Lisa's Debt Diary - The Beginning!

lvm

Ah, I was in B&M at the weekend (my Mum was after some chocolate!) I should have had a look around but I think I tell myself I won't be spending money so I don't bother looking. Could pop into TKMaxx while I'm there actually! x

Cherryjack

Absolutely love your diary!! :-) had to suscribe.. took me a few days to read but ive caught up lol.. couldnt believe the sky thing.. amazing and then contacting you back once you left to offer you it for cheaper!! im seriously going wrong somewhere, im paying £60.00 for sky (not the movies) does include music and childrens channels, phone and internet.. feel totally ripped off after reading this.. think i need to give these people a call! The chacha thing sounds cool, is it worth signing upto? easy?

Keep up your fab work!! love the sound of your new house mate lol.. you could turn this diary into a book .. its a great read!

lvm

Thanks Cherryjack!

Oh, a book - maybe I could make some extra dosh out of that!! Lol

You sould definitely give Sky a call - even if they don't offer you anything, you could cancel for a couple of months before they ask you back.

The ChaCha thing - not sure I'd recommend it. They've put a stop on recruitment now anyway and put a hold on some people's accounts so you wouldn't be able to register but it's a bit tedious and not much pay. I'm not really intending on getting another £50 payout on one of the account although I'm at about £12 in another so tempted to try and reach a payout before stopping.

Glad you stopped by! Do you have a diary?

lvm

So, good morning MSE!

Daily update on payments stuff:

ChaCha - £50 (or just over) around the 20th
Mystery Shopping - [STRIKE]£34[/STRIKE]+£7+£11+[STRIKE]£14[/STRIKE](all from different companies - forgot about the £14 and just received today!)
[STRIKE]TCB - £86.05[/STRIKE] Received :j
Gas/Elec - £183.80
[STRIKE]Betfair - £65[/STRIKE] Received :j
[STRIKE]Skybet - £32.50[/STRIKE] Received :j
Paypal - £15 (+ £5 not yet paid for MySurvey)

So, just ChaCha, my Gas/Elec refund, mystery shopping payments at end of month and a survey payout to wait for. All good!

On the diet front, lost another 0.75lbs since yesterday - achieved by eating only a tin of Asda Price beans with sausages at 484 calories. Go me!! :T
So, 9 days in, down to X minus 4.75lbs (you will have gathered by now I'm not brave enough to announce my actual weight yet - it's too awful ).

Managed to book in my first Mystery Shop with a restaurant company for tomorrow. Not entirely sure but don't think they actually pay a fee - just think it's a reimbursement but I'll try and check that out. Will need to be good with what I eat and not have anything else that day.

Have started packing for my holiday and turns out although I have absolutely tonnes of clothes, I'm limited in what's suitable to wear and what actually fits. So a little bit to buy before I go. That's going to be bought using the 25% off at New Look O2 priority discount Also, got about £65 worth of clothes to take back to work (I get uniform allowance) and I can swap that for stuff for holiday too which is good. Doing that tomorrow.

Got a couple of longer journeys to drive which should net me some expense dosh - might be able to use another car for them as well which would be good.

So far, everything going well this week!

Hasta Luego! x

lvm

I am going to be all mystery shopped out by next week. Just got a few more so now my schedule is like this:

Fri - restaurant for lunch, possible glasses shop on way home
Sat - maybe another glasses shop at some point
Mon - telephone call to bank & a fragrance shop

So that's another £36 of shops added today without any expenses and £35 restaurant reimbursement. Got the other restaurant in early Dec which is around £100.

I haven't done this many shops before but enjoying them more and more which is good. Still need to get my video cam up and running. Might try and see if I can record one of the shops I'm doing just to test it out and see how it goes!

Cherryjack

lvm wrote: »

Thanks Cherryjack!

Oh, a book - maybe I could make some extra dosh out of that!! Lol

You sould definitely give Sky a call - even if they don't offer you anything, you could cancel for a couple of months before they ask you back.

The ChaCha thing - not sure I'd recommend it. They've put a stop on recruitment now anyway and put a hold on some people's accounts so you wouldn't be able to register but it's a bit tedious and not much pay. I'm not really intending on getting another £50 payout on one of the account although I'm at about £12 in another so tempted to try and reach a payout before stopping.

Glad you stopped by! Do you have a diary?

lol I was thinking that :-).. no diary as yet , signed up to a survey site this morning to get amazon vouchers so hopefully will get something also a book of vouchers landed on my door (sainsburys).. normally i would bin these but not any more! Was a little naughty yesterday..went for a 28week baby scan, and me and my other half rolled into costa coffee afterwards (but i did use my reward card if that helps lol).. and i avoided the shops and the harvester. . so thats an improvement alone.

Have a lovely day :wave:x

lvm

Well, that was 5 whole days without the joys of MoneysavingExpert (or moneysaving for that matter!). 5 days in London really does nothing for the bank balance.

I must admit though, it's not been a horrendously expensive break. Thinking about costs, I've spent: £300 (kitty money for meals, drinks etc), £120 at restaurant for friend's birthday, £100 DKNY bag and purse, £108 (!!!) for some Elemis face stuff for Mum, £60 on some small Xmas bits...so £690. Probably nearer £700/£750. Ok, maybe that is pretty awful. But is was all budgeted for and most stuff was bought with cash with only a couple of things couple on credit card (didn't feel appropriate to be paying £120 and £174 restaurant bills in cash).

So...I've managed to come home with £350 which consists of about £180 that was put on my card and another £170 leftover money and that'll be going to the bank tomorrow along with both gas/elec cheque refunds I've now received. The £350 will then probably be transferred into a savings account as my account balance will be back up to the usual £500 so it's all going good thank God!

Really annoying news is....I arrived back in Edinburgh tonight and after a good wait at baggage reclaim, realised my bag wasn't coming. Turns out it never left Heathrow. Lovely! And it gets worse - I'd decided I wouldn't need to put my car and house keys in my hand luggage so put them in the suitcase. So, I'm stuck at Mum and Dad's house until my case is returned in the morning - and THEN I've got a 4 hour drive down South. Now, I know it's not a horrendous delay or anything but it is rather inconvenient so think I'm going to try and claim some compensation. Not quite sure what for yet as I haven't needed to replace any essentials. Thinking that I could possible say I wouldn't have needed to drive down South myself but because I have no toiletries or clothes, I can no longer get a lift so will try and claiim fuel from them. Worth a try anyway! The form asks for previous claims though and I got a refund of some train tickets 6 months ago after they decided to cancel our flight but then put it back on again. Hope this doesn't "blacklist" me!! LOL

Oh well, better be off to sleep - 7 hours and I'm up to wait on the delivery of my case!

Nighty night x

Cherryjack

Hi IVM :-) sounds like you had a ball in london.. not bad at all as you did a budget for it and kept to it cant believe you havent got your case.. how frustrating! would deffo claim compensation.. let us know how u get on.

Have a mini diary now, feel free to join x

lvm

Thanks Cherry!

Can you believe I still don't have my case - it never came by their deadline of 10am and when I called they said it was estimated at 1pm. I had to travel South so got it delivered to my Mum's work instead so should be there for me going home today. I've done something sneaky and should be able to get reimbursement for a £70 suit and some shoes (going to send them a copy of my work's dress code and say my only suit was in case). Hopefully that will work!

I will have a look at your diary when I get home tonight - in work just now...really need to look more busy! Lol

Cherryjack

oh gosh hope i arrives soon.. good plan lol