My 43m brother 38m and I have not had a good relationship in almost 20 years. My brother is a recovering addict and prior to getting clean, did some really terrible things to me that I have not and cannot forgive him for. He stole money that that I needed to get my kids formula and diapers, stole my credit card and charged almost $6k in online gambling and stole my car. My wife and I let him stay with us prior to his last stint in jail and he brought random women into our home, and my wife caught him using drugs in our guest room, so I threw him out. I have been no contact ever since.
Five years ago my brother got clean, and while I am very happy for him, I still do not want a relationship, despite him trying repeatedly to get me to talk to him, I have refused all of his attempts at contact.
Last week my mother called and said that my brother and his wife and their baby (6 months old) were getting kicked out of her parents house for not paying rent. My mother asked if he could stay with us and I told her no. She begged and pleaded with me that the baby would be homeless and asked how I could do that to my own nephew. I discussed it with my wife and she said that his wife and baby could stay with us for 30 days while he found them a place to live, but he is not welcomed in our home. I agreed and told my mother that that was all we were willing to offer him.
She gave my my SIL's phone number and I called her and made the offer that her and baby could stay for 30 days but that my brother was not allowed near my home. SIL then started yelling about how I cannot make limits on this and family should help family and I need to let the past be in the past. I disagreed and told her that either she and the baby could take the 30 days or find someone else to take them in. She refused and said that I was trying to tear her family apart.
My mother is furious with me and is demanding I apologize and let my brother and his family come stay with me. She claims that I am the only one who has the room, and I do, but I refuse to allow my brother in my house.
AITA for not letting them live with me?

Disclaimer I want to thank everyone for the gilds, replies and suggestions. I just do not have time to reply to everyone, but I am reading everything. I am not sure how much bigger the thread can be, I already typed this but it vanished so I think I'm at the limit. I will try to keep updating, but I don't expect the thread to be up top for much longer and will likely vanish soon, so if you need anything save it.
Yes, it's hard, it sucks, it's depressing. It is something we all have to do if you want to see this virus go. Everyone knows the deal, too many think they're the exception but no one is. However, staying home is hard so maybe I can help at least one or two people with some incentives. I'll try to give links to some things that can help cure the boredom, and some support if you need it.
Most of this might be obvious to some, some might not even have internet and of course, money is a big issue, so I'll try to give some suggestions:
For streaming and on demand things such as Netflix et al, don't forget you can subscribe for free for your first month. This goes for most things in the list. If you are worried about putting in your payment details and forgetting to cancel a month later, don't worry! You can sign up and immediately cancel and you still get your free month!
For people who don't have a smart TV, you can buy a cheap Amazon Fire TV stick or a Roku box. The Fire stick can go as low as £20 often for 1080p. It will drop to £30 for 4k.
I picked up a 4k Roku device for £18 on Amazon once. It's fast and snappy. currently it's going for £33 for the 4k version. Having both, there is little difference between the devices. NowTV also do their own roku powered device.
Subscription based streaming sites that all offer 2-4 weeks free for first timers

• Netflix *According to comments the second month is free.
  
• Amazon Prime You can either get Amazon video on its own, or take prime with other benefits. I strongly urge those who use Amazon for buying off their store front to use [https://smile.amazon.co.uk/] as there is literally no difference except everything you buy amazon donates to a charity of your choice.
  
• Now TV (I believe it's 7 days)
  
• Disney+
  
• Britbox
  
• Amazon channels. I believe you can get all these individually but Amazon offers them as channels bound to your prime account, and they are again either free for a couple weeks (again, take them, cancel instantly) or very cheap. I recently subscribed to Starzplay for £1 for 3 months. It has some good shows on it like Fringe, doom patrol. It also has channels like Curiosity stream and shudder
  

If you have not subscribed to the any of the above, you can get a few months of free TV by signing up and cancelling instantly. I suggest waiting at least 5 minutes just to let it go through the system.
Some tips for Now TV. IF you already have a subscription, I've noticed you can get it cheaper by cancelling. When you cancel they will beg you to stay. Select "I can not afford it this month" and they should beg again, telling you what shows they have. If you say you still want to cancel, they'll beg one last time and offer you the subscription for cheaper. This won't work every month, but I've noticed they'll always offer it the first time, then again after a couple months. If you're subscribed to both films and entertainment do the most expensive one as it may not work both times (but it might!). You can also pick up passes from storefronts a lot cheaper sometimes, before I could pick one up on Amazon for £3 but, they seem to have cracked down on it. If you shop around (or if anyone knows of a legitimate store please let me know) you might be able to pick it up cheaper. Lastly, check their website and under your account they should have an "offers for you" section.
Completely free TV

• Pluto TV
  
• Viki
  
• Roku
  

If you do have a smart TV and/or device, there are some good free streaming apps. One I really love is called PlutoTV. I know this is on both Roku and the fire stick, as well as Ps4/Ps5 and xbox.
Pluto offers a bunch of live channels and now an on demand section, all for free. It has adverts but they are actually short (shorter than regular TV and fewer of them). Some of the channels are just streaming certain shows like Mythbusters 24/7 or Dog the bounty hunter, but it has a lot of old movie channels as well as 24/7 kickboxing and MMA. It also has a 24/7 poker channel I quite like.
Another one I like is Rakuten Viki however, I haven't watched it for a while as my fire stick is only 1080p and I have too many other devices attached. I believe it is on Roku but you have to jump through some hoops and have an account. The last I checked on the fire stick you did not. Viki offers a metric ton of Asian shows, mainly from Japan and South Korea but it does have chinese, Malaysian etc. It has subtitles. Some Japanese shows are hysterical, albeit weird.
Roku also do their own channels with free shows if you own a device.
For those who don't have a smart TV or a Streaming device, you can set up your own computer as a dedicated streaming device with Plex. It's been a while since I used it but I believe it now also offers free movies and TV.
Anime
If you are into Anime there is

• Crunchyroll
  
• Funimation
  
• HiDive
  

The first 2 are free to watch, or offer premium without ads which you can have a trial with. Crunchyroll is the better of the two with more original choice for Japanese voice and subs, while Funimation has more Dubs. I don't believe HiDive is free to watch but you do get a 2 week trial. These are more exclusives than the previous two.
PC Centric software
If you are a gamer or like Audiobooks or anything that uses computers for things like music making, programming or graphic design

• Humble Bundle
  
• Fanatical
  
• IndieGala
  

Humble Bundle offers, as per the name, bundles. A long running site that got bought out by IGN. It offers both single items and bundles you can buy individually/as a pack while also offering a separate monthly subscription for around £8-9. The subscription gives you 12 games on average per month. That's the simplest explanation but it changes somewhat as sometimes you get to pick 10 out of 14 games, or get all 12.
Humble bundle offers more than just games though. Every Tuesday they bring a new bundle of games, while Thursday (I "think) a new bundle of books. They very often have books from the Black Library giving you a ton of Warhammer books. Sometimes it's standard E-books, other times it's audiobooks. A few times a year they do bundles for graphic design, a typical bundle would include programs like Paintshop Pro Corel Painter etc, They usually go for £0.76 for tier 1 up to around £18 for tier 3, which would include 4-6 full titles with 10+ addons. They also often have Music making bundles or video editing software as well as Programming or video game development.
The bundles change often, they usually have around 11 bundles at a time that last for 20 days. Sometimes it's trash but they do often have some very good deals.
Fanatical offers the same as humble bundle except usually not as high quality, but sometimes they do have some incredible deals, and they are very very cheap.
Both humble and fanatical are safe, trusted and been around a long time, and they are NOT grey market key sites. They work with the publishers and developers. You can buy games both old and new for a lot cheaper than you would most other places. Unless it states otherwise, keys are usually for steam.
**BOTH HB and Fanatical (HB much more common) offer free games fairly often. The catch is linking your steam account to them (at least HB). It is safe however.
IndieGala is another site like above. Except, these are much much lower quality. However, they offer a metric ton of free games. Quality is low but it is legitimate, and a lot of free stuff.
Game Store Fronts

• Steam This one is so obvious I didn't add it, but apparently many want me to. It is the best out there, and you can find almost everything, with fantastic deals.
  
• Greenmangaming offers games cheaply. Again, not a grey market site (which are legal but unethical) and they sometimes do bundles.
  
• GoG (Good old games) is a DRM free site run by CDPR, the makers of the Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk. They offer you games quite cheap and not needing DRM (such as Steam, Uplay etc which is less invasive versions of dodgy DRM from the olden days).
  
• Epic Games Despite the controversy whether you care about their rivalry with valve, they offer free games ever week. Without ever having bought anything I have gained over 170 games. literally. Good games for the most part. They often give you £10 coupons as well.
  
• Twitch Everyone knows twitch, but if you don't, it's a streaming service for watching gamers and girls with low cut tops accidentally bending over in front of the game. However, if you're signed up to prime, you get free games each month (and randomly between the set bunch).
  
• Playstation Store Currently has January sales. Currently the free games for PS+ are for PS4: Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Greedfall. For the Ps5 it is Maneater
  
• Games with Gold Bleed 2 and the King of Fighters XIII is available until Janurary 15th whilst little Nightmares is available until January 31st.
  

Gaming Subscriptions
Like the TV versions, you can sign up to these for a free trial (or very cheap). If you do sign up to only one at a time, it should keep you busy for a few months

• Xbox Game Pass You can do this on both/either an Xbox or PC. If you sign up to the regular one, you can get a month (maybe three!) for £1. After you have done that, you can sign up to the premium version for 3 months at £1 a month. Most people know game pass, but you can download a large selection of games for free. The premium version gives you games with gold, allowing you to keep the games forever (but can only play with a subscription)
  
• Ubisoft+ I'm not 100% sure if you get a trial or not. This allows a large collection of Ubisoft titles to play for £12.99 a month. Quite expensive but good if you like Ubisoft titles I guess.
  
• EA Play EA's version. Goes by a ton of names I think, EA Access, EA Play, Origin Access etc etc. There's a couple of versions of this, and it is across all platforms (PS4/5, Xbox, PC) but not sure about the switch. I "think" the premium allows you to play on all platforms, while the cheaper one on a single platform, but I may be mistaken.
  
• PS Now a once terrible service that is now actually very good. Allows you to download some Ps4 games to your PS4/5 and lets you stream a massive amount of Ps2/3/4 to your PC or playstation.
  

There's more like nvidia's service but you need the Shield device which is quite expensive. I'll leave it at that.
Audiobooks & Ebooks

• Audible Not sure what the current deal is but if you are a prime member you can sign up for a trial and get a free Audiobook each month for 3 months. Some warhammer books are 48 hours long, 3 of those gives you a good 100+ hours of listening!
  
• Comixology Another Amazon company, but lets you download some free comics I believe.
  
• Marvel Unlimited No experience with this. ItFuckingWont wanted me to add it. A subscription service for Marvel.
  

Education

• Sign Language BSL here No experience myself, suggested by n21brown and asked for a few times. Didn't know SL was so popular! Listed as "Pay what you can"
  
• BBC's Bitesize here is apparently good for home learning. Again, no personal experience.
  

If you need some spare change
Okay, I don't generally bother with it, but maybe some of this could be useful to you. These are NOT a quick way to make a fortune. These are small things you can do over time for a bit of pocket change

• If you have prime you can get a FREE FIVE POUND GIFT CARD by literally just streaming a song from Amazon music (which is included in prime) here is the details According to the comments it's only for select people, but it's worth trying If the link doesn't work for you just google "Amazon £5 coupon music"
  
• Now, these sorts of sites have been around for years, I haven't used any other than talkInsights which I must have signed up to 10-15 years ago. Basically they send you surveys and you answer them. They are confidential and don't ask for personal details in the survey. You need 2000 points and you get £20. During the pandemic they've slowed down but I probably get around £40 a year. Not much I know, but it's an email followed by a quick survey ticking boxes. Depending on your answer sometimes you get screened out, I'm not telling you to lie but just be consistent with your answers and you should be able to work out how to not get screened. Some emails are only worth 20 points, others 200. It's slow to get to the 2000 but very quick to just answer a few questions.
  
• Apparently beermoneyuk is a good sub to make some pocket change with.
  
• There is also matched betting. I have never done this, I don't have the patience but from what I've read, it's legitimate, it works and you can make a fair amount of cash from it so long as you do it correctly, and there's a ton of guides. I mention this because people stuck at home could get into it and as long as you're careful (I.E not entering in the wrong numbers) it's risk free AND it pisses off the betting shops. It seems people in comments have had success with it. Disclaimer A couple have complained about gambling. This arguably is not gambling. If you are susceptible to addiction do not do it. However, it's argued that there is no fun or buzz in this, and it's a very tedious and time consuming thing. Others argue you can't make the same money anymore (People were making thousands, now only hundreds if that). It's risk free providing you know what you're doing, the risks are user error, such as entering the wrong numbers. Someone pointed out that due to the lockdown, bets could potentially be cancelled due to sport stopping. So use on a side of caution. We're (mainly) adults so I'll leave it up just because this doesn't have the excitement of regular gambling.
  
