Batten down the hatches.....

Orange_Ena

Been a few days of wallowing and eating chocolate. Feel a lot better now, probably cause it's a bank holiday! Ready to fight this debt! Ggggrrrrrrrrrrr

Friday
* NSD
* 132SB via surveys (managed to actually get up to 235SB Thursday night)
* Found an unclaimed! £1 voucher for Amaz0n that I had from SB ages ago. Been added to my Am@zon account now
* 2 surveys on PA

Yesterday
* PA survey
* 85SB via surveys
* £21.72 special diet food for my cat. He's a bit fat despite me hardly giving him anything to eat.....he has no treats, just a few dry biscuits and 1 pouch a day. When we got back from the vets I fed him some of the pouch to try, and I put the pouch back in the bag and the big bag of dry biscuits on top. A little while later, I went into the kitchen to find him with his head in the bag, trying to eat the rest of the pouch! He'd squeezed some of it out, all over the inside of the bag......he didn't even look sorry. :rotfl::D He must be starved though, poor little love. Proper little scavenger!

Today
* £7.32 on groceries. Mainly milk and fresh veg. Got a printed voucher for 50p off an item next time I buy it.
* Receipt scanned on checkoutsm@rt for the chance to win £1000 and 1p
* Claimed 300 points for my Match and More card that previously didn't register
* Youg0v survey for 50 points
* 170SB earned. I've hit my daily goal for the last 7 days so a bonus 25 points!

Other income stream totals
* Youg0v - 675 points (worth £6.75)
* TCB - £3.82 payable / £9.18 pending
* Sh0pitize - 25p
* Checkoutsm@rt - 97p
* Sw@gbucks - 2134SB (enough for a £10 voucher)
* Pr0lific Ac@demic - £8.95 payable / £1.70 pending
* Valu3d Opini0ns - £37.20

Adding that lot up it comes to £78.82. Really happy with that.! :T:beer:

Finally got going with the free copy of YNAB that I won. I was going to wait until I got my new laptop sorted but my old laptop, despite overheating, doesn't switch itself of like it was doing so I thought I'd make a start. I watched some of the basics on y0utube to refresh my memory and started the budgeting. I was confusing myself a bit and at first tried to back track a few days to payday but it got too complicated. Not helped by the fact that I put my income just received as income for August, when it's for September. It's all been budgeted for September now but I'm not sure how to deal with spends in the next few days before the 1st! I guess I'll just have to have a few NSD's! It will probably all become clearer as the months go on.......I hope.

Have a great week

catriona79

That's the spirit, Ena! Glad to hear you're better and positive now. Excellent!

Had no idea you'd won a copy of YNAB, it's amazing! - though it has made me pull my hair out on more than one occasion. I get frustrated with the over and under budget stuff, but I love having the categories and inputting shopping as I go, and knowing how much I have got to spend. Especially as I used to spend lots on food, and if unchecked, would carry on!
You'll have to report back in a couple of weeks on how you're getting on with it.

Poor kitty - hehe! I'm sure he's fine! Funny!

Orange_Ena

catriona79 wrote: »

That's the spirit, Ena! Glad to hear you're better and positive now. Excellent!

Had no idea you'd won a copy of YNAB, it's amazing! - though it has made me pull my hair out on more than one occasion. I get frustrated with the over and under budget stuff, but I love having the categories and inputting shopping as I go, and knowing how much I have got to spend. Especially as I used to spend lots on food, and if unchecked, would carry on!
You'll have to report back in a couple of weeks on how you're getting on with it.

Poor kitty - hehe! I'm sure he's fine! Funny!

Thanks Catriona, amazing what a few days to calm down can do!

Oh I know, I was so lucky to win but I was impressed with it anyway so I would have bought a copy. I can see it's frustrating but im going to persevere. I think I'll not fiddle until my bank switches this week and most of my DD's go out then start again and budget what's left. I confused it all by trying to go backwards! But it's great to actually see what the budget is and having to adjust it if you overspend. Rather than buying something and hoping the card doesn't get declined!! I feel hopeful that I'll gain control :T

Orange_Ena

Over the hump now, both mood wise and day wise :rotfl::D

Monday
* 142SB earned via surveys
* 2 PA surveys
* £54.49 spent in Sainsbobs (£40 was budgeted for presents from that lot)
* Receipt scanned on checkoutsm@rt for the chance to win £1000, and a 1p
* Got a quote for home insurance via TCB / Confu3ed.c*m and received £2.53. Just for getting a quote! Magic! :T

Tuesday
* 95SB earned
* PA survey
* £10.01 diesel
* £38.61 on groceries, just lots of milk, cheese, veg, yogurts (but £19.74 of that was bulk buying my favourite coffee that was half price :money:)
* Receipts scanned on checkoutsm@rt for the chance to win £1000, and a 1p

Wednesday
* NSD
* 3 surveys on PA :T
* Youg0v survey
* VO survey
* 163SB earned which has taken me to just over 2525SB, enough for a £15 Am@zon voucher :):) I've only been doing it properly for about 2 weeks and I did have 200SB or so in there already but even so, definitely could have earned a £10 voucher in this last couple of weeks.
* Checkoutsm@rt emailed a survey to win something!

