The Ultimate Incentive Part 11 (or 10B) It's The Final Countdown

Dinah93

What's the website Cinny? Matched betting used to bring us good money.

It's scary I only hit 300 on Monday and at the present rate should hit 500 tomorrow.

Cost of hard drugs vs income from extra working time... think that should be an MSE moral money dilemma!

Starting work at two new schools today, hope the first one is nice as they've booked me until June!

A running total would be great... just need the time to come up with it! Should only take 20mins but that's 20mins more than I have. Up till 1 doing Quidco work, working on it again from 7 this morning, have another assignment I need to get to them by tomorrow evening really so need to find about 6 hours this evening and in the morning alongside keeping kids happy and alive, think it could be another late night.

On the money front 4.8lb to go until I hit my pre-grace weight. I'm very active so if I can watch the food I should be able to achieve it by the end of October.

Cinny91

Sent you a PM, Dinah Hope it makes sense!

That's amazing going though to say you've only just set it up! Nevermind 500, you'll break 1k in a heartbeat. Only takes a few shares of deals to get the word around.

Hmm, I didn't really factor in the cost of my idea. Maybe just some extra strong coffee?

Great going on the weight loss too. I weighed myself a few days ago and I've gained 8lb so far, which I think is fairly average? I did lose 5lb at the start of the pregnancy though, so only really 3lb up from when I found out Have to keep reminding myself it's okay because I was a few lb into overweight to begin with.

Birdie85

Sounds like things are going well.

Moving the kiddies rooms to the top floor and the office to Grace's room sounds like a good plan. At this age, rooms are just for sleeping as you say so it does make sense to have them out of the way and have easy access to the office.

No idea how to make more time, can only think that you figure out ways to shave time off your current daytime tasks? Maybe do something like a SOA, but for time and see what is taking too long!

The loan shiftaroo sounds like a good deal Cinny, good luck in getting it cleared soon!

We're lucky next year because our holiday is a family one with DH's side and it's mostly been paid for by MIL, we'll just need a little spending money. We go on this year's holiday 3 weeks tomorrow and I keep having little waves of being so excited I may be sick! There's a new system for pre-booking fastpasses onto certain rides and you can book 30 days in advance so I've been booking our rides which is pretty bizarre! Gone are the days when you could just rock up to whichever park you fancied on a certain day; you have to have it all planned well in advance now if you want to make sure you're not queuing for hours and if you want to eat in a particular restaurant. I've even booked a meeting with Rapunzel!

Birdie85

Just popping in with a small victory kind of related to CBC! I got so fed up the other day when I had to sit and untangle 3 necklaces that were all knotted together (how? HOW does this happen?!) that I had a bit of a brainwave and ordered a pack of little ziplock bags. I then put each item of jewellery/pair of earrings into its own bag and then put it all back in my jewellery box. It is making life loads easier as I no longer have to spend ages every morning looking for a matching pair of earrings or finding a necklace that isn't attached to another necklace (again, how does it happen?!). Just thought it might be an idea to share.

Tete_en_l'Air

Hi girls, just thought I'd drop in on my 'lunch break' as I've made a start on my decluttering and I feel like I may commit some kind of atrocity soon.

I've been reading Marie Kondo's book (thanks for the recommendation Poddle) and a lot of the preamble makes so much sense, I feel so energised to get rid of all the excess junk. However, I've made a start on my clothes and only got through my wardrobe and the stuff that was on the floor and I've already filled six binbags for the charity shop My room looks as messy as ever because it's still covered in books and papers and old teaching stuff, and now there's a two-foot high pile of shoes as well! :eek:

I'm also having the major guilts about the amount of money I've wasted on all this carp and the amount I might get on ebay... but I just want rid now!

Embarrassingly, the bit about saying 'thanks for your service and goodbye' to the items you're throwing away has really helped me - I'm a real sentimental hoarder

I wish I'd had the energy for this in the summer hols as I could really do with a chunk of days to just power through. Anyway. Just wanted to vent Hope you're all well!

Cinny91

I really need to read that book, in all fairness I don't think there's a lot of stuff I keep for the sake of keeping it but I'll probably be surprised when I start looking into it :rotfl: Especially with a kid on the way, determined to keep a tidy home and we're planning on getting him minimal toys (not in a mean way, but I was reading about the benefits of fewer toys and it kind of makes sense), but I just have this anxiety the house will get out of control and want to get things as organised as possible.