• Microsoft Rewards This is an easy way to make pocket change doing very little. Most people have a MS account. The rewards program offers you numerous ways to grab points, by playing free to play games, answering small questions (you don't even need to answer most of the time, just open the link and shut it) and by using bing and searching on it. I've gotten 20k points JUST by answering questions over a couple months. There are many rewards but you can grab a £5 gift card for 6k for example, or a month of game pass (and AFAIK you can make points playing the games)
  
• Google rewards Someone mentioned this in the comments. I have not used it, so can not give any input on it. Sounds similar to TalkInsights which I linked. Google states "Complete short surveys while standing in line, or waiting for a subway. Get rewarded with Google Play or PayPal credit for each one you complete. Topics include everything from opinion polls, to hotel reviews, to merchant satisfaction surveys. We’ll notify you when a survey is waiting."
  

That's it for now. I will try to update as I go along. A long post but I hope that it can help some of you with finding something good to do that's free, cheap or a bargain. I do suggest getting prime, especially since you get free music, free delivery, free TV and music and free video games each month. In fact, there's a ton of perks and I feel I've gotten way over the cost investment.
Hope it helps someone at least
PartTimeCrazy said if you bought an Apple product you get 3 free months of Apple Arcade and Apple TV free for a year
fakehunted is upset I didn't mention wanking. Tesco have 225 sheets of Tissue for £0.75!
tale_lost suggested Project Gutenberg for a collection of free E-Books
Learning Language
Unfortunately, I don't have time to check every link listed so I will link the comments:
Togtogtog Gives a lot of links for Spanish

• Duolingo Numerous people have suggested this So I haven't used myself. Thanks to OhHiGCHQ StephanieMecredy & Allorie_95

Board & Tabletop games
Corporal_Anaesthetic has made a list of Board games
ilyemco suggested these
HEALTH
I'm not a doctor! But if you're a smoker, something I strongly suggest is to quit. I struggled for years but in the first lockdown I quit, technically. I haven't had a cigarette since, however, I do that silly thing millennials do. I vape, but, it made quitting extremely easy. I would not have been able to do it if it wasn't for 88Vape They sell extremely cheap liquids at £1 each. You can find these in B&M but you can pick up 25 for £20 or buy your own mix.
Vitamin D deficiency has been said to be a big problem for the virus. I'd suggest (again, not a doctor!) that you pick some up. Tesco do a 3 for 2 deal. So you can pick up 270 tablets for £7.
If you are vulnerable you MIGHT be able to phone tesco and get put on their delivery saver list (currently it's paused but phoning may help. At the very least they might give you a priority slot. I did this for my mum, we didn't shop at Tesco but I phoned for her, and they put her on with no hassle, so she can always get a delivery.
HELP & ADVICE
The lockdown Rules.
Reasons to leave home include:

• Work or volunteering where it is "unreasonable" to work from home. This includes work in someone else's home, such as that carried out by social workers, nannies, cleaners and tradespeople
  
• Education, training, childcare and medical appointments and emergencies
  
• Exercise outdoors (limited to once a day). This includes meeting one other person from another household in an open public space to exercise
  
• Shopping for essentials such as food and medicine
  
• Communal religious worship
  
• Meeting your support or childcare bubble. Children can also move between separated parents Activities related to moving house
  

I want to add, if you are in danger you are also allowed (and must!) to get away from the situation for some reason, BBC seems to have missed this very important thing (or I am blind)

• To flee the threat of harm or violence.*
  
• CoronaVirus Symptoms
  
• CoronaVirus government site You can check your location and how many cases here.
  
• Worldometers Shows cases around the world.
  
• Interactive UK Map Another easy to read map with cases in counties and local area's.
  
• World Health Organisation
  

Support

• Samaritans
  
• Mental Health UK forum on reddit
  
• Link to above's stick post for support outlets
  
• Mindful
  
• Mind.org
  

FOR THOSE SHIELDING YOU CAN CONTACT THE ROYAL VOLUNTARY SERVICE. These people helped my mother with picking up her medicine from the chemist. They were very helpful and went out their way to keep in touch and do it immediately. (It's the only experience I have with them though)
_riotingpacifist wanted these links added, but I simply just don't have the time to vet and check all the suggestions here, so I will link as is:

• https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/
  
• https://www.goodsamapp.org/
  
• https://vaccinationvolunteers.sja.org.uk/roles/volunteer-vaccinator.html
  
• https://nhsvolunteerresponders.org.uk/getting-you-started-guide-steward-volunteer
  
• https://peoplesmomentum.com/evictionresistance/
  
• https://londonrentersunion.org/
  

Update:
Digital Art
These are Free

• Krita Arguably the best in my opinion. It has a load of options, brushes and a decent UI. It works fantastic with a tablet.
  
• Gimp This is a decent program but last I used, the UI was a pain, and it isn't so user friendly while misses features, but it works, and it is possible to do some incredible creations on it.
  
• Medibang Paint This is slightly geared towards Comics and Manga. I really enjoy using this with my drawing Tablet. As far as I know, it also for regular tablets for Android/Ipad and is free.
  

You can pick up a drawing tablet on Amazon quite cheap these days! Small ones that are just a black slate such as the wacom ones are good but takes some practice to get use to, but very worth it if you can't afford a dedicated drawing tablet with a screen.
Office suit software
A couple of free applications for word processing, spreadsheets etc.

• LibreOffice This has most the average user would need to write their own books or to work from home. There's not a huge amount of difference between the two I'm linking (since I last used anyway) so it's more for preference.
  
• Open Office You can pick this up here and again, like above it's just preference.
  

Music Making
I'm going to direct to matthewharris806 for some links as all the programs I've used like Reason are expensive, or cheaper stuff in bundles such as Magix software.
Games development
D_Dad_Default gives some links for that here

