Free car savings update no 8

Beginning to seriously lose motivation here, unexpected costs have made me think even more about using the 4 x 4 savings money to get on with other projects in the short term. Hmm, time for some motivational numbers methinks!

Nectar Points-£11.82
Quidco-£2.39
Adsense-£3.90
Paid Survey Sites-£57.95
Coin Jar-£82.09
Side Hustle Savings-£62.06

Total-£220.21
Liquid Total-£158.36

Liquid Total jump of £1 not great, and £4 in Total. Hmm, this isnt making me feel much better unfortunetly!

Free car savings update no 6

Lets get straight to it, whats the tale of the tape today??

Nectar Points-£10.23 <<<rocking the taking the free boxes and getting bonus points for using own bags!
Quidco-£1.45
Adsense-£3.90 <<<Finally moved up a little!!
Paid Survey Sites-£49.50
Coin Jar-£79.02
Side Hustle Savings-£62.06

Total-£206.16
Liquid Total-£152.76

So a decent little jump, starting to pick up some momentum now, and reached another £100 milestone :) Thats cause for celebration I reckon :)

See ya next time, but till then look at the underside of the panda and celebrate with me as I have my second MOT in a row with no advisories! :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFolYphlyak

Free Car Savings update No 5

Just look at this bad boy! 1 whole litre of 4 x 4 power. As I have talked about before on this financial blog (which is fast becoming the FREE CAR savings blog!!!) you have to stay motivated when trying to reach a goal. One technique for me is to look at photos and imagine the goal (whatever it may be, not just for free vehicles) so I am currently using the above picture for inspiration. Anyways I digress, lets get some numbers jumping!!

Nectar points-£9.65
Quidco-£1.45
Adsense-£2.59 <<<<Will this ever move????
Paid Survey sites-£40.65
Coin Jar-£78.28 <<<Most of this will be moving to the side hustles column, Its just "resting" there right now!
Side Hustle Savings-£62.02

Total-£194.64
Liquid Total-£151.40

DAMN SON! A cold hard update of £83.07!!! Once again though its not all sunshine, the liquidity of some of these categories is slightly annoying me. Quidco has reached the payout threshold (anything over £1) but Adsense threshold is £60, so a long way to go with that (my youtube views have dropped dramatically and none of my attempts to kick start them again have worked so far) and my Paid survey sites will pay out roughly about £120 as these are actually 3 combined sites which have payout thresholds of £40 each, and they all seem to be moving along at roughly the same rate. So actually liquid total is not as good, only £151.40, which is still pretty good (my side hustles are moving along tidily) at the end of the day. The timescale I am doing this in is probably a minimum of a year, so plenty of time for those categories to become liquid. And a year is not long to wait for a free car really!

So a mixed bag of results, but most definatly on the up and up :) Stay tuned!

Free Car Savings Update no 4

Not a lot of change this time, but here goes:

Nectar Points- £8.47
Quidco- £1.04
Adsense- £2.59
Onepoll-£34.45
Coin Jar- £7.60
Side Hustle Savings- £57.42

Total- £111.57

Getting there, nearly a month since I started this, hopefully I can get my youtube earnings up as they really aren't where they should be considering I got £545 in December :/

Cheers budgetlifers

Free Car savings update no 3

Nectar points: £8.09 (+£0.69)
Quidco:£1.04(No change)
Adsense:£2.59(No change)
Onepoll:£27.70(+£8.40)
Coin Jar:£7.14(+£4.21)
Side Hustle Savings:£57.42(+£57.42)
Total=£103.98(+£70.72)

Analysis
I couldn't be happier with how this is going, I am updating this on a roughly weekly basis and it looks like my side hustling is starting to pay off! Though I really want to emphasise that my onepoll account is not liquid yet. But the rest is, so not too shabby!

So I am £103.98 closer to buying that FREE CAR! I should stress that I have only changed a few lifestyle habits to do this, I am not doing anything special. Just buying things from ebay that I would normally buy in a shop anyway, and as my regular readers will know I do not spend needlessly. I am happy with this update so far, lets see what the next few weeks bring! Next target should really be £200 :)

Yourbudgetoryourlife folks ;)

Free Car savings update number 2

So here is my second update!

