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

Batgirl

Haven;t had enough time to read them all and haven't got time to write mine now but will be back tomo. Just wanted to say STICKY please. This is a great positive thread and I am sure it will inspire loads of mse users to try what others have done. PLEASE MAKE THIS A STICKY!

Thanks.

JayneC

Hi Joined MSE to try and claim back bank charges(still not done this yet!!), but am now addicted!
I haven't posted much but often come to have a look what's going on. I thought i was watching my spending quite well, was with all cheapest suppliers etc. But have been truly inspired and have cut back even more and become much more organised.

Have started mystery shopping (although not much work as i live in a really small town)

Have done a car boot sale - though only made £25 after costs

Started shopping at local butcher and veg shop and have so almost halved my weekly shopping bill!

Using Stardrops(used to do this years ago)

Cut amount of washing powder i use

batch cooking

saving £2 coins - £18 saved in less than a month

Opened second bank account - with A&L as OH is with them already and so will both get £25 when it's up and running - so can pay bills from one account and know how much is left for day-to-day spending

Did Martin's budget planner

Banked all copper - £10

Now give kids a weekly alllowance rather than forking out forever on phone top-ups and money to go out with mates and lunch in town, etc,etc - now they have to budget too!!

I go to beach most weekends (lucky me living by coast, only moved here 3 years ago and this is reason for large chunk of my debt!!!), I always take a picnic and flask of tea, although usually have to fork out for an ice cream -haven't managed to find an alternative to take with me!

Have swithched one CC to 0% deal and applied for another CC with A&L bank account to transfer other CC debt

Have applied for lease car from work, will sell current car and pay off MBNA loan, currently £167 just for loan payments. Lease car £85 per month approx and includes insurance and breakdown cover and maintenance cost and Tax!! And i get a brand new car ! YEY! am weel excited.
Any way have to go and collect DD3 from drama rehearsals, back soon
XX

grimelda

Ok, in the last month I have:
Put all of my quarterly bonus on my credit card (£375). Also paid £225 from my ordinary pay.
Sold books on Amazon (only about £11) and transferred CC.
Took one of the PAYG work mobiles to Boots to top up. I got a £5 cosmetics voucher and 40 advantage points and got the £10 back from petty cash. I hope that's not going to get me in trouble.
Topped up my own phone for £10 and got the same deal.
Got £33 back from Quidco. It's still in my Paypal account as I'm not sure I want to pay 25p to transfer it to my bank account.
Asked for a raise at work and got it! :j Don't know how much it will be yet but my July pay will go up.

ZoeMarie_2

Hi all, to help clear my debts I have:

• Cancelled a loan with PPI
• Card tarted for nearly 3 years (all done now)
• Always check out Confused.com for Car Insurance
• Used Microsoft Money and my own spreadsheets to monitor all my outgoings and future spending
• Check my account online every few days
• Already saving for Christmas
• Use shopbots for most purchases
• Got a new job
• Try and spread the MSE message to my friends (not always successfully!)

I'm sure there is more too, but a lot of it is now just second nature and not a special effort to save money, so I don't even realise it.

Great thread - nice summary of what works well!

LookingAhead

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

I do NOT believe this! I was typing out a huge list of my things when I pressed the "Go Advanced" button to get a smiley and it told me I wasn't logged in and cleared my WHOLE BL**DY LIST!

I hate it when it does that! Why does it log you out when you are busy typing a message!? Clearly this shows you are still active on the site?

For GOD'S SAKE!!!!!!! I work testing software - can someone who looks after this site please tell me if there is surely a way to put some code in to recognise that typing a long response means you are still logged in....or simply increase the timout period? You are going to cause someone to punch their way through their monitor or burst a blood vessel if you're not careful!

<rant over>


Anyway.....wanted to say thanks for starting this fantastic thread and when I have calmed down a bit maybe I will type my list out again...IN NOTEPAD!...and paste it in again.

Humph.

JayneC

Hi back again, thought of some more...

Use money off coupons for things I haven't bought ( i didn't know you could do this!! Still feels a bit naughty!)

