A Bloody Business

I fulfilled one of my 2012 goals today when I gave blood successfully for the first time ever. Go me!!!!

I'd tried once before, a long time ago, when the Blood Donation Service paid a visit to the offices where I worked as an accountant. It took quite a long time to get the needle into my arm (I am from a family of narrow-veined people; so much so that when my sister V was in hospital once so many veins collapsed in her arms, feet and hands that she ended up with a cannula in her neck. Poor, poor girl!) and when the person eventually did manage to jab it in he collapsed my vein. Not only did he chew my arm up and leave me with a massive bruise from wrist to armpit, he told me I was a 'slow bleeder' and not to try giving blood again. Pig.

Undeterred (well, only for about 26 years!) I decided that as I am a Universal Donor, and since I can only receive my own blood group (thanks, datacreata!), I should try again. So I made it one of my goals for this year. I found the first session of the new year I could and booked an appointment. Just before I went I had my eyebrows and upper lip threaded, so I'd remember what real pain was and though Red was happy to come to that with me she (a fellow universal donor) ducked out of the needle stabbing.

There were a lot of students waiting in the strangely Gothic surroundings of a local church, all eager to 'do their bit'. One girl almost fainted when she'd finished! The first phlebotomist (for that is indeed their title) couldn't get a good vein but the second one said there was a pretty good side one. I smiled bravely. The second lady managed to get a needle in - not massively painful but not pain-free either. Maybe level with waxing, not quite as bad as threading. And five minutes and three seconds later I was done! I'd given my first full 470ml.....a bit less than a pint. I didn't feel like I was wasting away and I didn't feel faint - I just hopped off the bed and walked home carrying my bags of Boots' sale goodies. Oh, and I made my next appointment for June.

If you can give blood (and some people can't - Big Man always did but because of the drugs he takes since his heart attack he can't do it any more. He is also O Rh -ve.) then try to do it. It's always needed.

Just as an aside, after I had Red and was still in the delivery room I was, as a Rh -ve mum, given an anti-D injection. I protested that my husband, the baby's dad was also Rh -ve so surely I didn't need the jab? The midwife said 'yes, but you might have babies with someone else'. A nice thing to say to a panicking young mum whose baby has just been rushed to the SCBU, no? And you all thought they were so considerate in 'One Born Every Minute'.........



"....Resolve.....Weakening......."

Oh dear, I'm not doing very well with one of my goals for this year. I said that I was going to try to treat Big Man's TV choices with less contempt but it was a struggle this evening. It's not as if I'm always watching National Geographic, or Sky Arts or BBC4 - I watch as much crap as anybody else - but he seems to go for the most ridiculous, ludicrous programmes. His favourite, not to be missed shows, are Casualty and Holby City, both strange choices for someone who had a heart attack I think. He likes real-life hospital/air ambulance/paramedic shows too but for some reason I don't find them too repellant, just the dramas.

I don't know if it's the sheer preposterousness of the story lines (tonight Casualty had a motorway pile-up; a taboo teacher/pupil relationship that resulted in an overdose, the twist being that the teacher was a woman; a gas explosion; a dangerous chemical leak; an affair where the unwitting spouse was in a wheelchair; and the reopening of the department) or the way all the staff are painted as caring for their patients to the extent where one or more nurse/doctor/orderly/receptionist is at risk of losing their job/s each week just because they care so much. It's all such a load of old hogwash that really, it's an insult to the viewers. Big Man usually watches it upstairs whilst I carry on with whatever I'm doing in the front room but tonight I fell asleep on the settee and when I woke up it was on.

I was able, with difficulty, to restrain my usual cutting remarks on the risibility of the whole show. I may have given a few sarcastic snorts; I may, once or twice, have said 'this is such cack!!!!', but on the whole I was pretty good. I've decided that in order to keep to my resolution in future I'm gonna have to insist Big Man watches Casualty upstairs from now on. It might mean I don't get to see the divine Michael French any more but at least I'm in with a shout of meeting one goal this year ;P

What TV shows do you avoid?

Everybody's Doing It (Pt 2) And A Year-End SitRep

Yesterday I went through my personal goals for 2012 (*and still managed to miss one off!). I also said that I'd give a year-end sitrep so everyone can see what I've managed to pull off in twelve months. I'm only going to do a quick and dirty post because it's freeeezing in this house, and because I want to get into my onesie and watch a film. Something loud and childish.....I'm thinking maybe Transformers 2. Anyhow, at the start of the new year -

- I'm a happy bunny. We reduced our overall debt by £9,387.83 and whilst I'd hoped it would be £12,000 (and we haven't progressed much at all from the end of June) it represents a real achievement for us. We still managed to go on our lovely holiday, which was partly paid for by Big Man's tax refund, and we've stayed reasonably warm and haven't gone hungry. I'm willing to be more strict with myself but I've come to realise that Big Man has his limits (one of which is refusing to eat the same meal two days in a row, making leftovers an unviable option most of the time) and does like his little extras, such as wine and the odd takeaway. Food is an area where we had epic fails every month. I made menu plans and shopped at Lidl all through the year but either we have expensive tastes (don't really think so) or I'm too extravagant in my menus. I budgeted on average £250 per month for all shopping, including Otto's food, and missed it every time. It didn't help that various kids kept coming home for weeks at a time and then permanently, and expected to be fed! I can't complain about that though ;P. Radical rethink needed.

Fab pic from here

My spreadsheet has been very useful in showing me where we are spending frivolously; I think nearly £300 on takeaways and eating out in a year is mighty high but Big Man thinks it's a piddling amount; I have spent over £140 on vitamins and medication that could've been avoided if I put my repeat prescription in on time (a personal goal for 2012); and so on. It's food for thought.

