Time to get organised and get on with it!

jwil

DedicatedDFW wrote: »

Hi jwil :wave:

*settles in to comfy sofa and offers biscuits around *

Lovely new diary :T i have duly subscribed and am sat here with pen and paper awaiting tips

Huge well done to you lovey - £10,500 is an amazing amount to pay and i know the setbacks you faced with car trouble, van trouble etc. :T:T:T Very proud of you :j:j:j

i too have been looking ahead to the new year and all i want to achieve and what i need to do to accomplish that :cool: i think it would be good if we share the survey sites we use and how we rate them if you like? As in some survey sites i only do the survey if the time v money is ok - 40 minutes for 10p and i'm not going to bother :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I think a few of our goals are similar:~

Debt freedom - check
Savings - check
Surveys - check
Pad - check
Spending - do i need it / want it - check
Snowball - check

Ooh i feel like santa! :xmassmile Making my list and checking it twice :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: As you know - i've done all my decluttering so thats one thing that after many years is not on my to do list - but i do have to look at means of increasing income as i have nothing left to sell :eek:

Looking forward to the 2012 journey x

You've done incredibly well yourself DDFW and you've had lots on this year too. Oh, mines a choccie biscuit please (Did you notice I've left losing weight out of my aims this year - needs to be done but will get there).

Survey sites - the ones I do most often are: Valued Opinions, My Survey, Harris poll, synovate, You Gov and Ipsos (I think). I signed up to some others, but haven't kept them going. I'm always up for some more suggestions though!

YouGov is incredibly slow, but I've been a member for years and have received a £50 cheque approx every 2 years so I keep on with that one. (And I never get screened out which is a bonus).

I tend to try and use 'booked' time to do my surveys - rather than 'free' time. So when I'm doing something else like cooking tea, or waiting for something, or on my lunchbreak rather than giving up the day. You are right they can be very time consuming, but I try and keep on top of them as the vouchers are valued by me

jwil

White_Iris wrote: »

Hi Jwil,
I've been lurking on your old diary and have also subscribed to this one. Your 2012 plan sounds great, really workable - good luck with it! I shall be following your progress with interest :-)
Iris .x.

Hi White Iris, good to see you! I do lurk on your diary as well, so sorry I don't post more often . Hope 2012 is a good one for you as well

jwil

LAM2011 wrote: »

DDFW - I am the same as you - not really much left to sell but have the same goals as you and Jwil. (will have a biccie though seeing as you are offering )

I am finding time for the surveys a problem at the moment - winter is always more hectic for me as I go at 6 in the morning to see to horses before work and then again after work and at this time of year work is busy. My best one has been My Survey - had trial products and good results. I joined global test market but got bombed out of so many I dont even open the links anymore and really should un-subscribe. I like Valued Opinions for the Tezzies vouchers but again dont seem to get accepted for many these days. I have one last £110 pound to pay off my last credit card and then will use that money to throw at my loan.

I don't think I've ever had anything to test from My Survey *stamps feet* but Synovate are the ones I got a few testers from. Are they Global Test Market? I can't remember. It's so confusing especially when you get a survey from one company and it turns into one from another company!

You are doing so well with getting rid of your CCs LAM, it must be so exciting to be so close! :T

jwil

peaceandfreedom wrote: »

Hey, Jwil, shiny new diary! :j

I'm deeply impressed by your efforts this year - you put the likes of me to shame. But I hope to follow your example better in 2012 and do a lot of decluttering. Sell, give away (freecycle/charity shop) or dump.

Our house also needs a lot of doing-up - it's about the same age as yours actually and like yours it has a kitchen NOT to die for - it's ghastly, old and grotty.

You have done amazingly-well on the debt-busting, hope you meet all your targets in 2012. :beer:

Thanks peaceandfreedom, I don't think I put anyone to shame, everyone's done really well.

I've not been as focussed as I should be, and as I have a lot of debt, I have to throw a lot at it to make my minimum payments, but I will get there!

My kitchen has artex walls and ceilings - seriously, WHY, WHY, WHY??? :eek: Every bit of dirt and dust sticks to them. It's awful. Plus if you knock your hand against the wall, you skin your knuckles. When was that a good thing? It's poorly designed too, so it's demotivating for cooking. I can't use two burners on the hob for example as there's nowhere to put the pan handles.

