Boarding the Bus of Positivity (for 24 months of travels!)

Chocforever

Yes, if there are only a handful of assignments nearby, it is not worth the time investment and it is awkward if they have the same members of staff on each visit. And it's not good for the diet if they are fast food!

I am fortunate that I work in a big city where there are lots of branches of the same coffee shops, little supermarkets, pharmacies, phone shops etc within walking distance. I prefer the product ones where I go in with a fact pattern and ask the member of staff which product they recommend and why, or whether a particular item is in stock, rather than the ones that assess how well the member of staff complies with the staff manual.

In the big cities, the staff turnover at most of these outlets is so fast that it doesn't matter if I visit them on a reasonably regular basis. I can do these quite efficiently because the MS instructions hardly ever vary and I know exactly what should happen so can easily compare the standard of the visit.

The amount of work I do is very variable as I have become more picky and don't look for work so often. I did £130 of work in July. This month I have only done £10 so far, but have one for £22 today which just involves getting a take out coffee from a place down the road.

I have 5 items on Ebay. Amount of times I have looked to see if there are any bids is 6; number of items with bids is 1 :rotfl:

debtfreesomeday

I do exactly the same when I have things listed on ebay! I get obsessive about it!!!

debtfreesomeday

Just joined, and listed, a couple of items for sale on our local Facebook selling page which will bring in £47 if sold.

Chocforever

What sort of things would you sell via local Facebook? Is it big collection only items or just things you could not sell at work?

debtfreesomeday

Yes, it's mainly bulky items which I've advertised at work but had no takers for so far. Both baby items which would be way too heavy for ebay!
I see that people sell all sorts on there though, some of which would get much better prices on ebay, but I guess this is easier for many and there's no fees associated with it.

debtfreesomeday

I have someone interested in one of the items already, but first asked me if I'd drive and deliver it to them 45 mins away from where we live. For free! er, no!
They're going to 'try' and arrange collection. Some people eh?!

debtfreesomeday

Tonight I've made some progress with the eBay pile and have sorted it into stuff to list now and bits to save for later. I've photographed a chunk of the pile and will hopefully get to list it at the weekend.
I've also sorted some items for the charity shop and some for a friend with a little one.

Tomorrow Ds and I shall be going to aldi to do a big shop. We need to stock up on fresh produce as well as store cupboard stuff, so it's likely to be an expensive shop.

No news from the prospective buyer on Facebook, surprise, surprise!

debtfreesomeday

Aldi shop was nearly £50, but we managed to get a lot of meat at 30% off, so we stocked up on lean mince, a couple of free range chickens, some chicken thighs and bacon. Also got loads of fresh stuff and some store cupboard bits. I'm always pleasantly surprised how far our money goes at aldi.
Later on, i went to sainsburys and picked up a few bits we couldn't get this morning, which came to £11.
We've done really well with the shopping budget this month though and still have money left in it with 9 days to payday!

I also managed to sort through most of Ds's drawers and have put a lot more small stuff aside for eBay. I shall try and get the big bulk of toddler clothing photographed tonight; I usually sell it in bundles so it shouldn't take too long to take the photos.

Off to update the snowball with the little bit of money made on eBay and a survey; it all helps!

Dfsd

debtfreesomeday

I've just realised that our overdraft won't be quite as bad as I predicted this month as the child benefit has not been paid in yet. That's £81.20 more in there than I accounted for.

debtfreesomeday

Good and bad to report tonight.

Good: this positive mood associated with the debt-busting seems to have stuck and I'm being quite pro-active with cutting costs. The drying today was airer dried in front of the sunny window. I stopped myself from automatically chucking it in the tumble dryer. Bonus too is that most of it doesn't need ironing either now.

I have also used the leftover bargain basil and the huge catering tin of tomatoes that has been in the bottom of the store cupboard for ages to make a big batch of pasta sauce which is now portioned up in the freezer. Previously, I would've just thrown the leftover herbs in the food bin.

Positive number 3, is that one of the bulky items has sold via work for £10. It's the lesser value item, but glad it's been sold nonetheless. That £10 can go towards the overdraft; I'll update it on the snowball calculator shortly. That snowball is key for motivation at the moment.

Last good point to report - Ds's eating has been great today. We have had problems with Ds refusing a lot of food for months now, but today he has eaten 'normal' food and has done amazingly well which has made for a great day.

Unfortunately there is 'bad' to report too.

My darling nan is not expected to last the night.
She is of a great age - just 6 weeks off 100 years old - but it doesn't make it any easier.

She went downhill drastically just before Christmas and has been very poorly since the weekend. I am feeling a bit in turmoil as we didn't make it to see her at the weekend when we were home for our flying visit. Due to the charity event we worked at all day Saturday, we just ran out of hours. My dad took Ds to see her but she was sleeping and not very aware, but I didn't get there. I feel absolutely awful for it. The last time I saw my darling grandad I didn't give him a kiss goodbye as I always did, just because he was in hospital and a nurse was seeing to him and I didn't want to get in the way. He died the next morning before I could see him. I idolised him. I know it doesn't really make any difference to the situation, but i just feel awful.