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!

So it turns out that this year the boyfriend & I aren’t going to Blackpool. We aren’t going to Benidorm, we’re going to Los Cristianos in Tenerife sometime in October. The only downside to this is that he’s also invited our friends. *shrug* I suppose it would be fun with them but obviously I want to go away together alone. We’ve only done it the once and that was to Dublin about 3 or 4 years ago.

I’ve had a look on various websites for pictures and reviews of Los Cristianos, and my gosh it’s a beautiful place! There’s a water park and places to go out on boats to see dolphins and whales nearby and I think it sounds wonderful, even if I’m afraid of boats!

Hopefully, we’ll be staying in self-catering apartments rather than a hotel. They’re a lot more fun I think, and at least you know what you’re eating - the last time I was in Spain I thought I was eating onion rings when in fact it was squid rings. Yuech! The apartments I fancy are something like the Reveron Apartments, it’s £238.00 for both the boy & I for a week in a studio apartment which is not bad, really!

If anyone has been to Los Cristianos, or Tenerife in general, recently…what did you think? I’ve not been since I was about 4 and he’s not been for at least 5 years! But Tenerife means something to him, so that’s where we’re going!

In other stuff that I’ve been up to..wow what a busy weekend I’ve had! On Friday night the boy & I went to our friends to play poker. I ended up making dinner, a gorgeous chicken and vegetable stirfry with lots of soy sauce and peppers. It was amazing! And I didn’t poison anyone. I think I might post the recipe for it, because it really was out of this world nice. I can’t believe I actually cooked something without killing anyone. After dinner the boys got drunk and we played Xbox and had a sort of mini-pub quiz. It was great fun, but as it turns out my night was about to get so, so much better! The boy & I left the guys to play poker and went into one of the spare bedrooms for a little fun ourselves…won’t go into too many details but it was a great night. We also talked and talked and talked like we haven’t done in ages and decided (half-heartidly on his part I guess since he had been drinking) to start saving money for holidays, a car..whatever.

2 hours later we actually went and played poker. I was the dealer and my god those guys totally loose the knowledge of how to play poker when they’re drunk! Heaven help us if we ever go to a real casino, they’ll be thrown out for acting the idiot!

On Saturday we went shopping and played some pool, which I actually won a game of, very impressed with myself on that one. I was getting fed up of the boy constantly winning so I started playing properly (like putting some power into hitting the cue) and won! I wish we’d put money on the game now. The rest of the night was spent watching nearly all the episodes of Still Game that have been put out on DVD and eating kids sweets that we picked up in PoundLand - you know, strawberry laces and dolly beads and sherbet. Teeth-rotting stuff.

After spending over £100 on a ticket for T In The Park I didn’t think that I’d spend most of the weekend inside the fun casino that was there instead of watching bands that I love. I started off with £20 and quickly racked it up to over £750 playing poker, roulette and blackjack. I’d gotten the bug, man! Such a shame that the money wasn’t real.

As soon as I came home I decided that I was going to play for some real money but since I don’t fancy trekking into town every time I fancy a quick game I scoured the internet for a good, British online casino. Finally, after some searching, I came across Bet365 which combines all the games that I love playing.

The offer lots of different types of betting opportunities, on sports such as baseball, boxing, tennis, rugby - even lotto draws. But the best of the site is the casino area. The offer up to £100 free chips when you first sign up (which, by the way, takes mere minutes) which was incentive enough for me. I chose to download the software, but you can play from your browser if you prefer.

My favourite part of the site is the live dealer games - instead of playing with a computerized dealer there’s an actual person dealing the cards. For me, it makes me feel like I’m really in a casino without having to shell out membership fees.

Recently, a lot of sites have been popping up with sponsered posts, ie ‘this post was bought to you by RipOFF Real Estate’, even if the blog or post has nothing to do with real estate! I’ve never been a fan of making money online by having ads on blogs, but there is one site that’s caught my eye over the past few months so I decided to check it out and see if it was worth it. The site that I’m talking about it PayPerPost. A lot of the blogs that I read regulary are all ready members of PPP and seem to make a hell of a lot of money this way. The concept is simple, submit your blog to PPP and if you are then approved you can write posts of different oppertunities and advertisers pay you for doing so.

I’ve just signed up and I’m waiting to be approved by PPP so that I can start making some cash by writing about things that matter to me. I won’t be writing blog after blog about some debt consolidation company I’ve never heard of, or a company selling houses in Florida. Nope - I’ll be posting about products and services that mean something to me. I’m not out to make a million, I just want to be able to buy my own domain again and splash out on eBay from time-to-time!

I can’t wait to get started!

Well, that’s me. No longer able to use the line ‘but I’m only a girl, I can’t lift 3 cases of beer at a time’. I am now, officially, a woman (well according to my lovely grandmother anyway). Saturday was my 21st birthday and yet I don’t feel any different. Older? No. Wiser? No. More of a woman? No thanks, I’d rather be a ‘girl’ thanks.

