Time to get organised and get on with it!

peaceandfreedom

Dismal performance for my April raise money challenge. Have made things more realistic for May and the targets are:

Ebay - £200
Amazon - £50
Car boot - £50
Miscellaneous savings - £50
Think of something else! - £50

So that's a £400 target for extra cash which should be achievable.

Here's to a brilliant May everyone! :j

brizzledfw

Thanks P&F!

We too have lots of watchers but only 1 bid so far on the Bay of E....am still hoping that with 4 days to go that the weather keeps lots of customers locked indoors surfing the web!!

Hope your week is OK jwil...my garden is a quagmire so no gardening stories from me!

DedicatedDFW

Morning All

I need to pay off £1043 this month in order to be on target :eek: So it looks like i'll be cashing in those £200 premium bonds to get me near to target

Ok, really, really sorry if this is a personal question and seems rude so please choose not to answer if you don't want to.

Brizzle your sig already answers this question for me hon

Basically i just want to ask everyone if you all have any savings at all or if you throw everything at the debt ?

I never considered the savings i had (and will no longer have very soon) - the bigger one because it was paid just like a bill each month and the company had a problem meaning that no statements were sent out - apparantly they realised this but only sent the statements then if they were requested :mad: Obviously i'd have gotten a hold of the money sooner if i hadn't been so bogged down by the debt and been able to look at the bigger picture Plus the savings i had were not easily accessible and big penalties applied for accessing the money sooner - they were designed to be long term after all.

After this i'll have no savings whatsoever - is it the same for everyone else or do you have an emergency fund stashed away? I only ask as i worry i'm the only one with nothing to fall back on I used to have 2 very close friends who said, like me they were skint, no money etc. so if i had a bit spare i'd treat us to a coffee etc. - turns out their idea of skint was that they'd spent their £200 a week 'spends' and didn't want to touch their thousands in savings :mad: I don't mind treating a friend but they were just taking advantage and then i thought wow! if i have 2 friends like this is it the same for everyone ? And the drinks etc. were never reciprocated

LAM2011

Hi everyone,

I like the idea of monthly targets like Jwil and peaceandfreedom do. I am going for

Ebay £100
Amazon £20
Creative thinking needed here ?? £30 (surveys, etc)

I want to up my debt busting now. I have today made my regular payment to the loan and an overpayment but then I feel like its just a case of wishing the month away.

DDFW I do have a small savings only started at the beginning of this year but my personal life is a bit of a mess and it make me feel happier / more secure that I have this in case I need to run ... (its equivalent of 2 months of my salary) I am adamant I wont use it on debt until absolutely have to because for as long as I can remember I have felt 'stuck' because I had no money to do anything about it (does this make sense).

My OH has been funny about me ebaying stuff saying I might need it one day - in the beginning he was very supportive of my credit card debt but he is not so of the loan debt. His attitude is it will be paid off eventually but I want it gone now. So, I have to try and sneak things on ebay which is hard and didnt manage to get anything on this last week!

jwil

peaceandfreedom wrote: »

It's funny isn't it how something can have loads of watchers and then not sell, or only one person bids. That's happened to me and I found it quite disappointing. I've now learned to stop expecting that 'Watchers means Buyers' because it often doesn't.

Still, I can't help being pleased as the Watchers count goes up on my list of ebay stuff.

Hope your item sells this time, debtfreewannabe.

It frustrating when you get lots of watchers but no buyers. It's always exciting though as you live in hope

peaceandfreedom wrote: »

Dismal performance for my April raise money challenge. Have made things more realistic for May and the targets are:

Ebay - £200
Amazon - £50
Car boot - £50
Miscellaneous savings - £50
Think of something else! - £50

So that's a £400 target for extra cash which should be achievable.

Here's to a brilliant May everyone! :j

Good luck with the moneymaking! You can do it

brizzledfw wrote: »

Thanks P&F!

We too have lots of watchers but only 1 bid so far on the Bay of E....am still hoping that with 4 days to go that the weather keeps lots of customers locked indoors surfing the web!!

Hope your week is OK jwil...my garden is a quagmire so no gardening stories from me!

I think the bad weather this weekend did get a lot of people on the computer. I've got watchers on lots of stuff that's been on several times before, and a bid as well!

I have a gardening question for my gurus - when would it be a good idea to repot my Christmas tree? Is there any preference?

jwil

LAM2011 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I like the idea of monthly targets like Jwil and peaceandfreedom do. I am going for

Ebay £100
Amazon £20
Creative thinking needed here ?? £30 (surveys, etc)

I want to up my debt busting now. I have today made my regular payment to the loan and an overpayment but then I feel like its just a case of wishing the month away.

DDFW I do have a small savings only started at the beginning of this year but my personal life is a bit of a mess and it make me feel happier / more secure that I have this in case I need to run ... (its equivalent of 2 months of my salary) I am adamant I wont use it on debt until absolutely have to because for as long as I can remember I have felt 'stuck' because I had no money to do anything about it (does this make sense).

My OH has been funny about me ebaying stuff saying I might need it one day - in the beginning he was very supportive of my credit card debt but he is not so of the loan debt. His attitude is it will be paid off eventually but I want it gone now. So, I have to try and sneak things on ebay which is hard and didnt manage to get anything on this last week!

Good luck with the targets Lam.

I feel the same as you, it seems like a long month when I am waiting to be able to make the next payment. It feels much better if I can make some pads throughout the month.

Hope you manage to get some ebaying done. I tend to do some stuff when my DH is out as he starts saying I shouldn't get rid of things.

jwil

DedicatedDFW wrote: »

Basically i just want to ask everyone if you all have any savings at all or if you throw everything at the debt ?

I have no savings at all I would like to have some, but at the moment, the cards are my emergency fund.

Teatime

DDFW,
I don't have any savings or emergency fund and feel really daft that I don't. It is my priority now. Have just paid off the overdraft. Have two loans but they have reasonable interest rates so I am going to keep paying the minimum and hopefully start saving a small emergency fund.
I have recently realised they my friends all have savings behind them and I am the only one who has taken so long to 'get it'.

I don't know what other people would recommend for you?

jwil

Teatime wrote: »

DDFW,
I don't have any savings or emergency fund and feel really daft that I don't. It is my priority now. Have just paid off the overdraft. Have two loans but they have reasonable interest rates so I am going to keep paying the minimum and hopefully start saving a small emergency fund.
I have recently realised they my friends all have savings behind them and I am the only one who has taken so long to 'get it'.

I don't know what other people would recommend for you?

You're not the only one who didn't 'get it' teatime - I never really thought about it until I found this site.

We'll all have nice saving cushions one day

brizzledfw

Hi DDFW

I know you said you knew my answer but can I contribute anyway??;) I know the best option is to have no savings if you have debts..but for me the overpayment pot has been a lifeline..it is a buffer as I know I can get it anytime (so it needs some discipline!) (but its not tied in long term which was key) but its also bringing down my interest spend.

I seem to have found a way that works for me ;-) (well sometimes I follow it!) but I think that yes for some people a buffer is thousands...and for some we'd all just be grateful if we had a few hundred quid tucked away.

best of luck with everything anyway..you always work so hard on all this MSE stuff!!!:T