Hey there 2011

Happy New Year y’all! I am (somewhat) motivated for the year ahead and especially my first task of making an extra £500 in January. I am slightly worried as January is now upon us so I need to get my butt into gear. New Year isn’t really a big deal for me so I spent the night with my Dad and my cat, eating party food, drinking cherry coke and then watching a film in bed. I’ve had a massive to do list today which included a lot of homework, but at around 3pm I hit my usual wall of de-motivation and just watched a film instead of being productive. I still managed to get a selling post uploaded to TSUK in a plan to become rich.
So let’s get onto the good stuff: the money. I want to make it clear that in December I saved a lot of cheques, eBay money and money from selling my jewellery at work to start in January – hence the massive £500 goal. Last night I received an e-mail from Quidco telling me that they would be putting £12.26 into my bank in the next few days. I love such e-mails!
Another thing I want to start doing is withdrawing £100 a month for general spending. I’m also going to record everything I buy in my pretty diary (the cupcake one) to keep track of it all. The boring diary is for all work related stuff, boo. I don’t know about you, but going to Tesco in my lunch breaks is almost bankrupting me. Even if I’ve eaten my lunch, I’ve got an extremely long lunch break so find myself perusing the aisles for anything to buy, so I’m really hoping that having £100 in cash and writing everything down will help. I’m a bit confused as to what I would do if I wanted to buy something online – use my debit card and put the cash away to use for the next month so I don’t have to withdraw the full £100? I’m not sure this will keep me disciplined enough. Any ideas? I have spent £13.04 today (on cat de-worming stuff, lemons and rolls, what a life I lead!), leaving me with £86.96 and it is only the 1st! The £100 doesn’t cover bills and petrol, at £40 a week I couldn’t afford it to cover petrol!
Total spent: £13.04 – £86.96 remaining
Total made: £150.81/£500 (as of 7pm, still need to deduct some postage when I’ve parcelled everything)
My money making plans for the rest of the weekend are under way. When I moved back home I ended up with a lot of boxes shoved in the garage for storage. I got 5 boxes out today and put one back – the rest of the items are split into things to use now, boot sale items, charity shop items and selling online items. During my clear out I discovered two 1/2 Sovereign Coins and I checked eBay, they’re going for £150-£250 at the moment. They belonged to my Mom, so if I were to sell them the money would have to go to something Super Amazingly Important and Fantastic so I’m not sure what to do with them at the moment. They aren’t something I’m interested in keeping, so we shall see. 
I’ve also been through the cupboards and freezer to put together some meals for the week. This leaves us having to buy a chicken, some fruit, milk, bread and salad, which I feel is a brilliant shopping list for a week! Menu planning is amazing.
Anyone else joining my journey for January? Let me know what you’re planning on doing – I’ve seen on Twitter some of you will be eBaying (Dear eBay, if you’re reading, please give us a free listing weekend this coming weekend, love Emma). I’ve got so many ideas for what to do next with the blog, I really need to concentrate my efforts. I’m thinking of a guide about selling your smelly old shoes on eBay – anyone up for that?