Nectar points: £7.40 (+£1.61)
Quidco:£1.04(No change)
Adsense:£2.59(No change)
Onepoll:£19.30(+£14.55)
Coin Jar:£2.93(New Category)
Side Hustle Savings:£0.00(New Category)

Total=£33.26(+£19.09)

Analysis
So this month I've switched up my strategy a bit, and added my coin jar and my side hustle savings, and as you can see I recently "cashed out" on these too, so it feels good that I started from nothing with this.

The second thing I want to say is that some of these funds are not "Liquid" yet, which basically means I can't withdraw some of these at the moment, mostly because these things have payout thresholds. I have added my three Onepoll accounts together for the purposes of simplicity, the payout on these is £40, but they are roughly all at the same level and so should payout at roughly the same time, which will be £120!! My adsense payout threshold is £60, and I have quite a way to go with that, but you know me, I will keep hustling! The part I am most excited about is the change in the total, its an add of £19.09, which is more than a 100% rise!! I am excited to see how far this goes, see you for the next update!

Free Car saving plan update 1

I plan to update this every month with where I am with my savings:

Nectar points: £5.79
Quidco: £1.04
Adsense: £2.59
Onepoll: £4.75

Total=£14.17

Not bad considering I "cashed out" all of these recently, but this is as good a place to start as any!

I will also be talking soon about my nectar points more, so stay tuned!

Motivation for saving money!

I have been looking forward to doing this post for a long time, I'm so excited about this one! Today I am going to MOTIVATE YOU!!! This is specifically about saving money, but I am hoping you can motivate yourself generally with this one. I am going to split this into motivation sections too, watch the links etc and immerse yourself in the motivation! Good luck everyone!

Webcams
I look at this webcam quite often because I want to get there, and to get there I have to save money, this particular example is times square in New York, but on the website you can go to loads of places all over the world!! And I have been to Paris, its EXTREMELY important to recognise what you have ALREADY achieved!

Times Square NYC

Paris, France

Montages
You can't beat a good 80's training montage!! To get better at something (saving) takes practice and time, It doesn't happen overnight. But these montages are inspirational and should help :)

Hearts on fire

Getting strong now!

Motivational Speech

And just for fun:

Muhammed Ali was scared too

Getting yourself out of debt, and/or getting to where you want to be in life, and realising what a challenge is ahead of you is scary, and ITS OK TO BE SCARED!, because its tough! But believe that you can do it! You weren't put on earth to fail! Just think, the fact that you exist means your blood is the same blood as your ancestors who had to struggle through life just so you could exist!

The deal with Coupons

There is a lot of snobbery that can go along with coupons, and more specifically the people who use (or dont!) them. This may be a national thing, it seems in the USA that almost everyone uses them! In the UK however there can be a bit of shame attached to using them.

The reason companies put coupons into general circulation is that they want consumers to try their product at a reduced price to get them to like the product, then the consumer will buy the product again (and hopefully continuously) at full price.

I don't look at it as being "cheap" or even frugal, its about shopping smartly, with your brain instead of going on the pressure of society or even the subliminal messages that shops and companies send to you to make you purchase things a certain way (the way products are laid out in shops, the temperature being altered to promote spending etc). If you use coupons smartly (using them instead of your normal brand of product) they can save you A LOT of money!

The lesson here is spend smartly (as always!) and don't be snobby about it.

The Aldi Effect

Today I want to talk about a social trend which has been happening since the "big crash of '08", I call it:

The Aldi Effect

Since the financial crash of 2008, consumers attitudes towards money and shopping have changed, before 2008 the general public (lets say working class) went to supermarkets like Tesco and Asda (Wal-Mart), the middle and upper classes went to Sainsburys and Marks and Spencers. Now EVERYONES purse strings are tighter, and partially thanks to an aggressive marketing campaign by Aldi, there are many more people going to Aldi, which is great!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCKgCkubGc0

I think its brilliant that more people are going to budget supermarkets like Aldi, as it allows Aldi to expand their product range, increase the quality of their products (which I personally think is mostly great) and generally improve their stores.

It would of course be a massive generalisation to say that everyone is going to Aldi now, but can you honestly imagine there being commercials for Aldi on television 10 years ago? No. Because 10 years ago it was a very niche supermarket with a loyal but small base of customers. Since the financial crash, they spotted a great opportunity to appeal to families who no longer had the use of credit, or a well paying job, or a job at all!! And to their great credit, they are still a whopping 40% cheaper than the other supermarkets, while everything about their stores has improved!

I just hope that after the "great recession" is truely over, the Aldi effect stays, because consumers generally are more savvy about their money now, and if they had been 10 years ago, maybe the economy wouldn't be in the mess it is in now.

Count your blessings (Financially and otherwise)

Ok, its a massive cliche, but if you have a job (I realise not everyone reading this will do) then you really have to be thankful, and count your blessings that you have a job, money rolling in (even if the money could be better).

In these times of lets say- "Financial Austerity" or "The second great depression" as I like to call it, you have to count yourself fortunate (I hate the word lucky, it implies no hard work on your part, so I dont use it) if you are in a decent position. Sure you might wish the money was a bit better, or the work a bit easier, or the people you work with a bit more "your type of people" but when you take a step back, the fact that in this day in age, you have a job and money coming in, YOU ARE VERY FORTUNATE.

I once heard a quote which went "Work like there are 500 people waiting to take your job from you" because in all seriousness, right now:

There are more people waiting to take your job from you.

This is a powerful idea, and if you harness that energy then who knows? You could get a step up in your wages, maybe even a promotion! Although everyone knows that there is not a lot of room for promotion right now, but when the economy changes, and things *hopefully* go back to the way they were before, except this time *hopefully* the public will realise that getting yourself into debt, and taking on car loans for that car that "you just had to have, even though the car payments make it so that you are paying an extra £6000 for a vehicle which will be worth £200 by the time you ACTUALLY own it" your hard work will be noticed and you will advance.

If the general public learns anything from "the second great depression" its that snobbery and keeping up with the joneses has no place in a functioning society.

What are YOU saving for?

Ok, time to spill the beans, what are YOU saving for?? (Comment below readers!)

As I have discussed before, everyone has their own goals, and for most goals you need money to achieve them. Generally speaking the more ambitious the goal, the more moolah you need!

I have spoken about what I am saving for, new windows for my house, a new garage A FREAKIN' DELOREAN! YEAH! And trips all over the world, (Germany is getting ticked off this year!) So I want to know what makes you tick, what makes you get up in the morning and grind IRL to get what you want? Knowing what my readers are trying to achieve will help me write better advice for you!

What is Skimming??

Well, from a workmate's idea, I just made it up! Read on!

One of my workmates (who is a fellow budgeter) told me about his method of budgeting which I had never heard of before, I don’t think it has a name, so I am going to refer to it as

SKIMMING

Basically what he does is check his bank account on a regular basis (perhaps every two days or week) and “skims” the top off the number (for example if he had £22.55 he would skim the £2. 55) and transfers it into his savings account (I LOVE that online banking can allow you to transfer your money between accounts in mere seconds!!) and because you can only withdraw cash from ATMs in increments of £10 (or £5 at some rare bank machines!!) in theory he will never “miss” the money he is skimming off the top! A great effortless way to save money into your savings, by the end of the month you could see potentially massive savings of money, and every little helps!

On that note I will leave you with some advice from my Grandma, which is:

“Squeeze the pennies till the Queen crys for mercy”

The truth about budgets

This is a post I have been putting off for a VERY long time, because it acknowledges something that I don't (and I don't think anyone) wants to think about too hard, but here goes:
I set aside money in my budget for doing FUN THINGS

There, I said it/typed it. The painful truth is that because I am a human I NEED to do fun things, and give myself  "a break" at least once in a while. For me this could be anything from buying a takeaway (takeout for my american readers) to buying a comic book or going to the cinema (Just went to see man of steel, its AWESOME!) but the point is, If I didn't do these small relatively cheap things, then I would pretty much wind up in a lunatic asylum, "all work and no play make onemanmade a very crazy boy!"

