One Chunk

One of my cards has given me a limit increase and allowed me to do a balance transfer onto the one about to end. This is good, meaning I only need to redraw £2,000 off my loan - which is currently down to £11,000! I am very pleased about that mental boost, and I gave the computer screen a hearty middle finger when they quoted me 29.9% to extend the loan. I personally think the current 11.5% is extortionate enough, thank you.

My car insurance is up for renewal, and like a good frugalist I have done a comparison search. Fortunately, my existing insurer is the cheapest. Unfortunately, it means planning for having £360 in the bank to pay for it. I could pay by the month except I object to paying an extra £56 for the privilege, which is definitely higher interest than my loan costs, so it isn't worth it. Right now I'm going to remember that I am on my fourth year of insurance, and that in 2018 it was more than £800 due to being a "new driver" (in the UK at least). Yeah, this year's quote isn't so bad after all 😁 and since I'm putting it on an ordinary credit card, that statement won't fall due until September 👍 and I will clear the balance in full so I get no interest charges. 👍👍

New work contract: done. 👌

Precarity

That's it; that's the word I have been looking for, the one that describes what it's like to live on constant watch, always careful, always on alert. I saw it this week in an article that (to summarise) points out how much more often it is women who end up with little pension and living hand-to-mouth.

Most images of "teetering" seem to be of men. Ok.

Generally, my risk-taking is actually well-thought-out and meticulously planned. What I didn't count on was the joy of Long Covid (and to be honest, I didn't expect my previous job to be a complete dumpster fire that I needed to escape).

I was telling a friend yesterday that my game plan was to be debt free on this flat in seven years. But as I did the mental sums, I realised that if nothing changes, I will get there in around four. This assumes no large spends. Then I remembered that I actually have three possible game plans in the making - the "renovate and upsize" plan; the "buy a camper and AirBnB my place" plan, and the "buy a second property" plan. The nice thing about precarity is that since I can't afford to move on any of them, I don't have to choose which one I go forward with. The annoying part is feeling like you are well-and-truly stuck in one spot, and barely moving on the debt treadmill.

And so you default to the only real plan you can move on. The one where you pay bills, buy unbranded food, hope that nothing unexpected happens, and repeat again next month. Fortunately, if something unexpected does happen for me, well, meh, I'll just sigh a bit and add another year to the debt repayments. Not everyone has that flexibility.

Another friend once said that their parents had lived so close to the bone all their lives, they retired not knowing how to spend money.

I think that will be me. First world problems, eh?

Good thing: my flowers are starting to look lovely 😀 Cheap thrills!

Almost Enough

In what is hopefully good news, Big Boss asked me today if I would like a bigger contract, and says he will sort out the paperwork. 👍

That will be a nice relief, assuming it all goes forward. I have mostly been getting close to the income I need, but having a contract which will cover bills is going to make things less stressful. It should kick in by the end of August.

I have come to accept that simply eating expensive protein bars will not reduce my weight by magic. So I have decided to cut them down. In their place I will arrange other snacks with slightly fewer calories. Wish me luck and wish me discipline.

Unease: There's another interest-free period ending in a months' time, and I don't have a new interest-free arrangement lined up to switch it to. I am not thrilled about redrawing from my loan, but that looks like the plan. Mainly I just liked the psychological boost of seeing it down to only 13k owing. I must remember that it will be down there again eventually.

Adulting: currently eating ancient frozen vegetables to use them up. I am also armed with small containers of Nesquik for work, as I realllly need to stop buying flavoured milk for my workday lunches, even if it is yummy.

Supermarket Lasagne Hack

If (like me) you purchased two frozen lasagne dinners from Big Supermarket and were dismayed to discover that they taste like cardboard, never fear! I have the perfect hack for you. Simply take a little bit of ketchup, and spread it neatly across the top of your cardboard lasagne. Just like that, it's edible!

Hack #2: Brown sauce on your chicken makes it taste like you're not eating the same dinner twice in a row.

It turned out that I did get a few extra hours this week. Enough to cover essentials. But I'm tired of working over five separate days, and never getting two days off together. It's been like this for six weeks running when I could be doing the work over three and having proper time to myself.

Waaah, I sound like a complainypants! Must remember that I'm lucky to have the hours that I've got.

I have received my shiny new card and made transfers about the place, which have not actually landed yet because it's the weekend. Lunch today was a cheese omelette with vegies, and was really tasty. Adulting: rinsed off my car and put air in the tyres for once.

Because I Am A Child

I have bought myself a battery-operated mini fan which comes with a water squirty spray. It is awesome and was worth every penny of its £2 price tag.

Because I am not a child I have also bought two frozen margaritas, in peach and in passionfruit flavour, as there is an important piece of scientific research to be done, namely, which one is nicer when imbibed in the back garden from a 50p reduced mason drinking jar which was missing its plastic straw (don't worry, I've got a stainless straw I can use).

Today I've been a little bit lethargic in my thinking. I feel a little bit like life is passing me by while I quibble over saving two pence on something, or that I'm never going to escape this era of perpetual financial fear. I maybe brought it on myself, when Poppet (broke as always) had no interest in using her staff discount card, or working a few more minutes "because that's only a pound". I heard myself saying that every pound matters but I felt like Ebenezer Scrooge.

Here's hoping that I can snap myself out of it tomorrow on my day off.

Adulting admin done: Cancelled my Britbox before the free period ends. Unpacked and set up new micro. Actually fixed vacuum to make it suck, and vacuumed the carpet, which now looks grubby rather than filthy (it's awful carpet, with stains and just generally shabby; however, it stops the floor feeling cold, and its replacement is very low on the spending priority list). Flung some dirt about, ie, repotted some plants.

New Microwave

So my previous lovely red number has bitten the dust. I know I am to blame, it rusted under the turntable because I just didn't wipe it out when I'd cooked really steamy food. I knew this was coming for a while, but yesterday it decided to start with the sparks, so that's it, unplugged and decommissioned. The lovely recycling men happily took it off my hands as they did their round through my street today 😀

I went out to buy one from Facebook Marketplace but it had the same tell-tale rust! So I'm not throwing cash at something which will do the same thing in a few months. In the end I've ordered one from Argos and used a free £10 voucher from SnapMyEats to lessen the blow a bit. Hey, not bad to get a few quid off for free right? I'm also going to get 50p or so from TopCashBack for the purchase. Win-win.

Drinks in the newly-cleared back garden with neighbours from #8. Including a butterfly which sat on my shoulder more than once! Lovely way to pass a few hours on a warm summer's night 😀

Almost Annoying

One of my interest-free credit card periods comes to an end next week. And me being me, I just procrastinated on it and paid every spare cent into it, vainly hoping it'd somehow magically be knocked down to zero in time on my pauper's wage 😄

Spoiler alert: it has not.

Anyhoo, last night I got a notification that I was 100% qualified for a new 16-month balance transfer card. So I started the application, waiting for my denial, but no! I have a brand new shiny card arriving in the mail and I shall use it to transfer my balance again and concentrate on chipping away at the loan.

Bonus info: right now I am about £8k ahead in repayments on the loan, and having parts of it on interest-free cards instead is projected to save me a whopping £17,000 worth of interest over the life of the loan. Because this loan has fixed repayments, the other way to look at it is that it would be paid out four-and-a-half years early. Get in 👌

Spending Accuracy

So I went back the Big Shop in my third attempt to burn through my voucher money, and I had success! My very balanced shop contained twelve deodorants, a full freezer, four jars of coffee and a pack of flower seedlings which I definitely did not need. But I spent my voucher balance exactly. Booyeah.

I then took a 3 mile detour for some insanely cheap fuel only to learn that it was closed. Notsoyeah.

My work is next to a large pharmacy-gift-shop-thing and twice this week the whole shop was closed, with the pharmacist just using the drop window to fill prescriptions. Lack of shop assistant staff, apparently. This is bad news (the pharmacy attracts customers to come into our shop) but also good news (scarcity of workers pushes wages up overall). It's all a little bit odd in the world right now, there are definitely worse jobs than in showing customers through the perfumes and bandages, but hey all the rules went out the window when Covid landed.

