I Am Enduring

Four days left of main job. I'm feeling a little bit sluggish, so the timing is right. And I only have a week at job #2 before that one finishes too.

New Programme's (fun) game has tracked. This is good news, and I completed it in only two days, too. I'll make sure they pay me the £43 and then add the site to my Surveys page. I have a day off work tomorrow and I might just start another high-paying game - but I'll do my research first to make sure it's one I think I can complete, and I'll check which survey site pays the best amount for it. Reason being is that there are a few high-paying games which REALLY don't look like I will enjoy them at all, so I want to make sure they're worthwhile for me 😁

I have one growing pepper on my "snack pepper" plant (the only other one has a deep scar in it which was there when I bought it). I have about a dozen tomatoes growing, they seem to be taking FOREVER and are bigger than I expected, but that's not a bad thing. The lettuce is still looking healthy, although to nobody's surprise I have mostly lost interest in eating it. I'm still picking blackberries every few days. The courgette plant, which I bought by mistake, died in week one because it was stinking hot and someone (me) forgot to put it in the shade while it established. Oops. I still haven't organised myself to go collect apples next door, but perhaps after my antenatal appointment in the morning I'll have an uncharacteristically-clever moment and get out there to look.

Spendy McSpenderson: I am not overall huge by any means, but I'm thinking forwards to when I actually become the size of a house and my biggest shirts no longer fit. So I went into the charity shop beside work today hoping to find, especially, a huge nightie, for hospital. I did not find any nighties at all, but I did find six tees in larger sizes and a nice tunic top dress thing, for a total of £21. I still have a gift card balance for Primark so I might go in and buy a couple of big sized leggings to go with the shirts. #NeedMotivation

Favourite Maternity Jeans are hanging on for dear life - they're under-belly ones and now struggle to stay up without a waist to cling to - and forcefully pulling them up is uncomfortable, because baby responds by lying crossways above the tight waistband, poking her bony head and bum into my sides and ribs, which is just as annoying as it sounds. I'm tumble-drying my over-belly huge jeans with the idea that I can shrink the belly-covering part enough to not feel like I have pulled my trousers up to my armpits. I'll be honest though, I don't hold much hope 😁

Cashed out: Another £8 on SwagBucks, £5 on Prolific.

The Usual Mistake

Essentially, going into a supermarket without a mental shopping list. I then decided that I was sick of denying myself ordinary food and I came out with almost £50 of shopping - and I really didn't buy any truly "indulgent" foods. I don't consider the bottom-shelf varieties of snack food to be indulgent, and there really weren't any brand names in my things, either. I suppose I've lived on quasi-rations for so long that I just snapped? Here's hoping I have a few weeks of satiety via the few "nice" items that came home with me, like a "deluxe" frozen spinach & cauliflower pie and a four-pack of budget ice cream cones.

The upstairs-and-across-the-hall neighbours and their music... this has been ongoing for several weeks now. Owner #8 can't watch tv because the maximum volume on his tv doesn't drown out Tenant #4's music. I could feel their music inside my car with all the windows up. Last night at midnight, Tenant #5 was belting on the door for ten minutes before they answered. By this time there were also me and Tenant #6 from upstairs, and we got a mouthful of abuse about "he already knows he can't disturb us". Nasty letter has now been sent to the owner, and Owner #8 told him to get these guys removed. Let's see what comes of it all. Ain't no way I want to get a newborn to sleep with my windows shaking.

Dinner: blackberries, grapes, ice cream cone, steak pie, mini bag of crisps 😁

Joined: new money making programme as it seems to have high-paying offers for games. We shall see if it's worth reviewing. Still playing the yawnworthy trashy bingo game, it has tracked at least (good sign) but it remains to be seen whether I have the patience to keep going much longer.

Cashed out: £20 on InboxPounds and £8 on SwagBucks, both for playing games.

