Finally reaching out for some help...

Cherryjack

kerri_dfw wrote: »

Thanks 19/31 items being watched. 3 with bids. Highest watches is 6 for one of my old jumpers which is my highest bid so far at £2.50. Total is £6.51 for 5 items, not bad really although £0.99 is for my OH's pair of jeans so that'll go to him.

Thats great!! I didnt manage to get anymore on there today but now have 2 bids on one of my tops.. its so exciting lol

kerri_dfw

Cherryjack -congrats on the 2 bids, get a shimmy on with the listing, earning money for old tat is fun.

Today was another NSD, so that's 2 since I started this diary :T
I've been feeling crumby all week with some cold thing, and yesterday was dreadful because I accidentally OD'd on my inhaler which resulted in my colleague asking if I was having a heart attack/stroke. For future reference, hand tremors, dizziness, headaches and feeling like you're going to pass out is what happens when you have 3 puffs instead of 2. Stupid Kerri, tsk tsk. Anyway, to make myself feel better I wore what is now dubbed by my colleagues as "foxy friday" boots. These boots are lucky, 41p in road kill I found on my way to and from work. Into my sealed pot they go.

Letter from lying total scum bags today. They're giving me a total of £1937.16 at some point when they can be bothered. Interest calculated up until the 15th November, so if it's not there next week I'm writing to ask for more interest out of principle.

Ebay sales are now up to 6 items at £7.50 and lots of watchers. Really pleased with this, and am currently in the middle of digging out loads of clinique samples to list tomorrow.

My sister paid me back £50 of the money she owes me and my housemate has paid me £9.50 for our BT (last payment as I move house in 2 weeks). So I have £78.37 in my current account to spend. £50 is going back to my sister as her birthday money, leaving £28.37 left and £5.21 is coming out on the 23rd. So I'm going to round it down and move £3.16 to my VSP for emergencies.

I had the pasta bake I made on Tuesday for dinner, although my IBS apparently isn't happy about the wheat... deal with it stomach! I have a thing of Covent Garden soup in the fridge that I'll have for tea tomorrow and it'll be nutella on toasted rolls for lunch (rolls are in the freezer). That'll mean another NSD.

Right back to finding all my hidden samples.

kerri_dfw

Whilst sorting through my things to sell on ebay I've just found £50 of arcadia vouchers that I thought I had already spent. :j
I don't need anything at the moment though, so they can go in my pot with the coins.

Have also just logged onto justtheanswer and found I have 500 points, so have converted them to a £5 amazon voucher too.

Cherryjack

yay fantastic find with the vouchers!! :-) great you got the £50.00 back...

Ive just listed another 6 things on ebay .. thanks for giving me the motivation x

RosaBernicia

hi Kerri

phew, another MSE-er who buys organic and fairtrade. I was getting to feel a bit unusual

Have subscribed to keep up with you. Hurrah for vouchers and fingers crossed for PPI

Rosa xx

kerri_dfw

Thanks for subscribing Rosa, I'm trying not to write essays now that I've blubbed my finances out in writing, that was emotional.
I once heard a joke on television about people stopping buying organic eggs because of the recession. What I don't understand is why? A few extra pence and you get the tastiest sandwich ever!

If I can buy organic, fair trade for the same price as shop brand then I'm getting it. Will keep you up to date with my finds.

Have decided, arcadia vouchers are to be spent on a new pair of "foxy friday" boots, but ones without stillettos as my feet hurt :T Oh and they will be bought in the January sale to maximise voucher spending potential

kerri_dfw

Didn't go to bed until about 5.30am as was watching tv and doing surveys/reading the forum, very naughty. OH woke me up with a "I've got a stinking hangover" call at 10am, thanks love!

Am now doing surveys before going back for a nap.

Just got my o2 bill through, I went over my by 120 minutes oops, so that's £59.95 for my bill instead of under £30 ouch! Also just got a letter from Wescott as I forgot to pay them, so have paid them £70 from the credit card to shut them up a bit, £17.70 less than what I should but can pay that on Friday when it's payday.

I know I shouldn't have paid them with the credit card, as it doesn't reduce my debt. But I'm thinking if I pay the whole balance of the c/c when I'm paid, then put £100 to freemans (until ppi refund comes through), and pay £87.70 to wescott, then £250 as my food/spending money. Then that's about £440 covered at 0% and £60 put back on the c/c. Will think on this one as 0% is definitely better than almost 40%.

