The Secret Dreamworld of a (Scottish) Shopaholic

suburbanwifey

Gosh, how expensive it is to have a hen party nowadays lol - I'm afraid I wouldn't want to pay that to celebrate her getting married either so I see exactly where you are coming from. Seems madness to suggest such a thing when no one has any money to spare to that level and if they did, they'd spend it more wisely. Then there's the cost of the wedding? (they'll probably be divorced within a decade anyway so a total waste).

When I got married 25 1/2 years ago we had a drink down the pub and my entire wedding cost a few hundred pounds, registry office and we had a great day and we didn't get into debt to pay for it and we are still married today and never regret spending so little getting married. Its the being married that counts not one short day and it horrifies me how much people spend today to get married and then they all seem to end up divorced!

scottishspendaholic

Aw I hope they don't get divorced. I might not want to spend all my money on their hen night and wedding, but I don't want to think they might get divorced before they're even married!

Well I’ve just been to Next, picked up my order and promptly returned it! £52 credit winging its way to my account (well not been billed yet, so I just won’t be charged for the items) and I’m happy. It’ll probably just equal the interest charged this month, but at least the balance isn’t going up. In hindsight maybe I’d have been better not picking it up as petrol cost to get to Next was probably about £3-£4 but then I’d have been charged the admin return charge of £1.75 x 3 (items were randomly in 3 separate parcels) for not picking up my order…

I made a minimum payment (snowballing starts in earnest next month) to my MBNA card on Tuesday night but its still not showing and apparently it only takes one business day. The amount is also showing as unavailable on my current account, so I’ll have to assume its still processing.

I have been thinking a lot about starting my diet too. I really want to lose some serious weight before Christmas as there is a real possibility that we (as a family) will be taken on a far flung sunny holiday by my brother over the new year. He’s sold a business for a lot of money and wants to take us all away. I’ve been so uncomfortable this summer and so miserable with no cool light clothes and I’m just baking in all my massive tenty cover-ups and long trousers. I would like to start something at the start of August so need to have a really good think about this.

Thanks again for all the happy positive posts, you're all brilliant.

scottishspendaholic

Ok, so I've been doing some plotting and planning:-

Ways to make £390 by 31 August 2013
*Claim work expenses - £20 (will arrive in my bank account with my salary on 26/7/13
*Send purse back - £9.99 (awaiting refund)
*Ticket money from friend - £22 (should get given this in cash within the next week)
*Sell some children’s clothes – estimate £50 profit
*List on eBay – estimate £100 profit
*Amazon trade-in - estimate £20 profit
*Mystery shop – estimate £10 profit
*Bag of clothes to weigh in – estimate £5
*Bingo – estimate £20
*Roadkill – estimate £3
*??? – remaining £130??? - NEED SOME IDEAS!
(+ things forgotten to budget for inc. back-to-school&me haircuts £30, train to hennie £20, so realistically probably need to make another £180 to break even)
I desperately don't want to fail in month 1/23 of snowball, but am aware that I do have a habit of setting up unrealistic plans then totally failing - but I need to start snowballing! I need to do it to keep my DFD from falling back, and mentally I think failing in month 1 would be heartbreaking! So hit me with your ideas! I cannot get any overtime at work and don't have loads to sell. I can't do a car boot until September and I only get offered mystery shopping about once a month as I live in a rural area. I am happy to do survey sites and do plan to pick this up again, but I know I won't build up enough credit to withdraw any by end August 2013.

From September 2013, I think I'll be fine. I am possibly over-estimating my petrol expenditure too, I will get some of this cost back from my new employer, however I have tried to over-estimate at the moment as I'm unsure how/when they pay expenses.

So any money making ideas to help with my end August challenge are more than welcome!?!

September 2013
Income = £400
-£150 petrol (estimate, won’t know exact amount until job situation settles down)
-£355 snowballing
-£50 hennie
-£50 friends & families’ birthdays
-£30 misc.
Assumed expenditure = £635
Deficit = -£235
Ways to make £235 by 30 September 2013

*Work up 3.5/4 hours flexi before job changeover, paid on 28/8 – estimate £60 after tax
*List on eBay – estimate £100 profit
*Mystery shop – estimate £10 profit
*Bingo – estimate £15 profit
*Car boot 8/9/13 – estimate £50 profit

= £235

MrsSmith2013

Morning Scottishspendaholic!

I've just spent the morning (at work - naughty I know!) reviewing my finances. Would it be worth you checking your bank account to make sure you don't have anything coming off that shouldn't be? For example I just noticed the National Trust for Scotland are taking £7.95 a month from me... we've been round most of the castles here, so am thinking I will cancel that, and thats another £7.95 free'd up a month.

Also are you a member of Quidco? I'm a MASSIVE fan, my total earning are around £800 but I must admit that has slowed down some now I have done most of the ones that I would use. Still good for cashback on monthly online shopping and stuff tho! That could help you towards your target. I'm sure there are free/no spend ways to get cashback on the site too.

You could always review your house insurances/car insurances and maybe if you can find better deals via Quidco, you would save money per month, plus get some cashback.

Good Luck - and if I come up with anything else, I will pop back!

