Resist, Resist

I feel like I only post in here to complain about something. So, I will try to be more balanced in this update.

Little X became snotty during the week and it quickly escalated into a fever... which did not abate with Calpol. We ended up in the Emergency room at stupid o'clock and she spent five hours under observation. Naturally she cooled down slightly on the way, then hammed it up with the doctor, cuddled her like the traitor she is and thoughtfully wiped her snotty face all over her shirt. 😁 She finally gave up her partying at 3am, at which point they sent us home. Diagnosis was RSV and Bronchiolitis. Nasty in a baby of her age. We're staying close to home now and enduring the misery of having a blocked nose and not understanding why. This causes fun times during food, bottle, dummy, sleep. 😴 But she is slowly improving.

As for Little X, her current baby car seat is past its expiry date and the belts are worn on the sides. The  combi seat that I have for her is terribly unstable in the rear-facing position and she's really not safe facing forwards yet. I really, truly wanted a rear-facing seat, but they are horridly expensive and the affordable ones all seem to have the same disease as the combi (poorly anchored and wobbly). But today we got something awesome! A couple on Facebook have given away their rear-facing toddler seat, one that is actually designed to keep a child rear facing for longer. Little X meets the weight for it and they last until about 5 years of age 🥳 so this week I will clean it up and get it into place. This is better than I had hoped for. 😍

I am still doing the investing but I am nearing the end of the easy jobs, and it has been demoralising at times so it is hard to summon up the willpower to keep at it. One job is just absolutely refusing to pay me. Well I should say they are blaming my bank, which is not at fault incidentally. I have given up on them as cash earnings and I am trying to extract it as a gift card, so fingers crossed. The investing should get easier once I have built up a little bit of a pot of money and don't need to continually rush my profits out to move to the next job. Here's to the future.

I paid off the second-worst credit card using the advance from the worst one. I am hoping to coast through the three months and the balance stays at 0. Wish me luck. It wasn't costing me much in interest each month as it was a small balance, but it's a mental boost to kill that card.

Win: for the fourth time, TopCashBack has had a promotion, spend a certain amount anywhere and get cashback on top. Today it was spend £10, get a free £2 on top. So 25p back for the actual purchase (a supermarket gift card for £10) and £2 extra is now in my TCB account. 👍

Second win: I resubmitted to the council and it looks like I will now get the maximum discount for my council tax. 👍 So, something like £60 off what I used to pay. I'll take it.

Third win: Healthy Start has been approved, I had nearly forgotten. 👍 Every pound is helpful. 👍

My overall finances are still in the negative, at least in terms of permanent income, but it is really encouraging to be that much closer to equilibrium. I won't have to kill much of my debt before it edges back into green. I won't say I have been biting my nails of late but it's been on my mind more than it was, so this is a calming thought.

Must do some meditation more often.

It is a Journey

This investment thang is a bit of a pain. I calculate that in the first week I did it, I earned £140, but some of it I still don't have back in my hand, the jobs are being difficult and four of the ten have requested convoluted ID and bank statements. I then had to redact their competitors' info from the statements each time so that I could send four different documents. Ridiculous. I partly caused this by making a silly error in payment processing, and hopefully I will do better next time with fewer headaches. I want this money to all land in hand before I try some more.

The laptop finally became unusable so I spent my £100 jackpot win on a voucher for Argos. I paid the rest via topping up a reloadable Mastercard via a work perk (7% off) and I also went via TopCashBack for another £9 in cashback. This new laptop is shiny but quite different and definitely not as powerful. I am reminding myself it is perfectly adequate and that I don't use a pc enough to justify the overpowered beast models anymore.

I made the decision to arrange payment holidays for two of my credit cards. They were 2 of the 3 most hideous interest rates and the only ones of the lot who do this without informing credit reporting agencies. I still had to be insistent to both of them on why I wanted 3 months off rather than a long-term repayment plan, which is reportable. Guy #1 was just not very bright and Guy #2 just did not listen, so I would imagine these calls must be VERY stressful for many people. Neither card can be used now for three months and since I was "living" off one of them, I took a money transfer before the call. Anyway, no repayment, no fees, no interest, for three months. Ideally I would like to clear one of them in that time. Fingers crossed.

Three large bags of stuff given to the baby bank. Quite a bit was delisted from Vinted and just given away. After 2 months, those clothes were occupying more than their sale value in my living room. I also sold the old stroller for a fiver and plan to list Little X's walker seat soon too. She is now standing and walking when her hands are held. And I mean everywhere, if she could speak she would be demanding to stand up right now. ♥

Just Fuming

So during the week I made the (long, drawn-out, delayed) decision on making some investments. While there will be money required to get my "quasi business" off the ground, it's not a huge amount and I've chosen to work slowly at it, as and when my budget will allow, and to pace myself to make sure it's profitable. So I had a few hours to myself tonight and got started. I managed to do an hour of work and made £14 on my first "job" there, then started my second.

Only to find that someone has been on this site already, with an account that has MY name and date of birth in it.

I am just guttered. They've fixed it for me but it's just unnerving, I'm tired, and I messed up the second job after all that. Just feeling really deflated because I was so enthusiastic about my new venture!

Tomorrow I start an English course online. I bet Little X senses that she needs to be asleep and decides to party on past the start time. 

Job #2 called me back and accidentally forgot to mention they don't plan to give me back my old job. Well, they legally don't have to but it's rather weird that they nagged asking if I was returning. They've offered me a different one which might work for me, I'm touring it in a few weeks' time to decide.