Scuba's Spending and Life in the South Diary

scubaangel

Well today was a very long day.

Starting with two mystery shops between 12.00 and 12.30, just before I left home for my dentist appointment and left my keys indoors, so had to visit the letting agents after the dentist decided to give me a lecture about better dental care (same one I suspect everyone gets every time they go), which resulted in my missing the train so having to cancel one of my planned mystery shops as I didn't arrive in town until 5 mins after the time slot. But still got the other 3 done whilst I was there, including an hour making use of the library for its free internet access so I could make a start writing them up while I killed time before the time slot for number 3.

Then managed to miss the train home by a couple of minutes, making getting my last two shops of the day really tight on the time scales - both had to be done by 20.00 and it was 19.15 when I got back to the car.

I only wish today would actually mean I'm in profit, unfortunately due to my weakness for pretty coloured underwear I would have needed to do another 8 jobs at todays average fee to just break even - but the underwear is a very lovely colour (although the size was a bit of a shock). And of course the evil dentist having decided I need a couple of fillings (borderline for needing doing last time but I didn't want to get it done then) will be costing another £30 on top of the £17 paid today.

Deep deep joy.

scubaangel

Ended up not going to see sister dear at the weekend, but after cancelling our plans had a phone call at work asking me to do a few hours overtime so happily agreed as always the extra money at the end of the month will be muchly appreciated - albeit only around £25 after tax etc.

In a fit of near insanity I have also signed up for next years Sport Relief mile, only I picked the 3 mile option at my local venue, gives me a reason to keep up the running over winter and helps with the planning for keeping busy while Mr S is away on his enforced absence.

scubaangel

Just had a look at my ebay phone app, I currently have 8 watchers on one of my items and one bid, with three watchers on another item, sadly it looks like one will be staying with me but fingers crossed that a few more bids come in on the first two. Small things but every 1 small item which I get out of the flat is a tiny step in the right direction as far as decluttering and ultimately getting debt free goes.

chevalier

ref OH and not being able to afford things. Maybe you need to nick his receipts and do an SOA so he sees how much he is spening on crap every month. That way he would be able to see in black and white, that he COULD afford to move if he actually was more disciplined...
chev

scubaangel

Honestly Chev it's not worth the hassle, he has a budget which he sticks to - but it fails to take in to account savings or paying extra off his credit card. I've tried pointing out that if he reduced his monthly 'spends' by even just £50 a month - which he could easily do if he stopped buying junk food or expensive steaks to have for dinner on nights I'm not home and used up things from our freezer - then he could save some and start bringing down the amount he owes on the card. But he just shrugs and says he'll pay it all off after he's been away next year with his bonus.

He'll "get it" eventually but not until he's ready, I guess I just have a slightly better grip on my finances as I've always needed to, he left school and joined the army so has always had a reasonable wage and secure job with no need to think about paying rent or bills until now, while I went to uni, worked part time or in low paid full time jobs so have needed to keep any eye on my spending habits.

In MSE news today I have earned nothing extra but have had a wander in to work to collect my dirty uniforms out of my locker, while I was there picked up a pack of sausages which were free as they're out of date tonight, so took myself in to town to get something to go with them, Lidl had reduced mushrooms and stew packs (carrots, parsnips, an onion and a swede) while Sainsbury had reduced Sweet potatoes and red onions. So thinking tonight I'll have sausages with roast veggies and sweet potato wedges, and use up the rest of the veggies and sausages in a casserole in the slow cooker over night for freezing tomorrow morning and take a portion to work with me. I'm fairly sure the green peppers in the fridge are still edible so I'll chuck them in there too. Will tell the boy that its in the freezer along with instructions so he can defrost some for his tea when he gets home on Friday - but I don't expect he'll actually use it.

scubaangel

*Not obsessively checking the ebay app* now have 10 watchers and only one bid on one item, 3 watchers and a bid on another and the third has neither watchers nor bidders. But since all three items were free one way or another - small comp wins or m.s purchases I'm happy to get rid of what I can.

Need to explore how good the app is for listing things with though, but that means unburying a box from the heap of stuff in the spare room and I simply don't have the motivation to go in there any more than necessary just now!

Tomorrows dinner is in the slow cooker and smells fab already, nothing too exciting sausage casserole with alot of mushrooms, carrot, onions and gravy but the ktichen and corridor smell of cooking mushrooms which I absolutely love. Just need to keep up with the visits to the shops in an evening to pick up cheap veggies to make things with, there's plenty of meat in the freezer I can start defrosting to use, and fingers crossed it'll mean the boy will start eating food thats already at home instead of buying more stuff instead (course this is going to start costing me more money as he buys most of the food at the moment).

clippy_girl

hi scuba! i can relate to the ebay app! i sold my pandora charm i bought courtesy of bare in july and i had something ridic like 15 watchers and no bids until about 2 hrs before! i was obsesively checking it and going mad that no one had bid! got another to sell now but going to wait til mid nov so hopefully will go for more! are you signed up to bare? if not, do it prompto! i have listed stuff using the iphone app and i found it quicker and easier than using the main website even with the barcode scanner not working!

how are you getting on with comps? i had a few small wins when i did it two years ago but not done it since. my mum has won cash though and even won a phone worth more than £200 when she entered a comp during a ms! i need to get back on it!

scubaangel

I'm not religious about comping, so I don't win much and it does tend to be small things, bits of make up or goody bags etc, I do enter some of the cash comps but I've never won anything on them but I guess the chances are so small as they're the popular ones.

I'm signed up to Bare but got fed up of the exchange rates on the rare occasions that they did allocate me work that I stopped applying don't think I've done anything for them for almost 2 years now - but the exchange rate is better now I think so if I can find my log in details I might try to get on with them again. Edit to add, found my log in details and have up dated my profile, thinking about it there are a few other companies I need to do the same with at some point.

It's good to know that listing is easier on the app - can you use it on free listing days? I know they have some strange rules about when listing fees still apply those weekends.

clippy_girl

not sure about free listing weekend as cant remember when i listed. if your things are low value did you know you get 50 or 100 (not sure which) free 99p start listings per month? makes sense to do them on non free weeknds as no one seems to know about this so you will avoid listing when everyone else does! not sure i like free listing as it encourages everyone to list at the same time so more stuff available. i listed a charm at £30 on free listing and i saved about 85p fee. think i would have got more if not free listing!

re exchange rate i got paid £45.05 for a 53 euro job at the end of sept. if you do a pandora job just be aware they seem to take longer to pay! im ok as got 0% cc. i just buy a charm and sell on ebay!

re comping my mum was talking to someone at a newspaper and he said they got something ridc like 7 entries to win a car and 100's for just a cd! seemed to think no one entered as wouldnt think they would win (although looking at the views/thanks on comp thread on here that doesnt seem the case!)

scubaangel

I've loads of stuff - some low value some slightly more expensive, I need to get more disciplined really about getting things on there but I tend to end up remembering the free listing weekend, getting one more expensive item on then adding a handful of 99p starts before losing motivation for it again.

Right now it appears that all three of the things I listed last week are going to be sold, two still have multiple watchers, one has just the one bid so looks like its going to sell for 99p and postage. Might actually have to get one of the random boxes of stuff out of the spare room and trying to get a couple more listings up.

At the moment I'm looking for comps to win a laptop as mine is quite decidedly knackered (I'll be nagging Mr S to have a look at it when he's home though), am just very thankful that I invested in the netbook last year! In the meantime I have a fairly scatter gun approach, every now and then I have a mooch around the comps board and see what takes my fancy, although I also have a tendency to not bother to register on sites if I'm not already a member because I'm too lazy.