Edited by author 11-02-2008 11:24
Online Selling Offer from www.eBid.net

48 Hour Offer : Seller+ Lifetime 50% off. No More Auction Fees for Life.
£99.99 down to £49.99

Lifetime Seller+ membership entitles you to run shops in up to 5 different categories with NO MONTHLY FEES.


Full details at http://www.cyberdosh.co.uk

CYBERDOSH & FRUGAL LIFESTYLES


As I have no way of knowing how many of you on here are actually participating in this year's 'Live on £4000 for a year' challenge, I thought it best if I updated you through this link. The interest in budget living and 'frugalism' has been phenomenal, with over 100,000 visits to our challenge thread on the money saving expert site over the past 2 months and 135 individuals signed up as willing participants.

Now, however, I would like to open this thread up to an on-going 'raging' debate that has sprung up in the wake of a current episode of the Channel Four show, 'Wife Swap'. The episode in question involved Debbie (wife of a millionaire businessman) and Sue (a Freegan and practicing Jesus Christian)swapping places for the fortnight and experiencing one another's lifestyles. I will not voice my personal opinions on either lifestyle just yet, although I will say that the show did well to emphasise the everyday 'waste' when showing the contents of bags retrieved from supermarket bins. I know it brought a gasp in our household when the 'Maltesers' went back when all that was wrong was a tear in the outer packaging. How wasteful are your local stores? (I have been reliably informed that Lidl actually gives away surplus food just before closing time and that several of our 4k challengers have already taken advantage of this fact).

Surprisingly, when the issues of what's known as 'Freegan living' were brought up on Martin Lewis' Money Saving Expert site, the topic met with some shamelessly negative responses that somehow dragged religion and 'the taxpayer' to the forefront and focussed, mainly, on whether or not retrieving items from a bin is theft that should be punishable by the courts. Strange, but true. Anyway, those discussions were halted in their tracks when the entire thread was deleted/banned and certain active participants given indefinite bans from the forums!

We now invite you to post your own comments right here about what you think of Freeganism, as opposed to Frugalism. Having been a part of the online debate, I did read all the comments posted. Sue (from Wife Swap), with whom I have been in contact, is more than willing to be interviewed for a future article in 'Now You Know' and I would like to invite you all to submit your questions here. I feel that the subjects of waste, the environment and consumerism all warrant discussion here as they are all part and parcel of what cyberdosh is about - earning, spending and saving online. We can't save the entire planet but we can discuss, in a virtual sense, what we are all doing as part of our daily lives.

If you prefer to post anonymously, please visit www.cyberdosh.com and then go to the 'messageboards' section. This will avoid your email being posted straight to this forum.

I will eagerly await any response.

Please consider doing your daily clicks at www.thehungersite.com It's our first port of call every day :)

Return to http://www.cyberdosh.com

DON'T FORGET THE YDC CHARITY AUCTIONS THIS MONTH!

Attention eBidders! Don't forget that this weekend sees the start of the February YDC charity auctions. This month, in addition to the Braveheart Childrens' Trust, NYK Media will be listing a collection of jewellery and small items on behalf of the Wigtownshire branch of 'Save the Children'.
We'll be offering writers the chance to take part in our 'Fileas Frog' book project, plus we have, once again, the opportunity to list the 'Mystical Dream Maker', made internationally famous by it's continued journey throughout the UK. More on that this coming weekend, when listing of items begins at 6pm on Friday 22nd February, continuing until midnight sunday, will all items open to bids for the period of one week.

If you aren't a seller, please consider placing a few bids in aid of whichever charities will be represented. You can find out more by going to http://www.scottishwebauction.co.uk which is our dedicated charity auctions site.

Playing the cashback game works!

http://www.greasypalm.co.uk/r/?l=367899 I can now happily confirm that recent research into the potential for dosh making via cashback really does work. Having tried the above, which instantly credits your account with £2.50 for signing up, the first payment has now arrived in the bank to the tune of just over £185. Not bad for a first attempt. So what's next?

We are now trying out a few more similar sites to see if we can achieve similar results. Firstly, you can sign up to http://www.freefivers.co.uk/register.php?n=170318 and receive £5 instantly. I have added this link to favourite places as it credits a few pence daily just for doing a couple of price comparisons.

A completely new one to us is http://www.TopCashBack.co.uk/Cyberdosh/ref/index.htm where you can recruit friends and be credited 50p - why not join now and we'll get 50p to help cover the costs of maintaining our website and newsletters? The above link is also the site that's offering £150 cashback on Sky, as highlighted on TV last week. It means you can have Sky and Broadband for just £6 per month for the first 12 months!

