Title: I am 35 years old, I made $67,665 gross last year (between multiple jobs) and live in Buffalo and work in higher education and retail.
This is my 5th MD update. Previous MDs in June 2019, October 2019, February 2020, and July 2020.
Ref29 questions:
Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
Absolutely. Both of my parents have bachelors degrees, and it wasn’t even a conversation of “if” I was going to college, but “where”. I ended up going to a private 4-year college, with a 75% merit scholarship. I was able to pay for the first semester with savings bonds/general savings, but took out loans for the remaining semesters. I worked 2 on campus jobs (tour guide and TA), plus at a coffee shop - this was more for spending money/gas etc. Looking back, I wish that I had put more of that income aside for paying for school, but I was definitely headlong into the student loan trap of “it’s ok, this is good debt….blah blah.”
I thought that i had the exact idea of what I wanted to do for a career - and that basically required a masters degree - so I went straight to grad school after undergrad. Private - and took out the maximum student loans for both years. I cannot stress what a terrible financial idea this was. The last half of my MA was in DC, so I used the loans for rent/food, as I had a full time unpaid internship. Long story short, what I thought was my career goal wasn’t.
I am FINALLY nearly done paying off my loans. If I had to go back and give my past self advice, it would have been to not go to grad school directly after undergrad. I still might have gotten my masters, but I would have done it in a much more financially responsible way.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent/guardian(s) educate you about finances?
We had conversations growing up - but it was much more of a conversation now that I’m an adult. I’ve noted in past MDs, but my parents have told us that they regret not being able to help us all more as teenagers/college/young adults, so they’ve been extremely supportive of my focus on debt repayment.
Did you worry about money growing up?
Not really. I remember being conscious about it - we didn’t have new cars (EVER - like it’s still a thing), and we used coupons/budgets/bulk freezer meals for shopping, but I think a portion of that was that there were 4 of us kids. We were all involved in a variety of extracurricular activities as well, but I don’t remember even being like, limited or restricted from doing anything.
Do you worry about money now?
Absolutely.
While I am noting that I’m making progress, it is still very overwhelming. It’s really hard for me not to beat myself up when I either buy “treats” or things that aren’t really treats, but are just home comforts. I finally bought myself 2 sets (!) of decent sheets this past month after having 1 set of crappy sheets for the last 2 years lol. I still have so much work to do, on debt repayment, fully funding my emergency fund, and (massive goal here) saving for a down payment on a house.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
I would say I was financially responsible for myself when I moved for grad school in the fall of 2008 (so when I was 22/23).
That being said, I definitely have had a financial safety net - my parents always assisted with grocery money if I needed it - when I was married, that definitely was not only a safety net, but also got me in a lot of bad habits.
Since my divorce, my parents have assisted with cell phone, car insurance, and letting me live with them for a few months when I moved back to the US. I know that if something happened, they would absolutely assist with a place to live if I needed it.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain.
As previous MDs have noted, my parents have assisted with assorted checks when my dad got a bonus, and they have always been extremely generous with holiday $.
Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance (and how you got there): $33,194.67 (up from $23,800 in February 2020)
This is a combo of Stash Retire ($1721.52), 401K from a previous job ($17,330.01), retirement accounts from my current job ($2807.58 in my optional IRA to which I contribute extra; $2947.46 in the basic retirement plan, to which my employer contributes 7%), and TSP from a previous job ($8,388.10).
Savings account balance: $1000
Checking account balance: $1381.07 (at the start of the money diary)
Credit card debt (and how you accumulated it): $7,558.08 (focus has been more on student loans, plus I am a bit guilty of using it at random points) (down from $19,556 in June 2019).
Student loan debt (for what degree): Current remaining balance is $972.57!!!!! This is down from $23,645.37 in June 2019) (combined loans for undergraduate and graduate degrees in International Relations. To give you an idea of how much I’ve paid off - I’ve paid $118,297.81 off up to this point).
*note: December was a PHENOMENAL debt payment month for me (just over $4k).
Section Two: Income
Main Job Monthly Take Home: $2847.53
*after using the IRS refund calculator, it became clear that I was expecting a much higher refund, so I stopped having extra withheld. Eventually I’ll get the hang of it.
Side Gig Monthly Take Home: $1442.72 (average monthly take home August-December 2020)
My retail job fully reopened, and I also applied for, and got a promotion, which meant both an hourly raise and more hours)
Any Other Monthly Income Here:

• Christmas $ from Mom & Dad - $1000
• Stimulus Checks - $1200 + $600 (Both of these went mainly to debt repayment)

