One small Step Each Month

Larac

I decided to create a diary as I need to refocus my energies towards paying of my debts as potentially I am in for the long haul. Gradually chipping away at my DFD date.

A little about me – I am divorcee and have three children aged 13, 15, and 17 and work full time. I have always been struggling with debt since my divorce in 2004 as had to buy out the OH share in order to secure the family home. My LBM moment came in September2011, when I was struggling with payments and as a result my interest charges kept getting increased. MBNA kindly pointed me towards Stepchange and took out a DMP. Found it very hard (and still do)to keep within budgets and now shop around extensively for everything. I tend to know the cost of most things and where it is best place to buy.

My current challenge is to boost my income so have plunged in to the world of surveys and focus groups. Taken awhile to work out which ones are worth the time and effort. I have challenged myself to getting £500 by Xmas. Thus far since starting in May I have got £130 in vouchers/cash. Hoping to get a couple of focus groups in next 6 months as registered with a number agencies, so will see how that progresses.

My to do list this week:

1)Contact Cahoot as for some reason the online statementsare not showing payment being paid by the DMP.

2)Put my sons A Level Books up for sale on Amazon – in VGC and he won’t need them anymore

3)Get baking as both sons are now at home for the next three months before going to College/Uni as my larder is under siege.
Can anyone advise whether there is a way of creating individual savings pots in one savings account as having one savings account is not working. Don’t really want to open aload of different savings accounts if there is a better way?

gail2802

Good on you, have just posted a smilar thread myself. Looking forward to chipping away at the debt.

Larac

Well sorted out what was going on with the Cahoot debt, put a load of books ups for sale on Amazon, mainly specialist so hoping they won't linger too long as the new prices for the books are quite high so hoping people might buy these as all are VGC. They are only cluttering my shelves and currently on a mission to clear some stuff out and declutter. Did some more surveys - not sure why I bother with Inbox Pounds as ended up doing a 'tea' survey which was supposed to take 10 mins and more like 40 mins. Will ditch them when I reach my threshold as they really are the pits in terms of payment. On a more positive front Yougov paid me £55 for the online focus group so more for the Xmas pot fund.
Challenge tomorrow - got go to London for a meeting - can I avoid the temptation to buy various cappuccino on route? - Will be taking my lunch with me tho!

Larac

Well slightly missed my challenge of not buying a cappuccino in London - to be fair only brought one - I was somewhat stressed as the train was 50 mins late and ended up being a bit of a rush to get to a meeting. On the plus side I did take my packed lunch with me - colleagues must have thought I was being a bit tight - but given the lunch they eat was £7 - I thought it was the right move. Got now claim back part of the rail fare for being so late - another set of vouchers coming my way. On the subject of vouchers Pinecone sent me some luncheon vouchers for my rewards to a survey last week - bit surprised but gather this is the norm as a newbie. Did not think these existed - strangely some supermarkets take them. Did more surveys again - so hopefully will get some more payouts over weekend as close on a couple.
On my DE cluttering mission - I was somewhat amazed that old Xbox games which are gathering dust and have not been played for years can generate some revenue on the old Zapper and Magpie sites. My kids had just dumped them as 'rubbish'. Mission over the weekend is to box up and get rid to one of these 'drop off' points. Payday tomorrow - yippee and time to review the finances in detail again.

Larac

Back to my musings for the diary. Decided following my research over the weekend that Zapper and Magpie were a waste of time as the money they offer is dire. If I put to some effort in to selling on Amazon or Ebay, would do better. Put around 10 items up on Amazon over the weekend and sold 6, so more money for the Xmas fund.:j
Got some specialist Dyslexia books and CDs to put up on Ebay, so wait to see what interest I get in those.
Need to think about getting my hedge cut - this is around 25m in length and last time I got it cut, cost me £200 - can't afford this - so invested in some sturdy steps as can't quite reach the tops and dig out the trimmers. Not convinced I was not ripped off last time - they see a lone woman and seem to take advantage:mad:
Similar feeling when I had the drive jet washed to remove weeds, looked good until weeds came back in two weeks - back to digging weeds out of the drive again.:exclamati

Larac

Back for my weekly update. Nearly choked over my coffee yesterday when I got the spurious email from QuickQuid threatening me with a DCA for non payment of a loan that didn't exist. Prayed on my mind on the school run and ended up going on the MSE forum to discover others had been affected. Phew as was really concerned I was getting another default on my file which was beyond my control. Took till 4pm for QQ to send out an apology email. Really hate PDL company's as they seem out of control!

Been busy selling on ebay and amazon and done pretty well and got £150 so far - amazing what you think is 'rubbish' actually can be worth selling. Slowing putting other bits and pieces and generally watching what is selling. Currently pondering buying some products from a Wholesaler and seeing what I can make on them - start small and see how it goes. Clearly watching too much of the Apprentice. Continued on the survey malarkey and seem to be doing quite well - GTM sent their cheque for £33 from USA - takes about 7 weeks but it arrived so has encouraged me to continue.

