Floozie's Lightbulb Diary

Intergalactic_Floozie

13 days to get through until next pay day. £95.44 to last me.

Had literally no food left in the house today so had no choice but to do a big shop at Farmfoods. Spent £60.74 but had a £5 off a £50 spend voucher so it ended up at £55.74, then I went next door to Aldi and spent £2.88 in there. I have to go to Morrisons in a few minutes but that can come off tomorrows total. I've bought enough frozen stuff for 14 days now so that will take me to next pay day, just need to spend the odd bit on 'other' stuff I couldn't find at FF/Aldi (brown wrapfor e-bay parcels, bun cases for cornflake crispy buns etc).

DH is off work sick today so that's a days wages we will be down because he doesn't get paid sick pay. I'm trying not to be mad and be sympathetic instead but all I can think is that it is an extra £50 I will have to 'find' (or not save out of my next budget). He'd better be well enough to go back to work tomorrow. I'm so wound up as it feels like my recent e-baying, or the weekend overtime I have done, is just compensating for him not going into work. I bet he's not bloody volunteering to have a percent knocked off his wage for the income I'll be down - GRRRRRR. *tries hard to be sympathetic again* not to mention how bad it looks, he's only been there for two full weeks (including a bank holiday) and off sick the first day of his 3rd week.

£21.22 is showing as paid from Quidco so I will transfer that over to 'everyday money' when that shows.

E-bay stuff. No bids on the items listed yesterday yet but, yesterday's sales netted me in total inc P+P £27.62 so that's just a shade over £50 in my paypal account. I'm going to leave it in paypal for the time being though. Does anyone know, I have set my fees to be taken out of pay-pal. If there is no money in pay-pal will e-bay just take it out of paypal anyway (which will then come out of my bank account?) or will it bounce if pay-pal is empty?

Current account is currently £8.05 overdrawn, with £208.08 still to debit, so total o/d figure is £216.13 o/d.

And that fellow number crunchers is my update for today!

Intergalactic_Floozie

12 days to get through until next pay day. £89.94 to last me, plus £1.30 in my purse...DH owes me £4.35 as I lent him some money to get some cigarettes - mustn't let him forget that!

He was also off sick again, so that's £100 we will be short in his wage at the end of June. He'd better be back at work tomorrow or I'm going to batter him painfully and repeatedly with something heavy!

E-Bay stuff, a 99p bid on the handcream with 2 watchers. Hope they don't go too mad for it, as it has been used after all.

The money went down on yesterday's balance as I had to post three e-bay parcels. Royal Mail is such a rip-off for postage! It just hardly makes heavier items worth selling. I've three bags full of books but they're all the mass-produced-best-seller ones so would people want to pay £2 for postage, plus 50p, when they could get it brand new in Tesco for £4 then sell it themselves. I need to think about what to do with them, as they're cluttering up my conservatory.

Does anyone know whether the TV Licence DD installment scheme is interest free?

moo2moo

Hi,

Yes the TV licence DD is interest free but the first 6 payments are double what you expect as they like you to pay 6 months in advance for the licence and then 6 months in arrears or more if you've under 6 months to go until your new licence is due. The other way is £5 post office savings stamps as you can buy those as and when you have spare cash.

Try Green Metropolis for your books. You'll get £3.00 for each one sold including postage. Some people are too lazy to go to the shops to buy books or simply can't get out which makes somewhere like that great. Admittedly the turn over isn't great. I've had 30 books on there since January and have sold 4. It might be cheaper to stick them on flea bay as a job lot for collection only or offer to post them as a 25kg parcel via interparcel (& quidco) or parcel2go.

mooomin

Intergalactic_Floozie wrote: »

I've three bags full of books but they're all the mass-produced-best-seller ones so would people want to pay £2 for postage, plus 50p, when they could get it brand new in Tesco for £4 then sell it themselves. I need to think about what to do with them, as they're cluttering up my conservatory.

