since joining DFW I have.....

hypno06

Quite often newbies to the board think that they may be wasting the time of other people by asking questions or asking for help and support.

Similarly, people who have been around the DFW block a couple of times sometimes feel as though they are taking one step forward and two steps back.

So, inspired by LookingAhead's amazing list in her debt diary, I thought I would a) show newbies how much can be achieved once they have asked for advice and help when joining this board to encourage them to keep on posting, and b) to remind myself just how far I have come since becoming a DFW nerd type person

So far, I have since December:
- discovered quidco getting cashback for doing the stuff I do anyway (car insurance etc)
- started clicking on pigsback and collecting vouchers to use for presents
- made over £1000 on ebay by having a challenge to aim for (olympic challenge gold target - make £3000 in 6 months)
- discovered Amazon and started selling instead of buying!
- cancelled the gym, saving £600 a year
- sacked the cleaner, saving £1200 a year
- switched phone and broadband provider
- begun to save my £2 coins
- changed mobile contract to cash back contract equivalent to free line rental and £120 a month of calls/texts for free!!
- started matched betting (thanks Mizmir for helping me out when I started)
- started using Orange wednesdays for the kids in the school holidays
- learnt how to snowball and just how much difference that extra tenner can make when paying it off the credit cards!
- paid over £6000 off my debts, by making a little effort and having focus and support of these boards.
- started making meal planners, having a shopping list and making decent, healthy meals without busting the budget thanks to the OS board.
- reduced the amount I spend in the supermarket by being careful and buying stuff like star drops and soda crystals to make things go further
- realised that there is a light at the end of the tunnel
- been inspired by loads of lovely people on these boards and realised that I am not the only one with a huge amount of debt
- made virtual friends here, and had lots of laughs along the way


So, newbies, remember that we were all new here once, so don't be embarressed, ashamed or feel that you are wasting our time - look how much you can achieve in a short space of time.

And old timers, keep on posting, you are the inspiration to others and if you write your own lists you will see just how much progress you have made.

GirlRacer_2

An excellent idea for a thread hypno. Can we all join in? I only joined in February 2007 and so far I have
- Paid off Vanquis card
- Paid off Next Card
- Cut Life and mortgage insurance by £45 per month
- Cut mobile phone tariff by £40 per month
- Cut broadband and phone payment by £10 per month
- Had a £10 voucher off Pigsback
- Had £100 M&S vouchers for renewing insurance with Zurich
- Earned £75 with GreasyPalm
- Earned £334.00 with Quidco
- Reclaimed £1700 back in bank charges
- Saved £178 in £2 coins

So not bad for 2 months work. How has everyone else done?

hypno06

Ooh, yes, forgot (how could I?) that I have reclaimed over £3000 of bank charges and have a court claim in for a further £4000, all thanks to this site!

and I have signed up to a couple of new mystery shopping sites and made a few extra quid for really easy work!

chunky79

hypno06 wrote: »

Quite often newbies to the board think that they may be wasting the time of other people by asking questions or asking for help and support.

Similarly, people who have been around the DFW block a couple of times sometimes feel as though they are taking one step forward and two steps back.

So, inspired by LookingAhead's amazing list in her debt diary, I thought I would a) show newbies how much can be achieved once they have asked for advice and help when joining this board to encourage them to keep on posting, and b) to remind myself just how far I have come since becoming a DFW nerd type person

So far, I have since December:
- discovered quidco getting cashback for doing the stuff I do anyway (car insurance etc)
- started clicking on pigsback and collecting vouchers to use for presents. What is pigsback
- made over £1000 on ebay by having a challenge to aim for (olympic challenge gold target - make £3000 in 6 months)
- discovered Amazon and started selling instead of buying!
- cancelled the gym, saving £600 a year
- sacked the cleaner, saving £1200 a year
- switched phone and broadband provider
- begun to save my £2 coins
- changed mobile contract to cash back contract equivalent to free line rental and £120 a month of calls/texts for free!!
- started matched betting (thanks Mizmir for helping me out when I started) Still not figured this out even with the idiots guide
- started using Orange wednesdays for the kids in the school holidays Whats this? - learnt how to snowball and just how much difference that extra tenner can make when paying it off the credit cards!
- paid over £6000 off my debts, by making a little effort and having focus and support of these boards.
- started making meal planners, having a shopping list and making decent, healthy meals without busting the budget thanks to the OS board.
- reduced the amount I spend in the supermarket by being careful and buying stuff like star drops and soda crystals to make things go further
- realised that there is a light at the end of the tunnel
- been inspired by loads of lovely people on these boards and realised that I am not the only one with a huge amount of debt
- made virtual friends here, and had lots of laughs along the way


So, newbies, remember that we were all new here once, so don't be embarressed, ashamed or feel that you are wasting our time - look how much you can achieve in a short space of time.

