Folks. I apologise for the lack of posts lately. Suffice to say I have been having a war with TalkTalk (my ISP) the last few weeks. They refused to believe I didn’t have access, and only finally resolved the situation this morning.
Dreadful dreadful service… but you get what you pay for. *ahem*.
Normal service will resume shortly.
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One of the more common themes among personal finance bloggers, is most of us have been or currently are, working our way out of debt. Some of us are nearly there (like myself), some are a little further away but doing equally as well, and some are still dreaming about the Debt Free Day.
The commonality between us all, regardless of race, colour, country or method, is the desire to do it, and the desire to blog about it. And if we’re honest, the running cost of a blog done properly, isn’t all that cheap. Especially for those on a real tight budget.
So I was thinking the other night what I could do about it. I rent a whole server, technology is one of my weaknesses and I love not having to trust any other monkey to do what I can do myself. But this also gives me flexibility, and more CPU cycles than I need for just my few sites and blogs.
I am offering to provide the web space to host a personal finance blogger with a negative net worth. When you escape from your debt, then we shall rejoice – but you are still welcome to remain. The only real ask is that it’s used to host WordPress and your Personal Finance blog. The technical nitty gritty: Up to 1gb of disk space, 1 MySQL database, ssh/scp access (sorry, no ftp), DNS if you can’t find it for free elsewhere, and I’ll set up Google Apps for you if you need email.
Leave a comment with your blog URL, and I’ll come have a read. The story and background and current needs that touch me the most, shall be declared the winner. I’ll leave the contest open for a while, so if you know of bloggers who might benefit from this, get them to drop in and say Hi.
Sure, I know you can get hosting for like a dollar a month, but is it good hosting? Sometimes, that dollar might be important and better spent elsewhere. You cannot beat free, after all. I believe in helping others, and that is sometimes done in unusual ways.
I might get no responses to this – or I might be surprisingly overwhelmed – but if I didn’t offer it out there, then I might never know how much proper hosting for a hobby they can’t really afford, really means.
Related PostsThe first Sunday of every new month I’ll round up 6 of the best posts from the previous month here at Five Pence Piece. My little world only launched on August 22, 2009 so for this particular post I’m going to include August as well. Come the next time, I’ll concentrate strictly on the month before, promise!
My choices will always be based on whether they tell an interesting story, are timelessly useful, generated a lot of comments or retweets, or just because I had fun writing them. It’s a grab bag of what I (and hopefully others) think was good time spent reading.
This is a mini-series, spread over 4 posts, detailing in rather painful (for me) detail of how I ended up on my debt freedom crusade, and why Five Pence Piece even exists. I walk through step by step how it was my marriage fell apart, my realisation of my debt situation, and how I got the internal energy to go and fight it rather than just give up all hope.
This plan could be the most important document you ever write. If you are serious about increasing your financial stability, make no mistake, you need a SCRAM plan. It takes 30 minutes to put together, and 60 seconds each month to make sure it is still accurate.
This was actually a 5 part series detailing the route I am taking to getting out of debt. It combines the very best practices from all kinds of tried and true methods and pools resources to get you there as quickly as possible, as cheaply as possible, and to keep you out once you get out. The link above takes you to Part 1.
It surprised me that the one article I didn’t think would get much interest, is actually the one that caused the most comments on other blogs and links from other bloggers! It just goes to show that sometimes the best ideas you have or share, are not the ones you think even matter.
Even in a recession, it is important to keep giving. The one thing you may have to change is how you give. But the important thing to take away is that you do not have to give money. Check out the article for some of the meaningful ways you can still give but not open your wallet.
Another little look into my own financial situation here, with some pretty graphs to go with it. This article aims to show you how not managing you credit cards properly can be very expensive.
Do you have a favourite I haven’t listed? Come share in the comments.
Related PostsWow.
Yesterday afternoon I received a telephone call from the Producer of BBC Southern Counties Radio. We chatted a little bit about this blog, my journey so far and the reasons why I’m publicly writing about what most people consider a very personal topic.
This conversation culminated in an invite to discuss my story and debt fighting in general live on air at 7:40am this morning. A very scary prime time ’Breakfast’ slot that reaches a huge range of folk from those traveling to work, right along to stay-at-home parents just getting their mornings together.
As hopefully became evident in the interview, I am running a series of posts at the moment about getting yourself out of debt. This mini series of posts is put together from advice and guides all over the Internet and traditional media, and then condensed down into my own free, simple 5-step guide.
The first three parts are available right now and have been linked below. The remaining two parts will be published tomorrow (September 24) and next Thursday (October 1) respectively. The first three are all you need to begin improving your financial situation today.
