AshesFromStars

So, after I am paid on Friday the 17th August I only have three more pay days until Christmas. Granted I will have an extra £500 on my last wage from my savings scheme which I pay £100 into every month plus my quarterly bonus which I’ll get in my August wage (I think that it’s £141, which is better than nothing).

Between now and Christmas I have lots of money going out which I don’t normally have. My passport, for one, will be about £60 or something. My driver’s license is £40 (I think?). Our holiday to Tenerife will knock about £400 out my hands and driving lessons come in at £20 per hour. Ouch. I also hope to sit my two driving tests before Christmas, coming in at around £90 just for them. Plus I have my monthly bus tickets, dig money to my mother, paying off my overdraft, lunch at work, cigarettes, going out from time to time and our Christmas night out to pay. There’s also the small matter of a new laptop which is essential for my Management Training Course. I think, as always, I’ll stick with a Dell Inspiron. I love those laptops/notebooks with a passion and I’m gutted that my 6000 is dead! I’d be using one of many Dell coupons that are available, just so I can save some more money.
I am, probably, going to be even more skint than I usually am. Oh, (Christmas) joy a’right!

I’ve started buying Christmas presents already. I have purchased a few pairs of jeans and t shirts for the boyfriend over the course of the last three months, just as little extras. I also have a make-up brush set for my mother, one she has been going on about wanting for a few weeks that I managed to pick up in Debenham’s sale at half price.

Not only am I thinking about what I would like to buy as presents for other people, I’ve started writing my wishlist. Hey, give to receive is my motto. Selfish, or what? Ironically most of what I want is from USA-based stores, especially delias.com They have such a great selection of logo tshirts, I think I maybe in love! I’ve noticed a theme in logo shirts over here in the UK, really garish black or white tops with ‘I love boys, music and shopping’ plastered over them in Frankie Says Relax-style font and layout. Ugh, not nice the first time, not nice now!

I have a wish list for Delias, since that’s the only way that I could possibly get anything from the site. I would love to get any of these items - they are so much better than stuff I can get in Scotland at the moment since we’re going through a fashion-death I feel! Of course, if you were buying me a tshirt from my wish list (yeah..right!) you could always use a dELiAs.com coupon for it!

All of these stores have great savings to be made using coupon codes when you checkout, which for me is an absolute bonus. Why would anyone pay full price for something when they can get some cash off of their purchase?

I must look crazy, talking about Christmas already when it’s only August, but when you’re on a budget like mine you have to be organized!

Last Wednesday I attended our company’s head office to (finally, may I say) begin my Management Training Course. It was a chance for the 8 of us on the course to meet each other, meet the two ladies who are running it properly, ask any questions and generally find out more about the course. All the four hours did for me was get me very, very excited about it!

We got our first section - The National Lottery, which we have 4 weeks to complete - or at least try to complete. So far I’ve completed 90% of the questions and found about 25% of the evidence required to back up the answers. It’s taken me hours to complete so far, there is a hell of a lot of work involved in it. Not only writing up answers and whatnot but finding the answers. Most of them are simple - ‘Where does your pound go after you buy your ticket? - but prooving the answers? Not hard as such, but it involves thinking.

I’m doing a lot of graphs, flowcharts and taking/drawing a lot of pictures of various Lotto-related things in the shop. The amount of paper and toner for my printer I’ve used so far is astronomical, but it’s worth it.

I just hope that I can keep up the enthusiasm for this course, not that I think I’ll get bored of it, but because I am determined to show that I could run a shop even though I’m only 21. It’s been my dream since I was knee-high and I’ve already proved myself within the company. I’ve only been working in SPAR for a year but already I’m a full time supervisor on a training course to become a manager, which I am ultimately proud of.