Trying to reboot my journey without burning out

Doris17

Where is July going? Good luck on your journey.

SunshineDaisy

My Ebay shop is having a slow week so I'm hammering the survey sites. I only really enjoy one of them.. prol*fic. I am registered with all the usual ones but I find I lose the will to live after a couple of minutes. Prol* is a bit different. The rates of pay are much better and the surveys are  interesting and much more varied in comparison to other consumer versions. I set myself a mission to earn £19 before cash out and have just managed it within the last few days.  I set it at £19 as it matched an extra payment I wanted to make to a credit card to get it under a money boundary.  I have to break these things down into little chunks and make games out of it. Otherwise its just a long slog and I start getting depressed about it.

To keep the motivation at almost the mid-month mark, I have made my additional payments ahead of time. 

So for the end of July, here is the current statuses:

0% Deals expiring 2023 :
Sep cc1 - £250 (will pay off in August)
Oct cc2 - £945  (focus on for the next few months). I have half of it already in a savings account, so this shouldn't be a problem.

0% Deals expiring 2024 :
Feb - cc3  0 - PAID OFF
Feb - cc4 £1085 - next one to hit, after cc2 - plan to clear in 4 chunks Nov to Feb. 
Mar - cc5 £1200 - A bit tight
Mar - cc6 £1493 - not worried about as I've setup mthly payment like a loan. 
Apr - cc7 £1470 - A bit tight
May - cc8 £1100 - not worried as min payments will pay this off before expiry
Nov - cc9 £1200  (is 1200, rather than 1100) - again, the min payments will clear
 
0% Deals expiring 2025 = both fine as will be able to throw all my extra money at them
March cc10 (thought it was May but is actually March and corrected total) - cc10 £1700
June cc11 - £2022 (balanced transferred my working cc for last month and next mth to spread out payments and take pressure off August as my pay will be half it's usual amount)

As you can see, cc5 and cc7 are a little close to each other, so I may need to make another balance transfer nearer the time. It was due to a tight spell a couple of years back that resulted in a cluster of deals ending over a short period. They are all with the same lender. Therefore their balance hasn't moved because they were stacked behind other deals. The advantage of doing this is that you can snowball and focus on 1 or 2 cards but it can cause problems later down the line if you don't spread them out. At the time, they were the only lender available to me so I had limited options.

Best get back to those surveys ...
Sunshine D

bigbeff

You are doing great. Keep knocking them down. I find prolific really helpful. I plan to sort my wardrobe again soon and get some stuff on vented.

Spinayarn

Well done - sounds like your ebay selling is going really well. You have done so well over the last 6 weeks.

WinterWarrior

You have lots of cards, but we can clearly see them going down. Think how lovely it will be when they are gone 🌟

SunshineDaisy

Hi everyone,
It looks I have a lot of cards but its actually only 4 lenders and I've split into the individual deals. Keeps my motivation up that way (lower figures) and also, more practical as the deadlines for being paid off are easier to keep track of. 
I am the queen of procrastination and low motivation so anything I can do to keep me on track, I'm willing to give a go.

My goal is to have them paid off by the end of 2025 so that I can retire. Well, I say retire. I mean resign from all my paid jobs and just run my hobby business. In the ideal world, I'd just potter around the garden, travel and run my business during the evenings.

These debts are preventing me from doing that. I'm paying £500-700 a month including extra payments. That's a huge sum of money, so I need to get rid of it as soon as possible.
I could reduce that figure considerably by reducing all cards down to their minimums. However,  I don't want to extend the term as its seems like I've been in this position forever. 

Anyway, back to it...I'm several days behind on my £50 a day goal, but I earnt an extra £100 with my temp job  last month (paid this mth) so as long as I make £1000 via side hustles, I think I will  be ok. 

I might book a stall at few antique markets through the summer, just to clear slow moving stock and top up August's very low pay. They drive me crazy at times and its hard work but if its a nice day, it is lovely to sit in the sun with  a packed lunch. 

Enjoy your Sundays.

Sunshine D

bigbeff

What is your hobby job? I like that kind of thinking!

SunshineDaisy

Hi bigbeff . My hobby business is buying and selling vintage collectables. I love history and enjoy pottering around buying and looking at interesting items. 

The month is almost over and so far I've raised an extra £1420 to top up wages and put money aside for next month's low income.

I've put £100 into my emergency fund, extra £33 into cc6 and put aside into savings enough to pay off cc 1 next month, an extra £145 to put against cc2 (the next target), pay off my everyday cc early next month and thrown everything else into savings to top up next mth's pay.

I have 2 days to go and want to raise at least £40 to hit a small target but obviously would be great to hit £1500.

I will update my cc totals early next month - can't wait to knock cc1 off the list..

Hope the weather is better where you are - here its been raining on and off for weeks.
At least its stopping me spending money on day trips and I've been indoors working away.
Bye for now
Sunshine D

Doris17

Hello Sunshine D, 

Good luck with your plan, sounds amazing. Love anything vintage. Fingers crossed you hit your goal.

D.x

bigbeff

Wow, that’s an awesome side income, good work.