Enlightenment

I went along to the antenatal class, and what a breath of fresh air it was. It's really opened my eyes as to how lacking the online course provided by the NHS actually is, and I am sad for all the women for whom that's all there is. Why is this brilliant in-person course the responsibility of a charity? It's inhuman. There are women going into labour who don't understand what's going on. We deserve better.

Achievement of the day: I cooked Spag Bol from scratch and even included porridge oats (which I've never done before but it worked out brilliantly). Three meals are in my freezer, and I ate one (absolutely delicious) plus two more are in my fridge. Adulting! 👍

Reached another milestone on the game. I think it's the last one I will meet before the time is up. It's £20 in my hand though, so let's see. Small item sold on Vinted (£3.50). Also spent more free credit on a raffle ticket for an Aston Martin (well, for £120,000 in cash). Fingers crossed.

Platinum Linings

I feel much better after some proper self-care. 😊

And here I am in the world without internet data. Well, severely speed-throttled. To my absolute surprise, the game is still playable. And I can still read any web page I care to read, it just requires a little patience for it to load. I'll pretend I'm back in the year 2000 and dial-up was the only speed we had. And I'll enact gratefulness that I even have access to the world in this way.

Today I "cooked" chili con carne, as in, I made rice and mixed in a tin, then added mushrooms and carrots. Two meals from that tin, so one goes into my fridge as a ready meal. The other has been eaten for lunch and was absolutely delicious. I'm conscious that the weeks are ticking by so I'm trying to maintain at least a weeks' worth of instant dinners, between the fridge and the freezer. Green veg are now exhausted in my kitchen though so it's off to Food Club for me.

I did a quick check of my bank statement and I've cashed out £110 from my programmes over the past month. Not terrible, but not enough, so it's time to knuckle down. Then I realised I needed to earn eight pounds (and have it actually land in my bank account) to avoid missing my next bill. Prolific is a site that credits instantly for some surveys... a couple of surveys completed, job done! 😁

Freebie: I bought a RevComps ticket in the draw to win a Bentley, using my site credit, which I get just by visiting each day. Well, I don't really want the Bentley, but I can take it as £70,000 cash when I win (I said "when"... manifesting). I also, at the same time, used £1 of the credit on a lucky dip ticket, and I won £100 in site credit! So the important question is... do I buy 18 more tickets on the Bentley? 😂

Sluggy Slugface

I actually cancelled on a social thing with my workmates today - I am feeling seriously sluggish and slept really poorly. It's so frustrating because I know I do need to get out and be around humans on a regular basis, but cursing one's insides is not the best when it comes to being good company.

Despite my self-imposed TV ban, I expect to go over my data limit tonight or tomorrow, which means being throttled to tin can speeds for a few days. I'm not even sure that the slower connection will make life functional on the game I'm desperately trying to hit payout for before the time limit arrives. We shall see.

In my Data Diet, I've been re-reading a blog that I love, The Escape Artist. Barney Whiter is an ex-corporate financial guru who "saved himself free" from the rat race using smart financial tactics. He now works as a freelance financial advisor - but only when he wants to - and his blog is really refreshing reading.

This morning is actually chilly enough to need the heater. I've got the blower on a quick blast, because the large slow one is currently piled in some stuff. Time to do more rearranging, methinks.

Spendy McSpenderson: £17 on a fabric and upholstery steamer. I have quite a few preloved things that can't really be washed, so here we are.

I've Been Selected

to test some kind of home laundry product. This was through a survey site that I'm a member of. I can't say which one (or what I'm testing - mainly because I don't know yet) but right now I'm just pleased to get some kind of freebie coming in the mail AND that they'll pay me fairly well for my feedback on it. Winner!

Today: actually managed to finally pull the sofa apart and attach new legs. Tomorrow I perform the reinforcement and cosmetic tidy-up. On removing the throws which have adorned it, I realised it has some grubby marks, which is annoying, but I'll attempt to give it a clean up and see how I go. Currently exhausted from the exertion of lifting one side about 3729 times to line the new legs up underneath. (I even did it while sitting on the floor. I think most of the exhaustion was simply getting myself up off the floor! 😂)

When you want to slap someone: our neighbour has been using our backyard (very little proof so we let it go) but this week I see that she is gardening in there and cutting back our ivy (!!!!). I am furious, as are two other owners, and an anonymous polite version of "could you please fuck off" note is going into her letterbox this morning.

