ho hum!

shinytoaster · 27 December 2010 at 6:10PM

I am really looking forward to the start of 2011. Onwards and upwards and all that jazz! I was paid on Friday and I am already into my overdraft which sucks monkey balls. My bills account isn't though - well, it can't because it hasn't got an overdraft.
My overdraft has been reduced by £50 so the limit is now £750 (it was £1000 five months ago). I am not planning on it taking 15 months to get it to zero though! My CC is £800 (damn GreenFlag!)
(and then there is the dreaded bank loan but shhh! I'm dealing with that when the OD and CC are gone.

January is going to be a dear month as my car as its MOT and service and my mum has her birthday as well but, after that, there are no expensive months until March.

On Friday, when I got paid, I drew my spends for the week out and I stocked up at ASDA and put petrol in my car. I only ever buy petrol every other week or so. I now have £20 to last until Friday. I don't need anything save from bread and milk - things I can get from the corner shop. I am a sw1ne when it comes to the supermarket because I go in wanting one thing and end up leaving the place with heaps of stuff. It would be fab if I can get to the end of the week with the £20.

I have been thinking about resolutions. I'm normally quite good with them but only because I see nothing wrong with editing at will! Will post this years when I have thought about them properly.

shinytoaster · 29 December 2010 at 1:58PM

I have spent a good chunk of the morning reading through the boards and I really don't know how people do it. I do admire those who can stretch a chicken to last several meals and make £15 a week on surveys but sometimes I wonder if it is being frugal or just being tight. I mean, when people come to tea I make sure that they are fed properly and go home not wanting to stuff their faces at McDonalds. Oh I dunno ... maybe I should explore these things further or take some claims with a pinch of salt.

Anyway!

I signed onto Toluna as a few people rave about it on here.

There are a few challenges starting up. I like the sealed pot and £1 a day challenges but I have a terramundi that I only feed £1 and £2 coins. I bought it a few months ago and it is feeling quite heavy already. It is nowhere near full though. I can't wait to hammer it open though. I had one a few years ago that I fed anything and I amassed just under four hundred pounds

. I think that I banked the coins after buying three more pots (one for my mum, sister and me).

I think that, instead of resolutions, I will have monthly challenges - something more manageable as I think that I am more likely to be successful that way.

January's will be this:
1. four NSD a week
2. Supermarket and recycling run on Fridays
3. I can only go to the sandwich shop a maximum of once a week
4. Tackle the dreaded ebay box
5. Take all offers of freelance work.

Shoe_Gal · 29 December 2010 at 2:27PM

I think monthly challenges rather than big resolutions are a good idea - that's the way I'm going

Mine for January are to lose a stone and pay off Barclaycard (£338)

Good luck

shinytoaster · 30 December 2010 at 11:54AM

Shoe_Gal wrote: »

I think monthly challenges rather than big resolutions are a good idea - that's the way I'm going

Mine for January are to lose a stone and pay off Barclaycard (£338)

Good luck

Thanks, and good luck to you as well

~~~~~

Couldn't sleep a wink last night because my chappie took me out to tea and I had three glasses of cola. Because I don't drink tea or coffee I was on a caffine high haha. Was awake until 2.30 blooming am!

Anyway, as he was gently snoring (which makes a change from his concord impersonations last week) I lay in bed doing my sums. I worked out that, **if** I stick to my budget, then my overdraft will be gone by April payday and my credit card will be gone by July payday. Woohoo! I really, really, really hope that I stick with it!

Shoe_Gal · 30 December 2010 at 11:55AM

I am sure you can, you sound really determined

Shoe_Gal · 31 December 2010 at 10:00AM

Here's to a fabulous 2011! :j

Happy New Year!

patman99 · 1 January 2011 at 10:59PM

Hi Shiny,
Sorry to hear about your mum. If it wasn't for a bunch of pharmacos pushing the US govt to outlaw Dr Raymond Royale's 'resonator', cancer would simply be treated with a few hours of soundwave treatment. However, they didn't like the fact that exposure to sound waves could destroy cancer cells as it threatened their future income. So now, all cancer and brain tumuor sufferers have to rely on a cocktail of expensive drugs.

Anyway, good luck with 2011. I have no idea which survey sites you use, but Toluna can be a bit hit and miss, they also take up to 6 weeks to credit points to your account, but you can earn extra points with polls and opinions. I tend to stick to sites that pay in Amazon vouchers as by having a common payment method, you can easily build-up several £'s worth for when you need them.

shinytoaster · 2 January 2011 at 12:11PM

I only have three more days (including today) off work. Where have my holidays gone??! I feel cheated!

Today is a pj and study day. I have a 5000 word assignment to write and I have no idea where to begin as the last assignment I wrote was just over 10 years ago - fcukkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy New Year to one and all!

Surveys - I do what used to be lightspeed, valued opinions and opinion world. I'm on yougov as well but that doesn't really count as it is slower than a snoozing sloath.

Well, I have chalked up one NSD already. w00t!

shinytoaster · 3 January 2011 at 12:50PM

I am hoping that today becomes my third NSD of the year as I am on my tod for the next couple of days

Last night, my chappie came over and we went out for dinner. It was my turn to pay but he paid instead. He made a comment on my weekly budget - urgh! I think that he is fab but he knows that I prefer to take turns in picking up the tab. He has always had gf's who insist that he always pays and I am soooooooooo not like that. Mind you, I usually pay for the shopping and cook his dinner. Meh! Maybe I am being over sensitive ... He is a good man - the polar opposite of the twits I usually end up with.

My weekly budget is something he giggles at. Not in a bad way mind. He just sees me as being a penny pincher but he doesn't know that I am in debt. He is never going to know that I am in debt either.

It just so happened that my father was one of those whose money burnt a hole in his pocket. It just so happened that, because of that, I grew up with a shoddy attitude to money. It just so happened that I made several mistakes when it came to money and a certain ex love. It just so happened that I learnt a lot about money and it just so happened that I will get out of this mess and will never get into it again. A new year and a dayum good start!

And, I shall get one of my frozen ready meals out of my freezer and have it for my tea tonight. Amen to batch cooking! (something I learnt from the MSE darlings)

EssexHebridean · 4 January 2011 at 7:02PM

You should talk to your OH about your debt Shiny - if he's worth being with it won't make any difference to how he sees you, and if he finds out about it afterwards he'll be devastated that you didn't feel able to tell him sooner. I speak from experience on this one! I would have thought that it's better for him to know about your debt than just to think you're tight, too!