The Matrix - Re-Evolution!!

tellmeitsfriday

You're right GQ, the MFW's are brilliant. I can't remember her name, but there's one who paid off £100k in 3 years, basically by scrimping and saving, spending 1 income only, and by getting a weekend job at Sainsburys (after working fulltime in the week!)

A 2nd job is not something I am prepared to do to be honest - I think that makes me lazy

hypno06

I've been awol from the thread - darned these stockmarket crashes taking my brain and turning it into mush!! But I have just about caught up with all things matrixy and moneyfied.....

.....and despite what anyone thinks, there is a way of increasing income and using it either to pay down debt (whether mortgage or non-mortgage) or building up savings (whether for long term, buffers, or just for the dream holiday next year).

Everyone is different, of course they are, in terms of what they can do - practicalities of location, health, family commitments etc......but everyone has capacity to do *something*......and all those *somethings* add up and can make huge changes.

Remember, I paid off £100k plus of debt, in 4 years. £25k a year. And that was without the extortionate amount of interest I was paying on top so I would hate to think what the total amount of debt expenditure was over that period.

And ok, yes I have a reasonable job now, but at the time my income was much much lower. My debt repayments were £2200 a month just for the minimum payments, and we all know that to get rid of £100k in 4 years you have to make more than the minimum payments.

My mortgage on top of that was/is £1300 a month.

My husband (when I still had one) earned a whopping (!) £18k a year - yes, it is a salary, but my point being, we were not a large income family, and of course for the latter part of my debt clearance, I was on my own.....XOH leaving the debt when he left me.....

(to be continued in another post.....)

greenbee

Memory_Girl wrote: »

Off to look out my plans for an Ark - and then pop on the coffee.

These were posted on OS the other day....

hypno06

So.....how did I do it? A combination of cutting back a la old style, and maximising my income through whatever means I could.

I took in foreign students. Some short term for 2 or 3 weeks while on summer courses, some for a full school year while they were studying here. Payment was between £90 and £140 a week. In the summer we often had 2 or 3 at a time. OK that meant DD having to give up her room or share with a student at times, but that just added to the fun!

I did the matched betting thing - and no I didn't understand it at first either. But perseverance paid off and my first month netted me £2000.....

B!ngo......dull dull dull......but at its heyday, another 4 figure sum came my way.

Mystery shopping is something I hated doing - but if I could fit in a visit to a bank or phone shop in my lunch break I would......saved me spending money. And often I would actually be paid to do a sandwich shop or coffee shop visit - who says there is no such thing as a free lunch.

A visit to the "things you never thought you could sell on ebay" thread had me rooting through the house for all sorts.....and gave us a laugh the process.

I took on extra part time work - a day here, a few days there.......tiring, but worth it.

Surveys, amazon, car boots.....blah blah blah

Oh and slice the pie - yes, I even spent days on that bloomin site, determined to reach payout (min payout £5.....it was painful)

It all adds up - it may not feel as though the hourly rate is worth it.....but I wonder how much I would still owe if I hadn't done it.

Did I do it just for the debt? Nope, I also managed to send my children to france for a full ski season - race training, schooling and everything. DD went to China too, and DS actually has had far more skiing over these last few years than I would care to tot up!

So.....now the debt has gone - I can still do those things IF I WANT, to build up my savings.

The fact is, that after 4 or 5 years of intense moneymaking, I am enjoying just "being".

Just "being" debt free, that is

Winnie_in_Pooh

Just popping on to catch up before my midwife appointment and now have something to do for the rest of the day - trying to work out what the best thing to do, financially, is!

Very interested in what FW says about the buffer, and I know that £25k would be sufficient to keep us afloat financially for just over 2 years, however it would probably take us at least 6 years (based on current income streams) to acquire that much. Having said that, our debt of just over £25k (excluding mortgage) will be a thing of the past in 2014 which is 3 years.....'scuse my rambling, I'm finding it tricky to make head or tail of things at the mo - blaming baby brain

Think I may need to read Hypno's diary's too - we currently only have DH's salary of £18k coming in at the moment and whilst we're managing ok, finding any small way to increase this, especially with passive income streams, would be nice!

Anyway, off to listen to Bob the Bump's heartbeat

P.S. Please could you pop yesterday's challenge on here when you get five mins MG? TYVM

Memory_Girl

OK - here's the big scary Mentor challenge - he's got a thing about the number 7 BTW!!!


Today's challenge is for those of you ready to make a huge difference to the clutter in your home quickly.

It is extreme, its not gentle - its scary stuff.

Head to wherever you store your black bin liners - and rip off seven and clip them together.

Your challenge is that you have until Sunday night to fill seven bin -bags of stuff from your home.

