Busiest Week of the Year
I always knew last week would be the busiest week of the year. And it didn’t let me down it was mega busy with some extra unexpected work (BBC Radio Interviews!) thrown into the mix as well. A busy week of course means long hours but also money so all is good!
We were originally meant to be on holiday from the first week of the summer holidays but plans were changed, this meant I was frantically trying to get work done during the work to get ahead, then to realise that holiday wasn’t happening so I could chill out at the weekend!
We should be on holiday for the third week of the summer holidays instead, TBC.
Mrs Mummypenny Talks Pre-Record
Tuesdays are radio station days and I decided that it would a good idea to pre-record two episodes on Tuesday of this week. NOT A GOOD IDEA. I had two interviews planned in with Warren Shute, author of the fabulous book ‘The Money plan‘ and my friend Kat Byles who run a company helping business with their PR strategy. This was a lot of content to record and edit in 5 hours. Plus I did the first episode all by myself and I recorded it with a bit too much amplification. Whoops.
I was well stressed by the end of it, but both episodes 9 & 10 were recorded and I now have a few episodes in the can. To listen to episodes 1-8 click here, my favourites are episode 4 with the Taggart and episode 7 with Maria Nedeva.
Wednesday was packed full of meetings
I overdid it massively on Wednesday. The day started at 3am and ended at 9pm. I was dead on my feet by the end of the day. I don’t not know why I do it to myself. There was radio interviews, a meeting with a local client in Welwyn Garden City. I zipped into Soho for a working lunch with a client. Home for 3:15 for the school run, then it was straight to Cambridge for a physio appointment for Dylan. And home for a group coaching call. Phew a crazy day in the life of Lynn.
BBC Radio Interviews
As mentioned I did a few interviews on BBC Radio on Wednesday. One of the big news stories was that summer holidays are estimated to cost £140ish per week to keep the children amused and looked after. I was asked onto a few radio shows as a personal finance expert and mum to speak about ideas on how to cut the costs. I did BBC 5 Live at 5:30, then BBC West Midlands at 9am and then BBC Scotland at 11:45. There are two posts on Mrs Mummypenny with plenty of ideas for saving money over the summer holidays take a read of freebie ideas and money saving ideas.
Thursday Soho Meeting and Drinks
The plans for Thursday kept changing throughout the week and finally settled on Wednesday afternoon. A big meeting was cancelled, phew, meaning I could relax on Thursday morning. I went to the gym, had a browse around Aldi for a new research piece, did a few jobs, answered a few emails. Then got ready to go into London. I had an event to attend in Soho with Gumtree. A very good event where I learnt some great tips on how to sell better in an online marketplace. Blog post to come on Tuesday.
Then it was onto St.Pauls for a night out with my old digital team from six years ago. A very late night with lot of gin and chat! And total money saving as I made the last train home and didn’t get an uber.
Friday Terms Ends
Friday was the last day of term for Knebworth school. Schools out for summer whoop. On Friday evening I got the boys to think of ideas to keep everyone happy over the summer. We wrote them onto post it notes and posted them into a jar. Days without a plan mean we will pull out a random note and do what it says. All the ideas had to be free ideas or low spend.
No Spend Sunday
Sunday was set as a no spend day. We headed to St. Albans to the splash park for sport and fun. It was sooo hot though, I had prepared for this and went with lots of water. We had a few hours in the garden in the afternoon in our pool, and have just invested a whole £10 in a pineapple sprinkler inflatable. I even had an hour to carry on reading my new book The Back Up Plan by Alice Judge-Talbot whom I met on Thursday. Such a great read of her story of having children young losing the plot, and getting divorced. Oh and also an ever so successful blog, hence me meeting her at the Gumtree event.
We then popped out to a new restaurant Fire jacks in Stevenage for dinner. It was a review of the brand new restaurant so didn’t cost us any money (except for a tip, you always leave a generous tip when reviewing a restaurant). It was very lovely and I will be publishing the full review very soon. A rather good no spend day.
Finally sold my shares
I have been holding onto my Tesco shares for 9 years now. They were bought at a high price of around £4 and they never regained the price I paid for them (accounting scandles, declining high street etc). I need the money at the moment to pay for our summer holiday so I sold them. Many experts whom I have asked over past year have told me I am better off to sell them and to move on. They were sold for £1,430, a loss of around £500 from the price I paid 9 years ago, but I have the money soon to arrive in my bank account, less £60 extortionate fees. I could hang on to them for 10 more years and never make the money back. Now is the time to sell!
What have you done this week to save or make money?