See a survey..........fill it in :rotfl:

belleandthebudget

You're on a roll with all the surveys, Ena! Nice job!

catriona79

Orange_Ena wrote: »

Thanks Catriona, amazing what a few days to calm down can do!

Oh I know, I was so lucky to win but I was impressed with it anyway so I would have bought a copy. I can see it's frustrating but im going to persevere. I think I'll not fiddle until my bank switches this week and most of my DD's go out then start again and budget what's left. I confused it all by trying to go backwards! But it's great to actually see what the budget is and having to adjust it if you overspend. Rather than buying something and hoping the card doesn't get declined!! I feel hopeful that I'll gain control :T

Ah, bank switches! Excellent! Amazing stuff, they pay well. That will clear some balance too!

Orange_Ena

Haha thanks Belle. I'm genuinely enjoying some of the surveys, they're quite interesting. Mostly just thinking of the money though :rotfl:

Thank Catriona. I can't wait to get that switch money, and my cashback for switching my gas and electricity. That'll clear my Nati0nwide CC I might have to switch again in the future, not really getting on with the online banking app for FD. Early days but that switching bonus might just tempt me.

Orange_Ena

Thank goodness for the weekend, it's here, and rapidly disappearing......:rotfl:

Thursday
* 133SB earned
* £3.52 on an emergency box of m@gnums and receipt scanned on checkoutsm@rt
* Wombled 2 other receipts left by the self service checkout and scanned them too

Friday
* £3 car park
* £10 diesel - will definitely last until Wednesday when the car goes back
* £6.02 more special cat food for my beautiful cat
* £9.15 top up fresh groceries and receipt scanned on checkoutsm@rt
* Wombled receipt found by the self service checkout and scanned on checkoutsm@rt
* Youg0v survey
* PA survey
* 191SB earned.

Today
* NSD
* 108SB earned so far. When I redeemed my voucher Wednesday night I had 9SB left, and in the last 3 days I've earned 432SB but now my balance is 591SB. It's some sort of monthly bonus from what I can gather. Not complaining :cool:

My bank account switched yesterday. My old Nati0nwide account has disappeared from my online banking so I can't see any transactions at all now. When I logged in the night before it switched, I had £318 left in there and when the transfer was made, £178 ended up in the new FD account but the transaction doesn't appear there either. I think I know which bill it is but I'd like to actually see it somewhere!

As ever, waiting for payday so I can shift some money about. I still haven't made any little tidies to my CC as I've still got to pay for a few extra things this month. I shall know more later in the month.

Had some quite good news about my car - my work is paying for some of the damage as I was on work business at the time it occurred. Not quite sure how much I'll have to pay yet but any reduction in that cost means more paid off my debt. :T:)

Best crack on, hardly done a thing all day

Orange_Ena

Oh Sunday is nearly over......:(:cry:(

Yesterday continued
* Topped up my Sw@gbucks earnings to 140SB from 108 earlier in the day
* VO survey
* PA survey

Today so far
* £33.18 groceries. Got a few things on offers which I can't resist......including yogurts for the rest of the month. I'm not even buying main items of food really, the stars of the meal I mostly have things out of the freezer. I just seem to spend loads on the supporting actors, like cheese and veg and of course milk! I probably could improve my grocery spends a tiny bit but I do cook from scratch, I eat well, I eat leftovers, have very little waste , I never have takeaways, I always take lunch to work and I hardly ever grab a coffee from C0sta or have a meal out so I suppose it's not too bad really
* I remembered to take a price promise voucher so I had £1.66 off my shopping
* Receipt scanned on checkoutsm@rt
* 177SB earned........49 away from a £5 voucher :T

I was supposed to get my car valeted today so got up at 7.30 just in case he came early but unfortunately he's had a problem with his van. I could have had a lie in! I'll probably have a cheeky nap later to make up for it. :rotfl:

Orange_Ena

Only 2 more Mondays to work before I've got a whole week off :beer::j:T

Today
* NSD
* VO survey
* Youg0v survey
* 183SB earned.

Other income stream totals
* Youg0v - 800 points (worth £8)
* TCB - £11.90 payable / £2.53 pending
* Sh0pitize - 25p
* Checkoutsm@rt - £1.08
* Sw@gbucks - 989SB (enough for a £5 am@zon voucher)(£15 am@zon voucher redeemed last week)
* Pr0lific Ac@demic - £21.05 payable / £2.10 pending
* Valu3d Opini0ns - £39.20

That makes £106.11. Apart from about £20 ish, that's just from the last few weeks. Maybe I could give up the full time job I hate.....be a professional sw@gbucking survey filler inner :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::D