Was a very money-saving girl today and got the bus (free) instead of driving!

Exam didn't go well. Found 10p. got ebay cheque.

Aaaaaaaaaand... I found a good website of student recipes and I emailed the author about helping her with some stuff, and I answered some questions for her about this and that for an article she is writing - and she is going to send me a copy of her new book free when it comes out!

I was going to buy it too - the recipes on the site sound lovely!

rosie

Nothing too interesting's happened.

Got £10 in the post for mystery-shopping - just need to return the vile necklace now (cost me £4). Been revising for my exams... just 3 days and it's all over till August

Gonna fill up my car tomorrow on my way home.. and need to go to the bank at some point, I have some cash & cheques to pay in (go me!) but am waiting for an ebay cheque before I go. Also need to take some ID to open my student bank account they are gonna give me a free railcard for 5 years (worth £90) - well worth having! The bank account is one of the best anyway...

rosie

I just wrote out a cheque to my mum for £300 for my car.

Ouch, is all i can say.

I got my student loan notification too..it seems to be wrong.. I rang up and they didn't know, had to ring somewhere else and guess what it was shut.

So I guess that's a job for tomorrow.

On the bright side, I found 10p..

rosie

well now it seems the leak was bigger than they thought, several papers are involved and photocopied papers have been being sold in London for several hundred £.

got some stuff about my student bank account today.. I like my bank account, but opening this one you get a free 5 year railcard (which costs ~£90) and interest free overdraft & stuff. So, worth having!

Just need to take some ID etc down now to finish opening it.

A week today is my last exam! I can't wait!

rosie

still no real news on the exam paper. Today's went okay though.

Did the mystery shopping and also got paid for one I did a while ago

Rosie

More GRR - turns out the exam I sat this morning was leaked on the Internet but no one knows what's happening yet - if the paper will be cancelled, or what.

On the positive side, I'm mystery-shopping some time this week, I have to buy something and then I get £10 back so I hope there is something cheap to buy. (if there's nothing I need i will take the thing back after!)

More positive things: the person I thought wouldn't pay me on Ebay did pay up.

So that's some money (if not a lot) towards my car repair

rosie

GRR. I pranged my car. I somehow scraped the side against a postbox as i turned a corner. Now it's all bent and stuff and fixing it will cost (my dad said) ~£400. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. I'm so cross with myself.

my driving lesson went OK, have another 3 hours next week though.

been revising biology

I got my "prizes" for helping promote a film in the post ( I actually did very little for this, so...) I got 2 magazines aimed at about 11 year olds... I salvaged the free gifts and mum will take the magazines to work

I also got £10 in cinema tickets .. for a cinema chain that has no cinemas anywhere near me.

however they do have a cinema in cambridge (where I hope to be at uni) so im saving them for then and if i dont get in i will givethem to one of my friends who does get in..

I really must call my old work and ask about references so I can hand in my application forms.. hehe

rosie

today I had a 3 hour driving lesson to reduce my car insurance udner the Pass plus scheme. I have another one next week too.

I also got a cassette adaptor for my car free as my dad already had it, and im going to reclaim an MP3 player i got in a competition my boyfriends been using. Voila - completely free in car MP3 player

Rosie

Grr I'm trying to sort out my uni finances.

I'm going to end up in lots of debt whatever I do

I am getting a £3070 /year loan from the government for either 3 or 4 years depending what course I do.

But I have to pay over £1125 a year in tuition fees as well..

My savings divvied up over 4 years is around £1875 a year. So I can pay my fees and have £600 a year towards living expenses... but the rest will all be debt

At the very minimum of only using my student loan, no overdrafts or loans from family, I will have between £9000 and £12000 of debt when I leave..

I know in america it's much worse than this but still...

