What are you doing to get debt free .... join in!

poorbutrich

littlestar1981 wrote:

- - Cut out all magazines (unreal for someone who spent £50 a month on them)
!!

Wow! Well done!

The magazines is a real eye-opener - it's money you don't even think about when you go into the newsagent.

littlestar1981

Anyone else? Wanted to 'bump' as this thread is fabola.

oops_a_daisy

think I missed this one the first time so here goes......since joining MSE about 7 months ago I have

1. Changed my mortgage - saving £74.78 per month
2. Changed buildings and contents insurances - made £109.80 cashback and had no increase in premiums for this year
3. Changed gas and electric - saving £4.00 per month and got £12.50 cashback
4. Changed broadband, TV and home phone onto different tariff - saving £2.50 per month
5. Cut back spend on food and started to OS! - saving about £100.00 per month as I am not very good at this, could do better
6. Opened A & L bank account - got £90.00 cashback and now get interest on + balances
7. Opened ING account and got £17.00 cashback
8. Transfered c/card balance onto 0% c/card ( now on my second transfer ) got £19.10 cashback
9. Make all purchases on cashback c/card and clear balance every month - got £69.41 cashback tracked so far ( paid out on anniversary )
10. Paid off 2 overdrafts of a total of £600.00 so not paying interest every month
11. Won endowment claim ( unfortunately not via this site so had to pay fees ) approx £1800.00 ( cant remember exact amount )
12. claimed unfair bank charges back - £805.69 less court cost
13. paid off bank loan saving about £130.00 in bank charges
14. put space saver bags in water cistern and installed water butts to save money on water
15. Sold private reg - £950.00 on its way to me when the transfer takes place
16. Quidco earnings other than listed above - £107.35
17. Just won £48.00 on free bingo
18. earned £265.00 on ebay selling stuff!
19. currently getting rid of 3 mobile phones via envirophone and tesco - should make about £50.00
20. Sold a few books via green metropolis thats only netted me a few quid though

all of the above means that I am now down to £2500.00 debt on a 0% credit card but I have also saved £3000.00 in an ISA to offset this. My next goal is to pay off the c/card in the next 6 months so that I can keep my savings where they are. Then its off to mortgage free wannabee for me

I started off the year with a loan of £3700.00 outstanding, a loan for my compuer of £250.00 ( interest free ) outstanding, sofa loan of £193.00 ( interest free ) outstanding, 1 overdraft £500.00, 1 overdraft £100.00, credit card £4000 - total of £8643 :eek: wow never added that up before. I check my bank accounts daily and if I see a penny on the floor I pick it up

I would say that everything that I have done apart from the endowment claim has been as a direct result of this site and the lovely people on it.:T

plzhelpmesave!

Hiyathere,

Really inspirational thread, thankx for some great ideas.

In the past couple of weeks, thanks to this site, I have:

reduced sky from £42 to £18
joined Quidco, and tracked £260 (car ins, home ins and mobile contract - saved money on all new policies)
cancelled £60monthly life assurance policies and MPP
listed stuff on ebay last week (lots of watchers, but no bids yet!)
saved £7.25 pm on line rental with telewest
opened A&L account for DH to get the cashback
spend all blooming day on here trying to catch up with 3 years worth of MSE
have offered to help family & friends with their finances
bought STARDROPS!!!!
haven't put heating on yet, even though DH says he's cold - just give him a blanket instead!

many thanks for all the tip and ideas people post - they really do work!

Headintheclouds_3

Fab thread!! :beer: Since my LBM, I have:

1. Changed contents insurance provider and got cashback; passed over the new mobile upgrade in favour of £10/month off - hope to get PAYG next year.
2. Chosen Stardrops for all of my cleaning needs; also water down the washing-up liquid as I use it.
3. Stopped buying books and renewed my library membership.
4. Turned the heating off over the summer; just have it on for an hour in the morning at the mo. Switch lights off if not needed.
5. Learnt how to make bread and crumble - yum!
6. Joined pigsback and Greasy Palm and awaiting first reward from both.
7. Read MSE every day for inspiration - especially when I'm feeling down about the book-buying
8. Converted my Clubcard points into AirMiles so that I can go on holiday next year.
9. Nagged my spendspendspend friends to become DFW!

