Financial faux pas and other disasterous decisions

moo2moo

After an exciting day yesterday, the highlight of which was the retrieval of a banana from a U-bend, today will be very dull by comparison. All my matched betting funds are either tied up in games which aren't played until Saturday or aren't quite enough to place another bet without me adding a minimum £10 cash to my balance. All my direct debits come out over the next two weeks so I need to be extra cautious till they're all cleared.

I've been having a play with the snowball calculator. As it stands at the moment my debt free date is September 2020. If I overpay by my target of £700 per month then I can bring this forward to November 2012 and pay £6000 less interest. Now thats an incentive. The biggest headache will be in consistently finding that much extra each month. The other half is fantastic and working at least two days overtime each month but he needs time off too. Most of which is spent doing things around the hoouse and garden.

20 Qype reviews still to go. My target for today is 5, the ironing, cleaning out the chicken coops and DD2s bedroom. If any surveys land in my in-box I will do them. I've avoided the last few and then gone to do them only to discover that they've expired. Must not be quite so lazy. After all if I can spend an hour on here reading through everyone elses day I can manage 20 minutes of surveys.

moo2moo

Guilty conscience time. I surfed instead of Qyping and found another bet which falls within the limits of whats already in my accounts. Thats 4 out of 5 bets placed to qualify for another free tenner. After that its 20 more £10 bets in batches of 5 to unlock a further four free tenners. I've still got 2 more £5 free bets to go from elsewhere so I'll be spending the next few weeks working my way through those offers before signing up with anyone else. I'm beginning to understand why the gurus say its not worth starting without a £100 float behind you. If I had £100 I could have at least 6 qualifying bets on the go at once which would mean over a weekend when most of the matches are played I could be unlocking two if not 3 bonus tenners rather than it taking me a week or more.

An ominous pong is wafting through the house. Turns out the OH was being uber helpful and part loaded the dishwasher, probably around tuesday, but forgot to mention it. Lovely.

Anyhow enough sitting on my bum avoiding the housework I have bedrooms to tidy.

moo2moo

Happy early Sunday morning all. We're being battered by torrential rain and howling gales making it impossible to sleep so I'm catching up with everyone instead. Todays going to be a snuggle up in front of the fire with a cheesy film kind of day rather than the planned trip to the park although I'm sure DD2 will insist we go anyway.

The money fairy visited yesterday bringing with her a £63 payment for mystery shopping and £22.51 from Music Magpie. E-bay bidding has gone crazy with some of my tat being £6 more than you can buy-it-now from other sellers for. The mind boggles. Currently the four lots are at £26.80 plus postage with an average 8 watchers per item and two days still to go.

I Qyped myself into a state of mental exhaustion yesterday but still have 10 left to do. I've already scraped the bottom of the barrel with my reviews of the local mums and toddler groups so coming up with another ten will be interesting. OH has helpfully offered to scout out the assorted adult shops of Brussels on his next trip, purely in the name of research apparently. Whilst hes away I can get on with a storecupboard challenge as the DDs will eat anything whereas the OH questions why we're all eating different things for dinner, the response usually being because I want to defrost the freezer or couldn't be bothered going shoppping so I've improvised.

So my plan for the day. Sleep and lots of it. Hopefully the wind will die down enough that I can grab another hour before the DDs wake up, it sounds to be getting worse out though. Then its yet more ironing ready for school tomorrow. After that I've promised them a roast dinner so will make bread and butter pudding too and perhaps some Twinks hob nobs for lunchboxes (if they last that long).

moo2moo

Its very peaceful here. The OH has gone back to bed, the DDs are singing along to Mama Mia and its still raining.

I've got 4 Qype reviews left to do but no enthusiam left. I've done enough surveys to qualify for £6 Paypal and a £5 Amazon voucher and I've finally finished tidying DD2s room but need to go through her clothes as shes run out of drawer space. Coffee first then ironing whilst watching the final half of Mama Mia. Hope you're all having lots more fun.

moo2moo

I did it!!!!!!!!!! I'm all Qyped out but I've qualified for the £50 Virgin voucher. I take my hat off to those who can consistently write two 150 word DooYoo reviews a day thats far far harder than it sounds. Todays matched bet has finished unlocking another free £10 bet in the process and E-bay sales have topped £30 and are still climbing.

Off to make lots and lots of mess in the kitchen with the DDs. Oh happy day, oh happy day oh happpiiiiieeey daaaayyyyyy.

Intergalactic_Floozie

LOL - This diary is great! You have made me laugh, I love your style or writing. I'm definitely subscribing to it. Thanks for mentioning Qype by the way, I have never heard of it, so will have a go at it.

moo2moo

Floozie - thats such a cool name. The Virgin Qype challenge is full but its only 3 months since they ran the last one. I may well give myself ahead start on the next one by writing reviews in Word and then transferring them across but thats awfully effieicent and organised and so not me.

Matched betting weekly update ..... well its been interesting thats for sure. I placed a bet yesterday with a minute to kick off (must pay more attention to times and dates) and had to recalculate twice as the odds were fluctuating rather a lot. Also realised how limited I was playing with £30 over a very busy weekend so have temporarily increased my fund by £40 to make my current cash in play a grand total of £70.49, mostly to cover a free £10 bet at the exchange with odds of 5.0 which tied up everything I had until the 28th.

Bet #5 23p loss. £20 Quidco. £10 free bet

Bet #6 £6.34 profit from a £5 free bet (ummm I screwed up here as it should have been less than £5 return, I calculated as SNR when it was SR).

Bet #7 attempt 2............ until the 28th. £10 free bet at 5.0 rather than the original £10 cash bet at 5.0 which was refunded due to complete and utter blondeness.

Bet #8 2p loss (qualifying bet 2 of 5) matched odds of 1.35. Must find more like this!

Bet #9 29p loss (qualifying bet 3of 5)

Bet #10 37p loss (qualifying bet 4 of 5)

Bet #11 32p loss (qualifying bet 5 of 5) unlocking a free £10 bet

Bet #11 31p loss (qualifying bet 1 of 5)

Account balance :

Cash in play £70.49
Cash balance at the bookies £95.32
Cash profit £24.83
Quidco to date £35.00
Free bets available £20
Free bets to be unlocked £50

Lessons learned:

The smaller the odds the less you lose on qualifying bets.

The smaller the difference between the odds the less you lose on qualifying bets.

The bigger the odds the more you gain from free bets but these also require a much bigger cash balance to take advantage.

Are you bored yet?

mooomin

moo2moo wrote: »

Are you bored yet?

I'm not bored, but I will be totally honest and say that 99% of the time the matched betting stuff goes over my head :rotfl::rotfl:

moo2moo

If I'm being perfectly honest the matched betting is still going over my head. Just as I think I've got it sussed I get an unexpected result which makes me rethink everything again.

Scratchcards done, the balance seems to be creeping up remarkably quickly. 40p to another payout. Three qualifying matched bets placed. A free fiver unlocked but insufficient funds to benefit until tomorrow. Must not place big bets so far in the future its annoying as hell.

OH woke up grumpy at 2am and has got grumpier and grumpier and grumpier.

Last nights E-bay sales were ridiculous in the end topping £50. I'm now feeling very guilty and once all the books have sold I'll be making a donation to the school PTA for a large chunk of the profit. Seems only fair.

Running late already. Off to wake the monkeys, grab a shower and start. Must remember to put the bins out before 7:15am.

Intergalactic_Floozie

I love having a bet, but I've tried to understand Matched Betting and am still completely clueless. I'd love someone to come along and say "Right, put £10 on this and £10 on that" and do it for me as I haven't a scooby doo myself!