#96 Matched Betting with a goal in mind

I made a lot of money (£1k+) Matched Betting during the World Cup but it also took a fair bit of time and effort.

I found I quickly lost motivation to carry on afterwards because a) I needed a break and b) I'd made so much so quickly that the potential returns for the offers available just didn't excite me.

This has carried on for the months since, where I've only really done a handful of promotions and mainly just the Bet365 50, 50 deals.

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I listen to a lot of music, audio podcasts and watch Netflix when travelling.

For a good couple of years now I've wanted some good headphones and had been toying with the idea of buying some this christmas again.. but have never made the jump as I just can't stand by paying hundreds of pounds for them, for something which I dont really NEED.

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So... coupling my lack of motivation for Matched Betting with my desire to have some good headphones but not spending my hard earned salary on them... I'm now working through MB again with a specific aim of earning enough money prior to Christmas to treat myself.

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How am I getting on?

I've set myself a very healthy budget target of £350 for the headphones - a lovely pair of wireless, noise cancelling pair will do very nicely thanks.

I started on 23-Nov.  Exactly one week ago.

Unsurprisingly, my motivation is back :)

In that week I've taken part in 13 offers, and have made a profit of £161.

Now this was helped largely by another random B365 bet 50 get 50 on the Liverpool game, but I have also started picking up new sign offers and some of the spins deals.

With this good start I'm confident I'll reach £350 pre-christmas and will be enjoying my new headphones.

UPDATE 10-JAN:

I certainly found my motivation is back for matched betting. Since I re-started this on the 23-Nov, 48 days ago I have...

• Partaken in 251 offers
• Earnt £1,218.42
• ..at an average of £4.85 per offer
• And only had 7 days where I have not partook in an offer

With this additional income I've been able to pay off the credit card and have -today - earnt enough to also by the long-awaited headphones.

However, I've found that having the carrot of the heaphone purchase has been a massive motivator.

So I've given myself 2 more challenges.

1) I need to go out running for 15 straight days - no more planning and rest days, I dont run enough as it is. After these 15 days I will allow myself to buy the headphones.
2) And I will carry that on for a further 15 days - at which point I will allow myself to open the box and use them :)

Next  - via matched betting - I am going to save up £100 each for two friends of mine.

Other ideas I have are

• funding to increase my dividend portfolio - currently at 2 company's and with a expected annual income of £22 lol
• pay for a 12 month subscription to 
• Premium Spotify
• A Gin club :)
• A craft beer club
• Pay off some of the car loan
• Increase our cash savings (tried this in the past and lost motivation)
• Begin saving again for a potential BTL adventure... a very long road... but one which I have kept coming back to the thought off since I was about 10 years old

For now, I'm just going to concentrate on what it immediately in front of me and raise the £200 to pay the friends.

#95 Back from a break

A lot has happened since I last updated here.

1. New son was born :) We are now officially in the lack of sleep phase.
2. We went on holiday to Cornwall and had an amazing time. Massively recommend Charlestown and also the Minack Theatre.
3. We've spent a fortune. 
1. The holiday cost us about £1000.
2. Wife crashed the car which cost us the £550 excess charge.
3. Car insurance jumped up to £500 (from £190) because of this
4. Vacuum cleaner broke. Replacement was £250.
1. This is on top of the dishwasher, washing machine, hair dryer and timble-drier all going this year! at least there shouldn't be anything left to break next year (...looks terrified at the fridge and the TV)
4. I got a promotion and salary hike from £72k to £80k

I'm pretty proud of the promotion and it's re-invigorated me within the workplace more that I thought it would. I can't talk about salary in person with everyone except the wife so it's nice to be able to put it out there here and be proud of it.

Here's the updated graph showing my earnings (and potential bonus) since I started my career in 2009.

So what's are we doing financially at the moment?

Lots has changed in the previous months I've been away but really also nothing has. We're looking to a) pay down debt and b) divert some money into savings.

In terms of debt, we have £1400 on a credit card following the holiday and purchases I alluded too. That's the priority.

We then have the car loan which is a smidge over £5k.

In terms of savings - this is focused on the additional income my promotion will provide.