Still playing: the ridiculously time-sucking merging game. It's crediting me every few days, but the targets are taking longer and longer to reach...

Cashed out: £5 from Crowdology, 74p from Qmee

Yet Another Day Has Passed

...and I have not miraculously ended up rich at the end. I have started playing a new game, which I'm quite enjoying, but I can see it's going to take AGES to reach the payout levels.

I have picked two tomatoes (plus a small one which had just fallen off the plant) and they are ripening inside. I also picked two "snack peppers", one looks snackable and one just looks sad. There's also a bit more lettuce, which of course has to be shared with the snails 😑 and is becoming more bitter as the days go on. I might hack it all back next week and call that the end.

I did manage to move some stuff around, the goal is to extricate my sofa from its trapped existence and get it towards the door, where I can fix the legs and then give it away. The flat has been rabbit warren-ish for a while, too many things and not enough space, so this monster item is going. Realistically my flat is plenty big enough, I just need to be more selective with "things". Otherwise, the amount of stuff will expand to fill the space available! 😁

£5 out from Prolific, £5 from Opinion Outpost.

Pro tip: remember that you left boxes all over your bed before bedtime.

Plodding is the Word

Today I've done a bit of financial housekeeping on my spreadsheet, and although there's a terrifying amount of total debt, I was pleased today to see one card fall out of the "red" zone and into the white, that is, under 90% of usage. Sounds awful overall, but I'm pleased with the small step, it's going in the right direction. The bad part is that two cards are coming to the end of their 0% interest deals soon, so we'll just have to see how things go after that.

Spent only £2.50 at Food Club today which I think is a first (I really just needed toilet roll, so I made sure to get milk, snacks and pastries as a reward for making the trip).

Spent a nice evening this week with the neighbours, out in the garden.😊

Cashed out: £5 from Opinion Outpost, £12 from Prolific, £5 from TopCashBack.

Good: Car service done for less expense than expected. I now have a shiny happy car.

Bad: Car needs four tyres. 😭 And looking at the quote for them, I don't really have the funds. It looks as though I'll do the worst two (so that it's at least driveable) and then do the others as soon as I can. So much fun. What did I say about my spreadsheet? Back to the red it is.

And The Beat Goes On

(La-di-dah-di-dah.)

Big Boss agreed to sign off my completed supervisor training. Only the system's glitched - great, another email tug-o-war with stupid tech support. Sigh. It seems like second job hasn't got a replacement for me yet, so it'll just be a case of handing the keys to the temp cover.

Car is booked in for a service - free, but I'll have to pay a bit for the bits and pieces it needs, like wipers, globes and the handbrake adjustment it really should get.

Still playing the hateful boring bingo game, mostly because they've credited me for the first tier (five pence! woo!) so there's every reason to hope they'll pay the serious money if I continue to level up. 

Got another supermarket voucher for £5, this one an old signup, happy with that 😊

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.

Change of Plans

So what did I do? Rediscovered the t-shirts I bought which don't fit. So I took them back to the shop, and got me £14 in store credit. I also took about £6 in coins with me and was determined to stay under budget. I still went over (you're not actually surprised, are you?) but I am blaming it on buying milk. Also possibly on a packet of strawberry mini trifles for £1.09.

But otherwise, it was a fairly behaved shop of bananas, yoghurt, salad and sandwich fixings. Also a tiny pack of cheese snacks and can of drink for the movies. I just couldn't stomach an enormous bag of too-salty popcorn from home. The movie turned out to be good, much to my surprise, although I'm now exhausted from the five-minute walk in each direction.

Today I cashed out another survey site so there is a £10 supermarket voucher sitting in my email. I shouldn't need it for another week but it's nice to have. I have actually sorted through my cupboards to see what is there... turns out I most definitely do not need tinned carrots or tinned peaches 😂 but the variety of tinned casseroles is sadly lacking (ie: I've got chili con carne and that is all). Partly this is because Food Club has cut down which tins they offer. Last visit, I got myself some frozen pies and even a pizza, which were lovely treats, so here's hoping they have more frozen items this time. They should also have fresh vegies from their allotment 😍

My maternity uniform arrived at work and is both laughable and unwearable. Literally, unless I would care to expose myself. I already own three plain black fitted tunics and now I've ordered three more of the same in "work colour", despite that not being "appropriate uniform" and I will argue with Big Boss if he dares complain. I don't like wearing black because it attracts absolutely every speck of fluff and dust, and that makes me feel constantly paranoid that there's dust on my shoulders as well!

