Striving to save and stay solvent!

Lots more surveys completed, still nervous about not getting the rewards for the big survey I completed as had a generic 'wait and see for 10 days' email back from them, will keep an eye out for the points.

Two items ended on ebay last night, bringing in just under £10. Profit more like £8 by the time postage paid, but better than nothing. I've printed the postage labels and will pop them in the post tomorrow.

CTC payment no2 has hit the bank and I've swept £70 over to the bathroom fund. I've also transferred £40 to it from some business sales, so have reached the £975 target now. :j I will try and save a bit extra towards it though, just in case it runs over costs a little. I also need to try and save some towards the car maintenance pot which got wiped out with the other building work as it's my MOT next month. Will keep squirreling money away there as best I can. Also want to start paying off that credit card, even though it's at 0%. There is almost another £10 in the mortgage overpayment pot, but I'm wondering if I'd be better of paying off the credit card with it first and leaving overpayments until the credit card has gone.

Need to update YNAB shortly with all the to-ings and fro-ings of money. I'm hoping it will show me that I can free up another £50 or so to throw at one of the pots, as long as I don't need to spend any money at the weekend. It's payday on Tuesday, so it should be fairly easy not to spend much, albeit a very small bit of grocery shopping if needed.

I listed the higher value item on ebay last night, hoping to get £50 for it at least. Up to £5.50 and loads of watchers already so am hopeful.

Thanks to YNAB, another bit of money has been shifted around the bank account pots, there's another £8 in the car/house funds and 60p in the OP fund.
I have around £14 left for groceries until Tuesday, but also have £10 in my purse, so all will be fine.

Also noticed that I hadn't been refunded for the order I placed at 'BandQ' that was out of stock, despite their system telling me it was in stock, (2nd time this happened in a week with two different stores, never will I be using that site again):mad:. After a lengthy phonecall, they've finally refunded the £50 to my credit card.

I've packed up all the ebay packages sold so far, along with two business orders ready to post tomorrow.

Today has been a NSD apart from the ebay postage, but that was paid for with the paypal account from the ebay sales so I'm not counting that.

I managed to do a bit more DIY tonight and put a blind up in the spare bedroom that I bought a while ago. I also cut down another one ready to put up in my office room. I was originally going to order blinds to the correct size but after seeing that they were going to cost over £70 each I decided against it and bought ones from Dnelm ranging from £9 - £18! They did need to be cut down which was a horrible job but it's saved me a lot of money. I have one that is unopened that I no longer need, but I cant find the receipt. I knw they still sell it so I may take it back and ask if they'll swap it or give me a credit note.

DS and I did some baking when he got in from school which he enjyed. I sometimes struggle with ideas of things to do after school with him, but we do enjoy baking.

I've tried to do a few more surveys tonight but the site seems very glitchy and chucks me out just before the end of the surveys or times out. I'm not impressed with this survey company so far, I've had lots of problems with their surveys already. I may build this one up to a voucher and then quit it and stick to the original two.

DS's lunchbox is made, I just need to find something for my lunch tomorrow. I'm pretty sure there's another portion of daal in the freezer so I'll hunt that down shortly.

Talking of food, I caught sight of myself in the full length mirrors earlier and was mortified. I look fat. Horribly fat and tired and old. I'm still in my 30s for goodness sake. I really need to do something about my health and my weight, it is creeping up and up. I a off to look at weight atchers online and see if I can find a deal for it, my life is such that I have no time to go to meetings without DS and it really would be a stressful event to take him with me, so I have to do this myself at home.
Eating heathily is so difficult when you're time and money poor though. Any inspiration or tips very welcome! Xx

*off to buy Mikado this morning...* :rotfl:

Thanks so much for your post Eager_Elephant.
Wow, your sister and Mum have done so well, I bet they are both feeling the benefits after losing so much weight. I do have an app called nutracheck which is very much like myfitnesspal only a lot more user friendly. I think it cost me £3 or something, so was very cheap too! I use it on and off and I do like it, I just find life gets in the way and I get too busy and tired to think about what I'm eating before it's in my mouth. I used to go to the gym several times a week and so eating what I like wasn't an issue then. I also found I naturally ate a lot healthier when I was exercising regularly, but my life just does not give up the free time for me to do that anymore and I'm just so exhausted by 6pm that I do what needs doing in the house, work on my business and then collapse into bed.

I have logged my food for today though and am actually out of the office at a meeting later this morning so will pop into the supermarket next door and pick up some nice fish and veg for tea and some fruit to snack on.

I actually took a picture of myself last night, sat on the bed looking horrendous (don't worry, I was fully clothed! :rotfl::o) and looking at that alone is enough to supr me on I think. I don't know what my super-fit, healthy OH sees in me.