When I first started budgeting I took it wayyyyy too seriously, I took literally every penny that I had spare after paying my mandatory outgoings, and put it into my savings account, about halfway through the month I had to take the "extra" (after saving a decent amount) out and just spent it all on stuff I didn't even need, just because I had to relieve the tension and the pressure of saving so much and not giving myself any slack to play with.

So my advice to you readers is, use your budget to pay your mandatory outgoings and savings, but try to set a little aside (it could be £20 a month just to let yourself buy a takeaway/takeout and a dvd or magazine) just so you don't go nuts!

P.S The reason I don't like thinking about the fact that I need to have fun with money sometimes is that I know that it puts me a little further away than I potentially could be to my goals, but it does mean I will be a happier person when I do reach my goals, and appreciate them more because I haven't had to give up my life to achieve them.

An expensive drink which paid for itself! Competitions/Comping/Freebies

I don't know about you guys, but I LOVE competitions and freebies! (Only if they are free to enter though, but more on this in a bit) The above picture is of a cheque that I received because I bought a small bottle of tropicana orange juice which was £1.30 which is MADNESS but when I got to the till I decided because I like the juice I would treat myself with it. Tropicana are currently doing a promotion whereby the give a code on the labels of their bottles and you enter it online to POTENTIALLY win £5. And I was one of the lucky ones! 

I love competitions and freebies because generally they don't cost much (if anything) to enter and you could win some pretty amazing stuff! I currently use stv.tv/win as you can enter the television competitions online FOR FREE rather than paying for it by using your phone. Also coca cola have codes on their cans and bottles which you can enter online at cokezone.co.uk collect your points and buy things with the points or enter to win prizes! So far I have had a pair of headphones and a tshirt from coca cola. I drink cola anyways so its a win win situation!

What competitions do you enter?

Budgets ARE sexy, my side hustle post

Tomorrow my fellow (and far more experienced!) Financial blogger J$ money of http://www.budgetsaresexy.com/ is going to post a topic about my personal "side hustle" car cleaning, I wrote the piece for him after emailing him asking a question about "The long game" and he gave me some great advice, because I was really stumped on that one! We got to talking and the subject of side hustling came up, and I explained to him that I valet (or clean cars as it is known in the USA) cars for money. I am SUPER excited that he is going to post something I wrote on his blog (please check his blog out, it is absolutely brilliant!!!!) and I cant wait till tomorrow to see it! I consider it an absolute privilege. Check it out for the full guide on cleaning cars for money written by yours truly over at www.budgetsaresexy.com

Picking up money and coins from the ground, squeeze the pennies till the Queen (or abe lincoln) crys for mercy!

Whew... Ok this is going to be a controversial topic for many of my readers, so I will do my best to rationalise it, though before we go any further I am well aware that this will not be everyone's cup of tea, but I just had to blog about it!

I pick up coins and money from the ground (and vending machine coin slots too) and I save them in a jar. There. I said it. Let the judging commence!

I do have some rules about it though,
1-If I find any paper money I would instantly report it to whichever shop or shopping mall I was in. Or the police If I found it outwith these places.
2- If the money is near a charity collection tin or homeless person I would either ignore it, or give it to them.

The biggest find I have ever had was £10, and it was at my work, I spoke to the main receptionist who said to hang onto it till the end of the day and if she didnt have anyone claim it then it was mine. Which I did :) Mostly though I find pennies and small denomination coins, sometimes even foreign coins :) I have a special tin for my foreign coins so that if I ever visit that place then I have some loose change :)

I sometimes check vending machine coin return slots too, there is one particular vending machine which basically always has money left in the coin return slot, anything between ten pence and thirty pence usually!

Picking up coins from the ground when Im out shopping or walking helps with my budget, in all honesty its a bit of a game to me, I like the idea that I can go out for a walk and potentially return slightly richer! Im sure that some of you reading this may think this is silly, or at worst that I am scum for doing it. But here are my reasons:

1- Its fun to pick up coins, adding them to your coin jar makes you reach your goals a little quicker, and if you are the kind of person who saves small amounts on items you buy using coupons or vouchers, then why not pick up some loose change?

