Blinking in the brightness of the lightbulb moment

Cat2011

Popped back to the gym this morning, and it was much quieter. Got through my weights workout ok. :j

Put a whole load of stuff on Amazon last night, and sold 2 of them today! So will package up and post off this evening. I like to post them off as quickly as possible, then I can post them 2nd class instead of 1st, saving money, and they still arrive fairly quickly after they were purchased. Going to put the books which are already available super cheap on Amazon, on the website ZTD suggested, see if I can get a few more pence on there.

Have rounded down all my bank accounts and transferred £3.27 over to ISA.

Have transfered money off my MBNA card into my current account ready to pay off some of my loan when the transfer clears, effectively drops interest rate from 9.6% to 4% for the amount that I pay off.

OH cancelled our get together tonight as he's being dragged into work , so get to go for a swim instead. Must go to the pool instead of driving straight home from the post office...

Got lots to do this weekend!

• Tile bathroom (including choosing tiles, getting all the equipment etc. :eek: STARTED....
• Possible bike ride on Saturday, as long as its not raining too much... POURED DOWN!
• Swim tonight DONE
• Post sold books DONE
• Repot indoor plants
• Batch cook lunches for next week DONE

Increase Income

• Free eBay weekend, so going to list as much as poss! Listed 11 so far
• List books on Green Metropolis DONE
• Chase Santander for new current account
• Email holiday hotel re: overcharging me DONE

Cat2011

Had an absolutely manic day. Made it to the tile shop and had a browse, traffic was appalling - took me nearly 30 mins to drive about 2 miles to the shop. Note to self: don't go to the Tesco/Industrial Shop road at lunchtime! Nabbed a sample and took it back home, it was almost exactly the same as the tiles already on the wall, so bought a load of them, and then bought all the stuff needed to do tiling. Think I broke about even with employing someone else to do it, but it'll be a good experience for me, and I'll have all the kit for when I need to do it again.

Whilst in the shop I also spotted some nice curtains, as my living room is currently curtainless, so spent about £300 this weekend! There's a bit of excess in the house account at the moment, so hopefully it can just come out of that.

Got back home exhausted from dashing round and realised that I hadn't posted the book I sold. Grr. So headed out again, and I was very good and avoided buying a sandwich/drink as I was starving. Just ate when I got home. Not had a very good day for petrol spending tho!

Sold another 2 books this evening, all the ones I'm selling are really old science books like Genome and The Science of Life. How bizarre? As soon as the money reaches my account I'll pop it in the ISA, have over £20 profit now

Got as far as clearing the mould and sealing the wall ready for tiling. Didn't quite have time to tile this evening which was a shame, but that can be tomorrow mornings job.

Hoped to mow the lawn today as it is becoming a jungle - but it rained. Again! Maybe tomorrow will be drier. Put 11 things on eBay, 1 of which has sold already , will put some more on tomorrow.....

Non-Stop!

chevalier

We have a landlady's inspection on Tuesday, but she is also bringing round an agent. Cue manic cleaning and tidying mainly from me, though OH did a bit. But I am knackered now and there is more still to do SIGH. So i hear you with having a manic day!!!
chev

Cat2011

Chev - Hope the inspection goes ok. Can't remember the last time I actually had a restful weekend! Lol

Cat2011

Another seriously busy day!

Bathroom wall is now full of tiles! :j . Still have to do the grouting round the edges, but going to try and get up early tomorrow morning to do that so we get the shower back as soon as possible. Final cost was about £110, with the tiles and adhesive/grout coming to £62. Don't think I could have found anyone to do it for me for under £50 for labour so reckon it was cheaper to do it myself. Tho it's not finished yet - still time to c!ck it up!

For once actually planned a trip out in the car - had 5 stop offs to do various things, so used as little fuel as poss. by not doing multiple journeys out and back. It's amazing how much a little planning can save you in money. I had to tile this weekend, so not had time to shop around for best prices, but if I had, I reckon I could have done it a lot cheaper. Must try and get myself out of the "want it right now" mindset. If I wait a little, I could either decide I don't want/need it, or I can find a cheaper version/offer/vouchers to get it for less money....

