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Old 18 Jul 15, 08:45 AM  
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#31
66Caunce
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I received my Disclosure in the post today which was the final screening stage before I start my new job. I had to take it into the offices so they could scan a copy and forward it to HR. I was then told I'd get a phone call at 'the beginning of next week' with a start date. The earliest I can start now is Monday 27th July. As this only gives me a week's pay at the end of the month, my 3V card purchases have had to be reduced to £100 worth - four cards on the last day of the month.

Today, a bonus Clubcard points offer has appeared - 1000 points when you spend £50 on Fisher Price toys. We have two nieces and nephews under the age of 3 so we've bought a few toys to take us over the £50. These will be used as birthday and Christmas presents for the next year, plus we get the points, worth £40 in restaurant vouchers. 1.5% cashback on Quidco has tracked at 75p
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Edited at 09:31 AM.
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Old 18 Jul 15, 09:44 PM  
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Megandllsmum
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Originally Posted by 66Caunce View Post
No update today or tomorrow so I thought I'd catch up on comments



Thanks. Still not started. I'm waiting for a DBS check to be returned to me. I'm hoping it'll arrive this week so I can start on Monday and earn two weeks pay...



Very much looking forward to staying onsite. We spent so much time and money getting from I Drive to Disney last time that we really are breaking even by staying at Disney. Plus, we spent actual cash at Disney restaurants last time - I'm not sure many people do that as the waiter's faces were always surprised when we answered 'no' to having the Dining Plan.

If you think this is organised, you haven't seen anything yet. I'm deliberately holding back from showing you all my Google Doc plans for fear of being branded mental! Basically, I have every day listed between 31st July and 17th April with a job to do each day. We're paying our Disney balance and a couple of other things with 3V prepaid cards from Tesco - if you buy 2 x £25 cards, you get 150 Clubcard points. They're basically Visa cards with £25 loaded on them. We pay various bills with them each month normally, but with £2k worth of holiday to pay off, we're going to have 11,000pts on our Clubcard just from Disney so that's £444 to spend at restaurants, for instance Worth the hassle of buying the cards to get that back rather than paying off the balance in cash, I think.



How can you not do Disney?! We're giving Busch Gardens a whirl this time too. Never been and I don't do upside-down rides so I imagine that'll be a day of watching chimps and other animals while Ian gets his thrills. Heard great things about that Rosen, good choice. We stayed at the Rosen closest to Universal and had no complaints and loved the location in amongst all the tat



Thank you!
Lol only reason we arnt doing Disney is because I thought last years trip would be our one and only and because we are lucky enough to go back we had always said if we ever did we would try out universal, seaworld etc etc . . . And we are being true to our word . . . But I still think we will do our walk up day to a Disney park, not sure which one yet it was gonna be Epcot cos I loved world showcase last year as well as everything else plus old maelstrom now being remodelled into new frozen attraction is a must with my youngest being a massive frozen fan but our luck is it's tipped to launch 1st may which is the day we arrive back in Manchester . . . So this weeks discussions have revolved round our Disney day being a full day at Magic kingdom
Looking forward to reading more of your plans and good luck with the new job
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Old 18 Jul 15, 09:48 PM  
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loola30
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Originally Posted by 66Caunce View Post
That's it for the plans so far. We haven't done the second half of the holiday.

I thought that, today, I'd post about something I mentioned in passing a couple of days ago - how we're paying off our £1743 Disney balance with Ascot Travel House aka OrlandoAttractions.com.

Since 2013, I have been paying all our bills (bar pet, life and contents insurance) by prepaid Visa cards. In 2013, Tesco started offering 150 Clubcard points when you buy £50 of gift cards (except their own). As part of the wide range Tesco stock, they sell 3V Prepaid Visa cards for £25. Buying two of these gets you 150 points. I cancelled all our direct debits, except the ones mentioned, and started to pay our bills via these cards. I pay our Council Tax, BT Broadband, 3 Mobile and United Utilities bills with these cards and spend anywhere from £200 - £300 on them per month, thus gaining 600 - 900 points on my Clubcard every month. 600 points = £24 to spend in restaurants if you boost your points for vouchers. Multiply that by a year and I usually have at least £300 to spend in restaurants, etc. You can also cash your points in for Avios - this equates to 360 for every £50 spent although I've never done this. I use our points for hotels and meals out, typically making the few nights before our holiday totally free.



Now, OrlandoAttractions allow micro payments off the total balance of your holiday. I intend to buy enough cards between now and February next year to pay off our balance. I'll call each day and pay £25 off the balance, earning about 5200 points in the process (£208 towards deals). On top of the bills in the meantime, I'm looking to top the £500 mark in deals before we go to Orlando. It's well worth doing.

My plan, hopefully, begins on 31st July where I intend to visit our Tesco Extra and purchase £250 worth of 3V cards. However, this is all dependent on my start date being this Monday for my new job. I'm calling them in an hour to find out.

I hope this has proved useful for some of you.
It's so great to read someone else as 'hardcore' into the points saving as me lol! I use the pay.com Visa cards to pay my eBay seller fees. They're great aren't they!
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Old 19 Jul 15, 10:42 AM  
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#34
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Another Clubcard purchase this morning - 250 bonus points for buying a £20 Now TV box. That's worth a tenner to us in restaurant deals. In two days, we have £50 in points. My first target is to hit £80 in restaurant vouchers as, on the Friday before we leave, we're taking Ian's parents out for a meal at Prezzo. £80 should cover three courses each for all four of us and we're almost there.

