Facepalm

The reason that bank chopped down my available credit is thanks to an idiotic "order of repayments". In theory the bank puts repayments onto the most expensive debt first, but in this case, they wiped out my long-term interest free account instead of the one about to expire... leaving me with interest-bearing debt. So for two months I've been paying interest on that entire amount and paying only the minimum on the card automatically. Kicking myself right now. But hey, at least it's the card with the reasonable interest rate compared with all the others, and so far it's only cost me about £20 in total.

Anyway, onwards and upwards I suppose. I cracked the magical 48h mark last week at work and the first thing I've done with that pay packet is to establish my £500 buffer, which hasn't been in place for a while. The second was to throw every extra penny at interest-bearing debt. Next week should let me throw quite a bit more at it. I am grateful all over again that I get paid weekly.

I am considering ditching my gym membership as I've used it so little over the past month. Mainly this is down to me getting more exercise at work. It's lower-quality exercise though and my heart rate isn't as good as it was... I am toying with the idea of buying an exercise bike, but first I need to tidy up my clean clothes and get rid of the sofa, which takes up far too much space and only gets used for, well, clean clothes 😁

Day off today after a 50h week and my boss actually tried to get me to work tonight... somehow, I managed to politely decline.

Lunch: sausages and vegies in spring onion and garlic sauce, with rice. Amazing comfort food.

It Awakens

The Australian Passport Office, that is, just to tell me my photo isn't suitable. I dutifully took a new one myself, as instructed. (Why did I bother paying a shop to take them professionally when both the APO and the Finnish Embassy said it was both poor quality [meaning that the auto gates won't work for me at passport control] and in the case of the APO, it doesn't even pass their specs?) They have now replied a second time and said it's still not suitable because the image is reversed due to being a selfie. FFS. I flipped it and sent it straight back, not sure why they couldn't do that their dang selves, but we'll see if they now complain that I've used an "edited" image.

I am currently disappointed in my body which is not cooperating with what I want it to do, mostly thanks to being old. 😂 Part of the annoyance is that my right ankle still gives me trouble after a long workday on my feet, and it's been like this for two months. I am quite sure that the cure would involve staying off my feet... so I guess this is my new normal, since I'm working six days most weeks right now and it's heading into Christmas. Sigh, I'm sure I put in an order for a new body about six years ago! 😏

Duh moment x3: I left the house too late for the library (needed to print a document) then still didn't arrive at the second library in time 😒 so I decided that since I'd used the local shop's carpark naughtily for nothing and driven for nothing, I'd buy myself a lottery ticket. I get home and it's not the ticket I wanted 😒 so I had better win several million pounds this week... on the upside I did get a shop refund done successfully, so at least I am partially adulting.

Devastated: one of my card issuers has just knocked a huge amount off my available credit. 😞 I just... this is going to throw so many plans into the bin. Ugh, ugh and double ugh. I had wanted to use that card to book the tickets to go to Australia. Ugh. I'm going to need to completely rethink how I finance it now. Beyond frustrating. 😞😞😞 It seems like I'll need to cross my fingers that overtime doesn't suddenly end 😞

Doing the Sums

I had my first day off in ages (I slept twelve hours, thankyouverymuch) and when I woke up my first thought was that I wanted to figure out my exact current debt.

My memory is a bit hazy of the time I bought this flat because, honestly, money was flying in all directions at once. There was also the enfranchisement cost. But if I figure it correctly...

£40k purchase price - from a £25k loan and approx £15k in savings
£5k legal and moving fees

£45k total (position: -£30k)

and since then

£12k enfranchisement and re-roofing
£57k total (position: -£42k)

Current debt: -£28,600

This means I'm £13k ahead on the debt over two years. Not quite the earth-shattering achievement I had hoped to see, but this is where we are (especially since the ongoing maintenance is not in these totals and still needed to be paid). I am still calling it a win. The flat has gained in value, it's currently worth about £23k more than I have spent and would be about £58k more than I've spent with a few completed improvements.

