Improving my life during Summer 2010

Mags30

Crowdology £15.36

Lightspeed Panel 550 points (115 points = €1 Paypal)

Toluna 41,259 towards 60,000 points for a €15 voucher

OnePoll £16.25 towards £40 Paypal

Surveyhead €8.98 towards €20 Paypal

Pureprofile €1.05 towards €25

Europinions €6.20 towards €50

Progress is still really slow but apart from Crowdology and Onepoll, I'm not particularly dedicated to this challenge. I've been screened out of loads of surveys too. I hate toluna, will log in ever now and again until I reach the €15 Amazon voucher but will probably give up after that.

Mags30

Just had a phone call from friend X apologising for putting me in such an awkward situation. Makes me feel a bit better. Memorygirl has just updated that the MrBig challenges will be every second day from now on. Glad they are continuing

Mags30

Debt total @ 1st October €5699.85

I had 4 NSD's (no spend days) in September. Will aim for 6 in October.

It's 85 days to Christmas :xmassmile. I'm not a Christmas person at all but Christmas shopping is a bit of a danger zone for me, I tend to be easily influenced by attractive gift sets and when everyone else is shopping I want to buy things too. It’s getting colder as well which means much higher gas bills.

I’ve definitely improved a lot, I hardly buy clothes at all now. I haven’t bought anything in Primark or on ebay for ages. It’s a gradual change which is still ongoing rather than an overnight one but hopefully by next year I’ll be really good at all this MSE stuff rather than just plodding along.

I have set myself a provisional debt free day of December 24th 2011

Mags30

Items used up/out: 12

• MAC Studio tech foundation compact shade NW20
• Kiehls Abyssine cream 7ml sample pot
• Lush gorgeous moisturiser 10g sample tin
• Lancome primordial moisturiser 15 ml pot
• Body Shop Nutrigenics serum sample pot
• Yes to carrots moisturizing day cream 3ml sample sachet
• Yes to carrots deliciously rich body butter 3ml sample sachet
• Dove nectarine + white ginger shower gel 55ml
• L’oreal elvive full restore shampoo 10ml
• Carefree cotton extract panty liners (x2 packs)
• 1 Pack of pocket tissues

Items in: 19 (but 11 were free) Still higher than items out but at least it's way lower than last months total. Maybe I should cheat a bit and only use samples instead of large bottles-then I'd have higher numbers for items used :undecided


Amount spent: €83.78 (not as bad as it looks)

€31 was on the Armani gift set that’s for a Christmas present so strictly speaking that shouldn’t count.

€24.49 was on items purchased for mystery shopping jobs (Orifluido oil and Body Shop cucumber toner)
That leaves only €28.29 to account for:)

I bought essential contact lenses and hairdye.

There was only 1 item from Boots clearance this month, a sanctuary scrub in a large glass pot costing €3.36, see I am improving

I got 4 Ruby+Mille eye make up brushes for free using the Boots No7 Vouchers.

7 of the items in were free samples: Body Shop Nutriganics serum 2 x Marc Jacobs Lola perfume samples and 4 CK aftershave samples which I'll add to Christmas presents later.

Mags30

Julia Roberts was amazing obviously but having absolutely loved the book but I didn’t enjoy the film as much as I was expecting to.

New York: I don’t think the director of Glee should have been directing it because I don’t think he knows how to do serious. The awful depression Liz Gilbert suffered before going on the trip didn’t come across at all. Instead he concentrated on the short rebound fling she had with that David guy—whatever. I think the overcoming depression aspect would have been far more interesting. The film is really long (140 minutes) and there was no need for all the stuff at the start about the ex husband. Including the word divorce here and there would have covered that because the book was about the trip not the divorce.

Italy: She mostly ate spaghetti which I don’t really like. The menu at my local Italian restaurant appeals to me more than most of the meals shown in the film. Pity because I love Italian food. They didn’t show her going to the Italian lessons either which was a huge part of the trip for Liz Gilbert. They just showed her reading an Italian dictionary in the bath a lot.:p It seemed to focus a lot on the people she met in Italy too when the original trip was about her and nobody else.

India: This section didn’t inspire me to want to go there to be honest, doesn’t seem like my sort of place. When I read the book I thought of her doing yoga in India, she did mention the yoga mat a lot but from the film it appears that meditation was what she did for the entire trip. I prefer yoga but what stood out for me from India was how annoying Richard from Texas was, if he was on a trip with me he’d drive me crazy and a lot of my energy would have to go on avoiding him. I feel bad for saying that because the real Richard from Texas has passed away since she wrote the book. She wore some really ridiculous clothes in India too.

Bali: Looked so beautiful. I really liked Ketut the medicine man but I didn’t like the Felipe character she fell in love with at all.

