Boring Person

...me, that is. I keep mentally yelling at survey invites to just go away. Consequently I've done almost none this month, keep your eyes peeled for a big fat zero come the first of December.

Four more days of work and I get a week off. I am then back for a week and then off again for long-awaited surgery (you don't want details trust me, suffice to say it's minor).

I am getting disillusioned at the flat. Still waiting for replies from the bank. The silly thing is that as it stands, I know that I won't start paying for the roof until 2022 at the earliest, and I know it'd be something I can afford at the time, but without the documentation on what it's costing and a time frame, this looming issue will cause all kinds of hell if/when I want to sell this place. I would actually be on track to pay the CC and roof off in about two years - assuming I keep working 30+ hours - so with new carpets and decorating, I might actually want to sell it in 2022-2023 and would be annoyed if I can't ask a decent amount because of a still-looming, much-delayed roof repair. The disillusionment is because this flat is 40k and there is nothing on the market under 65k right now... yes I said nothing... I would be a nutcase to not stick this out.

Sampled today: Sausage Roll crisps. Edible, taste like pastry, but not worth paying for.

Freebies: jaffa cakes, chocolate orange, more of the standard stuffs like fruit and salads.

Flat Update

So it has finally arrived, that is, the solicitor's report on what's happening so far. Lots of documents hit me at once. The flat is evidently a mortgagee-in-possession sale and there is a paper trail indicating the flat was empty for a year. The previous owner was an 81-year-old widow and I would think she is either deceased or has moved into care. But the fact that I'm now dealing with a bank as the seller makes life a complete headache. Most of the solicitor's enquiries are met with answers of "we don't know" from the building manager or "please ask the freeholder" (which is a bank - which likewise will not know the answer as they never lived there).

The managing agent has not even done more than hint about the roof repair. They formally informed all residents of their intent to get quotes on the roof back in April - I already know they got quotes before this! - and despite stating to residents that a month later they'd announce the successful tender, that doesn't seem to have happened, nor are there any actual amounts stated nor any attempt to start the work. They vaguely said that residents would pay an extra £500 in fees next year, which clearly doesn't add up to a £60,000 roof repair. I've asked my solicitor to chase it but what a pain in the backside to have to ask for paperwork when they obviously know it's of interest to a buyer and they have no reason to withhold it...

Eh. I miscounted my days of work in a row. It was 16. Wiped out. I already know that this one day off will not be enough. But hey, what else would I be doing with my days apart from maybe lie about in a hot bath, do my laundry, or you know, wash my dishes? I really need to see the bottom of my sink again and eat something other than free sandwiches and meat pies.

Delays

So my solicitor (in her cone of silence) has never kept me abreast of what's happening. I had expected to exchange this week, and when I asked about an exchange date, only then does she decide to tell me that she has had to order searches from scratch as neither purchaser ever did them. This means we're looking at an extra two to three weeks.

Thanks for letting me know. Meh.

I am working 13 days straight because I am incapable of saying no. Last night I unexpectedly got an email that we're getting a 10% bonus again over Christmas; this is welcome news, but I'm going to feel like I earned it! The humans just Do.Not.Stop and anyone would think they consider it necessary to shop and inhale more food just because we're locked down. Not to mention the idiots who think it's funny to steal and to hurl empty bottles at the shop window.

On the plus side, I have a pie for dinner and haven't bought any Coke since the 3 cases ran out.

I have learned that new carpet for my new flat will cost me about £440, which is good news. I will need about £1000 for new heating, if the one in there isn't useful - the EPC indicates no heating, but there's some kind of heater clearly visible in the pictures, which tells me that the assessor probably never even visited the flat... no wonder the EPC is so terrible, maybe there is hope yet that I might get it up into the E range after all.

Current Level Of Tired:

I just installed the Blogger app in order to stay lying down rather than sit at my pc.

Yesterday was the last day before lockdown and I managed to get a long-overdue cut. The lady declared she couldn't do any shaving. She eventually agreed to try, and did a gorgeous short chopped undercut pixie for me. I am loving it. Her first ever and it's perfect 👌.

No news on an exchange date for my flat. Searches are all done... I think. I guess I just wait to hear what's next?

