Ultimate Challenge. 457 days / £16600!!!

eco

Hiya, thought I'd throw my two penneth in, I've been clearing the junk from my house for the last year, I hope to take some equity out of the mortgage and buy a barge, rent the house out and live on the barge for 5-10 years or forever if I like it that much.

Anyway the point is I can't remember half the stuff that's gone, I'd kept it as you never know when it might come in handy, but after a while I'm enjoying the space and the house looks tidier, still a bit of a way to go but will get there.

NinjaSavingKat

Alana forgive me.. I would never suggest someone's first bid at freedom should be a house that's bought. Its a complete impossibility for me at the moment and with my poor salary and living in Herts as well it may never happen..

I have just been renting for 10 years, met some proper nutters, had to move as girlfriends were "going home to live with Mum" then realising it was a bad idea, change their minds after a month and uprooting me.. and want to live with me again and asking to get another house?.. Other got married ( fair enough ) others were just plain odd-balls..

I just hate relying so heavily on other people for my happiness as its just too expensive to rent on my own... the Part Rent / Part Buy scheme might be the way forward for me but I would have to live like a pauper..

A friend did it and was paying £500 a month.. not a lot but she was only earning £600 a month.. apparently survived like this for a year..

Someone said once that a woman should have 3 montsh salary tucked away in case she ever has to live on her own at short notice.. I might get this together first.. and £500 for emergency bike repairs..

But yes Alana.. renting is defo the way to start! And you are So right about eBay - completely addictive.

:T*****Grapefruit Skin update*****:T

Mother, ever the penny pincher, thought to throw caution to the wind today. Instead of rationing the skins throughout the week she piled at least 20 on top of each other to start the wee fire and nearly took the house down in a ball of fruity flavoured flames.

The moral of the story; stick with what you know, be safe not sorry, and ration the skins. And for the love of all things flammable get a smoke alarm.:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

P.S.. may I also take this oppurtunity to apologise to Siouxsie32 who's name I have been spelling wrong for a few pages..:D

Countingdownthedays

Ah Ninja your posts are so inspiring - I'm shouting a little 'hoo ya!' here for you!!
eBay, selling gold and NCT sale is my £10/day saviour!!

alana171

I did look into part buy part rent but yet again my base which is just less that £22k wasnt enough!!! There is no help for normal jo bloggs these days but that is another thread lol!
Thanks for all your wise words!
I also read somewhere your rent should be your salary divided by 30 and no more....dunno how true that is?!
Anyway off to bed as im still young (28 haha):A

NinjaSavingKat

I like that little shout out! Good on you with all those sales!!...( jealous much )...

NinjaSavingKat

Alana your right.. hard graft is all that we have! I am lucky to rent a room somewhere at the cheapest I have ever had it ( £433 all inclusive )... I will be clinging to the door-posts if she tries to get rid of me.. I wouldn't get much on my pittance of a salary either..

..And I am 29 so I get to stay up a little later than you...:D

Siouxsie32

NinjaSavingKat wrote: »

SusieSue what have you been up to..?

For me, just work work work...oh, and a new name - a bit like a new haircut Looks weird just now but it'll look normal soon! Still not spending on anything unnecessary :money: and listing like mad on ebay. Also, I just checked Quidco, and my cashback for my sofa will be paid in their next pay run :j Still have two of my landlady's chairs to get rid of so. They're a bit mix'n'match 80s style but they may just raise a few ££ each.

Kat, I love coupons! I'm a standing joke among my friends as I never pay full price for anything. Vouchers are another speciality of mine I seem to spend forever doing surverys and stuff online in exchange for supermarket or amazon vouchers. I'll need a pair of winter boots soon (only the flip flops, wellies and trainers escaped the ebay wardrobe cull!) so I'll be searching amazon for bargain boots and I'll use my vouchers to buy them :money:. Most of my spending is cost neutral - for example, my sofa was bought in a 25% off sale and I sold loads of stuff on ebay to raise ££ to pay for it before the credit card bill came in. I can live without most things - I have a warm, safe place to live (not to mention fleecey PJs and a comfy sofa ). It's just stuff - my life won't be any different if I have/don't have new things. I have a good few years of debtbusting ahead of me but I also think the lessons we've learned will help us when the debt's gone. I'm hoping to be able to keep living on a similar amount when the debt's gone so I can save for a deposit.

Wonder what the weather's doing at the weekend...I have enough stuff to have a car boot sale if I have the energy! Early starts, cold weather...I'll think about it! If not, I'll have a long lie and start listing on ebay instead

NinjaSavingKat

Ah Siouxsie32 I thought I kept getting your name wrong like a proper eejit!

I am on Toluna and PanelBase for surveys - where else would you suggest?? Toluna can be annoying as I believe many have discovered as you may spend ages filling something in to be told then that you are not compatible.. I would quite happily spend a day a week ( yes I am that bad ) doing these in order to get Amazon vouchers...

I am at that stage now whereby if I don't have to pay full price for something I won't.. I honestly do not care what people think of me. I am currently dreading a 30th Birthday party I have to go to as dinner is going to come to about £30.. never mind the petrol to get there...

But yes I am going to start couponing my little heart out but really need to invest in a little printer thats compact. This is where I love researching..

How do you earn cashback with Quidco? For check-in pennies do I need to register a debit card? My friend says her cousin would walk around our home town and check in every store on Quidco if she is there for a quick errand or so - now that's dedication... ( that I intend to copy )..

I agree with what you are saying about habits remaining the same.. its a lifestyle now not a hobby!

Siouxsie32

I use Toluna and Valued Opinions (for amazon vouchers) the most. I also use Maximiles (cos they give Asda vouchers) and MySurvey (they pay cash via Paypal) - it's fairly easy to get vouchers quite quickly if you're prepared to sit like a zombie and click I agree about Toluna though, it's frustrating! Others swear by Swagbucks but I've yet to check it out. There's a Swagbucks thread so we should check it out and sign up!

Quidco's easy - if you're going to buy anything (car insurance, mobile phone contracts, flights, coach tickets...anything really), go to the Quidco website first and search to see if the website you're going to buy from gives cashback. If it does just click the link on Quidco's website and it'll take you to the retailer's website. You just buy as normal and Quidco will track it and pay your cash when it's been verified. It usually takes a few months but it's lovely when it hits your bank account

Siouxsie32

Oh, and you don't need to register a debit card to use the Quidco check-in facility. Some stores (Debenhams is the only example I can think of off hand) will give you cashback if you buy something in store using a card you've registered.

There's so much to think about with this MSE malarky