I have come up with a few financial goals but I feel sure that I'll add to the list. I hope they'll help me to shape up!

1. Remember to take my coupons with me whenever I go shopping. I have a special wallet for money-off tokens and I MUST keep it in my bag at all times! I opened an old letter today from Tesco to Red that had two coupons for double points, valid up to January 1. Big Man paid £300 for a new TV from Tesco on New Year's Day and although he used my Club Card I'll only get £300-worth of points instead of the £600-worth I could've had if we'd opened the letter in a timely manner. Scowl.

Nifty little coupon wallet. Handy, and only a chazzed 99p!

2. We paid £333.61 in bank charges last year through our (for 'our' read 'my', since I seem to have ended up in charge) stupidity and lack of attention. I absolutely refuse to pay any bank charges this year. I will be hyper-vigilant!!

3. Paring the expenses alone is useless - I will have to make additional money in any way I can. I want to make £100 a month on eBay; the money will be handy PLUS I will be able to declutter my 'stock'.

4. Pay for everything I can through Quidco. One of my jobs today was to arrange pet insurance for Otto - he's 8 but still quite a rascal so I think it's a good idea. I compared quotes on Compare the Market, found a policy that seemed right then checked on Quidco for cashback offers. The policy is £9.04 a month (£108 the year) but I get £40 cashback, bringing the cost down to £68. Incidentally, it's costing as much to insure Otto, a basic moggie, as it does to insure me. Something wrong there, surely?

5. Go through all our expenses and direct debits with a fine tooth comb to see if I can't bring the total down even more. I pay £6.99 for phone insurance and I plan to call our contents insurer to check out the policy on mobiles. If I can save £84 a year, well, why not do it?

6. Keep an eye on MoneySavingExpert.com every day. There are some great tips and offers on there. It's a brilliant place for advice too. Plus advance heads-ups on free cinema previews, another of my personal goals.

7. Continue to ask myself 'is this a want or a need?' before I waste money on things. For example, I've read several blogs whose owners wax lyrical over their mini-ovens, and according to my Lidl newsletter they will be on sale there from Thursday for £29.99. I'd like one, but do I need one? No. So I won't spend £30....I'll use it for something I really need.

There's bound to be other things that I just can't remember right now - extreme cold has that effect on me. Overall I guess I am aiming to keep a tighter rein on the finances whilst trying to throw as much spare cash as I/we can at our debts. Not very interesting, just more of the same. Grind away.

Anybody else gloomy about having to tighten belts even more? Or is this whole recession thing passing you by?

* Another personal goal is to donate blood this year and I have already booked an appointment for Friday this week. I'm O Rh Neg, a 'Universal Donor', so I am really just fulfilling a civic duty (she says in a holier-than-thou way:)). One job under way - go, Keshling, go!!!! 

 

Everybody's Doing It.......

...setting out their goals for 2012 that is (and NOT 'picking their nose and chewing it' as we used to say so charmingly at school. Yuck.) So not wanting to be left out I thought I'd jot a couple down. Nothing major, nothing too onerous, just stuff that won't cause me to throw myself flailing onto the ground in tears if I don't accomplish them. I like to aim low, or as Babcia says, 'hope for the best but expect the worst'.

So, in the spirit of the (Year of the) Dragon, my resolutions for 2012 are;

1. Say 'no' more often. I said I wouldn't work any more nights again after the last time and this latest one really took it out of me. The trouble is that when one of my colleagues needs help I can't stop myself from offering. I must stop trying to be all things to all people.

2. Look at the calendar and my diary every day to see what's been organised. Big Man is very good at marking things down that I then totally miss because I've not checked for weeks.

3. Pay more attention to my husband, Big Man. He has a lot of good points and I'm sure he sometimes feels like the enemy in his own home. I should try to stop treating his TV choices with contempt too because that's just mean. ;P

4. Make my grown-up kids take responsibility for their own lives. They can do things for themselves, I just have to let them/make them.

5. Go to bed at a reasonable time. Aiming for pre-midnight.....

6. Read 100 books this year. I will post a pic of my loft (aka Babcia's bedroom....I really do have a madwoman in the attic, tee hee!) and you'll all see how library-like it is. There must be 100 books on the floor by the two full bookcases that are up there, plus a third bookcase with self-help tomes on it. None of which have helped me. I'm aiming to not buy any books this year either, just read my stock. This'll be hard - I almost bought this and this yesterday because I really want to read them - but they'll come to me somehow, I'm sure of it. I can't really use the library because I have a biggish fine outstanding, as does Red (from a DVD Carb Addict borrowed on her card and then lost for two years. Ratatouille if you're interested) though I guess I could use one of the men's cards....one of them may be fine-free. Anyway, I'm an extremely fast reader so I'm not expecting 100 books to be too onerous.

Similar to my loft but I don't have a ladder up there. Or an old man.

7. Make sure I order my prescription in plenty of time so I don't end up having to buy stuff to tide me over.

8. Set mine and Babcia's Etsy shop up properly. She has made masses of stuff and I've made nowt.

9. Finish knitting my Christmas Advent Tree for next Christmas. I am a lazy, lazy woman.

10. See more SeeFilmFirst free movies this year than last.

11. Update my ideas notebook.

12. Try to write 200 posts this year and get 100 followers.

Tomorrow I'll have my year-end sitrep and some financial goals. Before I go please listen to the video below and tell me if her voice and this song don't weave some kinda magic together. Spine-tingling....