I have a similar issue with my books. I'm taking them with my bootsale stuff at the end of the month and if it doesn't sell it's going to the charity shop. I would rather declutter than make £0.20 per book (If that!)

natsplatnat

Hi IF - I find books go quite well at a boot fair.... about £1 for larger ones and fifty to seventy-five pence for smaller ones or you can do deals for 3 or more! Every little helps!

Intergalactic_Floozie

moo2moo wrote: »

Hi,

Yes the TV licence DD is interest free but the first 6 payments are double what you expect as they like you to pay 6 months in advance for the licence and then 6 months in arrears or more if you've under 6 months to go until your new licence is due. The other way is £5 post office savings stamps as you can buy those as and when you have spare cash.

Try Green Metropolis for your books. You'll get £3.00 for each one sold including postage. Some people are too lazy to go to the shops to buy books or simply can't get out which makes somewhere like that great. Admittedly the turn over isn't great. I've had 30 books on there since January and have sold 4. It might be cheaper to stick them on flea bay as a job lot for collection only or offer to post them as a 25kg parcel via interparcel (& quidco) or parcel2go.

Thanks I might try Green Metropolis! These books have been sat there for months so it wont kill me if they're still around. I thought about donating them to our local library as a) it's closer and b) I borrow loads from the library so it's like paying back and c) I think our local charity shops are really greedy now with the price they charge for books.

However, I'm always worried that people will think my books are tatty and so always list them as well used, however when I used to do swaps on readitswapit.co.uk (which I don't anymore as the postage fees aren't worth it) people would always put on my feed back "book in much better condition than expected" so maybe it's just me.

The reason I asked about the TV Licence was because I currently pay a monthly DD, but as I now have some money put aside, my plan was anything I pay monthly (bills) that is interest bearing, I was going to pay out of the lump sum (car insurance, house insurance) whereas I knew council tax and water were interest free, so no point. So at least I know now that I might as well carry on paying the TV Licence monthly. Ta for answering x

Intergalactic_Floozie

Nats & FF - I did two bootsales this time last year (my first time) and the books did not sell well at all. I had them at 50p each, or 3 for £1, then reduced them to 20p each nearer the end. A woman whose son was in Afghanistan bought a load at 20p to send to her son & his fellow troops to give them something to read.

In the end I listed them on freecycle and a Brownie leader took them off my hands to sell at a bring & buy sale to raise funds for her group.

I then stupidly (like I did with money) 'ran up' another enormous collection of books which I am never going to read!!!

Intergalactic_Floozie

11 days to get through until next pay day. £111.16 to last me. You will note it has increased because my Quidco money went in today, I feel positively rich!!! I also still have £1.30 in my purse, and still haven't got the cig money from DH yet.

However have booked DS1, who is starting to resemble Captain Caveman, because his hair is so long, has finally agreed to allow me to take him and have his hair cut, so I booked in tomorrow before he changes his mind. Mind you, that will only cost £5. My mum is paying for mine to be cut and coloured for my birthday present, so I have also booked myself in for Saturday 13th June. I can't wait for short(er) hair again. I usually have just a bob, but if I can scrape it into a ponytail (which I can easily do now) it's too long for me.

E-Bay - still only the handcream which has been bid on, and still only at 99p.

Intergalactic_Floozie

10 days to get through until next pay day. £106.48 to last (plus £10 in my purse) although I have to go to the hated Morrisons and get a top up shop.

It's gone up since yesterday because I had £5 something paid into my account from the nice child Tax Credit folks.

E-Bay news: Handcream has gone up to £9.51 inc P+P andI note it is the same person who won the auction for the moisturiser so at least I know they are good for payment. No bids on the exercise DVDs yet but I have one watcher for my Rosemary Conley. I withdrew the whole £50.17 from my paypal account yesterday as it was burning a hole in my bank account. Obviously it's not reached by bank account yet so when it does I will transfer it over to the every day money.

