So remember I talked on the last post about how when you set a massive goal, a humongous plan, an audacious adventure for yourself with your finances .. then the Universe will send resistance! The roadblocks will come .. the brick walls with throw themselves in front of you and you will feel like climbing back under the duvet and hiding from ever dreaming that you could be “Back in control”
So .. Guess what happened?
On cue .. almost immediately my trusty laptop began to play silly beggars!
My laptop – the one piece of kit that I really need to work online, to create my content and to run my online training events .. decided it would stop booting up.
Then after about a zillion times it did – and I whipped off a super fast back up before it reset .. never to launch again!
So today its being take to my lovely Robin to try and get it fixed .. but if not I guess the first unexpected expense in the brand new business will be a new computer .. SIGH!
So … I have a choice … slide off back into obscurity .. or figure out how to make my smartphone do the work of a whole computer in the meantime .. and can I tell you how much a touch-typer resents the “hunt n peck” of a smartphone keyboard!!!
Yup! Today I am taking my own advice and setting off on this adventure with what is literally “in my hand” .. the resources that I have with me right here, right now in my home!
Food to be stretched, adjustments to be made, business resources to be created (even on a phone) and of course the first unofficial challenge of my new financial future ,, the “Cash in hand challenge”
To allow my bank accounts time to “normalise” .. for all the transactions that are pending to wiggle their way through and for it all to calm down a little before I set my bare bones budget I am going to be working on the cash I have in my pure, the random saucers of money around the house and a good old rootle down the back of the sofa.
The thing is … in the time of Covid-19 pretty much no-one is accepting cash these days .. so I have bagged everything up and will be taking it to the back today to deposit into my pretty darn empty current account . And then I need to make that one account last as long as I possibly can!
Fingers crossed that the computer repair wont wipe out a chunk of it .. Robin pretty much has an upper limit of £45 for looking at a machine and letting you know whether its worth working on so fingers crossed that by today I know exactly how much deeper this financial hole of mine is going to be!
In the meantime .. as much work as I can get around to using an annoying keyboard LOL. And lots of list making to set myself up for this Fridays first official Challenge .. “The StoreCupboard Challenge”” where we can engage our creative instincts again to live off of the food we have in stock for as along as possible to give ourselves the financial jumpstart we need to get some momentum.
Wish me luck with the repairman!
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What sort of phone (i.e. which operating system) do you have? I’ve got an android, and I use swipe typing (I think that’s what it’s called!). Took a little while to get used to, but now I’m very fast (but I do have to have an eagle eye on the dreaded predictive text – but that’s usually more amusing than frustrating 😁👍
Oh I have some howlers with the predictive texting. Thankfully I am of an age when I just hook up my panties and march on regardless!
Good plan with the cash. We are trying to resist spending while we’re off for the summer. Trying to sort out the house but without spending much as well is proving an interesting challenge but enjoying getting the sewing machine out for curtains and cushions to brighten the place up.
Good Luck Elaine.
I hope the laptop is saveable.
I am off with my daughter and 6 of the grandchildren to a Caravan in Dorset. Filled a box of tins etc from my store cupboard and a cool bag with the contents of my fridge and freezer. We will be eating in. I have remembered to pack each of us a small takeaway box so if we go to the beach we can take our sandwich with us and bring back our empties.
A local shop has asked me if they can sell my masks so he has 30 of them to generate some income while I am away. He only asked me Friday afternoon and dgD and I were away over the weekend or I would have made some more.
Fingers crossed they sell. So I have funds to come back to.
So I suppose in a way I am doing a store cupboard challenge this week, as I didn’t buy anything especially for this week.
YOu know the pack-drill hon . Besides I always found that the kids were Munich happier when in new places to have familiar foods around … and we still live out of our lunchboxes LOL
We have just been to Cornwall, and we did the same thing. Emptied our store cupboards of the things I could use and packed them up to take with us, and spent the week before hand using up the perishables in the fridge. We did eat out once, but on the whole we cooked in. Would do it all again this way
We always do this too – makes so much more sense to me X
Hi Elaine,
I too hope the computer is repairable and as I type this on my tablet, as a touch typer myself, and a linguist with different languages keyboards, I feel you pain having to use your phone. It would be easier and faster to hand write everything!
Good luck
Claude.
I will appreciate my proper keyboard all the more when I get it back for sure .. I do hate faffing about on this teeny thing though!!
I’m so glad you’re back blogging. I’m a pensioner, state pension so it’s enough to get by on but not much spare. I’ve been reading about the expected price hikes with Brexit looming. I’m wondering if I would be better saving every penny possible or using it to stock up to at least know theresfood there. I’m so confused
I think it will bit hard and bite long .. I have more faith in this community on here taking care of one another than I do that Westminster will pull their fingers out and d something effective!
Good luck! Fingers crossed the laptop is salvageable. I’ve struggled with the household spending in lockdown, as for so long I’ve been taking it out in cash and spending accordingly, it’s so much harder keeping tabs when it’s all in an account being spent by debit card!
Just waiting for a call from the lovely bloke .. if all else fails it’s factory reset and upload all my tools again X
Good luck with the repair man :-)
I drew out £100 from the hole in the wall at the start of lockdown … and it’s still there, no where is taking cash. I am praying that this doesn’t turn us into a cashless society!! I love to budget and use good old money, if it’s there in your purse you don’t want to spend it unless you really HAVE to. If it’s debits off a card it’s just not real money and it vanishes without you ever knowing you had it.
I know what you mean – -much prefer the “Cash all the way” when budgeting hard .. but like you i am finding that very few places are taking money at the moment.
Fingers crossed for your computer. If anyone can live a long time off their storecupboard it is you! Plenty of practice. :)
Yup- its all about putting that back into practice again though .. already I can see that there are some gaps that I will need to be creative to fill!
This information may be completely useless to you. I was desperate when my computer was not working. My son told me to press reset on my router. I had already tried this but did not do it properly. You have to press reset with a very small screwdriver and hold it down for thirty seconds.
Know the feeling of a fast disappearing bank balance, doing on line order for the heavy stuff, and then calling once a week for milk from Lidl or Co-op, depending on what else I need.
I need the garden to produce more veg, at the hand full of French beans a week stage, still freezer and cupboards are fullish.
Had fun filling up with petrol the other week, Tesco are saying pay by card and I only had cash on me, I’d left the card at home by mistake, they were not happy taking cash, I did point out they handle your shopping when it goes through the till and cash is still legal tender in England.
Hope the laptop is an easy fix.