Month 2, Day 21: A Clutch of Minor Spends

So there’s been a bunch of minor spends this week that I’ve not been taking the time to put up one by one. So here they are, in no particular order:

• I thought I had a system figured out for eBay, a system for drawing in punters with items that start the bidding at 1p, with free delivery. I do not have a system. Lost £2.40.
• 67p for enough last-minute reduced bread to do me till the end of the month.
  
• £2.20 for Latte Wednesday
• £5.50 spent on chinese takeaway in a rare outburst of self-indulgence
• £2.76 for a book. I want a book.
  
• £30 spent on accomodation in Snowdonia, where I will soon be heading. The challenge seems too easy now, why not a weekend away?

My promise of not going on t’internet to look at the news in my last post was not held to. I know it’s Procrastinor’s wicked work, but I haven’t been able to fight it. What I do know however is that I was happier living in blissful ignorance than I have been this last week wallowing in my perhaps-not-so-paranoid-anymore fear of impending economic collapse.

Maybe a day walking round in the sunshine in Bristol, followed by a lovely trip to Snowdonia will cure what ails me…

Balance = £122.65 (-26.2%)

Month 2, Day 17: Falling off the Wagon

So the weekend spend was £20.38. Nothing exciting, just booze, food and petrol.

The real story is that I fell off the no-news bandwagon. The reason was that I found out about the Bear Stearns collapse. I managed not to read up on it for a day after I found out about it. I gave in this morning, and have wasted virtually the entire day clueing myself up on what’s been happening since I last was keeping track about three weeks ago. It’s quite frightening to see the massive deterioration in the situation since I last looked at it. Most revealing is that all the important people are still saying exactly the same things as they were last time I tuned in. They say that it’s all fine, and the worst is past. Since I last heard them speak like this, it’s got worse by a staggering degree. It’s the worst thing to happen in the financial markets in the lifetime of anyone who’s likely to be reading this. Tune into BBC News 24 though, as I did at lunchtime, and what you’re going to get is literally non-stop coverage of the McCartney divorce settlement.

So with this in mind, I got shot of my 74 dollars, in exchange for £33.91.

Balance = £166.18 (+8.9%)

I need to break my renewed news addiction though, so I solemnly swear not to go onto the news websites again this month. There’s nothing I can do about it, the best thing I can do for myself is get my thesis written…

Month 2, Day 13: Sale of the Century

The idea in selling stuff is that I should get some money for things that have no value to me, stuff that I’ll never use again, and that in other months I would just let gather dust. In this spirit, I sold my laptop yesterday, for the princely sum of £125. It’s not been working for ages now, since I spilt a glass of water on it in my sleep. Minus the postage and the paypal, that’s £109.72 to add the budget. To celebrate, it was out for drinks to the The Woods and the Picture House, net cost £7.45. I said “to hell with poverty, give the cat a canary” and genuinely thought I was going out to whoop it up and spend some serious cash. It’s kind of embarassing that I only spent £7.45 really. I tried to end the night with a meal from the Ming Yin (it’s seriously called that), but they shut the door on my nose. Some ebay costs from last month came in £3.12.

Tonight it’s a haggis lasagne banquet with friends, share the wealth.

Balance = £165.79 (+148.8%)

EAPCCI

1. Houses for sale on my street = 3 (no change, was 2 at the start)
2. Price of petrol at the Tesco down the street = 107.9p/l (up 3p, was 103.9p at the start)
3. Price of 1kg of spaghetti in Lidl = 79p (no change, was 69p at the start)

Day 3: More Bidness

 

Right, found 2p in my jacket, and spent £1.20 on four listings on ebay:

1. My Old Wireless Router
2. My Old Mobile Phone
3. A Watch I’ve Never Worn
4. A Wireless Network Card That Dave Gave Me (waiting for the fireworks on this one!)

They’ve got 7 days to run, and hopefully they’ll provide me with a nice boost towards the end of the month! 

It’s all quite fun at the moment. I’m already starting to get ideas about making a profit this month!

Balance = £154.44 (-0.8%), Daily Budget = £7.06

Day 2: Some Luck, Some Bidness

Tidied up my room after work, and managed to turn up another £1.32 scattered about in various places. Bonus! I then took my €4.72 in change, and toddled off round to see Jenny, who commented on the blog that she’d buy it. That’s £3.56 more to add to the budget. She didn’t want to buy the tv choice though, so if anyone Bristol-based is interested…

I’d left some beers at Jenny’s last time I’d been round, so I could even enjoy a lovely cold beer that I’d paid for, without it coming out of my budget.

Balance = £155.62 (+3.3%), Daily Budget = £6.76,

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