Have listed 35 items (:A!) on FleaBay this weekend. My ex-bf's broken but now repaired camera is already at £16 with 7 watchers. 3 other things already have watchers, so hopefully at least some of them will sell. Will find out next weekend! Got plenty more to sell, so will stack them up for the next fee-free weekend.

Didn't manage to do any exercise today. No time!

Have also cancelled my itemised bill for my mobile, saving me about 1.28 a month. Tried to cancel the insurance, but not open on a Sunday. Bah!

Posted another Amazon book. Another science one! - Does no one read fiction anymore?! Haven't sold a single one of those.

Need to take meter readings in the morning and submit to BG. I cahnged tariff and seem to have reverted to quarterly payments instead of monthly DD, so no idea how much I'm spending on energy at the mo. Hopefully not much....

Had a sneaky peak at my ISA this evening and I've apparently transfered in £54 from just rounding down my accounts every day over the last couple of weeks! :T Haven't noticed the cash missing, so will continue rounding down every day!

I am exhausted, so off to bed. Ready for a hectic day tomorrow.... *sigh*

Cat2011

I was very good and got up at 5am to grout the tiles yesterday :A. So all that's left is to put the trim and sealant round the edges.

Forgot to take the meter readings so will do that this evening.

I got a letter from the volunteer dept at the hospital asking for an informal interview (to check I'm not nuts..) on Thursday! So can hopefully get started with that soon.

eBay is already up to £52, with 2/35 selling, mostly due to the refurbed camera. Hoping the buyer won't be disappointed when they get it. It's in good nick, but wasn't expecting it to go for so much...

Almost felt disappointed when I checked online banking this morning. I haven't spent anything on any of my accounts, so they're all still nice round numbers so "can't" transfer any money into my ISA .

The money to pay off the loan has come up on my credit card, but not hit my bank account yet. Hopefully it will in the next couple of days, then can pay off the loan, and will update my signature.

Got a very quick reply from the Austrian hotel we stayed at saying we're very sorry for the mistake. So when the refund for the extra night they charged me for appears I can send out the final balance for my friends that owe me money for our holiday (I paid for the accom, they're paying me back).

Also FINALLY got Santander to open the preferred current account for me, so £100 thank you+ 5% interest on the balance (up to £2.5k), so will now use that as my savings account. When full will revert back to my ISA.

Have started creeping back towards buying lunches and snacks in the canteen. Will try and put a stop to this. Making a huge lasagne tonight to portion up and freeze for future lunches.

Cat2011

Had another long day today after oversleeping this morning . Bought the trim for the bathroom yesterday, cut it all to the right length, then realised I had the wrong size. Needed 9mm not 6mm. Grr! Spent another £20, and got the right size this evening, cut it all to size. Again. And it's all finally on the bathroom wall! Went to get the sealant to finish the job, and discovered I need a "gun" to use the sealant, as I'm not strong enough to get it out of the tube. :mad:. Will get one tomorrow evening, so will finally be able to have a shower on Friday evening....

Sold 3 more books on Amazon today, nailing me £14 profit. Apparently got paid £27.99 from previous sales today, but takes 7-10 days to hit my account, so will put that in the savings account when it arrives. I seem to sell nothing on Amazon, then lots at once?

Spent the £10 tesco gift card I got for surveys today, so transfered the £10 I would have spent into my savings account. Now massively stocked up on tea and coffee, and have 20p/litre off fuel :beer:

Forgot to cancel my mobile insurance. Will do it at some point. When I rang Tesco to pay off some of my loan, I was on hold for about 10mins, then someone answered and said "I'm sorry, but no one can answer the phone at the moment" Err....but you just did? He reckoned I wouldn't get through to anyone before they shut at 8pm, I reckon they all just wanted to go home early....

Took my meter readings, and all seems ok. Got my water bill today and it was MASSIVE! We've been paying £62 a month, and we were still £149 short (for a 6month bill)!! Have had a word with all the housemates to try and get them to me more concious of usage. It's mostly one housemate that is a nightmare with water tho. He runs the tap when he's brushing his teeth, he'll put the dishwasher on when it's half empty, fills the washing bowl up with water and dumps a plate in it instead of putting it in the dishwasher, runs a tap for warm water and goes does something else leaving it running.... :mad:.... And what is it about men that they are so incapable of flattening cardboard boxes. He just shoves e.g. a whole cereal box in the cardboard bin, filling the ruddy bin up. If he just opened the ends, folded it flat, takes 2 seconds, there would be plenty of room left in the bin. Drives me nuts!

