Recession Prices....

It seems that it is still agood time to buy things if you have the available money. There are lots of sales on still and many reduced items to be found. Whether it is billet grilles or basic groceries, it is well worth shopping around to see if you can get any bargains. It is also well worth noting, that if you are UK based, then VAT is likely to go back up in April so take advantage while you can as you will be payng an extra 2.5% on things then. It may not seem like much but I have saved probably about £500 this year because of it and that is well worth having!

Saving more Money

I have a blessing and Christening to go to at the weekend which was postphoned from May. I am hoping that the weather will be warm as I will be wearing the summer dress that I bought for the occasion and the weather is not that summery any more. I do not want to spend out on another outfit and my winter skirts are not that formal and a bit dark in colour for the occasion. My dress is too long to wear a coat over so I will just have to wear the little shrug with it, a camisole underneath and hope that it is sunny. Luckily I still have all of the make up and wrinkle creams I need left over from my sisters wedding and my husband and sons have appropriate clothing too. I just need a new handbag as I realised today that mine is almost worn through at the bottom and I have just this week to get it. With there being so few shops in Stroud it could be a challenge finding something but hopefully I will!

New Things

When we first decorated, my husband was determined to get a new tv stand and flat screen TV. Fortunately he seem sto have stopped thinking about it lately. We are aware that we may have to do something in March when our region switches over to digital as that TV set is old and not made for digital. I am hoping that it will all be kay or that I have managed to start making us a lot more money by then. It would eb nice as well if we had a premium bonds win as that could help us pay off a few things. I hate having loans but we have an outstanding credit card and a loan at the moment as well as the mortgage. The credit card and loan are interest free credit but it is still money owed that I would love to be able to get paid back as soon as we can.

Bathroom Costs

We have been thining agian about the bathroom. The guys have not come back with a quote yet but we reckon it will be around £10,000. I have been thinking of a few ways to cut costs and one way is perhaps not to have as many ceramic tiles as we had planned, that will mean we will have to paint some of the wall though and in the long term that could end up costing us more money as well as time. We have made it clear to the guys doing the quote that although we want good quality, we want it as cheaply as they can and hopefully taht means that theyw ill be able to source the items we need at a lower cost than we paid for the things we bought for the en-suite bathroom which were from a showroom. We will just ahve to wait and see I guess.

Thoughts

I was stopped by someone in town today who asked whether the boys were at school as she is so used to seeing me with them and she said 'what are you going to do now?' This made me think that I really need to start taking my work very seriously again and start earning significant amounts of money. I need money to pay for a few expenses that are coming up and I must start putting more against the mortgage again as we will most likely be digging into those funds very soon. I also need to know in my head that I am contibuting and I think that even if I cannot earn as much as my husband, if I can work all the hours when I am at home then I know that I am working my hardest. It would be great to start bringing in over £1000 a month again and so the will be my aim for October.

Saving money on Phones

Mobile phone can be a very costly business. Everyone knows how much the telephone calls themselves can cost and then if you want to surf the net or anything else they cost can really escalate and that is why it is a good idea to save as much as you can on all of the phone accessories. Of course it is well worth getting the genuine articles and you want something that is bang on trend. At Mobile Fun they sell all sorts of phone accessories everything from an iphone dock to a blackberry case. What is particularly good about the site is that sell all sorts of accessories in packs such as everything you might want for your new phone in a pack at a much reduced price than if you bought them separately. They might have a Bluetooth Headset, carry case, screen protector, desktop cradle, hands free, battery, car charger and other things, depending on the phone. If you have just got a new phone then it is a good way to make sure that you get all of the accessories that you need to go with it without spending more money than you need to. The items are available to buy separately as well so if you only want one specific thing then you will be able to get it as well. the website is really easy to navigate and it carefully categorized so that you can easily find exactly what you are looking for or browse for items which work with your phone. They accept payments by Paypal so you know that your on line order will be secure. So why not take a look at their website and find out whether you can get a good deal on your mobile phone and accessories and then you can use some of those savings towards paying your phone bill or to some other good purpose.

New Doubling - Step Four

I found a two pence piece while walking the boys to school this morning. This means that I am now on my way through stage four. I had 4p and now I have 6p so I still need another 2p to complete this stage. I am quite happy with my find as I never thought that I would find any money in Stroud as I was looking hard and didn't find any. The funny thing is that I wasn't looking hard this morning and the coin was right in the middle of the path in front of me and I always search at teh edges of the paths so perhaps my technique is not very good.

Being Thankful

Sometimes I have to look at what I have achieved so far and how lucky I am in order to give me inspiration to continue. I have a fantastic family who are healthy and happy and we have enough money to live a comfortable life. I have to consider the families who have to cope with illnesses such as malignant Mesothelioma or breakups, poor relationships and who are not happy with what they have and realise how very lucky I am. I feel happy that I am trying to get more money for the family, as although I realise we are better off than a lot of people, it would be nice to be able to afford those little extras, pay off the mortgage, take holidays, have a pension provision, pay for the children to go to university when they are old enough, help them out with driving lessons and car, help them when they want to buy a house. I am sure most parents would like to do this for their families and children and I am happy that I am lucky enough to have found some ways of making some extra money which might just make that bit of difference.

