Casual editing work

talby-wan

I've made the first step in admitting I have a debt problem but now it's time to start working on lowering it. As I'm not the best at cutting back I want to explore the alternative avenue of making more money from a supplemental income.

I've been selling on Amazon for a while (and doing pretty well out of it) but it's not a guaranteed income by any means. I'm starting to think a second job would be the best idea (but strictly on a casual basis). Does anyone know of any decent links to sites that advertise specifically casual jobs?

I'm particularly interested if anyone knows of any casual media work websites i.e. editing, sub-editing, proofreading, writing, web editing, as this is the area in which I currently work. Working at home on my computer would also be a distinct plus point. I don't really fancy glass-collecting in a pub (I did this when I was a student and it wasn't pleasant!).

Any help/suggestions would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Paul

lynzpower

Ive found the jobcentreplus surprisingly good for that sort of thing, as well as gumtree?

Have you ever done your SOA, we can find some easy cutbacks for you to make the most of that extra income

Lynz x

tyllwyd

Hi Paul

I'm a freelance editor/proofreader, and my work has come by writing to companies with my cv - most throw the letter straight in the bin, obviously, but I have a handful of regular clients who phone me when there is work available which I can decide whether to accept or not. In my area (legal book publishing) that is how most freelance jobs will be placed.


I've never used an agency, but the ones I've seen mentioned are

freelance.co.uk
elance.com
guru.com
noagenciesplease.co.uk

I also do some research work for AQA (https://www.63336.com)

talby-wan

Thanks for the suggestions

I haven't done my SOA yet - I do have a good idea of where I can cut back (quitting smoking would be a good start) and I do have lots of good intentions. It's just putting these intentions into practice.

I don't mind a bit of hard work - hence my previous post - but I guess I'm stuck in the bubble of wanting to do more of what I'm good at to earn more money rather than tackling financial issues head on (interest rates, APR's, balance transfers etc are a foreign language to me).

I'll have a go at doing my SOA though as I'm sure it will help!

Mortgage - Currently £342 a month but going up to £624 p/m in July as end of interest free period.

Bank overdraft - £-2720 - I hit the limit pretty much every month and interest is roughly £25 a month.

Credit cards - collectively between my wife and I, we owe roughly £4000 - I couldn't tell you the interest rates but they're with Capital One and Cahoot. What we pay off per month varies but (mostly) it's more than the minimum payment - perhaps £225 per month but often when disaster strikes we reach for our credit cards to tie us over.

Sainsburys Loan - £200 a month (I think the balance on this is roughly £7,000 off the top of my head)

Council Tax - £111 a month

Student Loans - £100 a month (I upped this a bit recently to get it paid off quicker - should be gone within the year)

Travel to work - I commute to London which roughly costs £360 a month although I'm due to start a new job next week (still in London) which doesn't require the tube. I'm also going to see if I can get an interest free season ticket loan from my new employers - which if I'm right - I also don't have to pay tax on. This will then roughly work out at £260 a month not including the tax savings if they apply.

Car loan - £100 a month (we're buying this off my Mum so no interest and no late payment fees (I hope!))

Car insurance - £20 a month

Smoking - £300 a month (for me and my wife)

Home insurance/Mortgage protection insurance - roughly £45 a month.

Sky TV - £34 a month

Utilities - £80 a month

Broadband - £21.99 a month

BT - £11 a month (cps with Primus)

Mobiles - £70 a month

Food bills - £200 a month

Entertainment/Going out - varies between £100-200 a month

All this comes to roughly £2730 (though I've overestimated in most places)

Our joint income - £2869 plus maybe £100 a month from Amazon sales

I think that's pretty much it - so all in all a pretty sorry state of affairs.

I look forward to any suggestions you might have to help me out.

Thanks

Paul

talby-wan

Thanks Tyllwyd.

The elance and guru sites look quite interesting.

I almost signed up for AQA when they first launched and another similar company called Kwickee. The sceptic in me however made me decide against it as I wasn't sure if the pay would be worth the effort.

It looks as though AQA aren't advertising for UK staff at the moment but that's definitely the kind of thing I'd like to do (providing the pay is worthwhile) i.e. a job where I can just log on to my computer and do the odd couple of hours here and there when I've got the time.

You don't have to answer this but roughly how much do you make, say, per hour of AQA work?

I did stumble upon a Canadian website called Askmen.com who want writers from all over the world to write short articles for them for $50 each so I might send off a sample to them. It's not loads of money but it might be a good start.

Cheers

Paul

talby-wan

Incidentally, as you work in legal book publishing have you ever had any dealings with ILEX Tutorial College? I did some temping work for them a few years back (in accounts!!). They do distance learning legal courses and there's permanently an advert for freelance editors on their website

http://www.ilex-tutorial.ac.uk/content_page.php?sid=11&id=8

They're based at the bottom of my road in Bedford but legal publishing isn't exactly my area (sports and entertainment is more my bag).

ms_london

Income: £2,869


Outgoings:

Mortgage - £342 ((£624 July))

Council Tax - £111

Student Loans - £100

Travel to work - £360

Car loan - £100

Car insurance - £20

Smoking - £300 This is sooooooo high!! And killing you at the same time.!!

Home insurance/Mortgage - £45

Sky TV - £34

Utilities - £80 Could you break this down? Do you pay monthly/quarterly?

Broadband - £21.99 Could you get a cheaper deal?