Once you have begun your journey to debt freedom, be sure to come back and learn how to protect yourself in the future and clean up your credit reports afterwards in steps 4 and 5.
If the debt-freedom and personal finance bugs catch you as much as they have me, I’d be very pleased to see you again to catch all the other personal finance articles that are posted here daily.
Good luck and remember: You are not alone. You can do this. You will succeed.
Embarrassingly, UK visitors who missed the interview can listen to it again on BBC iPlayer by clicking here.
Related PostsI have been doing this thing called “networking” lately. It’s something various blogs have written about in the past. Trent @ The Simple Dollar has even reviewed a book about it quite recently. But, these prior posts seem to stem from primarily an employment betterment point of view, i.e. upping your income or keeping employment contact opportunities open, rather than purely networking within a certain circle for a specific reason.
Instead, I have been making an effort to contact fellow personal finance bloggers. I am under no illusion that Five Pence Piece is just a tiny little piece of digital real estate when compared to the big boys and girls (see the ‘Financial Blogs’ section to the right!), but I at least like to think that I have some good advice to offer, backed up with my own laid bare story. I have always found advice from folk who have ‘been there, done that’ tends to be more honest and more useful than those who just think they know best.
Nearly every blogger that I have written to has replied back with words of encouragement, which has been truly fantastic! A selection have offered a link exchange, which can mean a very great deal to someone like myself who is just starting out. A few have even offered critique or post ideas, and for that I really am grateful.
A few minutes spent writing “hello” can forge lifelong friendships and contacts, and is well worth the effort.
I guess it’s the dream of helping other people, keeping my own life focused, and perhaps earning some beer money along the way. Some PF bloggers have succeeded in earning so much from their blog they have been able to give up work altogether. While that would be nice, if I’m honest with myself, it isn’t what I want out of this. I love my job too much.
I do like writing though, and personal finance is not only something I enjoy, but is something that you can literally write about and learn about forever. Life is always making you make money choices and whether we make the right ones or the wrong ones, make them we do.
Five Pence Piece is about the choices I have made, am making, and will make. It’s currently following my journey to get out of debt once and for all and helping others do the same if they’re at a loss where to begin. Beyond that, I’ll be looking to maximise my saving potential to perhaps buy a house in a few years time. Then there’s my plan to retire early, securely, and in comfort all the while trying to get rid of an inevitable mortgage and possibly getting married again, having children and all the other expensive events life throws our way.
There are also very few English Personal Finance blogs that are maintained by individuals on a non-commercial basis (the only other one I have found or been told about is Plonkee). The advice I offer is raw. It isn’t sponsored, or supplied with kick-backs, or designed to get search engine traffic. It’s just good, honest advice based on research done for my own use. My Savings Roundup is just one example of sharing what I learn each month.
I’d like to build up a regular readership. If what I write is useful to people, I think this will happen as a matter of course. I like to think I’m an emotionally honest blogger, as most of us are within the realms of personal finance. I’m happy to tell people on this blog things I would never dream of telling my family, for instance.
I’d like to help people. Being in debt is no fun at all. I know, because I’m in it at the time of writing this. I’d like those in a similar boat to know they’re not alone, and that there are ways out. I’m sharing my method because I know it works and because it combines the best bits of several methods I found doing my initial research on the best way to get myself out of debt. That’s not to say it works miracles or is the best, of course.
I’d like to make beer money. Those who have made it big by blogging, I respect you. I realise doing so took an immense amount of time and effort (generally we’re talking years of writing!), where I have just a month behind me right now. The important thing is few of the successful ones started out with the intention of it replacing their day job, and that is in part, why they succeeded.
I’m not doing this for the money. I know that somewhat conflicts with my prior statement, but I think if you do anything “for the money” then you’ve got the wrong mindset. I’m doing this to better myself; to hold myself accountable to my regular readers; to help others; and to perhaps earn a few pounds a month to treat myself to a beer.
I’d like to be part of the community. It’s only human nature to seek connections with like-minded people, and over time I think this will happen naturally. I’ve begun my networking journey by contacting fellow bloggers, posting well-thought out comments and linking freely to other blogger’s posts that either support my view or offer an alternative. Perhaps they disagree with me entirely, but that’s fine too! Informed choices can only be made when both sides of an issue are presented and broken down into their component parts.
Do you blog? What is your motivation?
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Five Pence Piece is a British man's blog about personal finance, saving, investment, debt and frugality.
Most popular blogs that discuss these topics tend to be Americentric. The general advice holds fine but when it comes to discussing specific products, it begins to cause issues. Hopefully Five Pence Piece will bridge that gap.
