Bex-time to overhaul my life

bex2002

Well i feel that it is time that i start a diary and become more accountable for my actions.

Firsty a bit about me, i am 26 and a staff nurse. I have an unsecured loan at present which was to consolidate credit cards. this is being paid off each month and due to finish in oct 2013. I live with my grandma to look after her and my other half who has M.E. so unable to work ( not for trying!) My main aim is that i want to save as much as i can towards a morgage as i will be the only income and living in an expensive area i need to save as much as possible, i will try and aim for £10,000 to start with, this will come from wages, surveys, ebay, bingo and any other ideas that spring to mind.

I also need to lose about 60lbs to get to my goal weight- i did manage to lose about a stone but unfortunatly got quite ill and had a hospital admision and still off work stick at the moment so put all the weight back on so got to start from scratch on that front.

bex2002

I have joined a few challenges to help me get to my target.

• Make £10 a day challenge - at the moment i am aiming for £5 a day and so far have acheived 96.27 in this challenge this month. I got 22.24 from amazon today which i have already added to this total.
• No spend day challenge - as we have 14 days left in this month i would like to aim for 8 no spend days.
• Grocery challenge - i have no idea how much i spend and it varies month on month so i will set it at £200 to start with and will carefully look at what i spend now and can hopefull reduce that down very quickly.
• Sealed pot challenge - i have been doing this for a little while now and have just taken some money out to pay for my OH's credit card. will take off at least £105. will aim for another £50 before christmas
• am taking part in the £2 savers club but have been included in the sealed pot at the moment, will seperate them out again i think. I will aim for £20 before chrsitmas.
• Am going to try to get into daily clicks to get some more income. will aim for £20 as dont know how i will do in this.
• I do surveys and get both cash and vouchers for them so will put the gift vouchers (usually amazon) by towards birthday and christmas presents so hopefully will not have to spend out too much on gifts. I will aim to get £100 in cash and vouchers from surveys before christmas
• I so shop and scan which i also get vouchers for, i usually get at least £10 a month from them. I will aim for £30 before christmas.

I am not going to focus on the heath targets yet as i cannot really excercise do to breathing problems, i am still of work and hopefully seeing the consultant in the next few weeks. so i will set these targets when i am well and hope that i lose some weight in the meantime.

Sessie

Welcome to the Board Bex!!

The first step is always the hardest and you've done that one now - faced up to what needs doing! Well done!! :j

You will find a lot of support and advice here, I know I have!!

We're all watching so if you start slipping.... we'll know!!

Good luck!

x

bex2002

thanks for that sessie, i really hope to get rid of the loan and to save up money towards a deposit for a house. i dont want to go down the renting route so the larger deposit we have the better options we will have especially with me being the only one working at the moment. my partner is having a bad relapse of her M.E. at the moment. We applied for DLA a year and a half ago and we are still waiting for an appeal date. we are going to try and go down to the jobcentre to get jsa to try to get some extra income and chase up the dla as they dont seem to be in a rush to help us and have already screwed up on the case a couple of times! anyway back to do some surveys and competitions and got my peak flows and inhalers to do now too.

linz

Hi Bex,

I do daily clicks too, have made £500 so far this year. Here is the link to the thread if you want to get into it. Everyone is really nice and helpful on there. It takes a few months for them to pay out at the start but once you get into it it's a nice little regular earner.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2132075

Good luck with your saving towards a mortgage!

bex2002

Hi linz thanks for the links, i have seen eagerlearners thread but not got that far with it but i really need to crack on with it and make a start on this as many people say it is a nice way of making some extra money, do you find that you need to clear you cookies between them all or can you just clic as i have done a few before but dont seem to get paid for them?! Thank you for your PM i am registered with that website and get it through paypal rather than the vouchers.

linz

No worries. I clear my cookies inbetween each site rather than after each click. I'd definitely recommend Speedcashback, Ecasher, Fatcheese and Getpoundsback to get you started. Speedcashback you will get paid quite quick, they're good at paying. Ecasher are quick payers aswell. Come and join the thread when you get into it and people will recommend more depending on how much time you have to do them.

bex2002

thanks, i will look at them, i am registered with fatcheese but have not heard of the others so i will look into them and register with them.

linz

Should have added, Getpoundsback you need to reach £10 to be able to cashout which will take a while at first. Speedcashback and Ecasher you'll get something within a month and can request payment at anything over 1p i think

bex2002

ok, i will look into them tomorrow, i dont have the energy to go though them tonight. hopefully will try and get an early night incase we get woken up early by the builders. fingers crossed they are not going to work this weekend but dont know for sure. they are building houses next door to us and it is so noisy and they start at 8am but they have been starting earlier some days which they are not supposed to be doing!!

bex2002

well i have had the post through and i have recieved my hospital appointment, 4 weeks time which isnt too bad considering i came out of hospital 2 weeks ago and it was due to be a 4 week appointment, they will see how my inhalers are working and will probably want to do some tests too as i have not had a spiromoetry test or anything done. My boss also phoned yesterday and they are going to contact occupational health to see me before i get back to work re: a staged return to work as i normally work 12 and a half hour shifts.
Have done my daily scratchcards and had a couple of free goes on the bingo but not won anything on that, am now going to have a read through of eagerlearners thread and join up to some more daily clics. I also have some things finishing on ebay this weekend, so far am going to make £5 so hoping that a few more things sell.