That's a great idea with the bags for jewelry, Birdie! Wish I actually wore jewelry now so I could use it

Still can't get over the fact you have to book rides?! Sounds like it'll take a smidge of the fun out of it, but then again I suppose at least you know you'll 100% get on the rides you want!

Not much to report my end, started MBing properly this weekend and we're up £180ish. I've just hit a bit of a block as my bets started actually winning so I need to wait a while to get my pot back in my bank account.

CBC is kind of at a halt atm, moved everything out of the nursery to decorate so the back bedroom/office is complete chaos We've got his cotbed put together, 90% of his wardrobe - just the changing table (opted for this thinking he'll be able to use it as a desk when he's older) so we have all the cardboard/general rubbish that comes with them too. Then the living room is equally upside down, the sofa is in pieces to be collected and there's just a little too much mess everywhere for my liking. Keeping the kitchen, bathroom and our bedroom super clean/tidy to over compensate :o BUT! By the end of today the nursery will be together, and by Friday the living room will look all new and swanky too. Just need to not have an emotional breakdown before then

Hope everyone had a nice weekend!

Birdie85

Well done on the decluttering Tete! I keep telling people about Marie Kondo yet I still haven't read the book, I just like the ideas that I've read about it. I did try to tell my Mum about the whole 'Keep items that bring you joy' but she has totally misunderstood the concept and when she was on holiday kept buying things *because* they brought her joy so she's just replaced whatever she got rid of, and more! Think I'll buy her the book for Christmas and hope she gets the point about living with less stuff. I need to read the book too but part of me keeps putting it off as I don't really feel like I have enough time/opportunity to really get into clearing at the minute and don't want to feel massively frustrated that it's not getting done quickly enough!

As for the guilt, yes it's wasted money but now you have seen the light, you won't do it again and the charity that you donate the clothes to will benefit greatly from your stuff and that's a positive thing! So well done!

My job for tonight is clearing the dining room table as it's become a bit of a dumping ground and DH asked me ever-so-nicely-and-gently to do something about it. I need to revisit the cupboard of doom too but I'm actually fearful of everything collapsing and dying under a pile of miscellaneous stuff!

Cinny - you don't really need to book rides per se but they have a system called FastPass where you used to put your ticket in a machine at the front of the ride and it would give you a time to come back then you when you return at said time you go in a special queue that's a lot quicker than the normal queue so instead of waiting an hour for a really popular ride, you only wait 5-10 minutes. Now they've 'enhanced' that so you can book your FP rides before you even go. Not sure I'm a fan of the concept TBH but we'll see how it goes.

My jewellery system is still working nicely. I have even rediscovered some bits that I'd forgotten about!

Tete_en_l'Air

Haha I like your mum's approach Birdie!

I'm raring to go on the paperwork (not so much the books ) but I'm very time-poor this week so won't have chance to do it properly I don't think - very frustrating. Why did I not read this book in the summer holidays???

Dinah93

17 bin bags cleared so far. 3 in the bin. 4 to a friend who is having a baby girl at 30 weeks so she's got all the girl stuff and all the prem stuff. 2 are ready for Cinny as soon as I can find a large box (includes some maternity stuff including the coat I wore and forgot I even had, basic tops, leggings etc), the rest are going to charity.

Going to be a rough night, Grace has a cough, she had her pre-school boosters and her flu jab today, Ben won't settle into the cot so is taking up my side of the bed.

Still pretty frazzled with all the work, but really energised to clear the junk out the house and get the attic/guest room-as-storage back into the correct format and get the kids moved upstairs before Christmas. The joy concept really helps me, I've cleared out plenty of 'nice enough' clothes to go to charity, they might bring someone else joy but for me they just cover the necessary body parts.

Cinny91

Excited about the baby things! It's actually helping me not go OTT buying things because I keep telling myself "people will buy us things, and D is sending stuff too" :rotfl: Only thing that stopped me from grabbing everything at the Mothercare event :o

Trip to the tip (hoho) this afternoon. Decided I could either have all the ikea-y cardboard in our house for a few weeks while we steadily filter it out via the recycling bin, or I could just pack up my car along with some other things we've been meaning to take for the last week and get it over with.

Got to admit, kind of like your Mum's approach too Birdie

Tired today! Starting to struggle to get comfortable - I'm such a sloth I thought this wouldn't happen - and couple that with a cold. Doesn't make for an easy nights sleep but I suppose I better get used to running on low energy levels