2- It makes an ordinary walk a little more exciting, you get a little thrill when you find a coin

3- On our high streets in Britain there are a lot of coins dropped on the ground and their "Owners" havent bothered to pick them up, this is a RECESSION, losing coins by letting them go down drains is effectively taking money out of circulation, which is bad for the economy. I dont know about you, but I would like to see a return to the days when you could walk out of your job on a friday and start a new one on the monday!

4- This point is sort of adding to my previous point, but I personally see the value in small coins, whereas other people seem to throw them on the street for being small denomination. 100 pennies makes a pound, 50 two pences make a pound, ten ten pences make a pound etc, no wonder this country is in so much debt! Noone appreciates the value of money anymore!

I would be interested to hear your thoughts folks, do you pick up coins? Or if not, why not?

How to start again from nothing (financially and otherwise)

Starting again from nothing is something that we all have to do at some point. Sometimes its after a big purchase (such as a house or a car) and sometimes its after a breakup, or emergency in your life which you have to spend money on. It will probably leave you feeling raw, dejected and hurt.

So what can you do? Here are some steps which will help:

1- Assess your situation honestly, if you havent already, do a budget of your incomings and outgoings (more information earlier in the blog on this)

2- Figure out what you DO have, such as family, friends, cars, houses, anything, even the clothes on your back if thats all you have, or nothing! Be thankful for what you do have, you can be virtually guarranteed there are others worse off out there!

3- Dont be too proud to shop for clothes from charity shops, or to eat budget food. Often people who are rich do this! (How do you think they got rich??) Also if someone offers you help then you could do worse than let a friend help you. Just make sure you pay them back when times get better :)

4- Learn to appreciate the simple things in life, finding coins on the ground for example, or taking a nice long walk.

5- Forgive yourself for allowing yourself to be in this position, theres no shame to it, the quicker you stop feeling sorry for yourself the quicker you can be back on the road to financial freedom!

6- Keep your budget in order, and feel good when you are reaching small goals you set yourself, first ten pounds/dollars etc, each small step is 1 more step along the road!

7- Realise that you will get there one day, and learn from the mistakes you made to get into this position in the first place.

A story from my childhood, my earliest memory of saving

My earliest memory of saving was when I was roughly 7 or 8 years old. My parents took me and my sister to a shopping complex in Heathfield in Ayr, this was big news to us! We were from a very small village and didnt go outside of that area very often, so this was exciting to a 7 year old and a 5 year old. Anyway, one of the shops we went to was poundstretcher, a british budget shop. At the time I thought the place was incredible, it seemed to have everything! But whenever we went there, my sister and I always went straight to the toys aisle, and on this particular trip I saw a big box with a toy robot in it, it was about 14 inches tall, and was red and silver, very mechanical looking, with futuristic lights and sounds advertised on the box (it didnt come supplied with batteries) I saw it and I knew I had to have it! I asked my dad if I could have it, but I was told "No, but if you really want it, then you can save your pocket money and buy it for yourself"

To add a bit of backstory here (which I did not know at the time, but found out later) my parents were not all that well off. They were paying a mortgage and had two kids, my dad worked very very hard as a cemetery keeper, and my mum worked a couple of hours a day in a shop. But they never once let me and my sister think that we werent well off, we were provided for excellently with clothes when we needed them, and we were well fed and had toys which we loved, we had an extremely happy childhood, our mum and dad loved us very much (and still do) My mum and dad have long since paid off their mortgage, my dad was promoted about 15 years ago, and my mum works a few more hours, but they have saved hard and done without for themselves to get where they are, and I am extremely proud of them.

So as you can imagine, the price tag of £8.00 was a quite a lot by their standards, Im sure my dad would have liked to buy me the toy, and buy my sister one of roughly the same value too as they always kept us equal, but my dad didn't want to spoil us, or make us think that we should get a toy just because we wanted one, he wanted to give us an idea of how money works, which I am sure is an issue for every parent. I must point out that I didnt complain or beg for it, or make a fuss in the shop, I simply accepted that what my dad said went.

