I Earn Too Much

So said the council lady about getting a discount on my tax. Ho hum. But in a pleasant surprise, I wasn't charged for my car insurance this month as apparently there's no instalment in January. Nice! My MOT also went through flawlessly. That's never happened before for me with any car. Lovely. 

Since I hadn't watched a single holiday movie so far, I finally sat down with The Princess Bride and quite enjoyed it. It hasn't dated despite it being 36 years old.

My glasses arrived from Zenni... the backup cheap reading ones are exactly what I expected. But the progressives (multifocals) are just not going to work for me, focusing on my phone is so low down in the lenses that it hurts. They've agreed to refund me which is outstanding, since nothing is actually wrong with how they made them up. Zenni doesn't have the low-profile half height frames anymore so for my "outside" pair I found another website and we'll see if they are any good. 

I also ordered myself a head cam to get more pics of Little X but it's way too heavy, so that's going back for a refund too. 

Currently eating my cheap Christmas trifle, and it's delicious. 😋

Tinsel Time

Merry Christmas, I hope you had a peaceful time and were able to enjoy yourself in some way.

Little X scored a pram play chain thingy, a hand rattle, and a teddy to snuggle. Plus some stacking cups for when she is bigger, and some books (The Very Hungry Caterpillar and a Vegemite book). She also got a bear hat. More than the four standard items I mentioned, but definitely no extravagance in our house. For myself I got Bailey's, chocolate seashells and After Eights. 

I did cook my roast and had it with tinned peas and carrots. Still enjoyed it and was honestly flabbergasted that Little X was kind enough to snooze more than an hour while I cooked - which is a gift in itself. 

Way too much on the plate, so of course I couldn't finish it. 

I also prepped snack bowls of cheese and crackers, antipasti, mince pies and sweets, but didn't have room for them. 😂 Nor did I get stuck into the Bailey's, but fortunately it's legal to enjoy special food and drink on other days too.

Tomorrow I'm going for coffee with Poppet and then I'll contemplate a day of housework, since I have the health worker coming in a few days and my flat looks like survival mode. 😜

Yuletide Eve Expeditions

So during the week I went a'foragin' (read: into the supermarket) with a view to finding Christmas grub. I thought that Fave German Supermarket would do just fine, but unfortunately, everything Christmassy was also Deluxified and expensive. When I saw that the miniature hams were ten pounds, I decided I wasn't having ham. But I then I realised I was too early for the Christmas veg bargains anyway, so I can try elsewhere later, right?

Well pfft, today I went into Fave Chain Supermarket and PFFFT. They had no carrots, no cheap veg at all, and as I picked up my ONE POUND TWENTY potatoes I forgot completely to look for sprouts. But considering I saw no retail evidence of a holiday, they probably didn't have any left anyway. (Supermarkets are supposed to have a giant display of chocolate tubs, mince pies and fancy biscuits, assaulting your senses as soon as you enter. It's the law.) In the end I've bought a pork shoulder for a fiver. It's huge, so I'm going to cut it and freeze half. 

I did manage to keep She Who Will Scream chilled for long enough to pop into work and spend £9 on an additional clothes airer. We're battling for drying space. It was nice to visit and see Star, Good Boss, Model and Bluey. But there were so many new faces and I'm reminded how fast retail staff turnover is... and it was slightly odd to see, for the second time that day, a major shop that wasn't overrun with customers doing last-minute panic shopping. I did score a free loaf of bread from Star (surplus, before it got binned) which is much appreciated right now.

It's so late in the evening now and Little X can't unwrap things anyway, so nothing is getting done in that regard this year. I'll no doubt skip 90% of the traditions for tomorrow, but I'm still looking forward to it. 🎄🎁

I Drive!

I managed to get clearance to drive. 👏 Fantastic. We're still not going out much, since we're still getting into a routine. We've seen the midwife and also had a health check this week at the clinic. I even picked up a handful of onesies for Little X there - she is really keeping the washer busy and I'm battling to avoid the tumble dryer (I'm winning so far, but only just). 

The DWP has reduced my UC debt repayments, which is a relief. I've still never resorted to a cash advance from a credit card to stay afloat with bills, and I'm really glad about that.  👏

Konniption Fit

So today I got notification of what my Universal Credit will be. I lose half of it thanks to my maternity pay and UC debt repayments. 😒 I've sent a grovelling note asking if the repayment part (£92) can be reduced... Watch this space.

Anyhoo, my new budgetary quackalations began, and I almost had a heart attack - thankfully I realised an enormous calculation error and was then able to breathe. By February, on an ordinary month I'll be only £100 shy of covering necessary bills. Very survivable via surveys. And if my fuel/food/extras stay under 170 per month from there, the bill costs will begin to reduce. Challenge accepted. 

MOT booked and the dealer is going to kindly collect and return the car for me 👍

Free MOT, Yes Thanks

50 into my bank account this week.
Please and Thank You. 🙏

So technically, my MOT is not "free", but I've been a good girl lately in getting all my YouGov surveys done and reached cashout level of £50. The timing is very good indeed. I have also had a pile of small redemptions that all add up, many of them from games that I play on my phone while trapped under a small baby. Might as well earn something while I can't do much else!