Work is now sort of odd now that we are back in lockdown. It's definitely less busy than last week, just the constant trickle of customers with their baskets full of "one, just in case". Big stores have had shelves stripped of toilet paper and pasta... again... but we are doing just fine. Boris reckons it is only for a month. I suspect it will be more like another six.

October Earnings

£10 SnapMyEats (I forgot to redeem this in September... see, I told you there was one)

PA £5.48

Storewards £2.00

Because I missed so much work due to that lurgy, I've been saying yes to all the overtime I can get. Yesterday I worked 8am until 11.15pm. This morning, I got up after 7 hours of sleep, ate breakfast and then thought I'd have a nap. I woke up six hours later!!! Obviously a bit of a waste of my one day off, but it seems like I needed the sleep. 

We are going back into lockdown. I already have more OT lined up and who knows what happens next... the store started getting busy even when the lockdown was just a rumour.

My main idiotic bank has locked one card and still can't get itself together to send out the other one. #standard really!

Verdict

I am here today to tell you all about the alternatives to having fresh milk in your coffee. I have researched these so that you don't have to. You're welcome.

UHT long-life milk: acceptable in coffee, tastes a bit odd, but acceptable

Powdered milk: if we are talking about skim powdered milk used in double strength, this is even better than UHT. Whole powdered milk tastes funny due to the cream

Coconut milk: acceptable (requires a LOT of milk to reach acceptable standard)

Almond milk: completely unacceptable

Don't get me wrong, almond milk is quite drinkable on its own and tastes fine. But in coffee, it leaves it looking mostly black even when half the cup is milk, and it then tastes like bitter black coffee with weirdness in it. I'm not even a crazy fan of coconut flavour but coconut milk, somehow, is nice.

In other news, despite having a week off work, almost no surveys have appeared on Prolific Academic, it is very, very slow. I'd love to say students are on holidays but I think realistically it's just become too popular with people wanting to do surveys.

New app on my phone named Streetbees. No idea if it's any good but if it turns out useful I will review it!

Counting down to home ownership. Thirty days to go. Maybe. I hope.

Today I Did A Thing

As I've just joined two new cash-for-receipts programmes (ZipZero and Storewards) I have updated my cool page-thingy with info on how to make money from your receipts. Clicky here to get all the info.

Does this mean I will faithfully upload all my receipts everywhere, on time? Oh dear reader of course not, I am still the same old lazy bum who procrastinates endlessly. I did manage to do my laundry on my day off, and wash up, and eat lunch rather than just binge on crisps. Small things, right?

Took my vitamins today ✓ look at me adulting like a boss!

Still on my list of stuff to do is endless shift leader training. I'm slightly irritated that I'm not being paid for this. I should be, but I realise it's something not worth rocking the boat over.

I had a £5 voucher from LIDL which has now expired... I would have to have spent £25 to get it and there was simply not £25 worth of groceries that I need. I have a full freezer and a full fridge, plus cleaning products, toiletries, washing detergent and softener coming out my ears. #firstworldproblems indeed. Oh well, I probably would have come home with novelty socks, an angle grinder and a set of maracas.

Same problem, different flavour: my new bank account which requires 30 transactions per month to net me a £5 bonus. I don't go shopping 30 times a month and can't figure out what to buy.

These are the first world problems of a non-spender!

Mood: artificial orange flavour.

Disgusting Snot Face

Predictably, not long after my blood sugar crash thing, I started feeling that my nose wasn't right, and today I am in full-blown headcold mode. I've had to undo my overtime for today and I have already called in sick for tomorrow as well. I don't think this is coronavirus (no cough apart from when I inhale my green snot) so I am not worried, just thoroughly unimpressed at my stuffed up nose and losing days of work.

It's a little bit disturbing, because I have definitely picked this up from my work colleagues - despite being careful, we have all done enough to have caught and spread a virus among ourselves and this time we are just lucky that it's only a cold.

