Starting again, 1% at a time. 100 ways to make £80!

Decluttering

After work today I walked home in the rain. I missed the bus (the next one was due in another half hour) and because it was raining I was going to pop into Costa to wait until it went off. Somehow my feet managed to convince my stomach that that wasn't a good idea.

The bus would have been £1.10 and the hot chocolate probably about £3. Of course I would have had to have had marshmallows and maybe a cake so I've saved myself at least £5. I've therefore transferred another 1% into my Uni fund

Member #93
1% = £5
8.943% Complete

happytails

Morning everyone, sold a toy bundle for £5.51 plus postage which I am happy with (trying to declutter before we get more at Xmas and DS birthday (27th dec) lol). Got some items ending tomorrow and weds (got 1 bid so far and a few watchers) and sending off my form to release the money inn my premium bonds too :T had them since 1994 and never won anything so seeing as I found the old paperwork I'm going to withdraw it all. The bond was £100 then, not sure what it is now as they wouldn't tell me on phone as I've changed name and address, they could only confirm what i said and I have no clue! They can however send a letter to the address they have, which is thankfully my parents address, so awaiting that!

That's all in the way of saving/earning ATM, oh and last nights meal was lovely, best bit was husbands boss rang before we left and paid for it for us was £23.50 for my main course alone (I got fillet steak) and we both had 3 courses, 3 drinks each and a pot of tea at the end. So I think we would have been somewhere around £80+ :eek: it's always delicious there though and the atmosphere is perfect.

Sarah x

Hmm_2

Thanks for all the info on taking metal to the scrap yard. We have some cabling, so will phone round and see if our local ones will take it.

Now that I'm managing to make more money I just have to sit tight and await the end of the month once again :-)

I've been struggling with contentment recently, I think that's down to feeling like we're continuously waiting and going without to try and clear this debt.

I'm normally content just being at home, but when it's not a choice anymore it can feel tough. We did use some sweet Sundays codes yesterday for a free afternoon cinema trip. It felt like such a treat and we really enjoyed just going to the cinema, which we used to do quite a bit.

Anyway, I'm now thinking about getting some Christmas gifts made, so that we can save some cash. We usually make Christmas gifts (much to the in-law's disappointment and annoyance :-) ) as I was never brought-up with the whole commercial aspect of Christmas, but now the reasoning has changed and we're doing it primarily to save money.

We have made some jam and will probably make some kits such as movie night packs or baking mixes. Seems crazy to be thinking about Christmas already, but determined to be organised so we don't end up overspending :-)

craftingmad

Hi everyone,

Everyone is all doing so well - thanks for keeping me motivated. :T

Hmm - I too am begining to think about Christmas - I am determined to make at least 40 presents for people this year so got to get cracking!!! :eek:

Happytails - Glad you had a lovely anniversary - you really desered a lovely treat after all your hard work xxxx

Good news on the percentage from me - over the weekend I have earned a further 6.5% to add to the fund (although it won't get counted until I find time to get to the bank to pay it in!!!).
This was made from £50 from delivering my local village guide and £150 from two craft fairs I went to on Sat and Sun. :j
My hubby left yesterday to work away for the next 7 days (hes back Sun) so I have decided to set myself a couple of mini challenges whilst he's gone - none will give any % straight away but at the end of the month they should hopefully help a bit. These are:-

1. Only spend £20 on food whilst away (I know I need things like bread, milk, eggs, ham soon but am determined not to do a full shop this week and use up whats in freezer, fridge, cupboards etc.