Clickbank

I have been looking at Clickbank to see how to go about selling my book through them. They take a small commission for each sale which is fine. They also have a one off charge of $50 to add your first book to their database. I am a bot concerned about this as it is a lot of money to spend if you do not sell any. I am also still concerned about the fact that they pay by cheque and I will be trying to change it to a bank transfer if I can. I also downloaded a free ebook from their site and it was very simply laid out - basically a word document with headers footers and contents page which has been exported as a PDF. I assumed that I would have to pay someone to do the layout and pictures but it seems that will not be necessary. This will help to save some costs but I am not sure how happy I am about selling this type of inferior quality book as I have always made my ebooks really high quality.

New Doubling - Step Three

My husband gave me a penny when he gave me the two pence piece and I found the missing one under my desk. I now have a grand total of 4p! I am inspired to get more because I want to pay to get my new ebook illustrated and laid out professionally and I want to use the doubling money if I can and tie it all in with this project. I may also need to invest in some marketing and especially a website and domain name and even if I do not use clickbank I will still need all of this so it is quite a bit of money I need to raise. I guess I am breaking a rule by thinking too far ahead but I am too excited about the new project idea, not to be thinking about it!

Inspired!

While walking becak from dropping the boys at school my head was full of ideas for an ebook that i woudl like to write. I know that I need to find out whether there is a gap in the market for what I want to write about. I am considering selling it through clickbank but there seem to be particular areas which sell well in clickbank books such as acne treatments, weight loss and making money and I need to check and see if my book fits in with those. I also need to find out how much I will need to invest if I go down this route and will need to make that much money with the doubling in order to finance it. In the meantime I can do lots of research and write the book if I decide that it is the right thing to do.

Positive

I am feeling more positive about things today. It is great knowing that I will now have time to do some work and earn more money and also that I am starting the doubling again and I could make a million if I am determined and self disciplined enough. It is all very exciting. I need lots of money now so it is great that I am keeping on with doing the articles such as best diet pills and other things, that I learned about while I was doubling before so I get some income now as well as some later through the new scheme.

Writing New Material to Sell

I am still pondering whether to try to use my income to bring in more regular money. I have been thinking about writing a weight loss book not something like how to lose belly fat as not only do I not really believe in these things but they have been done too much already. I would like to write a book about how to lose weight and keep it off, how to have a healthy diet and live longer, be more energetic and keep well. I know that I could write something like this but it is not really the writing that is important. Obviously you need some material which is interesting, easy to follow and well written but that is no use unless you can sell the book. I would need someone to illustrate it and do the lay out for me as well as put it into PDF format. This would cost money. Then I need to promote it which is the hardest bit for me. I am considering clickbank as that can be a good way of selling things but I would need to pay someone to write the advertising blurb for me as obviously clickbank has a very specific style. I will be giving this idea a lot more thought.

New Doublng - Step Two

After losing my first penny, my husband gave me another penny and a two pence piece. The rules state that you can leapfrog a step but you cannot carry spare money over from one step to the next. Therefore I can use the two pence for step two but the one pence will have to go into my own pocket as I was given them at the same time.

New Doubling - Step One

Step One is all about getting the first penny. My husband read the booklet I had printed out about doubling and left on my desk and presented me with a penny this morning. I promptly lost it!

Subscriptions

I sold a link on another of my blogs today. I charged $5 a month and so the person signed up with a Paypal subscription. This was the first link I have sold like this and it was really exciting. Obviously they can cancel at any time but at the moment it means that I am having a regular $5 in a month. It got me to thinking as to whether I could get any more, perhaps for something else, in order to bring in a regular income. I have thought about a few options, maybe sending out a regular newsletter on a particular topic which people would pay for, maybe with new tips for making money each month. Maybe starting some sort of on line healthy eating group, where people pay to be a member and they will get website access to recipes, tips, forum etc. The newsletter is simpler as if they cancel their subscription then it is just a matter of stopping the email going out, but with a website they would somehow have to have their access stopped which is rather too technical for me. I will keep thinking.....

Doubling

I have decided to go back to my roots and have a go at doubling from scratch again. I think I have lost track really and got into freelance writing instead. That was a great discovery and I am really pleased that I did it and I will continue to do it. However, I feel like I need more inspiration for new ways on money making and so if I start all over again then I will hopefully get new ideas. My first step is to re read the rules and this time I might actually stick to them!! I have now requested a copy of the free report and I will have a read and get started.