I have been bored enough to empty and defrost my freezer. Due to me shoving it brim-full one evening, a tiny pocket of air was getting in, which started an escalating cycle of icing up around the door, making it harder and harder to close and letting in more air and ice. Iced up freezers run far less efficiently and cost money. Also, I'm astounded at what was actually in this tiny freezer, none of which I paid a penny for:

• 3 rump steaks, 2 gammon steaks, 2 chicken breasts
• 2 pizzas
• 2 trays of chicken mini roasts with sausages and stuffing balls
• pack of fish goujons
• 7 packs of butter and a half-pack of buttersoft
• 2 packs of goat's cheese
• 24 chipolata sausages
• 2 packs chicken goujons (one is hot & spicy)
• cooked sliced chicken breast
• pack of bacon
• chopped onions, spinach, green beans
• hash browns

I mean, that is an insane amount of frozen food and this could be at least 30 dinners. Half of it was too difficult to reach easily so here was me thinking I only had half a dozen dinner options! Not to mention there's an ice box compartment above my fridge which is brim-full of more vegetables.

I'm going to cook one pizza today as they've been on the "too hard" list for ages (needing to cut them up to fit them in my oven) and it's really not a great idea to keep food forever instead of using it up. Plus, it's really nice to feel organised, and the amount of space that just one pizza has freed up has taught me a valuable lesson... I need to stop hoarding pizzas 😁

Postscript: I put my symptoms into the Covid-19 tracker, including the cough, even though I don't really think it counts as a cough. Fifteen pages of questions, email verification, far too much in the way of collecting private data (I think the average user would fail to even get through it all) concluding with a message that they'll credit check me with TransUnion to confirm my identity.

Fuck right off. You'll do no such thing. I have zero interest in my current temporary address going onto my credit history.

This means I can't have a home postal test, there are no local test centre appointments and the nearest drive-in centre is more than two hours' drive. I was told to isolate for ten days and this would mean no income for ten days.

End result is I uninstalled the app, no Covid-19 test for me and I'm going back to work as soon as I stop sniffling. What a complete and utter bullshit farce. No wonder it's spreading across the country.

Delicious Snack Boxes

...are no longer delicious. I'm over them completely. But for half marks I am attempting to keep at them with different contents. I am currently drinking day-over milk in my coffee and when it dies an undrinkable death, it will be "switch to UHT milk" time to use up what's in the cupboard. I am grateful for all the free cashews I have in the snack stash because they make snack boxes endurable.

Work Bestie, answering the phone to Sister Store, told them I don't want their overtime because I'm already working at Home Store today. I tried not to show irritation. I went straight over to sister store when I finished work, apologised for the "misunderstanding", and ended up working until close. It was even with my favourite crew whom I adore working with. I see bestie's point, he thought I was exhausted and knew we struggle to fill shifts because people are busy elsewhere, but I can't be saying no to the extra hours right now with these kinds of bills. I will have very little left each month after my repayments and that does not make for a cushy budget.

Neighbour From Hell was a triple team this weekend, it was his weekend with his bratling. Honestly a single room isn't meant to host three humans and I shouldn't have to listen to it through paper walls... this is my life. But I am counting down the days and this shall pass.

Weird: due to the whack timing of my payday, I got £96 for Universal Credit. I (again) don't think I'll get anything next month, but whether I do or not, it will probably be the last because (touch wood) I will then be able to tell them that I no longer have rent to pay. The loss of the rent component will take my allowance down so low that even my measly contracted work hours would reduce any UC payment to zero - for every pound earned you lose 63 pence of UC. I wonder how many MPs would be ok with an effective tax rate of 63% for working as a supermarket checkout operator? Seems equitable, doesn't it... tax the living fuck out of the absolute poorest of society. Punitive measures which work so well at enticing the unemployed to get out and find a job (sic).

Currently eating peri-peri chicken crisps for breakfast (free) with plans for mango and crumpets as snacks and crackers, salsa and chicken for dinner... possibly with green beans (all free). One perk of living alone is that if you want to eat weird dinners, you can!

Dinner for a day

Chicken with peri sauce, grape cherry tomatoes, brussels sprouts ♥

I am wiped out. I decided to take a nap on my day off and the sun crept into my window, overheated me, and I awoke with my blood sugar on the floor and sweating my brain out. I still feel revolting four hours later, but at least I'm not shaking like a leaf anymore and at least it's my day off.

I am watching old episodes of Property Ladder and I just saw Sarah Beeny saying that paying a 10% home deposit with a credit card is madness... I have to wonder what she would think of someone like me whose property effectively has a CC deposit and the "mortgage" is a mixture of savings and an 11% p.a. personal loan 😂

Still, it is a calculated risk and unlike the developers that she works with, I am not (currently) planning a large renovation, nor relying on either rental income or a resale profit.

