Building The Burrow!

I work from home a lot of the time (and mostly on the computer), so I've got into the habit of checking it every time I finish a task (or want to put off doing something, ha!). Most of the polls show up during the day so I can imagine it must be such a drag if it's not easily accessible 9-5, they do disappear quickly. To be fair £120 is since I started about 2 and half years ago, it took me forever to get to the first couple of payments but I've forced myself to constantly check it this year and have cut the payout times to around 6 months, it's just so nice getting a big wad of cash(!) Only £1.20 to go for the next payment... hope I manage to finish it off this week, what a nice Christmas present that would be! :rotfl:

I've just been thinking about mfw 2014 Once I figure out a vaguely realistic savings target I'll jump on board, I'll probably be super slow and behind target to begin with but hopefully things will perk up by the middle of next year.

I've not been on the studio tour yet! We almost went down earlier this year but for some reason I forget it didn't work out (I'm in the shire of York, by the way). Definitely still on the list though! Mr Merle has been to the HP world thingy at Disneyworld, which he never lets me forget about. He did bring me back Hermione's wand though, I haven't practised many spells with it yet, now I come to think about it... :think:

Ha! Just realised OnePoll will pay you 50p for linking your Facebook account... but also pays you when you reach certain milestones which they then post on FB. Don't mind if I do.... 70p until payout now!

PS. if anyone out there wants a referral to join, just give me a shout. You get £2.50 straight off for signing up.

Mouche, Crumpets - the biscuits were absolutely the first thing ticked off my list

Mouche, good luck with OnePoll, you'll be at £40 in no time now!

Crumpets, I wish I'd seen your post before I went out, it would have saved me standing in line with a very anxious, furrowed brow, everything ended up coming up at £2.60, hurrah! I had no idea they'd been sensible about parcels for Christmas. Still shelled out about £15 though, argh. Next year I'm giving everyone their presents when I see them, even if it is July! :rotfl: Only two people in the queue at the PO, though I somehow forgot to write an address on one of my parcels then couldn't find it again on my phone, ah well. Almost 100% result, I'll take what I can.

I've ended up having a rather remarkable day. On my way back from the PO I was about to cross a dual carriageway and what do I see but this little terrier trotting along in a cosy winter jacket but no owner to be see. He merrily walked straight out into the traffic (with me practically falling into the paths of the cars to try and stop them from running him over, complete heart in mouth moment, I still feel shivery thinking about it!) somehow he survived and I whisked him off the road before he could dance with death again. Thankfully he had a tag, I called and called the number but to no avail. Managed to make him to walk back towards my neck of the woods while holding his collar (I looked like Quasimodo! I had to hobble along bent double holding his collar so he wouldn't take off again). The Fates must have been looking after this little fellow as I met my Neighbour With A Dog who lent me a lead (she was about to drive off home for Christmas, what great timing), so I had a wander around trying to see if I could find anyone who owned him, but no one was to be found. He trotted along wagging his tail and being generally charming, it was very tempting to keep him! Ended up taking him to the animal shelter who found his chip (Mr Merle came up with that great suggestion, I never even thought about it!), turns out my little terrier is actually from Portugal and had been picked up in Kent as a stray last month! What an adventurous life he's led! The owner hasn't phoned me back/sent me a text or anything, it's so bizarre. Animal shelter are going to let me know what happens to him... think I might pick up some food and such and drop it round some time for them though, they were lovely.

Came home to a mountain of Christmas cards all from people who I hadn't sent cards to - cue frantically writing some and phone calls to get addresses and going back out to the post box.

I'm down to 10p needed on OnePoll! Agonising! I only got that far thanks to the FB posts/possibly also from convincing someone to sign up (I've no idea). There were hardly any surveys all day, I think the staff were all at Christmas parties or something... totally unacceptable at a time like this! :rotfl:

Heaven knows what I else I said I'd do today, I've not done any of it. It's all been Pet Rescue and Post Offices! Impromptu trip to Asda this evening, we did need to stock up on essentials for next week or so, mostly picked up carrots and parsnips (roast veg, yummy!). Might have splurged on a pretty £1.50 (half price) paper lantern... a Christmas present to myself! To be fair, I've been on the lookout for one for ages, so don't feel too bad about snapping it up.

Oh gosh, so many other background moneysaving shenanigans went on as well. Mr Merle discovered that Amazon Local are doing a deal on some Fantasia concert, half price tickets a few days after Christmas, so duly bought - we've not done anything for Christmas really so that'll be something nice to look forward to. My family tradition is to do something on Christmas Eve, but Mr Merle technically has to be in work despite probably being told to go home at 10am if last year is anything to go by, argh!, so we can't really organise anything for then as you never know how it'll play out.

Mr M also managed to pick up some fancy Lord of the Rings boxset of books in a charity shop today, looked them up out of interest as they had a CD missing and apparently they're worth about £100! Pretty much double if they had the CD! (You've no idea how much this happens to him, it's infuriating! :rotfl:)

A few rumblings in the background about job stuff, but it's all wait and see type things. Some chatter about holidays (Mr Mr has a lot of airmiles to use up), so we might be able to organise something nice for next year pretty cheaply *crossing all fingers & toes*

Flipping heck, I'm knackered now. I wanted to catch up on everyone else's shenanigans but that might have to wait until tomorrow morning(!)