Lucy's Amercia Trip Savings Fund and General Debt Busting!

Lucy1982_2

:hello:

Hi

I have promised a friend in America I will going and see her next year for my first ever 2 week summer holiday. Which will be great as I haven't seen her in 3 years :eek: and never met her husband . But I think it will cost about £1000 min for flights and 2 weeks of spending money.

But as I am in over £13,000 worth of debt, how the merry blazes am I going to afford this So I have just been chatting to the girls on the daily chat thread (thanks ladies!! :kisses3:) who have made me feel SO much better.

And this is the plan:

I have £217 left after all my direct debits and weekly spending money, everything is included, birthday/christmas savings, car stuff. So that is all sorted.

I normally make a £50 payment on my credit card as I want to pay it off, I knew I should never have got one, so will battle it until it's busted Anyway, back to figures.

So...

£217 - £50 = £167.

If I save £160 a month I will have £800 toward my flight and spending money by Dec-Jan :T I will shop for a flight in the jan sales and then hopefully get a flight for sept 09 giving me plently of time to raise some funds for spending.

So aside from savings I know I will need to Ebay and carboot stuff, we also get our payrises in July so I think I will tack this money on the savings so I can get as much as I can as quickly as I can, so I can then bust some more debt!

I would love more idea's on raising some cash, I can't really get another job as I hopefully will be getting some professional training through work and don't want to be tried all the time!

But all of the above means sticking to the budget which will be the hard thing! So wish me luck and onwards and upwards!!

Saving and debt busting am I!!! :T

immoral_angeluk

Go for it! You can do it

clearmydebts

Best of luck. Lucy! I look forward to hearing how you are getting on!

notanothergreyhair

Have you tried matched betting? Lots of money to be made there.

Lucy1982_2

notanothergreyhair wrote: »

Have you tried matched betting? Lots of money to be made there.

No the whole idea terrifies me and I'm not good with numbers!

Stinkybell

You'll be surprised how cheap you can get flights when you book in advance - I'm flying to New York in August for a couple of weeks and our tickets were just over £400 each from Heathrow. Yes we're flying with Air India, but Virgin and BA were at least £600 each. We booked in January through travelocity. What city does your friend live in?

tigzem

Good luck Lucy, you can do it.... as I've just read on another thread, baby steps. Start saving £2 coins, they add up really quick. Take part in as many challenges as you can. Sallyx and I are starting the no unneccesary spending challenge in June (was done last year by slowly fading). BenBen and some others have an ebay challenge going.

**Amy**

Good Luck Lucy. :beer: :j

Im glad you feel better about it all, and it sounds like you have a cracking plan :T

Re: Making money, probably good to do ebay etc. and sell any old books on Amazon and CDs/DVDs on Play.com.

Have you done the free bingo? Quidco do lots of "deals" on bingo at the mo, might be worth giving it a go?

Ummmm... i have just joined lightspeedpanel.com, not sure if you are already a member?

x

Lucy1982_2

Thanks Guys!

Stinkybell - I will have a good shop around which is why I wont book anything until Jan, hopefully there will be some good deals about! They live in Washington.

Tig - No unnecessary spending sounds like a really good plan!

Amy - One signed up Lightspeed member and well on my way to a £10 voucher!!

I've not tried Play.com for selling cd's and things, I will give it a go.

I just need to keep focused on the goal and make sure I remember it when I want to spend on something I don't need.

Stinkybell

Another tip - siphon off the money you plan to save (and a little bit more) and put it into an e-savings account. That way you're not tempted to spend, but still have instant access for when you need it, especially if you're as obsessed about internet banking as I am. I transfer £300 out on payday, and only put enough back in again to make sure the bank doesn't charge me - usually only £100 max. I managed to save enough for my holiday (around £1100) in 6 months - paid off the balence last month and am now saving for spending money and a new bag (my old one's fallen apart) in time for August

Lucy1982_2

I have 3 online savings accounts

So that isn't going to be a problem. One is even called holiday fund... it has 3p in it :rotfl: