The big challenge - pay off £20k by Christmas 2010

parsniphead

Finally my direct debits have come out this morning which is another £643.13 to add to my total. I have been itching to update on this thread over Christmas.

Looking forward to paying off more during the month.

hypno06

Another week, another debt payment!

Capital on my barclayloan reduced today by £256.11 - another step in the right direction :T

Have a good week, everyone!

parsniphead

Hyp3rion wrote: »

Hi all,
Just had some ebay sales finish tonight and made a tidy £250ish so that has gone towards the challenge. Updated sig.
Roll on next Saturday when the rest of the items finish.

Hyp

Blimey, well done. I really need to get over my aversion to ebay. I have made a little in the past, but I find it really long winded and frustrating,

sarahs999

I've found loads of problems with ebay recently and it's really putting me off selling. Almost every batch I've put on I've had buyers telling me they've not received their stuff and launching claims, which are long winded and very unfair as Paypal automatically removes the money from your account rather than waiting to see who's in the right and who's in the wrong. I hate having to prove that I did everything right and I'm sure some of these buyers are just trying it on. Interestingly all of them have been abroad so I might stop selling internationally. Also I've had a huge amount of non-payers and idiot bidders over Christmas. Very annoying.

se999

Thought I'd do a New Year voucher/codes count, I don't count them as savings until I spend them, but they do add up and you need to keep check on them to get the best out of them

Tesco £115 - hope to use for deals for 3 or 4 times value.

John Lewis/Waitrose £20 - will probably use off grocery shopping when a Waitrose.

Amazon bport codes £25 (+ one requested) - saving for either essentials/presents.

MacDonalds - 2 free coffee sticker cards - when travelling sometimes use them, OH gets a nugget meal & I just get a coffee plus a donated few nibbles Ok we do normally take flask etc., but on some routes toilets are practically non-existent!!

Piggypoints - OH > 4000, no decent redeems until over 6000 points.

Got to get back into surveys, I used to get loads of vouchers from them. Also comping, as I used to occasionally get them as comp wins.

madmich666

hi guys thanks for the info. Will be doing more research before I sell my gold to anyone.

As for ebay i know what you guys mean, ive been selling model cars for my dad for the last year and it is a pain in the bum but have made money doing it. It may be long winded have you though about using turbo lister which you can download for free sort your listings out and then up load them all at once? It is worth it if it clears debt that is the way I look at it.

Keep up the good work everyone

Mich

Brokeattheminute

Hello people,just need a bit of advise,do you think i should concentrate on paying the debt ive left and then start saving,or should i try to build up my savings and then with the savings i have built up pay off the rest of my debs or should i pay off some of my debt whilst building up my savings.
Some feedback would be greatly appreciated!Thanx

madmich666

Hi broke it would depend on what the interest rate is for the debt and what it is for the savings. If the interest rate is higher on the debt then pay that off first but remember to leave your self a small "emergency fund" just incase anything should happen and you need the money. As interest rates are poo at the mo it would probably be better to pay the debt off. once that is clear then you can throw all your extra money in the savings account and built up a healthy balance.

Hope that helps.
If anyone thinks differently please let me know.
Mich

Brokeattheminute

Thanks madmich for the advice,i think youre right about leaving an emerg savings fund just in case something might happen with the car or say an elec appliance in the house.

S.Worth

Broke, I'm trying to clear debt first, though I only have one CC that charges interest and it'll be clear next payday.

The way I do it is I work out my budget (including CC minimum payments) and any left over money I move into a different account. If I have any emergencies during the month I'll take some from this to cover it, so I still have a backup.

At next payday I use whatever's left to pay off some debt, then put the next months 'spare' money in the account.

Doing it this way means you see during the month how much you are going to be able to pay off, and it's an incentive not to spend any of it. Also as you reduce other spending (e.g clear a CC, arrange cheaper insurance or utilities) the amount in this account goes up as your budget cost is going down. If I had no debts this would effectively be spare cash, and it's a real motivator to see what you will end up with when the debts are clear.

I also have 3 savings accounts, one for the cars (servicing, insurance etc), one for holidays and one for christmas. I know it'd be better to clear debt rather than save, but I still need to live, and the car savings proved invaluable last year.

Hope this makes sense!