Mrs S x

PS - with your ebay profits, are you accounting for the dreaded paypal fee's and selling fee's on ebay? I've been finding them an expensive pain recently

please-let-me-be-lucky

Have you had a look at the Make £10 a day thread over on the debt-free-wannabe forum? There are loads of ideas! For example:-

Sell old (particularly gold) jewellery, it's amazing how much broken earrings, necklaces and rings you never wear will fetch you.

Surveys - I use Valued Opinions, Pine cone and Toluna as my main ones. Even if you cash out in say Tescos vouchers, you can transfer the equivalent cash from your shopping budget to your £390 challenge.

Sell old mobile phones, laptops, cameras etc. Places like CEX are worth a visit as well as ebay.

Switch things like gas and elec, mobile phone and internet providers to get the best deals and use the savings towards the challenge.

MrsSmith2013

please-let-me-be-lucky wrote: »

Sell old mobile phones, laptops, cameras etc. Places like CEX are worth a visit as well as ebay.

Good thinking Please-let-me-be-lucky, I forgot about that. There are some of these recycling places give cashback via Quidco too.

There's a comparison site via here to see what sites paying the best for what phone etc, it is:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/mobile-recycling

If you don't mind me jumping in - where do you sell jewellery PLMBL? I have loads of things I don't wear any more, none of it gold though....

Misty_Blue

How many mystery shopping companies are you registered with? I know the amount of work very much depends on where you live / can travel to, but back in the day when I did a lot of mystery shopping I could make anything from £50 - £200 a month without going outside my local area. Sign up with as many of the reputable companies as possible!

please-let-me-be-lucky

MrsSmith2013 wrote: »

If you don't mind me jumping in - where do you sell jewellery PLMBL? I have loads of things I don't wear any more, none of it gold though....

I sold mine to a place called Mayfair Jewellers. I know there are a few in our area but not sure if it's nationwide. Got a really good price for gold from them but not as good for silver. As far as costume jewellery goes, I found a car boot sale best Xx

scottishspendaholic

Thank you so much for all your helpful ideas.

- I don't have any gold left to sell. I sold my gold (£60 worth) a couple of years ago. I WISH I could get my hands on my Mum's gold, she wears so much!
- I will research more mystery shopping companies, thank you. My problem is though that I live and work rurally, I'm not sure it's particularly cost effective to mystery shop.
- I will check out Cex, thank you! We've not got any old mobiles, but do have a couple of old cameras
- I've joined TCB tonight and made £22 approx. on free cash back. Just need to remember to cancel Lovefilm & Audible in mid August. I'm not going to count this money towards my challenge though, I'll count it if/when it pays out. I am a member of Quidco, but nothing biting on there just now- but I do have £1.30 scheduled for payment on 2 August!
- I don't have any direct debits which come from my account.
- I have been looking into surveys tonight, and have joined up with one poll. I need another £37 before payout & going to attempt to make £1 per day so am going to count this £40 into my challenge as hopefully this should payout at or near the end of my challenge period.

I got my ticket money from my friend, she gave me £20, not £22, so it looks like I will have to take the hit on the booking fee. I will amend my signature total.

So revised plan:-

August income & outgoings

Coming in = £410

-£170 petrol (this is a long month & I am changing jobs part of the way through the month to complicate things further!)
-£355 snowballing
-£37.50 to close stupid bank account (have already argued with them repeatedly about this, just going to pay it & get shot)
-£65 I owe a friend (paid £10 back today)
-£25 friends' meal out (Groupon deal + drinks)
-£15 friend's birthday evening
-£30 school shoes (have borrowed from 'joint' CB so need to pay this back)
-£20 family fun day
-£50 max. summer hol day trips (already bought tickets for things, this is travel into city & ice cream money)
-£20 train for hennie
-£22 haircuts for me & kids
-£20 misc. (stamps, soda&lime in pub at meeting etc)

=£829.50

= deficit of -£420

Ways to make £420 by 31 August 2013)

*Claim work expenses - £20 (will arrive in my bank account with my salary on 26/7/13
*Send purse back - £9.99 (awaiting refund)
*Ticket money from friend - £20 (should get given this in cash within the next week) GOT
*Sell some children’s clothes – estimate £50 profit
*List on eBay – estimate £100 profit (profit after fees)
*One poll estimate £40
*Amazon selling - estimate £20 profit
*Mystery shop – estimate £10 profit
*Bag of clothes to weigh in – estimate £5
*Bingo – estimate £20
*Roadkill – estimate £5
*??? – remaining £120!!!!

Money making things to do:-

* One poll, aim for £1+ pd
* Sell to Cex
* List on eBay
* List on forum (children's clothes)
* Bingo
* Amazon sales/trade in
* Mystery shop
* Bag of clothes to be weighed
* Cancel LF & Audible by 15/8/13

clippy_girl

hello, i would echo what misty blue says. if you look on up your income they have a mystery shopping thread which lists loads of companies. the more you sign up for the better i live in a city but never seemed to get offered many here. i always ended up going to another town which was about 42 miles round trip. as i was signed up to around 10 agencies even if i only got one job from a few i could easily get £60+ in the day. yes i had to pay mileage but could claim 45p per mile which is more than it cost me and meant i paid less tax. i used to earn anywhere between £200-£500 per month. the £500 months were not enjoyable though as i was squeezing them in constantly and i work full time so didnt have any free time!