Section Three: Expenses
Rent / Mortgage $980.00/month (+ $3.95 service charge when I pay online) (no change)
Retirement contribution: $115.58/month Roth IRA from work + $80.00/month into Stash Retire (no change)
Savings contribution: $0/month (Debt payments are the priority)
Investment contribution: None
Health/Dental/Vision Insurance: $76.38/month (Through work, it gets taken out biweekly)
FSA contribution: $27.78 biweekly (I set my annual contribution at $750 this year, up from $600)
Debt payments
Student Loan minimums: $55.54 is strictly the minimum for my FINAL (!!!) student loan, but as you all know by now, I have been attacking these with a vengeance and plan on this being gone no later than March.
Credit Card minimums: Avg. Monthly Payment $300. (as mentioned in the debt section, I have slipped slightly on allowing myself to use the credit card, but still have been able to lower my overall amount)
Wifi/Cable/Landline: $64.99/month
Cellphone: Still on the parental plan, but will be transitioning off. I’m shopping around and have started to budget.
Subscriptions: Apple storage - $2.99/month; Netflix- $8.99; (even though I’ve been able to be at home much much more, we still get a monthly barkbox for the toys; Spotify Premium - $9.99/month. Headspace - $14.99/month. Renaissance Periodization - $16.19/month
Laundry (if you pay per load): $40/month. I put aside $10 per paycheck.
Gym membership $75/month - I budget this much for my ROMWOD and Movement Vault monthly subscriptions. This also covers my monthly subscription for my WHOOP band. My retail side gig also provides $225/month to work out. This covers my monthly membership to my crossfit gym, as well as extra megaformer classes. $32.63/month for WHOOP; $13.95/month for ROMWOD; $9.99/month for Movement vault
Pet expenses: $150/month - includes pet insurance. This is what I put into my budget for insurance, food, grooming etc.) Barkbox 31.54/month; Pet insurance $79.24
Car payment / insurance / average gas:$100/month (as my dad plans on retiring within the next year, he will be signing over my car to me, meaning that I will be taking on my insurance. I fully acknowledge that this has been nice to not have to worry about, and that my parents have been absolutely amazing. The current annual insurance for my car looks like it will be around $450. Future money diaries will take this into account.
Renter insurance: $12.50/month
Average groceries / household supply spend; Looking at YNAB, my average spend has been just over $700/month. This seems insanely high for one person, but I do also follow a RP meal plan, meaning that I tend to eat A LOT to fuel my workouts. I also haven’t gone out basically at all ….
Regular therapy: N/A
Charitable Giving: $75/avg. August-Dec 2020 (Much of this was “rage” donating in the run up to the election)
Annual Expenses:
YNAB (You Need A Budget): $83.99/year
NB: Anytime I leave my house, I am masked, including gym visits. It’s honestly not terrible once you find a mask that works for you!
Day 1: Friday
5:45am: Alarm goes off and I get up to put the kettle on to start coffee. Today is a weigh in and weekly review for my meal/training plan, so I enter my numbers and see what my upcoming week will look like as far as my macros. I notice that my chest/shoulder are sore, and hurt when I take a deep breath, but assume that I just slept on my arm wrong. I take out the dog, feed him, and head out to my weightlifting class.
7:30am: Nope, not just sleeping on it wrong. I make it through the lifting portion, but when we start the metcon, I have to stop because it hurts too much to take a really deep breath, instead stretching and cheering everyone else on. Annoyed, but hopefully it’s nothing too crazy. I think it’s just a strain from my muscle up drills the day before. Once I get home, I make breakfast - a savory oatmeal with oats, cheese, chicken sausage, egg whites, and mushrooms, topped with a fried egg and za’atar seasoning from Trader Joe’s. YUM. I log into work and get settled in for a 2 hour (ugh) staff meeting.
11:00am: Finally done with that. Thank goodness for my camera getting to be off. I take a shower and get into “work” clothes - aka lululemon from top to bottom (align leggings, ebb to street crop tank, and a sit in lotus wrap). Back to work until it’s time for lunch, which I have just after noon (rice, sweet potatoes, bell peppers, and ground beef, topped with avocado). Work continues afterwards.
2:00pm: Time for work #2! It’s a fairly uneventful (and slow) afternoon/evening, which is ok after the craziness of the holiday season. And I only have to tell 2 people to put their masks on over their nose and they don’t give me an attitude - woohoo! Around 5 I eat my food on my 10 minute break - another taco-ish bowl, just without the avocado from earlier. I get out from work at 7:30pm.
8:00pm: Home, take the pooch out and feed him and make my casein hot chocolate (casein protein is a slower digesting type vs. whey and it’s my evening “meal” most of the time) plus a couple dark chocolate peanut butter cups. I facetime my Mom briefly and then we each put on our respective Star Wars shows - she and my Dad are watching the Mandolorian (they just got Disney+), and I’m deep into season 4 of the Clone Wars. Bedtime routine starts at 9:30 with a couple of melatonin gummies and I brush my teeth and wash my face (eye makeup remover, then Neutrogena foaming cleanser, and a nighttime moisturizer from Aldi). Snuggle up with the dog and a heating pad with a Headspace night sounds playing.
Daily Total: $0
Day 2: Saturday
5:50am: NO. It’s like 30 minutes before I want to wake up...NO.
6:10am: Uggggggh
6:20am: FINE. Dog outside, then fed. I make coffee and another savory oatmeal (AMAZING - same as yesterday, just no bell peppers). Catch up on podcasts and my YNAB budget. In happiest news, I can take a full big breath without that weird pain from yesterday! Yay!
10:00am: Home from my workout, which went amazingly - I love a good long chipper of a workout! I take the dog out for a little cold weather walk and then make my post-workout meal - Kodiak chocolate chip pancakes with blueberries! (use 1 egg and almond milk to make the pancakes and it fits my post-workout macros: 35P, 10F, 65C). I follow this with a cuddle session with the dog while watching Marple episodes and drinking coffee. I also add items to my lululemon shopping cart and exit out of it before I can spend money. While I get a great discount (especially on markdowns), I know I don’t really NEED anything, so I don’t get anything.
1:00pm: Off to the mall for work. I stop on the way to fill the gas tank ($25). It’s a busy day, but a good one - during my break I eat my taco bowl (rice, sweet potatoes, ground beef, peppers and avocado). I work until 7:30pm.
8:00pm: Home, dog out, casein hot chocolate - the usual. I’m nothing if not a creature of habit. I pull out a Trader Joe’s chocolate croissant to prove overnight in the oven. Bedtime is around 10pm.
Daily Total: $25
Day 3: Sunday
7:50am: Whoooops, I intended to wake up around 7:15, but I didn’t actually set the alarm. Luckily the dog wakes me up with a polite whine - I take him out, make coffee and a bowl of oatmeal (oats, almond milk, egg whites, topped with blueberries), and head to my workout around 9.
11:00am: 2 workout classes later, I’m home - post workout meal is the aforementioned chocolate croissant, and a little egg scramble of egg whites, mushrooms, chicken sausage and broccoli. The afternoon is spent with old Miss Marple episodes on Amazon Prime, combined with laundry and apartment cleaning.
3:00pm: I made a quick loaf of bread (2 hrs of rising, then shaping) and put it in the oven. Happily it turns out pretty damn tasty - I make Trader Joe’s Cippino (seafood soup) and have that with toasted fresh bread around 4/4:30pm. A Clone Wars marathon ensues - the Bills are playing in the AFC championship tonight, so the city is basically a giant ball of nerves. I don’t watch the games (and haven’t all season - mostly because I don’t have all the apps/cable), but I follow the score on my phone while watching many (MANY) episodes of Clone Wars. I facetime my mom and dad around 7 after they finish the Mandolorian and we can all squeal with excitement.
9:00pm: Melatonin gummies, contacts out, teeth brushed, face washed, bedtime.
Daily Total: $0
Day 4: Monday
5:45am: Awake, coffee, take the dog out, head to crossfit.
7:30am: Home, dog out again, then breakfast (homemade toast, everything but the bagel smoked salmon, scrambled egg+egg whites) and more coffee. I login to work at 8am, and get the morning podcasts going (Up First, the Daily, Post Reports, the Intelligence).
10:00am: I place a Target pickup order for the snacks for our break area at the mall (seltzer, peanut butter crackers, cookies, granola bars - all single serving packs). I will be reimbursed for this by the store. ($39.57 - I get a notice that an item isn’t available after I place the order...oh well)
11:00am: I’m traveling out of state for a couple of days - it’s a long awaited tattoo coverup (don’t get a tattoo for a significant other….I knew not to do this...and yet I still did), so I make my list of items to pack and things to remember to do (take out trash, do all my dishes, etc). I will be driving to my destination (Indiana), staying at a hotel by myself, going to the tattoo shop (masked), and back to the hotel. Not telling friends I’m there, not going out anywhere. And I’ve scheduled a test for 4 days after my return, per NYS rules. If I could make the drive nonstop, I would, but your girl isn’t giving herself a UTI lol. I’ll be masked and sanitized anytime I step out of my vehicle. Still super nervous, but getting this tattoo covered up is like….the final FINAL step. I also take a shower (finally, yes I’m gross and have been sitting in my workout clothes since I got home - god help me if I ever live with a human again lol).
2:00pm: Time for head out for work! On the way, I pick up my previously mentioned Target order, and also pick up meals for my trip from a local meal prep place - I get a bunch of great stuff (2 breakfasts, 2 dinners, 1 lunch plus energy bites for the car), plus it means that I can just hermit it up in the hotel room apart from the actual tattoo appointment. ($62.68). I get to the mall early before my shift starts - since I know I’ll have a tub in the hotel room, and I don’t have one in my apartment, I get a couple of bath bombs and lotion from Lush ($25.93) and a whole bunch of sheet masks from Sephora ($25.01). Then time for work - It’s a fairly quick shift, which is nice, not too terribly busy and we get a lot done. And people at the mall are generally not pills today - epic win!
8:15pm: Home from work - take the dog out and have a little evening meal of homemade soup from my co-worker (it’s a kale sausage soup her husband makes and it is AMAZING) and the rest of my homemade bread. I finish packing up and the poor pup definitely knows something is up. Bedtime around 10pm.
Daily Total: $153.19
Day 5: Tuesday
5:45am: Alarm, dog, coffee. Rather than dirtying dishes, I heat up one of the prepped breakfasts I brought (a breakfast sandwich with chicken, which is actually quite tasty - plus some blueberries). I get the car loaded up with my stuff and the dog - he’s staying with my parents while I’m gone - and head out by 7:15am. After I drop him off I top off my gas tank ($14.10), and also get a couple of bubly waters and a can of death wish coffee for the road ($6.25).
12:00pm: Lunch stop at panera - fuji apple chicken salad and a cup of chicken noodle soup - drive thru and eaten in the car ($10.94, but I have a gift card). Road Trip Podcasts: You’re Wrong About and Noble Blood.
3:00pm: Gas stop (there’s also a few bathroom stops, but since I didn’t spend anything, it’s not terribly relevant, right? :) ) ($27.01).
5:30pm: Arrival! Check in to the hotel - masked front desk employee, check. Bring my stuff up to my room, and jackpot - biiiiiiiiig tub. Looks like those bath bombs were a solid choice! Open up the work laptop to see if there is anything urgent - nothing crazy - and decide which meal I want for dinner. Bourbon Chicken with Broccoli and Sweet Potatoes it is. Plus a Sparkling Apple Cider vinegar beverage (ginger and lemon) from Trader Joes. Before I eat, I do a lower body focused stretching routine from ROMWOD since I spent so long in the car.
7:30pm: Bath Bomb, Face Mask, Feet Mask, and finished Night Stalker on Netflix. Since I’ll be quarantining until I get a negative COVID test after my trip, I order 10 meals through the same meal prep company that I got my travel meals from ($88.43 - includes both delivery fee and tip). They will be delivered on Sunday.
Daily Total: $146.73
Day 6: Wednesday
6:00am - I had intended to sleep longer, but my body is like - nope, you’re waking up at the same time no matter what. Coffee (keurig in the hotel room - ick) plus a prepped breakfast (a goat cheese egg white scramble with sweet potatoes - which is delicious). Morning podcasts and I open up the work laptop. Since I’m awake I guess.
7:30am: Hotel room workout - I do yesterday’s workout from my gym, with a few modifications, but it still feels great to move after sitting in the car for so long! Shower afterwards, then food (Mexican Taco Bowl!) and work.
10:30am: Squuuuueeee it’s time for my tattoo. I double mask up, drive through for a Starbucks order ($4.74 - paid for on my Starbucks app with previously loaded funds) and head to the shop! I already paid my deposit and took advantage of a gift card sale before Christmas so I don’t owe anything additional today. We do linework, shading, and partial color. It’s going to take 2 appointments to do the full thing, so we make my next appointment for May (augh, I cannot wait!). My coverup is over black text, so a cover up involves a LOT of layering of color. I’m impressed that I still have stamina after not getting a tattoo for nearly 3 years.This is going to be BEAUTIFUL.
2:30pm: After my tattoo appointment, I make a quick stop at CVS (still double masked!) to pick up aquaphor, orange dial soap, ibuprofen, and toothpaste (cause naturally that’s the one thing I forgot to pack - d’oh) ($22.00). I make a curbside pickup order for Panera - another soup and salad combo ($10.55 - again paid for with gift cards!). I head back to my hotel room, eat, put on more podcasts (Planet Money, Can He Do That, Code Switch) and log onto work. An uneventful afternoon follows.
6:00pm: Facetime call with my mom, then dinner and various true crime documentaries on Netflix and Pinterest browsing because as per usual, now I want allll the tattoos. I also put in an order for a grocery pickup on my way home (coffee, coffee creamer, fruit, etc) ($66.82). I try to make a testing appointment through NYS for my return COVID test on Monday, but the automated system keeps putting me in the first available, which is Friday….I’ll try to schedule again on Friday so that the timing works. Bedtime tattoo routine of wash, aquaphor and ibuprofen, as well as a sheet face mask. Sleep around 10:00pm.
Daily Total: $104.11
Day 7: Thursday
6:00am: Welp, up and at em! I finish packing all my stuff, check out of the hotel and warm up the car. I head out around 7:00am. Top off the gas tank ($12.80) and I also add $15 to my Starbucks card and drive thru a Starbucks (Spinach Feta Wrap + Cafe Misto with almond milk). Then it’s time for podcasts and lots of driving. My mom had suggested a podcast from Serial - S*%*Town. IT’S AMAZING and this drive has never gone so fast!
11:00am: (or sometime around this time) Stop for gas ($27.01) and another Starbucks stop ($15 reload) to get another misto, a bottle of water, and a fruit/cheese/hard boiled egg box.
3:00pm: I was going to try to make it all the way without stopping for anything else, but my stomach is about to eat itself. I stop at a Tim Hortons about 45 minutes away from my parents’ house and get timbits and a hot chocolate (which is gross) ($6.66 - eeep). I get to my parents’ house - my mom and dad stay upstairs and in the basement respectively while I use the bathroom and retrieve a very happy pup. Once I get everything out to the car, my mom and dad come outside (double masked, as am I) and we quickly wave and air hug from a distance. On the way home, I drive through the grocery pickup and get my groceries.
5:30pm: Finally home. The dog is very happy to be home too - my mom said when she would come into the bedroom where he was, he would look at her and be - “oh…..just you…”. Such a momma’s boy :) Dinner is actual food (the rest of the kale sausage soup). I also put together a batch of cranberry almond biscotti (based off the Ina Garten cherry pistachio biscotti) - the apartment smells delicious. Settling in for post-travel isolation lol.
9:30pm: Melatonin gummies, tattoo upkeep, and then bedtime with the dog!
Daily Total: $76.47
Weekly Total: $505.50
Food & Drink: $326.64
Fun & Entertainment: $0
Home & Health: $22.00
Clothes & Beauty: $50.94
Transport: $105.92
Reflections:
First, GODDAMN I AM SO EXCITED TO PAY OFF THIS STUDENT LOAN. Just paid another $200 on it this morning, so we’re under $800!! If you hear an excited scream from the Western New York area next month, don’t worry, it’s just me.
Second, this was a higher spend week than usual, but I’m really proud to have budgeted for all of it. I had basically prepaid for the tattoo (on the gift card) and there’s still leftover for my next appointment. I had also budgeted and saved for the increased amount of gas and food.
Third, hopefully this isn’t too boring. My life pre-pandemic wasn’t terribly interesting, and it certainly isn’t now lol. I’m hoping to continue my debt payoff progress by finishing paying off my credit card debt in 2021, and start saving my 3-6 month emergency fund before starting that house down payment savings! I’m even starting to allow myself to start actually looking at Zillow.
I have been isolating since I got back - just drove through and got my COVID test, so fingers crossed for a quick reply!
Lastly, the coverup tattoo is going to be beautiful. I can’t wait for it to be finished!
Thanks for reading this whole thing!

December 2020 Beer Money UK Earning Report
This is my third month of using BeerMoneyUK to supplement my income. This month I made £2,342.
Here are my tow previous reports
October earnings report £774.25
November earnings report £2,731.24
Many thanks again to everyone who used some of my links to sign up for the offers. It is much appreciated. Hope you got some good Beer Money from it and remembered to share your links
Hope the below report is useful for people to see what are some of the best paying / most popular referral programmes.
This month I guestimate I worked about 50 hours to achieve this.
I am setting myself a goal to make £1,500 per month for 2021 or a total of at least £18,000. I think / hope this is achievable 🙏 .
Hope everyone has a great 2021, we all deserve it after such a bad 2020 !!!
Any questions just let me know. I am happy to help 😊
​

Company / link to Reddit post	Referral Link / Non - Referral Link	Sign Up Bonus	Required Min Purchase / Transfer Amount	My Earnings
Zumo	Referral link / Non referral Use referral code: ABC123	£10.73	£0	£669.44
Swissborg	Referral link / Non referral	€1-100 (Average ~€10)	€50	£211.06
WorldRemit	Referral link / Non referral	£20	£100	£200
Zelf	Referral link / Non referral	€5	€0	£145
Metro Bank	Referral link / Non referral	£50	Pay in salary or £500 pm	£100
Gemini	Referral link / Non referral	£8	£80	£92.87
Curve	Referral link / Non referral	£5	£0	£95
TFG Crowd	Referral link / Non referral	€20	€100	£90
Currency Fair	N/A	€50	€2,000	£90
Transferwise	Referral link / Non referral	£75 for 3 referrals	£200	£75
Xendpay	Referral link / Non referral	€10	€100	£65
Bitwala	Referral link / Non referral	€15	€30	£54
Tickr	Referral link / Non referral	£12	£5	£48
Vybe	Referral link / Non referral	£2	£0	£44
Bitpanda	Referral link / Non referral	€20 + €5 for quiz	€25	£36
Coinfield	Referral link / Non referral	£11	£100 (need to buy SOLO)	£35
Celsius	Referral link / Non referral	$40	$200	£33
Mode	Referral link / Non referral	£10	£100	£30
Skrill	Referral link / Non referral	£10	£100	£30
ViaInvest	Referral link / Non referral	€15	€50	£27
Instarem	Referral link / Non referral	£10	£200	£22.20
Luno	Referral link / Non referral	£10	£100	£20
Snoop	Referral link / Non referral	£5	£0	£20
TransferGo	Referral link / Non referral	£20	£50	£20
October	Referral link / Non referral	€20	€500	£18
Kriptomat	Referral link / Non referral	€10	€100	£18
Oval	Referral link / Non referral Referral code: KPN6NPYYU	£5	£6	£15
Easy Send	Referral link / Non referral	£10 for a referral	£100	£10
Costa Coffee	Referral link / Non referral Referral code: X8LOZ	£3	£2-3	£9
Verse	Referral link / Non referral	£5	£4	£10
Wirex	Referral link / Non referral	$10	£80	£5.35
InstaCoin	Referral link / Non referral	£5	£50	£5.08
BlockFi	Referral link / Non referral	$10	£100	£0
Twino	Referral link / Non referral	£15	£100	£0
Azimo	Referral link / Non referral	£10	£90	£0
Cash App	Referral link / Non referral	£5	£50	£0
Passfolio	Referral link / Non referral	$1-100	$25	£0
Quidco	Referral link / Non referral	£5	£5 in cashback	£0
Crypto Exchange	Referral link / Non referral	$50	£250 (5,000 staked in CRO)	£0
TopCashBack	Referral link / Non referral	£5	£5 in cashback	£0
Lenndy	Referral link / Non referral	€10	€100	£0
			TOTAL	£2,342

