An in-between phase

PennysIntoPounds

Happy Friday everyone!

Today's bits:

Had a job, woohoo

Did a survey, on 'Levelling Up' and is it basically balls

Got PiP money and sent it to dental pot

Got paid for a little job and sent share to tax pot

Got Vinted money including £45 for that vintage dress I was worried about being okay, so that's a verrry nice £68 quid to the flat pot

Did an in-store mission for Coop which I hope they'll find acceptable. Annoyingly the only thing we could buy to fit their remit was baby food powder; I had hoped it would be something we could use as I'm not sure of their policy with returns on high-security items. Still, I've warned Mr PIP we may be consuming baby milk for the next week, waste not want not 😂 Also annoyingly, you had to be discreet so I had to settle for just a semi-spy outfit. I mean, what's the point in a secret mission if you're not allowed to get dressed up and swing around the corners of the aisles stealthily anticipating a foe between the crackers and the bin liners

And we found six McMo tokens

Sun_Addict

Where are you finding all these McMo tokens and what are you doing with them? I’m intrigued 🤣

beanielou

Also interested in what you use the tokens for. 

PennysIntoPounds

Well @Sun_Addict and @beanielou! McDonald's runs a Monopoly style competition every year from mid Sept to mid Oct, that I only found out about via the MSE email. You try to collect 'sets of properties' which are denoted on small peel-away tokens/tabs that are attached to some of their food and drink packaging. Some are more common or rare than others, as in the original game.
Collecting different sets gives you different prizes, ranging from things like ear buds to £500 to spend on electricals, to being in with a chance to win 100k (yes please). There are also discount codes on affiliated brands or experiences, and immediate wins like a free cola/milkshake or a free small fries/veg bag etc.
Where we live in London there aren't any parts that aren't nearish a McDonald's so we sometimes spot these tokens on the street, that have been littered or blown away. The immediate wins you can redeem with the physical token. You can bank your 'properties' on the app, and get a bonus 'peel' which you can add to your portfolio if you don't already have it (as if they'd design the algorithm for that!) or switch again for another supposedly random token (which may be a discount or free trial or food item as well as another property), or swap for an entry into the 100k prize draw. Sometimes the bonus peel is also a free food item that you can 'pay for' using the app in store or presumably online.

Long story short: we often see these tokens on the pavement and pick them up to see if we can get a free food item, a 'property' to add to a set for an item to keep or sell, or an entry into the competition to win 100k. It's not obligatory to have the app to play but it increases your chances and gives you more entries into the big prize draw, and you only need it on your phone for about a month while the competition runs

PennysIntoPounds

Lacking in get up and go today but have had a successful sale of an item for £20 on Olio so that's gone in the flat pot

Currently trying to motivate myself to walk a whole ten minutes up the road to drop off a Vinted sale for a couple of pounds

Hoping I'll have an energised Saturday evening but more likely wine and chocolate under a blanket catching up on some telly

PennysIntoPounds

Sent the Vinted parcel and while I was out got a clock fixed, and also picked up some free nail files from Olio. I'd been looking for some small papery ones for ages but everywhere only seems to do big plastic ones so that was particularly pleasing

Entered some competitions, today I'm mostly looking forward to winning a years supply of pasta though this may be because I'm hungry

Dinner (at an early hour it would seem!) will be using up leftovers and making sure to get some portions of veg in

Hope you're all having more productive Saturdays than me! x

Blackcats

Fingers crossed for the planning permission - what an amazing opportunity that would give you.  I watch Grand Designs and often wonder how the heck some of these super-sized buildings get planning permission.  Some of them are the size of a small factory or out of town retail outlet shop (sometimes with as much character).
I hope you get a mystery shopper assignment that will let you really get into stealth mode.  We would like to hear about that escapade.
you do manage to add to the flat pot throughout the month.  Perhaps you could put a monthly total in your signature?  Don't ask me how to do that though 🤷‍♀️

PennysIntoPounds

Thanks @Blackcats fingers crossed indeed! There's no way we'd ever be able to afford a house with outdoor space in a decent/near to mum area so we'll be really upset if we don't get planning permission, especially given the extent the council have mucked us around for several years. But at this stage we just want to know so we can get on with our lives and finances! 
I did wonder about a signature or monthly pot update but there doesn't seem much point given we don't know what it is we're saving for until we get a decision! At the moment my attitude is 'every pound in the pot helps' but without yet knowing what it'll help 😂
I will of course report back on any stealth escapades 😎

PennysIntoPounds

Todays slightly more active doings were:

A big walk (for my joints) to the lockers InPost say are the most likely to have free spaces. They did not. The little one around the corner from there had one space, so it turned out to be pointless me walking far to make sure I could drop off two InPost packages for Vinted. I would not be surprised if InPost go out of business soon, they are consistently useless. I was concerned when they 'improved' their site by getting rid of real time updates as to availability, and they've got worse

But at least I managed to drop off 1 of 2 parcels, and found four McMo tokens and 1p

Got back a bit exhausted but did laundry and a small bit of work

Was determined to get this other parcel sent and it was a beautiful day so walked to another nearer locker which is often full and they had a space, hooray. This locker is next to a pub I like and there was an under 4% beer on, only one seat left in the garden, and I had cash in my purse (and happily they take cash, and do CAMRA discount) so it seemed rude to ignore the universe's signs to watch the Very Big football match my team was playing in. And we won! It was really nice to have some time that was both solitary (Mr PIP and mum both away) but also feeling like being in my community

Back home and made a pasta bake with lots of veg portions so feeling fairly pleased with myself

I also realised I was very mse clothes-wise as I was wearing my dad's (quite worn) jeans that I inherited and a shirt that was passed on to me a good +20 years ago

Slowdown

Hi PiP,
I’ve read your diary from start to finish in the last couple of days and really enjoyed it. 😊

Love a good pint of ale myself so hearing about your trips to the local pubs have me cheering you on. 

Your wishful thoughts on competition wins really make me smile. If your dreams did come true you’ll need that new build for all the champagne and pasta 😂

And the books! I have a house full of books and a husband (and I confess me a wee bit) who finds it difficult to banish any book from its cosy shelf. I’ve only got two and an audio book on the go right now. 

I wish you well with all your efforts. You manage to do an awful lot with EDS constantly hassling you. Never think you’re clogging up the internet, it’s a great deal more interesting and amusing to read than most of the cr*p out there! 

Slowdown 🙂