Now you know I wouldn't do anything I wouldn't do myself, so a couple of weeks ago I grabbed my bags...... and found that I literally didn't know where to start

So I stood at my front door, bin bags clasped in hand, timer in my pocket set for 15 minutes and some rousing music blaring.

I worked around the house, one room at a time cruising first and tossing clutter that was lying around ........................ two bin bags full and the first cruise took 15 minutes.

Cup of coffee in the sun and grabbed another two bags.

Then I spent 15 minutes in each room - looking under stuff, in stuff, behind stuff, on top of stuff and tossed, tossed, tossed - into one bag for the bin or another for the charity shop. I took nice breaks in between each 15 minutes and just went back to the bags.

All in all I flung for about 4 hours ..................... and managed to get rid of more than 7 bags....... even managed to hit the charity shops before they shut for the night so the clutter was gone, gone, gone.

You know in the last two weeks we haven't missed anything - but there certainly is a different feel to the house.

Of course I am working on the theory that in order to have something new come into your life you have to get rid of the old ..................... I have something very exciting that I want in my life and that helps me to look to the future when tossing rather than looking back with regret.

So who's up for this one then????

Bitsy_Beans

Re the looting and rioting. I am not sure there is just one answer. I think some of them did it because they can, it was fun, a laugh, a bit of excitement (having seen some of them standing around gigling like it's a fun night out). Then there are those (for example last few nights in Brum) who are more the career criminal and using disorder to their advantage.
then there is clear ignorance. Girls thinking because they see a shop on the high street that must mean the shop owner is rich. Doesn't occur to them that the shop could be going down the pan, up to it's eyeballs in debt, or if they're lucky breaking even.
I find the constant reference to these areas as deprived a double edged sword. If your living in a deprived area hearing how bad things are where is the motivation to change things, community or personal situation.
Victim culture, not being encouraged to take responsibility for themselves, unrealistic expectations of what actual life is like and then there's that stupid sleb culture whereby people of no talent seem to make quite a nice living. Who wouldn't want to not have to really "wok" to make decent amount of money.
Education being seen as uncool, boring and pointless.
One woman with her several kids outside a shop being interviewed tells an older man to jog on in front her 10 year old son because he said there was no excuse for the current behaviour. What message does that send to her son? That you don't respect other people, that you shouldn't exercise some personal boundaries or etiquette?

I really don't care if I sound Daily Wail as quite frankly that paper isn't even worth being used for loo roll with the fear it would like to peddle. I neither consider myself left, right or even in the middle, this is just my opinion. However I question why modern people who have access to a better welfare state are suffering more than those who lived during the Great Depression. People were starving in the 1930's, people didn't riot and loot, children got massively underpaid jobs to help try and support the family.

As for the bankers......as my mother would say two wrongs don't make a right. However the main difference is what the bankers did wasn't illegal. Morally wrong but not illegal. Had it been I am pretty sure you'd have seen people calling their blood too, in fact that people still lay so much blame at their door just goes to show they haven't got away with it in the eyes of public opinion.

<steps of soap box and scuttles away>

Apologies if that comes across as a rant, it's not just purging my thoughts onto paper
Hope everyone is having a great day

Memory_Girl

Just had a skype conversation with the guy I do the Mind Maps for - he's decided to do a second year.:T

That little job (one evening per month) is enough to pay off 2% of my target in 2 years...................... this has really got me thinking!!!

What if I throw out all my preconceptions of what I can do and decide instead to do "Whatever It Takes" - just like Hypno??

I have paid off 10k in less than 2 years - and I have been either on benefits or sub £1k per month in combined income the whole of that time. It makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck when I think of being able to save that sum of money in the same time period......

............................. what if?????

MG

crickett1234

I have read these financial discussions with much interest.

I too drew a sharp intake of breath at the idea of a buffer of £25K. That is over a year's take home pay for me. I have a good professional job, and so does my husband, but we struggle to save anything. I think partly it is because we are getting sloppy in our spending, but it is also because we have to run two cars so that we can both get to work, and the utilities costs are increasing at a scary rate, as is the cost of food. I don't want to live life in a "prison" - where I feel I can't afford to go out and enjoy things like the odd rugby game or ice hockey match, even the cinema.

I can feel a sit down with some bank statements and payroll records coming up!!

Bitsy_Beans

£25K for me is over 5 years worth of earnings <gulp>

How does one get main wage earner aka Hubby motivated to save rather than spend money? He's happy to overpay the mortgage by £50 a month but not keen to do more than that. He's happy to plod on, spending any overtime he earns rather than saving. I feel I am the one always trying to push budgeting and saving and he just can't be bothered. He only agreed to the overpaying mortgage because I showed him at this rate we'd pay it off 2 years early. I would push for sooner BUT I can't do this by myself, be the only one scrimping and saving whilst he spends.

Now that was a little whinge LOL