​

Hi Everyone,
Hope you all have a great November.
I wanted to follow up my October Earnings Report with an update as to how things are progressing with me using this subreddit to earn some Beer Money :)
Straight off the bat I would like to say a big thank you to everyone in this community that has helped me achieve a big month of Beer Money earning. I would like to say thanks to everyone that has clicked on one of my referral links this month, it is super appreciated!!!
This month's Beer Money far exceeded my expectations. November was my second full month of using Beer Money UK.
I am surprised but really pleased to have earnt £2,731.24 in November. Most of this has been from referrals to many thanks to all the BeerMoneyUkers that made this possible.
I am surprised again it was so high. I knew I was going to beat last month's £774.25, (I was hoping to double it), but I have exceeded my expectations. I think it again shows that every little helps. A big part of this months earning have been from Zumo. I think the best offers are the ones that d not require any deposits. This makes them accessible to as many people as possible. I have earned over £700 this month from Zumo alone.
Hopefully by letting people know how I managed to earn over £2,700 this month other people can put in place steps to earn similar. I Appreciate the economy is still rubbish and lots of people are being made redundant or having hours reduced. There are lots of people out there that could with a few extra pounds to make ends meet. I am happy to answer any questions anyone has. At the least i can tell you what has worked for me. Please feel free to ask on the comments below or DM me.
Last time I received a couple of comments asking me for the amount of time it took.
It took me 50-60 hours this month.
I started on this path as a way to make a bit of extra money due me having my hours per week reduced by 20 due to Covid. It was a bit scary thinking about how the bill were going to be paid. Now I am a lot more optimistic about things. I am quite enjoying working from home and doing things Beer Money related. I am not sure if this month will be a bit of a fluke. I am going to see how things go with December before setting some Beer Money UK goals / new year resolutions for 2021.
I am still pretty much exclusively making use of the sign up deals on this site. I have not done any of the remote work ones yet.
Please see below the table below showing where the Beer Money has come from. I have also added proof where possible.
A few points to note:

• I again haven't included fees in this report as it would take a while to work out and would only be a small percentage of the amount ~2%.
• A couple of the offers Zelf and Vybe are not yet launched. Who knows... they might never launch. But neither have cost me anything other than my time to write a post and share it. Either way I cannot cash these out just yet.
• I am still a big fan of the Bitcoin / cryptocurrency bonuses. Three of the top five earner this month are crypto currency related. It has probably helped my earning this month that Bitcoin and Ethereum are shooting up in price. I am comfortable with crypto. If anyone is interested in getting started I made a Beer Money UK guide to the current offers.
• Also the offers below are in Pounds, Euros and Dollars, so I converted the earning to £GBP to make things easy for comparison.
• I did have a couple of problems with some companies that have refused to honor bonuses. But generally most have gone smoothly.
• I have included some tips and a template for those interested in seeing what system I use: BeerMoneyUK - Offers to do December 2020

Some tips:

• This month I have made more in referrals than signups. I would recommend sharing your links and making your own posts about offers.
• Sign up for as many things as possible. I would recommend going through the list below and signing up for the offers you think you will do. If you do not end up doing them, no problems. I have found taking action and signing up to things asap, even if it is just starting by registering my email etc is useful as the companies offer send me chase ups if I forget to finish the sign up process.
• If you come accross a good offer. You get an email about a refer a friend scheme etc, post about it :)

Here is a list of the Beer Money earning I received this month. I have totaled up how much someone would receive if they just signed up for everything and it is over £420 just in sign up bonuses.

November 2020 Beer Money UK Earning Report

​

Company / link to Reddit post	Referral Link / Non - Referral Link	Sign Up Bonus	Required Min Purchase / Transfer Amount	My Earnings *proof
Zumo	Referral link / Non referral Use referral code: ABC123	£8.78	£0	£736.35 *
WorldRemit	Referral link / Non referral	£20	£100	£240
Bitwala	Referral link / Non referral	€15	€0	£230
Swissborg	Referral link / Non referral	€1-100 (Average ~€10)	€50	£185.43 *
Metro Bank	Referral link / Non referral	£50	Pay in salary or £500 pm	£150 *
Mode	Referral link / Non referral	£10	£100	£150
Curve	Referral link / Non referral	£5	£0	£125
Zelf	Referral link / Non referral	€5	€0	£115 *
Xendpay	Referral link / Non referral	€10	€100	£85 *
Twino	Referral link / Non referral	£15	£100	£60 *
Instarem	Referral link / Non referral	£10	£200	£51 *
Skrill	Referral link / Non referral	£10	£100	£50
Gemini	Referral link / Non referral	£8	£80	£50
Currency Fair	N/A	€50	€2,000	£45
Coinfield	Referral link / Non referral	£11	£100 (need to buy SOLO)	£45
ViaInvest	Referral link / Non referral	€15	€50	£40 *
Vybe	Referral link / Non referral	£2	£0	£40 *
Luno	Referral link / Non referral	£10	£100	£37.94 *
Crypto Exchange	Referral link / Non referral	$50	£250 (5,000 staked in CRO)	£37
October	Referral link / Non referral	€20	€500	£36 *
Bitpanda	Referral link / Non referral	€10 + €5 for quiz	€25	£36 *
Celsius	Referral link / Non referral	$40	$200	£32 *
Tickr	Referral link / Non referral	£10	£5	£30 *
Easy Send	Referral link / Non referral	£10 for a referral	£100	£30 *
InstaCoin	Referral link / Non referral	£5	£50	£25.38 *
BlockFI	Referral link / Non referral	Free	Free	£16 *
Wirex	Referral link / Non referral	$10	£80	£15 *
Verse	Referral link / Non referral	£4-5	£4	£14.14
Cash App	Referral link / Non referral	£5	£50	£10
Passfolio	Referral link / Non referral	$1-100	$25	£5 *
Oval	Referral link / Non referral Referral code: KPN6NPYYU	£5	£6	£5
Costa Coffee	Referral link / Non referral Referral code: X8LOZ	£3	£2-3	£4
Kriptomat	Referral link / Non referral	€10	€100	£0
Crypterium	Referral link / Non referral	$5	€50	£0
Transferwise	Referral link / Non referral	£75 for 3 referrals	£200	£0
Quidco	Referral link / Non referral	£75 for 3 referrals	£5 in cashback	£0
			TOTAL	£2,731.24

​
Hope that is useful :)
Any questions just let me know.

Section One: Assets and Debt

• Retirement Balance: $84,000 This is based on combined balances in my IRA accounts (Roth + Rollover). My current company, which I’ve been working at for 6 months, doesn't offer 401(k) matching until after the first year of work - so I’m waiting for that year mark to start contributing to one.
• Equity: ~$550,000 This is the current market value estimate of my home, a small 2 BR condo just outside of Manhattan, from Zillow. I purchased my home in summer of 2015 at a closing price of $484K. I put down $284K for the down payment (from my savings and investments which I had slowly accumulated since I was 15. My dad helped me open my first brokerage account at the time and encouraged me to keep investing and diversifying my portfolio as I grew older; this proved invaluable when it came to having the funds for my down payment a decade later) and took on a 20 year mortgage for the remaining $200K. Just last summer (June of 2019), I paid off the remainder of the mortgage balance and am now debt-free. The timing of the payoff was mostly motivated by a city-wide property revaluation assessment last year which bumped up my property tax payment to almost 3X the previous amount.
• Savings account balance: $139,000 I have this in cash in an online savings account with Ally. I normally would have invested some of this, but ever since March and with the ongoing uncertainty with the virus, the presidency, etc. I haven’t felt comfortable doing so. I am also considering buying a second condominium near where I am now that I could either rent out in the future, or move into myself and rent out my current place instead for rental income, so I want to keep funds liquid for the time being.
• Checking account balance: $3,500 This amount is split across two banks - one with Ally and the other with Chase. I keep above the $1,500 minimum at Chase to avoid any fees to ensure I can withdraw cash at one of their ATMs if needed.
• Credit card debt: $0 I place almost all of my purchases on one of two credit cards, but pay them off in full every month (and make sure to redeem the bonus points for cash back!) The total I’ll have charged across my two cards at any point in time usually ranges from $0 to $600 dollars.
• Student loan debt (for what degree): $0 I have an undergraduate econ/business degree from an Ivy League that I’m so grateful my parents were able to help me achieve without having to worry about accumulating a huge student loan for. They started a 529 account for me a little later than ideal (when I was in middle school - I’ll go into more detail in the next paragraph) but saved aggressively leading up to when I graduated high school. They were able to cover the majority of my tuition + room and board this way, and I helped cover the rest through several scholarships and working on campus.
• Mortgage: $0 Paid off last year! This was definitely one of my proudest recent accomplishments. I’ve always lived fairly frugally, due mostly to my childhood experiences and background. If there’s anything I could have done differently, it would have been to get a mortgage for a shorter term (versus the original 20 years) so that I could have gotten a lower rate and paid less in mortgage interest.

Section Two: Income

• Income Progression: My first job was at McDonald’s when I was 15, and I started with the minimum wage rate of $5.25/hour. In high school, I switched to working retail at Kmart and then every summer of college, worked at various paid internships for the full summer in addition to working on campus at various jobs (from cashier to research assistant). My junior year summer internship was at a firm that I would eventually return to full time after I graduated. I've been working full time for 8 years now, and my starting salary was ~$60,000. I started off working in analytics for a financial service firm in NYC and have changed jobs every 2-3 years since then. I primarily stayed in finance up until last year, working my way through steady salary increases each year and with each job change. I had begun looking for a new job and industry right before the pandemic hit in March as I was getting bored and frustrated with my role at the time; I had actually interviewed for my current role right when interviews were all being changed to virtual and didn’t hear back until May as the company was dealing with the big shift to work from home and figuring out headcount for the future. Thankfully my role was kept and I officially started working at my current company in the media/tech space in mid-May. My current annual base salary is $110,000 with a 10% annual bonus ($121,000 all-in).
• Main Job Monthly Take Home: $5,800 This is my final take home, which is paid out bi-weekly (my average paycheck amount is around $2,900). This is after deductions for health insurance (dental+vision), a healthcare HSA ($100 a month), and a pre-tax transit account ($100 a month). Retirement contributions are currently on pause until I hit my one year mark next May and qualify for matching contributions to a 401(k).
• Side Gig Monthly Take Home: ~$890 I have a couple sources of income from Instagram, one of which is my dedicated food account (75K+ followers). For this account, I don’t have a steady stream of income but reap the benefits in various invitations to restaurants in NYC - I’m invited in for a meal (usually with a guest), and for posting photos and stories featuring the restaurants and dishes, have the cost of the meal covered. For sit down meals, however, my guest and I make sure to cover the tip for the service. I’m occasionally shipped food/drink items to share as well. If I do make any income, this is from infrequent brand or restaurant campaigns that I’m contacted for; depending on what’s required in deliverables, these can range anywhere from $300-$3,000. The pandemic definitely impacted this year, but for 2020, I’m on track to have earned ~$6,500 from these. I am also helping 2 friends of mine who started a small business in July with some photography and social media. I post on their social channels and do larger product shoots 1-2x a month, and get $350 a month for this work.
• Any Other Monthly Income: $300 My property also has a gated parking spot included with the deed; so even though I don’t have a car, I’ve found a “tenant” for the spot since I bought my place five years ago. We sign an annual lease every October for $3,600 for the upcoming year, which comes to $300/month.

Section Three: Expenses

• Property Tax: $767 (paid quarterly at ~$2,300, this amount changes quarter to quarter, so I’m using an average for the past year)
• Homeowners Association (HOA) Fees: $434 (this covers water, garbage, and some building insurance)
• Condominium Insurance: $54 (paid annually at $650, my HOA fees cover some initial property insurance, so this is specific to my unit).
• Retirement Contribution: On pause for now as I wait to hit the year mark at my current job to get matching 401(k) contributions. I also want to keep some earnings liquid for a potential future real estate investment.
• Debt payments: $0, aside from paying off my monthly CC balance
• Electricity/Gas: ~$70 (depends on the season, spring and fall are in the low $40s while summer and winter can be in the high $90s)
• WiFi: $40 (recently signed up for the introductory offer at Comcast)
• Cellphone: $50 (I’m on the family plan still, but transfer this amount to my dad each month)
• Credit Card Fee: $8.33 ($200 annual fees across the 2 cards I currently have. Next year I will cancel/downgrade from the Chase Sapphire Preferred as the benefits for Travel and Dining are pretty much moot.)
• Subscriptions: Amazon Prime: $10 (annual subscription, I share with my family) Netflix: $0 (my parents cover this one) Hulu/Spotify: $11 Adobe Creative Cloud: $11 Apple Cloud: $1 OneDrive: $2 Causebox: $17 (quarterly subscription box that I pay the $200 annual cost for)
• Donations: I don’t have a recurring donation organization or amount, but will donate where and when I see the need. So far this year, I’ve donated $500 to my local hospital, the NAACP, and City Harvest.
• Savings Contribution: I will pretty much just transfer over money from my checking account to my savings account whenever it gets above the $1k or $1.5k threshold (I’ll keep more if it’s around the end of the month and monthly payments are coming up). I’m typically able to transfer over $2.5-3K each month, unless it happens to be one where quarterly property taxes are due.

