7 Months Down The Line

Wow, I'm so brilliant at updating this blog but so much has happened over the last 7 months I've hardly had time to breathe! I bought my first car, got a new job, passed my driving test, fundraised all my money for Borneo, sat my A-Level exams annnnd grew a little taller (just kidding, I'm still the same old same old!)

I have been so lucky and so supported by my family and friends to fundraise all of my money to allow me to fly out to Borneo in just under 10 days EEEEEKKK! 

Here is a brief summary on what I've been doing since my last post which was ages ago (sorrrrry): 

February was a good earner for me as I held and presented a talent show at my school. We had such as successful evening and so many different acts - we even roped the teachers in as judges! In the end we earned about 200 pounds in one night! Not bad going if you ask me as that was purely from ticket sales! We also allowed other Borneo-goers who were fundraising if they wanted to run a raffle and refreshments separately and they could keep there money from that!

Later on in February I also bagged myself a new job at Sainsbury's! I really enjoy wokring there and a majority of my wages from this went towards my trip. However, it also towards my first set of wheels as I also kept my waitressing Saturday job to see me through my fundraising!

The inner Mary Berry was still there and my baking still contributed to "shine" through - well, no-one's been poisoned so far! :) :) :) 

Pet sitting business also continued and I looked after a few people's pets whilst they went away - including this little handsome fella! Pet sitting is a great and easy way to earn some money for your trip especially if they live on your street which mine did! If you want to try it create some flyers and advertise and get friends and family to spread word about!

Anyway, even though there has been BIG delay in this post I'm going to continue posting now I have loads of time on my hands! I'm going to blog about finding kit, equipment and medical items at the cheapest price, dealing with packing your bags (I've got some great space-saving tips!), dealing with the flights, and of course include lots of details and information of my trip when I'm back!

In the meantime, take care fellow trippers! 

Merry Christmas!!!

Erm, well, I kind of forgot the log-in details for this blog page. Nevertheless, here I am more than 2 months later at the end of the year filling you in with how my fundraising has gone. 

October

By the end of October my running total was £1894.32. Most of my money that month was made up of pet-sitting and my wages from work - that's as exciting as it gets my friends!

November

At the end of November my total stood at £2146.97 (where these random endings come from I have no idea!) This month I made £67.40 selling bits and bobs at local school fates (the one I did was a firework night), I made another £40.25 selling teas, sweets and biscuits at my brothers football matches every Sunday which is a great money earner! Then I also had £15 worth of donations and £130 wages from work. 

December

Now we get to this month, December has been such a booster month for me and I'm so lucky! I have my birthday in December and a majority of my birthday money went to my fund - £210 to be exact. I then ran a stall at my local schools Christmas fayre (I know, I forget to take pictures of these things...) and I raised £55.45 by offering an array of games and activities such as icing digestive biscuits - because who didn't love doing that as a child eh? 

I then made £51.00 selling items again mum managed to get hold of lots of lovely items for us to sell including Yankee Candles, Body Shop products and Soap & Glory products. 

Christmas was also a huge help this month as I received £300 from family and friends which I'm so grateful for - holding myself back from spending that in Urban Outfitters was INCREDIBLY hard but I fought and held myself back. 

I am still awaiting my wages for this month (I get paid on the last day of the month) and hopefully that will be around £100 raising me to ~£2,900 so fingers crossed. 


I am hugely grateful to all of my friends and family and just so you know, I didn't get presents as well as the money - I specifically asked for money instead of presents this year so I could get this paid off a bit quicker!

We also know that from now on my New Year's resolution is to take photos when I'm fundraising! After all, this is the whole reason I started this blog! What a lemon..

Anyway enough of my rambling, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

xx

I'm Back - Better Late Than Never!

Well, this is a belated post - isn't it? After starting sixth form at the start of September, I've been showered with deadlines and due dates I haven't had time to put my school work down. However, instead of sitting on the sofa stuffing my face with unhealthy food watching X-Factor on a Saturday night, I thought I should probably update this blog. 

Because of school my fundraising has slowed down a little just while I get into the swing of A-Levels. But in September I managed to raise £188.10 bringing my total to £1645.20. This £188.10 was made up from £125 wages, £60 in donations and £3.10 misc.

I'm still planning my main winter events which is exciting. I'm running a talent show at school alongside some fellow expeditionees which will hopefully be a success and take place sometime in Jan/Feb 2015. Then I am planning my own events to run over the winter months. I'm hoping to run a Borneo Bingo night and then a Coffee Morning sometime soon. 

With it currently being mid-way through October, I've raised an additional £89.61 bringing my running total to £1734.81. Football season is back and therefore I'm running my tuck-shop again; in the first week I raised £32.95 from selling sweets and drinks under this rather fancy pagoda that conveniently appeared on the field where my brother plays his footie matches - result! We also saw the return of Barney & Poppy, the two cats who I have looked after multiple times now and got paid £25 for letting them out of the house and feeding them for a few days. 

I'm also giving a special mention to Anicka and Salma who both emailed me unsure about whether to partake in a Camps International expedition as they were put off by the fundraising and were unsure how and where to start. Hopefully, you guys are really thinking about taking part as it's definitely worth it and I hope my email motivated you in some way! 

