YAY It's Pay Day - BOO - It's spent already!!!

debtfreesomeday

Relieved it's payday but, totaling up our income and outgoings for the month, we only have £16 left for all food & drink and everything else that's not a bill, without going overdrawn! How depressing...

Desperately trying to think of ways to make more money though to get us out of this damn overdraft (we're usually about £300 - £400 overdrawn every month).

I am trying to pay off £300 a month on my credit cards (which I've already paid off today) so that we can be credit-card free within 18 months but think I may have to reduce that and be in debt for longer.

I'm m due a little bit of overtime payment next month so that may help a wee bit.
Not much of value left to sell on ebay/car boot now either as I have been doing that for the past few months now and we've rid ourselves of all our junk/not needed stuff/stuff we can part with. We have £20 of vouchers owing us from Pigsback so we'll get those cashed in as Christmas/birthday pressies. The slow cooker will be getting lots of use this month I think and we take packed lunches to work!

Does anyone else have any suggestions of ways to make a little extra money without taking on another job (which isn't possible with the hours we presently work.)?

Thank you

Snaggles

You mentioned Pigsback - do you also use Quidco? It wont bring in anything in the short term, but might help in the longer term. I'm only an occasional user of Quidco, but still get a couple of hundred a year from them, and every little helps as they say.

If funds are really tight this month, then have a look on the old style board - I think there's some sort of 'feed your family for £x a day' challenge going on. If you are going to have to use your overdraft, just try to limit the damage by making a strict budget/meal plans etc.

I also do surveys, usually make about £10 a month from those (I do Lightspeed, Valued Opinions, a couple of others....). Again, not big amounts but it all adds up.

There might be some more ideas on the 'Up your Income' board.

(Land_of)_Maz

do you have any kind of marketable skills, such as admin from home, and any friends/contacts who can put some work your way to do from home in the evenings?

Have you checked out mystery shopping, again pays a little in the short to medium term, and can be done around a full time job. I do some in my lunch hour... or with the monthly shop...

As snags says check out the up your income board...

Also if you are not of a gambling disposition, try out some of the free (no deposit required) bingo sites... if you win anything, you may have to pay something in to get your money out... check out the gambling board for tips, or PM me, if i can help i will.... i love bingo i do!!

Also, if you're normally £300-400 into OD, why not aim for £250 into OD this time, and if you manage it, ask bank to reduce OD month on month til eventually you'll clear it.

Steel_2

I just lost a whole post.....arrgghhhh!!! So annoying when that happens.

Here are some ideas for you:

- offer to look after friends and family's allotments and kitchen gardens in exchange for fruit and veg
- approach your local allotment and offer to look after people's plots while they are on holiday in exchange for fruit and veg.
- it's holiday season so your employers might be willing for you to do a bit more overtime to cover someone else's job while they're away. You might not get paid that this month, but it would give you a base to start with next month.
- if you could spend those pigsback vouchers in a food place, I would think about getting them for that and not wait until Christmas.
- Do you shop at Tescos? I can't remember exactly when those clubcard vouchers are due, but I haven't had any for a long time so it might be this month (anyone??)
- ditto for nectar points, which you could use to buy food at Sainsbury.
- have you done a cupboard inventory to see if you could squeeze another few meals out of it. Ditto the bottom of your freezer.
- head over to the Moneysaving Old Style board and read Weezl's thread - she's on a mission to spend £1 a day on food for her and her hubby - and that includes three meals a day, snacks, drinks, packed lunches etc.