We've decided that the salary sacrifice share shave schemes I'm in will be used to provide us with a yearly holiday from 2020 onward. So I'm going to put £100 of my expected additional £300 into this.

The remaining £200 I am currently deciding whether to also invest additionally in the share save or look to put that cash straight onto the credit and then car loans. Undecided yet.

I've also got lax about matched betting since the world cup so trying to pick this up again and perhaps the two go hand in hand.

Divert additional income straight into savings and use this as the stick to force me back into matched betting to earn the money to pay down the debt that I desire. Maybe that's the decision made there. Just needed some time to think about it structurally.

#94 April Summary

This months check-in isn't going to be as positive as last months saving bonanza.

During the month our oven, dishwasher and washing machine all broke down!

Summary:

Other than almost every appliance we own breaking we also bought a 30th birthday experience for the brother-in-law and a 60th birthday present for the mother-in-law, along with our own daughters 6th birthday present AND pre-paying for a photo shoot for when baby 3 comes along this month AND paying for spending money for our couple of nights away with friends.

All in all it was an expensive month and we ended up spending more than I earnt and having a savings rate of -17% :(

Milestones:

• Our carpet loan dropped below £1k.
• Pension value surpassed £33k
• Equities, Cash + Pension surpassed £40k
• Current Assets minus Current Liabs difference is below -£1k. 

Numbers:

	April 2018
Gross Salary	$6,071.51
Other Income	$720.90
Total Income	$6,792.41
Tax & NI	$1,904.42
Variable Spending	$3,965.02
Fixed Spending	$1,777.56
Short Term Debt Repayment	$303.00
Total Spending (exc Investments)	$7,950.00
Net Income	-$1,157.59
Savings Rate (%)	-17
Pension Payments (Inc employer)	$607.15
Equities	$4,567.26
Cash	$2,891.22
Total Liquid Assets	$7,458.48
Student Loan	$0.00
Everyday Credit Card Balance	$1,027.32
HMRC Debt	$0.00
Carpet Loan	$990.38
Car Loan	$5,825.24
Pram Loan	$474.83
Total Liquid Liabs	$8,317.77
Net Liquid Assets	-$859.29

Graphs:

#93 March Summary

Favourite time of the month again, especially after a bonus month AND the Cheltenham bonanza.

Summary:

A great one-off month, we managed a 40% savings rate from the bumper pay. If you removed the short term debts we're repaying this would be closer to 60%!

Came to an agreement with the Mrs that in return for the purchase of one very expensive new pram - for our third child due in May - I could play football next season :) . So about £400~ was put down on the pram for this month and a 12 month 0% loan added to the liabilities.

Really happy with the decision to split the bonus 5050 between direct pension contributions and cash. The pension contributions should filter through to my assets by next month and the cash went towards paying down the car loan, knocking nearly 2 years off the 5 year repayment plan.

In terms of current assets and liabilities so excluding pension and mortgage, we currently owe £1,500 more than we have saved. Coupling debt decreasing by monthly debt repayments with normal monthly investments I'd expect to turn this into a positive probably not next month but in June.

Income:

	March 2018
Gross Salary	$20,906.51
Other Income	$1,652.43
Total Income	$22,558.94
Tax & NI	$5,103.37
Variable Spending	$3,039.55
Fixed Spending	$1,544.56
Short Term Debt Repayment	$3,759.89
Total Spending (exc Investments)	$13,447.37
Net Income	$9,111.57
Savings Rate (%)	40
Pension Payments (Inc employer)	$8,034.65

Current Assets:

	March 2018
Shares ISA	$81.11
Sharesave 2019	$1,700.00
Sharesave 2020	$500.00
Global Fund ISA	$1,376.34
Dividend ISA	$388.33
SIPP	$0.00
Cash	$2,433.31
Total Liquid Assets	$6,479.09
Student Loan	$0.00
Everyday Credit Card Balance	$388.34
HMRC Debt	$0.00
Carpet Loan	$1,089.43
Car Loan	$5,986.02
Pram Loan	$518.00
Total Liquid Liabs	$7,981.79
Net Liquid Assets	-$1,502.70

Charts: