Rockrats compound to clear challenge 2008

rockrat

I have spent a lot of my time over the last year taking all of the valuable information found on the site and using it to sort out my financial situation.
I now have re-vamped all my insurances, mortgage, am stoozing and offsetting and grabbing bargains where i can.

in reality i find myself in a situation where i can no longer improve my finances, with all debts now paid with the exception of the big one - the mortgage!

i am overpaying this by as much as i can afford, cut out all luxuries etc and have joined the MFIT challenge, and am determined to get this millstone round my neck paid off.

But...... how can i improve my chances of doing this when i am already saving every single possible penny i currently bring into the home?

I need to earn more, and whilst there are lots of ways to do this already posted here (mystery shopping, quidco, matched betting etc) i have decided to take a different approach and set myself a new challenge.

The Concept

To use a small starting balance that must be re-used to increase its worth each time its cycled.
eg. 1. Get a £10 mystery shopping payment, or gift from family, matched bet win, old product sold on ebay etc. (FREE)
2. use the cash to purchase goods in special offer sales that we are good at finding via the grabbit board or HUKD etc, which can then be sold on ebay (£5 profit or more)
3. purchase £15 worth of goods, and resell for profit (£5 profit)
4. purchase £20 worth of goods, and resell for profit (£5 profit)
5. repeat

Thus compounding the profits each time.
I have used the example of selling on ebay to get the returns, but there are other ways to get the cash back i am sure.


the reason why i like this idea is that it should take less of my time than some of the alternative ways already posted on this site.
I havent the time for full time mystery shopping, the matched betting is very hard, confusing and time consuming. I am busy at work and with the kids like most people. I also think the "make £10 a day" type challenge is too stressful for me.

with this idea, if i see at bargain at the shops or online that i can see can be sold for a profit, regardless of by what %, then i can buy it and look to sell it on ebay, and have just one single product at a time to follow. As things get going i may find i have to consider multiple products though to spread the risk, i am not sure about that at the minute.

it can work, i am sure most of us are aware of the guy that "swapped" his way to a free house on ebay by starting with a paperclip!

Goals

this will be different for everyone that wants to join in. I have a £96k mortgage that i wish to pay off that i am working hard to with the MFIT , but i am going to set my first target at £1000 by the end of June to add to my savings.
Thats 6 months, which i think should be more than enough time, but i havent a clue at the minute. But, for the purposes of this challenge, i will set that as the first target date for all players that wanna join in.

Wanna join in?

More so than other challenges i think this could be real fun, as in effect we can all start at the very same point, and as we will be working with "free" cash (if you can keep yourself removed from it) and we could find that we are prepared to take some risks or venture into new areas that you would not have done so with your own cash.

There needs to be a few rules i think so we all start the same, and we can have a little friendly competition between us.

1. You must set a target £ in your first post, or maybe we should all aim for the same £1k - thoughts welcomed (remember first target date is June 30th)
2. You must start with no more than £10
3. that starting capital must not come from your own "pocket" (post where that capital came from as it may benefit others)
4. each trade (cycle) must be posted here, showing profit in £ and %
5. Profits can only come from "cycled" funds. In other words you cant add funds to buy something you dont have enough current cash for and then claim the profits once you resell it.

I think thats enough for now. I will add those that are joining this challenge to this first post as time goes on.

to show the power of compounding to those that are not aware, if you could add 20% to each trade then £10 will become £1000 in 26 cycles (or if one a week then 26 weeks).
After that i would say it will be hard to add 20% in single trades, but you never know, this may be where we need to split the amount of items.
If somebody has a link to a decent online compound calc. then it would help this thread i think.

Good luck

rockrat

for later use maybe

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

Hi Rockrat, this makes very interesting reading. I'm in a similar situation to you with just the mortgage to pay off and always looking for ways to make a few extra bob off the old mortgage!
I think its a great idea, I say go for it and wish you well, I might join in if work continues to slow down...all the best from DH

rockrat

ok, here goes first.

i have just arranged to sell an old motorola razr phone via CEX, as mentioned by Martin and others. Its been sat on the shelf for over 2 years gathering dust, and CEX tell me its worth £29 as a B grade item, so as far as i am concerned its free cash.

though i need to remove the cost to send this to them, i reckon i will end up with about £22.

A great place to start i think, and i have in mind what i will purchase to re-sell providing its still available in the sale once my cash from this sale comes in..

so thats £22 profit from cycle 1