FEBRUARY CHARITY AUCTION

During the YDC 52 charity event via the eBid online auctions, we managed to raise £22 for the Wigtownshire branch of Save the Children through sales of donated items of jewellery. Many thanks to all who took part and we look forward to seeing you all again next month for YDC 53. The event will begin on Friday 28th March at 6pm when listing of items starts.

CYBERDOSH UPDATES

Not sure exactly how many of you are playing the 'cashback' game or, indeed, how many of you are following the Cyberdosh 'Living on £4000' challenge, so this is an update to let you know how things are going here. Welcome to any new readers and I hope you will all find something of interest within the realms of Cyberdosh.

Following on from the cashback discussion: Greasypalm is continuing to perform well, with £31 accrued, so far, for our April payment. Hopefully, this should increase by at least another £40 when the other 'cashbacks' get credited. I spent £20 signing up for the Paddy Power and BetFair offers, which netted a further £20 of free bets plus a total of £40 cashback. Overall, that doubled my money plus a further £35 left for bets. (£15 of that was from winnings.) We are continuing with the price checks and comparisons on a daily basis and will bring you news of any outstanding offers we spot.

Freefivers is quite slow in comparison, mainly because we've already signed up for most of the free cashback elsewhere. However, when it's Cyberdosh, every penny counts, so it's fairly easy to accrue about 65p per week just clicking through a few of the ads. Timesonline health checker has credited 70p, Anglian credited £1.50 and the catalogue-link credited 50p, so that was £3 for a few minutes work, bringing my total to just over £10 - long way to go to make it into the 'minimum payments' threshold, so can't count this chicken before it hatches.

I managed £8.67 so far credited to Topcashback, mainly because I wanted items 'Woolies' had on special offer. Rather than go to the shop, I ordered online via through Topcashback and they credited the £5+ cashback before my order had arrived! Can't complain about that but can't count on it yet either.

It remains to be seen if or how quickly these cashback sites actually pay out and, as this is the first year of our Cyberdosh spare cash generating research, we can only judge by experience. I can certainly vouch for most of the free sim card offers, as I now have enough sim cards for the entire extended family AND got credited the cashback for completing the application forms to receive the freebies in the first place.

On the subject of FREE STUFF - 'FREE ENTRY' vouchers to be used by 31st August 2008 from Woolworths. I'd call them more of a 'BOGOF', as it's only free entry for one when another pays full price, but it's always a saving if you are likely to be heading for Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Legoland, Chessingtons, SeaLife, The Dungeons etc. The pack they sent me also has a 50% off voucher for rooms at Alton Towers and the Holiday Inn at London Chessington.

THE 2008 CYBERDOSH SAS ELITE CHALLENGE
Earning extra dosh online is the theme of the 2008 challenge and, if you have been keeping a diary, you may have noticed that today marked exactly one fifth of the way through the year of 2008. I set my personal target at £3000 for this challenge and, after great deliberation, eventually decided to split it into 3 main sources for my cyberdoshing: - £1000 via eBid online auctions, £1000 via online cashback, vouchers and winnings and £1000 in web-based commissions via the website. At the one fifth mark, anyone with a 3000 target should have a score of 600. Without a word of a lie, I have just tallied mine up and, until now, was completly unaware of my own personal score. To my utter disbelief, it is 690!!! I must keep up the momentum and, to avoid failing in this challenge, have set the next target as the quarterly stage, in 21 days time! I must increase my 'score' to 750 to stay on target.

If anyone feels compelled to post their progress reports, feel free to do so here. I know there are around 60 people participating in the 2008 challenge and there are about 140 participating in the 'Live on £4000 for a year' challenge, so it would be really nice to hear from some of you.

I'm off now to celebrate my 'one fifth' success. I can't believe I'm only £40 short of having hit £10 per day!! I'm glad that I set my target at £3000 and not the £3660 I was considering!

http://www.cyberdosh.com

Bit unfair this 4000 challenge as someone living in Wigtown might do it but someone living in London has no chance

< replied-to message removed by QT >

Edited by author 14-03-2008 12:35
Rednosty, what a delightful surprise to find your post here! Congratulations on braving the virtual elements to venture into our virtual 'gossip-shop'. I hope the househunting is going well and will take this opportunity to point out some major differences between the rural, the not so rural and the downright remote. I hope it helps in your choice of relocation and Wigtown, no doubt, would welcome you. Do you like books?