New rota has (yet again) five days of 4-hour shifts. Not my favourite thing, so I'll just try being grateful to have a job, and maybe attempt an extra gym session.

Freebie: I came out of work and discovered an unopened apple & mint drink in the carpark. Yes thanks. I downed it on the way home from the gym, and it tasted like summer 😀

This And That

I got off my behind and tidied up my plants. Not all of them, but some.

I also did a few surveys for a few pennies into my PayPal.

This weeks' pay was a good one and affords a little bit of breathing space (not much, but, it was 10 hours of overtime and I need four each week to break even). Next week will be decent too. The following week is five days of 4h shifts, none of which end at closing time 😭 This is bad. 4h shifts have no break, so I can't shave time off my breaks to get extra pay, and the closing-time shifts always run into overtime. Sigh. I will have to hope I get called in to cover a sick call.

I unexpectedly met DilEmma in person, as she showed up unannounced to get a new fire risk assessment done. This sounds like DilEmma is considering doing her job, but realistically, we'll see whether anything actually gets fixed.

I sorted out my DIY tumble dryer sheets today. My flat smells absolutely lovely! Eight cheap facewashers were procured from my work for the tidy sum of £2.09, which happens to be only ten pence dearer than ONE box of tumble dryer sheets. And considering I've had three huge bottles of softener from Old Work for ages, I'm not even going to count the cost of the liquid for at least a year.

DIY Tumble Dryer Sheets

Handy drying chair.

So we all know that line-drying is best (and mostly that's what I do) but there are times I just can't, especially when it comes to my bedsheets. I've often been annoyed that the washer spins most of the fabric softener straight down the drain - some washers even rinse it out! - so I was thinking that dryer sheets might be better value than liquid fabric softener, until I saw the cost! 😭

So in my travels I have read about a dozen sets of instructions for making your own tumble dryer sheets. I've tried several of them myself and most are terrible or would actually be flammable. Never fear, I've culled the bad ideas and collected the smart ones, and here's a DIY for tumble dryer sheets you can make at home, that actually work and smell divine.

You will need:

• cotton facewashers (an unusual colour helps keep them separate, or use old ones)
• fabric softener
• a small container or bowl
• a few minutes of your time.

Method: Using the normal cap measure for your fabric softener, pour half a standard dose. Use the same amount of water. Then put one facewasher in to soak up all of the liquid. Squeeze it gently to spread it through the fabric then hang it up to dry indoors. Repeat with the rest of the facewashers. Once they are dry, you can keep them in a basket near your dryer. Between uses, you should put them into a normal wash (without softener).

Tips and hints:

Never use sponges! They're flammable and could cause a fire.

Old torn towels will fray, but if you've got an old towel or pure cotton shirts, you could hem the pieces. 

Don't use microfibre, or anything cotton-blend, they don't actually absorb well - synthetics repel liquid and are not technically "wet". 100% cotton will pick up the steam from your wet clothes and release the softener evenly.

When Statistics Suck

80% of Lloyds bank customers (or, almost 21 million people) have less than £500 in their accounts.

Two million Britons have been late paying at least one bill every month this year.

One million people have cancelled their gym membership this year.

The Trussell Trust has given out 2 million food parcels in the past twelve months.

Just for something nice: Boris Johnson has resigned.

There is hope.

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.

I Took A Trip

...out to Big Supermarket to try to use the rest of my voucher. I mostly failed. I had figured I could buy protein bars, but owee, they were £2 each. That's just disgusting, to be frank, and even though using a voucher makes them "free", I'd rather not spend it on that out of principal. (My own work sells them for 89p - £1.15, which is still a lot of money for a single snack, and surely you would think that a Big Supermarket could offer decent prices...)

I forgot to get coffee and I came home with still £40 left on the voucher, so it really wasn't worth the drive.

Also, I bought a frozen pizza, which is definitely not low-carb. Demolished it last night then fell into a food coma.

