Can't believe this is my first post in November. Just haven't seemed to have the time to update the site or even write a few words.

My day job is getting in the way, causing me untold headaches and putting me under a fair bit of stress. I've had so much on my mind recently, none of it positive, and it's been a very unproductive time.

Hopefully this post will herald a return to a more regular blogging pattern as there are a few things coming up which will hopefully make me some money!

The first is selling trainers online. Through a contact on a car boot we've managed to source some ridiculously cheap Nike and Reebok shoes. They are originals, not copies, and should yield a few quid profit on each. We're trialling different adverts and prices on Ebay to see how it's all going to work and if the first few sell well we will look into getting some more.

We've also found a source for cheap food to sell at car boots and markets. It's either out-of-date or nearly out-of-date but most of the items are still going to be OK to eat. I've never had any problems with buying out-of-date stuff in the past, it's a good way of saving money.

The first order has been placed and is being picked up tomorrow with a view to running our first car boot stall this weekend, weather permitting.

I've also taken delivery of a great money making DVD. It contains over 60 CDs worth of stuff for resale. One sale will get my money back and then it's into profit.

It contains hundreds of ebooks, ringtones, clipart, hypnosis tracks and lots, lots more.

I'm going to be selling this DVD on this site for £4.99 and for people looking to make some extra cash you could do worse than get your own copy to re-sell yourselves.

Actually all of the stuff on it is worth far more than £4.99 and with so many different programs on there you are bound to find something useful or interesting for your own pleasure. It's an absolute no-brainer.

All being well this new money making DVD will be available by the weekend. Come back soon for your copy.

Yes you read that right, it isn't a typo, This is SLIMING tea (see box shot right). Can it help with weight loss?

I first found this in an asian supermarket a couple of years ago. I tried it but it played havoc with my system.

From time to time I have tried it again, each time with the same results, but in desperation I have reached for it again.

I have stopped using hot water and followed the box instructions to use cold water. I tend to steep it for a few hours for my evening drink, and then use the teabag a second time overnight for my morning drink.

The results are pretty similar! There don't seem to be any ingredients on the box and it does claim to be all natural. It seems to work by turning your insides out!

Basically it has a very strong diuretic effect on my body. Not instantly, that would be straightforward to deal with, but at seemingly random intervals meaning that straying too far from a toilet is not advisable when you are drinking two cups a day.

I had to pick my parents up from the airport a few days ago and it kicked in on the drive there. I wanted to pull over and use a layby but had my baby son in the car so just had to squeeze my cheeks hard and pray that the urges would subside.

I haven't weighed myself on the scales to see whether I've lost any weight yet, although with the amount of material exiting from my body I must have done. It may be well named given the consistency of said material. Very similar to the colonic irrigation I once had so maybe it really is "unblocking the pipes" and getting rid of toxins.

It does have a very cleansing effect and I'm sure used in short bursts it is probably not harmful.

I have five more teabags left in the box, after which I'm going to take a rest before buying any more. It wouldn't be so bad if it at least tasted OK on the way in but it is a pretty horrible brew.

If long term weight loss is your goal this is probably not the answer. However if you want a good "clear-out" it is certainly very effective!

Our second competition is open for entries and we have to date received 182. Actually we have received a great many more than that, but unfortunately these were sent from an automated bulk entry system and have been deleted.

As a result of this attempt to cheat I have added an extra field into the comp form (post code) plus changed the validation question. This seems to have stopped the auto spammers for the time being.

If there is any question that other entries have been submitted via this method or that entrants are making multiple attempts to enter (remember it is only one entry per household) they too will be deleted.

It's only fair to the genuine competition entrants that people trying to gain this type of advantage are excluded.

Remember when entering competitions to check the rules before you enter if you are thinking of making multiple entries. Some competitions do allow them, or allow entries on a daily basis.

We don't, so keep your entries honest and you'll be in the draw for the mobile phone in December, despatched in time for Christmas.

Good luck to all.

The saving money page has been updated today with a new savings scheme from Scottish Friendly.

Their child bond enables you to save between £10 and £25 tax free for each of your children. It's tax free and available for long term savings from 10 years plus.

By investing over the long term you avoid the peaks and troughs of short term trading and should benefit from a steady growth giving your child a good start in life when they reach adulthood.

The child bond can be taken out in addition to an ISA, giving you even more tax-free allowances to use. And you don't have to be a parent to open one.

Grandparents, aunties, godparents - anyone can open a child bond for their nominated child.

Scottish Friendly also operate a Scottish Bond which has all of the benefits of the child bond but doesn't have to be used as a savings account for a child.

Anyone can take one out, Scottish or otherwise, and receive their proceeds tax-free when the bond matures.