Rosie

(cranking up money saving efforts towards uni! put £30 in the bank today )

Grr, I still haven't been paid by someone who won on eo f my ebay items, and the buyer has lots of bad feedback, so I hope they pay up!

on a happier note I found the 2nd half of my stash of the thing I "sold" to this person (if they ever pay me!) and listed that too - Free listing day today! - and it already has a bid

Went to the training for the playscheme. It was a bit boring, but I was pleased to hear we are reimbursed for our travel expenses not only for actually attending the playscheme but also attending the training sessions. I didnt know this but it's only fair really. I am not sure how much they reimburse you though.

rosie

well I am still closeted in studying away...

got a £5 cheque from surveys in the post this morning..

applied for a bank account that will give me a free 5 year railcard...

got some money for my L-plates off ebay (but by the time i;'ve paid paypal fees, ebay fees, and postage, ill have about 10p left..lol)

have also signed up for a month's free trial of DVDs hired where they post them to your house.. got my first 3 today and might watch one tomorrow (ive got 4 exams then training for the playscheme for autistic kids i am volunteering on this summer... i think I will be too wiped out to work!)

rosie

Grr
I just found out I can't work at my mum's work for 3 weeks of the summer as she said... so my job search is being ramped up

at least now I can drive my options are a bit more open..

Rosie

Well, I had my exam (which I have been dreading) today. It went slightly better than expected, but that isn't saying much!

moneysaving stuff I've done:
put some stuff on eBay - my L-plates (currently at 50p......wow) and some Pogz (an old kids collectable game thingy) that I bought ages ago for about 40p which are at £5.50 already. Woohoo!

non-moneysaving stuff:
I've been driving instead of using the bus (when I have a free bus pass to use to school and back during termtime)... but ah it's so much more convenient than the bus... and my car is very economical to run...

I did get free parking today though. I parked at the Park & Ride car park and walked up to school for my exam. & on Monday I was able to park outside school for free.

I am trying to drive to maximise the mpg I get too. I am practising trying to e.g. use my brakes less by letting the car slow down on its own when possible over a longer distance...trying not to use the air-con (which I have to say is not that brilliant anyway. but we are in a heatwave at the moment! so..). Also when I was waiting in a queue for AAAAAAAAAAAAGES to get into a car park I turned the engine off. Although i like to listen to the radio or tapes when I drive so I did get a bit bored!

I have driven to nottingham and back (28 miles) at least 4 times, as well as all round my town.. and my tank is still 3/4 full....and it is quite a small car;/tank ,so..

Rosie

well
I have mainly just been staying at home and working

I finally got round to closing an bank account I have had but not used for a while; I found a better one and stopped using that one, but left it open "just in case".

however that was a good 3 years ago, and it's an under-19's account so I didn't see that much point in leaving it open. I went and closed it....and got a whopping 42p back

I also closed one of my savings accounts with my current bank because I have to close that and my current account (the savings account is linked to the current account) and open new ones in order to get a debit card (stupid? tell me about it).. and woo I got £12 odd in closing interest.
which was nice
rosie

I remembered I never told you how I got on yesterday when I went into town.

First stop was the bank where I paid in my birthday money and cheques and suchlike, and now I'm 18 I also arranged for me to get a debit card on my account so I don't have to put all my online purchases on my mum's credit card anymore.......hehe....... it was a real pain to do, they are having to close my current current account and its associated savings account and open 2 more exactly the same but with a debit card. They have also given me a £250 overdraft, although I won't be using that!

Then I was walking up to the library to pick up some books I'd ordered and I saw a box of fabric remnants on a market stall.. so I had a quick rummage and found a really nice piece perfect for making a summer skirt........"How much?" ..."30p" woohoo so I picked up 2 other pieces for 30p as well that I'm hoping to maybe make bags or purses from after my exams.

Then my boyfriend rang my mobile phone and I don't like to be using it on the street so I popped into a shop, and while I was talkin I found their clearance shelves..........wahoo.......I got:

6 ringbinders for me & my mum: 20p each
160 ink cartridges plus little bag things for them: 80p
snazzy ruler for my exams: 17p
very fancy gift bag thingy: 25p

I turned down the 5p pencils, nice as they were, I have lots of pencils

I think I have enough ink cartridges to last me through the next 4 years at uni you know.. lol.. but it was such a good deal for what they are normally priced as. (Plus running out is so annoying!)

