Financial faux pas and other disasterous decisions

moo2moo

Yesterdays footy matches resulted in £43.18 from a free bet and £10.84 from a BOGOF offer. One of the bets at the bookies won (rectifying my 6p shortage meaning I gained a teeny bit more than I was expecting) so I have to meet the wager requirements to withdraw. Found a great Arb (thats the technical term for more free money) although the bookies restricted me to £55 its still an extra £1.79 profit for 3 minutes clicking. I'll need at least another three like that before I can release my cash from the bookies evil clutches.

Didn't seem to stop yesterday. Got most of the holiday laundry done, even managed to get some on the line for the first time in months, it was perhaps a bit too windy though as we did suffer a couple of escapees. The afternoon was spent clearing the bottom patio of bark chip and moss. The hens have been roaming round the garden all winter and have done a great job of the weeds but in their boundless enthusiam they've made a lot of mess too. Wheelie bin is now 3/4 full, will finish filling that today and make a start on the ironing unless its remarkably warm and sunny out and then I'll find lots of excuses to be outside.

WorkingHardDFW

Love your diary - you do make me laugh.

moo2moo

OH is officially driving me round the bend. I thought kids on half term holiday were bad but they're a breeze compared to a bored man. Is there anything that needs doing he asks. I rattle off a list so he helpfully sat on the sofa and watched me do the lot. Then he perfected his impersonation of a sloth with a tv drivel watching marathon stopping only for an afternoon nap. He did remember to collect DD1 from school and take her to her occupational therapy handwriting class before venturing unsupervised to Screwfix and emerging with a new shovel and a something or other which connects to his angle grinder and allows him to masacre anything metallic. The amount of rust thats on his beloved Land Rover I doubt there will be much left after hes been let loose with that thing.

Trip number 3 of the month to the vets was marginally better than the previous two. The dog is still incredibly healthy but the urnie drips have progressed to a puddle. A course of antibiotics ruled out a bacterial infection so we now have doggy incontinence drops to add to her food three times a day to see if that helps. Otherwise she'll be moving to the outhouse. Having her put to sleep is lunacy as shes perfectly healthy but having doggy wee in the house is doing a lot of damage and really isn't good for the kids. Fortunately we have a brick built ex-piggery thats plenty big enough and I can line the floor with absorbent horse bedding so that shes not lying in a puddle at night. She won't be too keen on that idea though so have told OH I'll move out there with her to keep her company whilst she settles in. He now thinks I'm even more stark raving bonkers than before. The miracle drops may well work. Will know in a few days time. Wish there was something that effective for little old ladies (l-o-l), I once had the misfortune to share a M&S lift with a l-o-l who coughed. T'was very Little Britain.

Postie delivered a signed for package yesterday containg my £50 Qype voucher. I was planning to convert it to mobile phone credit at Zavvi but since Zavvi is no more thats going to prove a little difficult. Shame really as it would have kept me going for the next decade. Will pester Virgin by e-mail and see if theres an alternate way of doing that. Postie also brought £9 Decathlon vouchers as a reward for shopping there and a check of internet banking revealed the Mystery Shop lot have paid out this months £36. Also showed I'd managed to go overdrwan for a day, fortunately within my free overdraft limits but must be a bit more careful.

Yesterday afternoon was spent watching a road safety video. I've volunteered to help with road safety lessons at schhol with 45 5 and 6 year olds on a 2-1 basis for two hours each week. That'll be fun! I did get a free jacket although this years have had the council logo removed as they had too many people impersonating tradings standards officers at local car boot sales.

Have to collect OHs car from the garage today. That won't be cheap. He replaced his very reliable car back in September in anticipation of a £2000 garage bill. The new one is 3 years old, has done 55K and is having a timing belt fitted which is guaranteed to be £300 plus on top of a basic service.

No betting today, I'm still trying to get my cash out of Billy Hill. Found another arb yesterday but the match isn't played until tomorrow. The money I've withdrawn from the exchange hasn't cleared my bank account yet so I haven't any free cash to open my next account. Probably just as well as I won't have much time over the next couple of days. OH complains that I spend too much time on the PC.

Plans for today:
1- shuffle cash so that I can pay another chunk off the debt.
2- maintain a zen-like aura so that I'm not tempted to batter OH with a frying pan
3- bathroom clean
4- yet more laundry
5- remember to put dinner in the slow-cooker

moo2moo

I hate E-bayers. I sent a parcel to Germany 3 weeks ago and it hasn't arrived. Turns out the reason it hasn't arrived is because its gone to the wrong address. Or rather its gone to the right address just not the one the E-bayer wanted it sent to. The E-bayer in question no longer lives at the address which is registered with E-bay, nor does he live at the UK address registered with Paypal. Annoyingly this is apparently my fault. Will wait to see if he can contact the current resident and find out what they've done with it. And breathe.

griffam

You are a star.... needed a breather from a mountain of audit data and have just spent a fantastic break reading your thread.......I think we are married to a bigamist as your hubby sounds alarmingly like mine !!!!
Oh to be as energetic an organised as you I can just about keep it together what with work ,four kids and a manic hubby who seems to have some sort of brain disorder that means he forgets things the minute you communicate with him.

