Dalyan – 28th February

During the night it had been stormy so I was up early on Friday 28th February. The dogs got wet on their wander out and Norman seemed to have a sore ear that he wouldn’t let me touch. Captain Caveman called me as soon as he woke up to tell me he had been paid (his first pay day) and he was going to transfer me the money for my February residency requirement, with it being the last day of the month. He was very pleasantly surprised to hear that I had already managed to do it and any money he wanted to send my way could now be used for March and to help pay the costs involved in getting the insurances and bills for the upcoming residency renewal application. I needed to put the same amount in for March plus pay for the application, the new card, the transport, the Health insurance, Earthquake insurance, passport photos, and bringing the council tax and any bills up to date. I also needed to reconnect my Turkish phone number and add more credit for that. It was going to be costly, but this time I could apply for 2 years residency renewal so, to me, it was worth doing. I was too busy for breakfast, so just had a tea and a cuddle with the dogs. I worked all morning as it was the last day of the month and I wanted to try and get a last minute deal or two booked so that I got paid for it in March. Sadly, it didn’t happen as one potential customer had decided not to bother and the other potential customer wanted to think about it over the weekend and discuss it with the family. It did mean that I had not hit the target I had set for myself for March pay day and I would be moving in to Money-minded March from tomorrow. I already had plans to increase my opportunities and income for April, though.
I had leek and potato soup with a cheese sandwich for lunch and got back on with work while the dogs snored. In the afternoon, Captain Caveman sent me a photo of my free book that had arrived in London. Charlie Day had sent me her ‘Sales is Easy If You Just Know How’ and I was looking forward to getting my teeth in to that when I could. I checked on my Resort Experts business page to see how my week of using the marketing training had gone. I’d only been following the training for the last 4 days but I was impatient to see if it was having a positive effect. While the rest of the team had reported that engagement had increased, mine had gone down by 30%, in the last 7 days. Interestingly, the age and gender of my followers was changing so that I had attracted a few more men and had some younger people following now. Norman was restless and kept wanting to go out and then back in the door so I decided I would make him Chairman for the day and promoted him to sit on the chair next to me. Norman seemed happy but Edna was asleep and missed out on any extra responsibilities. The weather was very miserable so wine on a Friday was postponed, much to Edna’s disgust and she was obviously going to log it as a complaint.
After walking the dogs, I had pasta for dinner and had night 3 in a row, of zero alcohol. I snacked on pineapple which felt like a real treat as I don’t normally buy it.   I decided before bed to tot up my expenditure for February to see how I had done against my £400 budget. February had still been frugal but I had definitely felt like it had been a bit of an easier month, especially as it was a shorter month.
Does anyone fancy a guess at how I did against the budget?

Gratitude List
1. Call from Captain Caveman to say he would transfer me money for February
2. Captain Caveman giving me March’s money, instead, so that I didn’t have to worry or struggle
3. Fresh pineapple to nibble on.