Weekly Expenses:
Food + Drink: $78.70 (including tip)
Fun / Entertainment: $0
Home + Health: $72.33
Clothes + Beauty: $0
Transport: $0
Other: $189.24
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Day One (Monday)
8:45am: My alarm goes off and I hit snooze. One of the worst parts about the whole WFH situation has been how bad I’ve become with getting up on time, knowing that I can be at “work” in less than 15 steps. I scroll through social media a bit and catch up on some posts before getting out of bed.
9:15am: I’ve brushed my teeth, washed my face, and put on my skincare (toner, serums, and moisturizer) and am booting up my laptop. I changed jobs 6 months ago in the midst of the pandemic, leaving my previous role in financial services for a position in a large media/tech company, which has been a little crazy. It’s been tough doing everything remotely, and learning the new industry and programming/software has been especially difficult, but I feel like I’m getting my bearings. I start brewing some coffee.
9:30am: I hop on a Zoom for our weekly department huddle and listen as the different teams give updates on various initiatives as well as some background on company-wide kick offs and projects. Some of the projects I’m working on get brought up and it feels good to be doing what feels like actual work. After the call, I get to work on tackling work for some of the larger projects I have, which include scoping out source/logic details on a production report that we want to integrate in a new platform and QAing a table that I’m working on with data science.
12pm: I take a break to refill my coffee mug and make IG posts for my friends’ small business account and my own account (a food IG with 75K+ followers). I took on the first gig a few months ago when my friends, a couple in Brooklyn, launched their hand-crafted drinks business. I started the second, my personal account, over 3 years ago with a focus on restaurants in NYC. It stalled quite a bit over the last few months with the pandemic, but I’ve been dining out infrequently these days, and have limited myself to dining with only one friend at a time (out of a total of 3 friends since June, all of whom I know have tested negative and have been taking precautions since March).
3pm: I’ve wrapped up a touch base with a manager and a semi-stressful meeting where I had to present to some senior executives a dashboard we've been working on over the last few months. They have a few (mostly minor) tweaks that I note in a JIRA ticket before I grab my mask and take a quick break to stop by a local ice cream shop that’s invited me in to try their latest dessert special. There’s thankfully no one else there aside from one of the co-owners who recognizes me and gets my treats ready. I photograph them, thank her, and leave a $3 tip. $3
3:30pm: Back home, I get back to some Slack messages and try to prepare for another stressful call at 4:30pm that I have to lead. I finish eating the ice cream and call it lunch - but hey, that’s #adulting for you.
6pm: Wrap up some notes from the call and text my dad the address that I’m heading out to. I saw a 1BR condo listing pop up on Zillow over the weekend that looked promising, so I’m getting an in-person tour of it this evening. I get my mask on again and make the 5 minute walk to the building where the realtor is outside to meet me. We go inside to look at the condo for sale - the space definitely looks smaller in person than in the photos, and I note that a number of things need to be replaced or upgraded. I thank the realtor after the tour and give a call to my dad to let him know I’m okay and to give him my initial impressions of the space.
7pm: Back home! I wash my hands and change my clothes and get started on dinner; I’ve been craving soup these days so make a quick hot and sour soup on the stove with mushrooms, bamboo shoots, tofu, and some corn I have in the fridge. While I eat, I edit the photos from my DSLR from this afternoon, and check my IG account email to reply to about 7 emails that came in today about campaigns and invitations to restaurants; one of these includes signing a contract with a new app that’s offering a generous sign on payment and potential future income. I catch up on IG posts and comments and text a few friends.
11pm: I spend the rest of the evening catching up on some news, watching the latest episode of the Korean drama Start Up, and finally take a shower. While my hair is still drying in a hair tower, I do a quick Chloe Ting workout; I started doing some of her workouts a few months ago and while I’m not doing them super seriously, I’ve definitely noticed a difference in my abs and feel stronger overall. My Google Home plays some news snippets for me afterwards, and I roll my eyes at the continued attempts of our current president to try and derail the election results. On the plus side - the initial vaccine results from 2 firms have been super promising!
1am: I remember to take my daily multivitamins and then read a bit on my Kindle (I just finished Sex and Vanity, and start on Me Before You - another thing I picked up during quarantine, and I’ve already read over 30 books since March!). I then proceed to spend too much time on Instagram and reddit before turning out the lights.
Day One Total: $3
Day Two (Tuesday)
8:45am: Alarm goes off on the dot and I, the perpetual sleep procrastinator, snooze one too many times. I barely manage to make it out of bed in time to brush my teeth, wash my face, and chug some water before a 9:15am call. It’s a quick check in on projects within my business area so I summarize the work that’s been done and am grateful I don’t have to have my webcam on for this.
12pm: Unfortunately I need my webcam on for the next two meetings, so try to make myself look semi-presentable by combing through my hair and putting on a sweater, instead of my default hoodie. I get a little more clarification on some metrics and data sources in this upcoming platform integration and discussing my upcoming sprint priorities with my manager. At noon, I make a new post on my food IG and go through my feed. I pour my second mug of coffee and drink more water in preparation for the next batch of afternoon meetings.
3pm: Talk through more Zoom calls to the point that my throat is starting to hurt. I’m especially frustrated after the team huddle that just ended where one of the managers tells me my approach to building out the proposed data architecture is too limited in scope, and I should be more imaginative and proactive. The entire work from home situation has made it difficult to understand how to work with and collaborate with different people, so I try not to get too frustrated. I spend the rest of the afternoon making some minor adjustments to existing production reports and updating JIRA tickets.
5pm: I email over my dad a few of the more promising Zillow listings that landed in my inbox this morning. He jokingly complains that there’s too much to read and the words are too small before I realize that he’s been doing a lot of work on his laptop lately as he’s been WFH more. I take a look at a few computer monitors and opt for a larger (24”) version of what I currently have as it’s been working well for me for the last 6 months. I make sure it includes a HDMI cable and have it shipped my dad. $179.24
5:50pm: I grab my mask, bag, and camera and text my friend to let her know I’m en route to dinner; she’s one of the few friends I’ve seen in person since March and is also a food blogger with a separate full time job. She’s been quarantining in Long Island since the start of everything, and texts me that she’s driving in from her home, I head out to the PATH station, swipe in using my prepaid Smartlink card, and hop onto the next train.
6:35pm: I’m a few minutes late but make sure my friend knows I’m walking over, and meet her outside the restaurant. We get checked in, fill out our contact information on our phones, and get our temperatures taken; thankfully there’s only 2 other groups seated and the windows are open. Tonight’s dinner was an invitation that I already confirmed with the PR team, so the staff are expecting us and understand we’ll both be taking photos. We order a few apps and two mains, and spend the rest of the evening doing some quick photos and catching up on our lives, her plans to move into Manhattan or JC, and complaining about the ongoing election drama.
8:30pm: Dinner is done, and I realize I forgot to stop at an ATM and only have a dollar bill on me so ask if I can Venmo my friend my part of the gratuity. Thankfully she has $20 on her so I quickly Venmo her $10, making sure to use the adorable fries sticker to represent the copious amount that we ate tonight. $10
8:45pm: My friend and I walk out with our masks on, and I bid her goodbye and a happy Thanksgiving before stopping at the ATM to take out some cash, making sure to sanitize my hands after, and then head to my train. As I wait, I make some quick edits to the photos I took on my iPhone and add them with a few captions and tags to my IG stories; I manage to get through them all by the time the next train pulls up and leaves.
9:20pm: It’s always so nice to get back home! I wash my hands, change my clothes, and get started with transferring over the photos from my DSLR to my computer. I spend the next 20 or so minutes editing and saving the final versions in Adobe Lightroom and make sure to chug a glass of water to help balance out all the sodium I had. I check my messages and see that a restaurant in NJ confirmed a lunch delivery for tomorrow and see another contract in my inbox; I read the deliverables and ask the account manager if she can take out the clause requiring a Tiktok post because I don’t have an account.
11:30pm: I shower and put on my evening skincare, take my multivitamins, and do a quick ab workout with Chloe Ting (it still hurts lol). I take a look at my work calendar tomorrow and see that my first meeting starts at 9am, so I update my alarm to 15 minutes earlier. I take my vitamins and spend the rest of the evening catching up on some news, reddit, and IG.
1:30am: I blame Youtube vlogs for this one. Finally turn out the lights.
Day Two Total: $189.24
Day Three (Wednesday)
8:30am: Alarm goes off and I manage to get myself out of bed in a semi-reasonable fashion. Do my typical routine (brushing teeth, washing face, getting water and coffee ready) and log into my work laptop so I’m on the Zoom right at 9am. This is a belated overview session for one of the larger projects that I started working on quite late in the process, so it’s a useful business and data update that gives me a better understanding of the end goals.
12pm: Sit through one other department meeting where I don’t fully pay attention because I look into some minor report and code checks (oops). Once those wrap up, I’m able to take a break to do a post and stories for my friends’ business account and then make a post on my food account. I notice an email come in from a PR company about a new location opening for one of my favorite restaurants, so I check with one of my friends if he’s able to make the Tuesday after Thanksgiving and reply back to the email requesting it.
1:30pm: While I listen in on a company-wide speaker event on the topic of gender sensitivity and awareness, I also click through a recently assigned digital training course on sexual harassment and discrimination. I understand that the latter is a legally mandated item, but find it a bit sad (especially in the current day and age) that these are things that have to be spelled out for people. After I finish, I get a call for my lunch delivery; I grab my mask, keys, and wallet and meet the deliveryperson downstairs. I give him a $6 tip and take some photos of the items, which include chicken wings and a chicken sandwich. After I’m done with photos, I scarf down the food so I can make my next call which requires me to talk and have my webcam on. $6
4:30pm: I have a 1 on 1 with my manager and then a call with a business partner to scope out requirements for a new report. So glad to be done with calls! I get started putting together a project plan/roadmap for one of my projects and Slack one of the recently hired data engineers, who I found out grew up near me in suburban Philadelphia!
6pm: Get the shipping notification email that my dad’s monitor has shipped! I call it a day and close my work laptop and get started on my weekly apartment clean. I call my dad while I do so and let him know that his monitor should arrive on Friday; he thanks me and we catch up on work, COVID, and my potential future real estate investment. While I talk, I notice an alert from Mint that a large charge from Amazon hit my credit card; I’m a little worried until I log into my account and see that the annual prime membership has been renewed. Also tell my dad this as he heard me flip out thinking that someone had been making fraudulent charges on my card, as he and my mom are part of my “Prime household”. ($127, noted in my monthly expenses)
7pm: I’m done vacuuming and taking out the trash and am officially hungry. I make a quick tomato and egg soup with orzo and eat an apple while I wait for the orzo to cook. I wrap up some IG emails while I eat, including signing the updated contract with the Tiktok clause removed and politely declining some invitations to places that I’m not able to physically go to.
10pm: Wash the dishes, take a shower, brush my teeth and put on a clay face mask; while it dries, I do a quick 15 min workout on the mat and then wash off the clay mask before doing my skincare. I make sure to drink some more water and take my vitamins, and spend the rest of the evening in bed on my phone and working my way through Me Before You - it’s a slow start, but I’m starting to warm up to the protagonist.
1am: Lights out!
Day Three Total: $6
Day Four (Thursday)
8:30am: Forgot to change my weekday alarm back; oh well, I’ll survive. Crawl out of bed, and get ready for the day (you know the drill), and make sure I have plenty of coffee on hand. My period also just started, which is never a good sign.
12pm: The morning has just felt like an onslaught of meetings; followed by some impromptu Zoom calls. I’m starting to feel frazzled as various timelines and deliverables seem to have been shifted up and try to work with one of the other data engineers to specify possible business user requirements. This unintentionally gets shared with one of the project managers who sends an email en masse to the business users asking for sign off on this initial list. I don’t think it’s a big deal, but...
12:30pm: Make the post and stories on the small business account and my own account, finish the remainder of today’s coffee while I go through emails and minor JIRA tasks. I hop onto a share screen with one of my coworkers to transition over a project I’d been working on; I had built out a new dashboard and now that it’s “QA” state has been approved, he will now take over the more formal production process and maintenance.
3:30pm: During our second team stand up, I give my manager project updates and he immediately tells me I shouldn’t have let my list be shared with business users and other involved teams. I don’t fully get why; but after our team call he asks me to hop onto an impromptu Zoom with him where he tries to explain some of the complexities of company and team politics and how I should be very careful to give my stamp of approval, however formal or informal, unless I fully stand behind it. The conversation is a bit long, but I get a better sense of what's going on between teams and managers, and try not to cry as my manager tries to tell me it's not anything I did, but I need to be careful of my actions.
6pm: I manage to collect myself in time to meet a friend for the first time in months at an outdoor dine a few blocks away. He (and his girlfriend) was just recently re-tested as negative, which is always reassuring. While I get my belongings and my mask, my coworker Slacks me asking if I’m okay, apologizing for not messing earlier as she was on an afternoon call. She reassures me the same thing has happened to everyone else on the team, that a lot of these nuances I’m not aware of because I’ve never been in the office, and suggests putting on a one hour venting session with the other engineers in the team next week. I happily do so, and tell her I’ll catch up with her next week as I have off tomorrow.
6:30pm: My friend and I are seated near one of the heat lamps, and it’s so good to catch up with him after so long! He gives me some life updates, including the fact that he and his girlfriend are moving into a house they are waiting to close on, and the fact that he just put down a deposit for an engagement ring!! I’m so excited and barrage him with questions on timing, his plans, etc. and almost forget that we need to order food.
8pm: We have a delicious meal that includes burgers and a lobster roll (all of which I photograph) and he gets a few cocktails (I don’t drink). I leave a $10 tip, and my friend puts down $15 for his share, factoring in the alcohol. We mask up before heading out, and I tell him I want updates on everything for the next month as he goes through all those major life events! $10
8:30pm: After my short trip home, I wash my hands, change, and get started on editing photos from tonight. I definitely feel much better after the work “event” and take a longer shower tonight to decompress.
11pm: Decide to skip the workout tonight because I feel like it, and sit in bed doing some more administrative/scheduling tasks on my iPad in bed. I see a few updates from some of the team in India (yay international time zones - not) and debate if I should handle these tonight. Since I’m out tomorrow, I know it’ll be better if I do, so hop back onto the work laptop to wrap up some last minute code edits and JIRA updates. Once I’m done, I make sure my OOO notice and status in Slack are updated and eat a yogurt cup with some grapes because, yes, I’m hungry-ish again.
1am: Hair is dry, vitamins are taken, and it’s time for bed... or not? I’m already past the halfway point of Me Before You and cannot stop reading - it’s at the point where I’m now seriously invested in the relationship between the female and male protagonist and have to know how it ends (even though I already have my guesses). I speed through the rest of the book and shed a couple tears when I finish, which is past 3am. Thankfully I’m not working the next day! I make sure to set my alarm for later and finally go to bed.
Day Four Total: $10
Day Five (Friday)
11am: My alarm goes off and I actually feel semi-decent upon waking up - I don’t think I will ever not be a night owl! I get dressed and get ready to head out to try and get a COVID test; I last took one in June so want to have a more up-to-date status, especially as I’m potentially going home the next week for Thanksgiving. I haven’t seen my parents for over a year at this point and my dad has offered to drive down from Boston to pick me and my sister (in college, who is tested every week) up, but I’m still not feeling great about it given the fact that my parents are in their 60s. At the very least, I want to get a test to have more information before making any final decisions. I drink some water so I’m at least hydrated.
11:30am: I grab my Kindle, mask, and sanitizer and head out to the nearby mobile testing center that was set up. The line is about 15 people long - not terrible, especially as everyone is spacing out 6+ feet between each other - so I head to the end and spend the 2 hours or so in between my phone (making my daily IG post) and my Kindle (next up: Olive, Again) While I wait, I get an email about one of the campaigns I’ve been ironing out, and confirm I’m planning on visiting this weekend to get photos so I can send the content draft over for approval afterwards.
1:30pm: The process is pretty seamless; I fill out my information through my phone, upload a photo of my insurance card, and get my temperature and blood pressure taken before the nasal swab. It’s not that bad, I guess, but having anything put uncomfortably deep into your nasal passages is not fun. The doctor tells me I should get my results by the following Tuesday through the online patient portal; I thank him and head back out with my mask on.
2pm: Home and officially hungry, so after washing my hands and changing, I bowl a pot of water and put in a block of Shin Ramyun. I make it a little less like what I ate back in college by adding in some frozen corn, spinach, and an egg. I also eat an apple and catch up on some emails and go through IG before taking a fat nap.
6pm: I’m woken up by a text from my dad; it’s a picture of his new computer set up at home, and I’m glad to see everything’s working and should hopefully help his eyes. I take a second look at the photo and see that he’s using a tiny USB wire mouse - which he probably got as a work freebie. I sigh and find a wireless mouse on Amazon to have delivered to him the next day; I send him a text to watch out for that delivery as well tomorrow. $10
7pm: Time to head to the grocery store! I have a few options within walking distance of me, but like going to the Asian grocery store just given how unique and sometimes hard-to-find their selection is. I’m doing a virtual dinner swap with a friend tomorrow so I need to get ingredients for that, as well as my weekly grocery shop. I make sure I have my mask and reusable bag, and stock up on tofu, zucchini, mushrooms, bok choy, more apples (Fuji, but Honeycrisp is also a fav, ground pork, and some snacks, noodles, and yogurt. I struggle a bit to carry it home. #smallpeopleproblems $33.31
8pm: Once home, I unpack everything and get started on a (very butchered) version of soondubu with Napa cabbage, zucchini, and mushrooms with a spicy soup base (dwenjaeng paste, gochujang, soy sauce, gochugaru). I cook some rice on the side. While I eat, I load up Netflix and decide to start on The Queen’s Gambit.
11pm: Shower, skincare, and vitamins - and I end the evening with another quick mat workout. After I blow dry by hair, I climb into bed and spend far too much time on the phone as my brain wanders and gets in knots about Thanksgiving next week; my parents and I agreed not to make any decisions until I got my results back, but even if it’s negative, I know there’s still a risk if I were to let my dad pick me up and take me home. I know he and my mom really want to see me though, which makes me feel even more conflicted. I tell myself to stop thinking about it until next week and double check my schedule for tomorrow before opening up my Kindle to read.
2am: Finally decide to sleep after getting distracted by Youtube, again. Oops.
Day Five Total: $43.31
Day Six (Saturday)
10:40am: My weekly Saturday alarm goes off; my friends behind the small business and I have our recurring call every Saturday morning and while I would like to sleep in, I force myself to get up, brush my teeth, and do a quick face wash.
11am: I drink some water as we catch up on today’s agendas and tasks; we’re finalizing a seasonal holiday drink to be rolled out after Thanksgiving, so we go over the ingredients and timing, and figure out when I’ll be able to visit them in Brooklyn next month to get the photos for future posts and website updates. They also tell me they’d like to grab some photos of their new house (that they’ll be closing on soon) while I’m there, and I’m happy to do so. My friend tries to tell me that they’ll pay me extra for this, but I laugh and tell her she can just feed me.
12pm: Grab my mask, keys, and camera - Time to head out today! I have two stops near me to get photos for upcoming posts; one is for a bakery chain releasing a seasonal cake flavor and the other is for a newly opened location of a pizza franchise. My pick up order for the bakery was made in advance, so I stop inside, give them my name for the order, and after a little confusion that leads to them calling a manager, I have my cake ready to go. I take it outside to photograph; this campaign is offering a small payment but thankfully doesn’t need to review the content before I post.
12:30pm: I load up the app for the pizza place on my phone and use the pre-loaded credits to place my order in advance so it’ll be ready for pick up once I arrive. It’s a 15 minute walk or so over, but the pies are ready for me when I get there. The staff is nice enough to put them in a bag for me (they’re personal pies, so thankfully small enough) and I walk over to the waterfront to take some photos out there. I add some photos to my stories and walk home with my goodies; I’ll need to write up and submit the content for approval before posting, but this campaign is also offering a small payment.
1:30pm: Finally home! I wash up, transfer my photos to my laptop, and get started editing. In between, I make a post to my food account and the small business account, catch up on comments and friends’ posts, and try not to make a mess while eating some pizza and a slice of cake.
3:00pm: After putting the leftovers in the fridge, I’m ready for a nap. I set an alarm for 5pm just in case I oversleep since I need to make dinner late for my dinner swap!
5:00pm: Alarm goes off, and I struggle to get out of bed. I know I want as much time as possible to cook though, especially as bad things happen when I rush. I prep the food in advance by washing the bok choy, slicing the mushrooms, and mincing garlic and ginger. I do a bok choy and mushroom stir fry, and make mapo tofu and rice. I barely finish in time to package half of the meal into to-go containers for my friend, and text him; he tells me not to rush and that it’s cold enough so that the dessert won’t melt (lol).
6:40pm: I meet my friend outside halfway between our apartments outside of City Hall; of course we’re both masked. We do our meal swap; I give him the savory items I made while he hands over 2 small containers - and we both head to our separate homes. When I get back, I find out one has tiramisu and the other has a matcha oreo ice cream! I log onto Zoom for our virtual dinner hangout. Even though my friend is so close, he sees his parents regularly as well, so has been doing his best to be extra cautious. We’ve come up with this set up where we’ll each swap items for dinner (usually I’ll cook the savory and he’ll order dessert) and exchange them before enjoying dinner over Zoom later.
8:30pm: Call is over, so now it’s time to clean the kitchen - and it’s definitely a mess, especially as I was a bit frazzled. I wash the many utensils and pans I went through and do my best to dry them; washing up is definitely the least fun part of cooking.
11pm: Spend the rest of the night killing time between my phone, Netflix, and emails. I ask one of my friends (whom I saw earlier in the week) about some potential dates and places over the next few weeks, and send over calendar blocks while I wait to get reservations confirmed.
1am: By this point, I’ve showered, taken my vitamins, and am ready for bed. Read a little, watch some more videos, and eventually fall asleep sometime later.
Day Six Total: $0
Day Seven (Sunday)
12:30pm: It’s the one day this week that I don’t have an alarm, so I let myself sleep in for as long as I want to - which means that yes, I will sleep through the morning and into the afternoon. I dawdle in bed, posting on my food account and catching up on my feed, and just scrolling through various news articles and reddit threads.
1:30pm: After finally washing up and drinking some coffee, I grab my mask and bag to round out a few more groceries for the week; even though the Asian grocery store is great, they don’t have some staples so I’m heading to one of the more traditional stores near me today. I pick up some pasta, tomato sauce, oatmeal, peanut butter, and some more produce. $16.39
2:30pm: Once I’m back home and put everything away, I make a late lunch of oatmeal and apples with some Annie’s Mac & Cheese. While I eat, I start putting together the post and story captions, tags, and links for the pizza campaign, and submit them to the account managers for approval.
5:00pm: After some more dawdling on my phone and getting through more of The Queen’s Gambit (so good!), I hop onto a weekly Zoom with two of my good friends. We’ve known each other for over 8 years and while I do see one of them semi-regularly, the other has some health complications. We’ve kept this weekly Zoom call since mid-March and it helped me get through the rougher months.
7pm: After the call is over, I check my Amazon cart and take a look at anything that’s accumulated over the prior week. For non-essentials, I’ll add them to my cart and take a few days to think through if it’s something I really want/need and I’m usually able to pare down that list when I get back to it later. I decide to keep a saucepan and bath towels and order them for next week. $72.33
8pm: For dinner, I default to my tomato & egg soup with rice, and add in some zucchini for some more vegetables. I eat an apple and finish off the ice cream from yesterday as well.
11pm: Shower, do my skincare, and plop myself into bed. I continue binge-watching The Queen’s Gambit until the end - such a satisfying ending!
1am: Make sure my alarm is set for work before turning out the light.
Day Seven Total: $88.72

