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

lesgeo2012

I just downloaded a kindle book ( only a quid, got 4.99 off for some reason!!!) about life coaching yourself and in it was loads of motivational tips! It's brilliant and I hope it will keep me going in this debt busting because at times I just want to grab all the money I have saved and have an all out make up buying frenzy at Boots!!!:o

skintsue

No 45 again,
I sold more stuff on e-bay for £15 = 1/2%
Got £22 cheque for dividend for shares I didn't know I still had, and a letter saying I hadn't cashed a £7 cheque which they will reissue if I confirm my details- total £29 = 1%

Only bought bread, milk, and papers this week and lived on tinned, frozen and dry packet stuff (rice, pasta, couscous etc).
We have a lot of windfall apples, so fresh fruit is on hand, and some are being cooked and frozen for pies and crumbles later in the year.
The usual food/household weekly bill is around £90 for 3 people plus pets.
Saved £80, but will need to go this week as we are running out of washing powder, shampoo and toothpaste (which are essential if we want to stay socially acceptable). = 2+1/2%

That is a total of 4% in one week. At this rate I'll have savings next year rather than debt.

My target is to get the kitchen adapted to make it easier to work in after my stroke,and some new clothes due to the change in what I can wear for ease, and the fact I have dropped 2 1/2 stone since it happened, so nothing fits any more (See - every cloud has a silver lining;)).
I have set a total target of £3,000.

A couple of questions -
1.) Would it be okay to buy some new jeans as the ones I have fall off my hips and trip me up if I don't wear my hubby's spare belt. Or should I just buy my own belt?

2.) I need a new sink/worktops/lino and wall covering for the kitchen (70's decor and scruffy doors etc) as well as sockets resiting and a better layout for moving round.
The carcasses are very solid, so is it possible to get a set of replacement doors and a couple of new carcasses to add to the run, rather than rip them out and get all new? Is it likely to work out considerably cheaper, and if so - where should I look?

I quite like the idea of trying to get the look without the lucre, or as they used to say 'More Bang for your Buck'. I'm going to make that part of the fun, rather than a need.

liz-paul

Sorry skint sue I know nothing about kitchens but I dare say you should buy a new pair of jeans. You don't want to do the challenge at the expense of all other areas of living

naughty-yet-sorta-nice

skintsue if the doors are otherwise ok you could buy sticky back plastic that looks like wood to cover them, its what we did over 15 years ago to revamp our kitchen on a budget (we also used a marble effect one for our worktops) and it still looks good today http://search.diy.com/search#w=sticky%20back%20plastic&asug=sticky

lesgeo2012

What should I do?

Just been offered a pitch on a christmas fayre for 1 day! Its a whopping £32.50!............but I have always wanted to do this! It's only about 10 weeks away so not great notice. A lot of my crafts are time consuming but I could do loads in a kit form to sell! Should I go for it, and see how it goes and enjoy the experience, or should I keep the money and put it towards online selling which I want to do also?

Triangle

Just quickly checking in to say I'm now at 15%

I'm so pleased with this - 1% has come from money saved from weekly allocated grocery shop (a huge achievement in itself!) and another 5% from some car bits DH sold.

I really want to get to 25% by end of October so I can actually reduce the O/D at the bank. So that means 10% (£200) to sort out by then. I want this to be from ebay funds only - anything extra (e.g fatbrain paying out, loose change) will be a bonus. I have got about 12 things listed at moment and have almost reached my first 1% in my paypal account. I also have taken photos of a further 20 things to list - just got to get on and do it!

Once this lot has shifted I will go through all my clothes plus a random cupboard in baby's room with loads of stuff in it - hopefully these will bring a further 10-15%. But small steps first

In addition I have decided to set up another % challenge. Target is £1000 savings for when we have another baby (which fingers crossed we plan to). This money will enable us to decorate the third bedroom and have some spending money whilst on maternity leave. Of course, this is some way off in the future and the overdraft takes priority...but it will be so nice to have that ready for in a year or twos time and not have to worry about it then

Hope everyone is keeping well

Txx

happytails

Lesgeo - share the kindle book title please And do the Xmas fayre, i think it would be good to do and you can always do little 'business cards' to enhance repeat customers online etc.

Skintsue - id get the jeans. Sale or Ebay though, keep it MS :beer: I got a pair of next jeans on ebay for £4 posted. They are a size bigger than all my other stuff so hoping theyll fit after the birth of baby as i hate wearing maternity with a saggy tum cause my normal clothes dont fit lol Not sure what to suggest about the kitchen, if its liveable id be tempted to wait a while until the debt has reduced some, maybe set a milestone and once you've reached that then get some of the kitchen done?

We are getting our kitchen tiled next month (£350) as Husband has done loads of overtime, we got our kitchen done in Jan (on the CC DOH!) so have waited to get the tiling done as it was more expensive than we'd realised (needed all replastering and new electrics etc!)

Ive had an annual letter from Halifax (one of our banks and its got a breakdown of the fees we've paid Sept-Sept and its totalling £471 :eek: Thats an entire mortgage payment for us What a waste! Next year im aiming for £365 or less (its £1 a day to be in the overdraft so thats the maximum it should be once i get it under the threshold next month). Im then planning on putting my child benefit into it and my £100 off my friend each month and leaving it to build up. Thats £270 a month going in, £15 out on DD and £30/31 in overdraft fees. The rest will just sit there adding up until i have enough to close it Im not going to worry about it then as its covered whilst i focus on Debt 1 (CC). Going to cancel my monthly account fee (£10) as i dont really use the services we get for it. So that will save us £120 a year, looking into it now.

Found some more things to list on Ebay. Im on the decluttering challenge on OS MS and its working hand in hand with this challenge

Was feeling quite swamped the past few days with all this debt but im feeling more positive today I signed up to the Experian credit report free 30 days so going to ensure my credit file is right and see whats on there. Then i need to cancel it before the montly £15 fee kicks in :eek:

Off to declutter some bits and pop it all aside to list on Ebay

Sarah x

happytails

account downgraded, saving me £120 a year. Then had a fantastic idea in theory of increasing my bank 2 overdraft to then close bank 1's overdraft and closing the account. The EAR % worked out to be cheaper than bank 1's £1 a day/£2 a day lark. But bank 2 wont increase our overdraft as we've been newly employed via our own business in June meaning they arent willing to 'risk' it until the following June :mad: Despite the fact we are earning the same we have been in the past 5 years. Its really narked me actually and i got quite upset (after i put the phone down ) Nothing is going right since we swapped to just the business in June, they wont lend us any more credit at all (CC/OD/Loan/Car finance etc) which isnt fair. I can see why but if we could get a 0% CC and what not we would be out of debt soooo much faster. Sigh.

Feeling down again (doesnt take much atm silly pregnancy hormones). So going to disappear off laptop now and do some decluttering in the hopes it will bring my spirits back up.

Sarah x

lesgeo2012

Happytails.....it's here
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0043VD6BC

Be your own life coach by Fiona Harrold.

Other than this forum, I have nobody else to keep me going as my husband lives in his own football/golf/and more football bubble, and it's nice to read something that keeps you feeling motivated and forces you to come out of your comfort zone for the greater good!

And I'm going to do the stall!!!! Deep breath!

Hmm_2

Oh I read that book in paperback format years ago when i did a life coaching diploma. It's pure positive energy :-)

Nice to see a bit more activity on this thread.

skintsue - I'd say 'yes' to both

happytails - well done on being organised and saving £120

Great to see everyone moving forward.

We're now at 2.5%