Small Steps Out Of Massive Debt!

Thank you! Feels good to have hit one milestone!

thegirlinthegreenscarf wrote: »

I totally get where you are coming from about feeling "itchy" and also making overpayments you can't afford. I would suggest the following


1) Instead of overpaying, xfer the amount you want to overpay by into another a/c. If you can live without it, fine. If not you can xfer whatever you need back. so you are not into more debt.


2) When you feel "itchy" is maybe a good time to sort through things that you want to sell, or cancel a direct debit or something. Something that will save you money or make you money.


3) Don't be too hard on yourself. You are working through the situation the best way you can. I sometimes worry, but I am going to try yoga before I go to bed to see if that clears my head.


Just remember, when we meet on the "debt free roll of honour" in a few years time we will look back and laugh about the days we used to worry about money xx

These are all great suggestions, thank you! I love the idea of the overpayment account and I've got an account that could serve this purpose, I could put any overpayments in there and transfer over once a month. Also using the itchy feeling to do something proactive is great!

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

You think you're feeling demotivated, I am having a one woman tantrum about life, the universe and everything over on my diary. :eek:

I think acknowledging that it's hard and boring and depressing is ok to do sometimes. It doesn't mean giving up or going back to old ways, it's just allowing oneself a moment of total wallowing before picking up, dusting off and carrying on. That's what I'm telling myself anyway.

I think the wallowing is important, trouble comes from denying / distracting from those feelings which usually involves having a financial rebellion about something!

Not a bargain this week but sharing a few of the things I've done to Make More Money.

1. Cashback site. I've been using TopCashBack for about 18 months and I've made hundreds back in cashback. Mainly these have been bonus payments on financial products, such as insurance or credit card applications or big purchases like flights or furniture, but I've also had decent amounts for the more everyday type of purchases. It is so easy to set up an account and once you are in the habit of going to the cashback site before buying anything online.

2. Survey sites. I know some people go nuts with survey sites but I don't have the time or patience, so I've got three that work for me. I like Ipsos i-say , YouGov and Prolific Academic. I get email alerts about new surveys from Ipsos i-say and YouGov and I check Prolific Academic when I get a chance. It takes a while to build up to a cash out but surveys have taken the place of pointless social media scrolling on my coffee breaks, so it has been worth it for me. In the last 18 months I've had £80 in Amazon vouchers from Ipsos i-say ; £50 cash out from YouGov and £120 from Prolific Academic.

3. Focus Groups. If you have some flexibility in your schedule and can spend a few hours in an evening giving your opinion at a Focus Group they are worth it. In the last 18 months I've received almost £400 from Focus Groups! My father in law did one about cars and got £300 for his trouble.

4. Tesco Vouchers! Forget using the ClubCard vouchers for shopping, visit the ClubCard website and see what else you can use them for. We got a 2Together RailCard to give us a discount on train fares, usually this is around £30 but we only had to spend £12.50 of ClubCard vouchers. We've also used them to get entry to a safari park, usual price would've been something like £60 for the two of us.

5. Complain! Especially about banking problems. I used to let lots of things slide but bringing genuinely bad service to the attention of the bank is actually quite profitable. I had a £75 compensation payment from my bank after they failed to resolve a minor issue I was having with my debt card. All I had to do was fill out an online form and I got an apology and a payment within the week.

6. Ebay. I was amazed what a market there was for some of the things I was clearing out. It has been a while since I did a big Ebay purge but last year I made around £1200 on selling things on ebay. TBH I don't think that feat will be repeated because that was a major clear out of our stuff plus childhood things at both sets of parents! My sister has also had a decent amount of success selling old VHS, DVD, CDs and cassette tapes on ebay and Music Magpie, especially with fairly niche interest items (a lot of our cousin's wrestling videos from the 90s did really well; and we sold our 1980s My Little Pony toys for a good amount - one of them went for £70 to a collector, apparently it was really rare!)

Until a few months ago, I used to use this kind of money for debt repayments (or in a tight spot, to tide me over until payday) but I've stopped doing that because it really does fluctuate so much. Instead, I've started saving this kind of "bonus" money for Christmas or to put towards a holiday so that I feel that we're getting a treat with it but if we don't have it then we are forgoing a luxury rather than failing to make an essential expense.