Hi Everyone,
Hope you all had a great October.
Firstly many thanks to everyone who helped me to achieve some extra Beer Money this month it is super appreciated. I have been chuffed every time I see a post that gives me an opportunity to get some extra £'s, $'s or €'s.
It is great to see so many people sharing their referrals and helping out others in the threads.
Just wanted to share with the community how in October 2020 I made £774.25 through using the Beer Money UK Reddit group. Tonight is the first time I have added it all up and I am really surprised it was so high. I thought it was going to be half around £350! Therefore, I am super happy to share with everyone what I did.
Hopefully it will help some other people to make some extra money this month. Please feel free to comment below or reach out to me on DM if you have any questions. The economy if a bit rubbish right now and I appreciate their are lots of people out there that could with a few extra pounds to make ends meet.
For background I set up this Reddit account about 2 months ago during lock down as a result of having my hours at work decreased by 20 hours a week. I was worried money might get a little tight and as a result I thought it would be idea to try and make some extra money with the additional time I had.
Thinking / hoping it would just be for a temporary period I wanted to choose something I could pick up and put down easily, that had no set hours. I considered flowing options:

• Micro task sites
• Surveys / Product reviews etc
• Mystery shopping etc
• BeerMoneyUK

I tried a few Micro task sites and earned a small amount, ~£20 ish pounds or so, but I was so mind-numbingly bored from them that I discounted them as an option. Congrats to everyone that is making money this way. I mainly tried Neevo / Defined Crowd. I lost the will to live when I had to listen to recording of two of the same thing and say which one I liked better eg 'Go right at the next junction' only to find I got the answers wrong. How I could get the answers wrong to which one I preferred I do not know?!?
The surveys I did try paid too small amount for the time they took and I also found them boring.
I could not be bothered going out to do shopping, and it was the middle of a pandemic, so I discounted mystery shopping.
That left with me with using BeeryMoneyUK as my test bed for additional income from signing up to new services :)
After trying the above in September time. October was my first full month of utilising the offers from BeerMoneyUK.
Here is my October 2020 Earning Report:

• Earnings in GBP: £447.70
• Earnings in EUR: €184.00 (£175.91)
• Earnings in USD: $195.00 (£150.64)

Total earnings: £774.25
Note, I haven't included fees in this report as it would take a while to work out and would only be a small percentage of the amount ~2%.
Also with regards the Bitcoin / cryptocurrency bonuses I keep these in denominated in Bitcoin. There is no chance I am selling these for fiat!!! I also have not accounted for the rise in Bitcoin price that will have pushed my earning up higher :)
Tips for people looking to maximize income from BeerMoneyUK:
Here are my observations and tips for people like me looking to make a little bit of money on the side with their free time:

1. Make sure you have ID (passport, driving license, bank statements etc), all the best offers require some sort of verification / KYC. Keep copies of these on your hard drive in a specific folder so you can drag and drop them when needed.
2. Make sure you have a Euro / Multi-Currency accounts. Shameless plug for Bitwala and TransferWise both of these accounts have enabled me to fully take advantage of Euro and USD offers. I use both the web based and app versions regularly for these accounts. Its nice to get a phone notification letting you know a payment or transfer has arrived. So I can immediately send it back to my main account.
3. Read the BeerMoneyUK rules. They help keep the place running smoothly.
4. I use a separate Browser for everything BeerMoneyUK related. The browser I use is Brave This is logged into this Reddit account and has LastPass Chrome Extension installed to save all my passwords. Chrome extensions all work well in Brave. I create unique random 20+ character passwords for all my accounts. Using Last Pass means you do not need to remember them. Having a dedicated browser for all the deals makes things work well. It also auto populates many of the signup forms to save time.
5. Best types of offers in order of size free bonuses; Bank Switches, Money Transfer Services, Cryptocurrency, P2P Investing. Don't be scared to get stuck into new markets and try services you wouldn't normally try. Give it ago and make some free money along the way! Also for bank switches I do not use my main account. I just create an additional current account that can be switched. Pretty much all banks let you do this and it takes 5 mins to set up. If the switched have requirements no problems... Eg must have 3 payments/direct debits set up. Ok :) link account to Paypal (2 mins), set up regular monthly payment to main account £1 a month, set up regular monthly payment of £1 a month into TransferWise account.
6. Learn to love Bitcoin :) £10 in Bitcoin today is worth £100 in Bitcoin sometime very soon, and £1,000 in the not too distant future. I think anyone that does spends the time to find out more about Bitcoin will end up either loving it or at the very least respecting it as an investment asset that should be in everyone's portfolio. When viewing offers for free Bitcoin I view it in this mindset. If an exchange wants to give me £10 of free Bitcoin I see it as them giving me £100-£1000 for free! Don't cash Bitcoin out! Hodl!
7. When you post an offer to help people via DM as well as in the thread. At least 3 people have DM'd me asking for help with offers and I have helped them with one, and then helped them further by suggesting similar offers.
8. Use a laptop / Desktop to do the offers. I think it would be a struggle for me to do all the offers if I could not use these. Also you do need to have your phone handy for some. Have an authenticator app installed for 2FA (two factor authentication). Save all 2FA's in this app.
9. Be organised! I have a Google Doc that I list all my offers on. Here is a BeerMoneyUK Template version made for people to use. Feel free to copy and then edit it: https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=197E853733392C3A!3518&ithint=file%2cdocx&authkey=!AKAVtjAHW_OqsRg
10. Check BeerMoneyUK regularly. I sort posts by 'new' and check all the posts that have been made since the last time I checked. This ensure I do not miss anything. If I see something to sign up for I copy the URL and add it to my Google Doc. I pretty much sign up for things only when I have the time (weekend or evenings).
11. Money... Unfortunately the old adage is true. It takes money to make money. I am not sure how much I have spent this month on money transfers etc, and although you do get all your money back, for lots of offers you do need to have at least some money to start with. I probably used a good £500 to put towards my money transfers etc. To reduce the impact of this make sure you have a system in place to quickly recycle your cash and avoid doing any offers that require you to lock up your capital for too long unless you have the cash. For example the P2P offers below can be cashed out in a month. But some of the investments on the October.EU platform are 48 months!! No chance I would invest in them. I want a quick in and out. 3 months max, maybe 6 months at a push for a good deal. Nearly all of the deals below are instant meaning you can cash out immediately.
12. Every little bit adds up. Sometimes I think should I do this one is only worth £5. Do it! Everything adds up, especially when you consider the last point
13. Share your referral link. After you have received your referral bonus make sure you share your link on the thread you signed up with and also create your own post on the BeerMoneyUK Reddit.

I am super happy to help so please feel free to send me a DM if you have any questions. I would be only too pleased to help someone make an extra bit of Beer Money in time for Christmas. Especially now I will have likely more time with the new lock down!!
​
How much time did it take?
I did not time myself doing these offers so hard to be exact. I would guess it has taken me between 30-50 hours in total for the month.
When signing up for offers I get side tracked. I do not see it as work because I am at home and the time is flexible. I might start one thing only to get distracted by life. I also do not try and do everything as fast as possible. I like learning new things and figuring out how something works. So I often find myself reading around a topic, or watching a few YouTube videos, to get a better understanding of something.
My plan is to time myself for November so hopefully I will have an accurate idea at the end of the month. I think it will take less hours this month as I have already completed a lot of sign-ups and written most of the referral posts that will just need to be re-posted.
​
Here is a breakdown of my October 2020 Earnings:
These are all the offers I did in October. Most of the income I have made in October is from actually signing up to the offers in question.
It would be super good if for November I can make some money from some of you excellent people signing up for the deals you think are good for you. Please make use of the referral links below and I will be eternally grateful, please remember to share your referral links to on the relevant posts!!
The deals below are in no particular order. I just pasted them from my own document. Here is a template version for you to copy/save so you can edit:
https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=197E853733392C3A!3518&ithint=file%2cdocx&authkey=!AKAVtjAHW_OqsRg
​
Company: Costa Coffee
Category: Free money
Get a free £3 when signing up and making your first purchase!
My Referral Link: https://swf3j.app.goo.gl/JCbSp
Invite code: IPLOO
Non Referral Link: https://www.costa.co.uk/ Download the app and enter the referral code when asked at signup for a Free £3
Earnings: £3
​
Company: Zumo Money
Category: Cryptocurrency
Get £5.50 when you sign up to Zumo Money and use my referral code
Referral code: ABC123
Earnings: £5.50
​
Company: TransferWise
Category: Free money
My thread: Fee-free transfer up to £500 and a £5 reward for when using the TransferWise debit card
Earning: £0
​
Company: Viainvest
Catergory: Free money
My thread: Free €15 when you deposit €50
Earnings: €15
​
Company: Tide Bank
Catergory: Free money
My thread: Get a Free £50 when you open an account
Earnings: £50
​
Company: Crypterium
Catergory: Crptocurrency
Offer: Free $5 when buy 50 euro of BTC
My Referral link Free $5
Non referral link no bonus
Earnings: $5
​
Company: October
Category: Free money
My thread: Get a free €20 to invest with October - No spending required
Earnings: €20
​
Company: Wirex
Category: Cryptocurrency
My thread: $10 of free Bitcoin for new users
Earnings: $10
​
Company: Lloyds Bank
Category: Account Switch
Offer: Get £100 for switching your account
Earnings: £100
​
Company: Kriptomat
Category: Cryptocurrency
Offer: buy or sell 100EUR or more of crypto, you’ll receive 10EUR worth of free Bitcoin!
My Referral Link Free €10
Non referral link no bonus
Earnings: €10
​
Company: Passfolio
Category: Free money
My thread: Get a free stock worth $1 and $100 with a $25 deposit (suitable for UK users)
Earnings: $100
​
Company: Curve
Category: Free Money
Offer: Get a free £5 for signing up to Curve
My Referral Link Free £5
Non referral link No bonus
Referral code: DWB926AD
Earnings: £5
​
Company: Swissborg
Category: Cryptocurrency
Offer: Get a bonus reward between €1-€100 in Bitcoin for signing up
My Referral Link €1-€100 bonus
Non referral link no bonus
Earnings: €14
​
Company: Xendpay
Category: Free money
Offer: £10 off your first money transfer
My Referral Link £10 bonus
Non referral link no bonus
Referral code: E471136
Earnings: £10
​
Company: Brave
Category: Passive Income
My thread: Brave browser - Earn around £5 a month by trying a new browser
Earnings: £21.20
​
Company: Mode Banking
Category: Cryptocurrency
My thread: Free £10 with Mode Banking when you buy or deposit £100 worth of Bitcoin (UK based)
Earnings: £68
​
Company: InstaCoin UK
Category: Cryptocurrency
My thread: Instacoin UK - Get a free £10 worth of Bitcoin (same day) for £100 Bitcoin purchase (UK Only)
Earnings: £80
​
Company: Gemini
Catergory: Cryptocurrency
My thread: Gemini get $10 free in bitcoin when you buy or sell $100 worth of Bitcoin - Now accepting UK Bank deposits
Earnings: $10
​
Company: Metro
Category: Free Money
Offer: Switch to Metro Bank, we’ll send you £50
My Referral link Free £50
Non referral link no bonus
Earnings: £?? bonuses are paid in January 2021 so I do not know how many people have signed up with my link yet.
​
Company: BlockFI
Category: Cryptocurrency
My post: Earn Interest on your Bitcoin and Get a free $10 when you open an account
Earnings: $10
​
Company: WorldRemit
Category: Free Money
My post: WorldRemit get a free £20 for sending £100 to yourself
Earnings: £60
​
Company: Bitrefill
Category: Cryptocurrency
My post: $5 free with Bitrefill for purchasing $50 gift cards
Earnings: $20
​
Company: Luno
Category: Cryptocurrency
My post: Get an instant free £10 when you buy £100 in Bitcoin
Earnings: £10
​
Company: Bitwala
Category: Free money
My post: Get 15€ from for opening a European bank account (no deposit needed!)
Earnings: €60
​
Company: Crypto.com
Category: Cryptocurrency
My post: Crypto.com Visa Card: $50 bonus, Free Spotify, 1-8% cashback on all purchases
Earnings: $50
​
Company: CurrencyFair
Category: Free money
My Post: Free 50€ when you transfer 2000€ to yourself using CurrencyFair
Earnings: €50
I had to remove the links for this one as currencyfair contacted me. They are happy for me to share the link in private though so DM me for the link if you want it :)
​
Company: BitPanda
Category: Cryptocurrency
My post: Get a free 15€ from Bitpanda exchange
Earnings: €15
​
Company: Skrill
Category: Free money
My post: Free £10 on your first money transfer
Earnings: £20
​
Company: Twino
Category: Free money
My post: Free £15 for new users wanting to try out P2P investing
Earnings: £15
​
Company: TransferGo
Category: Free money
My post: Get a quick £10 for free transferring money to yourself
Earnings: £30

This is my first post on Reddit, so you'll have to forgive me if some of the image links refuse to work; with no preview function I'm going to have to test them after I submit the Post, at which point I'll work to fix them if I can.
So, over the last month or so I have been playing TNO and have become entranced by the Mod as a whole, much which I subscribe to the excellently developed and written Lore by the many contributors over the last couple years. There are however areas of the Mod where I think mechanical changes should be made to improve the experience as a whole, whilst also being mindful of not changing the existing Lore more than a smidge at worst. I had been posting my various notes and suggestions below on another forum but was eventually pointed here as being a site more suitable for my observations. While I don't expect the Devs to adopt many of these suggestions, I hope at the very least to spark discussion and put the ideas out there to be mulled over.
I will also note that, not being fully versed in the Lore or Plans regarding the future development of this Mod, some of what I suggest may already be slated for adoption and therefore superfluous; I apologize ahead of time if that is the case.
Note On Edits: Edits from now on and into the future I am going to mark with a code to symbolize when they have been put in. Part of this is to acknowledge any mistakes that I may have made in the past, but it also lets me better catalogue when I've posted certain comments. Anything without a code attached should be assumed to be from the original posting. Code(s) in use are indexed below:

• (P2): 9/20/2020
• (P3): 9/21/2020
• (P4): 9/24/2020
• (P5): 9/26/2020
• (P6): 9/27/2020
• (P7): 9/28/2020
• (P8): 10/02/2020
• (Note): 10/05/2020: Hard Drive of my Laptop is on its last legs, meaning only a handful of the applications on it are still working, and it seems to have corrupted a number of folders in the process, including my observation notes. I intend to keep updating this, but that will have to wait until I replace my Laptop.
• (P9): 10/14/2020

Now, the first item on the bloc is Atlantropa, which did a lot to fuel much of the rest of this post.