I had a wonderful day, woke up in the boyfriend’s house to kisses and a lovely cup of coffee and a few episodes of Stargate SG1 - oh how I’ve gone on and on about not liking the program but to be fair, it’s actually quite good and has great one liners - followed by dinner in my mum’s house and then back to the boyfriends to try and track down as many friends as we could. Grand total? None. Ziltch. Nada. Scott 1 didn’t know it was my birthday. Scott 2 decided that taking his new girlfriend to the cinema was more important. Chewy didn’t even get a call because he is a boring sod and the young one…well he was working but I didn’t wanna go out with him because he looks about the same age as Scott 2s girlfriend (16..or was it 17?). So the boyfriend and I went to the pub and left after one drink because the music was crap. Our usual haunt, if only because it’s the only place that’s not too bad was busy as apparantly it was the last night before it shut for refurbishment and we didn’t fancing paying £6.00 to go in just for a drink or two. So we got a chippy and got a taxi home to drink white wine (me) and tonic wine (him) and watch Cradle Of Fear. Funniest ‘horrorific’ movie, ever. Spent the entire time laughing at the cheesiness and likening to cheap porn movies. Saying that, Dani Filth it a hottie, for a hobit. Wish we’d went to go see Cradle Of Filth the other night though!

I was supposed to get a laptop, but Dell were wanting far too much money for it so I’m going to just buy one off of eBay with all the lovely money I got for my birthday. Oh and the reason for lack of online activity on my part? My laptop is dead. I’m sure I mentioned that before, but yeah. Way to go Dell.

The best birthday present though? Daleks in Doctor Who. Oh my, the human Dalek? WHAT THE HELL! That thing was ugly and it even had me hiding behind the sofa boyfriend’s pillow.

Oh, and I passed the Scottish Licensing Exam thing. Yay!

Well tomorrow my mum comes back from her holiday, oh joy. I’ve quite liked not having her around because I feel a lot calmer. Granted I need to tidy up a bit tonight but that’s ok, it’s my mess anyway.

The only downside to my mother being away is the fact that I’ve had to get a taxi to work for the past two days, which is costing me a tenner per day. There is just no way I can get to the shop for 6.50am and I don’t like opening up late, I’ve never done it and I don’t plan to start either. The huge upside to my mother coming back is the 400 cigarettes she is bringing me back. I am so thankful, because I have so little money to last me ’til the end of the month when I get paid again! Saying that, I’ve already paid her for the cigarettes but it’s still so much cheaper than buying them in the UK.

I got my hair cut on Saturday and I will post some pictures when I get out the shower. And walk the dog, put the recycling out, put a wash in, cook dinner, do some ironing and design a website…

All photos were taken on my phone which is why they’re not brilliant quality. I totally forgot about doing this during work (probably since my manager was in here) but there wasn’t much to take photos of, except cages of groceries that were delivered!

I’m up at 5.28am, even though I don’t start work til 7am.

I make a cup of coffee in the best cup in the world - my ‘Best Girlfriend In The World’ cup that Chris bought me after we’d been going out for a month.

I check my email, feeds and stuff. Notice the HUGE cracks on my laptop moniter. Roll on June when I get access to my savings through work and I can replace it.

Put on my makeup… Hell I hate photos that are face on, I look so… huge!

My phone - I take all my photos with this since my camera is at Chris’ and I need to get batteries for it.

I stick my hat on (hey it’s cold outside) and take a picture of my eye. Because I’m cool like that.

Then I decide that ironing my uniform would be a good idea.

Can’t forget my badges, they’re the most important bit of my uniform (aside from my shop keys)

Man don’t I look happy?

My dog Abbi comes in the car with me and mum every morning when she runs me to work. Abbi waits at the door every morning for us.

Out to the carpark. It’s still really dark outside..

I goto the back to discover that I have no cash, just a tenner which I half with my mum since I pay petrol money.

This is my shop, well the first aisle anyway. The fruit and veg are my section and I’m glad to see it looking full and clean. Shame there’s no semi-skimmed milk left, I hope the milk delivery comes early.

The office. This is where the supervisors & manager hang out. Well I say that, today was only me and my manger who was in at 8.30am. We have a laugh in here, but work too - doing orders and money and paperwork and stuffs. Yes, stuffs.

I swear that the back shop is tidier than the shop floor sometimes. This is what I see as I walk out the office. I notice that some things will go out.

Go outside for a cigarette at 7.05am and notice that the papers have been left behind the shop again. Finish my cigarette and take them in to the shop to put out.

I do the money and it all balances out. Makes a change…

Super zoomed in view of my shop. Well the sign for the shop. To the right of that Spar sign is a hill and the shop sits at the top.

Waiting on a bus… is this it? Nope!

So when is my bus due? ‘Every 10 minutes or better’. My mum calls and says she’ll pick me up. Result.

I come home and crash out for 6 hours! Shocking. Wake up at some time during the 6 hours and the dog’s sleeping on top of me. Aww.

So, there we go. It’s just a shame I forgot to take pics in work. I will do this again soon though!!

