PigginSkint's DFW Diary

PigginSkint

Hi All

Onto the next stuff! Even though trying to get OH to (a) sort his finances out, and (b) get another job to increase his earnings to a reasonable level is like pulling teeth, I have been doing my very best to find other ways of increasing my own income just a little bit.

I think I mentioned before that I have just listed a whole load more stuff on Amazon. One item has sold so far – not a lot but it’s a start. I will keep an eye on things and if necessary I will drop the prices of those items that are currently listed for more than 1p. I really need to list some more – one job I really need to do is go through my CD collection to see what else I could sell.

I have been trying to start doing online surveys and other things again – I had really let that side of things slide. Rather than tackle a whole load at once, when I have had a bit of spare time I have been tackling one at a time, to try to catch up. So far I have spent a session each on Lightspeed, GFK Consumer Panel, Valued Opinions and Pigsback. Still need to look at Ciao – they have changed their account structures so there are now separate accounts for surveys and cashback…and I can’t actually find the surveys.

I have a few other accounts that I have barely used so the next thing will be to start working my way through them to see what else I can start actively using again.

Then I suppose I ought to start looking further afield for things that I am not already registered for.

One of these days I will do ebay as well – I think with things getting tighter at home that day will be coming very soon. I ought to pick something really simple (small, light, easy to photograph, list and pack, cheap to post) and then just spend time working out what to do. I know that once I have done it once it will get easier, and then can start doing it seriously!

One of the other things I want to do soon is investigate free bingo. I don’t know whether I will ever manage to do matched betting – I think I will need more free time than I currently have to get my head around it.

I have been thinking the unthinkable – about getting another job myself. However there are 2 very important arguments against this (which I am sure you will all agree with). 1) I think I do enough anyway and I am already exhausted with everything I do. 2) Why the bl**dy hell should I? If anyone should take on extra work it should be OH!

Anyway, I think that is all the news for now. I will update again later if I think of anything else.

Bye all!

PigginSkint

Hi All

Had some fun with the trains today so together with leaving later this morning anyway so that I could see DS before I left for work (he came back from his Dad’s this morning) it was 10:00am before I got to work.

This is my last day at work this week – woohoo! Looking forward to a bit of time off, even though I have got Avon to do this week. Also it is payday tomorrow – double woohoo! And I have had some tax credits go into my account today – triple woohoo!

Had words with OH last night when he got back. I told him that I couldn’t understand the fact that he doesn’t seem to grasp simple principles of money management – ooh I’ve got a couple of bills to pay soon, have I got enough money to pay them, oh no I haven’t, perhaps I had better do something about getting some money together to pay them in time (or a least mention to my girlfriend that I might struggle to pay them). It’s not rocket science is it?!

I had a good look at the Boost Your Income Article, and then left it open on the laptop so that OH could have a look at it when he went on it after me. Here’s hoping that it might have some effect.

I told him that I feel like I am banging my head against a brick wall – it’s not like he hasn’t had plenty of warning about this situation. I also told him that I understand that he is suffering from depression, but that all of this is making me depressed. Slightly different approach this time – I have got to try everything I can to get through to him!

Anyway last night, thanks to this site, I managed to get back into Ciao so that is another survey one up and running. Every little helps!

One thing I didn’t do last night was sort out my Avon – unpack it, bag up the deliveries, get the books ready to go out. I just couldn’t be bothered! I might do it tonight, if I feel like it, otherwise I will do it tomorrow morning.

I really don’t want to be here today – I just can’t get motivated to do any work. I might just do a few housekeeping-type jobs today – prune some emails, sort out some filing etc.

Oh well, better get on with it I suppose!

Bye for now!

PigginSkint

Hi All

Had a good day yesterday, if rather busy! Weather was lovely too, which was good.

Bagged up my Avon in the morning, while OH and DS went out to collect Betterware books in. Then we all went into town to meet my brother, his 6-year old daughter and my stepmother. SM bought DS some new trousers (he's growing like a weed so desperately needed some) then we had a tour round the castle (didn't pay for that either) then as my niece had been promised a trip to fair, we went there (we have a fair that visits for a few days whenever there is a bank holiday). SM paid for DS and OH to go on the bumper cars and for DS to do another couple of things. OH used the £20 he was given on Tuesday to buy us some lunch (sausage and chips for DS and OH and curry and chips for me, plus cans of pop) - actually came to about £11. About the only money I spent was 70p for a lolly each for DS and my niece at the castle and £1 for DS to go on the ghost train. So a cheap day for me.

