to spend them last night, but unfortunately they had less cash left on them than expected so it also cost me £23 in cash. Oh well. I got some food into the house, including a cheeky Chinese fakeaway. 😍 Next week I will try to spend my voucher for Old Favourite supermarket.

The Uneventfulness

The latest exciting frugal events included crotchet for a few hours (it will be a gift), and preparing four salads for work (while eating a delicious sandwich). I even made dinner (and a spare!) plus took a spin on my exercise bike (no more gym membership). I picked up the car mats I'd kept from the 107 which the buyer kindly held for me until I could come back. There's also a new set of hub caps which maybe I'll get around to selling on Facebook Marketplace.

The original Mogwai.
Not the one I work with.

Scrolling through my old posts I suddenly realised: my ankle isn't giving me problems right now! I'd completely forgotten about it. Funny how a week of not running about constantly will allow the body to heal. Nice.

To my vague annoyance our shop is hiring while they are supposedly over budget. I immediately lost any & all guilt for taking a cheeky overtime shift last week. On my day off this week I can see they're down to three staff for the close so I'm just going to show up and help. (One of those three staff is Mogwai the Class Clown and really that means Blondie will only have two useful staff.)

Spendy McSpenderson's Overshare: last week I looked into, er, let's call them Special Ladies' Underwear for hormonal times. These things are generally very expensive but I found some online at less than half the usual price, hoping they wouldn't be rubbish. I am so impressed that I've just bought another five. So, whelp, £50 gone on ten pairs of knickers. But no regrets! 😁

I have submitted an application to be a steward for The Green Gathering festival in August. I really hope that I'm accepted, I would absolutely love to go and this way I would get to go for free in exchange for three half-days of helping out. 👏

Flippity

Because this is me and my ridiculous life, the repair quote for the 107 came back as "beyond economical" as the corrosion was far more extensive than we realised. So, We Buy Any Car has now given me £100.81 to become its new owner. Hey, at least I took the car mats with me. I apologised to Pugsley as I left and the rep promised to "look after Pugsley". 😘 I will also receive another £100 back this week from the insurance.

Stopped in at Rival Discounter on the way home and picked up bargain fish fingers, chicken patties and frozen veg. Also some crisps and juice for work next week. Did not enjoy having to buy plastic bags 😒 nor lug everything onto the bus home, but I have consoled myself by remembering that it should be the last time I need to catch the bus in quite a while.

I am under contracted hours this week for work, as my leave was booked before my contract increase. There's no overtime in January (because this is retail) but I've booked in an overtime shift for Sunday and left a note asking Good Boss not to delete it. Blondie kindly promised to bury my note in paperwork so it would never be found, so I informed him that I'd be showing up and working whether I have permission or not 😁

Finally got my blood test done and result was as expected so for now I can reduce medications, which is a relief. I'll be speaking with them next week on the game plan going forward. 👍

Good accident: I have lost another 2kg. 👍

The Action Week

So I went pottering about in my usual credit reference site and realised I have a pre-approval for a car loan. They've said that before so I didn't believe it, and checked five other sites... four of them agreed that yes, I would get it. It seems I have just hit the magic "three years in current career" and also my new contract has pushed me into a high enough income bracket, both of which lenders like. Long story short I am currently having my loan finalised right now and touch wood will be the proud owner of a lovely little red 2015 SEAT Ibiza. 😍 And I got a very, very acceptable interest rate on it too, which is nice.

First World Problems: I'm not sure I can cope with owning a car that looks this nice.

Why would I do this when I said I would never do car finance? Because I realised that to get all the work done on my 107 within the next decade, I would effectively be paying 25% interest by having that repair sit on a credit card. A car loan is not ideal, but at least now I'll get 3h of my time back each day and I can fix the 107 later, then sell it. Also, this is hire purchase - which is just a normal loan, secured on the car, and at the end of the repayments, you own it.

I did eat my salads. Also my egg risotto. I have the whole week off work (forced!) and intend to do as little as possible. Tomorrow I have a "phone consultation" with a health care assistant, but I am not convinced it will be very useful. Our health care shortage in this country is criminal.

The Salad Didn't Happen

So, remember my day off? I ended up taking my car to the body shop. In Really Bad News™ the rust is far more extensive than I realised, including an actual hole that I can't believe I didn't notice. In better news, at least it wasn't anything that was my fault. In Good News™ (hopefully) the repair, although more involved than I expected, is thought to be less expensive than I had feared.

I take it in on Tuesday for a full quote and I am crossing my fingers. If all goes to plan, £250 will sort the welding out and touch wood I can get the clutch done for another £400. All money that I absolutely do not have, but there is no other option than to sling it onto the lowest-rate credit card, because the bus/walk to work is killing me and beginning to affect my health (not to mention the misery of a 6-10 hour shift while thoroughly damp and with wet shoes and socks, nor the 3/4 hours lost in travel each day, or the expense of buying the bus tickets, or the state of my house after long days and coming home exhausted).

