Bad Month.
Tuesday 30th September, 2008 - £7,899.83 in debt…
Over the last few weeks, my financial situation has gone from bad to worse and has made me feel a bit despondent. In fact, the only thing that’s made me more emotional all month was the Pride of Britain awards. Now that I’ve stopped howling at the moon (”he threw himself ON TOP of the grenade! And he didn’t even go to hospital! OH MY GOD!”), I’ve managed to compile a list of the month’s successes and failures. The first list didn’t take long.
Whoop! Whoop! Success!
1) I managed to wangle a month’s free Amazon delivery through Amazon Prime, cancelled the payment as soon as I thought of it, and wasn’t charged. At last - a company that doesn’t try to steal from me.
2) I started work for AQA and made £328.80 in my first month, which isn’t bad for a sideline.
3) Rather than donating money to charities, I’ve been clicking on TheHungerSite every day and taken some food, blankets and empty printer cartridges to my local rescue home.
4) I’ve spoken to the boss at my temping job about working from home, and we’ve come to an agreement. This means that, as of this week, I’ve got a weekly wage coming in again. Hooray.
Aaaaargh! Failure.
1) I’ve paid off almost nothing. Although my usual minimum credit card payments have gone through (phew!), I haven’t been able to pay off any extra and I’ve even started using the Tesco credit card again. And, because the month hasn’t gone well, I’ve slipped into old habits of not opening my card statements. Luckily, I’m doing this blog so I had to do it eventually.
2) I still haven’t got an E.ON switch date! That’s nine weeks now! Time for an angry phone call, I think.
3) Barclaycard has raised my credit limit to a stupid amount without asking me. It wouldn’t be so annoying if I wasn’t so tempted…
4) Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be picking up anyone’s dropped coins off the street, as it’s occurred to me that I don’t actually walk anywhere these days and there aren’t many discarded pennies inside my car. Perhaps a bit of a lifestyle-change is required next month, but can I really go without my lovely Matiz?
5) I’ve had a minor wrangle with PayPal. I hate PayPal. PayPal must die.
Buh? Don’t know yet.
1) Now I’m thinking that booking the holiday to Prague might not have been such a good idea. I’m still looking forward to it, and the return flight cost me less than £70, but I’ve still got to book the hotel and get some spending money together…
2) I’ve started entering as many competitions as I can fit into my hectic schedule but I haven’t won anything yet.
So, there you have it: It’s not even Christmas yet and I’ve already had a really awful month. I might send a question to AQA: Would it be easier for me to (a) throw myself on a grenade and survive, or (b) get back on top of my debts?
PS. AQA will be featured on the Graham Norton Show, tonight at 10pm on BBC2, but you’ll have to sit through Travis if you’re going to watch it. And Graham Norton. Sorry.
I don’t think that bear’s big enough…
Thursday 11th September, 2008 - £7,926.83 in debt…
The last time I won something was at the Ottery St Mary flaming tar barrel “event” (yes, we have simple tastes in Devon) in 1999. It was a gigantic cuddly polar bear, and I christened him Dave. He was beautiful.
Bearing this in mind, I don’t know why I haven’t bothered entering any competitions since then. I just assume that I won’t win, and that the process of entering the competition will be too much fuss. But, since I can’t afford to buy anything, I might as well try winning some stuff.
Every competition I’ve heard about this week, I’ve entered. If all goes to plan, I’ll soon be winning:
1) £10,000 of Marks & Spencer vouchers from Loose Women (text to enter or use the website for free)
2) A Jack Daniel’s mini fridge (the Freepost entry form was posted through my door)
3) Three bottles of Devon wine with Devon Talk magazine (via email)
4) £150 of Borders vouchers with the Radio TImes (answer 15 entertainment questions on the website). Borders doesn’t have any branches where I live, but it’s the principle that counts.
Now, the last thing I want to do is sign up for mailing lists left, right and centre and get spammed for the rest of my life, so I’m only entering competitions with companies I’m familiar with. Or ones I already get spammed by anyway.
Luckily for people like me, according to broadcasting rules, every competition on the TV must offer one method of entry that’s free. That’s why they always say you can enter on the website or via email. But watch out: as I found with the Loose Women comp, the site might not repeat the question - just allow you to choose from a, b and c - so you must watch the show and take note of the answer.
I figure that local publications are probably my best target, as they offer half-decent prizes but don’t have a huge readership so my chances are better.
Any tips? Should I be entering every competition I can find, or streamlining the process and not wasting too much time?