Listed the entire 50 books on Green Metropolis yesterday, I was really impressed at how quick it was! I'll leave it for 'a period' and see if any sell, and if they don't, then they can be donated to the local library. I listed them all as acceptable, which is the lowest condition, although I'd personally class most of them as good/very good, so I hope it doesn't put people off buying.

Diet's not going well at all. I'm craving sugar again and there's endless supplies of goodies at work owing to having 9 office birthdays in 20 days of June, not to mention my routine going to pot because of the school hols. On Saturday I am going to attempt to eat more protein and less refined carbs in order to combat the sugar craving. I don't want to undo all the good work I have done so far. I feel all bloated and yukky again already.

Intergalactic_Floozie

9 days to get through until next pay day. £65.88 to last me (until Amazon money arrives next week).

I had to go to Morrisons yesterday despite my mega shop at Farm Foods last week, and spent £20. I think I will struggle to meet the budget this month. I still have to go down on Sunday and buy stuff for packed lunches too. Also stuff has snuck in such as fizzy pop (DH has given up drinking alcohol through the week and is sick of dilute juice) and I bought some yoghurts this week which I haven't been buying, and I got some expensive muesli with nuts in, to eat at work - need to be more disciplined.

Still no sales on Green Metropolis. E-bay, the handcream is the same amount as it was yesterday and the DVDs still have no bids on them.

Rang Sky yesterday to cancel Sky Sports while the football season has finished, and they offered to give it me for £3 per month (saving £15 per month) for the next two months til it starts up again. Sadly discount cant be applied for June's bill as it's already going through, but my bill will be £30 lighter in July so I'm pleased with that. Youngest son does like darts and rugby so we will watch it.

Have had to give husband £20 too (hence my every day money reducing drastically)! I knew his leaving do from his old work was 12th June, next Friday, however unbeknown to be (allegedly I have been told!) he's having a leaving do with just his department tonight and they are going for a meal and a few drinks. Obviously he can't get out of it, so I said he could have £25 from the budget until I remembered he still owes me £4.35 for the cigarettes, and he can't withdraw fivers anyway so I have knocked it back to £20. I'm really gutted. Doesn't look like I will finish the month with any money, I was so looking forward to having something left over. He now at the moment has more money left than I do, so if he dares ask me for any more money I think I might go on a killing spree.

However he is also out next Friday night - as per above - so he's going to want some money for that too although he said he will just show his face for a couple of drinks at that one.

Then he's moaning because his shoes are all falling to bits so he wants new shoes AND new trainers!

Why did my first stab at proper budgeting have to be a five week month - GRRR.

I'm also starting to feel quite anxious in case interest rates jump up again which means the mortgage will go up, but I can't see where in my budget I can make many cuts.

3 have started ringing me continually as my contract is up for renewal at the end of June but I'm ignoring them as I'm a sucker for a new phone, and don't want to get into any lengthy contracts until the economic climate is better.

Not too sure what I am going to do for a phone though....

House insurance is up for renewal in July or August and it looks like I can get it cheaper then. Might as well stay with present company for extra year's no claims.

My parents next door neighbour gave me a tenner yesterday and insisted I keep it. She is blind and in her 80s and her cassette player she uses for her speaking books has broken. She went to Comet who told her that 'you can't get cassette players anymore' so she was heartbroken because she loves listening to her books. She told my parents who said they would get me to look on The Internet. Anyway as it happens they had the exact same one in Argos that she had broken so mum went and got it for her, and it was £10 cheaper than she had paid for the original one. She tried to give my mum a tenner for going but mum wouldn't accept it so she chucked it through my car window at me, and said if I wouldn't accept it, I should buy my boys something!!! How nice of her. However, I've given it to eldest DS's friend whose birthday party is tomorrow instead so at least that hasn't come out of my budget.

Hope you are all well. FF if you're reading I am going to post that thingie this afternoon.