Blinking in the brightness of the lightbulb moment

Cat2011

Not much happening on the finance front at the moment. Life is just work/essay/work . Forgot to order some stock in this week, which will delay my experiments, will have to tell my bosses in our meeting on Monday. Going to go into work on Sunday to do some lab work so that the delay is a bit shorter, which will hopefully appease them. Starting to think about Christmas presents, will have to try and force out of my parents what it is they actually want. When I was younger I used to always cook biscuits and cheese straws and things as presents for my grandparents. They're now long gone, but thought maybe I could spend some time cooking up little treats - fudge, cookies, peppermint creams etc. for my family this year - wrap it all in a nice box and it might be appreciated. Might be quite a money-saving thing to do.

It's a friends birthday do' in a couple of weeks, I thought I could treat myself to a new dress, seeing as I can't get into any of my current ones ... So I've been checking out eBay, and limited myself to bidding on a couple for a total of £15 including the postage, so hopefully I'll win one of them.

I also saw (and amazingly won!) a cheap mannequin. Whilst browsing on eBay (during a study break of course...) I noticed that those who had poor photos, and clothes draped on beds etc. sold for low amounts, but those on mannequins and well lit sold for a surprisngly high amount. I have absolutely loads of clothes to sell, so thought if I displayed them on a mannequin it might up the price a little, and hopefully I'll make my money back, as I actually have somewhere to put the clothes whilst taking a photograph...

Pearla*Merle

Hello Cat, I thought I'd finally come out of Lurkerdom! Cooking up some treats are a great idea for presents, to be honest I think a lot of people love that, rather than some random object they don't like. I've got most presents sorted thanks to picking up things in sales throughout the year, but I'm definitely going to go down the sweet treats route next year. Salt dough decorations would also be a fab addition methinks.

Mannequins are completely worth it! I needed mine for my job anyway (I sell vintage clothes, and tend to sell a fair few online) and I've always had much better sales using it as well It completely transforms a piece of clothing.

PS. Yay on the broadband cashback! I'm still waiting for my electricity switch one... wish it would hurry up! x

Cat2011

December Tally of savings.
Need £1,300. Saved £217.63

£34.00 - Mystery shopping
£22.88 - Mystery shopping
£3.89 - Daily round down
£150.00 - Cashback
£6.86 - Amazon

Cat2011

Pearla*Merle wrote: »

Hello Cat, I thought I'd finally come out of Lurkerdom! Cooking up some treats are a great idea for presents, to be honest I think a lot of people love that, rather than some random object they don't like. I've got most presents sorted thanks to picking up things in sales throughout the year, but I'm definitely going to go down the sweet treats route next year. Salt dough decorations would also be a fab addition methinks.

Mannequins are completely worth it! I needed mine for my job anyway (I sell vintage clothes, and tend to sell a fair few online) and I've always had much better sales using it as well It completely transforms a piece of clothing.

PS. Yay on the broadband cashback! I'm still waiting for my electricity switch one... wish it would hurry up! x

Hi Perla :wave:
Glad you agree on the mannequin idea - was a little worried it was a bad idea. Seeing some of the clothes on ebay presented on one makes them look so much better!

Cashback takes soooooooo long! Worth it in the end tho, as I've usually forgotten about it , and it becomes a nice surprise!

Cat2011

Well. It's been a while since I posted - I have been working my butt off the last week or two and life is not treating me well. I've had very long hours at work, I've been trying to study, but just haven't had much motivation for it at the moment. My assignment is horribly late, and I'm not going to be able to get a distinction for my Master's unless I get about 110% on my last 2 assignments, just missing out which is gutting.

