Financial faux pas and other disasterous decisions

moo2moo

Thanks for that Makeup. In the world of matched betting that 5p in the pound potentially makes a huge difference in the outcome of a match, more so if its 15p in each pound. I don't think I'm brave enough for Cheltenham this year though.

DDs and OH reappeared rather rapidly last night. It turned out that the hot chocolate request was so it could be dropped at A&E for their friend and his parents. Convinced OH that wasn't one of his greatest ideas. They arrived at the stables not long after their 7 year old friend had been thrown from his mums new horse. Not in any pain but with a knee that didn't look right, that'd be a fractured tibia then and 6 weeks in plaster. Fortunately nothing else but perhaps the shock will be enough for them to invest in a body protector for him.

My matched betting totals are looking very healthy but my cash is currently in four different places and there aren't any matches worth considering which is most annoying as I've been credited with a £75 free bet but the matches are pants and its not worth using it. Todays matched betting cash profit total is a whopping £352.42. Its been a very profitable weekend and I've another £25 free bet due to be credited in the next few days too. Using those two bets I have the potential to increase that by at least £80 by next weekend.

Fresian - Bingoport is wierd and I got told off for changing rooms. Very naughty of me. Can't figure out how you gain enough credits for an Amazon voucher. I lost everything several times over, for the uninitiated "everything" is free bingo points which are replaced by spinning the wheel everytime you run low.

Friday is payday. Its come round increibly quickly this time, so quickly in fact that I still have cashin the bank, although OH is trying very hard to spend it, I may manage another reasonable sized overpayment before the end of the week although I've a feeling I'll need a little extra cash to make a suitable profit from the £75 free bet.

Plan for the day:
1- Buy a new watch - its cheaper than replacing the battery in the old one and means I may arrive at work on time at somepoint this week.
2- Fill green wheelie bin which means either a lot of weeding or hedge trimming
3- Vaguely consider food shopping whilst at the dentist which is just round the corner from Lidl.

lucielle

If you don't mind me asking, how much of your Mbing have you managed to put towards your debt? Do you need to build up a really large amount before you can take any away?
L

andromache_2

Hi moo2moo,

Very impressed with all your MB! Just noticed that you were saying you were going to replace your watch because buying a new battery was too dear and was just wondering if you had looked into buying a new battery online - I had to do this a couple of weeks ago, and the jewellers were quoting £10 to replace it but I bought a replacement battery online for about £2 inc postage and fitted it myself - it was dead easy. Of course if you want an excuse to buy a new watch altogether then don't let me stop you

moo2moo

Lucielle no one else will suggest it but you can start matched betting with around £30. Skyb*t has an offer of 4x free £5 bets for a £5 deposit (they also have one for 4x£20 but you can't use both). The remaining £25 would go to the betting exchange (cashback currently £30 with Quidco) and you could build up very slowly from there. At the end of the Sky offer you'll have roughly £45 which would allow you to work your way through the £10 offers very slowly gradually building up to £100 after which most of the offers require £15 bets which are easily achievable. I've already had bookie payouts from Quidco which all help. It does seem to snowball though, the more money you have the faster you seem to make even more.

I've used the Quidco payouts against the debt. If I stuck to the £25 free bets I could realistically use £200 of the money I've made so far against debts too but the higher the odds the more free money you obtain from a free bet. I think the logical thing to do is to keep a £500 matched betting fund which allows me to take advantage of the Will Hill Bogof offers as the odds seem to be around 8.5 and the maximum free bet £25. I no longer have any of my money involved. I've only been using the profit for the past few weeks so my initial cash has been used against the debt.

Once I reach £500 I'll then use half of all my monthly profits against the debt which will be beneficial in two ways. Firstly my matched betting fund will increase so I can take advantage of either more offers or bigger free bets which will keep the money rolling in and secondly it gives me a large nest egg should anything break or need repairing I'll have a sizeable emergency fund to fall back on.

I'm also spending that much time at the PC that I'm spending far less money than normal so our outgoings have dropped quite considerably too. So much so that I'll actually have money left at the end of the month so I'm treating myself to a haircut (my first in a year). Banning myself from the Grabbit board on MSE has helped too. I've subscribed to the 100 day challenge too and haven't bought shower gels, bubble baths, deodorants, hand creams, books, magazines, newspapers, DVDs, CDs or Wii games since before Christmas. I'm doing quite well on the £100 crazy clothes challenge although a new winter coat made a huge dent in my allowance.

Andromache thanks for the suggestion on the watch battery but being a high maintenance gal I can buy a watch in Asda for just under a fiver. Given that mine is covered in paint and bleach and sctratched to wotsit it makes far more sense, I don't think the impromptu hammer attack whilst helping out in nursery helped too much either. The battery is probably the only thing holding my old one together. Much like schools Henry hoovers, two of which have died of old age in the last week. Need to find somewhere cheap to replace them before telling the boss we've killed another one.

moo2moo

Happy Tuesday Morning All!

