A Head to Head Challenge

Nuclear_Tom

Cashing in the pension would be quite short sighted imho - I have considered it and disrgarded it in the same breath!

Good luck with the ebay-ing. It can be quite unpredictable, but keep at it!

I'm keen to try out matched betting. I know I will be disciplined, but at the moment I dont have the spare time to commit to it, or the spare cash. I also suspect that with my current account only being a Visa Electron, that could cause me problems...

farmerswife

You are probably right about the pension but as it is only promising to give me about £1k a year when I retire ( I haven't paid a lot in) then I presumed that I could save up that amount by then. That amount of pension isn't going to make a huge difference to my retirement and I could really have made more use of it now. Anyway it's irrelevant as I can't cash it in until my 50's at the earliest.

So back to ebaying, Amazon and perhaps I'll have a look at matched betting.

nevadagirl

Hello everyone,

I'm up to £20 on the eBay-ometer woo woo woo!

Sales not closing until next Friday so it won't add to this month's total.

I'm holding out for a win on the bonus ball at work as it's a rollover this weekend, we're down to about 35 players at the moment. I've won it quite a few times over the last 2 years, probably about three times what I've put in so I don't want to give it up. Everyone keep their fingers crossed for lucky number 17 on Saturday night.

Will update on my total on Monday, I'm slightly over my usual payments this month because of a QuidCo payout :beer:

nevadagirl

Just popping in to update, I put my quidco money towards my debt, and my extra council tax money, but other than that it was minimum payments only, this month so I'm down to £17,988.54 - still pleased with this, though.

Not my usual sparkly self today, I'm not well (poor me). Looking at DFW is saving me from giving my full attention to Jeremy Kyle though. Good grief, it's the first time I've ever watched it and I can't quite bring myself to turn it off. And the number of loan adverts on daytime telly...

Oh, and my eBaying is going okay. I'm up to £35 total (for 200 items!), and they finish on Friday. Not that great, but about a quarter of them have at least one watcher, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for bids. Looking at previous sales, at least three of the items should go for about £15 each. I'm hoping for £120, which will probably work out to £90 after fees. The AQAing is going okay, but the best night is a Saturday and I've missed the last two. I'd hoped to earn about £200 a month (before tax) but £60 is more realistic.

And the storecupboard challenge is still going strong. I want to defrost my freezer before I go to my mum's at Easter, so there are going to be some interesting meal combinations coming up!

Hope everyone else has had a good month

Nuclear_Tom

Its all good progress nevadagirl!!! Fingers crossed the eBAYing pays off. Just recently I've had quite a few auctions with no bids til the last hour, and then they have gone for a good price... so hang in there with it!!

I've made a bit of a rash decision. I picked up a cheap car (Polo for £100, just fixing it up), and instead of flogging it for a nice profit (probably worth £1600-£2000 ) I'm going to sell my beloved Focus, and pay off a good £5k of debt... so thats promising indeed.

Also, I managed to get a £80 goodwill gesture from Premium Credit Ltd regarding requesting default charges separate to the monthly dd so I got charged twice... :beer:

Its all in the right direction, and I'm feeling quite good about things.

mizmir

Good to hear everyone is doing well. Checking in for the last month - I have paid another £881.30 off my debt which is just over my monthly target so I am happy with that. Mostly down to matched betting - though that is liable to slow down a bit in the next few weeks as things are hectic with work.
But going in the right direction now finally! :T

Nuclear_Tom

mizmir wrote:

Good to hear everyone is doing well. Checking in for the last month - I have paid another £881.30 off my debt which is just over my monthly target so I am happy with that. Mostly down to matched betting - though that is liable to slow down a bit in the next few weeks as things are hectic with work.
But going in the right direction now finally! :T

Thats amazing. I really should find the time to do this matched betting lark!!!

farmerswife

Hi Glad to hear that everyones doing well. I've managed to pay off £1014.75 but when I adjust for interest this reduces to £831.65. I was desperately trying to get my debt below the £19K threshold but didn't quite manage it still I should do it easily next month. Still at least its going down thanks to you lot for keeping me focused. Just started doing some mystery shopping - not going to earn a fortune but it all helps. I must get back to ebaying and try and get my head round matched betting.
See you all next month.

PS does anyone know what has happened to Michael - hopefully he has cleared all his debts with reclaimed bank charges.

nevadagirl

:j Hello everyone

How are you all doing? I've found that I've really wobbled this month and I'm not quite sure what it is. I did really well with my eBaying (although I found it very stressful and actually dread opening up my email at the moment in case it's someone shouting at me), but haven't been able to access AQA for a couple of weeks now, not sure if I have to re-install the software or something...

I'm going to see my parents over Easter weekend to celebrate my 30th birthday and also to show off the surprise shiny engagement ring I got pretty much out of the blue at the weekend from my wonderful now-fiance All my eBay money is having to go towards petrol etc for this trip, but I haven't spent proper quality time with my family in ages and half of them haven't met my OH so it will be a 100% worth it. I suppose the root of it is that I find it easy to cut myself off from the world and squirrel away or earn extra money, but then I beat myself up when I do something I actually enjoy because I have to take over-payment money away from my debts to do it and the DFD gets pushed ever further away.

Having said all that I feel pretty unstoppable at the moment, I'm so happy with my lovely fiance and being engaged.

Hope everyone else has had a good weekend and is getting on well with the challenge

farmerswife

Congratulations Nevadagirl I'm really pleased to hear your news. Its nice to have something to celebrate at the moment.

I too have struggled this month although I don't have the excuse that you do. I was worried by the thrill I got using my credit card to buy my husbands birthday present on the internet. It was amazing how I suddenly found I needed a few extra items. The card is now locked away again so hopefully I will get back on track next month. I must get back to the ebaying.

Have a good Easter and enjoy the celebrations without feeling guilty.