Then I finally made it to the library and got the books, which I had been intendeing to buy as I couldn't find them anywhere...the library didnt have them in my whole county.........soooooooooooo..............they bought them for me! which is bout £40 saved!

Rosie

another main way I get money from the internet is using it to save me money on things I'm buying anyway..

like:

now I've finally found a brand of jeans that fits me (I'm quite petite and nothing fits me!) I pick them up for around £5 a pair on eBay compared to around £30 in the shops - the last pair I bought (£3.99) were still tagged at £26.99

also books, CD's etc usually bought cheaper online

used it to shop around for my car insurance and bank accounts

I bank a lot online, and also reserve, renew etc my library books online, saving me petrol and time in going into town to do it

I get coupons online which we use off our grocery shopping

I often find out about special offers etc online

I talk to my friends & boyfriend online saving on our phone bill (as we pay a flat-rate for our internet connection)

That's all I can think of for the moment!

I just got back from a meal we had for my friend's birthday.. her dad paid but being me I still had tap water and the cheapest thing on the menu cos, well, thats just me.. actually there wasn't a lot of choice as I'm a vegetarian and this was mainly all burgers etc anyway..

Did cost me £2.40 in parking though. But i found a penny as I was paying to park, so I guess that makes it £2.39 I didn't want to park further away (e.g. park and ride) as it finished quite late and I didn't want to be wandering around on my own in the dark...plus the park and ride would only have been 40p cheaper!

It's stupid, you now have to pay per person not per car, and it's £2.00 return from the car park per person into town on the tram.. so a lot of the time it works out cheaper to park in town if you have more than one person anyway?! so how that is encouraging people not to park in the city centre I don't know!

Rosie

I just checked my bank account online and the $60 cheque I paid in has come through.. I got around £25 for it (paying fees on it took about £8 ). Yesterday I got a notification that I'm getting a £5 voucher in the post for doing surveys, etc.. and recently I've also had a £30 cheque come through. In addition I sold an unwanted book on eBay which netted me about £2.

I always find it amazing how much "free money" I can get on the internet. I don't have a job anymore (my last contract ended in Fed. and it wasn't worth me getting another one with my exams coming up - I'm doing 5 A-levels and 2AEAs ("Super A-levels") compared to most people just do 3 A-levels....so I have plenty of work on my plate.

Once my exams are out the way, I'm hoping to get round to relisting more books etc on Amazon. I'm also going to hunt around for old videos no one watches, as Blockbuster has started paying you for trade-in videos, DVDs etc. I'm going to try selling stuff I don't want on eBay more too..and entering more competitions - I find if you enter enough you do win stuff, and anything I don't want makes good presents or can be sold on eBay etc.

This year I won a mini-MP3 player worth about £80, but I gave it to my boyfriend as an early birthday present

If anyone has more tips on making money online, let me know! if I think of more things, I'll post again later

Rosie

Hmm.. Today I got my ID number for processing my student loans etc for uni. I also filled in and sent off my form applying for extra support as I have a disability (this support is like they buy you a computer if you have trouble writing etc).

I don't like the idea of getting into thousands of pounds of debt, but I'm going to take out as much loan as I can anyway.. even if I don't need it all straight away it will earn me more in interest in my bank account than the interest on the loan itself (the loans are subsidised so the interest rate is not very high).

My main aim is to try not to graduate with overdraft or credit card debts!

Rosie

Sooo what have I done today?
-Cheque in the post (a whole 88p!!) as a rebate for some yoghurt
- found 1p in the swimming pool
- went swimming: keeping healthy! - went early to get the half-price student rate
- got some stickers & flyers in the post as part of this thing im doing promoting a film. its none too well organised though - the film came out on 7th may and I only just got my flyers etc...

Rosie

well. all i have done so far today is tidy my room.

I haven't found any forgotten stashes of cash though...just some needles and broken earphones and stuff. Ooh, and my physics book I'd lost

Right, back to the tidying!
Rosie