I ended up buying my new bra on credit (well, everything is on credit these days) and the journey was not fun in any way, with Little X screaming the street down as we walked home from the bus stop - and me getting drenched in the process. I cannot wait to be cleared to drive. Right now the closest I get to that is in moving the car around the carpark every few days to stop the brakes/wheels seizing up. Bus trips themselves I don't mind, it's the fact that places I need to go take a long, long time to get to. Little X is not nearly as patient as I am.

We've had three home health visits now and the next one is at the clinic in town. At some point this week I should get to register her with my GP and then we fight to get a timely appointment - mostly because I want to be cleared for driving! It would also mean I can visit Food Club again.

Today I defrosted my freezer. The ice came off in huge slabs which is so incredibly satisfying. Mind you, it means the freezer was incredibly inefficient until I did this. 😖 I must be far more careful not to load it up so full, it's the air getting in the seal which makes it do this, and the door seals perfectly when it's not over-filled. Must think of all the saved pennies.

Reality

I think of myself as someone who doesn't really get stressed easily. And then I realised that it's not typical of me to be looking in my bank account every day to see what has gone in and come out. Normally I trust that I've set things up for the week ahead and don't need to think about it until next pay day. Ponderous. I'm not sure if it's submerged stress or merely knowing that my usual strict money management is currently slightly chaotic. 😁

But in any case, I do a lot of "it'll be fine because X payment is coming in on Y date" these days. I can't wait for my income to become regular again later in the month. Having irregular income is annoying, to say the least, and makes it hard to plan anything, like for example when I can go and buy my new bra (currently delaying this, because [1] pram expeditions so far away are un-fun; and [2] my MOT is due in a months' time and again falls right in the holiday season, meaning I have to find the money to organise it very soon). Related: I'm currently doing Prolific surveys for pocket money. 😉

Job #2 has again given me a £20 tax refund. It's weird indeed, but I certainly won't say no to it. I also got a notification that Poison-Ivy credit card was going to go over limit when the interest charge goes on in the next few days (can I just note, incidentally, that these notifications are outstanding, despite the shitty high interest rate on that account, and means that despite the fact this card has eye-watering costs, makes me think the lender is at least not a complete tosser?). This heads-up gave me the chance to put some money onto the card to prevent an over-limit fee. I'm grateful for that. 🙏

I started another mindless game for InboxPounds which promises quite a high payout and so far doesn't involve any kind of skill or attention to the game, which in my mind makes the perfect "get paid to play" activity.

Mini-spend: I managed to buy four Christmas gifts for a total out-of-pocket of less than £3, thanks to existing Amazon credit and the fact that I'm on a trial of Prime. Right now I'm deciding whether to keep Prime once the trial is over. I haven't used Prime Video at all, but that would be a potential perk. Mostly I've been eyeing whether the site in general becomes more useful once postage is free. eBay is definitely cheaper, but post can be slow and the items can be hit and miss. We'll see.

Not a Visionary

Having spent two weeks focussing on a phone screen in semi-darkness, my sight really is pretty bad. Long story short I've shelled out £30 for a test and ordered varifocals plus a standard reading pair - just under £60 for the two including postage, which is an absolute bargain. Once again I used Zenni Optical (I'm not paid to recommend them, either, I just think they're great). You need a bit of patience, and you need to check very carefully that you enter your prescription correctly, but even if I've gotten it wrong and need to reorder, I'm still miles in front of the usual store prices. So now, the nervous wait, since I've never ordered nor worn varifocals before...

Money Out (in a big way): Crowded House ticket for June at The Eden Project (£65). No, I can't afford this. No, I couldn't resist. It's probably the one band I would choose to see if given all the choices in the world.

Out: £11 for Little X's birth certificate. (Just one of the many things I need to run around setting up, ie, I had to take her birth records to the council registrar's office to prove she exists. This is where I really miss Finland, where everything is automatically connected in the system... I really wanted to ask the UC website, then the registry office, and then the Job Centre, and then the Child Benefit website, why they can't just ask the hospital to confirm that she exists.) Related: about £10 in bus fares running about doing these things. I still have several weeks of not being allowed to drive after my surgery.

In: Council payment of £250 and Universal Credit advance of £360. There will shortly be a further UC advance, for kidlet, of £260.

Also in: payments for four survey programmes, plus two game programmes (about £30 altogether).

Visionary's Observation: I have spent basically zero time on my pc in the two weeks since Little X was born, essentially living my life in my new tiny sofa, and accordingly, using my phone. It's freaky how fast we adapt, since I've been able to do 95% of everything I needed on there, including dealing with my bank accounts etc. I still much prefer a desktop when it comes to most things, but it's surprising how phones can manage so much these days.

Agitation and Time Constraints

So the Barclays switch offer runs out on the 30th, and that's £175 which desperately belongs in my hands. I finally got the required 2x Direct Debits to show up in my throwaway account, then after eight attempts and three phone calls (yes) my Barclays application and switch went through on the app. Half a days' work, but still worth it. 👍

I've been a bit spendy, bought two small toys for little X for Christmas (£2 each), both of which are sorta "need" items. I also bought us Christmas hats (£1 each). I didn't find one to fit her so I am armed with needle and thread to create a baby size from an adult one.

We're getting the hang of the reusable nappies and so far so good. A few damp pyjama patches, just need to make sure the outer wraps cover the nappy properly. 🙂 They really feel lovely and soft.

Cooking: curried sausages.