Have loyalty cards for everywhere and collect points -
i have just redeemed nectar points for £50 of Adams vouchers to buy school uniform!! and I'm saving Morrisons 'Fill n Save' £5 vouchers for Christmas

Already started Christmas shopping (actually started in January sales! a bit sad eh?)

Am gonna use Tesco clubcard points for magazine suscribtion and money off holiday/days out

I have stopped going into shops 'for a look'!!

have opened savings account for Birthdays, Christmas and school trips

Stopped school dinners - now send in packed lunches

Take lunch to work - i also leave things in my drawer for when i can't be bothered in the morning or am not organised, eg packets of soup, cereal, tinned fruit

Am keeping a daily spending diary - this is really helpful

There's probably more, i'll be back...
(it's quite exciting seeing it all written down!!)

Mirtos

*Posting on here daily.*Downgraded all items on shopping list to own brand or budget where available.*Working 3 different jobs in addition to work experience work for what I **actualy** want to do!*Selling everything not nailed down on ebay - including my beloved gucci handbag that I don't miss at all! Made about £150 so far.*Become a mini amazon bookselling mogul. Made about £200 so far.*Joined freecycle.*Packed lunches to work everyday.*Started making my own bread, pizza dough, sweet treats, as OH has an addiction to the organic bakery down the road and this staves off his cravings.*Paid off just under £1000 on one CC and closed it down.*Paid off £400 and counting on my overdraft.*Signed up to quidco and greasy palm.*started looking for cheaper flats for when current contract ends in sept.*Started to claim back around £700 in bank charges.*Cancelled ALL payment protection insurance.*Started turning things off at the wall, and not leaving on standby. *Turned Heating OFF entirely since April (haven't noticed a difference!!)*turned off lights when I leave a room (then going back and turning them off AGAIN after OH leaves them on!!!)*Learnt to snowball debts and pay them off more effectively*Purchased Martins book second hand and followed all applicable advice!*Changed from feeling like I was drowning in debts to actually quite enjoying paying the b*ggers off! Feeling much happier and in control thanks to Martins MSE. All since May. Whoopee!

CosmoCat

spud30 wrote:

Could you please explain how you earn sooo much through Quidco?

I must be missing something

hi there

i learnt about quidco around the time when I needed to do a few financial things like open a new bank account and change insurances, which can be quite high earners

in a naughty moment i joined a couple bingo sites, those are quite high too for just a low outlay.

and i've also bought a few things from high percentage cashback sites.

it's not £200 per month tho!!;) it's just my earning since joining quidco last month.

hope that helps.

Queen.Bess

Such a great thread! I've even nominated it for Post of the Month! :T

Well, although I can't yet start moving out of my debt free status, I have already done so many things to help!

*Found MSE which was the best thing I could have done!
*Joined Quidco and made about £30per month through sign ups and online spending
*recylced 6 mobile phones on Mopay and made £90
*Cut down on food shopping by making menus for the coming weeks
*Made use of inherited bread maker - not bought a loaf for weeks!
*Shopped around for car insurance and saved over £200 for me and OH
*Clicked on pigsback and just ordered Cafe Rouge voucher for a meal out. Also got a bag - to help when buying fruit and veg at the market and going to the library
*Discovered the library - it's brilliant - free books!! Rather than buying a bread making book (See above) I loaned one, photocopied recipes I liked at home and returned the book - brilliant!

That's just the start and I'm sure I could think of more, so will probably be back with my long list!!

Well Done FunkyMonkey!! :j

Zabl

This is a top thread, is great to see wot other peeps are doing...and also has some top tips

Here's wot i've done:

- Signed up here, which was the beginning
- Started ball rolling on claiming bank charges back
- Become a DVD tart
- Joined Pigsback, Greasypalm & Quidco
- Ebayed loads of stuff and got loads of stuff to go
- Joined £2 Coin Savers
- Paid off 1 CC & 1 OD
- Got better car breakdown cover

There's prob lots more to :j