Clear £1000 of my debt in 4 months challenge

Laura1994

Hi all,
I am going to try and clear £1000 of my debt in the next 5 months.
I'm only a student so I have managed to wrack up around £1000 of debt on my overdrafts (luckily interest free). I am still a student so my income is not great. I want to try and clear it by the end of September at the latest.
My 'income' won't cover this so I am going to:
Sell on Ebay
Tey and find some odd jobs through neighbors etc

I was wondering if anyone would like to join me on this challenge so we can encourage each other.

My Debt:
Barclays - £200
TSB: £1000

I also wish to travel to america next year so I would like to be able to start saving for that in September

So who is with me to try and get debt free?

NHS_worker_bee

Hi Laura,

Good luck on your debt repayment, I think it's a good idea to try and clear your debt and then once you're debt free, start a savings account.

How long have you got until you graduate? £1000 is a lot to clear by selling things on eBay and doing odd jobs - this isn't to put you off, it's a great way to get started but are you in a position to get a part time job alongside your studies to boost your income? Think how much quicker you could pay it off if you had a small but regular source of income

I used to be a full time student with a part time job, now I've got a full time job and am a part time student again! I'm tackling my debt too, this forum has been a great help.

Good luck.

Laura1994

NHS_worker_bee wrote: »

Hi Laura,

Good luck on your debt repayment, I think it's a good idea to try and clear your debt and then once you're debt free, start a savings account.

How long have you got until you graduate? £1000 is a lot to clear by selling things on eBay and doing odd jobs - this isn't to put you off, it's a great way to get started but are you in a position to get a part time job alongside your studies to boost your income? Think how much quicker you could pay it off if you had a small but regular source of income

I used to be a full time student with a part time job, now I've got a full time job and am a part time student again! I'm tackling my debt too, this forum has been a great help.

Good luck.

Hello,
I get about £226 a month so I am going to leave at least 40% off that in my account. I only have to pay £15.99 a month for my phone, £13 for my TV and £40 for my rent. This leaves £157.01.
If I account for say £10 a week just to buy anything I need, this leaves me with £117.01 a month. So hopefully I can clear it in 8 months.But I am trying to get a job that would enable me to clear it by September. So even if it was just an odd job cleaning for £20 a week for a few hours, that would be £400 in 5 months

I am aiming for September but if not, then it should be cleared no later than December x

Laura1994

NHS_worker_bee wrote: »

Hi Laura,

Good luck on your debt repayment, I think it's a good idea to try and clear your debt and then once you're debt free, start a savings account.

How long have you got until you graduate? £1000 is a lot to clear by selling things on eBay and doing odd jobs - this isn't to put you off, it's a great way to get started but are you in a position to get a part time job alongside your studies to boost your income? Think how much quicker you could pay it off if you had a small but regular source of income

I used to be a full time student with a part time job, now I've got a full time job and am a part time student again! I'm tackling my debt too, this forum has been a great help.

Good luck.[/QUOTE
My course is full time with placement and I dont get to pick the hours in placement so I would need a job that would be EXTREMELY flexible!

Memory_Girl

I think you can do it - but you need to get focused and creative about all the ways you can make money too.

In the last thirty days I have "made" nearly £1250 .... that is 1% of my mortgage. I have earned some money on every day this month - each and every one that has been banked in my squirrel account.



Start looking for 100 ways you can make a tenner each time and keep going till you get there ..... it's so worth it to be debt free!!

MG

Laura1994

How do you make money everyday if you don't mind me asking?

sourcrates

Laura1994 wrote: »

How do you make money everyday if you don't mind me asking?

Yea, I was wondering that one too lol !!!

Memory_Girl

Lets see - off the top of my head, this month I have:

Weeded gardens
Sessions of babysitting
Sold a shed load of stuff on facebook
Took clothes to "cash for clothes" place
Made handbags
Designed a pattern for a friend to use in sewing class
Let an extra room over the summer
Created a downloadable sewing tutorial for a Thermal Cooking Bag
Wrote a kindle book (or two)
Spring cleaned for an old lady around the corner
Wrote four articles for a newspaper
Knitted a minion hat
Filled a freezer full of home-made ready meals

And tracked every penny I earned so that it was stashed in my squirrel account ready to overpay on my mortgage in the morning.

I made it a 31 day challenge to accept any legal job, pull up my Big Girls Knickers and get on and do it.

Its paid off big style.

MG

Laura1994

Memory_Girl wrote: »

Lets see - off the top of my head, this month I have:

Weeded gardens
Sessions of babysitting
Sold a shed load of stuff on facebook
Took clothes to "cash for clothes" place
Made handbags
Designed a pattern for a friend to use in sewing class
Let an extra room over the summer
Created a downloadable sewing tutorial for a Thermal Cooking Bag
Wrote a kindle book (or two)
Spring cleaned for an old lady around the corner
Wrote four articles for a newspaper
Knitted a minion hat
Filled a freezer full of home-made ready meals

And tracked every penny I earned so that it was stashed in my squirrel account ready to overpay on my mortgage in the morning.

I made it a 31 day challenge to accept any legal job, pull up my Big Girls Knickers and get on and do it.

Its paid off big style.

MG

That sounds amazing! How did you get those jobs? I mean, i dont just want to knock on doors and ask if there is anything that needs doing. I would feel a bit cheeky

thecassman86

Laura1994 wrote: »

That sounds amazing! How did you get those jobs? I mean, i dont just want to knock on doors and ask if there is anything that needs doing. I would feel a bit cheeky

Are there any communal advertising areas in your Student Guild or where you live?... I'm a software developer now but i was generally quite handy at most technical stuff at Uni so, when i was in halls of residence in particular, i made network cables for people to use in their flats - wireless wasn't great back then so it meant people could get internet in communal areas. I made a few quid and it was essentially free advertising. Most of it came by word of mouth.

Also, going back to your flexibility needs, i worked at the Student Guild as a sound and light technician for the student bar/stage/nightclub... This was incredibly flexible. If i wanted to work that week then i turned up for a meeting at 1pm on Monday and signed up for anything i was free for that week... If i didn't want to work that week then i just didn't go to the meeting.

Essentially, your university are more than aware of your flexibility needs so it's a great place to start in finding work - they, more than anyone else, will help you work around everything else.

Good luck!

Memory_Girl

Laura1994 wrote: »

That sounds amazing! How did you get those jobs? I mean, i dont just want to knock on doors and ask if there is anything that needs doing. I would feel a bit cheeky

It all snowballed from just a few people knowing that I am up for doing "Side hustles" - Word of Mouth is a pretty fabulous advertising medium.

BTW - If someone knocked on my door and asked "Do you want your windows washing / car valeting / garden tidying" and they did a good job I would refer them onto LOADS of people .... but do you know what - hardly anyone comes knocking!! So now I do

MG