BT - £11

Mobiles - £70 Could you get a better tarrif/cut down?

Food bills - £200 This is a lot for 2 people!! Does this include eating out?

Entertainment/Going out - £200 a month Again, quite a bit!!

Total - £1994.99 ((£2276.99 come July))

Surplus - £874.01 ((£592.01 come July))

You are obviously on a good wage & seem to live quite comfortably - you spend a fair bit on smoking, food & going out - so good quite easily trim your budget if you wanted to.

Could you list ALL of your debts, who they are with, the balance, the APR and the requirement minimum monthly repayment?

Come July you will have £592.01 surplus to throw at your debts, and if you were to cut back on other areas of spending (smoking/food/going out) you would have more, so you could possibly be debt free before the end of the year, or perhaps within the year.

Regarding your overdraft, in order to reduce it each month you need to call your bank and ask them to reduce it by £X each month, that way it will gradually go down each month, but you have to learn to spend within your means & STOP spending on the credit. This does take a while to get used to, especially if you have been living above your means for however many months/years..

Set up your debt repayments by DD/SO - that way you dont have to worry about them being late & extra charges added to your account.

What about budgeting for Car tax/MOT, birthdays, christmas, holidays?

Are your goals to be debt free? Or do you have other hopes/dreams on the horizon?

I dont think you really NEED a 2nd job if you were to trim your budget slightly, but if you dont want to do this, then perhaps it is an option.

Hope some of this helps.

xx

ktkrunch

Do yourself a favour and give up smoking today. £300 would make a significant dent in your debts and reduce your chances of dying from cancer, heart disease, stroke and emphazema (spelling?) It will make you and your house and clothes smell a hell of a lot better too.

talby-wan

Thanks for the help.

In answer to your questions:

Yep - the smoking's gotta go - it's definitely on the agenda but after multiple failed attempts I can't say with all positivity that I/we'll be successful

Utilities - I think it works out as:
£45 a month dual fuel with Scottish Power
£36 a month approx with Anglian Water

Broadband - I've only recently signed up to this and I'm locked into a 12 month contract (no early cancellations). I'm happy with this though as it serves my internet needs and is with one of the most recommended ISPs. It's only £6 a month more than I was previously paying for dialup. I will probably shop around for alternatives though once the 12 months is up to see if I can get a better deal.

Mobiles - I haven't looked into this yet - not sure how long I have left on my contract and what my options are.

Food bill - I thought this wasn't too bad!! We've started budgeting a bit on this i.e. buying the Sainsburys economy stuff where we can, but the bill still comes to £45-50 a week. This also includes general household stuff, not just food and it also includes cat and dog food (£4-5 a week). We don't really eat out a great deal but have a takeaway perhaps once a fortnight and that would also be included in this.

Entertainment/Going out - We're starting to tone this down a bit anyway - going out's not as much fun as it was when I was 21 (approaching 30 now). A lot of this is the odd couple of pints with my workmates at lunchtime - it's become quite a ritual 2-3 times a week but I'm going to make a conscious effort not to get into this with my new workmates when I start my new job.

Debt listing - I'll need to do some research on this but will post it all over the next couple of days.

Direct debits/standing orders - most of our outgoings are set up in this way. I think the problem is that they are going out all over the place so we never quite know exactly how much money we've got left to spend/save/make extra debt payments. When my new job starts I'm going to be getting paid at the end of the month rather than the 15th (my wife gets paid at the end of the month as well). This might also take some getting used to as we'd generally live off my wages for two weeks then live off my wife's wages. I reckon the best plan of action for us here is to get a joint account and to try and move as many of our DDs as possible to something like the 3rd of the month (if possible) - then we'll know how much we've got left.

Budgeting for holidays etc - we've never really been that organised! Perhaps we should give it a try.

Goals - being debt free would certainly be nice, I think, knowing me and my wife, your estimate of a year is a little unrealistic but it would definitely be a good target to work towards. Even halving my debt in a year would be a big accomplishment in my book. We've also got a lot of work we'd like to do around our house - fitted kitchens, damp proofing etc. I'm just having a bit of difficulty persuading my wife that we should pay off our debts first before we think about that kind of thing.

ms_london

talby-wan wrote:

your estimate of a year is a little unrealistic but it would definitely be a good target to work towards. Even halving my debt in a year would be a big accomplishment in my book.

I thought it was possible until I spotted your £7,000 sainsbury's loan, but like you say, even if you could halve it by then, or just stop spending on the credit it would be a good start. Rome wasnt built in a day afterall...

As I said before, you are on a pretty good salary, so it's not all doom and gloom and you could still live a reasonably comfortable lifestyle at the same time as throwing more than what you are paying now at your debts. It's all about budgeting & being organised - knowing what you want and how you are going to achieve it.

Most of your creditors wont mind if you change the DD date - so long as the bills are being paid they dont mind so much. Most of mine come out on the 1st of each month, so a few days after payday I know exactly where I stand (although I have a spreadsheet - as do most of us nerds - so I know exactly where I stand all of the time).

How about just cutting down on the cigarettes to start with? That's £3,600 you spend a year on them. £3,600 a year going towards an early grave. Wouldnt you rather have a luxurious holiday or something with that? Or 3 holidays? (or whatever tickles your fancy) - you'll not only be saving money, but also be healthier too!!

Work out what you can afford to pay off your debts each month & stick to it!! If I can do it anyone can!! xx