My Dubious Attempt at being a Grown-Up

Lina_T

To-Do List for today

[STRIKE]Take photos and list 2 items on Ebay.[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Package up ebay item ready to send.[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Cook tea (ciabatta pizzas & garlic bread - nice and easy).

Get 10 more items ready for car boot sale, and price up 20 items already sorted.

Phone Mum.[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Corrie, bath & bed![/STRIKE]

Lina_T

Just a Little One Today - feeling a bit fragile

[STRIKE]10 more items for boot sale[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Cook tea[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Post ebay item[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Bath & bed [/STRIKE]

Lina_T

To-Do List this week

Go to the tip

[STRIKE]Pay in cheque at bank[/STRIKE]

Lose another 1 lb - decided 2 lb a week is a little ambitious for me and finding it de-motivating

[STRIKE]Send letter of complaint to unnamed fast-food delivery service [/STRIKE] Done - got £5 goodwill voucher! :j

[STRIKE]Max out Nectar Adpoints 250/212[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Visit Mum & Dad - pick up paste table[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Visit OH's Mum & Dad[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Visit little sister, take round present, card and few bits[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Visit brother, take round aerial, congrats card and party bits for niece[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Do car boot sale at weekend[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Food shop[/STRIKE]

Lina_T

Yesterday: Went into the town with my bank branch to pay in a cheque, bought sisters housewarming present (spent £20 and got some bargains). I also signed up for the £125 incentive FirstDirect account, I need to get proof of identity sorted and sent of asap to make sure I qualify for the deal.

Today: I'm going to see my 1 year old little niece (excited) and my brother/sister-in-law who are cooking us tea. Saves some pennies. Returning some things that are theirs and taking a couple of bits round for the bairn.

My lovely new cushions have arrived. I can do happily without, but people keep coming round and complaining that they sink right into our sofa without cushions, we're genetically short as a family :rotfl:

Also arrived are 2 John Lewis acrylic storage boxes I saw on the grabbit board, £5 down from £20. I've been looking for something like them for ages in my price range so it wasn't just an impulse buy. I'll organise my make-up and bits into them when I get home.

I applied for the meat marinade freebie and entered a few comps.

So added to the To-Do List (which only ever gets longer, never shorter )

[STRIKE]Organise cosmetics into acrylic storage[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Plant up sisters housewarming plant into pot and find suitable gift bag.[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Get OH's Nan a birthday card for Saturday.[/STRIKE]

Lina_T

So after a terribly unsuccessful car boot sale (made £10 after pitch fees) I put all the stuff up a couple those Facebook buy and sell sites for pittance. Nothing but time wasters, had one girl not turn up for something 3 times! So I've sacked that off and am taking it all to the charity shops some time this week!

I notified a lot of people of my change of address; DVLA, A.A., car insurance, dentist. My car insurance has more than doubled because I've moved from a rural area to a town, it's gone from just over £300 to just under £700 :eek:

Got a lot of other stuff done. Made an opticians appointment for a check up, paid council tax and signed us up for direct debit, painted living room ceiling, put membrane down on lawn to stop weeds growing back before we can turf it. Lots of laundry. Bought the majority of my nieces 1st birthday presents with a £20 M&S voucher I won.

Also resumed my studies. I've had about a year break as I was diagnosed with depression and I think the pressure of exams was contributing. Feeling like I can get back on board now and have dug out my books again.

So yeah....busy busy! :rotfl:

To-Do List for The Week

• Study a chapter each of my 2 study texts and do some exam questions.
• [STRIKE]Flat-pack wardrobes arrived yesterday so put those up at weekend.[/STRIKE]
  [STRIKE]
• Flat-pack table and chairs arrive tomorrow so that to be put up too.[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Take mountains of stuff to the charity shop.[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Pay gas bill.[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Change address registered with professional exam bodies.[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]De-clutter 2 corners of kitchen which have become dumping grounds.[/STRIKE]

Lina_T

Still a few things to tick off on last weeks list but I'm getting there, been productive otherwise though.

Painted the kitchen which looks fantastic OH has put up our kitchen table and one of the two wardrobes (other to be done this weekend hopefully!)

I also took some stuff to the charity shop but more to go.

