It turns out that just as we’re really focused on paying off debt, our first couple of months trying to do so has been plagued with bills! The car needed taxing and my self-employed tax return and national insurance contributions were due. Now there’s been a problem with the house electrics!
We’ve drained what little savings we had sorting this out. But the good thing is, we’re not in any more debt.
But before we can start overpaying any debts, we need to build up an emergency fund just in case problems arise again. To make sure we get off to a good start, we have set ourselves a challenge of making an extra £200 this March so that we can put this into our emergency fund. It’s still not enough to fall back on but it’s something.
I work full time and my husband works full time and sometimes weekends and evenings with his business. This means that neither of us can commit to a regular part time job on the side, as we then run into needing childcare and that of course costs money.
So the thing is, how to do it? Here’s some ideas we will be trying:
- Selling anything we don’t need on Ebay.
- Writing letters to magazines for cash prizes.
- Entering as many competitions as possible.
- Making craft items and sell online.
- Trying to find one off local jobs when we can.
Obviously the crafts idea depends on us being good at something and also making sure we’re not spending too much to have a go! We’ve got some jewellery making bits lying around and a candle making kit, which was a Christmas present, so we’ll getting started with this.
In terms of finding a one off job, we’ve found a website called www.peopleperhour.com where it’s possible to sell your services for one off projects.
It’s an online marketplace for freelance workers and a lot of the jobs advertised are ‘virtual’ – e.g. freelance writing contracts, marketing strategy work, secretarial and admin projects, most of which can be done from home using your PC and phone depending on your skill set.
The Money Magpie website (www.moneymagpie.com) has some good ideas for making extra money, such as renting out a room, doing surveys, mystery shopper work and fun money making tips. I’m not sure all of the ideas are feasible for us but I’m sure they’d work for lots of other people.
Leave a comment if you have any money making ideas or if you’re up for a money making challenge this month!