Note: I was technically supposed to post this earlier this week, but noticed that no one was signed up for today (plus I was super busy earlier), so I'm posting a bit late, under a throwaway account! Fair warning: I'm VERY verbose, so this will be long!
Section One: Assets and Debt
As I mentioned above, I make $56k per year as an administrator in higher education. My husband (K) just got a raise to making $155k per year. He works as a lawyer, has been in the workforce for about 12 years. I won't get into too many details but he works for a small boutique firm, not Biglaw. He also sometimes gets a yearly bonus of around $10k-20k but it's not guaranteed or anything like that. K and I have totally combined finances, so the below numbers are for both of us. I have a humanities PhD but I decided to leave academia and find an alt-ac job. My current position has good work-life balance (I never work past 5 pm), but pays terribly and my university is very badly run. I'm hoping to leave higher education all together in the future and am currently enrolled in a certificate program to try to make a career transition to instructional design.
The big elephant in the room is that my husband, K, makes a lot more money than me. When we first met, he was paying off massive amounts of student loans and making much less, and I was debt free with a lot of savings, so we both spent about the same amount. Now he makes 3x what I make and we are both debt-free, so the difference is much more noticeable. We do argue about money sometimes (more in the past), but the reality is that I have a humanities PhD and will likely never out earn him, and he knew that when I married him, lol. Because of all the labor I do around the house and in our lives to support him as he works a much more intense job, I was very clear that I believed we should split our finances equally as soon as we got married. We don't have separate accounts and we generally check in with one another whenever we are planning to spend more than $100. This system works for us for now.
I also want to address the question about parental or family support. Although I technically paid all of my own bills since I got my Bachelor's degree, my parents supported me a lot by paying for my flights home to visit at Christmas or in the summer as Xmas presents/birthday presents. My parents also paid for my undergraduate degree (and K's parents paid for his undergraduate degree as well). They also gave us about $15k to pay for our wedding.
Finally, my parents recently gave me $20k as an "early inheritance." They told me they plan to do this every year (depending on the stock market). We put this money into a brokerage. I don't consider my parents rich, as they both worked hourly jobs in health care my entire life (as a nurse and respiratory therapist - both with only associate's degrees). We never owned a new car, when we went on vacation we stayed in hostels , and shopped almost exclusively at Goodwill. But they scrimped and saved and now they have over $1 million in a retirement account. So I want to acknowledge my financial privilege in that I came from this kind of background. K's parents are similar.
Retirement Balance: $186k (combination of 401k, 403b, 457, 2 Roth IRAs, and taxable brokerage account).
Equity: None, we rent.
Savings account balance: Approximately $45k.
Checking account balance: Right now, around 8k.
Credit card debt: Right now, around $3k. But we pay it off each month with our checking account balance.
Student loan debt: $0. We finally paid off my husband’s law school loans (around $130k), last year. I didn’t have any student loans from undergrad (parents paid) and my MA & PhD were fully funded.
Section Two: Income
Income Progression: I’ve been working in my current field for 3 years. I started off making about $53k and got tiny 2% “merit increases” twice. Then in July my payroll title was changed, which triggered a required raise of about $2k. (I am dramatically underpaid).
Before my current position, I was in academia. I worked as a visiting assistant professor for one year at my alma mater (made $50k for 9 months of work) and before that I was a graduate student for 7 years. I was paid $18k-21k in stipends each year and my tuition & benefits were covered. Luckily, I lived in a very low cost of living area and this was enough for me to live on without going into debt. I got my PhD in 2017. Before I was a graduate student, I taught English in Japan for three years and made around $36k per year. In high school and college, I had random jobs that provided grocery/spending money, but I was lucky enough to have parents that paid my tuition and my rent in college.
I’m currently trying to make a career change (as you will see in my diary) and enrolled in a certificate program which runs from Autumn 2020 to Spring 2021 in order to help with that.
Main Job Monthly Take Home: $7,634. This probably seems low relative to our joint income, but we max out our 401k (K) and 403b (me). I work for the state government, which means I’m also eligible for something called a Deferred Compensation Plan (457b). This is basically the same as a 401k but you can withdraw contributions and gains from the account at any age without penalty (of course, you still have to pay taxes). I also max this out, and the limit is the same as a 401k/403b - $19.5k. Also this number is before K’s raise is accounted for. It won’t increase until his end of February paycheck.
Other deductions - I have health insurance taken out (about $80 a month for me, K’s firm covers his premiums) and taxes. WA has no state taxes, so it’s only federal taxes. I used to have to pay $50 / month for a bus pass (K's was free), but I don’t pay any longer because I’m working from home during COVID.
Final note - the sum I mentioned in the headline includes a variable bonus my husband gets. My base pay is $56k and his is $155k (as of February 1). This year he also got a bonus of $20k, which is set up a bit strangely. About $4k of this was structured as a 3% matching contribution to his 401k and the rest was taxable income. In small law firms, it’s unusual to get any 401k match so this was nice.
Side Gig Monthly Take Home: None.
Any Other Monthly Income Here: We get some interest from our savings account… like $25 a month.
Section Three: Expenses
Rent: Rent comes to approximately $2,050 total for a one-bedroom apartment. Rent itself is $1886, then we have pet rent ($25 per month), bicycle parking ($15 a month) and water / sewage / gas, which is usually $120-150 (variable cost).
Renters insurance: $157.76, paid annually. $13 a month.
Retirement contribution: In addition to the 401k, 403b, and 457, which all come out before taxes, we max out our Roth IRAs. That means $500 each per month per person (for a yearly total of $6k each). As I noted up top, we match out our 401k and 403b (19,500 each) and our 457. My employee also offers a 7.5% match. K's employee offers a 3% match but it is included in his yearly bonus so it's not guaranteed (confusing).
Savings contribution: We put $500 per month into our emergency fund. We also put about $860 a month into our “sinking fund,” which covers large and small annual or sporadic purchases such as vacations, gifts, Amazon Prime renewal, car insurance and renters insurance, etc.
Investment contribution: $875 per month into a taxable brokerage at Vanguard.
In total, we save about 47% of our gross income. We can do this because we keep our housing cost low relative to our high income, we don’t have any debt remaining, we don’t have any kids or parents who need financial support, and we’re very privileged in a lot of ways. We are hoping to FIRE within 10 years.
Debt payments: None.
Donations: We budget $100 per month for donations, which includes one-time donations as well as some reoccurring donations. My husband does pro bono work as well. I would like to increase this by quite a bit, but I still have a hard time budgeting for donations because I spent 7 years living on approximately $20k a year. To go from that to making more than 10x that amount within 3-4 years is obviously something that I am very privileged for, but it is still hard for me emotionally to comprehend at times.
Electric: ~$50-100 (billed every other month)
Wifi/Cable/Landline: An extortionate $87.12 for slow internet that only works for Zoom calls about half the time. Do I really live in one of the tech cities of the future?
Cellphone: $170 (This includes both service and paying off two new iPhones. We could have paid them off up front, but it was actually cheaper by like $50 to go on a payment plan.)
Subscriptions: BritBox ($7.70), Spotify ($16.50), HBOMax ($16.50), We Hate Movies Patreon (my favorite podcast - $8.81). My parents pay for Netflix and my sister pays for Hulu, and we all share.
Gym membership: None. K and I both run and do yoga with YouTube videos. Before the pandemic, we went to yoga classes pretty frequently in person. I’d like to do some online synchronous yoga classes but find it hard to make time.
Pet expenses: Varies, but I budget $50 per month and also include an emergency fund for my cat’s vet bills in our sinking fund. She’s 11 years old and probably asthmatic, so I know her vet bills are going to increase over time.
Car payment / insurance: We own our car outright. Insurance billed yearly is $2,097, about $174 per month.
Regular therapy: $0
Paid hobbies: Nothing regular, sporadic language classes and art supplies.
Other expenses: Right now I’m doing a certificate to hopefully help with a career change. The total cost for tuition is about $5k and we already saved it up (included in our 'sinking fund') basically through spending less during the pandemic. I’ve paid two quarters so far, and the last quarter (due in March) will be a bit more - about $2.3k.
__________
Day 1
Morning: I wake up at 5:30 am. Ever since the pandemic, my sleep schedule has been shot. At first, I was so happy not to have to leave the house at 7:15 for my 45 minute bus commute and I slept in a lot. But the stress (and maybe getting old?) has made me an early riser, no matter how much I try to sleep in. I do value my early mornings with just me, my cat, and my coffee, though.
I start work at 8 am and begin by triaging my emails. I have a bunch of deadlines this week, so it’s busier than usual. My job tends to be very seasonal, and sometimes I have a ton of work and sometimes I have none and can work on other longer-term projects. I have a piece of toast for breakfast and place a Whole Foods delivery order for the following day at 10:30 am. We made a meal plan and put everything in the cart the day before ($117.36, including tip).
Afternoon: I have my lunch break from noon to 1 pm. It doesn’t really matter when I take my lunch break, since I’m salaried, but the others in my office are hourly so in the before times we used to always close our office during the same time. I have a piece of leftover delivery pizza and some spinach risotto that I made a few days earlier. I also have half a brownie – the last one from a batch I made a few days ago (K gets the other half). He also has leftovers for lunch.
I should say at this point that both K and I are lucky enough to have been working almost entirely from home since early March. An area near Seattle was one of the first places to get hit by COVID-19, and my state and both of our employers have been taking it very seriously ever since. Working from home hasn’t always been easy since we live in a 600-square foot apartment. Also, there is a three-story townhouse being built directly next door to us and I can hear the pounding in my dreams at this point.
Around 2 pm, I go for a 2-mile run. I feel like some money diarists tend to toss off things like “oh, I went for an easy 7 mile run,” at the drop of a hat, so I want to be clear – running for 2 miles isn’t easy for me; it’s exhausting, annoying, sweaty, and generally gross. Also I am very slow. But it has kept me sane during quarantine.
Meanwhile, my husband goes to our local pet store to get an enzymatic cleaner (our cat peed in one of our suitcases… I think it’s probably a lost cause, but it was basically brand new, so worth a try) and special weight-loss cat food. Our cat is an 11-year-old rescue from the Humane Society and she is a chonky girl. We had to sign a waiver when we adopted her, saying that we understood that she was very overweight, lol. Our vet recommended a special diet food, rather than just restricting her intake as we have been doing, so we will give it a try ($78). My husband also stops buy our local wine store and picks up two bottles. We’ve been doing a dry January, so this will be our first drink for a while ($27.53).
I have a phone interview scheduled for 4 pm – just a preliminary interview with an internal recruiter. It’s the first ‘corporate’ job interview I’ve ever had, since I’ve been in academia my entire life. I’m trying to make a pivot into instructional design / training and development. I’m just excited to get an interview. It seems to go pretty well, but who knows. They tell me they will probably get back to me by the end of this week.
Evening: My husband whips up a random meal of fridge remnants – pesto pasta with sausage and a fridge salad with feta and bell peppers. It’s pretty tasty with a little Sauvignon Blanc. During dinner, we play a card game we call gin rummy, although it bears no resemblance to the actual game. After dinner, I make a chocolate cake with orange buttercream frosting and we watch Cobra Kai.
Daily total: $222.89
Day 2
Morning: Up early again, a piece of toast for breakfast (very exciting). We’re out of eggs until our Whole Foods order arrives. I’m working on creating some tedious but necessary spreadsheets this morning.
Noon: Our Whole Foods order arrives around noon. Excitement! They’ve given us a half-rotten bag of romaine lettuce and substituted pecans for hazelnuts. I should probably just double mask and go to Trader Joe’s myself (our regular spot, only a 5-minute walk from my apartment). I’m just getting anxious about these new variants.
I have leftover meatloaf and spinach risotto again for lunch. Lots of meetings and more organizing spreadsheets in the afternoon. Around 3 pm, I go for my daily ritual - a 20-minute walk around my neighborhood. It’s still raining slightly but I need to get out. Halfway through the walk, I get an email from my apartment manager telling me the apartment will no longer accept debit card payments, direct deposit, or credit card payments for paying rent. In other words, only checks or money orders (?!). Ugh. Our lease is up in 4 months and we will not be renewing our lease. Our last apartment manager was a gambling addict who may have been stealing people’s identities, but by God, he kept things working. Ever since they fired him, this place has been going downhill.
Evening: I check my bank statements to update my budget spreadsheet and realize that I have been billed the wrong amount of rent. They actually charged me less than they should have. I don’t trust my apartment manager not to start charging me a late fee or something for this, so I call them up. They are baffled by how to fix this, which you would think would be the one thing you would want to get right, if you’re renting out apartments.
K cooks dinner – steak with a Roquefort sauce and glazed brussels sprouts. It’s from a French cookbook we recently bought and it is delicious. I work on classwork for my certificate program while he cooks. After dinner, I do the dishes and buy the 13th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. I watch the first episode – lots of shocking twists and turns! I’m planning to watch the rest of the episodes together with my younger sister, M ($22.01).
Daily total: $22.01
Day 3
Morning: K has an 8 am dentist appointment, so he takes off early. He already paid for the work last month, so there’s no charge. I have a piece of toast for breakfast and get to work checking my emails. It’s 8:20 am and the construction crew building a townhouse next door is blasting mariachi music. I’m glad someone is having fun. At least the sun is coming out.
Someone at work has made a critical error, but it wasn’t me, thank God. I was the one who found out about it, but it’s still going to cause a big old headache for me. I’m ready to be done with this job. K and I go for a run so that I can exhaust myself enough to no longer be furious about said careless error.
Noon: I have leftover spinach risotto and meatloaf again – exciting. I’m busy at work but frankly, not a lot going on other than that. Still no word about fixing my rent payments. I’m not really willing to pursue this any further at this point.
Evening: I start making chili (Turkey Chili from the NY Times) and cornbread (from my new cookbook, Jubilee). K is doing some work on our investments when he announces that, somehow, a transfer was scheduled from our checking account to our savings account of $55k (?!) We obviously don’t have $55k in our checking account, so we start frantically trying to figure out what’s going on. Numerous phone calls later, we still don’t know if that was a hack, if my husband somehow mistakenly scheduled the transfer himself, or if the bank messed it up. Either way, it doesn’t seem like any harm was done since the bank with our checking account just declined the transaction. But it seems really strange and worrisome. We get to work changing the passwords on all of our accounts, just in case it was some kind of hack.
After dinner (and chocolate cake), I have a Zoom happy hour with a local friend. We occasionally see each other outside but it’s nice to have a longer chat from the comfort of our living rooms. We both love murder mysteries, so we signed up for a service where a company sends us letters with clues and we try to solve the mystery together. It’s a fun way to stay connected and look forward to something during the pandemic. The service costs about $15 per month, but I paid for it in lump sum for 3 months, so it’s not included in my budget above. I drink some wine and we vent about work (we work at the same place) before getting started on the puzzle.
Daily total: $0
Day 4
Morning: I sleep in a bit, which is nice. Get up around 7 am. My parents are both getting their 2nd vaccine today – they’re both in their 70s and I am so relieved. I send my mom a “congratulations on being vaccinated!” text and we chat for a bit. I have leftover cornbread with honey and butter for breakfast – soooo good.
Work is not particularly exciting today, but someone sends me a last-minute request for something that does not need to be so urgent. I feel annoyed. Still no word from the interviewers on Monday, and I’m beginning to suspect I wasn’t selected to move forward. Too bad. K pays for a Wordpress website for the year (it’s a work-related website, but sadly his work doesn’t reimburse him). It costs $92.48.
Noon: The mariachi music is particularly loud today. I stand out on my balcony in the sun for a while and watch the workers. It’s been interesting seeing a house go up next door in real time, especially since I’m at home all the time. The workers are balancing on the top of the third story wall without, as far as I can see, anything like a safety line. It seems unsafe, but I presume they know what they’re doing.
We booked a cabin for the upcoming weekend in the Hood Canal region of Washington to do some hiking and birdwatching. I want to be as safe as possible and not go to any grocery stores or risk spreading COVID in any way while I’m there, so I place another grocery order with Whole Foods just for some special treats for the weekend. The cabin has a small kitchen and a grill, so we’re planning to make a fancy steak salad on Saturday. I order chips and hummus, some fancy cheese and meats, Tate’s cookies (I’ve heard a lot of good things about these), a baguette, and the ingredients for the steak salad. I also order a few staples I forgot in our last order, like sweet potatoes, more coffee, and half and half. It comes to $87.41, including tip, but that does include like $30 worth of steak. For some reason, I can’t order a small amount of steak online, so I’m planning to freeze half of it for later. (I include this purchase in our vacation fund budget, rather than under our regular grocery budget).
Around 2 pm, K makes a quick trip to our local wine store to buy an Oregon pinot noir and some port to enjoy at the cabin ($59.45). This store has an outdoor walk-up counter where you can tell the owner what you’re looking for, and he brings you some options (the store is way too small to allow customers to enter during Covid). It’s fun to chat with another human being, even briefly.
Evening: After work, we spend a little time rebalancing our investing and retirement accounts. We decide to put more money into bonds and a little bit into REIT’s as a hedge against a potential crash or recession in the future. Then I start making dinner – Broken Eggs (Huevas Rotas) from the NY Times cooking site. You basically cook the potatoes in a skillet in water, spices, and olive oil, and then sauté them to crisp them up once the water evaporates. Then you add onion, lots of garlic, and finally some eggs. It is delicious. I eat it with leftover cornbread while watching RuPaul’s Drag Race season 13 with my sister – we watch the first two episodes. It’s full of twists and turns. A note about this – we have an elaborate procedure for watching shows together developed during quarantine whereby we start the show at the same with an earbud in one ear, while FaceTiming. I also have chocolate cake, of course.
Later, I get an email that I’ve signed up for HBO on Amazon Prime. I definitely have not. I text my mom, who shares my account, and she tells me she signed up by mistake. I cancel right away and luckily they won’t charge us for it.
Meanwhile, K is doing an online Japanese language class over Zoom. He’s been interested in learning ever since we went to Japan last January. I lived in Japan for 3 years so I was able to take us around to a lot of more obscure places and he really enjoyed the trip – it was a blast.
K starts a YouTube yoga class (from Do Yoga With Me – my favorite channel) and I join him for part of it before bed around 10 pm.
Daily total: $239.34
Day 5
Morning: I get up around 7 am and we go for a run first thing. I prefer running early in the morning because there are fewer people to avoid during COVID. We do a different route today – it’s longer (3 miles) but has fewer hills. It’s a slog, as always, but I feel good when I get back right around 8 am. I jump straight onto my computer to start checking work emails and my husband makes us avocado and egg toast for breakfast - it is absolutely delicious.
We talk about how our bathroom smells distinctly mildewy (yay for being a grown-up because I guess this is what we talk about now) and we buy two big buckets of DampRid on Amazon ($26.60). I’ve found this to be a necessity in Seattle. Mid-morning, I take a break from work and start packing for our trip to the cabin.
Noon: I have leftover potatoes and cornbread for lunch, and my husband has the leftover chili. We finish getting ready to leave and head out right after lunch, taking a half day. The only problem is that I have attend a meeting at 3:30 pm, so we head out hoping to get there in time. Our cabin is near Quilcene in the Hood Canal region of Washington, about a 2 hour drive or a 2 hour ferry ride + drive. We are initially planning to take the ferry both ways, but realize that we mistimed the ferry departure, so we drive the whole way instead. Luckily, there’s little traffic mid-day, and we arrive at our Airbnb around 3:00 pm.
The Airbnb is beautiful! It’s a small cabin handmade by the owner, whose house is next door. It’s very rural, with a beautiful view. It’s tiny, but has a little kitchen and a waterfall-style shower with river rocks on the floor. It’s a great place to get away for a short time. Luckily, it also has good reception and I’m able to sit in on my meeting with no problems. My husband also does a little work, and then at 5 pm we’re free!
In our planning, we decided to get takeout on Friday night, since the little kitchen isn’t designed for any serious cooking. We call ahead to a local restaurant to order burgers (one of only 2 restaurants in the whole town). It’s around 5:30 pm and the place is deserted. It’s a microbrewery, but they tell us they haven’t been making beer since COVID-19 hit. None of the workers are wearing masks when I walk in, but they put them on when they see I’m wearing one. I pick up our order - a few bottled beers and burgers and fries ($49.52 including tip).
Back at our Airbnb, we watch Big Trouble in Little China and enjoy our very messy, but delicious, burgers (it costs $4.39 to rent). The movie is very campy but fun. I love silly action movies, as you will see with my other viewing choices. We wrap up the night in a very exciting fashion, eating chocolate cake and watching old episodes of the original Star Trek.
Daily total: $80.51
Day 6
Morning & noon: When we wake up around 8 am, the weather is looking thankfully clear and even sunny! We were expecting rain, so we’re really glad. We decide to go hiking today, and we head out before even having breakfast, with snacks and lunches packed. Our first destination is a hike called Mt. Zion, but unfortunately, we run into enough snow 2 miles before the trailhead that we decide to turn back. We don’t have any traction for our Subaru and don’t want to risk getting stuck on a very narrow mountain road. Instead, we drive another hour or so to the Lena Lake trailhead, a very popular and less strenuous trail. It’s about 7.5 miles roundtrip with 1200 feet of elevation gain.
By this time, it’s around 11:30, but luckily there is still parking. It’s a great hike up, and we run into relatively few people. We always mask up whenever we pass anyone, as does about 50% of the people we meet. The others… not so much. Around a mile from the lake, we start to run into snow. It’s turned into a beautiful sunny day, and I’m loving seeing all this snow! It’s a bit slippery, but not too bad. We make it to the lake mid-day, and it’s super jammed – there’s only a small viewpoint accessible, so everyone is crowded in there. I feel a bit uneasy with all the unmasked people, but we manage to find a spot away from the crowd and sit down to eat our lunch of apples, chips, and energy bars. There are a ton of robber jays there (Canada Jays) which try to eat our chips. It is fun watching them, but I’m annoyed to see some kids feeding them – it’ll just make them that much more aggressive. Bad trail manners.
On our way back down, we get stuck behind a group of 5 unmasked adults, who refuse to cede the narrow trail to faster hikers. I’m a slow hiker myself, so, to be clear, I’m not angry at slower walkers being on the trail but have some self-awareness and let people pass! especially if you’re going to go hiking in a big group during a pandemic! We finally get back down and head back to our Airbnb.
Evening: Back home, we explore some of the trails our Airbnb host has set up around his extensive property, and then relax on the deck. The sun is breaking through the clouds and it feels wonderful to sit out in nature and feel the sun on my back. We open up a bottle of wine and have a few pre-dinner snacks (more chips and hummus). For this night, we brought ingredients to make a steak salad. Our Airbnb host has kindly set up a charcoal grill for us, so we grilled the steak and toast some bread on the side.
We eat dinner while watching the truly terrible Jean Claude Van Damme movie Bloodsport and finish up the very last of my chocolate cake. It’s amazing that anyone ever let Van Damme act… or should I say ‘act.’ I also have a Tate’s chocolate chip cookie or two, accompanied by a little port. My husband and I are truly very old people at heart, so we finish up the night watching a few episodes of Columbo.
Daily total: $0
Day 7
Morning: Unfortunately, K had insomnia last night, so he sleeps in pretty late. I drink coffee in bed and enjoy looking at the view out our big windows. Once he’s up, we get packed up and write a thank you note for our host. It was a great stay.
One of my big hobbies is birding and K enjoys wildlife photography, so we go out to look for some lifers! (The first time you see a new species of bird). Did I mention we are very old people in (relatively) young bodies? We first go to Dosewallips State Park and see some bald eagles, great blue herons, lots of various ducks, and a flock of Canada Geese, which, strangely, includes a domesticated gray goose. He’s much larger than the Canada Geese and seems to be watching over them. It’s kind of cute. Unfortunately, a lot of the birds are too far from shore to be seen clearly.
Our next stop is Point No Point (I love all the sad & disappointed names that early Westerner explorers gave places in the Washington/Oregon coast), a popular birding spot. We see a ton of birds here, and I can understand why it’s so well-known - Red-Breasted Mergansers, Western Grebes, Common Goldeneyes, Pacific Loons, and a few others I can’t identify yet. Most excitingly though, we see a whole pile of otters! They’re lounging around together on a rock just offshore and a ton of people are watching. We watch as they all slip off the rock and go hunting in the shore. It’s my first otter sighting in the wild, and it’s so cool! We also see some seals and possibly a sea lion. It’s a great spot for wildlife. We eat some snacks (hummus, chips, some sliced meat & cheese) before we head out.
I really want to come back to this area another time and explore further, but K has decided that we need to get back home in time for the Big Game. We take the 3:00 pm ferry back to Seattle ($16.40) and get home around 3:45 pm. I veg out at home while my husband watches football. He’s a Patriots fan but he still loves Tom Brady (??) so he’s happy to see Florida win. I don’t understand sports team loyalties at all, but whatever, I’m glad he’s happy. We order from a new Indian place called Spice Box and get vindaloo, roganjosh, and vegetables pakora – so tasty ($53.96). Happily, there’s enough left over for lunch the next day, since I have no plans for what we will eat yet!
I’m really dreading work the next day, as I know that it will be obnoxious. I want to get out of my job so badly, but it doesn’t look like I’m going on to the next interview stage for the job I interviewed no back on Monday. I’m feeling kind of down about it. I try to stay positive and promise that I’ll apply for at least 2-3 new jobs next week. I bake up some frozen cookie dough I had in the freezer and feel sorry for myself. We end the night by watching another episode of Columbo.
Daily total: 70.36
Food + Drink: $395.23
Fun / Entertainment: $26.40
Home + Health: $26.60
Clothes + Beauty: $0
Transport: $16.40
Other: $170.48
Grand Total: $635.11
I think this week was pretty normal for us. Obviously we spent a bit more than usual due to the weekend cabin trip, but nothing outrageous. Our largest consumer spending category is definitely food and drink – we live in a very busy area of Seattle with tons of restaurants and bars so believe it or not, we actually used to spend even more on eating out. We still try to support our local places by getting takeout or delivery during the pandemic and even occasionally getting a few drinks outside. I spent more than usual on groceries due to stocking up for the weekend away.

Disclaimer I am posting this here because I got a message from the mods asking me to. I'm not from London so links aren't London centric (but hopefully still of help) and the main post is here so any updates will likely be there (I will try here but it's hard to keep up with the amount of suggestions)
Thanks.
Yes, it's hard, it sucks, it's depressing. It is something we all have to do if you want to see this virus go. Everyone knows the deal, too many think they're the exception but no one is. However, staying home is hard so maybe I can help at least one or two people with some incentives. I'll try to give links to some things that can help cure the boredom, and some support if you need it.
Most of this might be obvious to some, some might not even have internet and of course, money is a big issue, so I'll try to give some suggestions:
For streaming and on demand things such as Netflix et al, don't forget you can subscribe for free for your first month. This goes for most things in the list. If you are worried about putting in your payment details and forgetting to cancel a month later, don't worry! You can sign up and immediately cancel and you still get your free month!
For people who don't have a smart TV, you can buy a cheap Amazon Fire TV stick or a Roku box. The Fire stick can go as low as £20 often for 1080p. It will drop to £30 for 4k.
I picked up a 4k Roku device for £18 on Amazon once. It's fast and snappy. currently it's going for £33 for the 4k version. Having both, there is little difference between the devices. NowTV also do their own roku powered device.
Subscription based streaming sites that all offer 2-4 weeks free for first timers

• Netflix *According to comments the second month is free.
  
• Amazon Prime You can either get Amazon video on its own, or take prime with other benefits. I strongly urge those who use Amazon for buying off their store front to use [https://smile.amazon.co.uk/] as there is literally no difference except everything you buy amazon donates to a charity of your choice.
  
• Now TV (I believe it's 7 days)
  
• Disney+
  
• Britbox
  
• Amazon channels. I believe you can get all these individually but Amazon offers them as channels bound to your prime account, and they are again either free for a couple weeks (again, take them, cancel instantly) or very cheap. I recently subscribed to Starzplay for £1 for 3 months. It has some good shows on it like Fringe, doom patrol. It also has channels like Curiosity stream and shudder
  

If you have not subscribed to the any of the above, you can get a few months of free TV by signing up and cancelling instantly. I suggest waiting at least 5 minutes just to let it go through the system.
Some tips for Now TV. IF you already have a subscription, I've noticed you can get it cheaper by cancelling. When you cancel they will beg you to stay. Select "I can not afford it this month" and they should beg again, telling you what shows they have. If you say you still want to cancel, they'll beg one last time and offer you the subscription for cheaper. This won't work every month, but I've noticed they'll always offer it the first time, then again after a couple months. If you're subscribed to both films and entertainment do the most expensive one as it may not work both times (but it might!). You can also pick up passes from storefronts a lot cheaper sometimes, before I could pick one up on Amazon for £3 but, they seem to have cracked down on it. If you shop around (or if anyone knows of a legitimate store please let me know) you might be able to pick it up cheaper. Lastly, check their website and under your account they should have an "offers for you" section.
Completely free TV

• Pluto TV
  
• Viki
  
• Roku
  

If you do have a smart TV and/or device, there are some good free streaming apps. One I really love is called PlutoTV. I know this is on both Roku and the fire stick, as well as Ps4/Ps5 and xbox.
Pluto offers a bunch of live channels and now an on demand section, all for free. It has adverts but they are actually short (shorter than regular TV and fewer of them). Some of the channels are just streaming certain shows like Mythbusters 24/7 or Dog the bounty hunter, but it has a lot of old movie channels as well as 24/7 kickboxing and MMA. It also has a 24/7 poker channel I quite like.
Another one I like is Rakuten Viki however, I haven't watched it for a while as my fire stick is only 1080p and I have too many other devices attached. I believe it is on Roku but you have to jump through some hoops and have an account. The last I checked on the fire stick you did not. Viki offers a metric ton of Asian shows, mainly from Japan and South Korea but it does have chinese, Malaysian etc. It has subtitles. Some Japanese shows are hysterical, albeit weird.
Roku also do their own channels with free shows if you own a device.
For those who don't have a smart TV or a Streaming device, you can set up your own computer as a dedicated streaming device with Plex. It's been a while since I used it but I believe it now also offers free movies and TV.
Anime
If you are into Anime there is

• Crunchyroll
  
• Funimation
  
• HiDive
  

The first 2 are free to watch, or offer premium without ads which you can have a trial with. Crunchyroll is the better of the two with more original choice for Japanese voice and subs, while Funimation has more Dubs. I don't believe HiDive is free to watch but you do get a 2 week trial. These are more exclusives than the previous two.
PC Centric software
If you are a gamer or like Audiobooks or anything that uses computers for things like music making, programming or graphic design

• Humble Bundle
  
• Fanatical
  
• IndieGala
  

Humble Bundle offers, as per the name, bundles. A long running site that got bought out by IGN. It offers both single items and bundles you can buy individually/as a pack while also offering a separate monthly subscription for around £8-9. The subscription gives you 12 games on average per month. That's the simplest explanation but it changes somewhat as sometimes you get to pick 10 out of 14 games, or get all 12.
Humble bundle offers more than just games though. Every Tuesday they bring a new bundle of games, while Thursday (I "think) a new bundle of books. They very often have books from the Black Library giving you a ton of Warhammer books. Sometimes it's standard E-books, other times it's audiobooks. A few times a year they do bundles for graphic design, a typical bundle would include programs like Paintshop Pro Corel Painter etc, They usually go for £0.76 for tier 1 up to around £18 for tier 3, which would include 4-6 full titles with 10+ addons. They also often have Music making bundles or video editing software as well as Programming or video game development.
The bundles change often, they usually have around 11 bundles at a time that last for 20 days. Sometimes it's trash but they do often have some very good deals.
Fanatical offers the same as humble bundle except usually not as high quality, but sometimes they do have some incredible deals, and they are very very cheap.
Both humble and fanatical are safe, trusted and been around a long time, and they are NOT grey market key sites. They work with the publishers and developers. You can buy games both old and new for a lot cheaper than you would most other places. Unless it states otherwise, keys are usually for steam.
**BOTH HB and Fanatical (HB much more common) offer free games fairly often. The catch is linking your steam account to them (at least HB). It is safe however.
IndieGala is another site like above. Except, these are much much lower quality. However, they offer a metric ton of free games. Quality is low but it is legitimate, and a lot of free stuff.
Game Store Fronts

• Steam This one is so obvious I didn't add it, but apparently many want me to. It is the best out there, and you can find almost everything, with fantastic deals.
  
• Greenmangaming offers games cheaply. Again, not a grey market site (which are legal but unethical) and they sometimes do bundles.
  
• GoG (Good old games) is a DRM free site run by CDPR, the makers of the Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk. They offer you games quite cheap and not needing DRM (such as Steam, Uplay etc which is less invasive versions of dodgy DRM from the olden days).
  
• Epic Games Despite the controversy whether you care about their rivalry with valve, they offer free games ever week. Without ever having bought anything I have gained over 170 games. literally. Good games for the most part. They often give you £10 coupons as well.
  
• Twitch Everyone knows twitch, but if you don't, it's a streaming service for watching gamers and girls with low cut tops accidentally bending over in front of the game. However, if you're signed up to prime, you get free games each month (and randomly between the set bunch).
  
• Playstation Store Currently has January sales. Currently the free games for PS+ are for PS4: Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Greedfall. For the Ps5 it is Maneater
  
• Games with Gold Bleed 2 and the King of Fighters XIII is available until Janurary 15th whilst little Nightmares is available until January 31st.
  

Gaming Subscriptions
Like the TV versions, you can sign up to these for a free trial (or very cheap). If you do sign up to only one at a time, it should keep you busy for a few months

• Xbox Game Pass You can do this on both/either an Xbox or PC. If you sign up to the regular one, you can get a month (maybe three!) for £1. After you have done that, you can sign up to the premium version for 3 months at £1 a month. Most people know game pass, but you can download a large selection of games for free. The premium version gives you games with gold, allowing you to keep the games forever (but can only play with a subscription)
  
• Ubisoft+ I'm not 100% sure if you get a trial or not. This allows a large collection of Ubisoft titles to play for £12.99 a month. Quite expensive but good if you like Ubisoft titles I guess.
  
• EA Play EA's version. Goes by a ton of names I think, EA Access, EA Play, Origin Access etc etc. There's a couple of versions of this, and it is across all platforms (PS4/5, Xbox, PC) but not sure about the switch. I "think" the premium allows you to play on all platforms, while the cheaper one on a single platform, but I may be mistaken.
  
• PS Now a once terrible service that is now actually very good. Allows you to download some Ps4 games to your PS4/5 and lets you stream a massive amount of Ps2/3/4 to your PC or playstation.
  

There's more like nvidia's service but you need the Shield device which is quite expensive. I'll leave it at that.
Audiobooks & Ebooks

• Audible Not sure what the current deal is but if you are a prime member you can sign up for a trial and get a free Audiobook each month for 3 months. Some warhammer books are 48 hours long, 3 of those gives you a good 100+ hours of listening!
  
• Comixology Another Amazon company, but lets you download some free comics I believe.
  
• Marvel Unlimited No experience with this. ItFuckingWont wanted me to add it. A subscription service for Marvel.
  

Education

• Sign Language BSL here No experience myself, suggested by n21brown and asked for a few times. Didn't know SL was so popular! Listed as "Pay what you can"
  
• BBC's Bitesize here is apparently good for home learning. Again, no personal experience.
  

If you need some spare change
Okay, I don't generally bother with it, but maybe some of this could be useful to you. These are NOT a quick way to make a fortune. These are small things you can do over time for a bit of pocket change

• If you have prime you can get a FREE FIVE POUND GIFT CARD by literally just streaming a song from Amazon music (which is included in prime) here is the details According to the comments it's only for select people, but it's worth trying If the link doesn't work for you just google "Amazon £5 coupon music"
  
• Now, these sorts of sites have been around for years, I haven't used any other than talkInsights which I must have signed up to 10-15 years ago. Basically they send you surveys and you answer them. They are confidential and don't ask for personal details in the survey. You need 2000 points and you get £20. During the pandemic they've slowed down but I probably get around £40 a year. Not much I know, but it's an email followed by a quick survey ticking boxes. Depending on your answer sometimes you get screened out, I'm not telling you to lie but just be consistent with your answers and you should be able to work out how to not get screened. Some emails are only worth 20 points, others 200. It's slow to get to the 2000 but very quick to just answer a few questions.
  
• Apparently beermoneyuk is a good sub to make some pocket change with.
  
• There is also matched betting. I have never done this, I don't have the patience but from what I've read, it's legitimate, it works and you can make a fair amount of cash from it so long as you do it correctly, and there's a ton of guides. I mention this because people stuck at home could get into it and as long as you're careful (I.E not entering in the wrong numbers) it's risk free AND it pisses off the betting shops. It seems people in comments have had success with it. Disclaimer A couple have complained about gambling. This arguably is not gambling. If you are susceptible to addiction do not do it. However, it's argued that there is no fun or buzz in this, and it's a very tedious and time consuming thing. Others argue you can't make the same money anymore (People were making thousands, now only hundreds if that). It's risk free providing you know what you're doing, the risks are user error, such as entering the wrong numbers. Someone pointed out that due to the lockdown, bets could potentially be cancelled due to sport stopping. So use on a side of caution. We're (mainly) adults so I'll leave it up just because this doesn't have the excitement of regular gambling.
  
• Microsoft Rewards This is an easy way to make pocket change doing very little. Most people have a MS account. The rewards program offers you numerous ways to grab points, by playing free to play games, answering small questions (you don't even need to answer most of the time, just open the link and shut it) and by using bing and searching on it. I've gotten 20k points JUST by answering questions over a couple months. There are many rewards but you can grab a £5 gift card for 6k for example, or a month of game pass (and AFAIK you can make points playing the games)
  
• Google rewards Someone mentioned this in the comments. I have not used it, so can not give any input on it. Sounds similar to TalkInsights which I linked. Google states "Complete short surveys while standing in line, or waiting for a subway. Get rewarded with Google Play or PayPal credit for each one you complete. Topics include everything from opinion polls, to hotel reviews, to merchant satisfaction surveys. We’ll notify you when a survey is waiting."
  

That's it for now. I will try to update as I go along. A long post but I hope that it can help some of you with finding something good to do that's free, cheap or a bargain. I do suggest getting prime, especially since you get free music, free delivery, free TV and music and free video games each month. In fact, there's a ton of perks and I feel I've gotten way over the cost investment.
Hope it helps someone at least
PartTimeCrazy said if you bought an Apple product you get 3 free months of Apple Arcade and Apple TV free for a year
fakehunted is upset I didn't mention wanking. Tesco have 225 sheets of Tissue for £0.75!
tale_lost suggested Project Gutenberg for a collection of free E-Books
Learning Language
Unfortunately, I don't have time to check every link listed so I will link the comments:
Togtogtog Gives a lot of links for Spanish

• Duolingo Numerous people have suggested this So I haven't used myself. Thanks to OhHiGCHQ StephanieMecredy & Allorie_95

Board & Tabletop games
Corporal_Anaesthetic has made a list of Board games
ilyemco suggested these
HEALTH
I'm not a doctor! But if you're a smoker, something I strongly suggest is to quit. I struggled for years but in the first lockdown I quit, technically. I haven't had a cigarette since, however, I do that silly thing millennials do. I vape, but, it made quitting extremely easy. I would not have been able to do it if it wasn't for 88Vape They sell extremely cheap liquids at £1 each. You can find these in B&M but you can pick up 25 for £20 or buy your own mix.
Vitamin D deficiency has been said to be a big problem for the virus. I'd suggest (again, not a doctor!) that you pick some up. Tesco do a 3 for 2 deal. So you can pick up 270 tablets for £7.
If you are vulnerable you MIGHT be able to phone tesco and get put on their delivery saver list (currently it's paused but phoning may help. At the very least they might give you a priority slot. I did this for my mum, we didn't shop at Tesco but I phoned for her, and they put her on with no hassle, so she can always get a delivery.
HELP & ADVICE
The lockdown Rules.
Reasons to leave home include:

• Work or volunteering where it is "unreasonable" to work from home. This includes work in someone else's home, such as that carried out by social workers, nannies, cleaners and tradespeople
  
• Education, training, childcare and medical appointments and emergencies
  
• Exercise outdoors (limited to once a day). This includes meeting one other person from another household in an open public space to exercise
  
• Shopping for essentials such as food and medicine
  
• Communal religious worship
  
• Meeting your support or childcare bubble. Children can also move between separated parents Activities related to moving house
  

I want to add, if you are in danger you are also allowed (and must!) to get away from the situation for some reason, BBC seems to have missed this very important thing (or I am blind)

• To flee the threat of harm or violence.*
  
• CoronaVirus Symptoms
  
• CoronaVirus government site You can check your location and how many cases here.
  
• Worldometers Shows cases around the world.
  
• Interactive UK Map Another easy to read map with cases in counties and local area's.
  
• World Health Organisation
  

Support

• Samaritans
  
• Mental Health UK forum on reddit
  
• Link to above's stick post for support outlets
  
• Mindful
  
• Mind.org
  

FOR THOSE SHIELDING YOU CAN CONTACT THE ROYAL VOLUNTARY SERVICE. These people helped my mother with picking up her medicine from the chemist. They were very helpful and went out their way to keep in touch and do it immediately. (It's the only experience I have with them though)
_riotingpacifist wanted this links added, but I simply just don't have the time to vet and check all the suggestions here, so I will link as is:

• https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/
  
• https://www.goodsamapp.org/
  
• https://vaccinationvolunteers.sja.org.uk/roles/volunteer-vaccinator.html
  
• https://nhsvolunteerresponders.org.uk/getting-you-started-guide-steward-volunteer
  
• https://peoplesmomentum.com/evictionresistance/
  
• https://londonrentersunion.org/
  

Update:
Digital Art
These are Free

• Krita Arguably the best in my opinion. It has a load of options, brushes and a decent UI. It works fantastic with a tablet.
  
• Gimp This is a decent program but last I used, the UI was a pain, and it isn't so user friendly while misses features, but it works, and it is possible to do some incredible creations on it.
  
• Medibang Paint This is slightly geared towards Comics and Manga. I really enjoy using this with my drawing Tablet. As far as I know, it also for regular tablets for Android/Ipad and is free.
  

You can pick up a drawing tablet on Amazon quite cheap these days! Small ones that are just a black slate such as the wacom ones are good but takes some practice to get use to, but very worth it if you can't afford a dedicated drawing tablet with a screen.
Office suit software
A couple of free applications for word processing, spreadsheets etc.

• LibreOffice This has most the average user would need to write their own books or to work from home. There's not a huge amount of difference between the two I'm linking (since I last used anyway) so it's more for preference.
  
• Open Office You can pick this up here and again, like above it's just preference.
  

Music Making
I'm going to direct to matthewharris806 for some links as all the programs I've used like Reason are expensive, or cheaper stuff in bundles such as Magix software.
Games development
D_Dad_Default gives some links for that here

"Couples on Surviving Trauma and Loss: Five partners whose love has endured seismic changes, from refugees forced apart by war to a couple left with horrific injuries"
The first two stories in the article are legit: a couple in a terrible car accident and a couple separated by the Sudanese civil war. Then things start going to hell and get worse and worse. All of the things that FDS warns against are here: codependency, gaslighting, lying, cheating, excuse-making, blame shifting, martyrdom. Women continue to be conditioned to accept sub-par treatment by these kinds of narratives. The ladies of FDS refuse to help relationships "survive trauma" that is LITERALLY CREATED BY THE MAN IN THE RELATIONSHIP AND HIS SELFISH AND OVERALL TERRIBLE DECISIONS.

‘I was in prison for 2,192 days; she wrote to me almost daily’

Laure, 58, and Jerry, 62, survived his jail sentence for causing death by dangerous driving. They live in Alabama, and now run a support network for the families of prisoners.
Laure Jerry and I met in 1995 and married four months later. I tell him all the time I would marry him again, but faster. We’d both been married twice before and dating was the last thing I was looking for. But he ticked all the boxes.
I had two daughters and he had one. We moved our family from Tennessee to Alabama, to raise them in the country. We were living the dream. But on 17 March 2003, it was shattered when Jerry caused a head-on car collision which killed a young mother. He had been driving drunk.
I felt rage, betrayal. When we met, we were both recovering alcoholics, so I had only known him sober. Now a life had been lost. I didn’t want him dead, but I wanted him to hurt real bad. We lived in a small town, and I grieved for that family. I felt embarrassment. I had to get to the forgiveness part quickly so I could get through each day.
Jerry spent 10 days in the ICU. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to six years in prison and 19 on probation. I was scared – emotionally, practically, financially, spiritually. I wanted to stay married but didn’t know how. I didn’t know what you do when someone you love is in prison.