In response to Red's ill-informed comment regarding living on £4,000

I suspect you have not read any of the details pertaining to this particular challenge. The £4000 is for cost of living and bears absolutely no reflection on cost of housing. I see no relevance in comparing the cost of living in a rural (or remote) community to that of city based. Contrary to your (astounding) belief, cost of living can be much higher in rural communities and the more remote, the more expensive IF you expect to enjoy the same lifestyle as a cityslicker.

For a start, there are no major chain stores, hypermarkets or, indeed, clothing stores. There are no train stations, taxi ranks, leisure facilities, cinemas, hot food takeaways or discounted fuel stations attached to well known supermarkets. Indeed, you usually find a sub-branch of either Co-op or Spar (only one of those, no choosing between the two) and there aren't usually dentists, specialists of any kind, Bingo halls, bookies, the list can go on and on the further off the beaten track you go. And let's not forget about emergency services - not exactly 2 minutes call out in the event of a call-out and the nearest general hospital may be miles away (think of the cost of keeping regular appointments, check-ups etc). So, need I go any further?

Please read the appropriate details and then feel free to comment once you are aware of what this challenge involves. I'm a little disappointed that a Cyberdosh member hasn't read any of the details pertaining to such.

You might like to try reading the MSE thread, which is where 140 individuals are attempting said challenge from locations throughout the UK. I will email you the link :)

PS: Good luck with your participation in the SAS Elite Challenge

PPS: To all other readers of this newsboard, Rednosty can be found at http://www.rednostys.co.uk

PPPS: Have you compared the price of Council Tax between, say, Westminster and Wigtown? As an example, Wigtown Band C - approx £1200, Westminster Band C - approx £585 SHOCKING!!

Another referal link

In our quest for the best casgback deals, we have now registered and qualified for a FREE £10 credit into the new account. For those of you following the cashback trail, you are welcome to try this latest site. You can sign up via the following referral link then start referring your friends and colleagues, as referals net a few pounds if they decide to sign up and start shopping. Check it out at
http://www.internetcashback.co.uk/refer/61927

Please note that referal links are links that help support the cists involved in running and maintaining our websites.

Edited by author 19-03-2008 14:41
Just a quick update with a discount code that I've received.

Simply enter the code EToD1uuNq in the Coupon Box on the Checkout Page to show your discount. This can be used as many times as you like and even passed to friends or family.
 
http://www.easytropicals.com

We are currently working hard to update the special offers section on site at http://www.cyberdosh.com so don't forget to check it out regularly. The various Cyberdosh challenges can also be accessed there.

Woolworth currently offering vouchers for one free entry per paid entry to various theme parks and entertainments locations plus half price rooms. Details on the Special Offers section as per above link.

Free Gift Voucher!
Free £5 gift voucher when you spend £50 or more OR Free £10 gift voucher when you spend £100 or more online at Argos. Offer must end 24th March.

Free Lily Pin with all orders today only

Help support good causes, visit http://www.thehungersite.com/ and check out some great offers

Edited by author 21-03-2008 15:10
End of tax year approaching

With the end of the current tax year fast approaching, don't forget to make the most of your tax free savings with up to a maximum of £3,000 into an ISA. As well as this, the Government lets you invest up to £25 a month tax free with a friendly society. You can use this tax-free savings allowance even if you already have an ISA. (Parents and other relatives can also take advantage of the child savings bonds.) If you don't use it, you simply lose it. These products are being promoted at the moment, so don't forget to check with cashback sites before signing up. Spotted so far - 9000+ ipoints, 7000+ mutual points, £25 M&S vouchers, £15 High Street vouchers ...

A great source of information for fans of tax minimalisation (or avoidance) can be found at the National Savings and Investments website at http://www.nsandi.co.uk You'll find information on tax free savings info for up to £93,000 (If I had that in the bank, I could live off the interest!!)

Edited by author 27-03-2008 17:34
eBid Sellers - Cyberdosh Challenge 2008 Update

Anyone participating in the 2008 challenge as a seller on eBid online auctions, could you please make sure that your details are included in the new list for 2008/9 year. All the details can be found at the following link.

http://helpdesk.ebid.net/showthread.php?t=102463

Would sellers also please note that the '1NR' promotion will be running from 1st April and then throughout 2008. Rules are the exact same as before but please make sure your username is included in the list of links.

Don't forget the charity auctions

Head for http://www.scottishwebauction.co.uk and check out this month's YDC 53 charity auctions on eBid. Bidding finishes midnight Sunday, so hurry.

Our chosen charities for this month - Save the Children & Braveheart Childrens' Trust.

The 'wishmaker' is back online and up for grabs, as is the chance to take part in the Fileas Frog writing project.