When we got back I got my Avon books ready and then put them out. Then I did some of the deliveries - couldn't do them all because the Sainsburys delivery was due. That arrived just as OH was about to go out to do his Betterware deliveries. While he was out I put the shopping away and would have started the dinner but had to wait until the dishwasher was further on in its cycle so that it would be finished by the time I was ready to dish up the dinner - so that we would actually have clean plates to eat it off! (OH is very good at loading it up and then running the pre-rinse, but not very good at putting it on for its actual wash cycle!)

Today OH is doing his office duty at this agency, so I have had a day at home with DS. His Betterware Coordinator came this afternoon (typically OH did not actually do this paperwork until after I had gone to bed last night and then talked me through it at 7 o'clock this morning!) with his delivery and to collect his next order and the money for the last one.

I am now sat watching Taggart (not bad for daytime telly) and having a bit of an MSE and Facebook fix. DS is straining at the leash for the laptop so I suppose I shall have to come off soon!

I am planning to start trying to get rid of the last of my Avon deliveries at about 5pm. Don't normally do Fridays but as I have not been at work today I don't mind too much!

I am also planning to try to do a bit more housework - did a bit earlier to try to make the house relatively presentable for when the Betterware man came round!

Anyway off to check Facebook and then I suppose I had better let DS have the laptop.

Bye all!

PigginSkint

Hi All

I have now updated my sig to show my 1st June figures – see below. Going steadily downwards at the moment, I am glad to say! Just to summarise the changes in the last few months:

Total Credit Cards
1/1/08 £24,309.73
1/2/08 £24,170.31
1/3/08 £24,515.21
1/4/08 £24,919.74
1/5/08 £24,580.02
1/6/08 £24,183.92

Total Catalogues
1/1/08 £165.68
1/2/08 £150.15
1/3/08 £341.46
1/4/08 £304.61
1/5/08 £247.41
1/6/08 £199.89

LTSB Loan
1/1/08 £7,610.47
1/2/08 £7,468.68
1/3/08 £7,326.05
1/4/08 £7,180.16
1/5/08 £7,036.00
1/6/08 £6,889.87

Total Non-Mortgage Debt
1/1/08 £37,085.88
1/2/08 £36,789.14
1/3/08 £37,182.72
1/4/08 £37,404.51
1/5/08 £36,863.43
1/6/08 £36,273.68


So things to celebrate:

• Total catalogues is now down to below £200
• Balance on LTSB loan is now down to below £7K
• Total credit cards is now dropping nicely and should be below £24K very soon
• Total Non-Mortgage debt is now lower than it was at the beginning of the year and in actual fact it is now at its lowest point since my lightbulb moment – woohoo!

If I can get OH to behave himself, this progress should hopefully continue!!

I haven’t done targets for a while (because of OH scuppering my efforts recently!) but I am going to do some now:

Targets

• Total credit cards below £23K by 1/8/08
• Total non-mortgage debt below £35 by 1/8/08

Given the precarious state of our finances, I didn’t want to make them too ambitious but enough of a challenge!

Anyway, enough for this post – I will record other news in a separate post.

Bye for now!

PigginSkint

In other news…

Today I have filled in my form to cash in my premium bonds and it is now in an envelope ready to be posted. This is something I have been meaning to do for ages – it is only £100 but every little helps!

I have now done most of my Avon deliveries – just work ones to do now and I have got them with me today, so hopefully I should be able to get rid of them. A week or so ago I put a note through the door of one of my customers about her delivery – I think I have mentioned this already. This customer is on holiday, left me a cheque with instructions to leave the delivery with the neighbour but unfortunately I didn’t realise until after I had done the delivery that the cheque is wrong so will need to be reissued. Anyway, I have not had response yet so I hope I get one soon. If I hear nothing I think I will claim the credit with my next order (even though I haven’t got the goods to return) so that I won’t be out of pocket, in the hope that by the time the recharge goes through she will have returned from her holiday and I will get my money.

I think OH is finally taking some notice of what I have been trying to tell him – i.e. making more of a contribution to the household. This is in terms of finances and housework – he is not very good at doing any of the latter even though he has far more time on his hands than I have.