Also registered for a 'mystery shopping' company - getting in was not as easy as I was expecting and ended up doing their training programme and online test which actually was slightly tricky. They don't pay any expenses so would need to be pretty local if I pursue. Keep getting invites to various focus groups but thus far they are in London and payments are only about £50, so either need to get a big one as rail costs into London are high or one that works with me in London for work. As you can only do two in six months, I need to be a bit choosy.

Had my eye test at specsavers and used a voucher to get eye test for half price - next challenge was to walkout without buying an expensive pair of glasses. When they start talking about varifocals starting at £150 quid - so I can read the computer - should say at this stage - I am short sighted, so when I use the computer I just take my glasses off. In the old days I might have succumbed - I can get a pair of glasses on the internet for reading a computer screen for about £15 - so I know where I am heading. Could'nt believe some older gentleman paid £310 for his first set of glasses ever, when I was paying my £10 for the eye test.

Next week, tribe are off with their Dad on holiday - so will be having a good clear out next week and living out my cupboards for a week. Wonder how much I can save..

cheesedoffwithdebt

Larac wrote: »

I decided to create a diary as I need to refocus my energies towards paying of my debts as potentially I am in for the long haul. Gradually chipping away at my DFD date.

A little about me – I am divorcee and have three children aged 13, 15, and 17 and work full time. I have always been struggling with debt since my divorce in 2004 as had to buy out the OH share in order to secure the family home. My LBM moment came in September2011, when I was struggling with payments and as a result my interest charges kept getting increased. MBNA kindly pointed me towards Stepchange and took out a DMP. Found it very hard (and still do)to keep within budgets and now shop around extensively for everything. I tend to know the cost of most things and where it is best place to buy.

My current challenge is to boost my income so have plunged in to the world of surveys and focus groups. Taken awhile to work out which ones are worth the time and effort. I have challenged myself to getting £500 by Xmas. Thus far since starting in May I have got £130 in vouchers/cash. Hoping to get a couple of focus groups in next 6 months as registered with a number agencies, so will see how that progresses.

My to do list this week:

1)Contact Cahoot as for some reason the online statementsare not showing payment being paid by the DMP.

2)Put my sons A Level Books up for sale on Amazon – in VGC and he won’t need them anymore

3)Get baking as both sons are now at home for the next three months before going to College/Uni as my larder is under siege.
Can anyone advise whether there is a way of creating individual savings pots in one savings account as having one savings account is not working. Don’t really want to open aload of different savings accounts if there is a better way?

Its great writing it all down- I set up a blog for the same reason, people do read it but it's not the point, it helps me focus on my goals of becoming debt free and managing to live well in the meantime ( a mean feat!) well done!!!

Larac

Well been missing from my diary for while - so back for my weekly update. The tribe have been away for the week with their Dad, so I have managed to limit my spending to just the food bills for me and the dog! No surprise my petrol bill is vastly reduced due not being the usual taxi service. I sold some more gear on Ebay and then was kindly told by them I could not sell any more PS and XBOX games for another 30 days as I am new seller. I now gather that certain categories have got restrictions on them. As I have only sold 5 games it going to take a month of Sundays to clear the ones I want to sell. I put some books up - have a few watchers but no bids but hopefully someone will do the usual by putting a bid in at the last moment:j
I joined a few Mystery Shopping agencies this week - and did my first assignment:eek:. It seems best to join a few agencies so I stand a good chance of picking up work, local to where I live. A couple of the agencies I joined I can't see doing much work for as they focus on fast food or cars and what they want you to do for your money is joke. Don't think I can blag my way around a car showroom:mad:.I am only looking to get around 5-10 jobs a month so hopefully can achieve this target. Got now register for HMRC in next 30 days as self employed to cover the Mystery Shopping work - so start my record keeping now!. Still keeping up with the surveys - culled a couple of survey sites as not worth the time and effort. Starting to build up quite a few vouchers, so will have a very Amazon xmas .
Got three MS assignments next week so starting to feel that if I can carry on with this sort of momentum I can get a chunk off the DMP debt more quickly. Watch this space:j

Larac

Still rummaging around selling stuff on ebay and Amazon - slightly thwarted by ebay restricting me on the number of video games I can sell in a month - only 5 and got about another thirty to sell so this is going to be a long process if they keep that restraint on me.
Having embarked on doing surveys for around three months, I seem to be averaging around £100 in cash and vouchers - which is a nice little pile to have especially with crimbo on the distant horizon. Joined a heap of MS agencies and seem to be a number of hoops to get through in terms of various tests before you can join some of the panels. I have targeted myself with getting £30 a week from this 'little side line' and think this should be achievable without putting oneself out too much. If I get more that would be great but as I work FT I don't want stretch myself too much. Have registered with HMRC:eek: for self assessment so that's going jolly fun sorting out FT work from contract work. Have had to create a 'tax pot' as the contract work tax bill will come as bill at some point in the distant future. When I get a sizeable chunk together, I will throw this at my DMP, so hopefully will bring down my DFD. Early days but first thing is to build up the emergency fund.
Happy days..