The Big Adventure

Goldiegirl

newgirly wrote: »

Where are you off to on your cruise goldiegirl?

We're going to Bruges, Copenhagen and Oslo, then have Christmas Day and Boxing Day at sea.


The thing I'm looking forward to the most is the pre Christmas 'buzz' in the cities. We're taking warm clothes for the daytime, so I'd be happy if there was a little bit of snow.


Really looking forward to it, it'll be the first time we've been away for Christmas.


The weather today is so dark and rainy, so nothing much happening.


I've got yet another free listing offer from eBay, the third week running. I've got a few things that'll sell today and tomorrow, and I'll relist a few things that haven't sold, but I'm running down the eBay operation for this year and will start again in the New Year

newgirly

Sounds lovely we had a day in bruges last month on our cruise, there is a shop in one of the side roads off the main town square that just sells xmas decorations with some really beautiful stuff in it :xmastree:

Karmacat

First time I went abroad on my own, I went on a school cruise, at the age of 14, it was the only time my school participated (possibly because of how much trouble we got into ). La Coruna, Gibraltar, Tangier, Lisbon ... utterly magical. I lost my puppy fat early too, as I was seasick for 3 days

Goldiegirl

newgirly wrote: »

Sounds lovely we had a day in bruges last month on our cruise, there is a shop in one of the side roads off the main town square that just sells xmas decorations with some really beautiful stuff in it :xmastree:

Bruges is lovely. We've been there a couple of times, so this time we're going to do a tour of villages and then visit a chocolate factory:j

In Copenhagen we are going to the Tivoli Gardens, so I hope to buy a Christmas decoration there. It's nice to have tree decorations that remind you of your travels.

Karmacat wrote: »

First time I went abroad on my own, I went on a school cruise, at the age of 14, it was the only time my school participated (possibly because of how much trouble we got into ). La Coruna, Gibraltar, Tangier, Lisbon ... utterly magical. I lost my puppy fat early too, as I was seasick for 3 days

Was it on the Uganda by any chance? I didn't do it myself, but I've spoken to many people who went on Uganda, and loved it. Cruising is great at any age, but at 14, it must have been amazing!

I managed to sell 6 items on eBay for my friend, two of them for good prices. 5 parcels have been posted, the other I'm still waiting for payment. I've got 3 jigsaw auctions ending tonight.

I'm just doing a bit of housework and chicken soup making.

Later I'll look at setting up direct debits for the gas and electric on our new 123 bill account. I've had to leave it until now, as the most recent payment has just been taken from our old bill account. I thought it'd confuse the issue by changing when a payment was pending.

At this time of year I tend to run out of steam for doing things. I'm always more interested in planning for the next year, so it never seems worth starting anything in late November.

I will try and make a start on the Christmas cards, think about getting a few Christmas eats for when we get back off our cruise and think about writing a packing list.

Also need to think about getting eats for our leaving days. In my case it'll be quite straightforward - just various nibbles from the supermarkets.

At Mr Goldie's workplace the person leaving normally takes 20 people to the pub and buys them drinks!:eek:

He's not keen on that, particularly as it's so close to Christmas, the pubs will be busy.

So he wants to do a little buffet, buying the things from the M&S party range. He thinks it'll be cheaper, and he'll enjoy it more.

It probably won't be THAT cheap, but it's a one off, and if he's going to be happy with it, then I am.

I've just realised, a lot of my plans are thinking about doing things.... I will try to actually do a few things too!

Karmacat

Goldiegirl wrote: »

Was it on the Uganda by any chance? I didn't do it myself, but I've spoken to many people who went on Uganda, and loved it. Cruising is great at any age, but at 14, it must have been amazing!

Yes it was :T it was great!

I managed to sell 6 items on eBay for my friend, two of them for good prices. 5 parcels have been posted, the other I'm still waiting for payment. I've got 3 jigsaw auctions ending tonight.

You do really well with ebay!

Goldiegirl

Karmacat wrote: »

You do really well with ebay!

It's a lot to do with my friend, she always seems to have lots of stuff that she wants to sell.

But I sold 3 jigsaws of mine last night, all for around £5. Everybody paid quickly, so I've posted them this morning.

One of Sunday night's buyers still hasn't paid, which is a bit irritating as it was one of the things that was sold at a good price. I find that if they don't pay after 24 hours, there's a good chance they won't pay at all. I'll give it until tomorrow evening, and then start the unpaid case. I don't want to hang around, as the item is a sparkly jacket, just right for Christmas parties. If this person doesn't pay, I'd want to re-advertise ASAP.

I've been to the shopping centre to get my TV magazine, and bought Mr Goldie's Christmas card at WHS, as I have a 25% off greetings card voucher.

I've also got a beef curry in the slow cooker, so I've been quite productive so far.

Just having a coffee before I crack on with a bit of houseworky stuff

Goldiegirl

I've been playing around with My Supermarket this afternoon.


If I wanted to buy a key branded item like my washing gel, or my decaf coffee, I'd probably use it to see where the best offer was, and then do the rest of my shopping there.


For quite a few things I use the supermarkets own brand, but as far as I could see the site only compares brands, not supermarkets own.


The site seems a little glitchy - IE stopped working twice while I was using it, so I don't think I'd use the site slavishly, just from time to time.


But generally, A$da seem to do best on prices and offers


The outstanding FleaBay payment has still not been received, so I've gone ahead and transferred my share of the payments received so far to the LXF. £25, so not a bad weekend's work

Karmacat

Sounds a good, practical day, Goldie. I'm glad Asda came up well at mysupermarket, I was just thinking today I must put an order in - saves so much time, its wonderful.

My ebay things are stuck - but maybe part of that is because I've got them on long BINs - I should have thought about that! They're getting looks every now and then, but no offers. Amazon doesn't have any either. A lot of this stuff has already been for sale prior to this, if it doesn't sell by the end of January, its all going down the charity shop, I want the space!

Hope your evening went well. xx

Goldiegirl

That's pretty much how I operate on eBay - I put the item up for auction a few times, if that doesn't work I try a long BIN, and then if that doesn't work, it's the charity shop.


Today is my 2nd anniversary of joining MSE. The biggest thing I've learned is 'a lot of small savings add up to big savings. Previously, I might not have bothered with something to save a £1, but I do now.


A rather strange day today. It's very dull, dark and misty, and I've got to mid afternoon without really doing anything at all.


We popped out for a while, as we were sent a voucher from M&S premium club for £15 off adult sleepwear and slippers.


My slippers still have a few month's life left in them, but I used the voucher to get a new pair, to hold in reserve, for when my currently slippers give up the ghost.


We then spent what seemed like hours faffing around renewing the live services on the sat nav.


That's about all we've done really.


I'm going to attempt something else now, even if it's just writing out a Christmas card.

Goldiegirl

I forgot to mention, I had another eBay purchase delivered today, a sweatshirt. It's not new, but a really nice make. Normally they make about £20 on ebay, this one cost £10. I'm pleased with it, it's what I need to wear around the house. I've bought more clothes in November than I have all year