£10,000 Challenge

in*the*red_6

Ms_London

You really deserve your trip to Oz and I hope it's the trip of a lifetime for you!!!

Best wishes

ITR

Annie_Fanny

Ms_London

One piece of advice - don't quote me on this but I thought you would need to have a return ticket? Many countries are very very wary of people arriving and never leaving so I would check to see whether what the regulations are. I remember I had a return ticket when I went to Oz. Let me know how you get on.

I think 10k in savings is a very very good idea. Once you get there - you will be amazed as there is SO much to do and you will want to spend loads of money doing it! I would advise not spending too much money on clothing beforehand. I would just buy them out there - you won't have to wear a lot as it is generally darn warm!

Remember though that you can do loads of things for free. Sydney has amazing beaches. I would say that Bondi beach is actually the place to maybe to start off with but if you travel further afield you will realise just exactly what is has to offer, (Coogee, Manly, Palm Beach, Curl Curl).

A few treasures in Sydney:

Govinda Vegetarian Restaurant
112 Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst, Sydney
A kinda hippy cinema (screening mainstream films but instead of chairs they have cushions and beds to sit on) which also does a all you can eat buffet (yum!)

Newtown
http://www.newtown.net.au/
Chilled out area of Sydney, bookshops, boutiques. Cocktails at 'The Bank' - to die for!

Oxford Road
If you like shopping this is the place to go!

Olympic Pool North Sydney
Location: Milsons Point
A short train ride over Sydney Harbour Bridge to this outdoor swimming pool - pure bliss.

Oh Ms_London - you will have a ball!

Annie

Thefunkygibbons

lottie26 wrote:

To the funkygibbons,
That is very good what sort of account do you save your money in?
When we have paid our debts off we wanted to save a big deposit to buy our own house what sort of account have you saved into i hope you don't mind me being cheeky.

Obviously the top of the best seller tables moves around

Personally, I use cahoot as the rates are very good and it is easy to manage on line

Others use ING Direct

If you are saving for a reasonable period, make sure you have used your £3000 cash ISA limit each year as the rates and the tax free return cannot be matched elsewhere

lottie26_2

Thanks, funky gibbons.
I'm going to make a plan for when I pay my debts off so I have something to focus on.

ms_london

Annie_Fanny wrote:

Ms_London

One piece of advice - don't quote me on this but I thought you would need to have a return ticket? Many countries are very very wary of people arriving and never leaving so I would check to see whether what the regulations are. I remember I had a return ticket when I went to Oz. Let me know how you get on.

I think 10k in savings is a very very good idea. Once you get there - you will be amazed as there is SO much to do and you will want to spend loads of money doing it! I would advise not spending too much money on clothing beforehand. I would just buy them out there - you won't have to wear a lot as it is generally darn warm!

Remember though that you can do loads of things for free. Sydney has amazing beaches. I would say that Bondi beach is actually the place to maybe to start off with but if you travel further afield you will realise just exactly what is has to offer, (Coogee, Manly, Palm Beach, Curl Curl).

A few treasures in Sydney:

Govinda Vegetarian Restaurant
112 Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst, Sydney
A kinda hippy cinema (screening mainstream films but instead of chairs they have cushions and beds to sit on) which also does a all you can eat buffet (yum!)

Newtown
http://www.newtown.net.au/
Chilled out area of Sydney, bookshops, boutiques. Cocktails at 'The Bank' - to die for!

Oxford Road
If you like shopping this is the place to go!

Olympic Pool North Sydney
Location: Milsons Point
A short train ride over Sydney Harbour Bridge to this outdoor swimming pool - pure bliss.

Oh Ms_London - you will have a ball!

Annie

Thanks so much for the cool tips :0)

It is ok to have a one way ticket, providing you have £2,000 (or ASD) and can show that you have funds to buy a return ticket, the same with NZ, but the amounts differ - thanks for your concern though!!

Will definately check out the places you mention - thanks!!

I am visiting friends in Sydney first, so will probably just chill out for a bit and then decide where to go/what to do, see who I meet & things. Cannot wait!!

xx

cjbaps

Good luck MS London - you are an inspiration to us all!!!

Yorkielass

Sound's fantastic - so good to have something to aim for.

Presume you did this when you were looking for ways to reduce your debt but are you registered with as many survey, cashback sites as possible? Most have an option to pay you in cash , or vouchers/nectar points which you could then sell. pm me if you want my list of the ones I do etc, it's at home and I'm at work right now.

Good luck

dinkylou

Correct me if I'm wrong here!

Ms_London, unless you have an ISA which you have already put £3k in this year, now is an ideal time to open an ISA.

You can stick £3K in for this tax year, and then put another £3k in after April.

Your access to this account should be no different to that of your ING account and is making you more in interest (as ING one is not tax free)

I know my ISA is instant access and is paid monthly with interest.

dinkylou

Ms_London,

I heard about a website the other day for travellers which you might be interested in.

Its called https://www.getjealous.com and its free to use.

It keeps a track of your journey, where you are and all your photos. It also has an online diary and message facility so you can keep all your messages in one place.

A friend is also travelling and using this and it looks great.

Thought you might be interested?

scottishspendaholic

Hi Ms_London,

Similar to dinkylou's post - I have friends using https://www.mytripjournal.com (or .co.uk) - similar idea with online diary, map of journey, photos and guestbook - not terrifically designed - but I don't think it was expensive for them to buy for one year.

Much better than getting those LONG travelling emails from people - this way you can dip in and out when you have time and entries tend to be shorter as they are more frequent.

HTH

SS x