Have tomorrow morning off work to go to the volunteer interview at 9am, so can hopefully get a few things done before I go in for the afternoon.

To do:

• Repot plants
• Cancel mobile insurance
• Transfer funds to Tesco loan
• Buy "gun"
• Seal bathroom tiles
• Put books I forgot about on Amazon
• Rescue some plastic bags to use as wrapping for eBay stuff
• Pack for race at the weekend

Really ought to go to bed now...

Cat2011

To do:

• Repot plants
• Cancel mobile insurance DONE
• Transfer funds to Tesco loan DONE
• Buy "gun" DONE
• Seal bathroom tiles DONE
• Put books I forgot about on Amazon DONE
• Rescue some plastic bags to use as wrapping for eBay stuff
• Pack for race at the weekend (including building my bike!) DONE

Have paid off some of my loan! Only 9 payments left. The woman on the phone was really helpful . She said I could shorten the term or lower the payment, turns out I'd save more interest if I shortened the term so went with that option as I'm not struggling to pay the monthly payment. I was surprised at how flexible I was allowed to be, there was a time when you weren't allowed to make any overpayments at all. It cost me about £110 in fees to move the money from my 0% card into my current account and I saved £535 in interest that I would have had to pay if I didn't make an overpayment. So job well done :T

Now I only owe £2006.25 on my Tesco loan.... but owe about £5200 on MBNA cc, instead of about £2000.... so guess I haven't paid off Tesco so much as moved the debt around! :rotfl:At least now it's sitting at 0%, and I can pay off whatever I like whenever I like.

Rounded down my bank accounts today and only had 29p - but still transfered it over to the savings account. Wonder how much it costs banks to do a transfer of money...;).

Redid the Snowball calculator, and DFD has moved to July 2012 .

Also sold another book today! Reckon I've made about £63 on Amazon in the last few weeks. Also got 6 items on eBay that will def sell when they end at the weekend. Just got to get the other 29 to sell now...

Cat2011

Another up and down few days. OH and I are no more . He had been very busy at work and I was hardly seeing him, so he called it a day. For the best i suppose, but still upsetting . Thankfully had a weekend away at a mountain bike race to take my mind off things. Was camping luxury stylee in a camper van, whilst the others were in a tent... It was a team event, and I only did about 3 laps, but was really hard going when it was wet. He were 19th out of 29th, which we're pleased with as we all stopped racing for about 6 hours during the night when others were still going (The race was from midday Sat to midday Sun). Spent a little on food, but brought plenty of my own food, so wasn't as bad as it could have been. Also bought a box of bars for when I'm doing bike training which was £25, but went in with some friends who were also buying bars, so was cheaper than it could have been.

My eBay items finished, I sold 12 out of 35, which isn't too bad considering it was random stuff. Even sold a pair of shoelaces... All have paid and been sent off bar 1 :mad:. I caused quite a queue in the post office! . Got about £110 from all that. Will relist when there is another fee free weekend.

I've also sold another 7 items on Amazon, so doing quite well on that at the moment, have about £58 on the account, hopefully will get that paid out next week. Checked last night to make sure my prices were lowest (down to a minimum profit of £1), to make the books/DVDs sell better (most people seem to buy the cheapest nearly new/very good option). Checked again this morning, and someone had gone in below my prices, so I lowered them all again. Some of the items have been on there a while, so reckon I'll lower my profit margin and see if that helps them. 50p profit is 50p off my debts. Have over a 100 items, so if I sell them all for 50p still make a fair whack.

Kepp

Hi Cat, I've subscribed and will follow you along if that's ok

Sorry to hear about your break up, like you say, probably for the best but that doesn't make it easy.

Well done on the ebay sales! :T Hopefully you'll inspire me to get of my bum and start some selling!