I didn't eat the salad, but I also didn't eat any crisps (I did eat six mini After Eights though). I kept the salads for work, and I've made four meals of egg fried rice with sriracha, which despite being simple is really nice. And it's frugal, too.

I've spent a few hours doing surveys today, not earned a huge amount but it all adds up. I also sorted out the programs I'm on and deleted a couple, and updated my Surveys list on this blog. Plus, I unsuccessfully tried to arrange a doctor's appointment, blood test and prescription (three fails) and have been told to get online tomorrow at 8am to chat with a doctor and he'll "decide" if I can have any of those things. What the hell happened to being allowed to make appointments?

Stabbity: The needle is very fine and doesn't hurt, but the medication stings like a bitch. 

What Did I Just Say

Well, the trip went well overall, but I'm far from pleased at what it cost overall. Firstly the clinic didn't arrange my transfer because I didn't order it correctly 😒 and the stupid cab cost me €30. Then the stupid medications from the stupid pharmacy cost me a stupid amount of money. And I am unimpressed at what they are, including Heparin (blood thinner) as I am at high risk right now of thrombosis (blood clots). And yes, it's by injection. Every day.

Yay! It's a good thing I'm not squeamish and I've managed a self-injection once before.

Well-deserved day off tomorrow, after returning absolutely shattered from my flight and coach home. I didn't even do anything remotely enjoyable and the accommodation could be best described as "spartan" with a bed so ridiculously soft that I got very little rest. I plan to lie about tomorrow and maybe watch a film, in between eating crisps and After Eight mints and leftover Christmas chocolate truffles. Don't worry, I'll make it all ok by having a salad for dinner. 😇

The Small Win

My hard work over Christmas has paid off with a contract increase at work. It is small, but it came from money they don't have, so it's definitely a kindness 😃 I also have to take some holiday in late January, so I plan for a do-nothing week of relaxation. Can't afford to go anywhere with it but I'll attempt to earn money with surveys while I am home.

Plus, I can do with a week away from Ratty, who has been really ratty lately and just unpleasant in general to work with. I don't know what's up her arse, but it's being taken out on everyone else.

Another medical travel expedition is coming next week, which will be tiring but should be otherwise unremarkable and routine. The flights, transfers and accommodation are paid for (around £200) and all I should have to pay for is three days' worth of food. I'm planning to raid my kitchen and take lots of snacks that I already have.

Bargain: packet of chicken for 5p. 🍗

Spendy McSpenderson: I spent £6 of my Testable Minds earnings on a Rev Comps raffle ticket, on a ticket to win a car. Or maybe two tickets. And I also maybe plan to buy another two as soon as my last study pays out (hopefully tomorrow while the cheap ticket is still on sale for the small car I liked). Because, you know, I really need a working car. 🚗

Frugalistic Times

• Actually using my exercise bike - no more gym payments ✓
• Heater off most of the day ✓
• Checking the "free" listings on Marketplace ✓
• Eating my leftovers ✓
• Giving up coffee ✓
• Completing surveys for cash ✓
• Making lunch for work ✓
• Using my clothes airers ✓
• Cooking actual dinners ✓
• Playing games I already own ✓
• Watching free tv ✓

What I haven't achieved: vacuuming my living room, sorting my clean clothes, or finishing the living-room-tidy that I've been meaning to tackle for weeks. Oh well, I'm a work-in-progress 😀

I also started a baby blanket for my co-worker who's due in ten weeks. After that I'll have another one to finish for co-worker #2 who's due three weeks after. I feel a yarn shopping expedition coming on!

So Much Of Nothing

I have survived Christmas and New Year (the latter was spent asleep, since I deserved it). It was a peaceful time where I mostly just thought about the year ahead and what I hope for.

Work has been ok, I'm a little bit frustrated that Blondie is struggling, and he is also struggling to let me help him. Newbie Mogwai constantly messes about during Blondie's shifts, since Blondie doesn't like confrontation. But he's friendly, so I'm reminding him that you don't get more hours or pay until you're actually impressing people.

This month I have a couple of annoying medical things to sort and stupid paperwork. Unfortunately I also dropped the ball on my tax bill (£600) and I completely forgot it was coming. Plus I have a 0% credit offer that's ending (£1,000). At exactly the time that I won't get any overtime hours from work and would've liked to get my car fixed 😔

Achievements: I have cut caffeine down massively, to two half-caf cups a day. Hoping to be down to none in a week's time. Also, since the bus drops me outside Cheap German Supermarket, I'm much better at having lunch fixings in my house.

Bargains: A pack of cooked sausages plus two roast chicken dinners, 9p each. Yes thanks.

Challenges: to continue to get the bus, perhaps for another month. It's craptastic to arrive at work wet through and to spend 3h a day just travelling, but it's helping me hit 20,000 steps a day, so that's something.

Spendy McSpenderson: a large chopping board to place over my oven hobs for a little bit of bench space (£4). Having moved my food spending all onto one card, I've unfortunately realised I spend about £140 a month. Unfortunately, this is reality for 2023...