Had a date on Saturday which went quite well, had a coffee and a wander round the christmas market. Unfortunately as I was parking in a multi storey, I stopped on a ramp to give way to another car, decided I'd park on the left at the top of the ramp, there were some damn pedestrians failing to move out of my way on the other side of the parking area so I had to turn tightly. I failed to see a low wall running up the side of the ramp, there was a massive crunch and I completely T-boned the car on the corner of the wall. Damage isn't too horrific, but these things always cost a fortune to mend. Gutted . Don't have the time or the energy to ring round for quotes.

I bought quite a few dresses on eBay for a party at the weekend, 2 don't fit so I'll have to post them back up on eBay, 2 are possibles, and the last one is beautiful but I didn't realise it was completely see through when I was bidding on it! So now I'm going to have to spend even more money and buy a slip to go under it

I did do a mystery shop on Sat as it was worth £38, and thought I couldn't miss that - so lets hope they pay me for it! I had given up MSing for December, due to needing to study but thought the super payment would be worth it.

I haven't bought any Christmas presents yet, no idea when I will be able to. Blatantly going to be a Christmas eve session.

I've had a second rejection to study medicine. 2 uni's down, 2 more to go.

Tired, fed up and just want the world to go away.

Cat2011

Sounds like I was a bit of a miserable moo yesterday.

One of my credit cards offered me a money transfer deal which I could stooze on, so accepted. Transfered £4k into my savings accounts. Need to open a regular saver to maximse profits. Think I'm going to add a stoozing total to my debt and savings totals in my signature to make things a bit clearer - as I'm already stoozing some other money. But will do that after pay day next week. Tis on the 21st this month - January is going to be a long month!

Cat2011

Couldn't wait til next Wed to add the stooze to my sig. Not done the maths properly yet, so it doesn't all add up at the mo - but will update properly on Wed.

Cat2011

December Tally of savings.
Need £1,300. Saved £248.13

£34.00 - Mystery shopping
£22.88 - Mystery shopping
£3.89 - Daily round down
£150.00 - Cashback
£6.86 - Amazon
£30.50 - Mystery shopping

Cat2011

PAYDAY! :j

So in December I saved/paid off £705.30

Pretty disappointed with that amount. Think it's partly because I stoozed some more money off a credit card and so had to pay a fee, but will make it back in interest eventually.

I remembered to exclude the £825 that's not mine, so my new total savings are £12,937.61, bringing my debt down to December payday = -£4,494.81

Don't think that's enough to change my DFD.

Going to be spending some of Christmas with my Dad helping me work out the tax that is due on the rental income from my house for the tax year 2010/11. The due date is I believe the end of Jan, so that's going to give my savings a pounding. Current estimates base tax due around £700. After April next year the tax for 2011/12 will also be due, but not til the deadline of Jan 2013. So that'll be another £1000 or so that'll need saving up. However I'll keep it in a savings account as long as possible so won't actually pay it til the Jan deadline so that I can earn some interest. In future I'd like to save for the tax during each tax year, so that I don't need to worry about finding a lump sum. I need to add about £80 to the house account each month. I also worked out that replacing carpets, washing machines, furniture, re-decorating etc. (i.e. maintenance of the house) over the next ten years will cost me about £160 a month. So rather than pay out lump sums for this when due I would prefer to save monthly.

Therefore I need to open a savings account specifically for the house costs, which I won't include in my own savings total. I'll also put the £825 in deposits in that account to stop confusing myself with my own savings!

This also means I'll be paying an extra £240 out each month into this account, which will reduce the amount I can save. But will hopefully reduce the likelihood of having big amounts to pay and having nothing saved.

So slightly disappointing December with the amount I saved, but hopefully in the new year once study is finished, I can get a second job and get back to mystery shopping and generally earn a lot more!

Cat2011

In further news, I got a 3rd rejection for my medicine application. So I have one uni left to respond. That uni is the one I really want to go to as it's nearby. Previous discussion on forums suggest they start giving out offers/rejections in mid-Jan, going all the way through to the end of March. Still so long to wait.... Really really hoping I get in - otherwise I'll have to start thinking of Plan B.