My New Soa!

Poosmate

Yay! Well done - you made the right decision about the Evans card and the £100 from your savings will have been replenished in no time at all I'm sure.

Good luck

Poo

Puzzledbubbles

Hi IWBF

I think we are very much alike, hubby says we are in a manageable debt situation, we want to pay everything off faster if we can, but arent prepared to make certain sacrifices.

I think you might find it useful to do the Make £10 a month challenge, its really motivating, ive done 2 months now and hit my target both times (although this month i only went for half) plus its a great way to start making money, ive been chucking all of mine into savings and have got almost £120 purely from extra money in the last 2 months, but im reluctant to use that on any debt at the mo as its such a small amount compared to the balance.

Also i LOVE pigsback, they have their moments on awarding the points but ive made £25 since the start of March when i joined.

HTH

Puzzled xx

IWantToBeFree_2

I have joined pigsback but I am not really aware of how to make money from it, any tips would be great!

I am a member of cashback sites and do paid surveys regulary and have had a reasonable amount from that.

Not sure that I would be good at the make £10 a day challenge as I have nothing more to sell on ebay...

IWantToBeFree_2

Tumble dryer sold for £79 so should have no problem paying off the Evans card as I have made a payment since I put the balance on here... Discussed it with OH and he is happy by that approach to.

Quietgirl

Just wanted to say that I am with Sky, I have TV, broadband, and I use the £5 per month for calls upto 1 hour and I can ring abroad for upto 1 hour. I do not have any problem whatsoever with Sky. I am considering switching my line rental over to them too as BT have messed me about this month by not taking the direct debit out of my account and will have to pay double next month, (no fault of mine an error with there computer) plus theres the charge for bt 1571 and caller ID grrr.

IWantToBeFree_2

Thats pleasing to know, I will be considering it further when we are looking at renewing if I hear more good things! Its just that I work from home often and my OH loves his Xbox Live so we need a reliable connection.

The £100 a week budget is not going too well, actually its not going well at all. Traffic was horrendous on the way to work/college this morning so we never had time to go & park in our usual free spot so had to pay £9.80 to park and I never had time for brekki so had to buy some out... OH is buying GTAIV tomorrow, I cannot deny him it cos it will keep him happy for months on end & out of my hair so we are probably going to end up going over budget by about £75 which is a bit gutting when its our first week!

ms_london

Poosmate wrote: »

I don't think Iwanttobefree has been rude if anything, I find your interrogation of her SOA to be quite rude. I know you are only trying to help but it does come across as quite aggressive.

I apologise if it came across as an interrogation - some questions I was only asking to get a better picture of the poster, maybe it sounded too harsh. However, with some of the items I was only pointing out of obvious ways of saving money, I agree some people arent going to like every piece of advice they are given.

Poosmate wrote: »

Further to my previous post, I would just like to say that people post their enquiried on here for a number of reasons. Some are in desperate need of help and guideance because they find their debts are getting out of control. Others, like Iwanttobefree, are somewhat in control of their debts but are just looking for advice on if they can do better or just assurance that they are going in the right direction.

Just because people appear to be in control or managing their debts it doesn't mean everything is perfect! Poo

Do you think I dont know that a variety of people come here asking for a variety of advice? Do you not think that half of this forum is made up of people not necessarily wanting help themselves, but here to help others? I have been debt free for well over 2 years now, I do not need to be on here as much as I do, and I certainly dont have to advise people or try and help people with their SOA's - but I want to. Even if my original post came across as a bit harsh, it still had some good advice in there (even if I do say so myself :rolleyes: ) - not as though I was just posting for the sake of criticising the original poster for being in debt and not trying to offer any help.

People need to want to help themselves as well when they are asking for advice, otherwise it is like talking to a brick wall, which I imagine what it must have been like when people were trying to help me before I had my lightbulb moment.

:wall: :wall: :wall: :wall: :wall:

ms_london

IWantToBeFree wrote: »

The £100 a week budget is not going too well, actually its not going well at all. Traffic was horrendous on the way to work/college this morning so we never had time to go & park in our usual free spot so had to pay £9.80 to park and I never had time for brekki so had to buy some out... OH is buying GTAIV tomorrow, I cannot deny him it cos it will keep him happy for months on end & out of my hair so we are probably going to end up going over budget by about £75 which is a bit gutting when its our first week!

At the risk of being attacked again by poosmate..... things do crop up and you cant help some expenses, but planning ahead & for example making time for breakfast or bringing something with you definately goes a long way. As I said, it cant always be helped, but it does take a lot of organising sometimes - I am sure you would rather spend that £9.80 on something else rather than parking.

This is a bit old fashioned, but your OH could actually save for the GTAIV (what is that anyway??) - or hang onto some of his weekly spends for a few weeks until he has enough? Not a good start if you have doubled your budget in the first week, however, I am sure you have still cut things down dramatically.

I apologise if my comments to your SOA were rude and interrogating... xx

IWantToBeFree_2

GTAIV is Grand Theft Auto 4 - a computer game, and he's sat playing it right now... Considering he has been looking forward to it for what seems like forever I didn't really want to say 'sorry no'. His birthday money back in January got absorbed into the current account and he didn't really get anything to show for it and said he wasn't too bothered, so its like a late bday present for him in my eyes!

Managed to get into the city in time to get parked for free this morning, and had breakfast at home, so quite happy with today. Doubt we will now spend anything for the rest of the week and will look at cutting back to compensate for this week next week!

We now have a date for our wedding so its even more important that we spend less & save more!

IWantToBeFree_2

I think I've stepped into the real world today.... 1st of the month, loan payments, mortgage & loads of DDs coming out the bank leaving us with about a grand less than we had this time yesterday! Obviously its all budgetted for but I could have cried when I seen the balance this morning!!

I was cheered up though by seeing my Egg loan get below the 2k balance, I wish I could check my Halifax one online, but they don't have the facility, frustrating as I don't want to have to keep ringing up to check the balance.