Flip Flop Flo is fighting to be fancy free

Blackcats

Well done! Those frequent payments do chip away at debts and that keeps motivation high.  

flipflopflo

You are so right @Blackcats. I wish I'd learnt that lesson years ago with my savings as well as with my debts. I've just found your diary and have started to read it.

I've just ordered £10 into Paypal from LifePoints though I am still waiting for the last £5 to hit PayPal. Also waiting for a survey to be approved on Prolific and that will be another £5 and I'm hammering on to another £10 from Swagbucks.

I think I'm going to have to get all these amounts written down in my money diary as well as my debts and savings just to track them and see how much I earn and to show my husband who a bit sceptical.

flipflopflo

Yep! just transfered £10 from Swagbucks to PayPal. Just entered things down in my book. Each site has a double page and it is marked  in columns to include date of order, amount, PP (I will put date it hit my PayPal account), Debt (I will put date I moved it to the debt). It looks like I have got £70 from surveys so far but I will sit down this evening and go back through this diary to double check.

ETA: The £5 hit my PP account from LifePoints so that has gone on OD1 and that is now at £263.79, every little helps!

Blackcats

Hi flo, great idea to track the survey money and well done on this week's earnings.  When I was paying off my last loan (which shockingly I can't even remember what the loan was for 🤭) I used to make extra payments which generated a letter from the lender which said how much I'd knocked off the debt and how much interest I'd saved.  I always looked forward to those letters.  I'm debt free now after spending most of my adult life borrowing money and spending money, rinse and repeat.  I'm trying to give as much energy to my saving as I did to my spending but it's not always easy.  This forum is such a great place for support and a diary is a great place to hold ourselves to account. 

flipflopflo

Thanks BC, I was getting a bit confused with what was what and where it was going, again trying to take responsibility and dealing with my finances. I wish that all lenders sent letters like that  . Well done on being debt free, I'm hoping it won't be too much longer. I know I'm trying to save as well and most would say add to the debt payments but I need to get that emergency fund in place to stop using the CCs or ODs in case of ...emergencies  . I'll be doing the same in hammering the savings once the debt has gone. This forum is definitely a good place of support and I know my diary is a bit boring but it is helping.

I'm thinking of opening a Starling or Monzo account and transfering £500 across each month and that will be for grocery shopping and once it's gone it's gone. I don't know whether it's a good idea or not.

flipflopflo

Aaaaannd after a loooong slog on a survey today I've just claimed £15 from LifePoints tonight.

flipflopflo

Have started sorting  through clothes and  have a pile for charity and a pile to be photographed and put on FB Marketplace.  Once they’ve gone then I’ll have to sort through more 😱. I’m also sorting through books and will do the same. This house will never be minimalist but I can make it a bit less full. And maybe hit those debts a bit. 

flipflopflo

As I was suffering from insomnia I thought I'd get on and do my Monday money fling. Soooooooo CC1 is now at £18.13 which means that one will be gorn by the end of the month <shakes pom poms!>. The CU now stands at £200. I'll take another £15 off it next monday and then at the begining of September the SO comes off leaving about £60ish so I will probably sweep some from the CU savings across and pay that off as well < shakes pom poms a bit more>. Another £15 went into the OD1 account and that stands at  £249.66 which means with the money I'm waiting to go into it from surveys I'll be sub £200 by the end of the month and well on the way to clearing it by the end of September <jumps up and down and wave my knickers in the air!!>

Savings wise the Help to Buy is now up at £627 so going up slowly. 

Still considering whether to open another account for the grocery money.

I need to go into the city tomorrow to get some new trousers for the boys and to pop into M&S to change some bras as they are too small for me. It's a pain that you can't try things on in store but such is life at the moment.

janb5

Hi FFF, I started a Starling account and move £ every month from Nationwide to that.  The Starling account is my shopping and spending money and keeps the account for direct debits etc.  It works really well and I also save money for my car in there.  Also it does a `impulse saver` and moves odd sums of money to my savings account..  i.e. if I pay 35.24. it will move the 24p over.  It all helps.
Have you considered selling on Ebay or FB? 

flipflopflo

Cheers for the recommendation @janb5 I’ll look at that today. I like the idea of the random savings. 

Im going to list stuff on local FB pages and if they don’t go then I’m going look at more specific FB groups. The more I can get rid of locally the better as I don’t fancy having to go into the city too often in my wheelchair.