Frugal Fresian's 2010 Adventures

mooomin

I ended up spending no time figuring out matched betting and lots of time faffing about on YouTube looking at music from my youth :rotfl:

I have also spent an hour of my time trying to find a restaurant that caters to my vegan friend and failing, thus we are going to TGIs and won't be able to bring her. We found a nice looking Kurdish place that caters to her diet and our love of all things meaty, but it's too much cash

Bed now, Toon tomorrow :j:j

moo2moo

Matched betting is one of those things that you don't truly understand until you've done it.

The simplest idiot proof calculator I found is here

After that its simply having an awful lot of balls and the ability to understand what back and lay actually mean.

Backing is what happens in a normal bookies so as an example in a footy match (cos there are less funny rules) ManU v Bradford you "back" Man U to WIN at the bookmakers and at the Betting Exchange (Betfair, Betdaq or Jaxx) you "lay" Man U to do anything that isn't wining (eg. lose or draw). The calculator in the link above tells you exactly what amount to "lay" which is usually a very obscure figure.

Its also a lot less stresful if you start off with the £5 offers and v. low odds of around 2.0 or less (but check Ts & cs as some companies require minimum odds to be 2.0 or greater to qualify) as the amount you stand to lose if you screw up is so much less.

If you're feeling really really lazy then this website finds the matches for you to save you trawling through thousands of matches in the hopes of finding something. As a gerneral rule of thumb if you can't pronounce the teams name or its played in Greece avoid it like a case of the clap as these are the sort of games that tend to be pulled after the game due to money laundering or obscure beting patterns and usually end up losing you money or having your account locked or both.

mooomin

For anyone who doesn't haunt the Newspaper threads on a daily basis like I do:

The Times is doing free downloads of Spooks Series 1 via iTunes from today (If it is like last weeks offer, you buy the paper today for the first episode then the rest of the series will be free to download)

The Telegraph has a free audio book of Dr Who inside it today (CD format) and this is the first of 7. I suspect I am going to be a Telegraph reader this week

mooomin

We're off to Newcastle shortly and are both very excited :j I have my debit card with me which has all my overtime money sitting in it, so this will pay for any incidentals today - petrol, dinner and probably some kind of Toon memorabilia for Mr Fresian *I miss the rolling eyes smiley!*

I've done some Toluna while waiting for himself and am up to 25590 again, which is quite good. I'm over a quarter of the way to another voucher, and have £30 in Amazon vouchers hiding somewhere in the internet. I don't mind doing the surveys, but waiting over two months for the rewards is quite annoying! At least if I blitz them in the first half of the year Christmas will sort itself out!

Better run - got to get ready and leave the house!

Have a good Saturday!!

mooomin

Had a lovely time in Newcastle yesterday and ended up spending less than £50 as we decided to head home instead of going out for dinner in The Toon, so egg on toast for tea and about £40 saved

Raised my Toluna points up to 27555 this morning through doing many dull surveys, but got quite a few external ones off the back of the mini surveys, so should get a few thousand points off them soon enough. I have also created a few more opinions for other people to do so hopefully that will increase my points too. I will then have to write more opinions on other peoples topics, which takes ages but will be worth it for the points!

The other things I have done today (Still not dressed!)

Downloaded my free episode of Spooks from yesterdays times
Sent flatmate out for a Telegraph so I can have another Dr Who audiobook
Watched last nights Dr Who (SPOOKY!!) which was fab

Time to get dressed now as we have friends coming round soon!

taka

f_f - places like Hendersons (Hanover St) are veggie and have loads of yummy food including vegan. (no meat though.) Ana Purna and Kulpna are both yummy veggie indian restaurants that will cater for vegan too (St Particks Sq and Nicolson St). There is David Banns too but it's a bit more pricy!

mooomin

Good morning all!

It's Mr Fresian's birthday today and he's happily snoring away at the moment, meaning I can formulate a plan for the day....

I have a doctors appointment in an hour to see about my possible thyroid problem and to ask about the funny turns I had recently. Hopefully nothing serious.

I'm going to take the bus from the doctors to the local shopping centre to hopefully redeem the voucher in today's Telegraph for my next Doctor Who audiobook (Woo!) I listened to the first one yesterday on my way to the supermarket and thought it was fab - it was read by the New Who and he was very good, although his Scottish accent left a lot to be desired!!

I have a few bits to update on my spending spreadsheet and thanks to our MSE day in Newcastle can pay for the bits and pieces I bought for Mr Fresian's birthday stuff with the overtime from last month and I will still have another £80 left. :A Now, do I PAD this or do I buy the Easytone trainers I have been lusting over?

I have been checking my credit card, and there is a balance on there of nearly £400 :eek: Luckily it's interest-free, but I do need to have some kind of plan to pay it off. At the moment I'm paying any little bits of extra money to it, but when it comes to the end of the month I will pay off a little chunk with anything left in the Groceries or Entertainment accounts, money I would usually PAD to my loan. I know that I will be doing overtime on both the May bank holidays, so that should help as well. My current money situation is:

Groceries: £212.58 (Reduce to £170 at the start of the month as this is my budget per calendar month)
Entertainment: £41.11 (Reduce to £30 at the start of the month)
PAD: £117 although any cash spends come from this account

We still have half a tank of diesel in the car and no long trips upcoming, so that's one less expense!

Better go and get ready for the doctors, have a good day all!

mooomin

Something that might interest the Edinburgh-based folk (or those nearby)...

MyCityDeal are doing today's deal where you spend £6 and get a voucher worth £20 at the Sizzling Scot on Dalry Road which does very tasty steaks etc. You can use one voucher per person, so I got one for me and one for Mr F so we can go out for dinner together sometime soon. If it sounds like something that would interest you and you've not signed up before, I would be most obliged if you (or any other interested parties) would sign up using my referral link as I will get £6 credit on the site for it!

http://www.mycitydeal.co.uk/in/.UiTiN7

Thank you kindly.

Double_Trouble

Morning FF

I would be interested to hear how you get on with your thyroid as my doctor has recently suggested that I may have a problem in that area and have to have repeat blood tests in a few weeks is yours under or over active?

Happy Birthday to Mr. FF

DTxx

mooomin

At the moment I know nothing as he only took the blood today. My brother has an underactive thyroid and when the doctor told me the symptoms I thought "Hmmm...."

1. Tired a lot
2. Cold when other people aren't
3. Putting on weight (That might be the cakes until recently though!)

I should get the results back on Friday so will keep y'all informed!