Busy weekend ahead planned. Curry out on Friday with my Grandma & her hubby but they've been i'll with colds this week so we'll see how they are by Friday.

Opticians Saturday morning, taking large rug up to my mum & dads and then meal out on Saturday with OH's brother, sister and their partners, should be nice and hopefully not too expensive!

They my mum and dad are moving house on Sunday so we've helping them with that, a lot of big heavy furniture to be moved!

To-Do List for this week

• [STRIKE]Cut down all the cardboard in our house and fit into blue recycling bin.[/STRIKE] Took to tip instead - even better!
• [STRIKE]Get other wardrobe up (OH's job)[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Buy cards for OH's sisters birthday, & baby nieces 1st birthday.[/STRIKE]

And thats it, I can't take any more :rotfl:

Planning for Christmas is going well, won a few little bits to put away this month.

Hoping to have a frugal few months in the run up to Christmas and get some good savings behind me.

kjp

Hi Lina, looks like it's going well! Nice to see others looking into Christmas, how are you planning on being money neutral? I have an aim to have a no cash spend christmas one year through vouchers only, but have scuppered that plan this year by buying a few things online early! Nice to be planning ahead though!

Kx

Lina_T

Hi KJP,

I'm doing a mixture of things really. Saving up the points on my loyalty cards (Nectar, Tesco, Boots, Superdrug, Co-op etc.) on normal spending throughout the year.

I do nectar adpoints as much as I can and any bonus nectar offers (like the recent one to sign up to rail network websites for 200 nectar points each)

Any cash from boot sales, overtime (what overtime?) and ebay I put into a separate Christmas savings account which means I can pick up bargains through the year as I find them.

I have an app on my phone which tracks my phone activity (internet browsing etc) and that pays out £5-£10 a month in Amazon vouchers.

I'm also starting up a blog and hope to make a little bit of money on the side from that.

I make the most of offers in the weekly email eg this week I've signed up for an M&S credit card. I plan to spend 50p or something on it and then pay it off and cancel it so I get emailed the £30 M&S Wine/Champers voucher - my bosses xmas present sorted!

Another big one is comping. I've been entering competitions for about a year and have had lots of wins including; £20 M&S voucher, £500 Little Mistress voucher, £100 ASOS voucher, £50 Verstiaire Collective voucher, lots and lots of things like beauty products, DVDs, anything I think someone will like for Christmas I write in my Christmas spreadsheet and put into storage.

And that's it really. I've spent about £40 so far but have RRP £250 worth of stuff, and I'm planning on making that back through ebay anyway. I have most of my cards and wrapping paper and about 5 people ticked off the list.

I've been fairly casual about it so far but now it's August (anything from here on in I see as the run-up to Christmas :rotfl: ) I'm going to start being serious about it!

So yeah, I'm a control freak :cool:

t2rry

Lina I am so envious of your Christmas savings ideas...Where do you find the time?!

What is this app you speak of that pays out Amazon vouchers??????

Lina_T

The nature of my job means I go through super quiet times and super busy times at work so I make the most of the quiet times and use my lunch hours :j it's still hard though what with studying as well and running a house but I see money-saving in general as a fun hobby so I don't mind putting the time in where otherwise I might be playing computer games or whatever. A lot of the things like comping and nectar adpoints I can multitask by watching corrie and having a load of washing in at the same time and then some things like the mobile app are automatic.

I keep a Christmas spreadsheet (and a birthdays one separate) with dates of birthdays, budget, present ideas, presents bought, cost, RRP and what I bought it with (vouchers/loyalty points etc). It seems extreme but I would lose my head if it wasn't screwed on so it keeps me organised.

The comping I've found has definitely paid off so far - as well as the material things I've also won a weekend in the Lake District in a 5* boutique hotel, a night in Liverpool with meals & brekkie thrown in and my brother and sister-in-law are taking my baby niece to Drayton Manor in a couple of weeks with some tickets I won.

The app I use is the Nielsen Mobile app but I just had a look at the website and it says "Due to the success of the Nielsen Mobile Panel we've had to close new registrations until further notice." https://mobilepanel2.nielsen.com/nenroll/home.do?type=load&l=en_uk&pid=2&src=712

Shame because that's quite an easy one, I never even know it's there! Not sure if there's something similar anyone can recommend?