On A Good Day

On a good day I manage about £15.00 worth of surveys done. But it's a bit mind-numbing. Realistically I am far too lazy. Over the past week I've earned about £100.00 in between reading the news, playing games and watching telly. At least it was a satisfying chunk that I withdrew from PayPal. There are also several other chunks ready which can only be withdrawn into specific retailers rather than as cash.

The maths stacks up, I could go back to being a part-time cashier 20h per week and still cover bills. Or I could go back to it only 10 hours per week, and put some dedication into surveys and still cover bills. I think I prefer it that way. I want to have more time to myself, so I've resolved to work harder at feeding myself for free as much as I can.

I also have pots of money all over the place that I'm not using as best I could. I have Nectar points, a few Co-op points, several supermarket gift cards, and one of my credit cards is actually in the black. I've made a list of the six locations of this "cash" and so far, I have used £50 in filling up my car with fuel (from that credit card). Next on my hit list is Own Supermarket Chain, as I have to spend it before I resign... and then I will tackle Old Supermarket gift vouchers. The challenge is on to see how long I can go without actually dipping into my bank account.

Unexpected: the whack timing of my pay days between the two employers means I get £96 from Universal Credit. My latest pay from work has just missed the cut-off, so next month my UC will be wiped down to nothing even though it was mostly sick pay and is about 60% of what it would be in a normal month. Such a ridiculous system. While I certainly won't say no to the UC money, the idiotic strict monthly cycle just does not match up with real world employers and it's disturbing how often the balance swings in the wrong direction - there will have been times I should have got some and got none, and for some people that would mean not eating.

Good/Bad: I have "upgraded" my mobile phone plan for the new price of less money per month. I'm really pissed off that these clowns kept taking the higher price while offering a lower price to new customers AND they jacked up the price mid-contract. They cancelled my old Ikea staff discount 😭 but even so I've saved £2 a month plus get six months BritBox and 60Gb extra data. Why do I stay with this hideously-expensive provider? Because they have the best coverage where I am and the internet doesn't drop out. Sigh.