Well its been a whirlwind week. What can I say?! The first week back after holiday is always a busy one, trying to catch up on emails, follow up on leads, and get a ton of writing done for the work I have agreed. Plus I had this article go live in The Sun – The mum who paid off £16k credit debt in two years. The resulting traffic, requests for work, new followers and group members has been incredible. And the messages I have received and even people stopping me in the street has been incredible.
My mission is to inspire others. And those words have been said to me many times in the past couple of weeks. I am achieving my life purpose and am making a difference.
I remember working in the corporate world and saying to every boss, I want to make a difference. But really how can you make a difference to the world when you are commercial manager for Tesco petrol or for EE franchises or Pay As you Go phones? I jest, I worked on many customer service projects, store opening programs (creating jobs), commercial contracts resulting in deal being agreed and more jobs being created. So I suppose I did make a difference but it was difficult to track back, and I never really got the recognition.
Spending Diary is re-opened
I restarted my spending diary after coming back from holiday. I actually filled it in yesterday, looking back at receipts and reflecting on the week. Very scary to report but I had quite a chunk of emotional spending going on. I spent £175 on a new jumper, trousers and earrings from John Lewis. I could justify it by saying the trousers were in the sale, and size 10 Ted Baker. Or I could just say, bugger, I spent £175 on three new things.
On wed I was feeling emotional, over-stretched work wise. So I cancelled my day in London and went to John Lewis instead. I got lots of bonus freebies, like a facial from my friend Fran at Origins and I got free carrot cake and coffee in the cafe using my vouchers. And yes also got a very cool Hush jumper, pink capri jeans and TooLally earrings. They do make me feel happy. The day helped relieve the stress I was feeling. But yes also cost me £175.
Tattoo – Mandala on my right forearm
I had my second tattoo done. On Friday I drove up to St. Neots, wow what a beautiful town that I have never been to before (except for football tournaments!). Matt Smale of course did the tattoo, who also did my dahlia tattoo last year. This year he designed the most beautiful lotus flower mandala, incredibly detailed and symmetrical. I adore it.
This obviously cost money, £150. Which to be honest, when you think about the time he took to design the mandala and the two hours of actually doing the tattoo, plus equipment and ink. It’s not mega expensive, I would easily pay more than £150 for a piece of art, way more, I paid £2,000 for the original picture ten years ago that is on our dining room wall. I know, I know £2k is a huge amount of money, I have spent money on extravagant things in the past.
Fathers Day
I am not a fan of fathers day. As I wrote about in this personal post. But I do understand that its nice for the boys to celebrate it. Jack designed a mug in John Lewis on Saturday for £2.50. And the boys made cards at school. Job done.
I, on the other hand, took the day to myself to reflect on life. Rest and recuperate. I went to the cinema to watch Rocketman, a film I have wanted to watch for ages. It was great, a really inspiring story of talent and how it can go to your head and go very, very wrong with fame, drink and drugs. But with a happy ending. Elton recognised his demons and dealt with them and has been clean for 28 years. Since then he has given $450 million to AIDS charities. WOW. Interesting also that a lot of his demons come from his upbringing, a dad who wouldn’t show him affection and a mum more interested in her dresses and lipstick.
I saw Elton on his million dollar piano residency in Vegas at Ceasar’s Palace, we had the best seats thanks to Mama Mildred (my friend and concierge at Aria). And he was incredible. His voice is just the best, his showmanship is amazing and the imagery was beautiful. Good memories.
AndI paid just £6.45 for my ticket, as I used my kidspass to save 40%. Yes you dont need kids to use the kidspass, the discount works on just adults tickets or even just one adult ticket. To get you free £1 trial for a month use this link! I use at least once a month, normally saving around £15 on cinema tickets each money. Well worth the full price of £3 per month.
Aldi Goodies and Shopping
I received the most exciting bundle of goodies from Aldi last week. Three boxes is always a good sign! There was two bottle of gin (thank you Aldi angels). So Im good for gin supplies for the next few weeks.
I also did the big shop and discovered a new trick. I used a half trolley rather than a full trolley. There was less room so I stuck more to choosing essentials and thought about every item I was buying rather than chucking everything into the trolley. And the result was a trolley costing £80 rather than the usual £110. Result!
I am meeting the Aldi team later this week for lunch to agree content for the rest of this year. So there will be some exciting stuff coming, including some incredible make-up. I cannot wait. Perfect for YouTube content. And yoy know I love my make-up.
Finimize
I have been loving my FREE daily email from Finimize. I struggle to immerse myself in daily business news and I like to get my info in quick bite size chunks. So when I discovered Finimize, I was happy!! Every morning I get an email giving me a quick summary, like 3 minutes of reading of the business news highlights from the previous day. Plus there is a motivational quote. I shared this last week.
I love a motivational quote…“Chance is always powerful. Let your hook always be cast – in the pool where you least expect it, there will be fish.” – Publius Ovidius Naso, known as Ovid (a didactic and elegiac poet of the Golden Age of Roman literature)
Finimize is the daily newsletter that everyone in finance secretly reads. Join more than 400,000 people and get a three-minute breakdown in your inbox every day—for free. Just click on this link to sign up for your free email.
I turned 6
I mean Mrs Mummypenny turned 6 years old. There is a post half written then I must finish on my highlights and low lights or look on Instagram for a summary version!
This post contains affiliate links and links to posts where I have been paid. If you click and sign up I will receive a small commission for which I am eternally grateful for.