Mood: tired. Getting tired. Actually reconsidering whether I can work for as many weeks as I had hoped.

Sad Face :(

Stupid arsehole Vinted has started deleting my listings for nappies, citing their rule that you can't sell used underwear. It's not used underwear ffs, they are nappies, and there are thousands of listings for used ones. So ridiculous. I've sent them a message appealing it but I don't really expect it to go anywhere. Ima just sit pulling a sad face and will try to decide what to do with the rest of the stash that I have. eBay is one option (a Buy It Now, not an auction listing) but neither the prices nor the fees are as good.

The annoyance of the overgrown and unkempt garden has a couple of silver linings... the majority of what's gone mental out the top of the hedges is Buddleia, so at least the butterflies and bees will be happy. And for months I've been irritated by the occasional scratch and stab of vines, which it's taken me way too long to realise are blackberries. I've collected half a cup of ripe ones today and there's a lot more that are still red. I won't look a gift horse in the mouth.

After four days off work this week my pay next week will be hideous and I'm not sure it will even cover essential bills. I have hauled out my £20 worth of coins and am trying to do some surveys. Worst comes to worst there's one bill I can delay by a week and I could also do a cash advance for the others 😞 which is bad for a credit history but certainly better than missing a repayment. We shall see how things go. It's "eat from the cupboards" this week (and the freezer!) and I will drop in to Food Club on Tuesday.

Tomorrow I'm going to see the Barbie movie with my workmates. No, I don't know what came over me either. 😂 I already have the ticket so at least I don't need to find money for that. I will be taking a bag of microwaved popcorn with me and a drink from home... I can't turn up without snacks or else someone will insist on "lending me the money" and they really don't need to know that I neither want to be buying snacks OR paying them back!

Today's lunch: chicken & veg curry tin mixed with a "golden vegetable" flavoured rice sachet, and also some scrambled eggs mixed in (another portion is in the fridge for tomorrow). Dinner is a cup-a-soup with a hot dog roll followed by half a tin of peaches 😋 All of these things were from Food Club, and I'm kinda pleased with myself for whittling down the stash.

Blooms and Things

This week I've been to a free local supper club for expectant mums. It was so nice chatting to people! Although I felt a little awkward when they asked about my other kids' ages and then their mouths dropped. I should have paid a bit more attention to the fact that it was named a supper and not a dinner, because it was mostly dips, vegies and bread. Lovely, but essentially I feel like I've had a salad sandwich for dinner, so I've come home and am about to devour a yellow-stickered chicken pie from my freezer.

Received more payments from Testable Minds and Prolific Academic ✔

Went to Food Club today, hadn't been over in a few weeks (I think I was burned out on casserole with baked spud) but the house really didn't have a whole lot to eat, apart from fruit or cereal, so it was time. I have treated myself to lemon biscuits and a bag of crisps and am over the moon that they had fresh, normal, white bread that wasn't best before yesterday. 😍 All up, five pounds well-spent. Also popped into Fave Supermarket and spent £16 on essential fresh stuff. It feels good to have a full fridge 😀

This afternoon I have spent some time in the garden, rearranging pots (grrrrr DilEmma and your inability to arrange a gardener to remove the vines and weeds). I planted out a bunch of my little petunia plugs into my hanging baskets. I have put far more seedlings in this year and the weather is being far more cooperative, so I should be able to advertise them for sale soon. Hopefully there will be eight or ten that look good and I can make about £50 in profit. I also kept some for myself, a few lovely buckets of colour for a bit of cheer, and they are mostly doing well.

⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘

Cash Register Noises

I re-joined the gym. I'm having some interesting health challenges right now and I think it would help if I were to increase my fitness. Feeling good there so far, just walking at the moment but I'm hoping to also get my weight loss to continue.

I cashed out on another three survey sites, so that's another £10 to spend at Old Favourite supermarket and a few pounds into my PayPal. 👍 I also finally finished that Bingo game on Swagbucks - but the offer has disappeared - so I really hope it credits and I don't have to specially request my 4000SB. I got another £100 in Household Support from the local council - having been tipped off by Food Club that they had to spend their yearly allocation before the end of March. Very pleased as that's going straight onto a debt repayment. Council has said their applications may re-open in April, so I will check back then and apply for 2023.