As well as having a website to get up and running next week for a guy who works next to my mum I also have to fix his computer. The drives aren’t getting power, so I know how to fix it. It’s just that when I tried to last night it just would not work. At all. The IDE cables were in right, the master/slave setting s were set right but no cookies for Mel. It just wouldn’t recognize the drives. Ohwells.

I have the whole of next week off! This has worked out so well. I’m day shift on Saturday, back shift on Sunday then off Monday-Thursday. Day shift on Friday and then off ’til Monday at 4pm. It’s amazingly good.

RULES: Each player of this game starts off with ten weird things or habits or little known facts about yourself. People who get tagged must write in a blog of their own ten weird things or habits or little known facts as well as state this rule clearly. At the end you must choose six people to be tagged and list their names. No tag backs.

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I’ve just finished an other shift and I’m starting to feel like I am never away from the shop. I only work 39hrs a week but I’m always either there early or stay back to talk or finish what I’m doing. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job but I could do with a break (again, I took a week off in January). I suppose it’s a good thing that I have a weeks worth of holidays to take before the end of March then, huh?

My wages seem to be so little this month for all the work that I’ve done though. I keep forgetting that I put by £100 per month into a company savings account automatically and I can’t touch it until June/July. I love this scheme because there’s no way in hell that I would put money aside off my own back. It means I should be able to buy a little second hand car in the summer when I pass my driving test.

I’m applying to do a Trainee Manager’s Course with the company - out of 50 stores from anything from 7 to 30odd staff (at a guess) they only pick 4 candidates a year but I’m praying that I am one of them this year, I would love to do it and 3 of the 4 who did it last year are now managers of their own shops. That, sadly enough, is my absolute dream - a shop of my own to run (even if I don’t actually ‘own’ it). I know I probably won’t get to do it this year because I’ve only been a supervisor a few months but here’s hoping!

Anyway, to bed I must go - even though I’m off tomorrow I’ll still end up waking at 6am.

Wow, what a few days I’ve had. I had this weekend off so it was spent with the boyfriend in his bed for most of the weekend watching Shameless, Skins and CSI. It was really strange because I didn’t kiss him the entire weekend due to him having a cold sore and me being too vain to risk kissing him and getting one myself!

On Friday I left work early because I felt rough as anything. My head was pounding and I kept getting rather dizzy so I called my assistant manager and got him to come in a cover the four hours until the manageress came in for her shift that night. I was surprised that he came in, he usually says no but I’m so glad that he did because I passed out in my boyfriends later on that afternoon from sheer exhaustion.

I ended up spending quite a lot of money over the course of the weekend even though we didn’t go out at night! I bought a gorgeous gray and black striped hooded jumper, a cute little fitted top, underwear with stars all over it and 3 pairs of girl boxer shorts out of Primark as well as a tshirt for the boy to cheer him up with ‘Sci-Fi High - Roswell’ on the front of it. It’s a lovely tshirt and only cost me £6! Also bought 4 XBox games and £15 of magazines to make him smile. Don’t get me wrong, it’s pretty much his Valentines’ day present early just because he was feeling so blah over the weekend. Aren’t I a good girlfriend?

Last night was spent listening to Elyse’ radio broadcast on K-IRB and chatting the night away in the chatroom which was awesome fun. She was trying to find bands I hadn’t heard of before and could only manage to come up with a handful including the Wild Colonials who I really liked the sound of
Oh, and I dyed my hair midnight blue - you can see it in the photographs page. What do you think?

I am going to have so much overtime in my wage sheet next month! Today I did a 11.5 hour shift (granted it was 7am-12noon then 7pm-1.30am) even although it’s my day off and I start again at 7am tomorrow morning. We were stock taking and I had to be in this morning to do my departments (wines, spirits, beers, ciders and cigarettes) as they need to be done first thing in the morning then I was in again tonight to do the discrepancy check and re-count with my manageress and store controller (a fancy name for an area manager). Tonight was good though as I didn’t actually start working until about 10pm as the count was done quicker than I imagined throughout the day.

I am, however, absolutely dead on my feet. The only reason I’m opening the shop tomorrow morning is because a rep from our fruit & veg supplier is coming over to do marketing techniques with me to try and boost our already increasing sales from fruit, veg and flowers. I’ve sort of taken over the f&v part of the shop as I’m so OCD-ish about the orders being done right and the stock being put on the shop floor correctly. I’ve lost count of the amount of times that I’ve gone to get something and the apples are next to the potatoes (in the chiller no less - potatoes shouldn’t be in the fridge!) and carrots are in the same tray as bananas. Does my head in because I work had keeping it clean and tidy and writing up wastage every day that I’m in.

I’m interested in earning some extra cash from the internet, does anybody have any ways that they make money online, like referrals or something? I know there’s google ads but I don’t like the thought of adverts on a site that gets ~50 hits a day. I’ve seen people using PPP, but what are the paybacks like. Does it even allow UK sign ups? If you have any money making ideas please let me know and if I sign up I’ll use you as my referral (obviously!).