Look Of Disgust

I'll return to my challenge posts, I promise. But in my quest to behave myself and not buy raffle tickets at new year, I studiously entered a metric crapton of them by postcard. Yes, I sat here and researched the ones worth entering, then checked their Ts & Cs, saved all the sites as bookmarks, typed them up in a spreadsheet and hand-wrote them all one by one, plus five more that I entered via email and two by envelope. 19 in total in one day, and that was several hours' work.

pats self on back, almost breaks own arm trying to grope own backside at the same time

Just as I was starting them, my favourite site announced a new competition. But the stupid thing is selling so quick that a postal entry would never arrive in time. Booooo. This means there is only one way to enter, and that's by buying a ticket. So what did I do? I reasoned that if I somehow found and completed enough surveys to cover the ticket price, I'd allow myself to buy one ticket for £11.00.

I then literally spent TWO WHOLE HOURS doing the mega survey of all mega surveys. A £14.00 survey. I'm still counting it in my challenge earnings, even though I've spent most of it already :D

Out: £19 at Tesco. This was sort of annoying because I had to amass £20 worth of stuff to get £2 off, and I'm overflowing with things like coffee, tins and ready meals. I also had to buy a few items to get another 75p worth of points. They are things I wouldn't normally buy >>sideways look<< which is decidedly not-frugal. However, they're nice foods and they'll be a change from the usual chicken, chicken, eggs and more chicken.

More Out: another £1.50 for 60 more Christmas cards and a tin of nougat. £15.72 on more stamps. Phew. And another six entries mailed out. Fingers crossed.

In: £14 of bank interest, £2.00 from a Tesco voucher, another £5.00 from e-Rewards (as Nectar points) and £3.00 from Opinion Outpost.

I am keeping track of my challenge earnings, but it's tricky to update the total too often - there are things that I've earned but can't access yet, for example (because I "cash out" somewhere but then it takes a few days to get to me). I will also wait until the 31st to check my Tesco Clubcard points. But so far, it looks very promising and I am earning more than expected.