His first year home, we argued all the time. I’d put my hand on his shoulder and he’d push it away

I wrote to him almost every night. I could afford one dollar-a-minute phone call a week and petrol for the 100-mile drive to visit every two weeks. I felt a lot of anger in those first years. I remember burying the cat, crying, saying, “This is a dad job.” I tried to experience the girls’ graduations for both of us.
His first year home, we argued all the time. I’d put my hand on his shoulder and he’d push it away; he was still in survival mode.
We’re grandparents now and enjoy our family immensely. We run a support network for prisoner families, called Extended Family. I started it six months into his sentence.
Jerry will still say, “You stayed with me all those years,” but I don’t think of it that way. I’m not going to make him do the dishes for the rest of our lives. We spent six years without each other; we don’t want to spend another minute apart.
Jerry On our first date, I took Laure and her daughters to see Cinderella at the theatre. When I got home, I wrote “She’s the one” on the back of the programme.
We had a good life. I had a small engineering business, work grew busy, and we moved cities. But I was in a mess. I got into narcotics but hid it from my family. The night of the accident, I had stopped at a liquor store. I was in a blackout. Moments later, a young woman was dead and I was airlifted to hospital. I was shocked, remorseful, disheartened.
My wife has a big and kind heart. I tried to protect her from the police investigation and the likelihood of prison. I didn’t want our girls walking around with the stigma of a dad who had killed someone.
In Alabama, incarceration is uncontested grounds for divorce, but there was never a question of Laure leaving me. On an early prison visit, I told her I wouldn’t blame her if she wanted to leave. She looked at me and said, “I’d be more miserable than I am now.” I’ll never forget it.
I was in prison for 2,192 days and she wrote to me almost daily. There were guys that got nothing. I felt blessed and honoured. She would arrive every two weeks and I would put on a smile. But I pitied myself; I felt useless, unable to provide for my family.
When I came home, I was harsher than before. Meanwhile, this woman I loved had blossomed. I had to adjust. There’s a not a day that I don’t pay for my disastrous decision in some way, shape or form. We worked through the mess I made together, and we’re closer because of it.

‘It was a form of gaslighting. He led a double life’

Keith, 59, and Claire, 57, survived his gambling addiction. They live in Sussex.
Keith Claire and I had known each other in the 80s, and reconnected online 20 years later. Claire was living abroad, and I was on my way to broke. She’d make short trips to the UK, and we’d laugh through days out and long lunches. She was intelligent, full of life; a better person than I was.
I first entered a casino at 16. By 18, I’d borrowed, conned and stolen from everyone I knew. I was an addict. Through adulthood, I’d made and lost small fortunes and entire businesses. I’d play Monopoly for real money, or sit in a room of the club I owned, drinking brandy, snorting as much cocaine as I could.
I wasn’t a constant drug user or gambler. When Claire visited, I’d try to keep it together; but then I’d get desperate and make excuses to go to London for “work”. When she moved to the UK with her three kids in 2009, I’d disappear into a room of the home we shared for days, in a heady state of gambling, drugs and porn, too embarrassed to re-emerge. I had intermittent spells in Gambling Anonymous, but I found it hard to ask for help.
Claire paid for the house and put food on the table. I never stole from her, but I’m still surprised she didn’t walk out. By 2014, I’d had a heart attack and was nursing my mother, who had cancer. I would drive her to the hospital every day, off my tits, bring her home, make her food, then shut myself in another room and gamble online.
I couldn’t see myself in the mirror any more. I wanted to die. On 28 June 2014, I logged on to a website for people seeking affairs and used it for porn. That decision would almost end us: when Claire discovered the website in her search history, she sent me a Dear John letter. The next day, she drove me to residential rehab. The only rule I broke there was asking her to spend one night. I had to save the relationship.
I’ve been clean for six years now; Claire is part of the reason why. People talk about languages of love. For me those are quality time, acts of service. Boy, were there acts of kindness and service from Claire. Without her, I could well be dead.
Claire I was 18, and a poor student, when I first met Keith. He seemed glamorous, exciting, funny, intelligent. He was also a known gambler, but when we reconnected years later, that appeared to be in his past. Yet, with hindsight, nothing about the start of our relationship makes sense.
When I visited, he’d urgently have work or disappear into a room for days at a time. I’d spend hours on edge, struggling to trust him, but he would rationalise his behaviour, omitting huge details, claiming he’d simply drunk too much. It was a form of gaslighting. He led a double life.

When Keith decided on residential rehab, I knew that if I didn’t support him, there was no future

The first time I confronted him, I’d found an empty drugs packet, but he lied his way out of it. I became scared to ask, although we both knew he needed help. When his mother was unwell, he had the perfect alibi. He was an addict but he was responsible – and he took exquisite care of her. I was fearful but I had to get on with life.
Advertisement
When Keith decided on residential rehab, I knew that if I didn’t support him, there was no future. I didn’t want significant time apart, but when an addict is serious about making changes, you have to put your own needs aside.
The most soul-destroying moment came when I found the affairs website. I had been betrayed by gambling and drugs, but my belief in the purity of our love had kept me going. I wrote to him saying it was over. From rehab, Keith proved to me it was only curiosity (there was no activity on his account), and I was open enough to reconciliation to visit him.
Emotionally, we’re more independent now, although we share bank accounts and he supports us financially. I’ve grown, too. I used to tell friends that Keith felt like an addiction to me. I’d waited years for a stable home life together: eventually, he walked the most difficult path in order to truly change.

‘Friends saw us as the perfect couple, but it was a lie’

Maryam, 31, and Amir, 33, survived his affair. They live in California.
Maryam When Amir had an affair, I had a thousand reasons to leave but looked for the one to stay. Our relationship had started as an affair, too. We had been couple-friends in our previous marriages and used to hang out as a group of four. Then, in February 2017, Amir and his wife broke up and he came on a trip with my husband and me. One night, we were up late, talking, while my husband slept. Amir opened up about his marriage and I began to sense he had feelings for me. I had relationship problems, too, and we started an affair. I ended my marriage.
Over the next 18 months, friends came to see us as the perfect couple. They would comment on how loving our relationship was. But I couldn’t forgive myself for how we’d started, and his divorce was a mess. He spent nights with his ex. I broke up with him several times. Things looked great on the surface but we both carried unresolved pain.
By the end of 2019, I became suspicious of his relationship with a co-worker. She was too intimate at the Christmas party and he was jumpy when she called. Then I found a credit card charge to a cafe, clearly for two people.

I loved him deep down but anger overwhelmed me. He asked over and over for a chance to prove he could change

It took me 10 days to get the full details from him. It had been going on for months and they’d slept together six times. I couldn’t breathe; I felt stupid. Everything that had gone before felt like a lie. I left him.
Amir telephoned non-stop and showed up at my parents’. I loved him deep down but anger overwhelmed me. He asked over and over for a chance to prove he could change. Eventually, I agreed to give him three months. We started individual and couples’ therapy and talked through every detail of our relationship. I couldn’t bear to sleep in the same room as him, but I could look at his face again. I agreed to more time.
I see the consistency and changes Amir has made, his commitment. When I discovered his affair, I was ready to give up on our relationship, but we have both grown. No one knows what the future holds and I have my fears. But, right now, I love the way he loves me.
Amir Maryam was the first time in my life I felt real love. But we were both married and I told myself it couldn’t happen.
As time passed, my ex-wife had an affair and my marriage died. Maryam had problems, too, and I made my feelings known. I admired her looks, the way she thinks. This wasn’t a game that I’d started; it was coming from the bottom of my heart.
I was born in the Middle East, in a war zone. As a child, I experienced sexual and physical abuse at the hands of my teacher, but told no one. The human psyche finds soothing mechanisms to alleviate pain. For me, that was sex.
I was in the most loving relationship with Maryam. The sex was amazing. We bought a house, enjoyed travelling. But the foundations were shaky and I unconsciously sought more.
When I got close to a co-worker, it turned into an affair, starting in May 2019 and lasting several months. It was pure sexual desire. This wasn’t someone I wanted to change the course of my life. We were opportunistic and, in those moments, I became blind to the consequences.
When Maryam found out, I tried to lie. I was naive about how much I was going to hurt her. She wanted nothing to do with me. She blocked my calls and texts, and told our family and friends all the details. Everyone who loved me looked at me as a monster. For the first time in my life, I started to wake up.
I made fixing myself and our relationship my only priority. I promised Maryam she would see a change, and started intense therapy, twice a week. I addressed my childhood trauma and sought support for sex addiction. I realised how much I was willing to do for Maryam.
At the beginning, it was simply about keeping Maryam; but it transformed into strengthening our bond. She has made sacrifices for me, been my guide and love. Every day, I’m more appreciative.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jan/30/couples-on-surviving-trauma-and-loss

My husband is the sole breadwinner at the moment, but thanks to an early start in my career & assets from my parents, most of our assets come from me.
3 years ago, MIL told my husband they were facing bankruptcy & may not be able to pay for my much younger BIL’s college tuition. We were trying for a kid at this time, and my husband’s salary was nowhere enough to cover paying for college, but I had more than enough savings. Obviously, since education is important, I told my husband my money is our money & I’m happy to use it for his brother.
Then we moved to the same country as my MIL parents & since I had a high risk pregnancy so it seemed safer to live with them since they have 2 live in maids. My MIL’s parents are bankrupt thanks to her mother’s gambling habits, and are fully supported by my FIL.
My MIL has never worked, but she convinced FIL to transfer everything to her after he was caught cheating, so she has full control of all their money.
While my MIL is insisting she had no money to pay for her own son’s college tuition & expected my husband to pay for it, she:

• Refuses to put a block on online transactions for her dad’s credit card even though he keeps falling for online scams. “It’ll hurt his pride.”
  
• Pays for her father to have cosmetic treatments like removing freckles he got from aging
  
• Acts like a total snob to my BIL’s gf
  

She believes that it is a child’s duty to pay for their parents, so she plans of using all her money to maintain her parents’ pre-bankruptcy lifestyle, have no savings, and expects my husband to do the same for her.
I snapped. How can you prioritise giving your aging parents a luxurious lifestyle over your own child’s education?
I got my husband to agree that no matter what happens or how much he earns in the future, outside paying for her medical bills, he is not to send his parents more than $1k/month. Older BIL will probably match it & $2k/month is enough to survive since they own 2 apartments & won’t have to pay rent even if they live separately. MIL won’t have her current lifestyle, but if she wants that, she better save up. If older BIL refuses because MIL is always a racist bitch to his wife, then well...she has it coming.
People who know of this are split, with some people really hating on me. I still think it’s reasonable, especially since we have a daughter and I don’t want to be a burden to her. The arguments against me is that it’s cruel to turn a son against his mom, she raised my husband so she deserves a percentage of his income, and it’s my “husband’s money” so I shouldn’t have a say since I no longer work.
EDIT: Forgot to add that my MIL also renovated our apartment against our permission. It was only renovated 2.5 years before. We gave her the keys in case of emergencies/if we manage to find a buyer. We couldn’t stop her because we were in a different country. This is a person claiming she’s on a budget.
And in one of those this can’t be fucking real moments, my husband just got a text from younger BIL saying MIL has asymptomatic COVID. Trying to figure out wtf is happening.
EDIT2: oh my fucking lords she was going to church.

Hi all, please bear with me because this may be long. This is a new account for this thread.
Today is my first day reading this thread and reflecting on myself after ~5 weeks of consistent chasing sports betting losses. I just turned 25 and have lost just about all $ I've been able to save throughout the pandemic. While peers are out taking advantage of lower prices from airlines and traveling (not necessarily the healthiest move), my goal was to save as much money as possible throughout the pandemic to be able to do what I please after the restrictions are lifted.
I prefer to bet on college basketball, and since the season started, I had been consistently winning anywhere from $50-$500 a week, betting with $50 units. After ~7 or 9 weeks, I became extremely greedy. I am terrible at sticking to my rules, though, and always end up taking dumb-ass bets from some tout on twitter who's hot, or just some pick my buddy likes, or whatever may have you. I am a compulsive gambler. The person who says 'don't gamble what you don't want to lose', that was not me. I would rationalize with myself that I always had another way of finding the $ if it didn't hit, or rationalize that I can always ask for more credit, etc.
A little about me, I studied finance in college and have always had sub-par savings/spending habits. I have no credit card debt (for now, not likely that will remain) and a great credit score, I had just always been a bit spend-happy on items I don't need. I have been working under an investment advisor for a bit now, and ironically I haven't been able to utilize an ounce of what I've learned when it comes to gambling. I've sat and watched friends and folks online make so much money trading stocks - I'm not allowed to do this stuff because our personal accounts are monitored for work - something I feel I'd be very skilled with because of what I study for work. This is where my problem began and I started to develop a nasty case of FOMO - and a feeling that the universe for some reason owes me something. I started to unbelievably feel like my "big win" was coming and I just had to keep putting the money up(becuase I had been winning deceently for a bit). This is where my biggest problem is as far as coping stems.. I can't get over the disconnect between my personal life and professional(work) life. "Who the hell would take investment advise from someone who compulsively gambled savings away?" I keep saying over and very to myself. I had added rigorously to an investment account over the past year, that is now completely depleted and sent to my bookie. The past two weeks I have slowly realized the mistakes I've made, and today is my "Day 1" if you will. I've got more credit, but instead just telling the bookie to change my password and close my account.
My main issue is that I can't get over the fact that I blew such a large amount (relative to me), and I just don't know where to start. I guess I just want to say thank you to anyone who may have read this, but mainly, any advice on where to start and how to change my mindset. The 'getting yourself back to where you were' is less of a challenge for me. I've helped folks in similar situations with credit card debt through my career - it's the toll that this is taking on my relationship with clients, my girlfriend, my bosses, etc. It has put serious harm on my mindset, confidence, demeanor, everything. I've even been eating less, workout less, mental health diminishing. Just need help on how to even begin with it..
IMPORTANT: I do not want to come off as though my problems are worse/more important than anyoen elses. This is just a very hard situation to grasp.
Edit: I didn't put the amount. In the past ~5 weeks I went from up ~2k (on the year)to down ~12k - essentially all of my savings.

As a female who's been on the game for 15 years now, I've met a load of creeps but only a few only made me feel unsafe. To start off I've always had a lap top since I was in high school, a luxury back then I worked hard to earn enough to buy one. My mom almost took my money I earned for drugs but luckily money I made in tips were in cash so it was easier to hide it from her. At first my mom was mad I bought myself a laptop but she soon forgot like everything. My dad could care less, and my older brother already had his own. So I started playing WoW with him at 14 and back then girls were unheard of. So I got the usual creeps who usually backed off after hearing my age or they were young to. But not this guy, this guy loved that I was underage.
I was about 16 and used to creepy guys at this point, no longer a noob at the game or fending off the creeps it was no surprise a new guy in the guild started hitting on me. Now I was 16, dumb young, horny and stupid but I knew I wasn't going to find love on WoW where you knew no one in real life. Plus I had the ultimate crush on a guy I couldn't have because he was my brothers best friend, but in my mind back then I only wanted him. So it was easy to turn guys down despite being desperate as hell for one guy lol.
But that all changed after my brothers friend went off to college, I had a part time job with my brothers friend but girls at work surrounded him and I became demoralized I'd never find love. Que "19" year old guy on WoW who made me feel wanted. I had a camera phone so I could send and post pictures at that age and back then I mostly used facebook, myspace and photobucket. I lost a lot of weight my sophomore year, so I posted confidently bikini pics and sexy pictures thinking I'd lure the attention of my brothers friend whom was 19.
So when this guy who was also 19 liked me, it didn't phase me. He looked the part in his photos and his younger brother was my age... So I thought... He was extreamly attractive in his photos and even proved it was him in his pictures by holding items I asked for. He started paying my wow subscription which in the long run I realized it was to get my home address and real name. I was so stupid and heart broken over my brothers friend, years of teaching myself online safety and the ability to be strong against flirts was all but lost in the fog.
We'd talk for hours on ventrillo, and he'd make me feel pretty. I was completely blinded by this point, he sent me gifts and I didn't even question how he had my address. Then he offered to drive and pick me up, as only then did I suddenly get cold feet.
I had a good friend on WoW, someone my brother met at PAX and joined the guild and is still one of my best friends to this day (tho we both aren't fond of my older brother). Hes 6 years older than me but never creeped on me, was more like the protective brother I lacked. (Well least till I was 24 and single for the first time did we hook up lol but that's because we were friends for so long, but the distance led to it not turning into a relationship) He caught onto it through conversation and was my words of wisdom in a time I was lacking any of my own. He saw something was fishy when I couldn't.
I told my friend I was scared to meet him because .... Dumb teenager logic, I thought he would not like me. My friend chimed in that I shouldn't meet anyone off the internet at my age. I told him about the gifts and I swear I've never been scolded like this in my life, not even by my own parents, but he always cared like that. He wondered why I would give my address to someone I never met, and the expensive gifts I got were not something the average 19 year old could afford. None of this ever clicked for me of course because I was lonely and trying to prove idk to myself, my crush or something I could get a boyfriend.
Like that I told the guy it wasn't wise to meet in person and my "parents" said I wasn't allowed to. That's when it went dark. At first it was pestering over and over, guilting me over gifts he gave me and encouraging me to defy my parents. While he kept bothering me, it never once occured to me he'd lose his shit. While my friend was worried shitless about the guy having my address, going as far to drive the 11 hours to my house and explain the situation to my dad as I refused to tell him out of fear of getting in trouble at the time, all while taking his spring break in my state instead of his own with his friends. There's a reason he's still one of my best friends. He has a little sister of his own as well and she's my age so his protective nature is natural.
Eventually he made me block the guy and that was that, this guy was pissed off. He'd go on different accounts to accuse me of gold digging and using him. Luckily my friend was smart enough and had the foresight to change my wow password and even paid for my account for me taking this guy off it entirely as one of this guy's threats was to delete my account. But it didn't end there, it got worse as he'd consistently find ways to message me and tell me how horrible I was. Till about a month had passed.
I was walking home from school, about 2 mile walk in wealthy suburbs of New England, which I had done for years, many kids did as it was a very safe town with no crime in it or surrounding towns. Without a second thought I took off with my 100lb back back (maybe and over estimate lol) put my head phones in and started my 20 minute walk home. It was cold so I had earmuffs over my headphones only downing out sound more too. I swear if I could talk to myself as a kid I probably just slap myself for stupidity. Because wow guy, knew I walked home everyday as I talked about it. He knew my address and I never thought twice.
I was on the back roads walking home and honestly easy to map from my school to home as it was pretty straightforward with only one turn. At half way home it between songs I heard a vague crunching sound of tires rolling over gravel on the road slowly. I turned around to see a tinted black car that you couldn't see much of the person in front. I jogged out of the driveway I was standing in front of assuming it was waiting to turn in. But I didn't turn in, the roads were dead and it didn't make sense for him not to go around.
I swear the saying that you go cold when you're terrified is absolutely true. It could of been a summers day at 95 degrees and my bones would of been cold. My heart just sank and my breathing was uncontrollable. I felt like I had no control over my body as I realized this guy was following me, my blood truely ran cold and my hands shook as tears formed and my skin felt tight. My body felt like it wasn't ready to fight or flight but simply freeze there and die. It only got worse as the second time I turned my head to see the car stop, I stopped, my world stopped.
I couldn't stop staring, just froze and breathing like all my school books were on my chest. Crying silently, my eyes hurt with no tears or sound as I just stood there. The door opened after what felt like hours but only seconds maybe a minute. And it was infact him, it was the attractive guy from the photos, not a catfish but something seemed different. At first I thought it was his angry expression but soon realized, he was definitely not 19, more like 30+. I could barely think over the loud sound of my heart racing as it froze me in place.
I thought I was about to throw up as he spoke to me. Told me to get in the car or he'd light my house on fire and kill my dog in front of me. I honestly just couldn't move, couldn't reach for my phone as his words just froze me. And like some magic we both failed to notice the little old lady on her porch watching this play out. Suddenly I hear her yell "get away from that girl right now before I burn you alive".
We both turned to meet her eyes, pissed off small lady about 60 or 70 with white hair. I think she noticed my frozen in fear state as she told me to get over to her quickly. Like that I ran over to her tossing off my heavy brick of a back pack. It was obvious he was unsure what to do next as he stood there and watched me run to her. Must of been a sight this tiny thin old lady standing in front of a teenage girl yelling at this man to go away. Like that savior number 2 joined the battle as her husband stepped out, guy who looked like be been through a war or two, with a shot gun of all things and booming voice. Gun pointed saying "I've shot and killed men for less reason, you better leave now"
He got into his car and drove off as I simply collapsed, all that fear just came out as I cried harder and harder as my brain sifted through the past few months of mistakes. After calming me down enough to speak in non hyperventilating words, she asked me if I knew him. I told her kind of, but only online from a videogame, not real life. Of course explaining it wasn't easy, and her husband couldn't grasp why I'd wanna printed I was at war (I'm sure in his experience he was thinking call of duty not magical creatures in a game called World of 'War'craft). She got on the phone with the school counselor, her daughter apparently and told her my name. I was well known to her daughter ironically, but it was only 250 or less kids in the school and the town itself was small. Many staff at our school had family in town, kids at school they were related to either by their own children or their siblings children. It was the kind of town if you didn't leave by a certain age your were stuck there.
So honestly it seems ironic but entirely not a huge surprise. The counselor was well aware of my family and my mom's drug addiction as child services had been involved few times. She came by in 10 minutes to pick me up and asked me a ton of questions of course knowing I didn't want to involve police as I was scared of being taken away from my parents again. (FYI foster care was worse than a drugged out mom on prescriptions). We weren't rich but we were more well off than many. Though my mom worked my dad kept my mom on a tight budget to keep her from buy prescriptions from Canada she wasn't prescribed (hence her trying to take my money). She knew all of this and knew though rough I was better off than foster care which was a gamble with losing odds at best. Plus 2 more years and I'd be off to college anyway. So we didn't involve the cops, but she made me promise to take the bus every day and to inform my dad of the situation. She also called my dad at work to inform him and had a teacher make sure I got on the bus everyday till I graduated even.. really sucked but I understood.
If it ended there it would be nice but there's still a bit more and I'm sorry for the length and grammar, it's late at night and I recalling from memory and typing on my phone.
Two days after this, my dad had to fly out for business, my brother was off at college so it left me and my high mom "who promised my dad she stay sober while he was gone but I was used to helping her while she was high, was like taking care of a child". But I was on edge as ever creek in that big house from the 60s, cat stir at night, and dog barking outside set me on edge I barely slept. My friend from WoW called every night making sure I was ok for the past month. I lived in the middle of the woods, next to a huge river in my backyard so there was still a lot of wildlife outside in the dead silence of cold months. Running water is a important source of water when lakes freeze. I had been used to all the bumps in the night, cats coming and going and dog barking at ever animal in the yard, but it all seemed new to me as I layed in bed trying to drown out my fears. The house I grew up in was a 6 bedroom house, I had a little sister too but she stayed with my grandma in another state per court order while I was allowed to choose due to her only being 9 and me 16. The other rooms were used as game room, office for my dad and guest room mostly for when my sister visited my grandma and her had a room.
So in a large house like that in the middle of the woods, it was scary to virtually be alone because my mom accounted for defenseless. I was letting my last cat inside for the night (5 cats who all knew to come in at night for dinner and stayed in till morning). And at the end of the long driveway between my neighbor and our house was parked a black car. I quickly shut the door and locked it after my cat got inside. I made sure all 5 doors were locked and even put card board on the glass doors to the pool idk hoping if he broke them it would delay him if that car was his.
I went and turned off all the lights, and got all my cats into one room so I knew they were safe. Here's the thing about my dog, he's untrained for the most part but was basically a giant lab puppy in his mind. But he growled at strangers, not barked like at animals. We had to keep him outside if we had guests but he never bit anyone and if you spent enough time around him he'd eventually accept you. Also he didn't growl at all strangers either so he wasn't the most reliable guard dog either. But he was big, and deep bark.
I mauled over what to do as I sat there in the dark with my dog, waiting for shadow to pass by the window. I eventually went upstairs to my mom's room and woke her up from her sleeping pill slumber. Groggy and still kinda high she didn't quite grasp what I was telling her till I started crying. She sorta sobered up and asked me to get her some coffee and I did. All while I'm watching my dogs every move because I know he could sense something before I did. As my mom sobered her fear in her eyes grew. Eventually she got the idea to call my neighbors and ask them if they knew the car, after all said no, 2 of the men went out of their house to check the car together.
The car was empty, at closer inspection though, they noticed it was a newer car, lexus, and in the passenger seat was a lap top. The car was locked but with a flashlight you could see somewhat into the tinted windows. They never told us why but something they saw in the car prompted them to call the local sheriff, only one and he lived in town sorta thing. We were too small to have a police department. He drove over about 15 minutes later, ran the plates and asked the houses around about it. Apparently it was a rental car from Ohio, and he was calling to see who was rented to but the offices were closed I think. He stuck around in his car for about an hour till someone came out of the woods and ran back in as the cop turned his spot light on him. I couldn't see what he was pointing at with his light as it was at the side of my house and I was looking at the front. I guess he called for back up as 3 other cop cars showed up in 5 minutes of it from the neighboring town/highway patrol idk. At which a lady cop got out as I asked to speak with her and her call my counselor at school to explain who that might be. I was pretty shy back then but idk something about a female cop made me feel more comfortable to open up to.
I told her the gist of the story, then she called my counselor who backed up my story but also explaining why I was scared of cops cuz my history with foster care and not wanting to go back. At which a mostly sober mom joined me hugging me, doing her typical apologetic routine. But also offering much needed comfort as she called my dad too. Eventually the lady cop asked if she could take a look around the house to see if things were secure and get any information from my laptop about him.
In her search she found something I didn't think about checking, the basement door was not just unlocked but open. It's never unlocked so I didn't even think to check it as our back yard floods in the spring due to beaver dams and it's got extra seals and stuff to prevent the basement from flooding ... Again... But the stuff sealing it which was mostly sand bags and stuff were set aside. But the door at the bottom of the stares was locked still though it had some damage like someone tried picking it. But he had access to half the basement that was storage (basement was sectioned and the other half used to be used for my brothers parties.). The door between the sections was like a front door not an indoor door, as in the summer my dad left the hatch open to dry out the basement and adjust pool settings as it was basically the pool house and the cats loved it so it also had a few cat beds. The section that led upstairs was locked from the inside and the wall and door were not dry wall and cheap door but lock and key heavy door and wall was brick.
Upon noticing this my dad confirmed he had not left it open, my suspicions that black car was his was pretty much confirmed. As we walked through the house to make sure everything was still safe, she got on my lap top as they searched the woods, I gave her everything I had, his photos, username and she even checked to see if his credit card was still on my account but it wasn't. But the last few didgets were. She then asked to take my laptop for a few days as she thought she could get some good evidence from it. I asked her to please not damage it and return it as soon as possible because I used it a lot, before smart phones it was all I had.
After few hours and onlooking neighbors had gone to bed the cops came back empty handed but left a cop outside our house and towed the guys car. From what the lady cop told me, what permitted such fear was in the car there was two guns, some sort of rope and handcuffs. And the guy who ran back into the dense woods was wearing a winter ski mask (not out of season but suspicious none the less).
So eventually I try and lay down and go to sleep but pretty sure I was going to call out sick tomorrow and kept all my cats inside for the day. I was too restless to sleep, every sound made me so scared. My mom slept with the dog in her room (I'm very allergic to animals but less to cats as I kinda built up a tolerance to cats but not dogs) and my cats slept in my room most nights by choice as my room was usually the warmest.
At 3:30 am ish I heard a knock at the back door, and a guy say, undercover police officer, open up. I was still awake as I walked downstairs to make out a guy standing in the dark with a gun. As he saw me he demanded I let him in now as he needed to speak with me. Something felt off, my gut knew it before I did that this guy's voice seemed forced. Like someone purposely making their voice deeper. And why was he at the back door?
So I turned on a light outside and sure enough, it was him. I just screamed as quickly as I screamed he started hitting the door hard. Wasn't a very loud horror movie scream but more like a gasp scream. I don't think the fear in my body had a loud scream to let out. But the banging was pretty loud as I ran to the front to see if the officer was still outside. He was but he wasn't getting out of his car. I didn't wanna run outside as I'm not a fast runner so I turned the porch lights on and off couple times but still nothing. After a minute my dog came bolting down to the door barking and growling nearly foaming at the mouth. Soon followed my mom who yelled she had a gun, she didn't but bluff is bluff. Somehow during all this the cop outside had snuck around back and had his gun pointed at him yelling to put his gun down.
I hid as the rest went down but he was arrested, no trial needed me to attend and my statement was enough. Come to find out he wasn't even American, the car was rented under his friends name, and after all was done he was deported back to Canada. I assume something with his passport would prevent him from coming back to the USA as the cop reassured me he couldn't come back to the USA now. Idk what exactly he was charged with but I think my dad said activated assault with a deadly weapon, attempted kidnapping and something else. And it also it turned out he was 32 years old not 19 so I assume me being a me being a minor carried a charge.
And life moved on from there. I had plenty of creeps before and after but he was by the worst from WoW. I had a couple from streaming but I was an adult and much better a staying safe online. Only one worse than this guy was my ex boyfriends cousin who made my life hell for couple years but that's another story for another time.