At least today I got a good walk in, with the incline turned on and for an extra half hour 👍

Reeee-calculating

Now that I have a better idea of how much my housing (freehold) expenses are, it's more apparent that my work contract doesn't cover my bills. Sigh. Today I am pondering the world where people on social media fire abuse at the "entitled" people who own their own home, as if we didn't sacrifice and work hard for the roof above our heads (and also, for the roof above theirs).

At this point I turned off Facebook for the day 😂 and spent an hour signing up for market research projects. Well, half an hour. Presently procrastinating about doing some more garden work (it's overcast, so I shouldn't risk getting wet in my front garden, right?) and generally avoiding doing a few £2 surveys.

Today's frugal thing: I didn't drink the iced coffee-milk that I made at work yesterday, so I brought it home and have been using it to make my hot coffees. That's at least five pence saved 😂 it's also a little bit cold today, but I've thrown a blanket on and have so far ignored the heating.

Amazing Surprise

So I told Good Boss that if he deleted my extra shift I'd be under my minimum contracted hours. Big Boss piped up saying he'd already deleted it but gave me an extra day to get my hours up. I come home and check, and surprise! No extra day in sight and again, I'm under hours. It's getting seriously annoying now. This penny-pinching to the Nth degree with nobody working a single hour extra... I have messaged them to let them know, but if they don't do anything, I'm tempted to just turn up for that missing shift and advise that since they'll have to pay me whether I work or not, they might as well let me work...

They keep blaming "the system" but clearly it's misbehaving because they keep messing with things.

In an actually amazing surprise, I tried one of the lemon flapjack protein bars today and they are absolutely delicious.

Also I went to the gym but then bought a chicken burger from McDonalds... so, not a great day. Since I had starved myself most of the day, I haven't exactly eaten too many calories, but you sure as heck do not lose weight when you eat burgers.

For Something Different

...the new rota is again under my contracted hours. I have picked up an extra shift and this time I'm going to tell Good Boss that if it disappears, he'll need to put it back for me so that I stay over contract. I have no idea whether this will work. I also added a few hours this week (also don't know if this will work either).

My Amazon delivery arrived of protein and nut bars. I'm going to try one for breakfast tomorrow. I also bought a meal replacement shake product thing, it tastes ok, but to be honest I felt like I'd just swapped my meal with a glass of milk. And clearly, a glass of milk doesn't keep you full until the next meal. I suppose it's more about getting into the habit than anything else. But with my track record at sticking to things, let's see whether I can even manage to empty the tin 😁

I got a bunch of empty plant pots from Freecycle this week and have transferred some begonias today (this is very impressive as I just worked eight days straight). I also potted up two more hanging baskets, and I'm hoping to sell the lot once they settle and look nice. I have three more hanging baskets to put together later this week.

Rota Meltdown

Last weekend I accidentally showed up to work "early". Turns out that it wasn't me making an error. This week two shifts of mine have been changed and two have been deleted completely for next week. 😑 This Just.Aint.Funny while trying to get on top of hideous bills... sometimes I think systems worked better as a pen and paper.

Very Dramatic™: I had a £10 promo voucher to use on Amazon that required me to spend £30 to get it, which should have made my purchase £20, only it was THE MOST DIFFICULT THING TO QUALIFY FOR IN THE WORLD because they exclude all the best-priced sellers. By the time I actually made the promo appear I was fed up and not going to search to the ends of the earth to find the best deals again so long story short: just under £35 worth of protein bars arrive at my place next week 😂 I mean, I had gift vouchers just sitting there too, so might as well spend them on something.

I really don't like Amazon and wish I didn't get paid in Amazon vouchers from so many websites!

Day 1 of trying to go low-calorie, high-protein (again): handful of cashews for breakfast, handful of grapes. Lunch: protein bar. Dinner: omelette, small noodles and mixed veg.

Then I got hungry and ate another protein bar... oh well, will try again tomorrow. 

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).