• At the moment the Eastern Mediterranean is presented at a depth of (-200) meters as, in the earlier stages of development, there had been an intention to include the Dams that went from Tunisia, to Sicily, and then to Italy. With that Dam gone though the Eastern Mediterranean would have only drained to (-100) meters, which can be seen here ( https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mediterranean_Sea_fictional_map_(100m_lower_sea_level).svg ) on the Wikimedia Commons or here ( https://imgur.com/HkAB7Bw ) from Imgur. There are also considerations regarding Dams that would exist at the Dardanelles (they are too shallow; losing even 100 meters would cut the connection to the Black Sea) and the Suez. It would also have to be assumed that both are completed in a timely manner given the importance the Kriegsmarine has placed on the Crimean Peninsula.
• There would also be another Dam around Venice due to the unique nature of its construction; most of its foundations are wood, which is kept from rotting by being immersed in the waters of the Lagoon at all times. If the Lagoon were allowed to drain out the entire city would collapse on itself in a number of years, and despite the costs involved when factoring in both the expansion and construction of the Suez and Marmarran Dams, I doubt that the Mussolini and other Fascists would not act to save it. This would also suggest that portions of Adriatica would not be as inhospitable to plant life as generally thought, as natural rivers and the Canal to Venice itself would leech salt from the immediate surrounding areas, though beyond that there would still need to be significant irrigation and deep tillage.

Now in regards to the Iberian Union, there are a couple of things.

• In regards to the Gibraltar Dam, there should be a condition where passage through the Straits is not possible unless the Dam itself is completed, though while I've been told it is possible I myself don't know how. The Straits themselves should have their own Sea Zone in the small area where Gibraltar and Tangiers meet so as the potential exclusion zone doesn't extend out over half the Western Mediterranean. I'd also argue for a land movement connection like the one that exists in Istanbul, as the Dam is noted for being capable of holding quite a lot of traffic, and that shouldn't preclude military convoys; the alternative would be to make a new Province with a Strait to represent the Dam, but that might be a bit much.
• On the Algerian War, well I couldn't understand why the cession to Iberia was the way it was in the case of a Pied-Noir victory, as seen here ( https://i.imgur.com/042uN57.png ). Part of the problem is that Spanish claims to French Algeria only really ever extended to what was the Department of Oran; if we were to entertain the notion that their claims extended further East then that, we encounter a problem where the new Pied-Noir government has now placed a majority of the Pied-Noirs under the governance of Iberia, something which they wouldn't have found acceptable. What I propose instead is shown here ( https://i.imgur.com/jDKTCDW.png ), which includes the Department of Oran, but also includes Moroccan claims on Algeria that can be enforced by Iberia. It also was odd to me that the Pied-Noirs were able to take back Spanish Algeria bloodlessly, but that could be a holdover until North Africa and the Middle East get more attention.
• Lastly, having played as Iberia and helped the OFN win the South African War, I think there should be an option for the United States to turn over Angola and Mozambique to the Iberian Union under the Mandate System. It can be reasoned that this would be an acceptable compromise on the part of the United States, reducing their own and South Africa's area of responsibility, "guaranteeing" on paper that these territories would not be annexed into the Iberian Union while putting them under their influence, and also bringing the Iberian Union itself closer into the orbit of the OFN. Of course, Iberia might find managing Angola and Mozambique problematic once certain matters at home require its attention, but that wouldn't have factored into the calculus yet on Madrid's part.

Now in regards to the Italian Empire specifically:

• I'd argue that the Diplomacy GUI should be expanded significantly, covering all the Colonies and Protectorates in addition to under nations that might end up under their influence. As it stands now just about every colony is subject to the same system of modifiers as the Great Game Countries are for example, and it seems odd that you can't exert further influence in cases where, were they say Hungary for example, you could. It also seems the cornerstone for any Italian strategy when it comes to managing its economy, though not as clear cut as the German Economic Unions.
• The Empire Management System needs to be better explained, as at the moment it seems to be rather vague what certain levels of deployment are meant to do. I understand for example that they chiefly at the moment are meant to maintain order in those regions, but I haven't found any reason not to maximize my commitments yet; though I didn't make it to the Oil Wars, so the math might have changed there. There is also the problem where you can't reduce your commitment after the fact even when the situation has radically changed, such as winning the War in Algeria or, well, however the Reformation of the Levant works itself out.
• I also do wish that Italy had more of a say in which paths its Governates take, specifically in the case of the Levant. A problem that I've seen is that it's AI tends to really struggle balancing the power between the Irgun and the Arab Nationalists, even when benefiting from a victory against the Turks. Often this just seems due to them favoring either the Arab or Jewish Branches of the Focus Tree. It also seems odd that, in the case of a revolt, the Italian/Egyptians don't move in to secure the Sinai; doing so would enable the Italians to have further Defense-in-Depth rather than having them more on less on the Suez Dam/Canal, and in certain reformations of the Levant the Sinai is ceded to Egypt anyway.
• Technically a bug I think, but in the events detailing a Turkish Victory in the Italo-Turkish War it is mentioned that the Dodecanese and Cyprus were ceded to Turkey, but the cessions aren't coded to account for that at the moment.

In regards to Cornwall:

• The lack of events and decisions around the Cornwall Crisis are actually fairly problematic at the moment, though this tends to effect Germany far more. If England decides to attack Cornwall you as Germany are unable to intervene in any effectual way. On the one hand this means that it is impossible to hold onto the entirety of Cornwall. On the other hand, if you offer to cede all of Cornwall except for Portsmouth, the English could still move in at no risk. The only caveat to this that I've seen is that the English tend to suffer a Military Coup if Cornwall hasn't taken significant losses from the Civil War (i.e. none of their divisions get destroyed), but Monty then will start another war about a week later. I'm aware that part of this is because it will be connected to Cornwall's Update, but it has proven rather frustrating on the German side not having any teeth.

In regards to The South African War:

• From the moment the Afrika Schild gets involved, the United States should be able to send a Carrier Group to South Africa as to enable it to maintain Naval Superiority over its own waters. The ability of Schild to navally invade Cape Town has bothered me immensely, and it goes a long way to explaining in many games I've observed why they've collapsed, needing to reconfigure their lines every time they need to respond. Removing that advantage from the Schild would go a long way to rebalancing the South African War.
  • (P2) Having since played a game as Ost-Afrika in the South African War I've been made aware of the coded events that were made to address this very issue; I had been opting to avoid playing in Africa until the OFN Mandates were given content so I apologize for missing them. That said, unfortunately they don't work as intended, and I'm not sure if that is a limitation I can't see or an oversight. The South African's are supposed to load in an Order of Battle that would represent the American 6th Fleet, but that Order of Battle doesn't exist in the Unit Histories and so can't load. Also, the ANG_USN_Blockade modifier doesn't actually keep the AI from planning Naval Invasions and, while it would work if the South African AI were actively patrolling its home waters and intercepting the Invasion Fleets, it seems extremely reluctant to do so. If the Modifier were changed so that the Invasion Capacity were reduced to Zero, thus making Naval Invasion impossible, that could solve the issue, but I don't know if that can be coded.
• In the case of a revolt by the African National Congress they collapse far too quickly. The problem here is that the ANC when generated has a lot of victory points in Bechuanaland, enough that no advance needs to be made in Natal to make them surrender. The cleanest solution that comes to mind is to have the Bechuanaland ANC be their own separate Revolter-State, provided it can be set up.
  • (P2) Maybe have the Botswana-Zimbabwe Democratic Front make an early appearance?
• In the event of even a slight Schild Victory in the War, the Boer Republics should have Natal ceded to them. A major sticking point when it came to the history of the Boers is that they were regularly blocked economically by the British due to their lack of dependable access to the Coast, and at their end the only dependable outlet available was by rail to Lourenco Marques in Mozambique. I have doubts they would allow themselves to be that economically vulnerable again. The alternative of course would be that they'd seize Lourenco Marques in the event of Afrika collapsing, if not in combination.
  • (P7) Something of a correction on this. Natal should be split into two States, a West Natal which would be ceded to the Boers, and an East Natal which be ceded to Swaziland, the latter representing a Zulu State subservient to Swaziland and Swazi access to the Sea; alternatively, East Natal itself could be split in two, with the small portion South of Swaziland ceded to it, the rest becoming an "Independent" Zulu State, both under Boer influence.

(P3) In regards to The Japanese Empire:

• (P3) The initial investigation events regarding corruption at the start of the game need to have an option to be truncated, reduced to its core decisions and events. While I did enjoy it and laud whoever wrote it up, it is effectively a short story of sorts, and the fact that I would have to click through all the events again on every playthrough is not a particularly pleasant thought. I doubt I am the only one that has concerns here.
• (P3) I think that a separate GUI akin to the Italian one would be beneficial for Japan, one that details the statuses of the various States in Japan's sphere, the amount of revenue each sends to Japan, as well as their loyalty to Tokyo. That said, I am not sure if there are restrictions on the number of GUI's a country can have.

(P4) In regards to The United States:

• (P4) The Senate Filibuster needs to be used a lot more than it currently is. I haven't played all the paths when it comes to the United States yet, quite a bit of time needs to be sunken in to reach anyone who is elected in 1968, and that isn't to mention anyone who is elected in 1972, but usage of the filibuster comes across as... sparse. The only time I remember definitively encountering it thus far was as Robert Kennedy when trying to pass his Civil Rights Bill, and that filibuster was done exclusively through event. As George Wallace for example I oddly was not subjected to a filibuster when trying to Repeal the '62 Civil Rights Bill, when at the very least it would make sense for NPP-Centrists and most Republicans to do so, or much else in that Tree when going the Hard Segregationist route. This isn't to mention the difficulties Hall and Yockey would have passing their programs, least without quite a bit of intrigue on their part.
• (P4) While I am aware that there are issues with getting the AI to send Volunteers to the Proxy Conflicts, this is unfortunately key for the balance of these conflicts. Having the United States run under human_ai, when the South African War came up I sent a Division over as soon as I was able to and also asked to allow Air Volunteers. Upon having done so the conflict largely balanced out, and as more Volunteers were sent with expanded ground operations it definitively started to go against the Schild. This might need to involve Paradox.
  • (P4) Yeah, observing the AI they aren't sending any Airwings down to South Africa, and those did a lot of good supporting the South African Military. They have Air Volunteer permissions though. Only change I've noticed is that the AI has ICBMs and SRBMs stationed in Iceland aimed in the South African and Central African Air Regions. If a bug in the AI coding that is fairly major.
  • (P4) Never Mind! Was testing something unrelated and I noticed that the United States had stacked up its Volunteer Airwings in the South African War. So sometimes it does, sometimes it.... doesn't? I don't really understand what could be going on there.
• (P5) I have to take issue with Strom Thurmond's succession to the Presidency thru "related events", as it seems to assume Thurmond would be President Pro Tempore of the Senate by default. Ignoring the strong possibility that the Republican-Democratic faction may well still have control over the Senate and would have one of their own sitting as Pro-Tem, the NPP almost certainly be Richard Russell, who'd have at least fifteen years seniority over Thurmond, or James Eastland who'd have around seven.
  • (P5) Also not sure who the Speaker of the House is supposed to be that is "convinced" to remove himself from the line of succession; the only one that comes to mind is Walter Jenkins given the time, but that doesn't make a whole lot of sense; the Democratic Party would be extremely hesitant to grant the Republican Party top positions in both the Senate and House, even more so when said candidate in the House is a known Ally to Lyndon and would be seen by some as a Puppet. The candidate who comes to mind and who'd win out I think would be Carl Albert, largely due to him having an appeal to both TNO's versions of the Republican and Democratic Parties.
• (P5) In terms of the Elections, two things come to mind. The first is that I feel that the American Elections System (AES) should be reformatted, using the British Elections System (BES) as its base. The BES easily comes across as a more interactive and strategic experience that the player can influence, and it comes across as fairly adaptable. The caveat to that and the reason why I'm not advocating a wholesale adoption of the BES to the United States is because, secondly, I'd argue for the inclusion of elections to the House of Representatives which, in combination with Presidential Elections, means that you are running three models at once. While seemingly complicated, conceptually little will have changed; the campaigns themselves would still be done by region, with the results of that campaigning trickling down into the Presidential, Senatorial, and House algorithms for it. No Representatives would be named other then maybe a list(s) for Speakers. The seat count would take into account Party strength in a given State, with bonuses assigned to the controlling Party at the start of each Decade to represent Gerrymandering in their favor.
  • (P5) Not knowing much about the incoming Italian Election System (IES), it is entirely possible that I may advocate that one instead in the future.
• (P8) I would argue that many of the Vice Presidents should be made possible nominees for their respective Parties, as many of them would have the ambition and the exposure to be major contenders in their own right. However I do understand that that can cascade into a black hole of greater and greater magnitude when we then have to consider their running-mates and so on, in which case a set set should be used as often as possible where it makes sense. Having played as the United States multiple times at this point, I've just been surprised that not a single Vice President has been available for the Presidency, whereas about half of them since Roosevelt have at least been nominated for the Presidency.
• (P8) I feel that Wallace Bennett's Foci need a rework. This might be because it just hasn't been touched up yet, but there is very little in terms of flavor or variation when it comes to his Administration, and many of the foci take one or two months to complete which, when you factor in new Trees loading in on occasion, can prove incredibly annoying; I had a tree load in when I was forty-eight days into one focus. It honestly was not all that fun to play, and even from a narrative perspective it was incredibly dry with little meat to it.