I forgot how much I love this show ♥

Wartime Preparations

In view of the fact that my debt repayments are about to go through the roof, think it's high time that I took my food spending seriously. I have an enormous perk with my job and that's of free food. I can easily get hold of all the bread, fruit, vegetables and snack foods that I need, and as long as I'm careful to strike while the iron is hot, I can also get enough free protein, which comes in a "feast or famine" pattern (for example, I might get three rump steaks and two boxes of chicken on one day and then there's nothing for another five days).

So why on earth does a card-carrying frugalist do things like buy a meal deal for her lunch at work? It's quite frankly disgusting. (Not the meal, because to be honest the mango smoothie is amazing, but you get my drift.) Every man and his dog knows you can eat cheaper than that, and when the cheaper would be "free" I am just throwing money away.

Self-brownie points.

Anyway. I have just assembled five lunchy-snack-boxes for this week. Each of them has a small carb snack, nuts, some dried fruit, and a couple of little chockies. On my ten-hour shift days they also have a Belvita soft bake, which are awesome and which were also free. My workplace always has free bread and fruit, so there's really no need for anything else. Plus I can certainly do without bacon sarnies and wraps dripping with mayo.

I have also resolved to do better with breakfast. There's plenty of cereal here and even some "on the go" porridge bars. They're almost as awful as the Soreen bars in my snack boxes, but they fill the stomach.

I am much more confident that I'll eat the snack boxes than whether I'll actually stick to a breakfast routine... we shall see.

Behaving: I have run out of coke and not bought any more. I'm waiting until pay day but let's see whether I can wait longer.

Accepted!

Cautiously excited! Also scared. Also internally singing. They have to announce my successful offer by public notice and allow five days for anyone wanting to gazump me. So I'm going to sweat for five days, at which point I will relax back a bit into mere stress. 

Then I'll be on don't-spend alert.

I've just eaten a free chicken pasta (it's not very nice but it was free) with some free salad and I'm drinking free coffee and contemplating some free fruit. I had cereal for breakfast then stuck to my freebie snack box today, felt starving and ate a free donut. I told a friend this evening that I might spend all my leftover cash on a can of coke for Christmas!

I Made An Offer

of £40K. The agent got "some" figures from the management company - I'm not really sure which one is the slower communicator here - indicating that I'd be up for about £4-5k in a cash call. So I made my offer. There is another offer on the table from yesterday, which I'm told is slightly higher, but they are in a chain. The agent says that makes me the (perhaps) better offer.

I now have to show him proof of funds, so I've spent the afternoon moving money about and thanks to stupid Covid the banks were closed early, so I'm off to deposit a cheque tomorrow and do a bit more cash money moving.

I should hear back from the agent by Friday or Monday on whether my offer has been accepted, touch wood. Even if it's a yes, there's a big danger of gazumping here if a chain-free moneybags turns up, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it (read:cry).

My current landlord told me they were coming today to bleed the radiator. She didn't show up. She's a nice enough person but if I manage to buy that flat, I'm going to conveniently not tell her I've bought a place of my own. I'm just going to indicate that I'm moving (with plenty of notice) and that living next to Hell Woman was hell. I feel sorry for the lady in flat 6 and whoever next rents my place and I feel like they deserve a bit of peace!

Upcoming: truly spending nothing. I am initiating myself tonight by eating a pie from the freezer with a salad which is two days past date. I've already had a croissant and grapes this morning, and a chicken wrap for lunch. Total spend: nothing. I have a full freezer, a full cupboard, and long-life milk. I can behave. It's almost a proper challenge.

Scared. Excited. Impatient. Hopeful.

Coronavirus Revisited

So it never really went away, but I suppose we have been lulled into a false sense of security. We finally have the Covid-19 app. It eats your battery non-stop. I've had it installed for a week and it lit up for the first time last night, advising that I'd been in contact with someone who has tested positive.

That's it. No advice on what I should do, no indication where this was, when it was, or who it was.

Ten minutes of googling indicates that it isn't even a genuine notification. Great. I have a useless battery-sucker on my phone. I can't wait for next time.

Something new and different: my arsehole neighbours are still arguing, screaming day and night, waking me up, and keeping me up, and they still reek of pot. Yay. Neighbour three-doors-away and I got chatting this afternoon and he's going to put in another complaint. You know it's bad when it annoys someone through three walls.

My Extra Cash For September

PA £14.86

I am sure I am missing one other payout and I can't remember what it was. But either way it's clear my motivation is lacking! I have hit 42 hours this week and I will admit to being exhausted. I still love my job but I'm frustrated with corporate types which have completely blocked my manager from employing extra staff when it is 100% clear they are needed - in theory, eight checkout operators is all we need, but in reality six of them are inflexible and refuse to work any overtime. End result is that only two of us will fill all the missing shifts and the problem is replicated in other stores, so they're all desperately trying to poach us for their own missing shifts.

Eh.

I have just spoken to the agent selling not-right ground-floor studio (45K asking price which SSTC for 54, then fell through, then SSTC for 45). It is back on the market for the third time, this flat has fallen through twice. He admitted that the roof problem, which I've known about for a year, is why the last SSTC fell through. When I first viewed the building a year ago (different flat) the leaking roof had ruined a newly-renovated top-floor flat and pulled down the ceiling in the flat below. Another resident in the building told us that the whole building is freezing cold in winter and the roof repair was going to be very expensive, with a cash call for every flat in the building.

The agent unfortunately has been given no cost figures by the property's management team and thus the last seller pulled out. He even let slip that they had offered 45K, learned of the roof problems then offered £40 and it had been rejected. These are useful figures for me to know.

It is in a truly lovely area and a short walk to the beach. On a regular sale taking around three months, I can meet the asking price, but I'd be inclined to offer the same 40K if I don't know the roof cost. He's going to keep me in the loop.

Free from sister store: five bunches of flowers (I already have a bunch here so I put them out for my neighbours).

Hmm Well

Manager FB-messaged me (yay official comms!) and surprise surprise another shift this week. I'm already on the equivalent of 34½ hours and the overtime-overtime will make this just under 40 - third week in a row. At least this week it's over five days instead of six. I have resolved to say no if anyone tries to touch my two days off this week. I like the overtime but I.Am.Tired.

She also says I should hear about getting shift-manager-trained in the next few weeks! Good news. The new shift leader, who got the position I wanted, has still not started and nobody knows when he's coming... including my boss. Hmm.

Absolutely zero properties on the market at 50k, still.

My credit score has been massacred from hard searches. Sigh. I've given up on this personal loans crap and gotten myself a new subprime credit card again, I'll just keep saying yes to increases.

Also applied for and got a new current account with my shitty, shitty main provider, whose shitty IT system is still shitty. It's paying a £5/month bonus if you pay for 30 things in a month, so look out self-checkout because I'll be buying a crapton of individual items to get my bonus. They have an incorrect address in the system that they've promised me has been removed four times, can't match me to my existing internet banking login and made a new one AGAIN (fml that's another phone call for me to hopefully find someone to merge them AGAIN) so now let's see if they can even manage to post out my card... I won't hold my breath, my credit card from them never arrived either... my loan application with them crashed by the way and they still hard searched me. I wonder whether it was even rejected 😂

I have installed the track and trace app for Covid-19. I fully expect to be told I've been near someone who had it. Occupational hazard of seeing 500-odd customers in a shift.

Grrr: the annoying next door neighbour has hung all her wet clothes on my airer while my stuff is in the washing machine. There's no way I'm speaking to her (I've made complaints - she isn't meant to be living there, she stinks and is noisy). So now I have to pile her stuff somewhere, take my airer to my room and seem like a jerk. Great.

I Can't Help It

 Since The Great Disappointment™ I have done the following thrifty things:

• cleared out my fridge
• toasted some muffins from the freezer
• tried the soft butter spread J bought; that's a no; saved it for cooking!
• taken a frozen block of (free) butter out of the freezer
• used up some old frozen vegies
• taken some frozen chicken out to cook tonight
• done two surveys on Prolific Academic
• snapped some receipts
• used shrapnel aka loose change to buy milk
• eaten cereal that I don't really like
• used some nutella that is "expired"

I have a glut of stored items where I've been less than discerning and simply taken food home that I never get around to using. I was forced into being slightly more choosy once I ran out of room, but I really should learn to eat what I already have, because it avoids me discarding food which won't fit.