Also done today was to actually look at all the cards and sort out when the interest-free offers end and what spending on the cards actually costs me. I have a little bit of some balances currently attracting interest and that's my first priority when the "overtime paycheques" come in. Bonus news: based on my maintenance contribution being correctly (re)calculated based on the size of my flat, my contracted hours are now sufficient to cover my minimum expenses. So once I get on top of the latest budget blowout, all my overtime will just be a bonus to pay down the debts faster 😎

This afternoon's goals: finish level 15 of a game that pays me £25, clean my kitchen and sort out my clean clothes. Let's see how those go 😁

An Alexander Day

My day. Today this was me.

I am being dramatic, of course, because I didn't have nearly as many things go wrong as went wrong for poor Alexander in the storybook. But I got to the end of the night and thought... blechhhhh. A volatile customer got very shouty for no reason at all, and instead of just letting Blondie handle her complaint, I tried to apologise to her, and then she shouted more.

I am fortunate that two other customers witnessed everything and told Blondie what had actually happened in the beginning (I was blameless) but he didn't need rescuing, he's a damned good manager, and now it's going to investigation. I know I'll come out of it ok, but I let my colleague down. Sigh.

On the plus side, it reminds me to recognise peoples' achievements and to speak up when they have done well. It is so easy to forget, or to only speak up when something needs improvement.

A direct debit came perilously close to bouncing this week. It was loan repayment week, which is the biggest bill I have, and there wasn't the funds. I had to grab bits from all over (mostly from survey programmes which had reached payout) and I made it, just. But still, not comfortable, so I will keep doing as much overtime as I can, to try and get ahead of expenses again properly.

I did buy more staples during the larger staff discount days though. Lots of loo roll is now stashed 😁

Extreme Laziness

I carefully wrote up all the things I wanted to achieve over this past week and in total, I have only cleaned my kitchen. I have excelled in my laziness and that includes eating. I did eat all my prepped salads, I just ate other things with them, and I haven't been to the gym in a week.

Dilemma is being as shit as ever, wanting to pay out thousands more on a third temporary roof repair (we have one apartment which is an annex and wasn't covered by the "whole new roof" which we just completed on the main building). The owners revolted and we're now arranging a new roof for that annex. Dilemma also didn't bother to redo our slabbed back patio, which we requested in March, so we had it done ourselves. All up this is £700 for my share which I hadn't reckoned on needing. So I've put in lots of extra work hours lately.

Blondie thinks I've gone insane because I'm there more than he is. He's my new favourite supervisor now though, he trusts me do what needs doing, I look after things when he's on break, and he doesn't glue me to the till.

Sixteen weeks now waiting for my Australian passport 😞

Back In The Saddle

...sort of. I've been snacking less, but after an exhausting really-busy week with lots of cheat meals, I know I didn't do great. I have a new resolve to behave myself this coming week. There are four salads prepared in my fridge, to take to work. I'm also playing catch up financially, so I've just booked myself in for some overtime and that will help cover bills.

Work has a bonus week coming up where we get a larger staff discount. I've been trying to mentally tick off all the things I should stockpile (and the things I shouldn't). I still have hand soap left from last year when my old work did the same, so clearly, I bought too much of that. But at the very least I'm going to stash a few mega packs of loo roll, get myself some more face cloths, and think about which non-perishable food is worth buying. Some grocery items at my work are still cheaper elsewhere because we don't carry the rock-bottom "price match" items like unbranded baked beans or tinned spaghetti.

Battling yet another cold. It's just getting annoying always coughing and I would like a refund! 😁

Whelp, That's Annoying

My favourite crypto platform has increased its fees. I can no longer play with the market to earn five pence each time! 😁 Ho hum, it was interesting while it lasted. I'll keep the £40-odd that I have in there, but I doubt I'll add anything to the fund.

I coloured my hair this week (long overdue) and used a pack I'd had since forever, so I'm calling it free.

After four days of the magic weight loss product, I have gained one kilo. Annoyed is not the word, because I have been INSANELY good with what I eat. I won't bother buying it again. Dinner: half a tin of value spaghetti hoops on a slice of toast. And it was delicious.

Got paid - this happens every week, so not that exciting of itself - but I had enough to chip away at some of my bills. Felt good! Financial adulting 💪

Budgeting Fail

My stoopid Good Boss asked me today if I wanted a plant.

