I'd like to introduce myself

Mrs_Sparkle

cathybird wrote:

mrs sparkle are you out there? just ignore him

Yeah I'm here. Just giving myself a well-deserved slap for having the nerve to have an opinion when I'm in debt. Honestly, you'd think I'd have learnt by now- the figures in my signature mean I have no right to be heard on any subject whatsoever :rotfl:

cathybird

I can see cpu's point, actually, and for matched betting people also need about £50-100 or so that they can spare to start with, so it's possibly not as useful as other forms of reducing debt. But the rudeness was inexcusable - the way to respond was to put any reservations politely, just as cpu just has

Mrs_Sparkle

cpu wrote:

I agree with you..(but there was no need for the insult at the end :rolleyes: ).

I feel the need to butt in here to add a note of caution. Although matched betting may not be the same beast as other forms of gambling, none of us know the type of person the OP is and I can see a potential danger in advising (however well meant) this as a route to go down. For all we know the OP may have an addictive type personality and may get carried away after a while and decide to try other things in the gambling world which will make her situation much worse.

I'm not saying that's the case mind, but I do think it prudent to stick to the tried and tested forms of debt management and not advise an alternative such as this, given that we know little about the person who posts.

Hope I haven't offended anyone, I just wanted to advise caution after seeing a family member ruin his life through gambling. (It wasn't the gambling in particular, in the sense that he wan't addicted to a particular thing like racing or poker etc, iyswim, it was the feeling of winning which he got regularly and then made him feel he could do more and he branched into other forms of betting which was his downfall.)

Perhaps Tr@cker feels so strongly about this kind of thing that maybe his emotional response kicked in before his reasonable one did. That's not to excuse rudeness, but I have to say I agree with his sentiments about perhaps this isn't the best advice.

*tip toes off now......*

Um... no one DID advise the OP... they found it all out by themselves.

cathybird

Mrs_Sparkle wrote:

Yeah I'm here. Just giving myself a well-deserved slap for having the nerve to have an opinion when I'm in debt. Honestly, you'd think I'd have learnt by now- the figures in my signature mean I have no right to be heard on any subject whatsoever :rotfl:

well, obviously none of us have, so the whole MSE board should just be shut down and we'll all go away quietly and sit on the naughty chair with our dunce's caps on!!

cathybird

Mrs_Sparkle wrote:

Um... no one DID advise the OP... they found it all out by themselves.

and this is true, too!!!

bpyoung

cpu wrote:

I feel the need to butt in here to add a note of caution. Although matched betting may not be the same beast as other forms of gambling

Matched betting is not a form of gambling.

Gambling involves an element of chance. Matched betting, done properly, does not. I really wish people would do some research before they start preaching on this topic.

BornToBeAPrincess

Mrs_Sparkle wrote:

Um... no one DID advise the OP... they found it all out by themselves.

Thats true. Saw the money mounting up on peoples signatures, read all the info and did it by myself. No one advised me.

I didn't mean this thread to get so heated:o

Mrs_Sparkle

BornToBeAPrincess wrote:

Thats true. Saw the money mounting up on peoples signatures, read all the info and did it by myself. No one advised me.

I didn't mean this thread to get so heated:o

Not your fault hun and I'm glad you stayed with us. Please be assured that this is not a regular occurrence... the vast majority of people here are friendly and supportive and I promise you won't get people judging you all the time. You're doing really well with the steps you've already taken and I hope you stick around to join our support network

robnye

back to the original posters topic.......................

could you halve the takeaways and the entertainment (£80 down to £40) (supermarkets do takeaways very reasonably)
switch your mobiles over to PAYG (if you arent contracted in)

sky - reduce the package.......
internet/landline, take a joint package,

have you tried the spending diary - it is highly recommended, record all your daily spending over a month and see where your pocket money goes...

take a couple of months holiday from the emergency/clothes etc funds.

are you able to transfer anything to the lower interest rated cards?

BornToBeAPrincess

robnye wrote:

back to the original posters topic.......................

could you halve the takeaways and the entertainment (£80 down to £40) (supermarkets do takeaways very reasonably)
switch your mobiles over to PAYG (if you arent contracted in)

sky - reduce the package.......
internet/landline, take a joint package,

have you tried the spending diary - it is highly recommended, record all your daily spending over a month and see where your pocket money goes...

take a couple of months holiday from the emergency/clothes etc funds.

are you able to transfer anything to the lower interest rated cards?

Thanks for your advice. Will be getting rid of the take always and putting entertainment down to £20 so will save £60.
Contracted in with mobiles but will reduce the packages, we don't use half of what we have.
Sky is on offer at the moment but will reduce when the offer is up, not sure what I will save.
Phone and internet are with telewest which I'm sure I pay over the odds for a crap service. Will ring them and if they don't reduce what I'm paying I'll cancel and go with BT or someone.

Spending diary, I kept 1 for the first time last month and I didn't spend half as much because I knew I'd have to write it down!! So that def helped!

Can't transfer balances. Interest is only been charged on the loan but my credit rating is crap. I defaulted on everything in 2002 when I went into a DMP.
Thanks again for the advice.