Its been a great start to the day and its not quite 6am. I've sold a book on Green Metropolis for £4, £25 free cash has been added at the betting exchange and I won 25p on the free scratch cards. Lots of footy tonight but the markets are pants at the moment although they are starting to move. Hopefully I'll be able to get a few good matches in before work.

Got a fantabulous lime green Pudsey Bear watch in Asda for £4. Unfortunately its so cool that the DDs are buttering me up in the hopes that its really for them rather than me. Sadly they'll both be very disappointed as its mine, all mine. OH is now convinced I have lost the plot. Whilst at Asda I did the weekly shop and came in under £15 including a bottle of vino, rolliing papers and baccy.

Got a reply from the hypnotist. She has a vacancy in three weeks time and charges £150 per hour for anti-smoking therapy (wonder if she can make him tea total at the same time?). Meanwhile OH has placed bids on E-bay for a roof rack to fit on his Landie which is currently lacking a roof to attach rack to, side panels to support the required roof or a floor or wheels or an engine. In fact hes still deconstructing it although there really isn't much left to take off. Its been almost 3 years reaching this stage so a roof rack is just a little optomisitc.

moo2moo

Got carried away yesterday and opened an account with VC for a £50 free bet which has yet to be credited and a further £50 after 5 more bets. Fortunately it lost so my cash ended up at the exchange but this means I now have 3 bookies and two exchanges on the go and thats three two many. Keeping track of them is fine but the cash always seems to be in the wrong place. Its not worth moving it as it will be stranded in limbo for 4 days returning to my account which is probably worse. Will control myself in future and only open a new account once I'm done with an existing bookie.

Off to the hairdressers this morning to see if she can work miracles on my head whilst leaving me with the ability to stick it in a pony tail and run out the door.

beanielou

Happy hairdresser

moo2moo

£15 later I look like a little old lady. All the brown is gone. My grey roots have taken on a life of their own and are 8" long in places. Mind you its an awful lot neater than it was and I can just, but only just, get it in a pony tail.

Todays been a spendy day. 40p to a Red Nose day cake sale at school and DD1 is doing her best to persuade me to buy a horrendously overpriced book from the school book fair.

I have managed to use part of my £75 free bet from SB to make £22 or so of profit. not going to try any other bets today as my internet connection is being tempramental. Have e-mailed VC as they've credited 50% of the bonus they promised on sign up. Fingers crossed they take pity on me as I 'lost' £50 with them.

OH grunted his way through the night and is back in bed catching up on sleep. Hes brought the spare company car home to save on fuel. Perhaps I am making headway after all, however he's have forgotten that tonight is swimming night as hes left DD2s car seat in his car.

moo2moo

Ignore everything I said yesterday about having too many accounts on the go. Today is the next to last day of Cheltenham and the next to last day of super dooper bookies offers and so I've signed up with yet another bookie for a free £50 bet. I'm going to spend the weekend working my way through this lot which will see my profit shoot through £500. Thats not bad for my first two months at this malarky.

Today is the last day for school plant orders, have to decide whether I actually need anything. Whilst tumbling strawberries sound lovely and are very sensibly priced at £6 for 6 I have a feeling the chikens will decimate them within seconds of their arrival.

Escaped without purchasing a book at yesterdays book fair as I already had the book DD1 wanted in my stash (I was a childrens book rep way way back). Parents evening made it a very hectic night at school. Head very kindly sent us all home early as its impossible to do anything when the parents are about. It will be dire this morning, I'll need to do as much vacuuming as humanly possible before the kids arrive which will be slightly complicated since we blew up Henry number 3 yesterday. Thats three in three days. Boss will not be a happy chappy when I pass on the good news.

moo2moo

I'm so excited and I just can't hide it. I got my fourth payrise of the year, yes folks four in under 12 months. This ones back dated too for a whopping ten months and I can't decide what I'm going to do with my unexpected windfall, all 0.03% of it, thats not quite 2p per hour before tax and NI. Nice to know I'm valued. Still its an unexpected £25 towards the debt.

I've had lots of things validated on Quidco over the past few days so hopefully £170 from them shortly.

Matched betting got a bit chaotic during the week. One of the bookies decided to give me a £25 free bet instead of their promised £50 so I'm mid e-mail debate with them to have it incresead. its the first of two the same size. I have 6 games on the go today to complete various requirements and turn several freebies into real cash. I had one major balls up during the week where I managed to back the wrong team. Odds at the exchange were dire so it was looking like £4 loss on a qualifier but fortunately customer services were very helpful and voided this for me despite their Ts and Cs saying they would not do this.

Avoided buying plants from school. I haven't a clue where I would put them so it seemed a bit daft. I need to book my Easter Holiday chidcare, school have a great holiday club which is reasonably priced at £39 per day for the two of them. Would abandon them with OH but his job is looking a bit shaky and when it goes quiet at his site he gets sent elsewhere in Europe for his entire shift run. His Ts and Cs only require them to give 2 weeks notice of this so I can't assume he'll be at home for his days off as bizarely they are happy to pay overtime for them to travel out the day before they're needed.