Floozie does Frugal 2010

Intergalactic_Floozie

moo2moo wrote: »

Don't hold your breath on the freebies, they almost always end them like that. Think I've only ever had one lot of pressies theough the post despite clicking the yes please button on every survey.

I had some lovely cooking sauces once. However this survey did say at the end of it "We will be in touch in the next couple of weeks to invite you for the next stage" so that's why I kinda got the idea there'd be a freebie. HOWEVER it's not something that I would buy or want to use normally so not money saving but hey ho

Intergalactic_Floozie

Days to payday: 10
Money in bank :£57.50
Money in purse: £0.92
Grand Total: £58.42

Money spent since last update: £1.00
£1.00 bet (on football)

Grocery budget: £280.00 / £56.92 remaining
Petrol Budget: £110.00 / £1.50 remaining
Everything else budget: £147.00 / £-34.43 remaining

Hello, hello, hello - I'm glad it's Friday! Looking forward to my lie in tomorrow.

Lightspeed - screened out of ANOTHER survey (GRRRR) so still on 80 points. I'm sure I am teaching you all to suck eggs but I discovered you can cash in 345 points for £3 worth of paypal (although I am not sure how much paypal charge for withdrawing it). I didn't think it was too bad anyway seeing how a £5 love to shop voucher is worth 790 points.

One Poll - up to £9.25 with 25p still waiting to be 'validated'. I did a 20p poll yesterday which took me to an outside site and answered a few questions then back to one poll with a message saying 20p would be credited to my account when my answers had been validated. I've also managed to persuade a colleague to let me refer her and she promised me she would do the surveys.

Toluna - my goodness isn't their site slow?!!! Currently on 3260 points with a target of 80,000 for a £12 Love 2 Shop voucher (or is it £15). I quite like this site so might explore it a bit more. Any tips?

Mystery shopping - Still no new jobs.

Intergalactic_Floozie

Days to payday: 9
Money in bank :£33.31
Money in purse: £0.92
Grand Total: £34.23

Money spent since last update: £25.19
£20.00 - put in DH's birthday card.
£4.19 - pizza & garlic bread for tea last night

Grocery budget: £280.00 / £32.73 remaining
Petrol Budget: £110.00 / £1.50 remaining
Everything else budget: £147.00 / £-54.43 remaining

An early update today, I just needed to see how much I had left (laugh's hysterically) before I went shopping. I knew I would go overdrawn this month but it's not a nice feeling and I did hope it would be with less days to go to payday than this. Obviously my 'gifts' total this month (currently at £105) is to be blamed and all I can say is I wont be caught out next year!

DS2's birthday has just been a disaster but to cut a long story short he got £70 cash, which we bought a WWE ring with (the one we wanted was out of stock - GRRR) - got it home, built it and discovered it didn't come with any wrestling figures so I'm really annoyed. We're therefore gonna have to fork out for some figures for him to play with today (he's using power rangers at the moment).

I'm feeling a bit uneasy at the moment. DH works for a company who are connected in some way to a company they share an office with. Both companies pay half of DH's (meagre) salary and he's meant to work half a week for each company. However he has been spending more time working for company 1, and even when he's working for company 2 (rare) he can still do it from his desk in company 1. Anyway Company 2 look like they are going bust. The week after next they are giving up the office to go and work from home. Company 1 boss has told DH not to worry, and even though Company 2 pay half his wages, he will still have a job with Company 1. After he was made redundant last year I don't think I could bear to go through it again, especially how with him only being there since May he wont get any redundancy pay, and will only have to be given a week's notice....I'm a born worrier me.

Lightspeed - still on 80 points.
One Poll - up to £9.65 now (that's some extra surveys last night, not from anyone joining).
Toluna - On 5480 out of 80,000!! To be paid out in six months I need to be earning 13,333 per month, which is 3333 per week, which is 476 per day. I think that's definitely doable. Might need to start some of my own polls. Someone started some about which colour underwear they prefer, so it doesn't have to be highbrow!!!
Mystery shopping - I was in the right place at the right time as they'd put a load of sandwich shops on. I nabbed the two closest to me and went to get a third but then website started playing up as I do have my eye on a third. I could be having Shop bought sandwiches for my lunch half of next week if I play my cards right! (not to mention £12 towards the Xmas fund).

Also think we're going to need petrol this week sometime (boohoo) so I'm going to be overbudget on that (not to mention very overspent)

PS - I did also turn down a breakfast butty yesterday (£2). I'm kind of harbouring next month the idea of giving myself some guilt-free pocket money but looking at this month's spends, I have spent an awful lot of it on extra food! I'd rather have pretty accessories or clothes than extra food and magazines!!!

This is book number 8 started for 2010 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Adrian-Mole-Prostrate-Sue-Townsend/dp/0718153707/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265446933&sr=8-1

NualaBuala

Hi Flooze,

I'm not sure if One Poll is just for the UK - if it includes Ireland you can sign me up.

Fingers crossed for your OH, at least he's still got Company 1!