New Blog Review Site

I recently signed up to a new blog review site SEO Blog Reviews after receiving an invitation by email. The day after signing up, I was asked if I would like to write a review of a website and I accepted. They will be sending me details in a few days, so I have not yet been paid of course. However, I thought it was worth mentioning as I know some of my readers would be interested in such a site.

Prgress so far

Yesterday I worked hard but only managed to make $10. It is better than nothing, of course but I am hoping that my earnings will start to increase a lot more than that. It would be great if I could sell some waterproof memo boards coming up to Christmas and I need to think of some ways to promote that too.

Progress with work

I have been working through my plan of action today :

1) Go to Quidco.co.uk and apply for a new credit card to earn some cashback (I will not use the card) - I applied for a Vanquis card which should give me £25 cash back

2) Go to digital point forums and see if anyone wants to buy links on sites like mine or ones my clients have - I have done this and am waiting for responses

3) On digital point forum look for writing work - I have had a look and it seems that posts are filled very quickly so I need to apply as soon as they appear and have the time to complete the assignments immediately so this may need to wait

4) Look on eLance for writing work - I have applied for two jobs on elance.

5) Advertise on digital point forums, the website review sites that I have. Offer free short reviews in swap for a link back but also offer paid reviews to those who want more detail and more links. This should help page rank and may bring in some money. - I ended up just advertising the paid articles and have sold one so far.

6)Write a few more articles for hubpages to see if I can get some adsense money from them - I have not yet started this as I am so busy with everything else!

7) See if I am near to cashing out on Freecashmoneygifts website and if so do some more offers to get paid - I have only five cents in my account so I will leave dong anything on there as it will take too long.

8)I also need to continue to do all articles appearing on payU2blog, check for paid survey opportunities on pureprofile - This has been checked today and there was nothing

9) Be careful with my spending. - this is the hardest one I think - especially as the children want to go to Waitrose later to buy fruit bars.....

Bathroom Disaster!

My husband fitted a new loo in our main bathroom a while ago to save the money for the plumber because the loo had stopped flushing. I discovered yesterday that the waste has been leaking and the carpet is ruined. We have decided to get a quote in to see how much it will cost to have the whole bathroom done because the shower tiles have fallen off, the bath is breaking and we need a sink with vanity under with more storage. Of course we also need new flooring now as well and we will change the tiles too. We are still paying for the windows over the next year so will have to cash in some premium bonds which are supposed to be being used to pay for the mortgage which means we may not be able to pay it off early. It is a job that we are likely to have needed to do before the mortgage was paid off anyway and so it seems like it might be worth doing it now when perhaps things are still a bit cheaper. We will see how much the quote is for and then decide what to do.

Plan of Action

I am aware that with the boys starting school on Thursday, that I am in a position where I no longer have any excuses for not getting back to work. Having a bit of a break has left me feeling rested and keen, which is great. I have got a selection of things that I want to do this week to get me started: 1) Go to Quidco.co.uk and apply for a new credit card to earn some cashback (I will not use the card) 2) Go to digital point forums and see if anyone wants to buy links on sites like mine or ones my clients have 3) On digital point forum look for writing work 4) Look on eLance for writing work 5) Advertise on digital point forums, the website review sites that I have. Offer free short reviews in swap for a link back but also offer paid reviews to those who want more detail and more links. This should help page rank and may bring in some money 6)Write a few more articles for hubpages to see if I can get some adsense money from them 7) See if I am near to cashing out on Freecashmoneygifts website and if so do some more offers to get paid I also need to continue to do all articles appearing on payU2blog, check for paid survey opportunities on pureprofile and be careful with my spending.

Weight Loss Again

I had a friend round for lunch yesterday and she was telling me that she is going on a diet. She has put on a few stone in the last few years and she has a medical problem which is hindered by being on the heavier side. Rather than taking something like Fastin, she decided to go to a Slimming Club. Although these do cost money, I think that they are good because you have to publicly weigh and so it encourages you to do well and you also have a group of encouraging people with you, helping you. In a way, when it comes to health, I do think that any money you spend is good as long as it is working for you, but you still need to be careful that you are getting good value for money.

Saving Money on Weight Loss Products

I have just heard that someone I know who had a baby a year ago has decided to start taking some diet pills. I am not sure whether they are lipofuze, Alli or something else. As someone who watches my weight and my money, I am never sure whether these are worth paying for. I am always aware of the cost of things and wonder whether it is really worth it and whether just eating less food would work out a lot cheaper in the long run anyway.

September Earnings

Pay to Blog - £84.85
PayU2Blog - £19.25
Private Reviews - £65.60
Writing - £189.00
Article Writing - £189.00
Other - £110.18
Link Sales - £0753
Quidco - £7.70
Linkworth - £19.25
Waterproof Memo Boards - £32.50
YouGov - £50.00
Making a grand total of £384.03

This was slightly up on last month and I actually enjoyed being less busy and having time to spend with the boys before they start school next week. I have some plans for trying to make more money once they are back at school and this will probablys tart to make a significant difference in October really.