2008, I'm 18 years old working in a corner shop, get hooked on scratch cards, living at home, I never saved anything, didn't know what debt was, easy living, accept my parents were struggling so I needed to move out.
2010 my girlfriend moves to London, I follow after a while of getting smashed and hating life. I spend a lot of money moving, I get an overdraft and a job.
2011 a friend of mine shows me 888 Poker.
2011-2015 I'm in 40k debt borrowed on Credit cards and loans, even a pay day, fuck online Poker and my addiction. Honestly if you struggle with gambling addictions I feel your pain. I've come out the other side but shit it was the darkest of times, I feel your pain, stay strong and look for the positives you have now, not what you're chasing, you will hate yourself for a while, but you will also learn to love again. You are more than money. I guess crypto was my final gamble, but it was so much more controlled than 1k buyins and being busted in 10mins, it never felt like gambling, more like a life long investment.
2015-2017 struggle to make payments but close the pay day and a loan, yay, still hugely in debt.
Late 2017 - Friend tells me about crypto, buy XRP, make £200ish and blow it on shitcoins, TRX and XVG chasing pumps, damn wraith.
Early 2018 - Friend tells me about Nano, I research, try it, and like it, I buy.
2018-2020 accumulate Nano wherever I feel it's a good buy, started at $15, it was a slog, but never stopped buying when I felt was a good time.
2020 - Uni airdrop and Moons, yummy, add to the Nano stack below $1.
2021 - Sell half my Nano stack and pay off all my debts with some funds left over after tax.
The End (Still got half my stack bois, ride or die)

Hopefully a post like this can be stickied since a lot of people are posting the same questions. If you are new or just getting back into collecting basketball cards then please read.
For the New Collector
How do I start? Collect what you like. What do you enjoy the most? A player or a team? That should guide your collection. Then figure out how you want to get your cards; either buying boxes or buying singles. Buying boxes are always a gamble as you don't know what you are gonna get. Buying singles from eBay or comc are typical ways to go about this.
Boxes are so expensive, what gives? Currently, we are in a bull market for cards in general but especially with basketball. The demand for them has increased exponentially. A lot of previous collectors, when they were younger have come back to the hobby. Also, influencers like Gary Vee have touted that basketball cards can be assets, so you have wealthy people looking to invest getting into the hobby as well. Hobby boxes of Prizm used to be $60-100 when they initially came out but now 2019 Prizm are $800. Group Breakers are also pushing this.
I have the money and I want to buy boxes, which box? (For this discussion, I'm only focused on hobby boxes) NBA boxes come in tiers: Low Class (I don't mean this in a bad way...just that these are usually the cheapest in terms of pricing) NBA Hoops (usually the first release of the season) Panini Panini Complete Donruss
Middle Class (just like in real life, middle class is slowly becoming high class in terms of affordability especially for Prizm,Optics,Mosaics) Certified NBA Hoops Premium Stock Court Kings Absolute Revolution Prizm (most sought after for general public for refractors and colors) Mosaic (colors) Optic (colors) Select Timeless Treasures Gold Standard Chronicles Illusions Origins
Upper Class (dollar dollar bill y'all...either you have a really good job or you are swimming in credit card debt lol) Spectra Noir Impeccable Immaculate One and One Obsidian National Treasures (most sought after for RPA - rookie, patch, auto) Flawless Opulence Eminence (15k per box!! WTF?!?!?...It's now listed at 50k!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Now, where do I find these boxes? Boxes can be separated into Hobby or Retail. Hobby boxes can be bought at your local card shops or online at sites like Blowout and the like. Retail are typically found at big box stores like Walmart, Target, etc. Retail can also be found online as well. Because of how hot the basketball market is, it is super hard to find retail boxes because people are literally camping out or stalking the distributers that restock those shelves. So for many people, once those shelves are stocked, someone will come along and purchase everything. Sometimes it's someone who will rip it all or worse yet, sell it all at 3-5x MSRP.
But what about the college boxes/cards? Prizm Draft Picks or Flawless Collegiate or National Treasures Collegiate don't hold too much value to us NBA fans. So if you buy these boxes, please don't expect for those cards to increase in value. It's obviously ok to like the cards of the players you like or the college team you like but those cards will not hold the value like their NBA uniformed card counterparts. If you do buy these boxes and want to sell them, the best time is around the draft time and before the first NBA cards comes out (usually NBA Hoops).
What happened to Topps and Upper Deck? Isn't Panini a sandwich? Panini is an italian styled sandwich but it is also a huge company that got big by selling stickers. Stickers of all things! I know! They are so big that they are bigger than Topps and Upper Deck combined i think. Anyways, back in 2010, Panini got the exclusive rights from the NBA to produce cards and thus forced Topps and Upper Deck out. Topps had baseball and football so they were fine with it and Upper Deck had hockey and a number of financial issues that I think still plague the company. So now we are stuck with Panini for better or worse.
There's so many color variations? Which ones are valuable? As a collector, whichever one catches your eye. As a flipper, look for the serial numbering. Typically the lower the serial numbering, the more valuable it should be. /1 > /5 > /10 > /49 > /99 > /199 > etc... A note on color, a lot of collectors place a premium on the color parallel if it is the same color as the team's colors or jersey colors.
But I've seen non-numbered silvers sold for more than the numbered colors? What gives? That is the market sometimes...If the general public decides that the silvers are more desirable than that is whats going to happen.
Yay! I pulled a Zion silver prizm rookie card! It will be worth $100k in 10 years right?I can now retire right? NO. While Zion is definitely the sexy new cards, there can be a whole host of things that can derail your retirement plans. First, Zion may flame out. He may have a career threatening or altering injury like Derrick Rose or Blake Griffin. He may never live up to his hype like Wiggins. He can become a player that the fans hate or turn on like Durant. The basketball card market starts to crater if all the new money wants to start selling and get out of the market.
I've dug up some old cards. Most are from the late 80's and early 90's and with this basketball card boom, I'm rich right? NO. You have literally found kindle for a fire. Just kidding but not really. Unfortunately, a lot of the cards in the late 80s and early 90s were massively overproduced. If you think there a tonne of prizm cards, it still doesn't compare to the sheer number of 1988-1995 cards (Hoops, Fleer, Upper Deck, Topps). That 1990 Hoops Michael Jordan? You're lucky to get a $2 for it. Sorry to burst anyone's bubble about it but that's the truth.
When is the best time to sell a card? Usually during the season and the playoffs. If you want the most, do not sell during the off-season. Another thing to think about is the player that you are looking to sell. If it is a player that is not a star or superstar, it's best to sell after that player has strung along a few good games. If it's a star or superstar, the best time would be if that player is about to win a championship. Case in point, Kawhi's value was through the roof when he won in Toronto and now his value has dropped since his failure with the Clippers.
Rookie cards are too expensive. What do I do? If the rookie cards are a little too much in price, you can always collect the 2nd year cards. This seems to be the case more than ever now as younger collectors just don't have the financial resources. To me a base is a base, so a 2nd year card is the same as a 10th year card. But that's just my opinion.
Is my card valuable? Before asking this question, please for the love of god look it up on ebay. Type in the player, year, brand of the card and scroll down until you see the Show Only filter and click on Sold Items. This will pull up all the previous sales of that card. This will give you your best answer as to how valuable your card is.
But what about the Beckett value? Before the internet and ebay, Beckett was the best way to figure out approximate value of a card. But now we have the internet and ebay and 130point.
But what if I have a One of One? How do I know how much it's worth? Congrats! You have a pretty cool card. If it is of a superstar like Lebron or Luka, you just gained a $1k+ card. No one can accurately tell you the value of the card until it is sold. But if the card is of a common player or scrub, you might be lucky to get $20.
From u/kHartos, he wrote the following for Retail Boxes: Here is another thing I see asked a lot - retail box formats. So here they are in order of smallest to largest. Not all formats are available for all products.
Gravity pack - smallest packs, typically 4-8 cards. Comes from gravity feed boxes.
Fat pack - jumbo gravity pack. Available for low end sets like Hoops and Donruss.
Cello pack - multiple smaller packs wrapped in cellophane.
Hanger - A small box of multiple packs
Blaster - The sh*t fliplifers most try to get you to buy for 4x MSRP (which is always 19.99). This is larger than a hanger, smaller than a Mega.
Mega box - Exclusive to Target and Walmart. MSRP at $49.99. Usually Target and Walmart Megas get their own exclusive parallel/s.
I hope this helps for the newbies. Feel free to add as I'm sure I have missed some tips. Edit: Formatting