Gemmzie

Excellent thread

1. Joined here
2. Figured out tarting - haven't paid any interest on debts for 18 months
3. Found Quidco and won on Bingo with no risk!
4. Started throwing every spare penny at debt
5. Started collecting £2s, 5ps, 2ps and 1ps All adds up

More to come

lou031205

OK, so massive lightbulb glowing. Thank you all so much for your help and advice. Here's what I've done (so far):

*Worked out full SOA - scary and ensured lightbulb stayed on.:eek:
*Changed contents insurance (£20 down to £12 monthly, with £40 Quidco on top).
*Changed from Homecall to TalkTalk for Phone/broadband package (£48 down to £21 monthly, with £22.50 Quidco on top).
*Took professional advice re: debt.
*Took courage to book court date for bankruptcy.
*Formulated budget for all living costs.
*Made decision to live by post-bankruptcy budget immediately.

Wish I'd found you all before it got to bankruptcy stage - snowballing sounds like real fun!;)

Loux

SuSu1871

Hi, I'm also new to this site (a massive thank you to my brother :A for introducing me to it)

So far, I have:

Switched gas/elec provider - saving £90 a year and earning £15 cashback for me. Also get Tesco points for every £ of the bill
Switched to lowest BT rate - saving £5 a month (we don't use phone as all have company mobiles, so no mobile phone bill either)
Cancelled PPI on loan - saving over £100 a month
Switched bank account to A&L - saving £25 a month in charges
Have introduced my brother to A&L - £50 cashback each as I still have the old voucher
Joined Quidco and will use this to renew all insurance covers next year
Check Quidco before making any purchases
Persuaded my flatmate to do a joint weekly shop. He drives, I pay. I get all the Tesco points and he pays half the bill direct to my bank account, and I don't seem to be spending that much more than when I shopped for myself
Have just one credit card (with cashback), and pay this off in full by monthly direct debit
Bought myself a piggy bank and put all change in there. Will have quarterly banking sessions
Set aside tons of stuff for eBay and Amazon (will start in Jan)
Have a spreadsheet of outgoings for the next 12 months (including birthdays) and check my bank account daily. Remove items from the spreadsheet when they leave my account. That way, I can see exactly what I have left at the end of each month. Any extra left goes into an emergency savings account
Really think about it before I spend any money
Read this forum and take inspiration from you lovely lot!

I used to try and pretend that my debt would magically disappear, but now I've faced up to it, I'm really enjoying the challenge of paying it off sooner. Just by joining MSE, I've reduced my target debt-free date by two years :j

findingmyownway

Boomdocker wrote:

Thanks for this HomeJames. I only bought Iams hair ball formula as my cat rather attractively leaves me hairball suprises on my cream carpet much to my delight. Havent noticed a difference in that area since I switched her. To be honest they have had it for a while and are both in there teens. I don't get them the really cheap cack but I do get Sainsburys/Tesco/Asda own. Now you got me worried. Should I be?

I mix Iams (orange bag, about £4/kg) with Asdas own food (88p/kg). I use about 3 parts Asda to 1 part Iams. Makes a huge reduction in cost but i dont feel guilty for malnourishing her!! hehe

Sarahsaver

Ashamedly I hadnt even thought of this - DH suggested I move my catalogue bills to my old natwest O/d as the interest rate is lower. I can now cancel 3 catalogue accounts and not use them again unless I pay the bill in cash and dont use the credit facility. I havent got loads of debt on those, but when your debt is due to having been in a cr*p marriage I feel a bit ashamed. I know I shouldn't do so.
I am also selling anything that isnt nailed down on ebay. But not the OH or the kids LOL;)