Currently fighting with my local GP office which refuses to do any kind of medical care for me whatsoever, declaring that I am now a private patient. Here's the thing: I am not, anymore. After two weeks of arguing they finally did a blood test (which I had to pay for myself) and I must now use Doctor Google to assess the results, decide if I seem to be ok, and then adjust my medication as best as I can guess. They're also refusing to prescribe a critical medication and just say they can't do it - I have about a ten-day supply right now and am desperately hoping that I can get in to see a local women's clinic next week. In the mean time they say that a pharmacy "might" accept my Spanish prescription, so I look forward to a week of traipsing from one pharmacy to the next with my best begging face on. Ok, I say, can I have an appointment about my knee, which is totally unrelated? Oh, we don't deal with knees, that's physiotherapy. Ok, so can I just have a medical note about it to give to work, so that I can avoid heavy lifting? Sure, we'll request it, the next medical note day is in two weeks' time.

Did someone say the NHS was great? It's fucking awful. And right now it's failing me big time. And it's making me angry. I am extremely well-educated about my specific health issue right now (to the point my specialist asked me if I have a medical background) and I know that the average patient would not be. And they would face terrible, permanent, life-changing consequences if they did not understand what they needed and why it is urgent. Sorry to get political but the Tories are a disgrace and need to go. 👉

Bits and Pieces

Hmm. I'm currently making some kind of pasta concoction for lunch, while (still) playing that bingo game and doing surveys for cash. The money from council arrived and was very much appreciated. I did a bit of financial adulting today as well, paid some more onto my credit cards, and checked in on my Help To Save, which has entered its fourth and final year (wow, time really flies). In February next year I will get the final payout and withdraw the funds, so it feels a bit like the downhill run now.

Ratty has, predictably, fallen back into being her usual ratty self. It's really getting old, being told to do stupid and pointless things and having your head bitten off if you ask why. I think the reason it's so annoying is that she pretends to be your bestie at all other times.

Gifted: a mini greenhouse from a kind lady on Facebook, and a bunch of large plants and planter boxes, from my lovely neighbour. Including two conifers more than a meter tall! I have put them outside my window and look forward to all the flowers from the pots full of bulbs 😃

Make Hay While The Sun Shines

My "hay" (a nine-egg omelette) is currently cooking in the microwave. I'm working hard to use up what I have, since I had to miss two days of work and of course will miss the corresponding pay. I will be looking out for more protein and vegies next time I visit the food club, that's for sure.

I reached payout on another survey site and have taken it as another £20 voucher for Old Favourite supermarket, and the aim is to not need to spend cash on groceries for a couple of weeks. It makes for some repetitive meals but I'm grateful for the chance to chip away at my bills instead.

I found another bingo game for cash on Swagbucks, this one is paying £30 and I quite enjoy these things, so why not? (Plus, it's got no time limit, which works for me.)

Busywork: going through all my boxes of Stuff and sorting out my shelves. Conclusion: I have too much stuff. Disappointment: I haven't managed to throw out much stuff, although it is now slightly tidier than before.

Assorted Treats

I am struggling to enjoy coffee anymore, so apart from my morning cuppa to wake up with as I read the news, I don't really drink it. I found a nice and also cheap soft drink from Cheap German Supermarket and I'm having that instead when I get the afternoon yawns. That'll be my goal for new year, to switch over onto just soft drink, somewhere in January.

Speaking of work I hit 49 hours last week (not for the first time). To the point where Nice Boss was worried about me and attempted to cut my last shift short. But I felt fine, so I stayed, knowing I need to stash the pennies while I can. Today I've had a relaxing do-nothing day - housework can wait. My car is currently in with the mechanic and it took me two hours to get home last night, after that 11-hour shift that I'd thought would be fine, well after negotiating icy pavements in the dark I was very ready to hit the sack, and I slept pretty late. I did treat myself to a bath today though. Imagine that, a world where baths are expensive and only for a special treat.

And speaking of the car, when I dropped it off I expected only to need the exhaust repaired, but the lovely mechanic is worried about my clutch. And he's right, because when I did the maths, the car has indeed started showing signs of clutch slip, that is, the bite point is almost at the top of the pedal release and the revs are sometimes rising in high gear for no reason. I am incredibly fortunate that it's so subtle and he noticed right as it went in for its MOT. I am really and truly hoping he can sort it out just by adjusting the cable. But if not, it's going to be New Clutch Time in the new year, an expense I wasn't really hoping for. All in all though, this hasn't been an expensive car, that clutch has lasted 120,000 miles (which is incredible) and of a car that age I think it's reasonable to expect a £300 repair bill every year or so.

