The DFW "Celebrate Christmas for free in 2008" Challenge

jess444_2

Hi all,
Well not much to update. Have done well with the 'free bingo' sites (£227) and have sold a few things of Ebay. Pigsback and Lightspeed seem to be a bit slow the the minute so haven't made much there. I can't beleive that it's only Feb and I have already got money saved for Christmas - and it's all 'free' money. Agree with tattycath - this site is amazing.

thepinklady

This year I've decided to save my boots points for a whole year and use them at Christmas time. I've already got £10 worth of points saved, hopefully can reach £100+ by Christmas time. I'll be on the look out for boots deals where you get extra points :-)

I was thinking of maybe saving my piggy points for the year too, but that site has become a bit slow giving out piggy points so won't be able to save much.

hypno06

So far I have got:

Tesco clubcard - £21 = £84 deals
Piggy vouchers for boots - £20
Morrisons stamps £5
Boots points £16.50
Nectar points - ??? need to look on website
paypal for lightspeed etc £10

I am also waiting for points to be credited to Toluna which takes me over the limit to request a voucher, but will add that on when it is actually done. OH has £10 in lightspeed too, but not yet requested it so I haven't counted that either.

I have already used some boots vouchers for sale shopping and have bought things that are safely stashed away, so the above figures are "available spends" for Christmas 2008.

Loving this challenge :T

stressed.mum

Haven't updated for a while, am doing the £10/day challenge to bump up this challenge

Balance to date
Cash £663.96 ( including council tax free month)

Vouchers £178.70 have had a few survey sites pay out and finally returned some unwanted christmas pressies!!

chocaholic110

Got my £10 Ipsos voucher that I was waiting for so will add that to my total.

Hayley_bass - I've accumulated quite a lot of Boots points by using the extra points tokens from the advantage card machine / parenting club / online offers. Most of the stuff I'm getting I would need to buy anyway eg Boots are the only place I've found that sells low birthweight nappies. Also they have a mad offer on at the moment on Johnson and Johnson baby products which are £2.47 each or £2.50 for 2 BUT they also have an offer on where if you spend £10 on baby products you get 200 extra points BUT the computer recognises the original price, not the reduced price SO if you buy 4 bottles of J&J you pay £5 but get the points as if you'd spent £10. (For some reason sometimes the till is only charging £2.48 for two so you have to add a pack of cotton buds or something). Therefore you spend £5, get £2 back in points but have 4 bottles of product - can't be bad!! (Although i now have dozens of bottles as I buy 8 at a time plus the buds and get £4 worth of points and 8 bottles of J&J for £10!). Additionally I order from the website which quite often has 500 points for a £50 spend offers on, plus you can usually find a code for the same offer therefore usually I spend £50 or so but get £15+ back in points.

That's quite an essay - does it all make sense??? (BTW the Boots Grabbit thread on the Grabbit board has all the latest ways to boost your points)

Everyone seems to be doing really well. I'm another one who can't believe how well I'm doing when it's only mid-February!

98sidney

Hi I finally got enough points today to order my first £10 voucher from pigsback. Still collecting my Nectar points, and tesco clubcard points. got my boots advatage card through saturday so will be using that. And i now find myself staying away from shops that do not give me any points back, I am getting bad arent I.

Opinion world has been no good but doing ok with lightspeed and one poll.

also got a few bks coming thanks to freebie board, so thats another xmas present sorted.

and I am doing well in slp aiming to use my earnings from that to buy 2 psp consoles only the older versions though for my kids xmas presents off Ebay.

chocaholic110

stressed.mum wrote: »

Haven't updated for a while, am doing the £10/day challenge to bump up this challenge

Balance to date
Cash £663.96 ( including council tax free month)

Vouchers £178.70 have had a few survey sites pay out and finally returned some unwanted christmas pressies!!

Missed this post before but had to say...wow! that is good going!! :T

stressed.mum

Thanks chocoholic - after this month don't think I will be doing quite so well cos won't have so much free money - have been lucky because I had to return some things bought with bonus bonds OH got free from work and got chequesback, bought contract phones and got "free" insurance which OH cancelled! (and keep the free cash) and lots of survey sites were ready to pay out so now have to wait for them to uild up again. Have been doing the bingo and £10/day challenge to build this up though, as have my sealed tin challenge, first tin almost full - so may cheat and open that one to bank the cash for the interest and start another tin.

Everyone else on this challenge are doing well too, lets hope we can keep it up and have a totally "free" christmas.

I already have a savings account that I "squirrell" free money into, last year I manages £3000, which paid christmas, some of my 2DD's school holidays and put £1000 into ISA for moving house savings

stressed

sweetpeas_2

Stressed, you're doing so well!
I wish i was doing that well at this point! my attempt is poor at the minute, with paying for the holiday last week, and now we're trying to save for the spending money we'll need.
To say we both have decent first jobs, and also both work second jobs as well, we don't have alot of spare money at all. It seems virtually impossible to save any money at all, because we seem to need it all already for other things.

Ok, I'm done feeling sorry for myself now...

My plan is, after saved up holiday spending money for May, we're going to really get cracking on saving for christmas. Can't do everything at once can I! :rolleyes:

I've now got £5.50 with Valued opinions, and over 50'000 points with toluna, So I'm hoping to have a few vouchers on their way soon if the surveys keep coming!

When April comes round, I'll be doing a car boot about every other weekend, and that will all be going towards C'mas stash as well.

XX nog XX

stressed.mum

Hi Noggin

sorry if my post made you feel sorry for yourself - It looks like you are doing well this year, just using your money for other things. I haven't even thought about a holiday, normally wait til just before we want to go away and check late deals at Haven.

We are lucky that we don't have any debts now - we just about manage our everyday expenses on our income. But if any thing unexpected comes up we will have to draw on this money, which is why I try to save everything I can at the beginning of the year to help out later if needs be. I have been extremely lucky with "one-off" free money saves this year so far, I don't expect to keep going at this rate.
I admit I have got my teeth into this challenge and the £10/day challenge as I cut my hours at work because of illness and feel guilty for the extra pressure this has put on my OH to increase his income, he is lucky that he can get bonuses against his performance at work, but obviously has to work harder and longer to get these.

Hope you get you spending money together soon, one less thing for you to worry about, and I bet when you have had your holiday you will soon overtake me in savings

Take care

Stressed xxxx