On Sunday he put a blind up in our living room. Our next door neighbours changed theirs a couple of months ago and gave us the old ones – not so old actually and perfectly good, being wooden they are certainly better than ours! I have been asking him for ages to put them up. The front one in the living room was most in need of changing as our cat sits on sentry duty on the window sill and has made his own little ‘doors’ either side of the plastic one that was hanging there. OH replaced that one with one of the others that actually didn’t come all the way down – I had to break it to him that it looked daft! He tried the others and found one longer than the others which is a perfect fit (I guessed there must have been one because our neighbours’ front windows are the same size as ours!). I am just waiting for him to replace the others now – there won’t be enough to do all of the windows but at least if the 2 in the living room match and the 2 at the front of the house match, that will be enough. I should be able to sell the other ones as there is nothing wrong with them (apart from the one that has just been taken down of course!).

This morning when I got up I found evidence of what looked suspiciously like……wait for it…… job hunting! There were print outs of some jobs – details and application instructions. Yesterday was Media jobs day in the Guardian so I suggested to him as I was going to bed last night that he ought to look at them.

Also I have been doing a little bit at work to find things for him – I know actors are used for role play for teaching and exams on certain modules so I have been making enquiries about who he should contact. I also had a look at the current vacancies for the university and I discovered that they are recruiting casual staff to process web applications – so I copied the details and emailed them to OH. I have also been making enquiries about who he should contact about getting onto the pool of invigilators that I know the university has – I have just received those details so I will be emailing those to OH as well.

In addition I mentioned to him about the ‘Make £10 a day challenge’ which is something I would really like to have a go at (sometime soon!) but suggested it would be a good thing for him to do. He actually sounded really interested – I live in hope!

Anyway, must go now – I want to go to the bank to pay my Avon money in, and post my premium bonds letter.

Bye for now!

PigginSkint

Hi All

I had the shock of my life when I got home last night – OH had tidied the living room and hoovered, cleaned the kitchen and unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher and set it going! :eek: Long may it continue!

The job application I spied yesterday was not actually one from The Guardian – it was another that he spotted on an actors’ recruitment website and then sent it to his agency to process. Unfortunately whoever was in the office when the application pack was emailed to OH made a bit of c**k up – they sent it through to him with only a comment that there was a large form to fill in. They didn’t mark the email as urgent, nor did they mention the fact that the deadline for submitting emailing it back was 5pm on Monday – that information was tacked onto the end of the very large form. Needless to say OH was mighty p****d off about it!

I have continued my research today in order to find contacts for him about getting role play work. However, having gone down another avenue the name that came back to me to contact was someone I have already contacted – so that means all bases should be covered now. So that’s good news – I would have hated to have missed someone!

OH said he was going to spend today job hunting – looking at the Guardian online etc. Hope he does! I have told him (jokingly – but many a true word is spoken in jest) that if he doesn’t he will find himself sleeping on the sofa…… his mother’s!!

Yesterday I decided to join in with the make £10 a day in June challenge (see my sig). I think this is just the sort of thing I need to give me a bit more motivation…… and a kick up the bum! I am hoping this will be the push I need to actually dip my toe into ebay! I have had 14p Quidco cashback hit my bank account this morning so I have made a start! Also I have just had a look at my listings on Amazon and reduced the price of some of them to match the lowest price – I hope this generates a few more sales. I suppose once my £100 for my premium bonds comes back I can count that as well.

I am still waiting for my last few Avon deliveries to go – I have contacted one person by email but she hasn’t come yet and I have been trying to phone another one but she is not answering. In addition I have made one delivery to someone who works on the same corridor as me but she hasn’t given me her money yet – this is not normally something I do (my rule is ‘no money, no goods, no exceptions!’) but as I see her nearly every day I thought it would be O.K. I will give her another day or 2 and then I think I will need to remind her!

Tonight I have got to go out and collect books back in, then I think I will get them ready to go back out tomorrow – to collect in again on Friday.

Ooh I almost forgot – OH’s boss (for his regular work with the old ladies) phoned last night with work for him. Hooray! It has been rather thin on the ground just lately. He is working tomorrow and then I think there are few more dates later this month.