Spendy McSpenderson: I finally caved and bought myself Strange Horticulture on sale, and I've been playing in the evenings as my wind-down after work. I highly recommend it, as do nearly all the other people who've played it. You don't even need to particularly like plants. It's just the kind of nice mystery game that you can play in short bursts and you don't need to be a scholar to understand it, and you don't need mad-shooting-skillz, and you don't need a fancy computer to run it.

Cruisy Day

Coffee with a workmate (and her little angel!) which was really lovely.

For once in her life my manager Ratty was not in a ratty mood tonight. I suppose nothing will be normal for another few days and then the old habits will creep back in for everyone. I also got the chance to have a catch up with Good Boss, he's so great to have a laugh with and I really do appreciate how much he treats me like an equal.

I also had the choice between extending my hours tomorrow or biting the bullet and taking an extra day... I'd rather have had Sunday off work BUT it's better to lose a day off and spend seven tiring hours with Blondie than add three extra unpredictable hours with Ratty tomorrow afternoon. 💁 

I splashed out tonight on a micro spag bol (it was peppery, too sweet, rather expensive and very underwhelming). I was also too lazy to open the bottle of coke I had bought to go with it. Now I'm sat here shivering because I really ought to get under the covers rather than keep the room toasty.

Megaspend

Well... mega by my standards. I just spent £40 on a ticket to see Russell Howard next year. Very excited and it's still six months away 😂 so hey, I'd better be on my best behaviour and make sure I've earned it by then!

I also have more bills to pay and lately I feel like I am haemorrhaging cash. 😩 I have to travel next week to an important appointment, so there's more money going kaput. Not planning to do anything touristy except maybe walk around and take pictures. Being the frugalist that I am, I'm staying in a hostel and will be enjoying pot noodle!

Incidentally I did manage to scrape together enough for the loan repayment before it was taken automatically. There is not much left in the tank, and I'll have to make some extra repayments here and there to replace what I moved, but I made it (phew).

I am now 82kg and have three to go to reach the "overweight" BMI range, my first target. I looked at my "weight loss journey" and since I started the most recent serious attempt, it's clear that it slowed dramatically over the past few weeks (with a few too many cheeky sandwiches being to blame). I have bought a magical weight loss product which is supposed to make you feel full and am giving it a go for five whole days. So far, it's... not doing much, because I don't generally overeat as a consequence of hunger. I eat because food is nice 😂

First world problems. Oh well, it was worth a try. Hoping to get down to 80 over the next ten days. Wish me luck willpower.

Reality Check

I need to weigh myself less often due to the disappointment of it not going down before my very eyes. Right now I'm reminding myself that no matter what I do, it simply isn't going to go down by a kilo a day 😁

I will be putting in big hours this week at work so the challenge is to keep up my enthusiasm for the gym. It's easier to make excuses when I've been at work for a long day. Must keep strong. Feeling a bit less sluggish now so perhaps I'm adjusting to the diet?

Almost ready for the surveyor. It is nice to feel a little bit organised.

Currently playing a rummy game for £12. It'll work out at mere pence an hour, but I'm enjoying the game!

Cakes

My work celebrated its birthday during the week and I didn't get to see the party... not to worry, I made up for it by eating two cupcakes left over. Also, in trying to use up things lying around in my kitchen, I made a cake from an old packet mix I've had forever. I added in some protein shake mix. Also some powdered skim milk, which I realised later on doesn't really have much protein, but here we are.

The end result? Not a taste sensation. Drowning a slice in icing didn't help. Today I'm trying it with butter and it's only slightly less awful. Won't be making this mistake again!

I realised I had a few pounds sitting in my Revolut account this evening, and actually fell prey to a reminder to buy a ticket in the next car draw... considering it's a car I was thinking of trying to buy, hey, you never know. I also need to enter more postal competitions since I only have a little while to use up the stamps.

Title Semantics

I couldn't decide whether I actually went swimming, when mostly I just stood waist-height in the water and then dunked under a couple of times. So... being 26°C, I "went to the beach". I had fully intended on being a bit more active than merely walking down and getting wet, but despite having eaten lunch before I went, I felt too wobbly to be much use. Even still, it was lovely to be down there and I'm glad I went.

I collected some shells which no doubt will sit around, useless for eternity 😁

There were vague ideas of planting out my hanging baskets, but did I? No. I opted for a rather long nap instead.

Back to work tomorrow (and I am told that my upcoming ridiculously-long warehouse shift is likely to be corrected shortly... I wait with baited breath).