Thank you for a light hearted break in my daily grind

Intergalactic_Floozie

oh you are funny! I think you should pay all your debts off, and then send this thread to a publisher so the whole world (even those without computers) can share the joy!

moo2moo

Sorry to diasppoint you all but I'm not intentionally funny in that you'd never mistake me for a stand up comedian and I'm not energetic or organised but I do have the uncanny knack of lurching from disaster to disaster relatively unscathed. Life would be so much more tolerable without the disasters and with a cleaner, although I've a feeling they'd charge danger money just to set foot through the door.

Fab news of the day - no further puddles of pee have materialised overnight. The bedroom carpet is still a write off but its been that way for years. Cream is never a good colour, well not unless you live in one of those houses where the sofa is covered in plastic and you wear vinyl covers over your slippers. Unlike here where "oops" is generally chocolate spread related. Today will once again be spent scrubing the bedroom carpet to eradicate the smell.

I made another overpayment of £100 to the debt then forked out just under £450 for OHs car service. I predict the end of month total debt being higher than it was at the start of the month. Aw well theres not a lot I can do about it. OH needs the car to get to and from work. Good news is its only a short month so pay day is rapidly approaching as is the next school holiday.

Today OH is being dispatched to Screwfix to complain about the fabulous £25 metal removing gadget which disintegrated within 30 minutes of the packet opening. I'm all for labour saving devices but thats downright daft.

Still no news from grumpy of Germany. No news is good news (I hope). The rest of the news is downright dull. I won £1 on this mornings free scratchcards but it will be at least another month before I have enough for another withdrawl. Global Test Market helpfully sent an e-mail saying due to techincal issues bla bla bla we've cancelled your payment. So I've requested another one which should be here in 6 weeks. The good news is that I'm half way to the next one too.

Dex

Hey Moo2Moo,

i've just read you thread the whole way through, it really made me smile, I was actually disappointed when there was no more to read.
Like others you have inspired me to relook at matched betting I couldn't get my head round it so I gave up but I think I will sit down and give it another go!

Good Luck with the OH

moo2moo

Hiya Dex and fellow avid readers I have news. Great news. I have found the bottom of the laundry basket (**handwashing does not count as laundry - it is an implement of torture). Admittedly the bottom of the ironing basket is now much further away than it was last week. Its been an exciting old day.

OH is now dozing away on the sofa having poddled around doing manly things. Several more logs have been anihilated by chainsaw, others succumbed to the fall of the mighty axe and the electric chop saw was utilised to convert a pallet into kindling. He has also rewired my car stereo so that it now has a functioning memory and considers stations other than Radio 4 as worthy of its service. I might be going rapidly prematurely grey but I'm not ready for Radio 4 yet.

Had a bit of a wobbly when I realised just how much we've spent over the last few weeks and have rejigged a bit and shuffled a lot to come up with an extra £200 towards the overpayments which will be eaten up as soon as this months outgoings hit the accounts, although technically that won't be until next month as I've whacked everything on plastic fantastic. At least its there in anticipation of this. I will have to give in at some point in the very near future and go food shopping as the freezer is down to ice-cream (essential in case of emergency), squid (fishing bait which is about to have its first birthday) and the sort of stuff which OH helpfully buys but which doesn't actually constitute food unless you're both drunk and desperate, even then you'd think twice. Microwaved frozen kebab anyone?

moo2moo

Having a much more positive start to the day. Helped a lot by a fantastic day at work yesterday. Today is the school Eistedffod, theres no formal teaching at all, pupils get to come in national dress and the new members of staff were all left notes about appropriate attire. One of which read "a large selection of ugly sisters costumes are available from the school attic, please provide Mrs S. with your chest measurements and preferred cup size". The heads parting comment at the staff meeting was to inform the new (and non-welsh speaking) members of staff that they would be awarded the honor of leading the school, staff, parents and governors in singing the Welsh national anthem. Sometimes the mans evil streak is sheer genius. Last time around the newest member of staff was given the task of holding up the words but no one could read them because he was laughing so much, mostly at some of the staffs attire - they do take this very very seriously. Unlike those who turn up in full English, Irish and Scottish football kits. As an additional bonus the classrooms have been stripped of furniture so cleaning last night was an absolute doddle and today I'll get paid to sit on my bum and watch as it'll be too chaotic to do any work.

Managed to survive yesterday without spending any money at all. I did sign up very optomistically to the Feb no spend day challenge pledging 20 days. I doubt I've managed 4. Its just been one of those months. Next month will be much improved - if only because OH will be back at work. He did take his gadget back and get a full refund, but then I discovered he'd paid £30 for a shovel. Its for digging holes in the ground for f***s sake.

Matched betting money is very slowly working its way back into my accounts. They all seem to take 3-5 days to deposit which slows things up rather a lot. I've signed up to another long and involved offer so there won't be much in the way of profit for the next week, although I did make £1.93 on yesterdays arb which allowed me to withdraw my winnings from Billy Hill. £25 initial deposit matched with £25 free bet eventually after which I need to place a further 10 bets of £15 to qualify for a free £75. At least it'll keep me amused this weekend and most of next week.