Good luck to anyone who is fundraising at the moment and remember I'm just an email or a comment away if you want anyone to talk to about the expedition/fundraising - just click the 'Contact Me' tab at the top of this page. As well as me, don't forget there is both Sophie and Rachael at Camps International HQ who will be happy to talk to you regardless.

Happy fundraising!

....hopefully there won't be such a long delay for my next post.

What I've Been Up To: The Rest of August

With August now ended and the summer holidays over, it has been the end of a bumper month for me. During the month of August I managed to raise £826.25 in total doing lots of various things including my sponsored trek. My sponsored trek was were a majority of the money came from raising £344.

However, after my sponsored walk I did a few extra things to earn some more money during my time off before returning to school and starting sixth form. I posted several flyers around my local streets informing people of the trip I'm doing and told them how I'm raising money to get there. Through delivering about 100 leaflets, some of my neighbours asked me if I would look after their pets, plants and houses whilst they go anyway on their holidays. By looking after peoples pets, gardens and houses I managed to raise £180.

August 21st a.k.a Results Day, saw some benefits too! As well as earning 2 As, 5 Bs and a C, I was rewarded with £60 towards my trip by my mum.

I also received my August wages, after keeping a little for myself, I was left with £90 to add to my expedition fund. Mum also ran a carboot for me as I was unavailable to go and raised me £63.25 which I was very grateful for!

Finally, I had £15.00 donated to my expedition, baked an 18th birthday cake for £34.00 and I am also currently in the process of painting some fences for one of my mums friends and she has paid be £40.00 for the work I have done so far!

x

Sponsored Trek Success!

You may or may not have known that on the 6th of August I did a 25.7 mile trek around Rutland Water. Despite the fact that I was absolutely knackered within the first 10-11 miles, I pushed on like a trooper and finished the entire walk taking just over 8 and a half hours, or 510 minutes, phew! I arranged the walk myself alongside a fellow fundraiser Louis. Doing a personal challenge like this is a great way to fundraise and you get such a sense of achievement at the end. I raised £344.50 and people are still giving me donations!

We walked the entire red dotted line, which doesn't look like much, but boy was it!

I also attempted to 'vlog' the walk but that was a total fail. I have half of the footage but nothing at the end as I was too sore, exhausted and emotional to even think about turning a camera on! However, I did take some jolly good photos for your eyes to see!

 
 


I was so grateful to everyone who sponsored me. Though I'm glad I never have to do it again as my muscles ached so much the day after and Louis hurt the muscles in his ankle! It's so easy to arrange your own sponsored trek, all you need to do is: 

1. Find a date well in advance that you/you and your fellow expeditionees are free.

2. Find a location and set the distance you want to walk, the longer the distance, the more of a challenge it will be! I would recommend avoiding busy roads and motorways; stick to designated foot paths and public byways. 

3. Log-in to the resources page using the link http://www.campsinternational.com/resources and print off sponsorship forms. Don't be scared to ask for sponsors just whip your sheets out whenever you see a window of opportunity and spread the word! Use social media to your own advantage!

4. TRAIN. I cannot stress this enough! You might think walking a long distance is no different to being on your feet all day. Well let me tell you, if you do no training there is no way on Earth you'll complete your event. If you don't complete it, people may take away their pledges to sponsor you. I planned my walk back in April and went out when I could in the evenings to do some walking right up until my event date.

5. Do your event. Hurrah! Your event is upon you and it's up to you to complete it! Make sure you take plenty of water and food with you in a rucksack. I carried a 30L backpack and took: an extra pair of shoes, a jumper, leggings, 2L of water, first aid kit (because you're going to get blisters no doubt about it!), sunglasses, a hat and my camera! I would also advise to take or at least apply some sun cream before leaving too because I got burnt all over my face - not good. 

6. Pester the people who haven't yet paid your sponsorship. Now, I don't mean be rude, but just ask nicely if you can now have your donation from them, if they haven't paid already, because you completed your event. Everyone I spoke too had at least a 15 minute conversation about how I got on with it when I spoke to them! 

7. Time to plan your next event. Now you've done one event it's time to get your next one planned! The fundraising never stops!  

Keep posted for the next step of my fundraising journey and keep up the hard work yourselves! There's still 3 weeks left of the summer holidays!

x

What I've Been Up To: Car-booting

Yep, me and mum forgot about our Sunday morning lay-ins and left the house at 7:00am to do another car boot. Car boots are a great way to make money and get rid of the stuff you don't want anymore. We were there for about 6 hours selling different things and I sold my own things to make some money towards Camps. I raised about £32.80 which isn't loads but it all adds up - eh?

This is just a quick post but I can feel a few car boots coming on over the summer! Why not do one yourself? 

x 

What I've Been up to: Pet Sitting (Again!)

Once again I have been looking after pets whilst their owners are away on holiday. If you have seen my previous post, you'll see that I looked after my Nan's dog for a week whilst she was in the Isle of Man. However, this time the cats stayed at their house and I visited every morning and evening to sort them out. I had to change their food and water every morning and evening, change the cat flap settings to let them out during the day and shut them in at night and clean out the litter tray every-other-day.

It was a fairly simple task to do and great for people who don't want to spend a lot of money putting their animals into kennels/catteries but don't mind paying you to do it. I earned £50 from this alone which is great as I've earned £100 in the past two weeks!

Have you looked after anyone's pets as a fundraising idea? If not, see if you can arrange to as it's easy money for your expedition!

x