Money Matters

This week has been busy and expensive. I had to renew both my home insurance and my car insurance, but I also had reams of work with deadlines to meet.

Today I also could have been writing because other deadlines loom, but I decided to take some time to do some admin and try and get my finances sorted. There were three months of bank statements I hadn't even looked at, so when I did I wasted loads of time scrabbling around trying to make sense of some of the amounts on them.

Then I got around to checking the insurance renewals and decided to get some more quotes. That all takes so much time, but it was worth it for I've saved myself about £150, which is nearly as much as I've earned meeting those deadlines.

The morals of this little tale are: check your bank statements as soon as you get them, and make time to shop around and save money on insurance.

The picture is for some light relief. It is not of my house but is of my neighbourhood. And if you look closely you'll see that it includes the types of things I've had to insure.

Now I'd better get back to work.

Putting on Weight Before Christmas

pic is by Jmb at Wikimedia Commons

Oops. I got on the bathroom scales last week, something I haven’t done for a couple of months. I knew the weight would have gone up because I had more or less stopped all exercise to sit in front of this monitor all day long. I’ve only really left it if I had to do other things like cooking, shopping, cleaning and laundry, or to flop in front of the TV for Little Dorrit and the News. Or on those days when I just haven’t been here.

Part of the trouble is that I now feel locked in to so many money-making sites until I can make enough to receive a pay-out. Be warned, if you are looking into how to make money on the web. It’s as well to try them out one by one, if you’re concerned about your time at the computer. This is also eating into my writing time and I’m not getting as much done.

Anyway, the gain was well over half a stone. And this is before Christmas. Usually it’s not till January that I feel the need to check and then do something about it. But I need to start now or I’ll be looking like a balloon at the end of the year. Fortunately there will only be two of us here on the festive day, so perhaps I won’t be tempted to indulge as much as I do when I’m catering for the masses. But I am hosting a curry night for the neighbours next Saturday, and I have a long weekend with my daughter and granddaughter the following week.

Since I found out my weight, I’ve been leaving the house for a short but brisk walk every day, even when it’s been raining. I have to go to the post most days anyway. And I’ve been quite good about no snacks between meals, and cutting down a bit on portion sizes. After I finish this post and do my EC dropping, I’ll dig out my Rosemary Conley video and at least do the toning exercises.

Wish me luck in trying to get the balance right.