We will get this debt down & the savings up

leftatthetrafficlights

Makingabobor2 said:

Welcome @leftatthetrafficlights and thanks for the well wishes. 
I must admit I don't really believe in Christmas, think we only do it for the kids. I'm not religious in that way that I actually believe it all.  I'd put myself somewhere between being a Buddhist/Spiritualist/Pagan. The idea of winter solstice is much more appealing.  I love the saying that WHO is round the Christmas tree is more important than WHAT is round it. Although the last few years we haven't even had a proper tree....lol.  Just a twiggy thing. 

I'd put myself in the same camp to be honest - I have no religious leanings at all but certainly feel an affinity with the Buddhist philosophy and the universe in general 😉 

We don't have a tree either - I just cut something down in the garden (part of the winter pruning!) and whack some lights on it! 😁

Makingabobor2

Ooh I think you and I will get on well @leftatthetrafficlights. Sounds like we have much in common. x

LittleMissDetermined

I have had no issues with the apps I use for receipt snapping and surveys, it just takes some patience and I have finally managed to get hubby to save me his receipts too... I use the below:
Shoppix
Snap my Eats
Huyu
Storewards
ZipZero (this one was pants but they're making changes again to make it a bit better)

I also use airtime rewards where you can get money off your phone bill if you're with O2 or EE, it's linked to your debit cards. 

For surveys I use Prolific, as you know! But I also use Y-Live, YouGov and Pinecone. They all seem decent and the payments are better than the likes of Swagbucks and Panelbase.  I also signed up to WeAre8 which I like as I can donate earnings to charity and every vid I watch earns money for good causes, even if it's only pennies. 

Wow, apologies that this is a long post and if I'm teaching you to suck eggs
LMD x

Makingabobor2

No apology needed LMD, post for as long as you want.....I love chatting. We seem very like minded also.
Thanks for the tips for the receipt scanning, I will look them all up. 
 As for the surveys, I only started at the beginning of Sept with them, after having some rubbish experiences with some rubbish ones years ago.  As you say, Prolific is brilliant. Didn't get on with Panelbase, so knocked that one on the head.  Am finding SB quite good, although sometimes slow.  Crowdology is quite good, as is Opinion Outpost and also an app I found called Curious Cats, some of their surveys are long and boring for little reward, but it all adds up and the beauty of that one is you can cash out at only £1. And with it being an app, can do it while watching TV. I tend to use the laptop for some of the other ones. 

Yes I am with O2 and get airtime rewards, its really useful. 

Its great to share ideas and tips for money saving & making, it all helps.  I have also gone back to using cashback sites, after forgetting to use them for smaller purchases for a long time. Its all about getting back into the habit. 

LittleMissDetermined

Thanks! Gonna look up some of the survey sites you mentioned as I've not heard of them before, I love this site for sharing knowledge like this   My hubby is away this weekend so I will have more time to spend on surveys both and being on the forum. The more I am on here, the more determined I am to get rid of the debt! 
LMD x

CMD79

Hi @Makingabobor2

I'll be cheering you on too! I wondered what your story was from the Make £10 Extra A Day. Keep going - you're doing fantastically well on the surveys and giving us some inspiration too. 

For mystery shopping I use:

Bare International
Amber Arch
Tern
Store Checkers
React
Grassroots (very few and far between!)

I made about £200 last week (not yet all paid out) and have got about £60 worth booked in for next week. I think I'll end up with about £400 for the month in mystery shops xxx

Sun_Addict

I keep getting emails from Evans corp asking me to complete surveys but don’t recall I ever have done a survey for them in the past 🤔

Wow @CMD79 that’s an amazing amount for the mystery shops, well done 👏 

Makingabobor2

CMD79 said:

Hi @Makingabobor2

I'll be cheering you on too! I wondered what your story was from the Make £10 Extra A Day. Keep going - you're doing fantastically well on the surveys and giving us some inspiration too. 

For mystery shopping I use:

Bare International
Amber Arch
Tern
Store Checkers
React
Grassroots (very few and far between!)

I made about £200 last week (not yet all paid out) and have got about £60 worth booked in for next week. I think I'll end up with about £400 for the month in mystery shops xxx

Welcome @CMD79. You're very welcome.  Thanks for the tips on the Mystery shopping, I'll look them up. 

Makingabobor2

Sun_Addict said:

I keep getting emails from Evans corp asking me to complete surveys but don’t recall I ever have done a survey for them in the past 🤔

Wow @CMD79 that’s an amazing amount for the mystery shops, well done 👏 

Sounds like a dodgy company...I'd be blocking their emails

Makingabobor2

Just a quick update on the day so far, hoping everyone is having a good day. Sun is shining, so hoping it will make this dreaded lurgy go away as I had a bad night coughing, runny nose and couldn't get comfortable, but OH bought me a bar of lovely dark good quality chocolate when he popped to the shop for tissues for me on his way home from work, so that cheered me up. 

Also OH has scored another brownie point today as we had the email from internet/tv/phone provider...won't say who they are,...saying it was time for a price rise.   We have been with them as loyal customers for well over 16 years now and every time they want to put up the cost, we seem to manage to wangle a better deal, so just shows it can be done.  We only have the basic TV package as don't want sports channels and OH manages to find any films we want to watch, elsewhere. So they wanted to put it up from £40 to £59.  So he checked online to arm himself with all the info available and rang up. He told them that on their website they are offering new customers a deal for £37 plus faster internet & a new box for free.  The woman he spoke to had a long look and said they couldn't do that for us & if we wanted a new box it would be £25!  OH said, no we don't really want a new box, but explained that it seems unfair that new customers are getting deals of £37 and yet they want to charge us £59 for being loyal.  So she said they couldn't do anything, so he asked to be put through to the "leaving dept". 
 Soon as he explained we would leave....(which we didn't really want to do),  they suddenly decided they could do us a deal at £37 for 18 months. So not only did he get us a cheaper price than the planned rise, its also £3 cheaper than we've been paying for the last year!!  Result and brownie point for OH. 

On other financial news, I cashed out £10.21 from surveys and have a small amount sat in Curious Cats that I may get to cash out later.  So extra £10 paid off the mortgage today.  Which is very helpful as we had a letter the other day saying with the new % rate rise it is going up another £6 a month from end of November!  Its still cheaper than trying to get a fixed rate at the moment and as we only have 3.5years max left, we'd rather stick with the variable rate. 

Also got a few ££ sat in TCB, but don't know whether to cash it out or leave it to build up from a few more online shops. 

So all in all a good day so far. Very quiet on the survey front, but it is a weekend, so I'm not surprised. The sun is definitely cheering me up and I hope I will feel quite a bit better by tomorrow. Although rain is foreacast, so not sure we'll be going for a walk or anything, which is what I should be doing as not been out for a couple of days while I've been feeling bad. My exercise routine is suffering, but if I do much I just start coughing. Will try tomorrow to get back to normal 

BTW @CMD79, I looked up a couple of those mystery shopping companies you mentioned, but was a bit worried that one was asking for bank details to get paid into, at the initial sign up. I didn't go ahead with it, as I was a bit worried about giving the details. Are they genuine and legit?  which ones are best?  Have you been with them a long time? 

So hope you all have a good rest of the day and its Strictly tonight. Wonder who will go this week?