Battling Debt and Mental Illness — and (hopefully) Winning!

AspiringButAnxious

Thanks folks

Orange — no, I haven't sold the guitar I made it clear I'm open to offers, but might drop the price to £20 and see if that helps.

Transferred 9.46 to my savings acc, which will go towards Very payment. I'm now 59% of the way there with 3 months to go

Asked my friend to ask a friend of hers who freelances for advice. She recommended a website called upwork.com so I will probably sign up, once I gather my confidence! Got my Working Links appointment this afternoon, so at least I have a bit of a plan in place. I'm also trying to think of people I know who might need editing, proofreading and copywriting — even if they can't pay me, I could get feedback and endorsements to put on my website and LinkedIn profile.

AspiringButAnxious

Added £9 to savings pot, which brings the total to £136 :j

If I add my savongs pot to what's in my account, I have over 95% of my Very payment, which I need to pay in November to avoid interest. I probably won't put the savings pot in the bank, but it's nice to know I could. The savings pot is really my Xmas present money (if Amazon vouchers don't cover everything) and going out fund :beer:

Orange_Ena

Brilliant work ABA, it's all adding up. Ah gutted about your guitar, it just seems too cheap for a musical instrument!

AspiringButAnxious

I'll wait a little longer, but it's getting to the point where the space the guitar takes up is worth more than not reducing the price!

belleandthebudget

What a great reminder from your friend! And great progress on the Very account. All things seem to be looking up around here.

AspiringButAnxious

Got a £5 Amazon voucher from SB today, which brings my balance up to... £5.40

Also signed up to upwork.com which is nerve wracking before I've even bid for a job!

Aiming to spend the weekend:
• Writing an article I've started
• Working on short stories
• Planning my next non-fiction ebook
• Drafting at least 2 blog posts

belleandthebudget

AspiringButAnxious wrote: »

Also signed up to upwork.com which is nerve wracking before I've even bid for a job!

:T:j:T

Fantastic step forward, ABA!

AspiringButAnxious

Transferred £65 to my Very fund, which means I have £290.96 — less than £90 left to find!

I spent £15 on business cards today, but I can claim that as an expense (assuming I earn enough to actually break even) and it was an SB offer, so I got over 700SB and have ordered another £5 Amazon card. I need to network and get my name "out there" but I'm terrible at promoting myself.

Submitted 3 proposals (bids for work) on Upwork at the weekend and intend to submit a few more later. Not sure whether anyone will be interested...

Goals for this week:
• Get the short story I'm working on written and redrafted to a good standard
• Plan ebook
• Start writing ebook
• Finish article I'm working on
• Draft another article
• Read the business books I got out of the library
• Keep blogging (posted today — also want to post on Wed and Fri)

Bobarella

Brilliant update! That debt will be paid off in no time now!

AspiringButAnxious

Thanks Bob I'll feel soooooo good when I've paid Very and can start saving in earnest. It'll give me a little more freedom, having an emergency fund and putting a little aside for non-emergency rainy days. I just hope I can earn a living from my freelance work ASAP so I can come off ESA...