This Week's Top Comments

1. Customer: Do I want a bag? No, I've got dozens of them in the back of my car. The place where plastic bags go to die.

2. Customer1 (while the sun is in full scorch mode and the day is looking glorious): It's so lovely outside. What time do you finish, love? Me: 6pm. Customer: Oh, the weather is awful outside. Customer2: It's raining. Customer3: It's terribly cold and windy. Customer2: I wish I'd brought my coat.

3. (Customer's daughter chats happily to me during the transaction, then runs off and presses the "sad face" reaction smiley at the store exit.) Mother: Why did you press the sad face? Kid: Because I miss my friends from school. Mother: It's been a day and a half. Me: What did I do wrong? Now my boss is going to ask me what I did wrong to make you sad! Mother: Oh no, you'll get her in trouble! Go, quick, and press a happy face before she gets in trouble! (Kid pelts full-speed to go and fix her feedback while the mother and I laugh.)

4. Customer: I only came in for one thing! Oh, I bet everyone says that. Me: And then they tell me they've left their bags in the car. Customer: I really did leave my bags in the car! (Pauses...) You just have so many things that I think, ooh, I need one of those. Me: Imagine working here! Customer: I'd have no wages. And I didn't even get the thing I came in for. Me: Bingo! (She managed all five of our top-heard comments in one transaction.)

5. The "ping" system for opening new tills was broken, and we no longer heard the "PING, We'll be opening till three in a moment, till number three will be opening shortly" over the PA system. I resort to using the headset, which only staff can hear: Ashton, could you open till 3 please? Ashton: You didn't ping me: Me: The pinger is broken. Ashton: Say "ping" then. Me: What? It's broken. Ashton: Say "ping". Me: PING, Ashton could you jump on 3? Ashton: PING I'll be opening till number three shortly.

6. Elderly lady, who has already bought her neighbour's few things, and is now ready to pay for her own small bag: Now, be gentle with me when you tell me MY total. Me: That's four hundred and seventy-eight pounds twenty, please. Lady: laughs uproariously and says she's going to use that when she knocks on her neighbour's door in a few hours.

7. Customer acts like an absolute dick while his quiet & polite friend was shopping and I can see he's "one of those" who needs the whole shop to hear him talk. His first item comes up as "unknown". Customer: Oh, it must be free, then. Hahahaha! Me: Haha. (I grab a £2 pack of cans with a torn box.) Customer: Can I get this half price? Me: The contents are fine, so we can't do that sorry. Customer: Well how about a better price? Me: Eight pounds. Customer: What? Me: It's a better price for me! Customer: How much for your phone number? Me: Eight hundred pounds. Customer's friend: (hysterical laughter at full volume)

Win Some, Lose Some

My new future schedule got published and I am only working three days that week! Which is fantastic. Unfortunately it happens via an 11-hour day which starts as warehouse work. I don't honestly think I can cope with that kind of long day, so if it doesn't magically change by tomorrow I will have to beg Nice Boss to undo that mammoth shift for me.

Poppet has started and impressed everyone, as I knew she would. She doesn't quite believe me, but that's to be expected!

I am still excited by having a washer/dryer, and have behaved accordingly, filling my washing baskets with clean clothes and running the dryer for items that really would have been fine to dry on the rack. Yes, I'm a wasteful child. I have also ignored the piles of boxes that I really should have sorted first. Sort of. I emptied five of them and sorted another five, that's a start, right?

Idiot property manager, DilEmma, has revised her demand and added a few hundred and made it due by next month. She has not, so far, explained how she arrived at this (incorrect) amount. I have sent her another email politely advising that she's a moron she is mistaken, and inviting her to do what she legally is supposed to do, that is, give me the dang paperwork. Particularly, you cannot start a years' accounts with a balance carried forward of £0 if you have not done the previous year's accounts. You simply do not KNOW the balance carried forward until the previous year is done.

In my travels I also discovered that one of the itemised charges was supposed to be a credit. She even named it "Credit" but then, inexplicably, debited it. To every flat, in the same way. Sigh.

I am contemplating a new blog tag of "idiocy".