And old timers, keep on posting, you are the inspiration to others and if you write your own lists you will see just how much progress you have made.

well done soudns like you making great headway their. Just asked a few Q's hope you don't mind?:D

lynzpower

gone from being almost 9k in debt to being 31k in profit in just over a year despite being unemployed for most of it! :A

art_student

I have

1-cancelled PPI on MBNA credit card (£100 per month!!)
2-cancelled PPI on hubby's overdraft
3-cut food shopping bill from £240 per month to £150
4-done a speadsheet of our finances on excel
5-switched electricity provider
6-signed up to Pigsback and have made £5 so far

Hurrah for DFW!!!

chunky79

Thats fantastic news lynz. I bet your so proud of yourself.


I spent £1.50 today buying a euro lottery ticket i don't usually but the baby had a leakage of dé poopage on my leg and i am sure you know the saying.

I have absolutely no idea why i said that but wish me luck anyways :rotfl:

finallydebtfree!!

great thread hypno! unlike some I discovered this site just after I became debt free and now cant live without the site!

so far I have:

made £60 in the money for nothing challenge
and £280 in the olympic challenge

I have:

joined consumer pulse, pigsback, quidco and indiefield
from consumer pulse Ive had £70 in various vouchers and from pigsback Ive had £20 in vouchers

The lovely people on here have helped me:

get over 17 free tickets to various film previews
free bowling for 5 people at amf bowling
a bar of nestle heaven and various other freebies

The guys over on the boots thread have helped me save a fortune at boots and in doing so have had 2 free sanctuary weekend bags worth £10 each (which I have used for birthday presnts), 5 sanctuary face products worth between £9.95 and £12.45 for the cost of 5 sunday papers!

And I have learned the best lesson so far is that if i dont take care of my finances nobody else will and if you look after the pennies the pounds will take care of themselves!

I have become more moneywise and you can be assured that if theres a way of getting anything for cheaper or for free I WILL find it! :rotfl:

EDIT: forgot to say I have also saved friends and family a fortune and found out about tesco clubcard deals! my parents finally got their trip to the eden project after complaining about the entrance fee because we found out we could get the tickets for £7 in clubcard deals as opposed to £28 if they were to pay normally!

hypno06

chunky79 wrote: »

well done soudns like you making great headway their. Just asked a few Q's hope you don't mind?:D

check out https://www.pigsback.com - you get points for clicking on adverts basically, and when you get 1000 points you can convert it to vouchers for boots, john lewis etc or for pizza hut or to buy CDs and stuff. Not much but soon adds up and useful for presents.

Matched betting - took me several weeks to pluck up the courage to do this, - the offers will always be there so don't rush in. Read, read, and read again and it will suddenly all click in!

Orange Wednesdays - if you have orange broadband or mobile, you get a free cinema ticket on Wednesdays when you pay for another one. Great for keeping the kids happy in holidays!

Hope that helps!

postingalwaysposting

another fantastic thread, why dont i think of these well done hypno... before i go any futher i just want to say that mse and really dfw has saved my life, not literaly but mentally and my outlook is much brighter...

so since being on dfw i have

* joined pigsback
* joined quidco
* ebayed everything that doesnt walk ~ well nearly
* became debt free
* became debt free again!
* met loads of helpful people
* going back to college
* planning to move out of the family home this year
* think better of myself as a person
* recruited people to mse but mainly dfw
* hopefully helped others in debt
* had the best 2 years of my life!

LookingAhead

Just wanted to say how seriously impressive some of this stuff is!

And I'm so pleased for GirlRacer that she has got rid of Vanquis especially - pheweeee!