Yeah And No

So work has gone back to giving me the same exact task every minute of every shift. I'm cramping up at night and sleeping terribly, and I think this is why. I don't have long to survive now - but if I catch Good Boss I might have a word. Star, however, has been kindly helping me complete my training checklist, after our closing shifts, even though it technically can only be done by Big Boss. I'm dutifully documenting what I am learning, and hoping that Big Boss just signs them off. Second Boss hasn't said a word about my risk assessment, and I am assuming it'll just never happen...

Inbox Pounds gave me manual credit for the farming game. And I've installed (yet another) Bingo game to earn some cash. It's trashy, noisy, cheesy and generally unpleasant, but thankfully doesn't have a time limit. Must motivate myself to play.

The subsidised rental scheme has asked for proof of my home valuation and mortgage. Um... so I have neither. Here's hoping they are satisfied with a copy of the original sale paperwork and the loan & credit card balances? Slightly annoying to say the least.

I have been really, really good at not shopping lately. I haven't bought takeaway or a grabbed lunch at work in quite a while. Yesterday I made a chicken and mushroom pasta sachet at work (and made my colleagues jealous) and today it will be cheese and broccoli. But on the flipside I haven't really cooked properly this week. Just not in the mood at 11pm after getting home.

I am pondering whether to visit Food Club this week. I partly reasoned that I didn't really need to go, but mostly I just haven't felt energised to visit on my way to work. There is plenty to eat in my house, if I would also find the energy to make proper meals!

Weird Pay System Is Weird

Seems as if it hiccupped when it allowed me to book so much time off. I tried to move it to an earlier date, and this time it spat the dummy at 2 weeks, 2 days, as it's all I have actually accrued. Oh well. I've told Good Boss I'll go on mat leave straight after that, which means I have about 3½ weeks left at work. Time for me to start prodding Big Boss again to get that training checklist done, I did corner him last week and got almost half way through, so it's still possible.

Our store received a really major award this week and the mood is ecstatic 😍

I've notified Second Job Head Office and Second Boss has approved my leave request right before it.

Council has awarded me a one-off household support grant of £250 which should arrive soon. More than I expected so I am very happy with that!

Stuffing my face for the past couple of days, because I collected far too many free bakery items from Food Club...

I Want My Two Hours Back

I went to a pregnancy workshop today.

Good: bar of baby soap to take home

Bad: nothing social about this whatsoever. Started late, finished early, and was essentially an hour of people pushing their own businesses.

Ugly: one inconsiderate couple brought their toddler, who ran back and forth throughout the entire time across the wooden floors in a noisy, echoey room. It ruined the entire experience.

The "talkers" were a baby masseuse (just talked at us), a hypnobirthing teacher (babbler who is terrible at guided meditation), a yoga teacher (I really did not want to participate but I had to) and a doula (the most interesting by far). Unfortunately I did not hear any reasonable course prices at all.

The biggest annoyance is that I stayed until the end because of the "goody bags" that I could see, but they were, of course, 90% advertising papers that went in the bin.

As a consequence of not gaining anything particularly useful today I will consider looking up YouTube videos on all of these subjects, for free.

Harrumph.

I still haven't been trained at work, and on the system it's listed as overdue. When I told Good Boss that he was running out of time, he started listing all the people who need that training and how he hasn't got time to scratch himself and how it's Big Boss to blame (but, Big Boss is unlikely to care, because the status quo is really not causing him any pain). I'm going to propose that they Delegate™ this into being the supervisors' task to complete. After all, they are best equipped to actually train us, but they'll have no interest or inclination or motivation to spend that time until Good Boss gets on their back and says it's a requirement.

I have received the maternity shirts that I ordered in Work Colour. The colour match is amazing, even if I do say so myself, and even Good Boss was impressed. I saved the company from sending me a second set of useless "official" clothing and he has agreed that he'll accept it as uniform.

I am awaiting my Mat B1 form in the mail so that I can formally notify Second Boss that I'm pregnant. Here's hoping they don't get weird and try to terminate me, because it'll be a right pain to have to argue my case over a 7h job, despite having been scored 96% at my last audit, which is outstanding. And it's worth £450 to me in holiday pay to stay on a years' maternity leave.