With the box, you get a choice of Sky trials. When it arrives, I'll pick the two days of Sport so I can watch a couple of Man Utd games without having to find a dodgy way of doing it online...



I should find out either this Monday or Tuesday when I can start my new job. I'm really hoping it's a week tomorrow otherwise a lot of rejigging will need to be done to our purchase plans.
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Old 20 Jul 15, 09:38 AM  
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I should receive a phone call today or tomorrow with a start date for my new job (ideally a week today, please!).

If it's a week today, I'll get a week's pay at the end of the month. This means that, a week on Friday, i can go out to Tesco after work and purchase 5 3V cards and 1 branded gift card for £150. These will pay the bills and £50 off our Disney balance. The other gift card will be Ian's birthday present on the 26th. Roll on the phone call!
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August 1999 - I Drive
December 2014 - Rosen Inn @ Universal/Royal Pacific
April 2016 - Saratoga Springs/Portofino Bay/Hard Rock/Rosen Inn @ Pointe
September 2017 - Port Orleans Riverside/Grand/St Pete's/Disney Cruise

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Old 21 Jul 15, 09:04 AM  
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Well, today is the day I should receive a phone call giving me the start date for my new job, so I have a day in front of the telly next to both my landline and mobile phones, waiting patiently. If the call doesn't come today, I'll have to call them tomorrow first thing, but as tomorrow is a busy day, I won't be here to update until Thursday. Remember - all of this month's plans are reliant on me starting this job by Monday at the latest. i'd have to do a shedload of rejigging of plans if it isn't until the week after...
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Old 22 Jul 15, 08:33 AM  
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I said I wouldn't update today as I didn't think I'd have time but as I have a couple of things to say, I'm here.

I got my start date for my new job. Unfortunately, it's not until Monday 3rd August so all July plans have been cancelled. The job is flexi-time and I have 16 days holiday to use so my plans have focused on that for now - our holiday will be in a new 'holiday year' (April - Mar) so these 16 days are completely spare this year and I'm unsure what to do with them. Any tips on using up holiday days for a purpose would be well received! At the moment, the best I've got is booking each payday off and ADR/FastPass+ days but that still leaves me with 7 days to get rid of. I don't think they can be carried over either...

Elsewhere, we've boosted our Clubcard points again today. A new offer on HP print cartridges has started - buy two and get 500 points. This is an offer that pops up every few months so we always stock up. We purposefully bought our printer so we could get the cheapest cartridges each time the offer pops up. Today, we've bought two £8 black inks for £16 and got 500pts to add to our balance. In one week, we've gone from 0 points to 1750 points which equals £70 in Prezzo vouchers (our first target). Another 250 points and we'll have enough to cover the first meal of our plans with Ian's parents.

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Old 23 Jul 15, 10:50 AM  
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Another quick update in what is rapidly turning into a Tesco Clubcard points boost blog!

This morning, Tesco reintroduced their 125 points for telling them your insurance renewal dates. It takes two minutes and, after doing it this morning, that's another fiver at Prezzo towards our meal with Ian's family before we go. We now have £75 in restaurant vouchers. I'd like £80 (£20 each) so another fiver to go

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December 2014 - Rosen Inn @ Universal/Royal Pacific
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Old 24 Jul 15, 09:02 AM  
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Yet another Tesco Clubcard update this morning - we're really racking the points up to the extent they could pay for a weekend away before we fly to Orlando at this rate.

A new promotion appeared on Lego this morning, spend £75, get 1500pts, worth £60 to me in deals. So you know what we've done? That's right, we've bought 75 quid's worth of Lego. This will be used as Christmas and birthday gifts for the kids in our lives just like the £50-worth of Fisher Price toys we bought the other day. My wardrobe has a 'gift box' in it - anything we buy that can be used as gifts throughout the year goes in there. When a birthday creeps up on us, instead of rushing around town trying to find something suitable, we simply pop upstairs and go through the gift box.

So, we now have 3375 in points which equals £135 in deals for us. That pays for our first £80 meal in Prezzo on the Friday before we leave, breakfast on the Saturday at Bella Italia and £15 towards a Saturday night takeaway from Papa John's. The weekend before we go is shaping up rather nicely now
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December 2014 - Rosen Inn @ Universal/Royal Pacific
April 2016 - Saratoga Springs/Portofino Bay/Hard Rock/Rosen Inn @ Pointe
September 2017 - Port Orleans Riverside/Grand/St Pete's/Disney Cruise

September 2019 - AKL + Off-site

Edited at 09:04 AM.
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Old 27 Jul 15, 09:01 AM  
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A quick update today.

I've decided we're going to try to build up our Clubcard points to get a suite at Hilton Manchester Airport for the night before the flight rather than spend hours searching websites to beat Holiday Extras price when the time comes.

For this, we need £43 in points.

As such, I bought two more ink cartridges yesterday for £16 to get £20 in points to add to our current balance. We now have £155 in deals - £80 is going towards Prezzo, £40 for Bella Italia and we need another £25 to get a Papa John's takeaway the night before we go to the airport hotel.

We're doing well on this front!
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August 1999 - I Drive
December 2014 - Rosen Inn @ Universal/Royal Pacific
April 2016 - Saratoga Springs/Portofino Bay/Hard Rock/Rosen Inn @ Pointe
September 2017 - Port Orleans Riverside/Grand/St Pete's/Disney Cruise

September 2019 - AKL + Off-site
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