(P6) In regards to The German Reich

• (P6) Unfortunately it seems as if the GroBraum isn't working as intended, at least if I'm not reading it wrong. While the GDP's within its constituent States are correct, the GDP Growth Rate seems to be failing to carry over somewhere along the algorithm which, at least in the long run, would be rather problematic. I also found that it was most cost-effective to simply max out the amount of resources I could devote to the GroBraum, 10% GDP investment; 210 PP isn't anything to sneeze at certainly, but I'm not sure if it was the intention to enlarge the budget to that extent with no real consequences. The resettlement of the Slave Population also locked out once the Skilled Workforce maxed out, again not sure if by design. Finally, I thought that the GroBraum would have been extended to Germany's Client States in much the same way as the Zollverein is, though you wouldn't have been able to economically penetrate them to the same extent, least not without additional effort.
• (P7) Goering needs some sort of menu or GUI that properly explains his War Economy model, as it is very easy, least in my experience some weeks back, for a crash to come without you even realizing it is around the corner. It also isn't obvious what having different sectors of the economy invested in the War Economy does, in this case referring to one of the effects that at least comes with the plundering of the Reichskmossariats, or whether their participation is necessarily good or bad.
• (P7) This is more me, but I do wish that the Pre-Civil-War period was a fair bit more.... fluid then it currently is. I vaguely remember some of the earliest Dev Diaries that discussed the ability of the chosen successor to weaken their opponents so as to give them a greater advantage in the coming Civil War, if not preempt the Civil War entirely, and I'd like to see that return in some form. That isn't to say I'm arguing the Civil War should itself be easier; any action say..... Goering takes against Borman would have a chance to backfire on him, strengthening Borman at his expense, or even if it works it, Speer or Heydrich may stand to gain more. Avoiding the Civil War entirely should be neigh impossible, requiring an essentially perfect series of rolls through numerous events and foci, with the current state of the Civil War being the "Average" result.
• (P7) Phase 2 of Speer's Foci really needs to start with the "State of the Reich" and "The Silver Tongue" Tree. From a story perspective this is required as it lays the initial groundwork for all the other Trees in Phase 2, and it doesn't make sense when doing it in reverse. From a gameplay perspective it means that players and the AI can miss early on considerable bonuses to Germany's development, and delays the reformation of the Eastern Territories which in turn leaves some outside the Zollverein.
  • (P9) Technically this applies to a fair few more than Germany, but any Military Government like the Reichskommisariats that needs German manpower to survive should have that weekly manpower subtracted from Germany, so as to reflect at least some of the consequences of maintaining a presence over such an extensive area. This would also amplify, for example, if Germany is willing to send greater numbers of German recruits to the Schild during the South African War, as opposed to having them recruit native Africans.

(P9) In regards to Warfare

• (P9) At the moment Static AA Guns are being given a gargantuan bonus to their reduction in damage from bombing, to the point that Strategic Bombing of any kind is impossible within any State that has two or more Static AA. I personally do not believe that they should be reducing the amount of damage being done, but I'm not sure if their lethality can be increased through research either. The AA Guns themselves at the moment seem far too lethal as well, at least in terms of the number of aircraft they are shooting down, but that might be an error on my part; using Linebacker II as a baseline, a State with five Static AA should be capable of taking down (~3 to 4) aircraft for every hundred sorties flown.
• (P9) It is something of an understatement to say that the AI for HOI4 needs to be improved, but I'd argue that any improvements that can be made and haven't already been enacted should be considered. I will point to the Expert AI 4.0 Mod on Steam as an example to pull from, particularly for how it manages to square the circle when it comes to Naval Invasions or Multi-Front conflicts.

(P4) In regards to Industry and Production

• (P4) At the moment I will point to the HOI4 Mod ULTRA ( https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1516163124 ) in terms of some changes I believe should happen in the industrial sphere; I am not advocating to go to their lengths, but I'd argue that a number of their ideas have merit even if they were simplified. Production Costs themselves I think need a rebalance across the board, though I'm not sure what the universal unit of measurement should be; I'd argue man-hours would make the most sense, but then I haven't had a lot of luck determining what those are for many vehicles, planes or ships. That may be a task more suited for someone quite Learned in that area. If nothing else, take influence from it and with their permission mold it to suit TNO's purposes.
• (P9) Another Mod I'd recommend looking at would be BlackICE, and there is a lot that can be drawn from it. For example, though it doesn't apply directly to this section, BlackICE enables countries to stockpile their resources, meaning that even though your military production might eventually outstrip local production and imports, you will have a period of time available to rectify it with your industry not being interrupted. Specialized "Factories" can be built which will reduce the production costs of certain equipment such as Light or Heavy Aircraft, Naval Surface Ships or Submarines, Tanks or Artillery, and so on. A second type of Static AA is introduced which is more expensive but also more effective then traditional AA, which can be translated over relatively nicely. Quite a bit of UI stuff as well, including the ability to hide certain lines of production so it is never cluttered.

(P2) In regards to Resources and Trade:

• (P2) The algorithm for Trade by Land or Sea should be changed. Convoys in general should be far more prevalent then they currently are, if for no other reason then it is far more economical to do so in most cases. It's strange that as, say, the Iberian Union, I wouldn't need to use Convoys to trade with India, Thailand or South Africa. That being said I am not sure if it can be modified, or to want extent.
• There should to be more resources on the map, or they should be spread across a wider number of States in cases where doing so makes sense. This is actually a relatively minor issue especially as TNO has done rather well giving a wide number of States some manner of local production, but the fewer resource sparse States the better.
  • (P2) The above was not quite the right way to put it; want I would desire to see is more balancing of the resources in accordance to where they naturally occur, and in a way hopefully have it so that many States have their own value.
  • (P2) For example, Chromium. Turns out it is extremely hard to find a basic map for Chromite Deposits globally, and a large part of that is because most mines they gather Chromite tend to gather other stuff as well. However one type of Chromium, Podiform Chromium, can only gathered in certain places as identified by this map here ( https://mrdata.usgs.gov/podchrome/map-us.html#home ), which suddenly puts a lot more importance on places like Turkey, the Philippines, New Caledonia and Cuba. Some maps seem to suggest that Chromite Mines are more spread out than that, such as here ( https://i.imgur.com/4siJbO0.png ), but that map is far from definitive as to actual Chromite Mines, the source itself suggesting it is good for estimation but not hard data. Not having the hard locations though, we can at least look at the national output by country. I was pulling a lot of that information from here ( https://www.usgs.gov/centers/nmic/bureau-mines-minerals-yearbook-1932-1993 ), but obviously it is hard to tell when a country is holding back or overdoing it in terms of production. However, no matter the period, it is obvious that the most important sources of Chromite during TNO's time period, besides those already mentioned above, would be South Africa and the former Rhodesias (they actually have most of the World's reserves), the former Kazak SSR, Albania, Yugoslavia and India. Brazil and Madagascar could be thrown in as well. The reality then is that many countries would need to trade for Chromium, and with the Alliances refusing to trade with one another, keeping at least one of the major producers within your network becomes critical. Puts a rather huge emphasis on the South African War for the OFN and the Pakt.
  • (P3) Another example is Tungsten, though it is far less limited in terms of sources that can be drawn from. The source for the Bureau of Mines and Minerals above in the Chromium section applies here. The information on reserves is less clear beyond the top dogs, though they are generally considered to be China, Canada, Russia and Kazakhstan. Without the reserve information it is a bit difficult to tell what could be economically extracted at the time, and in doing so determine how production might be in this situation. On the surface though it seems that each of the major Alliances should have decent access to Tungsten resources, the Japanese to an extreme and the Pakt far less so upon their loss of Afrika.
  • (P3) Part of me feels that Iron should be the natural resource rather then Steel, and to get Steel you'd either need to process it through a Mill, or it would be processed in a similar nature to how Fuel is processed from Oil. I am certain that there are a number of Mods that have done this or are doing this, but as a whole at the moment this is more of a vague concept if anything.
• (P7) I am not sure if it is possible to code, but something I have always advocated for is that Resources that are not "Bought" in the World Market can be used by their Country of Origin. Essentially, each Country would have "Unprotected" Resources, those available to the Market, and "Reserved" Resources, those which are protected from the Market. Either can be used in Local Production, but access to your "Unprotected" Resources is not guaranteed.
  • (P9) This can be superseded if stockpiles are implemented, or it would be more beneficial in combination since by itself the supply is would be rather erratic at times, which can admittedly get annoying.

Now onto more General Matters:

• I believe that the each country should be assigned its own set of Research Modifiers, akin to the Tech Schools that exist in Victoria. Conceptually, this would be meant to represent a nation's aptitude in certain fields of research, or their ineptitude in about as many cases, and in doing so pressure the player into tailoring their strategy to those strengths. These Modifiers could in turn however be, well, modified by certain choices in the Focus Tree, meaning that over the long-term the player could mold the Modifiers in other directions. I'm not sure how viable it is, but it would push a lot of players like myself to adapt their strategies from nation to nation, rather then stick to a handful and force them where possible.
• (P7) The "Advisor" Levels that relate to the number of Volunteers a State can send should also effect the number of Airwings they can throw into the Conflict.
• (P3) I have some misgivings regarding some of the nuclear wars that can occur, primarily the ones where a Nation is said to have a single device. For me, it comes across as odd that Armageddon can be triggered in a situation where one nation may not realistically even be able to deploy their nuclear weapon except as a massive land mine or artillery shell; it would take quite a few years after initial development to miniaturize nuclear development to a point where it could be placed into a Ballistic Missile or used to Arm a Fighter Plane, though I suppose Burgundy itself could be sped along given its penetration of Germany's Research Teams. However I do also recognize that this might be impossible to separately code.
• The Maintenance, Field Hospital and Logistics Support Companies should be combined and represented by a Catch-All Support Company. This idea was borne out of my attempts to make a Submod where Divisions had a natural floor level of Casualty Trickleback, and was suggested by another when it had thus far proved impossible to implement as intended. Conceptually, the idea is that every Division template, both Human and AI, will have this MFL Support Company attached to it, allowing everyone to benefit from researching those techs. This would enable Armies to fight far longer as their manpower isn't converted exclusively into KIA (at least in game terms), while allowing for a greater variance in the makeup of Support Companies (I tend to use at least Main. and Hosp. in all my Divisions as is) and ensuring the AI makes use of them. The Research aspect, beyond the First Tier, should function in much the same way as the Armored Vehicle Research I think, upgrades to the Main., Hosp., and Logistics aspects being separate.
• AI behavior needs to account for nations and factions that they are technically Allied with, and they need to better respond to certain Crises or Conflicts. The Italian Governate of the Levant has been the worst case of this for me, as I've had times where, upon leaving Italy's control in the weeks before the start of the Italo-Turkish War, they'd opted to position their Armies along the Suez and the Saudi Border, essentially ignoring the Turkish one; the Turks were then met with little opposition till they pushed into Palestine, and even then the units were so dispersed as to make the Italian Resistance ineffectual. Now this is a case by case basis as I've seen a number of countries where this has been taken into account and programmed for, but it might need another pass.
• Finally, I'd argue that there need to be more Divisions on the map. Now before anyone shoots me, let me explain. When I mentioned my Submod before, it was expressly with the intention of testing whether this idea was even viable; seeing the AI and players often walk Divisions right past one another in unopposed advances, Russia being particularly bad with this at the moment, I wanted to see if downsizing the Divisions could possibly make the Fronts "solid", meaning that every advance would at least initially be opposed. In practice, what I did was essentially cut down the manpower and equipment of every Brigade and Company to (~33%) of what it normally would be, then tripled the number of Divisions; this means that every Army has the same or technically fewer Troops, but has more freedom to move them around the map. In testing it seems to work fairly well, and I hadn't noted any drop in terms of FPS. Examples of this suggestion in practice are here on Madagascar ( https://i.imgur.com/7CVJFb2.png ) and here in Ostland ( https://i.imgur.com/j3IW3I1.png ). However, as I have only tested the Submod on my own machine thus far, I don't know if other computers manage as well. Still, it is something I strongly advocate, so long as it is viable and practical.

Thanks to any of you who take the time to read through this ramblin' list of suggestions, and hopefully I will have prompted a number of you to debate their merits. I aim to continually update this as I play through the various paths presently available in TNO, and hopefully in time might mark some of this stuff off in the coming updates. Until next, when Metatron sounds his horn.