Interestingly there seems to be loads of negativity towards Liz Gilbert and her trip online. Most of it written by men it has to be said but it is interesting reading comments from people who don’t approve at all. Basically they think she was incredibly selfish for leaving her husband and dedicating herself to vapid, hedonistic pursuits. :undecided

So with all of this in mind I’m still fantasising about having my own “Eat, Pray, Love” adventure but only for a month, not a year. I’d like to spend 2 weeks in Italy and go on a short yoga break or weekend. I’m not quite sure what would fill the rest of the month but I’m sure something else will inspire me soon. I’d love to do this after (if ever) I pass all 8 law exams or at least before I’m 35. Until then I’ve added some pages from Italian holiday brochures to the vision board and will have lunch at the Italian restaurant I love again soon.

Mags30

Just adding a link to the grounding techniques hypno posted for us on Memorygirl's thread because it'll be easier for me to find them here. That thread is long.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=37138534&postcount=4114 and
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=37138580&postcount=4115

Mags30

Just adding another link for easy reference. Cheery Daff posted a link to this blog today, in particular a post from Friday 1st October titled "Belonging". It's about trying to fit in as the new person. The lady is talking about farming but it could apply to anything new you want to do.

http://coldantlerfarm.blogspot.com/

boredofbeingathome

I like the blog you put up from cheerys thread- made me laugh out loud at the thought of doing Yoga amongst the chickens..I agree with the premise of it though.

Mags30

Ok here's the new plan for a 100 day challenge (Today 2/Oct/2010 until 10/Jan/2011) because I need something to focus my mind My challenge is inspired by one of Memorygirl's MrBig's challenges, the 5-9 one:

To quote MrBig:

"What do you do between 5 and 9?"

Most new enterprises start in the twillight hours - a few hours here, a few hours there and a few hours at the weekend.

Lose an hour of TV per night, 7 per week, 364 hours per year. Most of us work a 22 day month - so that’s the equivalent of two and a half months of working time added onto your year right there.

What could you achieve if you had two and a half months to dedicate to it - learn an instrument, write a book, apply for a new job, find a great relationship?

Makes you kinda think doesn't it?

I need to link to one of my own posts to explain: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=36969560&postcount=3470

Now I won't be giving up any of those things but I’m going to be strict about adding things so that I can post on here to say what I did in the evening. It can be anything really (study, exercise class, night out) but it needs to be a bit more productive than “I watched most of what was on television, refreshed the pages on MSE every 2mins for new posts and sent a few text messages all while having tea and biscuits...or worse Dominos pizza” :rotfl:

It’s laziness bordering on depression especially when the evenings get dark/wet/cold. When I house-shared in the city centre a few years ago I was reasonably good at doing things in the evenings, partly because things were on my doorstep and I could walk everywhere. But I can drive now so that shouldn’t be an excuse. It just requires a little effort and advance planning.

Mags30

Day 100: (Saturday-was at my mothers)

• Tort Law Ch 19 Defences
• Washed and deep conditioned hair
• Watched the X-Factor
• Had tea and cake with my mother

:starmod:Day 99::starmod: (Sunday) Les Miserables 25th anniversary concert live from the O2 in London (via satellite at local omniplex cinema)


Possibly the most enjoyable evening of the 100 day challenge, even with another 98 days to go. I had the ticket for this before I came up with the 100 day challenge so it fitted in very nicely. It’s been so long since I’ve seen a West End show and this was outstanding. So uplifting and so much positive energy. I’ve added the soundtrack to my Amazon wishlist, wouldn’t mind reading the book either

It’s set in France from 1815-1832 against a backdrop of the French Revolution. It tells the story of Jan Valjean (an ex-convict who becomes a factory owner/Mayor), Javert (the policeman who pursues him) Fantine who gets fired from the factory for having an illegitimate daughter- Cosette, Cosettes’ nasty but very funny adoptive parents and Mauris (who Cosette falls in love with).

Had to drive home in dark afterwards so mini driving lesson included there too.

Day 98: (Monday) 25 minute Powerplate exercise class

In a mood about money after this. The powerplate gym is newly opened here and is advertised in the local paper as costing a very reasonable €5.75 a class (+ a free class). So I went along for the free class with the intention of going back for more classes but here’s what it really costs:

12 sessions €139 =€11.58 per class
24 sessions €249 =€10.38 per class
36 sessions €339 = €9.42 per class
Monthly direct debit Peak membership €109
Monthly direct debit off peak membership €69 (Dividing this by 12 gives me the €5.75 that was advertised but that most definitely wasn’t mentioned in the article I read)

Not sure if I’m more annoyed with them for misleading me about the prices or with myself for not being able to afford to do things. I really enjoyed the class too, it was difficult, has to be beneficial and the atmosphere was lovely with a maximum of 6 people there for any class.

Having tea and ginger nuts now, catching up with diaries here, looking at websites for yoga and other classes I could go to and thinking about putting the electric blanket back on my bed, it's getting cold.