Freedom At 50!

sweetdaisy · 9 February 2013 at 10:09PM

southerndave wrote: »

Thanks SD. Trying to rack my brain thinking of ways of increasing income now as I cannot think of any ways we haven't already reduced our outgoings without resorting to wearing sack-cloth and eating cut-price beans morning, noon and night........any ideas anyone?

Hi southerndave

I do lots of online surveys - it's takes a long time at first to get to the payment thresholds, but it's money that adds up. I tend to redeem from one survey company at a time so that I have a monthly stream of money being paid.

I usually spend around 30 mins - 1 hour in the evenings (once children are in bed and house work is done!) completing surveys. Some pay 50p for 10 mins and others pay £1.00 for 20 mins. It can be time consuming and I do have days where I don;t do any as I don;t have time/can't be bothered, but as I have been doing them for such a long time, it has become a routine.

If you are interested PM me and I'll send a list of the best ones to join.

southerndave · 10 February 2013 at 1:56PM

PM sent Daisy!

Just went through my eBay sales and listed the last of the 'clutter' we have cleared out. I know its a tough time of year, but eBay is struggling for me now generally. Harder to shift stuff, fussier customers expecting new for 2nd hand prices, higher fees and TBH I think its getting to the 'is this really worth it?' point for me. Seems it is all big sellers and shops now rather than folk clearing our their unwanteds.

Think I will just stick to FLW in the future and see what happens. Thinking cap on for replacement income stream, but its looking more and more like taking a 2nd job at the weekend is going to be the only way to earn more than a few pennies here and there.......

southerndave · 19 February 2013 at 12:11PM

Not much to report lately, everything's kind of static at the moment. The bank balance is trickling down in the right direction, but it is really flat. The OH income is covering our living expenses, and we are banking a little each week, but not much.

This week is holiday time so will have a few days out. We used a site called TreasureTrails to buy a couple of guided walks for local places. They are done either as Murder Mystery, Spy Hunt or Treasure Hunts and use existing buildings and monuments for the clues. £6 each (less if you download and print yourself rather than buy by post) but can be re-used and you'll forget the answers after a while.

We went out locally with one over the weekend and spent about three hours walking around and it was great fun solving the mystery and learning about the area we were in. My boy loved it ( he is into detectives and spies, so perfect really) and for £6 for three hours for all of us, it's pretty cheap I thought. Just an idea if you're stuck over the hols for something to do!

southerndave · 24 February 2013 at 11:49AM

End of the holidays today, sadly back to work tomorrow. OH managed to earn a bit this week while I spent time with my boy. Had a few days out and also bought a few bits as our No Spend Embargo was temporarily lifted for the week! We managed to save a little which will be banked tomorrow and are back on the wagon from today, going to try and carry on with the NS until Easter now, when the next holidays are here.

Will do end of month figures later in the week and we can plot some new mini-goals. Increasing the income stream is a priority I think.

southerndave · 3 March 2013 at 2:32PM

Well that was a tough month and reflected in the figures (see sig) as only managed to overpay/save/keep in the account £346 more than we we spent. Effects of reduced earnings and increased spending in the latter part of the month.

Good news is that I just did a day on my 'other' job which should bring in some extra, OH is back to full strength and working and eBay has picked up a little. Hopefully end of March will be better, although my son has his birthday soon so will need to spend a little then.

Either way by next half-term, we are determined to have a balance of under £80,000 so that's become the short-term goal.

sweetdaisy · 3 March 2013 at 2:46PM

southerndave wrote: »

Either way by next half-term, we are determined to have a balance of under £80,000 so that's become the short-term goal.

Good luck with your new goal

.

Out of interest, I know that you have an Offset account (like me, but a different provider), but do you save your overpayments in your linked accounts or do you make direct overpayments towards the mortgage, or a combination of both?

I am ever so indecisive with my overpayments. One day I 'save' it up in the offset savings account and the next I pay it off the mortgage directly as I like to see the mortgage balance reduce!

southerndave · 3 March 2013 at 3:11PM

sweetdaisy wrote: »

Good luck with your new goal .

Out of interest, I know that you have an Offset account (like me, but a different provider), but do you save your overpayments in your linked accounts or do you make direct overpayments towards the mortgage, or a combination of both?

I am ever so indecisive with my overpayments. One day I 'save' it up in the offset savings account and the next I pay it off the mortgage directly as I like to see the mortgage balance reduce!

We have the original Virgin One Account which, as its name implies, is just ONE account. There are no separated 'pots' or separated accounts as some are. All our money is in one place and the figure in the sig is our balance (technically its a -£ balance as we owe this figure still. You can on the online service set up 'fictional' accounts to show separate savings, mortgage, current balances etc, but I prefer the simplicity of a standard single account as I know then exactly where we are at any given point.

Alongside many other things we decided last year to Simplify Everything. We are gradually but severely minimalising our possessions, minimising our debt, and reducing the hassles of everyday living. Not always easy, not always going to plan, but overall good so far. Find the hardest things is slipping back into old habits of spending, quick consumer fixes and worrying about things that we have no control over. Breaking Free is hard work!

The One Account is in line with our adopted simple approach as it is a single pot and a single account to maintain. I have to say its not for everybody though!

southerndave · 27 March 2013 at 11:24PM

Well a bit of a change here as we are going over our finances again and have made a couple of large decisions.

Both the OH and I don't like having debts and have only borrowed since we moved to this house to get work done on it and keep cars running. Now all the upheavals have died down and the house has had all its major works aside from on-going maintenance and our car is only a year old, we have looked again at our priorities and decided that debt and mortgage free are where we want to be. Long term our goal is the same, mortgage free in 8-years or less. But short term, we want our other debts cleared so we have decided to go for the big pot option.

We are currently using the facility on our account to clear our debts and to make one 'big' debt, the mortgage. This makes financial sense too as it is reducing interest for us. Also the payments that are being freed up servicing the debts are now just going into the One pot and clearing the total debt, so our money is working harder (we hope).

I have also worked out that overall our direct debits weren't really saving us very much and in some cases were actually costing us, so these have all been cancelled. Niether of us trust the banks and companies anyway, so prefer the old fashioned way of doing things.

So over Easter we will be re-working our budget and will come back with our new goals, ready to meet this challenge head on!