I dream of a lovely kitchen, and have lots of ideas though, so will get it one day

Do you have any plans for 2012?

jwil

Well I've started off well :rolleyes: I had to buy lunch today

On the other hand, DH sold an expensive item on my amazon account a couple of weeks ago, and I told him to keep the money back when he paid the mortgage money rather than me having to transfer it back to him when it arrived in my account. Anyway, I promptly forgot about it, and had a lovely surprise this morning when I discovered I had £100 more in my account than I thought :T.

I have paid that towards a debt so my 2012 challenge has got off to a good start :j

jwil

Well my ebay sales have done well this evening. My DVDs did not sell to the dodgy bidder, so that is a relief and it means I got more money . My collection items have sold VERY well too, so I'm happy about that, though it will be a wrench posting them *sob*. Withdrawing the money from Paypal though will cure all ill feeling I'm sure

I've also received a freebie book to review, that's the second in a couple of weeks, so am very happy about that, and my freebie watch buckle has arrived today as well, and they sent me 3 :j so that's me sorted in case it breaks again.

Oh and I've sold a book on amazon so yay for that too :T

retiredandskint

Woo Hoo a new diary :j Any biccies left (not chocolate, not eaten chocolate for a couple of years now:))

I'm loving your new plan and although I'm at the other end of the age scale can share most of your goals. I'm adding losing weight to my list. I'd lost over 37lb but sadly over the last year I've put on 10 lbs :mad: I'm also working against the clock as OH retires in 18 months and don't want to carry the debt forward into his retirement.

I've subscribed so won't miss a thing. You did so well last year (we all feel we could have done better) with selling and reducing your debt. I've had limited success with Eb*y but on the whole I've made some money, not quite your scale. I was at the PO sending a few bits off one of which was an Eb*y parcel, I asked for it to go 2nd class but when I checked my receipt she'd sent it 1st which meant once again I lost out on the postage :mad:

Enough of my moans after this is your diary. :rotfl:

Here's to a good and debt reducing 2012 :beer:

retiredandskint

Just a quick etiquette question when it comes to Eb*y feedback as the seller do you give feedback first or wait until the buyer gives feedback.

Tallgirl_2

Hi Jwil,

I have just joined today: I am so sick of worrying about debt but feel a little better knowing I am not the only one. I will be following your thread with much anticipation, want to feel reassured that repaying your debt can be done x

I have quite a bit of debt, am on unpaid ML soon (2 children), husband out of work (again!), feeling overwhelmed with house as I feel it is cluttered and untidy, but just don't seem to be able to get it in order!!!! I feel everyday that all of the above are just contributing to me feeling hopeless! I want to be a perfect mother, wife, employee, human being....but feel totally swamped.

So looking forward to tips and to see how you are getting on and hoping it inspires me to knuckle down and get my life in order!!! If I could pay a fraction of what you paid off your debt I would be so happy x

Best of luck!!!

jwil

retiredandskint wrote: »

Woo Hoo a new diary :j Any biccies left (not chocolate, not eaten chocolate for a couple of years now:))

I'm loving your new plan and although I'm at the other end of the age scale can share most of your goals. I'm adding losing weight to my list. I'd lost over 37lb but sadly over the last year I've put on 10 lbs :mad: I'm also working against the clock as OH retires in 18 months and don't want to carry the debt forward into his retirement.

I've subscribed so won't miss a thing. You did so well last year (we all feel we could have done better) with selling and reducing your debt. I've had limited success with Eb*y but on the whole I've made some money, not quite your scale. I was at the PO sending a few bits off one of which was an Eb*y parcel, I asked for it to go 2nd class but when I checked my receipt she'd sent it 1st which meant once again I lost out on the postage :mad:

Enough of my moans after this is your diary. :rotfl:

Here's to a good and debt reducing 2012 :beer:

Hey retired, feel free to moan on here, I do often enough. It's nice to have others contributing so it's not just my waffle

Well done on not eating chocolate :T. I gave it up once for a couple of months. I figured that as I eat so much chocolate, if I gave it up, I'd lose weight. Sadly I lost nothing at all, so figured what was the point in depriving myself :rotfl:

Well done on your weight loss, even if you've gained a bit you are still 27lb lighter than you were, so that's great :j I've got 10st ish to lose, so it's going to be a big job

Well done on making money on ebay, that's what it's all about. That's annoying about the postage though, very frustrating. :mad:. The post office by where I used to live are lovely - always charge correctly etc, and the other week let me leave a huge pile of parcels with them and some money and come back later for the receipts.

The one at the end of my road however, I refuse to use. They never put through large letters, so charge parcels instead and are so stroppy. I always travel out of my way to use the other one instead.