I am still a bit gloomy. I don't think it's even just about the missed flat, I'm having a bit of a "what is my life?" thing. But hey, this will pass.

Sad Faces :(

So the apartment (predictably) went for £46,500, which is £4k more than I have. Sigh. Lots.

I had kind of decided to pay out my loan if I can't find anything by the end of the year and now I waver... it is hard to let go of the dream! Having a bit of a moment right now, feeling pretty stupid, like I shouldn't have dared to hope. There are absolutely no other properties on the market even at around £46,500.

.

Ok, I took myself off for a nap and am feeling slightly more human now. It's disappointing, mainly because I was looking forward to starting the countdown to moving! But the fact there's a tenant in there, well the flat really wasn't perfect. Must keep the faith. Must sit tight until I can arrange to pay 50k.

I finally had a sit-down-chat with manager. She says that I could easily do the job that I didn't get, the roadblock was that the training academy is closed due to Covid. She wants to send me to the academy once it's open again - I asked why since it would hasten me moving to another store (I can't see any other opportunities in my own store given that the other shift leaders are part of the furniture). She admitted that she knew it, but felt like she should develop me anyway. I am comforted by the fact that the shifty I work most with in sister store is also earmarked to go. It will be nice to know someone there.

My boss has also done something exemplary with my new shifts. I was disappointed when she'd told me that head office was stopping her changing my contract hours up much, but she has gone out of her way to arrange this for me as best she could. She has given me three more unofficially permanent shifts, meaning I have a steady 28 hours per week for at least the next few months. I definitely misjudged her. 😍

Spendy McSpenderson: definitely this personal loan that's sitting about and yet to be used on a property.

Wendy I Love You

Wendy at my union, whatever they're paying you, they should double it 😍

She found me a new conveyancer and even checked that he would be able to work at short notice and in a short time frame. I duly sent him an email asking what kind of info he would need and whether he could quote me - and it is going to be some £900 cheaper because this one doesn't charge a premium to work on an auction.

Phew.

Nervous now. Hurry up, time.

Watch battery replaced, all good, yay.

Annoyed Is Not The Word

A nice conveyancer, arranged by my union, quoted me for the apartment I want about a month ago. Including a £550 charge for dealing with an auction. Last week I accepted her quote and instructed them. A completely different solicitor from the same firm then began sending emails asking for info they already had - only to this afternoon announce that he won't be able to to work with me due to the timescales of auctions and that he "wanted to be up front" about it.

I am beyond disgusted, they knew it was an auction the whole time and are only now declining to work with me, with six days to go? I have obviously sent a very dirty email to my union suggesting they stop endorsing such an unprofessional company and asking if they can recommend anyone else... but gah, I'm completely screwed now (putting it politely). The union lady has called another firm who'll be in touch this afternoon and they're aware that I've been let down, so fingers crossed this one works out.

My nose is blocked up and it's very irritating... I am just coming off a minor cold (not corona not corona not corona) and my overuse of nasal sprays for the last few weeks has left me dependant on them so I block up within a few hours. I am trying not to spray on my days off but I just hate being a mouth-breather!!! I have no choice when I go to work because who needs mouth-breathing in a bloody mask?

My sweet little kettle brought over from Finland has finally bitten the dust 😢 Fortunately I have the one that I got off freecycle for J, and it takes up more room, but at this point I'm grateful to have a kettle.

Since it's the week of things falling apart, my watch has stopped dead. I hope it's just the battery and I've ordered a new one, which I'll change myself using the screwdriver kit I bought last year.

The seller messed me around with the lightsuit, wanting me to pay to airmail it back to China before they would refund me, funnily enough the moment I ignored that and hit "return requested" through eBay with a note that the seller had already agreed to a refund, they refunded me in full...

New neighbour man in J's old flat is apparently a double team, since she is always, always there and they wake me up at stupid o'clock with their arguing and screaming. They also like the green stuff. Living in this house has suddenly stopped being a shoebox inside an oasis. I know it's influencing my decision on the auction flat and now I just want to buy yesterday.

Free: two dozen red roses 😍

It's been a pretty depressing post here all round so I feel obligated to say: things will be ok. I don't live close to the bone, I can always deal with an unexpected cost in some way, there's always a solution to be had, the world hasn't ended. Life is good. x