redlaces vs £15,343.28

redlaces

So, on the debt busting front this week, I've managed to make sure all my meals were made from home - this is a huge achievement for me! I'm going to continue to keep this up, but I know I need to start tweaking the menu to include less processed food - I was quite shocked when I looked at my shopping on the conveyor belt in Aldi the other day, I'd always thought I had a healthy diet, but this was so much junk. But, baby steps - making sure I'm not buying food out is the focus for now.

I also successfully managed to go out yesterday for a work event, have a drink, and not taxi or takeaway on the way home! Very proud of myself for that, and it meant I pretty much stayed in budget again I need to knock the smoking-when-drinking habit on the head, but again, baby steps. I'm celebrating what I've achieved.

Also realised that my balance transfer to another credit card means I have another £100 in my budget, I had cut back so strictly to try and reduce the deficit, so I can now loosen the purse strings slightly to a comfortable and more sustainable level of sacrifice. Obviously I will still try and make overpayments to this card, but having the wiggle room in the budget is reassuring tbh.

redlaces

After a bad week spends-wise, today has been pretty fruitful:
No-spend day
Changed energy supplier and haggled £10 a month off my internet bill
Did a few microjobs
Listed some things on eBay/gumtree
Ate from cupboards/leftovers
Did some batch cooking

I need to get into the habit of daily clicks, and need to trawl the websites to find some good ones. Does anyone have any recommendations for any? I already do the postcode lottery. Thanks

WelshKitty85

Sounds like you're making great progress. Have you tried any of the survey sites?

redlaces

Thanks WelshKitty! Yes, I have made about £10 from Prolific in the last few days, that's probably the only one I use at the minute. I'm signed up to Swagbucks but I always seem to screen out. Are there any others you'd recommend?

WelshKitty85

I do yougov. It takes a while to reach the £50 cash out but I never get screened out. I'm persevering with SB at the moment whilst other sites are quiet.

ImpulseSpender

Hi redlaces! Just want to say that you seem to be making good progress on your debt journey. You seem to be getting everything in order and taking positive steps. You've motivated me to do a ebay clean out, gonna get on that next week!

Little_Miss_Winner

Good Luck hun you can do this!! x

Scott-Weiland

redlaces wrote: »

After a bad week spends-wise, today has been pretty fruitful:
No-spend day
Changed energy supplier and haggled £10 a month off my internet bill
Did a few microjobs
Listed some things on eBay/gumtree
Ate from cupboards/leftovers
Did some batch cooking

I need to get into the habit of daily clicks, and need to trawl the websites to find some good ones. Does anyone have any recommendations for any? I already do the postcode lottery. Thanks

My first daily hack would be download the top cashback app, if you ever buy anything online see if the site is on topcashback first. Next daily hack would be have a read of this link off the forum and start doing these.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/make-money-surveys/

Start off with say opinion outpost.co.uk and maybe Prolific Academic they are two good ones.

Scott-Weiland

redlaces wrote: »

Thanks WelshKitty! Yes, I have made about £10 from Prolific in the last few days, that's probably the only one I use at the minute. I'm signed up to Swagbucks but I always seem to screen out. Are there any others you'd recommend?

Perservere with Swagbucks and put the app on your phone remember with swagbucks every day there is daily poll on there for 1sb, Swagbucks is a good site but it does take a bit patient. A lot of sites give you nothing for getting booted out of surveys swagbucks at least partly rewards you

Maybe update your signature to include your survey earnings it may keep you motivated.

redlaces

So, I've not been here in over 6 months :O but I do come bearing good news:

The debt has not increased! In fact I've managed to smash it down to £12,267.71, which represents 20.05% progress (gotta love my Excel sheet, any excuse to get the formulas out).

A decent chunk of this was due to a bonus I got from work, but that was well deserved and I'm happy to report it went straight off the debt, with the exception of £200-odd which I kept to treat myself with. I did creep back to the credit cards around Christmas due to lack of planning earlier in the year, but no chance that is happening again this year; I'm getting myself in good habits now so that when Christmas comes I'll be nice and ready

I've got a solid budget now and I allow myself £90 a week for my three Fs - food, fuel and fun - and I'm pleased to report I've stayed well in budget over the past month. It goes into my Monzo on a Monday morning so I know exactly what I have to play with each week. I found keeping the excess in there just tempted me to spend it, so I've started a separate 'savings account' in one of my old current accounts to which I can divert any money I want to put aside to save up for bigger things. And it's working! One of the big issues is that I've got four weddings to attend this year, three of which are for very close friends so I can't really duck out of much for those. So a lot of the siphoned off money will be going towards the various associated costs. And perhaps a treat or two for me!

I've had a day off work today which I have used for job hunting and general debt admin. I've switched my siphon account to RBS to get a switching bonus, and I've applied for a new balance transfer because some of my existing 0% ones are coming to an end. Also closed an old credit card that I never use; the untouched £7k limit on that would only really get in the way of applying for more useful BT ones.

I've also found a few bits to put on eBay, so will be doing that tonight, and have challenged myself to live out of the fridge until I go to visit a friend in London this weekend. So far, so good!