Peace of Mind is the Ultimate Goal

jwil

Good luck Emz

in_need_of_direction

Hey you, just found this diary and have subscribed. Love how you generally manage to charm money or vouchers from the trees. Have you had any recent wins that you could sell on?

tlc678910

Hi,
A suggestion for your sisters birthday - as it is her 40th how about making a photo book of childhood photos or look back at milestones in her life, if you can get hold of pictures and scan them in. It shouldn't cost too much if you get a good offer on a photo website and there almost always are.
Tlc

Emzilla

Yep, back again. Just feel like doing this at the moment :wall::wall:. I just don't know what's wrong with me. I was reading back through some of my (many) old diaries earlier and they are all the same: very enthusiastic, then full of excuses as to why I haven't got very far and finally I just disappear to start a new diary again a few weeks/months later.

This is something I actually need to do. If I don't get on and start clearing some debts now, I'm never going to.

In one of my (very) old diaries, I tried to break my debts up into 100 more manageable payments. I'm thinking this is the way to go, but divide them up into 10 payments instead and try to make a payment each week. Hence only taking 10 weeks to clear a debt that has probably been festering for at least 10 months!!

I'm going to tackle my electric arrears first as this debt is causing me a bit of stress and I want to be able to switch suppliers. They currently stand at £1,426 - so each of my 10 payments will be £142.60.

I think it's going to be quite difficult at first to make a payment every week, as some money earned will take longer to come through. So, here's the date schedule I want to try and stick to, but won't be too hard on myself if I can't make the deadline one week, as there will probably be more money coming in down the line to make up for it:

22nd August - £142.60
29th August - £142.60
5th September - £142.60
12th September - £142.60
19th September - £142.60
26th September - £142.60
3rd October - £142.60
10th October - £142.60
17th October - £142.60
24th October - £142.60

Wow!! I could have this debt finally gone by the end of October!! That is such a boost for me. I'm definitely going to use this for motivation.

Obviously, additional payments will be needed as the account is still live, so I have to pay for what we use too, but I'll try and keep on top of this as and when they get added to the balance.

So now I need to come up with 10 ways to earn £142.60 in 10 weeks. Simples! Here are some very doable ways of earning that:

1. Overtime - I'm up to £40 worth of overtime for August already (done and planned).
2. Prolific - hopefully the surveys will pick up again once the universities go back, but I've already got £10.65 on there.
3. Textbroker - Not my favourite way of earning money, but I'll be able to get one payment from it no problems.
4. Surveys - I'm only £15 off getting £50 on New Vista and £13 from £40 on Onepoll, so will hopefully get payment from them within the 10 weeks.
5. Mystery shopping - again, not my favourite, but the pay is good, and I'd only have to complete around 15 jobs to get one payment.
6. Selling - OH and I are having a clear out and are listing 5 items each on eBay every Sunday night. I should be able to find £142 worth of stuff to sell.
7. Apps like Roamler, Field Agent etc - Not a fan of doing these, but it's easy money just for taking a few pictures.

Hmm, need another 3 ideas. Will get my thinking cap on. Might have to combine a mixture of the above for the last 3 payments.

One thing I do have to confess (which is completely in contrast with trying to clear a debt), is that OH booked us a little holiday with his bonus. We're going to Lanzarote for 4 nights at the beginning of September. I could have done without it, but have to say I'm actually really looking forward to it. It's all-inclusive, so won't need much spending money. Might interfere with my 10 week challenge a bit, but I'm planning on taking my iPad with me, so might try and get some stuff done whilst I'm there.

Think I've waffled on enough. Let's see how quickly I can get the first payment together.

Emz xx

Emzilla

Still got to come up with 3 ideas. I was thinking at work last night that if I can write one Textbroker article a day, then I should be able to earn more than 2 payments. I've just written one that I got yesterday, so will see if I can get another today.

I did a couple of Prolific surveys before work yesterday, so will be up to £13 when they clear. Also did a couple of Onepoll surveys.

3 of my 5 eBay listings are selling, so that's £9.48 already and they don't finish until Sunday.

Also got the £1 Goodfellas voucher from the weekly email, so will try and get a freebie pizza later. Signed up for the Sky VIP thing too and have got a code for a free movie.

Thinking about it, I'm going to say that these are my 10 ways to make my 10 payments:

1. Prolific
2. Mystery Shopping
3. Phone apps
4. Textbroker
5. Textbroker
6. Selling stuff
7. Selling stuff (hoping I can get enough stuff sold for 2 payments!)
8. Surveys
9. Misc (anything that doesn't fit into the other categories, like Jackpot Joy or anything over and above the payments from the other categories)
10. Overtime

I now have a plan, I just need to enact it, in 10 weeks.

Emz xx

Emzilla

Quite a productive day:

• Written two articles for Textbroker (one for today and one for yesterday), worth 14.51 euros between them. If one of them gets accepted tomorrow, I'll have enough for a payout request this week, as I've already got just over 3 euros in there from ages ago. I've also got another article lined up for tomorrow.
• I'm up to £28.30 on Onepoll, so only £11.70 to go.
• Completed two surveys on Valued Opinions worth £1.50.
• Completed seven surveys on Prolific, worth £8.05. When they get approved, I'll have enough for a £20 payout .
• Reached the Swagbucks target for today and claimed a £5 Amazon voucher.

Emz xx

Scott_Weiland_2

Swag bucks do paypal vouchers you know and they come with 4-5 days.

Bar fleabay what sites are you using to sell stuff on?

Scott_Weiland_2

Can i ask to what the mystery shopping is like and whom you do it for? I have always fancied it. Any chance of dropping me a pm with details.

Emzilla

Scott_Weiland wrote: »

Swag bucks do paypal vouchers you know and they come with 4-5 days.

Bar fleabay what sites are you using to sell stuff on?

I know Swagbucks do Paypal, but Amazon vouchers are better value. I can use them to buy gifts etc and save spending my own money.

I use Gumtree to sell sometimes, but will mainly be using eBay.

I'll send you a PM with mystery shopping companies. It's okay doing it, but you have to make sure you get all the information they are after, or you'll have to risk not getting paid or going back to fill in the gaps. The more you do, the better you'll get.

Scott_Weiland_2

If you have any books/cds/dvds to sell have a look at

Ziffit.com
Webuybooks.co.uk
MusicMagpie

Thanks for the pm regarding mystery shopping