Found 3p for the pot whilst clearing boxes last night, and ebay is now at £11.20 for 7 items :j

RoseRed

Hi Kerri,

Just reading your diary and seeing a lot of myself! I love treating others but just don't have the budget!

Regarding food, can you look and see if there are any whole foods cooperatives close to you? I use to shop in one in Manchester, it was all organic, fair trade and largely locally produced, yet the majority of items were actually cheaper than standard produce in the supermarket. It was also dirt cheap for pulses, quinoa and rice, you could also return packaging to be refilled for a further discount. Asian supermarkets are also excellent for juices, herbs, spices, rice and pulses.

You have to keep your eyes peeled with the supermarkets and never assume that loose veg, large packs or special offers are cheaper, the supermarkets are aware that this is now the common perception and have changed their pricing accordingly. I recently stocked up on Chickpeas in Tesco, the organic ones were considerably cheaper than the standard ones! If you get bags of fruit that are sold by number not weight I always weigh them and calculate the cost per 100g myself. Also check out the ethnic food sections, in my local Asda you can pick up huge bags of herbs and spices for 1/2 the price of the tiny little jars, they just assume (rightly) that most people are not going to go and look, they don't mix the ethnic foods in with the 'regular' for a reason. A saw a lady stocking up on expensive juices last night and she was telling me what a great deal they were on special offer, I told her that they were cheaper still 2 aisles down and she just looked at me like I was a moron!

Good luck with the debt slaying.

Rose

kerri_dfw

Hi Rosered, thanks for your post. Suma is a national cooperative that was started up in Leeds if I'm correct? I can't buy the food from their as a customer, but I buy it through Amazon. The produce is all from Britain or Fair Trade abroad and it's all vegetarian so I can happily feed the OH. I will investigate local cooperatives though that's a fantabulously great idea.

I've been truely terrible today. I wanted chocolate but couldn't be bothered going to the shop, so ended up opening up the £1 bag of 22 Cadbury minis that santa bought for my nephew. Will have to find something else to put in his stocking now.

I've spent the entire day fleabaying and sorting out stuff that needs to be boxed before I move, so very productive even just sat in my pyjamas doing it. Someone has asked me what a BIN price is for a clinique gift set I'm selling, I don't want to lose any money so told them they will need to bid for it. I did consider that this might lose me money in the long-run but it has over 6 days left and already 3 people watching.

I'm going to be even more naughty now and go get a chinese with the £20 that I have leftover. I really want sweet & sour chicken with egg fried rice. I'll pop to Budgens beforehand though to get my weeks supply of mushrooms and a red onion so I can have NSD for the rest of the week, well apart from Wednesday when HSBC interest gets charged. I should probably get some bread and soup too for my lunch at work, and another couple of Onken for my breakfast. Hmmm I hope I can make my £20 stretch to shopping plus chinese. Fingers crossed.

OH has been complaining that he is getting fat and that if he gets fat I won't fancy him. Given that I love him no matter what he looks like I don't see the problem. But I have given him a lecture on what he needs to do to get back in shape and hoping that he does it as it will make him feel happier. He busted a ligament in his knee a few months ago and hasn't been able to do cardio since, which hasn't helped as he loves butter. But if he gets all trim and fit he'll start nagging me to start doing some form of exercise, last time I did that I had an asthma attack..... hmmm....

kerri_dfw

Ok, so here's the damage:

£4.00 6 tins of soup for work
£2.00 2 tubs of yoghurt for breakfast
£0.20 two large rolls (split into 4 and chucked in the freezer ready for lunch this week)
£0.42 4 mushrooms
£0.31 2 red onions
£7.80 chinese take-away

total damage:
£14.71

Although I did find 1p on the floor and I now have 2 x £2 for the £2 pot, and £1.27 for my SPC. I also have no money left in my current account, but this is fine as I get paid on Friday and have a full weeks shop from just the few things I bought today. I have a cupboard full of bulk buy stuff, I will be fine.

Total fleabay sales are now over £17 with 10 items currently with bids. I'm going to have to buy some mailing bags, which are apparently £29.99 for 100 according to Rymans. I'm going to buy 100 and stockpile them for when I need them in future, although I do have over 30 items currently on my fleabay and hoping most will sell.

Ok slightly panicking about the fact I have no money in my current account, how do I convince myself that it's fine to not have any money in there or that I don't need to buy anything for 5 days???