He knew I'd been eyeing them off and (successfully) resisting them for more than a week. And it was the last one. And he reduced it to just over half-price. Sigh. So there goes £10 of this week's grocery cash on a magnificent Dracena for my living room 😍

I also bought a loaf of bread for 10p, even though I'd just bought bread. It's stashed in my freezer for next week, along with a reduced pie.

Despite the fact there were six of us doing the close, four of the boys were being absolute wankers to poor Blondie (the supervisor) and at 9pm all four said they were done and were going home. I volunteered to be the one who stayed while he did the last five minutes in the office. When he emerged, we saw the mess they'd all left in the warehouse... and the two of us had to make it right. Well, at least one of us is getting a few dregs of extra pay 🙋

I then realised I'd forgotten to buy an essential medicine that's nearly run out 😕 so I made a mercy dash to Favourite Supermarket and discovered that... it's cheaper there than at Boots. But as I didn't have any grocery money left, it's gone on my credit card. (Slight guilt there, not sure whether to deduct it from next week's allowance.)

Dinner: pork steak, mixed vegies, yoghurt.

Resolution: I am not buying favourite supermarket's value yoghurt again. It tastes like value. 😖 The one from local cheap German supermarket is miles nicer... and to be honest, it's possible I might switch allegiances to this as my new favourite supermarket.

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.

Want-essity

I suppose this is not really a necessity, but a want: My Bluetooth wireless headphones have bitten the dust and now refuse to recharge. I can still walk and cycle using cheap corded ones, but they're just so awkward and uncomfortable. I found a gift balance I'd forgotten about on Amazon.com (ka-ching!). Even better, I have actually found a set of headphones which will deliver to the UK. Free headphones, that's a win. There's a chance I'll have to pay a customs fee, but I think it'll still be less than replacing them over here.

Today I cashed out on PaidViewpoint so that money is on its way to my PayPal, for a little bit less cash-stress this week. I've cashed out a fiver on Shoppix and that should also arrive shortly. I also realised I had another programme at cashout level (£25 for sharing my tv viewing habits, thank you) and I have cashed that out too. Plus, I got a survey invite in the mail for Sport England, who are apparently sending me a £5 gift card for a mystery store. Not a bad day for being productive!

Heating hack: I was thinking about how I sometimes got to enjoy the faint aroma of spag bol, or casserole (etc) in my bathroom thanks to the fact there's a paper-thin wall there next to my neighbour's kitchen. Well this morning I checked the temp in there, and it was 19 degrees at 8am. Hello, warm neighbour with their gas central heating! I'm leaving the bathroom door open from now on to warm my whole flat 😂

So far I have not used the main heater this year. I have that small one that I bought, it's right in front of my knees as I sit at the PC, but even that one doesn't get turned on much (I'm trying to be brave). Here's to more bravery as the temperature drops. Oh, and I spent £2 on some cheap slippers 😁

Passport Shenanigans

Australian Passport: Your passport will cost the equivalent of a newborn panda, and it will take about eight weeks. Twelve weeks processing so far and still waiting...

British Passport: We'll do your passport for a nice low price. But we won't process it unless you send both your others to us with the application, we won't discuss alternatives, and we won't tell you how long we'll hold on to all three of your passports. Probably ten weeks. Possibly ten months.

Finnish Passport: We do charge a little bit extra because you're overseas. And this might take two weeks. I hope that's ok? (I got it back in my hand, including international postage, in six working days (!!).)

It just goes to show you that if a country actually gives a toss about its citizens, it actually delivers proper public services... even abroad.

Not So Great This Week

Another moment nobody enjoys... realising that even after pay day, there won't be enough money for the loan repayment. Cue more of the "pushing money around in circles" malarkey. Oh well. This shall pass. And perhaps it'll enthuse me to work an extra day.

My work hasn't had fresh milk deliveries for days... the day before yesterday I took home a bit from the work fridge, in my drink bottle, to use in my coffee the following morning. But yesterday I had to bite the bullet and go to Old Work on the way home. Found a yellow-stickered Organic Milk for 71p and also treated myself to 11p crumpets 😀

I also bought myself a hot water bottle (from my grocery cash) and gleefully filled it last night. It was... weird, since it wasn't really cold last night, and it wasn't long before I stripped off my top jumper. Maybe I'll appreciate it more in the colder months 😁

Since my ankle still sucks at being a functional ankle, it doesn't appreciate the treadmill for more than ten minutes at a time. Lately I've been doing most of my time on the exercise bike instead. This doesn't burn half as many calories, which is annoying. So my weight has just stood still, as I'm not about to spend two hours on the bike with my arse going numb. Sigh.

