Miles, and miles of rewards !! (What do you spend your dooyoo earnings on?)

Member Name: Lools_24

Product:	What do you spend your dooyoo earnings on?
Date:	19/02/09 (227 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very rewarding and a sense of accomplishment

Disadvantages: You need to keep motivated , especially if you want rewards in cheques

Now as many of you well know I am a self confessed ex churner. When I joined the site I did this purely on a financial basis and to make money quickly as it seemed so lucrative .... (and moneysavingexpert.com said so).

My previous mentality was write 100 reviews for £50. I went around my house writing a list of everything I owned and could review. And set to work. Calculations in my head were 10 reviews per day, 300 reviews per month thus £150 extra per month. Excellent!! I soon seen the error of my ways and started to understand a) the rating system b) the whole Dooyoo community and c) the actual enjoyment of the site!

After seeing the error of my ways I soon decided to "conform" as I like to think of it and not use Dooyoo as a £150 a month earner as I first thought it was meant for!!

The original plan was to use this money towards saving up a (large) deposit to move house (obviously not just earned though Dooyoo). Although I live in quite a decent size two bedroom house with my other half, we have started to outgrow the place (kind of my fault my collection of clothes has kind of expanded) and have started looking to move. I was in a slight panic after reading and watching many articles about "Housing market crashes" ... "Number of people in negative equity set to soar" (Don't we love the UK media). This set me off thinking I need to save and despite the fact we put a reasonable deposit down on our current place we might not have enough to put down as a deposit on the next place as lenders require a larger sum.

So the plan..... I set off on a money making expedition towards a large deposit and quickly. Piles of items to sell came out and all of the old mobiles were traded in on envirofone. I prayed that we weren't in a position in which our deposit had gone completely with the state of the housing market, as we only bought our house in late 2005.

Good news a house has just come up for sale in my street being sold with an estate agent who is notorious for marketing houses at a lower price to gain interest. This house is similar to ours only ours has larger rooms , has an extra reception room, and a large back garden and in much better condition (and that's not being biased either!!). Therefore I was extremely pleased to see this house was actually being marketed at £12,000 more than we had paid.
Even better a sale agreed sign is now on the board outside (that was within 3 days!!) . My calm rational side returned!


Rather than the Dooyoo money going towards the deposit (because as an income source it is less regular) it now is used for breaks away, days out etc. Because we may not be having a large summer holiday this year we have set aside an account for money to pays for days out in which we pay in "extra money" such as from Dooyoo, selling on eBay and from our collection tin in which we put all of our spare change into.

I have just received my first cheque through the post. Wow I felt so proud and such a sense of achievement! Even though I knew Dooyoo legit a part of me deep down thought my cheque may not ever arrive.

This is going towards a trip to London in March, so fingers crossed I might even have another cheque by then! But if I don't its not the end of the world as I really enjoy the Dooyoo site and the community.

The only downside to my approach is that once you pass the 50,000 points milestone you have to ensure you stay motivated as the next 50,000 miles do seem like hard work. But I feel my approach is more sustainable and I really enjoy reading other peoples reviews and being part of the Dooyoo community.

I absolutely love reading the reviews on Dooyoo and it helps me decide on whether I should buy new products or not. In fact I think it has really helped my attitude towards purchasing and I actually think if I need something before I purchase!!

Summary: A great site but its not just about the miles it's the experience too!