I have applied for Devon Home Choice, because evidently, despite "owning" this flat, I am classed as "severely overcrowded" for my circumstances and would qualify for a subsidised rental. This is still likely to mean a wait of several years due to how many are on the list ahead of me.

Bills all got paid this week ✔ so another round of successful adulting completed. Car has had a wash in the auto machine, because the grime was getting to me. 🚗 And of course it's now been shat on. Cheers, birds. 🐦🐤🐓🐥🐔

Toastie!

So for the past few weeks I've been asking a workmate if they want to come to Food Club (because, you know, if I've committed to picking her up that day then I can't get lazy and put it off). The problem is that the workmate kept putting it off due to not (yet) being skint for the month. But this week, the stars aligned and we'd both got to the point of Few Food Options in our flats, so we took a trip up today. We had even decided to stay and have lunch there because we're often invited and it always smells so lovely. She was hoping for pasta bake and I was hoping for a lasagne.

Well, we were both wrong, and sat down for a natter over less-glamorous ham and cheese toasties. Still, we got to have a good catch up and we got a toastie. Win. And not to mention a heaving amount of groceries for a fiver. Me more than her, since I grab all the free bread and veg options while she's more "selective". I got me a bag of carrots, a large courgette, and some apples.

I also went to Big Supermarket and spent my £10 voucher plus another £6. The whole lot should be most of what I need for a month (fresh things aside). My treat spends were a small loaf of fruit bread and a bottle of cheap cola. 😋 It is nice to see my "protein tins" shelf replenished and my freezer full.

Good Boss approved my leave for the last four weeks before maternity leave starts and says if I need to change that mat leave date, it's ok. His partner is absolutely knackered (due the same week as me) so he understands. I feel a little less breathless than last week but I'm feeling pretty "squished". Originally I planned to "save" my remaining 6 weeks of leave to have extra pay in a years' time, but it seems like it will be financially better to do it now, as in a years' time, the leave payments would cancel my Universal Credit... ho hum.

I got the payment date wrong for one of my credit cards by three days (I mixed up the Direct Debit date with the Due Date) and the money ain't there to pay it this afternoon. On the plus side I get paid tomorrow and they've said they re-attempt it three days later, so it should be ok, I'll make an extra payment tomorrow to make sure I beat that Due Date. I also got my payslip for Second Job and there will be a good pay plus a small tax refund which is very welcome. Fingers crossed, all bills will be covered for the next two weeks now. I'm still keeping the surveys windows open regardless! 😁

Sofa Coins

(Figuratively.) This week I cashed out a few pounds at a time on various "little" survey platforms and also deposited £15 of loose change into the bank. I made another sale on Vinted, only £4 but it's something. This all means that I will just manage bills for the week. Next week, I also get paid from job #2, but the week after that I'm not sure how things will go. I'm off sick from work again today - that dreaded throat infection did not actually go away and is now in my sinuses. So even though I get paid for one week in the middle, there will be a deficit again coming up. This is the point where I consider seriously whether I should go on maternity leave early, or at least take my annual leave before I do. I have requested leave for my last three weeks before maternity leave (34-36) and we will see if Big Boss says yes.

The only money I've spent in the last ten days has been £3.11. 💪 This was for groceries, including two dozen eggs and five bananas going cheap at work.

I have started picking my lettuce. Something is eating it, every leaf has tiny holes, which of course is not going to stop me (how dare they touch my lettuce). I wouldn't say it's delicious but hey, it's virtually free. I also got hold of some more blackberries and the church next door now has a couple of small/green windfall apples appearing at its fence - so hopefully there will be some quality ones over the next month.

The custard-and-lemon-muffin concoction turned out to be edible. 😊 I sprinkled each muffin with sugar. I also made the custard with powdered milk, too, so it was a bit of a surprise that they were nice. I have half the muffins in my freezer still and will make another batch of custard to have them with later.