Oh! First-ever freebie from my new work: five bottles of bleach which have the wrong supermarket brand on them. Yay! Even though I'll use most of it washing the cleaning rags from work, hey, it's a win 😂

Too Much Month

Too much month at the end of my money.

This hasn't happened in a while, but I did a quick count of everything coming out before my next pay from work and... the sums don't work out. This is basically big bills all catching up at once, combined with missing work due to being ill. The timing is bad, as it's too late to stop my direct debit, which is more than £500 as it's set to always "pay in full". Which is good, because you know, paying in full is good, except when the money isn't there!

Long story short I've had to do a money transfer off two credit cards and half of it wasn't interest-free. Sad face goes here 😞 I am currently doing surveys and trying to scrape together a few pounds more. I'd rather not have to buy next week's groceries on credit, since I was so proud of myself managing £20 cash each week 😁 Still, it is nice to know that I have options to sort this out. There are a lot of people who just don't have those options, who would just go hungry or have no heating. I am fortunate, I am nowhere near the bottom of the barrel.

It's meter-read day, so I dutifully submitted a reading. I do hope that the promised credits go onto my power bill this month.

Fifteen-Hour Day

Not enjoyable, not cheap and not recommended. Renewing one's passport for a certain country requires a trip in person, meaning Pugsley guzzled about £60 worth of fuel while tootling across the country. Me being me, I was willing to walk an hour if I found not-£20-parking, so I researched it last night and selected four streets that seemed to have little or no restrictions - and yes, this took well over an hour of looking on Google Maps. Well! It turns out that I also had to (1) figure out the difference between the London Congestion Charge, the Low-Emissions Zone and the Ultra-Low-Emissions Zone, and (2) try to avoid getting an extortionate corresponding charge, all while navigating stupid London traffic and (3) getting lost and going the wrong way over and over again. It turns out that I just had to stay out of the ULED (easier said than done) and which meant I was actually an 80min walk from the consulate. Fine! Oh yeah, in the rain. And parking the car just 80 minutes before my appointment.

I walk/skipped/ran the entire way and made it in the nick of time, and my typical ankle reaction was I now hate you and I'm not playing this game anymore and so by the time I was walking back to the car it was stiff, sore and uncooperative. While I was getting rained on. And busting for a wee.

I decided my three hours of walking earned me a takeaway and I'm not even sorry. ULEZ + parking would have set me back about £30-40 so I don't even care that I threw £5 of my £20 weekly food money on one meal. I had also intended on paying for priority processing, but it turns out I saved myself another £20 because the current wait time is super quick.

At least there was lovely scenery walking along the Thames. Still, it was really not worth it 😂

Vile Illness

I was forced to actually miss a day of work yesterday, thanks to being incredibly snotty and cough-y. It also meant a trip to the supermarket for cold medicines. And from the state of me, it looks like I'll be missing another day tomorrow. Unimpressed.

Had myself a pork steak for dinner last night, which I haven't done for about a year (see what shopping in budget supermarket finds you?). I couldn't really taste it, mind you, but here we are. I also had the "delicious" potato salad with it, again, which I couldn't taste. Planning to eat flavourless toast this afternoon just to top off the food enjoyment 😂

18 degrees in my flat right now and I am stubbornly refusing to turn on the heating. This is Not Fun. But it's reality now, I suppose, with how much power is going to cost us all.

Currently contemplating the merits of a walk...

Accomplished

✔ returned yarn for refund

✔ collected a dozen apples

✔ did grocery shopping

✔ bought far too much food

I also have an annoying cold, which is not an accomplishment. It made me skip the gym twice, too. Boo.

