Flo's Debt Free Diary

Florence_J

OK

So

I remembered I have a few peoples birthdays coming up, and thought 'That's ok, I have 10 quid in amazon vouchers and i'm on my way to another 5 quid' then i started adding people's gifts into my amazon basket and boom, grand total is 43.04. Which is more than 15 quid in amazon vouchers.

So, time for SUPER FUN TIME BONUS CHALLENGE.

Through surveys/shopping apps/apps/bonuses ect alone, I have 18 days to raise as much money as possible in order to purchase all 6 birthday presents by the 23rd of July.

I am under employed, I have no excuse.

I know I could make this quickly through selling a few better items on ebay/facebook-which I'm going to do as well-but i really want to use all my resources. I really want to prove to myself-and to others reading this-that it is possible to make money through surveys (because I have doubted this myself). I want to be truly resourceful. I want to dive into the depths of what I can do.

So I may go check my inbox for how many survey alerts I have ignored recently.

Florence_J

Also, have just finished watching 'Life Stripped Bare' on channel 4. For those who have escaped the adverts of people running around the streets naked, it is a show where for 21 days 6 people have ALL of their items taken away-white goods, clothes, curtains, toilletries, EVERYTHING apart from basic food rations. Even their cars get taken away.

Each day they can take back one item from their storage container-which is half a mile away. It is to make them realise they have TOO MUCH STUFF and to prioritse what they need to have a happy life.

So basically I am a hoarder, and I want to clear my life of excess stuff. I like that my house is becoming emptier, I don't need millions of books to prove how well read I am, because I am yet to meet anyone who cares like I do about books. I am trying to impress people who don't care.

I really want to get rid of most of my kitchen appliances, but most of them were given to us by my boyfriends parents and my boyfriend doesn't want us to get rid of them in case we offend them. But we don't need a slow cooker-I know everyone on here raves about them but they aren't needed by me and my boyfriend as he won't eat the vegetarian things you can make in them and I won't eat the meat things-which he mostly won't eat either. Also I'm not sure it works......

So yeah, a major declutter is to be arranged when I return back to Cardiff.

lcc86

Hi Flo, I agree with reality_check, it would probably be a good idea to either freeze the card or cut it up altogether and just remove the temptation. Having been in a similar situation I know how tempting it can be to just fall back on the credit card which has a tendency to just add to the problems. Have you thought about applying for evening/weekend work as well on a short term basis? Working two jobs is tough but really helps bring that debt down!

Florence_J

Huzzah, already today I have made £2.50 in amazon vouchers.

Total so far £12.50/£43.04

I'm on my way!

Florence_J

Mixed day today.

Work up at 11.45am :eek: which is bad when you consider the fact that I like to get up at 6am, if not before. (Maybe the fact I get up so early is the reason I occasionally oversleep)

Had a stress dream about the holy trinity of work, family and christmas so even the sleep i did have wasn't pleasant.

Had an essential coffee (i never realised I was this bad but I pretty much refuse to leave the house without at least one coffee in me) then went to the local shops to do a bit of food shopping. I bought myself a treat, a sealed money tin! It is one of those big tins with a £10 note design. Weirdly enough the person behind me in the queue was buying one as well....

It is for my sealed pot challenge and I have got pretty excited about it. It has even got pound coins in it, which is something i never used to put in my loose change tin.

Came back home for lunch with my boy, had a quick sandwich, then it was back out into town. I went to the library and took out 7 books about debt and managing your finances, I don't think they will be the best reads because I've already read all the good ones :rotfl:

Then it was off to Cardiff Castle where the Welsh Football team were going to do an open top bus tour of the city.

Now this is where the day gets a bit less fun. Pretty late i realised I had forgotten how anxious I get in crowds and around big volumes of people. Then a loud and obviously drunk woman turned up with her son. She was very loud, and did nothing but complain and push in, and she said that she was english and didn't even support wales (fair enough, but don't ruin it for everyone there), then spent ages saying how she needed a wee and was going to pee in the street, then went off and left her son who was relatively young! Everyone started talking about her and slagging her off, and as I have said on the NST July thread, although she wasn't pleasant I really felt sorry for her son who was still there and had to hear all these people say horrible things about his mum.

She might not win mum of the year but to this little boy she is his only mum, and he had to hear her be criticised, whether deservedly or not, and I can't imagine how he would have felt.

My mum was an alcoholic, and although she was never an extrovert drunk and was rarely drunk in public (oh no, it was instead a home based horror show) there were plenty of times when I had to hear people talk about her negatively. In fact once at school some kids had seen my mum drunk and targeted me because of it, and I begged my dad not to say anything to the school about it because I thought that would be evidence that she was an alcoholic.

But my mum is many things. Alcoholic yes, but she is also kind, loving, caring, funny, smart, diplomatic, welcoming, non judgemental, gives to charity, is kind to animals and people, a good neighbour. Her bad points do not diminish her good points, they are just a part of her. No human being is perfect, I can't and couldn't expect my mum to be, she could have been better certainly, but she could have been a lot worse.

So i just hope that there are other points to this woman today, and that her son has a good idea of who she is as a person and wasn't too upset.

Florence_J

I currently have less than £100 in my account, and no sign of work just yet. I will have to either go on a sell offensive, or a job hunt offensive, or sign up to some temping agencies.

Or a more obvious solution of all three.

Part of me is enjoying having time to work on my MSE challenges and to really use up all of my resources, but a much bigger part of me would like some confirmed income.

Going to have a fairly big weekend in terms of events, seeing an Open air theatre show tomorrow with the OH's family (plus meal out as well), then watching a film on sunday, going for a sunday roast, going to make some paper boats as part of a refugee crisis art project, then watching THE FOOTBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BONUS FUN TIME CHALLENGE

I must spend nothing all weekend.

It is perfectly possible. Since the meals will be paid for by other people. The only real occasion where I can think of that I will spend money is the boat making event as it is in a pub and I will probably want a drink. I could just stick with water though.

Florence_J

Ooooh, forgot to report major annoyance.

In my local sainsbury's store Flora Light 500g (on shopitize currently) is £1.20, in the bigger Sainsbury's in town Flora Light 500g was £1! Both today, same town, same day, same product, two different prices.

Cue letter of complaint to Sainsbury's.

lcc86

That's weird about sainsburys, perhaps it's better to just go into the store and speak to them than send a letter, stamps these days will cost more than you would've saved in the cheaper branch :rotfl:

Florence_J

lcc86 wrote: »

That's weird about sainsburys, perhaps it's better to just go into the store and speak to them than send a letter, stamps these days will cost more than you would've saved in the cheaper branch :rotfl:

I know, but I have a letter writing addiction :rotfl:

Bobarella

Florence_J wrote: »

Ooooh, forgot to report major annoyance.

In my local sainsbury's store Flora Light 500g (on shopitize currently) is £1.20, in the bigger Sainsbury's in town Flora Light 500g was £1! Both today, same town, same day, same product, two different prices.

Cue letter of complaint to Sainsbury's.

Thats totally normal Im sad to say. I have a food business and offen top up at the smaller sains purely from necessity. They cost a lot more. Point in case sausages in big sains £1 on offer cost in small sains still £1.60. Everything costs around 30p more.