To remind myself how far I've come - my debt diary. - SOA added

hypno06

Hi Choco, I am glad that the doc has signed you off again - it will give you chance to get on top of things a bit before the baby arrives!

As for what to do with your time......ebay.....matched betting......little bit of time on DFW......obvious really

chocaholic110

hypno06 wrote: »

Hi Choco, I am glad that the doc has signed you off again - it will give you chance to get on top of things a bit before the baby arrives!

As for what to do with your time......ebay.....matched betting......little bit of time on DFW......obvious really

Just a little bit of time on MSE - is that all I'm allowed?

And matched betting scares me. I'm not sure that I'm clever enough - have tried reading the bumph on it and I just sort of read the words without any of it sinking in.

fiveyearplan - the older two are at school. I really miss them though - isn't that sad? I feel so guilty when I take DD to school and then leave her there...on her own! My mum says I'm completely mad - "99.9% of mums leave their children at school every day - they don't all go with them!!!" I think it might do DD good to have some time at school as a "normal" child though.
Even though I don't treat her differently to the others at school, and she's not in my class, I think she sometimes feels different. There again, when I ddin't feel up to going to the church service last week, I asked if she minded me not going to see her in church and she said "Don't worry, I'm used to nobody ever coming to see me when I'm in things at school"...What the...? I haven't ever missed anything she's done - even though I am usually there as the teacher!! Kids!!

chocaholic110

OK, so my spending diary is sobbing manically at the events of today! I have been very naughty and bought loads of baby clothes! In my defence, they are bundles from ebay, new or practically new, they look gorgeous and it means that the baby will not need any more clothes now until it is 6 months old! Also I could easily have spent the same amount in Next, Mothercare or even Asda and not got nearly so much stuff. Also I remembered to go through Quidco (I think I'm just trying to justify this to myself!) On the downside, I had to use my overdraft to pay for them And I will be gutted if the 4d scan says the baby isn't a boy! Maybe I was too impatient!

Also today, I went to Argos and bought DD's birthday present, a Nintendo DS game she wants for Christmas and another game for her from my mum - though this spend is not as bad as it sounds as 1. I paid using vouchers from surveys 2. The DS games were £20 each or 2 for £30 and I split the cost with my Mum and 3. I got a £5 Argos voucher for spending over £50. So did spend quite a bit but not "real" money.

Also got quite a few bits for to make pamper hampers for my mum and best friend and a grumpy old woman hamper for OH's grandma. Oh and some stuff for the Operation Christmas child shoebox appeal.

All in all today's spend's were...

Baby clothes: £111.56
DD Birthday present : £30
DD Christmas Present: £15
Stuff for hampers / shoebox appeal: 3 x cups, 3 x hot chocolate, 3 x bubble bath / soap / body puff sets, 2 x Original source body scrub (BOGOF), 1 x pamper pack sachets (face mask, hair mask etc), 2 x felt tips, pencil case, embroidered notebook, 2 x pack with fluffy pencils, hair slides, hair bobbles etc, another pack with pink stationery (sellotape, stickers, pencils, erasers, pencil sharpener etc) : £12.78 (Wow! Am impressed by that!)
Youth club: £2
Sweets:£2 (this must stop!)
Parking: 60p
Charity: £5 (My mum had her hair dyed pink for Tickled Pink breast cancer campaign - bloomin' permanent dye as well!!)


Petrol: £10
Ebay packaging: £1

Total spend today: £189.94 OUCH!

Luckily none went on the credit cards. So, the plan is now to try and recoup some of the baby clothes money on ebay. No idea what I'm going to sell, but hopefully it will work as a decluttering exercise. Will have to be realy ruthless - if it doesn't get used, then off it goes!

On a financial gains side: cashed in some IPSOS points for a £10 Argos voucher and Lightspeed points for £5 HMV e-voucher (meaning have got £17 now). Also both OH and I are only around £1 away from a £10 boots voucher from pigsback - wil probably take another 4 weeks to get though!

What did I do before I discovered survey / voucher sites?

hypno06

What a day!! And what indeed would we have done before free vouchers and hamper threads!!

I got a John Lewis voucher that I had been waiting for, finally, from Pigsback today :T £40 in total now from Piggy points that will all help out with Christmas!

chocaholic110

DD is off school today for teacher training (DS isn't much to his annotance, but i think he gets his own back sometime in November - plus sometime next month they have a "target setting" day where he only has to go in for an hour, with me, to talk about Y9 targets - so he gets two days really!)

Anyway, DD and I are waiting in for a parcel so planning to spend the day pottering about, finding stuff for ebay / freecycle / Bags 2 school / bin. I already have a pile for each though nothing that is going to raise a fortune so need to keep sorting. Have been doing this for a couple of days and in the process I have some very tidy drawers and cupboards but it seems to have made the house in general into a bit of a mess!

Also need to do finance projection for November (it's tricky when OH gets paid different amounts each week). I think finances are going to be tight next month with probably not a lot coming off debts unless I can raise some extra from somewhere.

On the bright side I got a £5 HMV voucher from my survey account yesterday putting the total at HMV up to £22 - almost enough to buy DS his first Christmas present if he ever tells me what he wants!

EDIT: Yay - just checked OH's Pigsback account and he has enough for a £10 Boots voucher

skintscotslass

Morning luv, just catching up with your diary. I'm glad you've taken the Drs advice and have been signed off xx

chocaholic110

OK, well, we've gone through DD's drawers, wardrobe, shelves and some toys and got a load of stuff for the bin (headless Barbies anyone?), a bin bag for the Bags 2 school collection and piles of [STRIKE]crap[/STRIKE] interesting items for ebay. Not sure who would want to buy any of it but we'll see.

Have taken lots of photos - now I just have to pysch myself up to list it all!

hypno06

Well, if you are on for the ebay challenge then that is good for me! I will prob not start listing until Sunday evening, but as I have set myself a target of £100, I HAVE to list!

Once we get started, we will be fine - it is the getting started that is the hard bit!

Perhaps you SHOULD list the headless barbies - there may be a market, who knows

chocaholic110

I'm up for the ebay challenge but probably won't get listing until tomorrow. might think about staggering the finsh times - I get bored waiting for auctions to end as I never seem to get any bids until an hour before the end, and also hate parcelling stuff up so it might b more palatable in small bites.

No listing today as I'm off for 4D scan. Keep your fingers crossed that it is a boy after all the boy clothes I've bought - though I think I'm fated not to get them. One parcel that was guaranteed delivery by Thursday still hasn't arrived and the other, the buyer says she will wait and post because even though Paypal says it's paid, ebay still says pending. Luckily I'm not too bothered about waiting a while for it!

Other than that, not doing much, we will have wander round the shops but we don't have much money so anything that we buy will have to be something we need, a bargain and on egg card to pay December!!

hypno06

Ooh, enjoy the 4D scan! I will be offline for much of the day, but look forward to reading all about it later!

I do my ebay in bits too - I will be making a start tomorrow I think!

Have a fab day x