I spent the yarn money on food, and also spent my airer money from last week on food, and now have £2 cash left for the week (but there is absolutely no reason I should need any more food, since I went overboard on treats and snacks). I have chopped the bruises out of the windfall apples and dunked them in lemon juice. I also ate my second-last sickening protein bar tonight... hopefully I'll have enough food money next week to buy some more SlimFast shake mix.

Now at 84kg, four more to go for my first goal.

I Sold Some Plants!

Ok, so it was at a knockdown price and took two months, but today I sold seven potted Begonias to a lady who was over the moon to have some instant colour for her back courtyard. Now I, too, am insanely pleased to have that little bit of cash in my hand. I have put it straight into my food money for next week.

Neighbours #8 have given me a little pot of African Daisies, they're lovely. I have put them into a larger pot with a little trailing vine, and parked them in the sunshine. Hopefully they make it through the winter ok.

I'm a little bit annoyed at having a day off AND all the shops are shut though. I have yarn to return for a refund since I bought more appropriate colours for the baby blanket I'm making. I can hear hymns coming from someone's tv outside. I have decided not to watch the funeral. I didn't know her, and there are enough mourners invested already, I don't think she'd have minded me not watching.

Speaking of the blanket, it's looking nice, although my cacky wrist doesn't cooperate for more than an hour a day. That's what I get for probably breaking several bones years ago 😁 I overdid it the first night I was making it and then couldn't figure out what I had done to my hand. I am not the brightest woman on the planet!

Set off for my long walk but no, my ankle has decided it would prefer not to, not today, thank you. Sigh. On the upside, I found a couple of windfall apples outside the fence of a neighbour, and they are lovely. One eaten, one in my fruit bowl. If I am feeling brave I might use my broom to reach a few more later this evening. Or even (gasp) sneak into the yard - it's a church, so I'm not convinced they will mind someone collecting apples off the ground anyway.

The Beer Garden

Neighbour #8 referred to our backyard as "the beer garden" and I am ridiculously pleased that it has been renamed. We had drinks outside this week with Tenant #2a and it was lovely. They have added some garden lights and we've resolved to bring table lights next time and keep our meetups going into the winter.

Winner: I had been tossing up buying a second clothes airer, to dry my clothes without the tumble dryer. Me being me, I kept putting it off. Until today, when a customer returned her airer as faulty (it had one broken rail out of 24) and I have now brought it home for a reduced price of £7.20 (down from £12). A liberal dash of superglue and the rail is repaired. Winner. I have paid for it out of my £20 cash weekly food allowance too so I can almost count it as free, or something.

Currently: feeling guilty that I'm not doing one extra hour today at work. Ridiculous, but here we are.

Hmmm, oh yeah

What's frugal lately? Well, I managed to get three packs of "hot and spicy chicken" this week for 50p each. They are now in my freezer. I've also realised I have no idea what I normally spend on groceries, mostly because of random spontaneous purchases such as the chicken (and long work days where I wobble and buy food for lunch, which I shouldn't be doing, either for economy or weight reasons). So at the beginning of the week I withdrew £20 in cash, and we will see what gets spent. I'm walking over to LIDL today so maybe it'll all get blown in there...

Currently washing my trusty old backpack which I bought in 2017 and which seems to have collected a layer of mould. I am hoping it comes out looking new.

I used the petrolprices app to find cheap fuel last night in my area. When I got to my chosen place, the price was higher. Sigh. Well, I tried.

Fail: Totally Shit Bank emailed me to nag that I hadn't viewed my monthly statement. I hadn't viewed it because I don't use their rubbish services, it just has an interest-free debt that's automatically paying off the minimum for another year and a half. But I log in, and my credit card account has completely disappeared. Same in the app. Well done, Totally Shit Bank, take a bow. If they never find it again, that would be a bonus, and to be honest, not all that surprising.

Fail/win: work offered me an extra day today, and I turned it down, because I'm so tired. I'm annoyed at myself, but I think it was the healthy choice. I did calculate, however, that if I manage to get fulltime hours for six months, I can save more than £2,000 (or, put it towards bills/debts/flights). Something to keep me motivated, I guess.

Wheee

Head Office has now given an official statement that they are granting an extra day of leave for the Queen's funeral day, not forcing us to use one we accrued. That'll do, Donkey.

I am now tossing up whether to work an extra day.