I shall have to remind OH that the Littlewoods bill needs paying soon – preferably Friday but no later than Monday. I am not going to be happy if I have to pay it again – I know it is only about £18 but it’s the principle!

Also the Halifax credit card bill will need paying in about a week or two – that one is much larger so I will be very p****d off if I have to pay that one!

On the subject of the Halifax card, my balance transfer of £500 from the Egg card has now gone through. Typically I have just had a letter from Halifax increasing my credit limit – if that that had come through sooner I could have transferred a bit more. I know I still can but I actually used the balance transfer slip and prepaid envelope to do this one – which avoided the need to fend off the inevitable PPI related questions if I had phoned them! Oh well, I least I have still got some more available credit to do more balance transfers from the Egg card – there is the addition on the Halifax card and there is also some on the Amazon Halifax card I can use (both 5.94% APR for the life of the balance).

Oh well, I think that is all the news for now.

Bye all!!

PigginSkint

Hi All

Well all my good intentions rather went out of the window last night as I went home with a stinking headache – it was as bad as a migraine but without some of the other features (the aura being the main absentee). I had to walk home very slowly (I couldn’t walk very fast anyway as I was staggering all over the place) because every footstep ‘banged’ my head. It was one of those really nasty throbbing/pounding ones. I got home and lay on the sofa, closed the blinds and curtains and switched off all the lights – because the light hurt my eyes. It started at lunchtime so I took some paracetamol. That didn’t work, in fact it was getting worse, so about 2pm I took one of my migraine tablets. That didn’t work either and again the pain just got worse. About 2:30pm I had to pretty much give up on doing any work on the computer because it was hurting too much so I did some written work instead. I managed to last until my normal leaving time (4pm). At home I was O.K. (ish!) so long as I kept still lying down, if I sat up it was worse and if I had to get up and move around (like answering calls of nature!) it was horrendous. OH had to do my Avon for me as there was just no way I could have done it. He also did the dinner (quite right too!).

I managed to watch The Apprenctice and ‘You’re Fired’ and then just went to bed – I had taken more paracetamol earlier in the evening and they hadn’t worked so all I could do was try to sleep it off. I woke up at about 4am (I tend to wake up when the sun rises but then fall asleep again) and still had it then. But by the time my alarm went off at 6am it had gone, thank goodness! If I had still had it there would have been no way I could have come to work today and I have got far too much to do!

So I didn’t go on the computer at all last night. I hope I can get on tonight as I really want to check out the free bingo on Gala.

OH came out with one of his classics last night. I asked him whether he had looked at the Guardian jobs online yet – just about to, he said! He spent about ½hour looking at them last night and only just discovered that he could register his details online to get job details sent directly to him! Anyway, the classic I was talking about… I asked him whether he had looked at any of the other jobs websites I had found for him and saved for him in the favourites (no!) and then I said about how I had gone to all that effort to do that for him and he didn’t done anything about it so he said ‘well I did that one day’. One day? I ask you! How many weeks ago did I do that!

OH is working today but I hope he might actually put some effort into job hunting a bit later on – especially as I have gone to so much effort to help him with it!

I think that is all the news for now. If I think of anything else later I will post again.

Bye all!!!

PigginSkint

Hi All

Just taking a quick break from work! I spent the morning finalising an exam paper, which is all done now and I am now in process of doing the appropriate number of copies - the photocopier has been giving me grief just lately (the document feeder seems to be playing up – grrrr!) so I hope it behaves itself.

Last night I finally had a go at Gala Bingo - had some technical issues to say the least! The games just wouldn’t work – they kept crashing. I was about to give up but first I deleted all my temporary internet files and then rebooted (if in doubt – reboot!) and it worked! I didn’t win anything but I least I have more or less worked it out.

I registered via quidco - £20 cashback when you deposit and wager £10, so that will mean a £10 profit eventually. The only query I have got is how quickly I have to spend the £10 to qualify for the cashback? A bit of digging is required I think. In the meantime what I did last night was alternate between the free games and some where you had to pay for the ticket – I only did the low priced ones though.

Another job I did very quickly last night was to have a look at my bookcase to see what else I could sell and have managed to sort out some more books to list on Amazon – I will see if I get chance to do that tonight.

