How do we Increase Income? Part 1

We have come up with a number of ways to increase our income (these differ alot from our original ideas).

1. I have sold a lot of our old stuff on ebay (jewellry, gold, second hand cameras, walkmans and other electrical stuff, even old curtains). Believe it or not, selling these items actually has kept our head above water over the Xmas/Jan period. I think I have made about $3000 total. This is definitely a good thing to do in the short term.

Increasing Income - the realisation

OK - deep breath. Where to from here?

Step One : We need to increase our income.

Compounding this problem now is my husbands lack of income in his business due to unforseen changes and circumstances. So the reality is, he is unable to draw income from this source for the immediate future (at least 18 months). Don't panic, there will be a way through.

The Ugly

Ok, here is the ugly part!

Mortgages $468 200
Credit Card Debt $16499.37

Primary Income $54678pa ($1051/week)

I will break down the reality of this when I get over the shock.

Increasing Income - How is it possible

Now that we have our first step -to save one months salary - we need a plan to make this work. The reality is, without increasing our income this would take at least a year of drastic expense cuts.

Ideas to increase income at the moment are as follows.

1) Mow lawn in the area (hubby not me lol).... $20 try and get 5 a week
2) Sell his paintings on ebay (he has to paint and I have to sell)
3) Scour the house for other items to sell quickly
4) Take in a border in the short term

FORGET THAT PLAN!!!

Gee, my very first plan is the wrong one!!!! Well at least partially.

I have scoured the net all day trying to find some software that I can understand, is not expensive and will actually help me in my budgeting attempts.

I found "You need a budget" and downloaded their software. I haven't even used the software yet, but the instructions that come with it are priceless.

So my amended plan is this! Forget compiling my debt list - at least for the moment- and work really hard at these 2 things.

1) Saving one months salary so that I no longer need to live paycheck to paycheck.
2) Start recording all spending in YNAB Pro.

Spending Journal

According to this link, a spending journal is a necessity (thats the part I hate). They recommend a 2 week journal. So today (and probably this week) I will spend my time scouring through receipts and credit card statements and past bills to try and compile a picture of where our money goes.

Just Begin

I think the most important thing is to START!

But in order to make changes I need to know where things are at. So I will spend today compiling a list of our income/credit card debt as a rough starting point. Stay tuned for that awful revealing.