2. No craft spending at all whilst hes away (this is when I normally get tempted

3. Make 25 items (whether for more stock for stalls or presents)

4. Send off paperwork to cash in premium bonds (£100) and get refund on car tax for my old car which is now SORN.

5. Work on a website shop for my craft items - so many people have taken my card with my domain name and asked when it will be up and running

Wow - Just realised that's quite some challenge - better get cracking

liz-paul

Hi folks - no progress here I'm afraid!
Am thinking about applying for a Christmas temp job.... My local Debenhams is advertising positions for 8-12hrs a week (evenings & weekends) which would mean an extra £200-250 a month coming in. I'm torn because part of me is saying 'go for it, you want more money' and another part of me is saying that it's not worth if we don't get to spend any family time together (especially over the holiday season). My OH works long hours already and we don't get that much time together. It would be easier to decide if I knew how many hours I'll be doing a week by then with the childminding.... I guess I'll muse over it a bit more....

Little_Miss_Uni-Debt

craftingmad wrote: »

Hi everyone,

5. Work on a website shop for my craft items - so many people have taken my card with my domain name and asked when it will be up and running

Hey CraftingMad - fantastic results you've been getting these past few weeks! Super impressive!

If you need any help with your website let me know! It's what I do all day every day, so I know a few ways to keep it MSE!

mkooo

The best way I know which is under-used is to create a Facebook or Twitter page, because it's much easier to get fans then it is to get targeted visitors to a blog.
Then think of something you are interested in that has relative products, also ensure that your target audience have some sort of disposable income, so for example you find all of the best Dresses for under £50, and tweet them to your Twitter or whatever. Then sign up to an affiliate programme like Amazon, AffiliateWindow, Refer.ly and say you reach 10,000 followers on Twitter all targeted to what your subject is, every time you send a tweet maybe 500 people see it, and maybe 20 people buy something, so say the average dress is £30, you get 5% of the price so you get £1.50 per sale, so * 20 = £30 per tweet, so say in a month you make 30 commercial tweets that is £900.

Some useful resources:
How to get 10,000 targeted followers
How to make money on Twitter Fanpages

happytails

mkooo will look into that some more later when the kids are in bed and my poor brain can concentrate lol

Well im off to the maternity day unit today after some things, that may be nothing, are concerning me so im going in to get checked out. Hoping i wont be there too long. It means i wont get my ebay items in the post today so will get them out early tomorrow! Got a few ending today, 9 it total, a few watchers and 1 bid so far.

Im guessing their wont be a free listing weekend for a while after the entire week of free listings?

Sarah x

Little_Miss_Uni-Debt

mkooo wrote: »

The best way I know which is under-used is to create a Facebook or Twitter page

Hmm...I would take the above advice with a pinch of salt.

My spam-sense is on high alert with the numbers too.

My point of view on this is

1)Twitter & FB aren't underused, they're overcrowded with people doing exactly this. Twitter is especially full of spam (fake accounts & spam tweets) it takes effort, content, credibility & marketing to get a worthwhile following.

2)10,000 genuine followers is very hard to reach & a lot of work. I've found if you've got an interesting account & you seem genuine, for every 10 people you follow around 5 follow you back. You'd have to add 100 followers every day for 7 months to get anywhere even close to 10k. That's very boring work. The closest I've got is 8600 followers on 1 account, I've built it slowly since Jan 2011.

If you enlist a paid service to add followers for you, they won't be targeted to your idea, they'll just add a high percentage of fake accounts.

My suggestions the numbers would be closer to this

10k followers -> 1% click on the link (100) -> 1% of them make a purchase (1) if you're lucky you'd probably make £1.50 per tweet and it doesn't scale, so it's not like you can just ramp up the tweets and get lots of £1.50's. Plus you've got to constantly come up with interesting content to put in your tweets.

In those 6 months adding followers you'd be better writing an ebook on a subject that you're knowledgable about and then selling that, once that's complete you can go down the Twitter route but instead of getting £1.50 per sale, you'd get the full price of your own product that you're selling.

happytails

Afternoon everyone, posted my Ebay parcels today and got 2 more ending today (both with bids :j) The majority of the rest of my items end tomorrow so hoping to photograph all the rest and get those listed tonight to end Saturday.

Not much else is happening but the husband has done near 50 hours overtime in 2 weeks which is VERY impressive! Ive hardly seen him mind

Sarah x