Back in the black.

edinburgher

The SC is great when you've got too much else on, sausage casserole a big favourite at ours. Best of luck with the DIY, I'm just about to attach the last of our scotias, then to rebuild the aquarium and attach the door!

blackste

A dreary day for both of us then Ed. I love a good SC meal in the winter. My personal fav. is chicken caserole, using chicken thighs. nom nom.

blackste

Bit of a rubbish weekend overall.
Have not got Mrs B motivated to get ebying at all. Need to ply her with wine i think.
So money wise, just the usual, few surveys and bits and bobs. Got all the money together from Those clixsens3 offers, i managed to turn £10 into nearly £90 for about 20 minutes work. Its all paid, and in my paypal account right now.
In money saving news, i managed to pull a blinder yesterday. Took DS to martial arts tournement (he was competing for the first time). Got stung for £8 just to be able to watch him. Was not impressed. However, due to a late night the night before (mrs b rolling in with friends at 2am, and chatting quietly...ish until 3am) and an early start to get to said tournement, at around 4pm i sat down to watch football, and fell asleep on the sofa. for 5 hours. And missed my xmas party. Gutted to miss the party, but saved around £50 to £70.

So, todays hangover free plan....few surveys. Bit of house work, washing and the like (2 loads done so far).
Watch movie with Mrs B and then talk Eboy. She only has to do the online bit, i will do the posting. We have a ton of stuff which should sell before christmas, DS' old toys and things like that, as well as a load of tools im getting rid of, which are worth a bloody fortune.

Hope your all well.

Steve

Karmacat

Hello blackste shame you missed the party - good for you to look at the financial sense of it tho

I've just read through in one go, and I understand about balance, but I'm wondering about that grocery bill ... £460? You both work, but it seems a lot ... any way you can cut down?

blackste

Its something we are working on at the moment Karma. We tend to do the occassional "big shop" and lots of tops up, which is something we need to change. To be fair, that was only the figure that i added up from last month, and its not impossible that there is some fuel in there. Im reasonably sure we dont spend £115 per week on food. I barely eat at home for 4 out of 10 days due to work. Breaking DHs MarknSparks addiction will be a great help though:)

blackste

Hi all.

Few days off the forum, busy with work and life really.

Not overly massive amounts of news. Totally p1ssed off with SB surveys, had 3 in a few days that disqualified me after about 15 minutes of questions. Really annoys me, so took a few days away from them as well.

Other than that, the only real movement has been getting MrsB back to ebaying. We has some furniture, and lots of small items that need to go, so she listed some stuff last weekend, which are due to finish on sunday. Bidding going well so far. Will keep you posted.
Generally a quiet week, chrimble shopping mosly. Nearly done, and so far not one penny spend on credit, which is good for us.
Nights until the weekend, and then its going to get a bit spendy. Nice restaurant booked for saturday night in Leeds with friends, and out with another friend on tuesday for a boozy session (shift work means its not a school night).

After that its payday, and 1st month totals time, so should be intersting.

Hope your all well,

Steve

edinburgher

Have you thought about giving up the surveys and just going for some of the regular MB offers? I make £13-17 a week from Skaye, Laddies and SJ offers, it would take probably take me 3-4 solid hours of surveying to make that...

Well done on getting started with the Eb@ying again, it's an excellent way to have a bit of a clearout. Our house is bordering on minimalist these days, but I have managed to get to c. 1,000 positive feedback after many years of buying and selling

Do you get paid early for Christmas? I think our wages will turn up on the 19th, so a fortnight to go and then a verrry long month.

Ps. Well done on avoiding credit, cutting up the credit cards gives you a real feeling of satisfaction because what's in the bank is all yours.

blackste

Hey Ed.
Yeah the surveys thing is wearing thin. Mbing is back on the cards, most likely after christmas. I have about £100 in the fund at this point. Im going to start with £200, just waiting for some tcb, and other small things to come in, and i will be ready.
We get paid normal time for christmas, which is midmonth, so i dont have to suffer that 6 week january, which i used to hate. We also get a christmas "bonus" of 1 weeks pay, which actually makes a story in the local press every year for some reason. I say "bonus", as its not, its actually defered pay, which is why the press story annoys me.

blackste

Happy Sunday all.

Bit of a spendy weekend. Went for a really nice restaurant in Leeds with some friends. The language barrier is unbelievable. Im not sure its even english. Top meal though, but at £70 it should be (2 courses plus 2 drinks!!!). Worth every penny though for great company.
Absolutley skint until payday, which is not like us, but so far 0% of christmas is on credit, which is also not like us. However, that will change this week, as i have decided to buy DH a ticket to australia to see her bestie, who is having a baby in May. Thats her christmas prezzie well and truly done.

Other than that, im still not friends with SB and CS, so i decided to pick up a bit of match betting. Took Laddies up on an email offer £10/£10, locked in £8 profit. Not bad, but its funny how nervous i was placing the bets, having not done it for 7ish years. To think i was turning over around £7000 per week once.
Other than that, a quiet few days, several NSDs during the week, and awaiting the Eboy totals later today.

Hope your all well,

steve

blackste

Hi all.

End of month totals day before payday tomorrow. The month started really well, but we got hit quite hard by putting nothing on credit (until 1 big item went on), then finding a school trip for DS had to be paid for this week (£100) and some other items that we had not planned for.
So, for the first time in ages, we hit the overdraft, by £90. On the plus side, Dec is a big pay month for me, and hopefully DH will get expenses when she gets paid, so all of that will be towards debt. (£750 ish).
Other good news...her weekends worth of ebaying totalled £180, and my MBing is at around £100 profit so far, although i wont take any of this out, as i want the fund at around the £500, to make life easier.
So, overall this month, we have reduced our debt total from..£127587.43 to £126695.46. Not bad for a first month, including christmas £892 reduction.

Plan for the new year is being formulated, but largely will focus on the FD CC clear by july. Then increase the payments to LLO CC by about £50, and all other monies to the bank of mum and dad fund. I want that paid off asap.

Hope your all well.

steve