OH went out to a rehearsal for a play last night. The company that are doing it he has worked with before. It is not paid work, alas, but it does have many things going in its favour (1) It is local (2) Smallish part so not many lines to learn i.e. less work (3) Not many performances, so again less work (4) He has worked with them before and enjoyed it (5) They respect him and give him credit for what he does (unlike another company I could mention) (6) Although an amateur company, the directors are professionals (7) It will be good for his CV.

He has still not made any serious efforts at job hunting – I feel an ultimatum is imminent if he doesn’t pull his finger out!

Yesterday afternoon OH’s mum came back from holiday (I think I remember what one of those is) and had lost her keys, so OH had to go down to her place and let her in. As a thankyou she gave OH £20 with the strict instructions to use it pay for a meal, so we are going to use it for a takeaway – this is something we can’t actually afford to do at the moment so that will be a nice bonus.

Anyway, I think that is all for now. Thank goodness it’s Friday!

Have a good weekend everyone!

PigginSkint

Hi All

Had a fairly productive day today - just been out to collect my Avon books in (to get it done before Dr Who) and listed 33 new items (books) on Amazon this afternoon.

Had yet another nag of OH today. He is getting p****d off with it but how else am I meant to get through to him?! I have to keep reminding him of why I am nagging him - the chances are that by the end of the month all of my emergency money will be gone and then we really will be in the brown stuff!

Just making the dinner now but might be back later!

bye for now!

PigginSkint

Hi All

Well I had a bit of an eventful weekend!

On Saturday I sat with my laptop for hours. I listed a load more books for sale on Amazon (2 sold already!) then I looked on the Boost Your Income article for details of more survey sites and cashback sites and signed up for all of the ones that I wasn’t already signed up with. Then I looked at the ebay articles and printed off a load of those for perusal and saved a load of the websites mentioned in my favourites. Also did a bit of Avon on Saturday – collected books in.

OH did precisely nothing on Saturday, apart from read, sleep, eat and help me collect a few books in.

On Sunday I didn’t wake up until midday (because I had been up so late the night before, being productive) and put a couple of loads of washing on the line and then I went out on my bike to go to our local retail park – went to Asda to get a few things for DS as he is cooking at school tomorrow, plus a few other bits and pieces. Also went to Matalan to try to find a new belt for OH – didn’t find one but found a pair of basic leggings, knee length ones for £5. I have been trying to find some of these so that I can wear them under skirts in the summer. When I got back OH was sat in the garden reading and I put yet more washing on the line then went out to do some Avon. OH was talking about waiting for DS to come back and then going out to put Betterware books out – I said I thought that was unfair on DS (he wasn’t due back until 6:30pm) so he started getting stuff ready at about 4pm to go out. It took him until about 5:50pm to get everything ready and I did offer to help him – so I did about 1/2hour and then had to get back for DS. DS and I went up to take something to him and I got DS to help him put the rest of the books out.

Why am I telling you all this? Because all weekend OH was promising that he would mow the lawn but it didn’t get done, because he ran out of time because of the other things he had to do. I pointed out that if he hadn’t wasted so much time he would have had time to do it!

Last night OH and I had a serious talk and I actually gave him the ultimatum that I have been contemplating for quite a while – I told him that if he doesn’t make a serious effort to find more work and bring more money into the household by the end of the month, I am going to take his credit card off him. I wasn’t confrontational about it (deliberately so – I didn’t want him to get defensive and refuse to listen!) but told him how upset I am about the whole situation and that I have just had enough – especially as I have done so much to help him. The problem is that he is just very poor at organising his time so this is something that needs to change – perhaps I ought to get him to fill in a timesheet! Certainly he needs to plan his time a bit better. I asked him to work out how many hours a week Betterware takes up (not counting other work as there is very little of that at the moment) and we worked out that it is probably about 10 (being generous!) – I pointed out to him that that is about a ¼ of what I work in a week, probably less (my working hours in my main job are 36 per week, plus I spend at least 10 hours a week commuting, plus doing Avon at roughly 2-3 hours per week – not counting all the other little bits I do, nor cooking meals, nor housework). I think he got the point!

And another thing – I think I need to work out how I can put a block on Facebook! He spends far too much time on there! I wonder if there is a way to do it that is easy to switch on and off so that I can (a) still get on it myself, and (b) ration how much time he spends on it.

Anyway, we will see if anything I said to him last night has actually hit home.

Bye for now!