N x

Intergalactic_Floozie

We could give it a go Nuala......I'll PM you and ask you for your e-mail address - Thanks xx

DH phoned our car insurance company who said that the price they had quoted was the lowest and they couldn't lower it anymore. Unfortunately it's still the lowest out of anywhere else I had been on comparison sites but about £50 higher than I would want it to be.

moo2moo

OHs job looking shaky again is truly pants. Fingers crossed work with company 1 picks up enough for them to increase his hours and his income there.

Intergalactic_Floozie

Days to payday: 8
Money in bank :£-38.98
Money in purse: £0.92
Grand Total: £-38.06

Money spent since last update: £25.19
£8.99 on a WWE figure for DS2 seeing how the bloody expensive ring he spent his birthday money on didn't come with a single figure.
£14.40 - prescriptions x 2 (had tried to put it off until next pay day but was getting anxious I had no purple inhaler left, and only 4 puffs on the blue one)
£1.39 - toothpaste (went to Boots to get above prescription, checked the advantage card machine and saw they were offering 50 extra points for anything from the smile range, so I bought the toothpaste. The pharmacist somehow added the points twice, so I now have more points than I should hah hah)
£47.51 - groceries.

Grocery budget: £280.00 / £0.00 remaining
Petrol Budget: £110.00 / £0.00 remaining
Everything else budget: £147.00 / £-38.06 remaining

Well, I have finally done it and gone overdrawn and I dont like it boohoo!!!

OnePoll: Balance £9.65. Looks like they don't send surveys on weekends.
Mystery shopping: Spent several times on the site yesterday trying to get that third sandwich shop only to keep getting "page cannot be displayed" when I tried to allocate it to myself. Anyway when I checked again later in the evening some git had managed to get it before me. BOO!!! Still, at least I do have two for the end of the week.
Lightspeed: Still on 80 points.
Toluna: 6350 points (870 added since yesterday, didn't spend much time on it yesterday)
Advantage Card Points: 764 (have also found the voucher for 250 points when I buy anything from the No 7 range, so I'm going to get my friend a mascara for her birthday)

Am going to do next pay day's budget later on today. This month seems to have gone really quickly.

Intergalactic_Floozie

moo2moo wrote: »

OHs job looking shaky again is truly pants. Fingers crossed work with company 1 picks up enough for them to increase his hours and his income there.

Thanks, Company 1 is like a 'we can save you money on your landlines / telephony system' type firm, and Company 2 is like a mobile phone shop without a shop, so he's confident Company 1 will carry on. Company 1 boss is very forward thinking and has taken on a new sales guy, and offered a woman from company 2 a job when she handed in her notice, so he can afford to take new staff on by the looks of things, and he's just bought a new farmhouse which he is busy having renovated. I'm trying to focus on these positives.

However (this is really bad!!!). If he did get made redundant, extra CTC + Dole money would = £374 less than DH's wage!!!!!!!!! Can you believe that. So I am not worrying as much.

Intergalactic_Floozie

Days to payday: 7
Money in bank :£ -44.66
Money in purse: £5.50
Grand Total: £-39.26

Money spent since last update: £10.18 (however have recouped £10 from DS2 and let him pay for his own wrestling figure as his grandma came last night and gave him a tenner. Don't look at me like that - times are hard!!!)

£1.00 - tubigrip bandage (worn by DS2 to protect his legs from the shin pads as they irritate him and bring him out in a rash)
£2.00 - 2 multipacks of crisps from the pound shop (my attempt at keeping away from biscuits, crisps, sweets as I find I can stick to one pack of crisps whereas I always have to have a minimum of three biscuits.
£1.50 tea fund
£5.68 - ear drops & toothpaste from Boots. Got the toothpaste for the extra points.

Grocery budget: £280.00 / £0.00 remaining
Petrol Budget: £110.00 / £0.00 remaining
Everything else budget: £147.00 / £-39.26 remaining

OnePoll: Balance £9.95 - I can almost smell that quarter-of-the-way mark now!!!!
Mystery shopping: Nowt new.
Lightspeed: did a 70 pointer today on food (my favourite topic) so am on 150 points now.
Toluna: 6590 points (240 added since yesterday, didn't spend much time on it yesterday)
Advantage Card Points: 830 (got 66 points today, 50 for the extra points, and 16 for the £5.44 purchase)

Found a bottle of unopened-still-in-sellophane Next Perfume when I was looking for something in my wardrobe today, so I can put that in my 2010 present storage box. I did a spreadsheet today with all the birthdays and occasion dates on it and got a shock. 45 occasions / people plus mother's day and Father's day!!! It's no wonder I'm flaming skint. So I reckon I need to be putting about £50 a month away. March is amongst one of the worst months, 7 occasions (inc Mother's day) with three lots of birthday presents to buy, and 2 card only occasions.

So - if anyone sees any bargains that I would be daft to miss out on, preferably to value of £10, please point me in the right direction.

sparkleisshopping

Hi Floozie! That's a lot of gifts you have to buy - I feel your pain with that one! On quidco at the moment there is a Photobox offer - £4 for signing up and £2.50 off a card so you only pay the postage which is £1.49. You could make a funky birthday card with a photo for someone and give them a frame with it so they can use the card as a picture after? I made a lovely Valentine's card for my boyfriend with this offer.
Could you send me an invite for One Poll please?