My pocket money was 50pence a week at that time, but I was very determined to get the robot toy, it seemed so cool that I simply had to! So I saved my 50 pence a week, not buying any comics or sweets, I even did odd jobs for my gran and family to earn a little more, and eventually I had the £8.00 together in coins. I waited till the next time we went to poundstretcher, and I took my money, I can remember lifting the robot off the shelf and taking it to the cashier with my dad, I felt so proud of myself! I got it home, put some batteries my dad had in it, and started to play with it when I very quickly realised....

It was a crap toy, im sorry to say that dear readers, but it was. I was very dissapointed (while still being proud that I had saved hard for it by myself) the lights were dull and the sound was crackly, there was virtually no articulation at the joints of the robot, so I couldn't make it fight with my action man or move it in anyway but roll it along the floor on the wheels on the bottom of its feet.

I learned two valuable lessons there, which have served me well since I was 7, and I will pass them onto you.

1- You can save for anything as long as you take enough time, and try your hardest to save for it. This goes for achieving goals too, try your hardest!

2- Be careful what you buy, research every purchase before you make it, and spend wisely!

grinding in real life

My best friend recently moved country to be with his girlfriend, and also to get employment. He started off as a cleaner in a big supermarket chain, and has worked his way up to staff member in a VERY short space of time due to his work ethic. (Was spotted by the management) He is taking on overtime and doing very well, and also he helps out in his father-in-law's sign-making business (He trained as a graphic designer but has been unable to get work in Scotland even though he finished his course at college with honours and was awarded the student of the year award.) Naturally I am very very proud of him and his achievements, as are his family and his girlfriend. He is extremely hard working and this is starting to pay off for him, these days hard workers are difficult to come by! Hopefully the work experience will enable him to get a job in graphic design, as most places want someone who is experienced working with them.

But to the crux of the matter, my friend plays online games such as World of warcraft and Cabal, (I play cabal too) and to get anywhere in these kind of games one has to grind.

Definition: "to perform a repetitive task in a role playing game in order to increase one's character's stature."
"Informal To devote oneself to study or work"

My best friend and I use this phrase that we use in terms of online gaming, and in terms of real life work. The same principles of dedication, and hard usually repetitive work build ones wealth and character apply. For example my friend works overtime at his job and helps out in a signmaking business (sort of like a freelance graphic designer) to make ends meet and to make his budget work out, and save as much money as he can.

I take a slightly different approach, but use the same principles of dedicating myself completely to the task at hand of making as much money as I possibly can to support my household and family. (Please note that neither my friend or I engage in a "hustlers" definition of grinding which basically involves stealing or other illegal activities.) I have a decent 9-5 job with a permanant contract (Im a clerical officer) which in these days of recession is worth its weight in gold. I also get a decent amount of overtime, which I use to up my wages, its monotonous and time consuming, but pays at "time and a half". On top of this I sell unwanted items on gumtree(which is free to use), sometimes If I spot a classic video game at a car-boot sale, I will buy it cheaply and sell it on at a profit. I also Valet cars at the weekend. This is a hobby of mine which I have turned into an earner when I have time to do it. I also "check in" at shops using a mobile app called "quidco" which pays small amounts (5-25p) for standing in a shop and checking in on your mobile. If you are visiting a city or town it can actually be quite profitable! Its money for using your mobile and walking around, not hard, but monotonous and somewhat time consuming. I also make youtube videos and write this blog, and adsense pays me to allow adverts on my videos and blogs. I budget hard and dont spend money where I dont have to generally, although I allow myself a few small "treats" every month, I like having a takeaway meal which is fairly cheap, because you will only get miserable very quickly if you dont give yourself a couple of treats every month! This is grinding, making ends meet, and trying to save more money and spend less. Often difficult, time consuming and monotonous, but good for character building and making money honestly. If you can turn a hobby such as cleaning cars or an interest in classic video games for example, into money making opportunities then so much the better.

Thoughts?