10 year cycle of debt must stop

chevalier

High Peak Lass
You have had some great suggestions above, so I won't repeat them but here are a few tips I have picked up from the boards

1) food shopping. First find out what you actually have. You may have the makings of a weeks worth of meals already in your freezer/cupboard. So maybe this week you only have to buy milk/bread/veggies?

Once you have cleaned out your cupboard/freezer, then set yourself the challenge of meal planning a weeks worth of meals. Use that you do your shopping list and only buy what is on the list. I also do an online shop once or twice a month, so that I can get extra points (tesco), or free delivery etc. Great motivation for just getting enough to get the free delivery etc. There is a tesco voucher forum on here and I always get a code for something.

One of Martins challenges is the step down one, where say you buy branded items, then go for the shops own and save. One example box of tesco cornflakes 95p kellogs for same weight £1.95!

2) electric/gas. If your thermostat is set above say 21 degrees C, then turn it down and save abou£70 a year on your heating bill. Same for your hot water, if it comes out scalding then turn it down a notch and save again. And of course make sure nothing is left on standby. For example a tele left on standby uses up nearly as much electricity as if it was properly on.

3) Do you have anything you could ebay? Or books to sell on Amazon?

4) sorry for the long list but there are lots of sites on the net that pay you to take surveys, or to do searches. The ones below are ones that have paid out for me.

5) There is a mystery shopping thread on here that tells you how to go about it.

www.lightspeedpanel.com - this is a survey site, where you get points that turn into vouchers (you choose). May not help with the cash flow, but the vouchers could be saved towards birthday/xmas or given as presents.

www.ciao.co.uk - survey site that gives money. A bit fits and starts i.e. no surveys for a couple of weeks, then three or four the same day.

www.yougov.com - again paid surveys. However takes a while to get to the minimum payout level

www.mytns.com - again this is a survey site, but it pays you in points that convert into Nectar points at Sainsbury’s.

www.pigsback.co.uk - this is a points site, i.e. they give you points for buying things via their site. BUT you also get points for signing up for news letters (some of which are even interesting!), and also for clicking on adverts with pink borders. I have spent NOTHING with them but got a £10 voucher through this week (only been registered since January). There is also a thread in the freebies section, of https://www.moneysavingexpert.com that gives you all the daily answers to the competitions so you can have a better chance of winning on them. I won £20 of points recently on the daily quizzes so a nice boost to the Christmas fund.

www.mutualpoints.com - another points for clicks site. You can also buy things via their site and get points too. For a long time, I just clicked the links in the emails they send you, and that gets you 5 points. At 3000 points you get £20 I think. You can do searches via their site and that gets you points too.

www.quidco.com - this is a cash back site, so very good, for checking if any potential new insurers (i.e. if you have checked your contents insurance say and found a new provider), are offering cash back. E.g. Lloyds was offering £120 cash back on new policies at one point (the offers do change). You can also get small amounts of cash again for doing searches via their site. You can earn 52p a day by doing this. Every little helps.

www.greasypalm.co.uk - another cash back site, where you can do searches and get small amounts of money. But it all adds up. I think you can get about 50p a day on there for nothing. Minimum payout is £20 I think, but you can sign up to survey sites via there, and get extra money that way for nothing.

www.topcashback.co.uk - another site where you can do daily clicks to get money for nowt.

www.britishrewards.co.uk - same as topcashback, daily clicks to do searches for pennies a time.