Babe is back. . .

and this time she's blinkin' determined!

Money Spent:
£10.06 (from Joint A/c on household essentials from Wilko's)
£1.99 (birthday card for a friend)
£523.40 (money into Joint A/c for monthly bills)
£219.50 (money used to pay off last months overspend - oops!)

Money Saved:
£158.66 (to pay into my ISA tomorrow)

Money Made:
Nada - unless you count being paid for sitting at home, ahh, how I love bank hols!

There's nothing like a long weekend to make you think more clearly. Indeed. I've realised I need to spend more time on this little blogette. So expect more regular updates, a bit of a tidy up, lots of tips on how to survive the pesky credit crunch (and maybe even make/save a bit of money) and maybe some other exciting additions. Keep popping back to see how I'm getting on and feel free to send me a barrage of abuse, if I don't stick to my word. No really - do. I'm quite thick skinned.

I feel I should justify my reasons for being a less than perfect blogger, certainly over the past few weeks. For the past year I've been doing a maternity cover contract. For one this means a 3 hour commute each day (1.5 hours door-to-door each way), so strangely there's not a lot of time left for blogging, but that's been more of an ongoing issue.

The more recent obstacles involve that contract coming to an end, or at least it might be. My company can't tell me for definate, as 'she with child' hasn't decided if she's coming back or not yet. My MD has called me into her office and said she doesn't want to lose me, will definately keep me on if 'she with child' doesn't come up and that I'm an assett to the team etc... but there simply isn't the money to take on extra staff. I agreed sincerely and felt quite chuffed that she thought I was doing such a good job. I felt somewhat less chuffed when everyone else in the office received letters detailing their payrises last week and I got nada. Hmmm - way to make me feel valued. Potentially I'm with the company until the end of July, although, as yet, the HR department are yet to provide me with a contract to sign for the final month. I'm aware of other imminent changes which are going to rock the department and, well, you don't need to be a genius to figure out it's time to look for something new. I've been looking, although to be fair, until the pay rise shocker I was quite content to sit still. Now I wanna be out fast as I don't feel particularly motivated, as you can imagine. I had an interview last week and should find out about that tomorrow. Really have no idea how I did, but fingers crossed - I'll let you know how I get on. If I don't get that then it's going to be an all out assault to find something decent, or at least something that pays the bills!

The other bombshell is that our landlord has decided to sell our house, now he's put it on the market at the most ridiculous price, so I think we're safe in the short term (as he won't give us notice (2 months) until he's hooked a buyer). However, as its becomming increasingly difficult for first time buyers to get on the property ladder, rentals are becomming more and more sought after, which is obviously having the knock-on affect of inflated prices. Therefore, if we can move pronto and sign a six (or even 12 month) contract for something reasonable (at a fair price), we'll be in a better position than if we sit still, as prices may rise in the meantime and we'll end up paying more when we do come to move.

So, new house, new job - oh and new haircut too! Whatever next?