A friendly society has the benefit of sharing out all of its profits between its members rather than paying shareholders. Currently they are offering £15 high street vouchers as an incentive to sign up for either bond.

Saving money tax-free makes a lot of sense. If you currently have savings in the bank and are paying tax on the interest you should consider moving some or all of it into a tax-free method of saving such as the Scottish Bond.

After all, no-one likes paying taxes and if it can be avoided (legally!) all the better. I'd rather have the money in my pocket than the chancellors.

Just about ready to get the new competition up and running. I'm charging the mobile phone as I write this, although it will need charging again nearer the time of despatch.

This blog post will form part of the terms and conditions of the competition so make sure you read it carefully. Basically the prize is as sent and any problems after are down to the winner!

The phone is currently locked to the Virgin Mobile network as it is a replacement phone sent by them for one that broke. It hasn't been used by me and still has the screen protectors on.

I found an old PAYG Virgin Mobile sim in the garage and have put it in. It is however showing "Limited Service" - this may mean that you just need to put credit onto it or register it or the sim may not be working. It is up to the winner whether they try to get the phone unlocked to another network, try and get it working with Virgin (or flog it on Ebay!!).

I found the original box for the phone and inside were earphones and USB cable, both still bagged as they have not been used. The charger, CD and manuals are also included and are in excellent condition.

Although this is a "new" phone I cannot provide you with any warranty. If it breaks in a months time then it's down to the winner to fix it. My original phone lasted about 10 months so I would expect that this new one should at least last that long!

OK, those are the rules, so to enter the competition visit the competitions page and follow the link.

The quest to make money online continues. I've had a little time to make a start on Financeworx and I've just remembered I have another site I could use, both for finance and business opportunities, called Cash 2U.

Again this site was set up ages ago and has been languishing without any effort being put into it. I need to get more visitors coming to all three sites to start making some sales and thus make some money.

That's the key to making money online - visitors. It doesn't matter what you're trying to sell online, carpets, light bulbs, accountancy services or business opportunities, without visitors to your website you are not going to make any sales.

There are a variety of ways to get traffic to your site, many of which are free but require time and effort listing your site. You can also pay for traffic by pay-per-click or participate in banner exchanges etc.

Once you start to make sales and make money you can apportion a percentage of your profit to ongoing marketing to keep traffic coming in and to continue making money online.

Getting started is the hard part and it can be a daunting prospect and easy to give up too quickly. Websites require a little time to gather some momentum and need plenty of work in the early days. But once the traffic starts coming in it can snowball.

When I have more time I will compile a list of traffic generation methods which will help anyone participating in the online business opportunities listed on this site. Sign up with me and you will have my support available by email 24/7 (Well you can email me 24/7 and I'll reply as soon as I get it!).

The dream of running your own business, rather than working for someone else, is a dream shared by many people bored with their 9-5 jobs.

However, setting up your own business can be costly, time-consuming and entail a lot more work than you think.

Setting up a business from scratch needs a lot of commitment and full-time focus. If it fails it could spell financial ruin! Not everyone is cut out to run their own business.

Rather than give up your current job (and income) to start from scratch, why not consider starting a part-time business which could expand into full time if successful.

There are plenty of business opportunities out there that require very little in terms of funding and are flexible, meaning you only have to work your hours of choice. If you find that the business is not for you, either you don't like it or cannot make any money from it, then you have only lost a small initial investment and a few hours of your time.

It might be that by trying one business opportunity that doesn't work out it focuses your mind on what would work for you or gives you some ideas for the future.

So our advice to improve your future is to think big but start small. Don't commit money you cannot afford to starting a new business.

Give it a try and see how it works out for you. Everyone is different and we all want different things from our lives.

Visit our home page and complete the online form there and we will contact you with current opportunities that suit your requirements and let you know of new business opportunities as they arise.

The winners have all replied very promptly with their details so here they all are:

Shaft/Deep Blue Sea - Hannah Prosser

A farewell to Arms/The Snows of Kilimanjiro - Margaret Hamilton

Vacancy/Captivity - Angie Rhind

Hopefully the prizes will be despatched this afternoon, although not sure when they will arrive given the possible postal strikes!

Our next competition will be online soon, the chance to win a Samsung U600 mobile phone.

My own comping going very slowly, no sign of a decent win on the horizon. Keep your fingers crossed for me and I'll do the same for you!

All the best and good luck.

Still not cracked it. Business is slow on Improve Your Future so I've had a look round at other websites that have been left dormant.

One of these is Financeworx. This site deals with personal loans for tenants and homeowners as well as debt management and other finance related products.

I must have updated it at some point during 2009 as it has a 2009 copyright notice on it but I suspect that was done in January and since then I haven't touched it.

It is very out-of-date and needs work on pretty much every page. I've just added Google analytics to see whether it currently attracts any traffic and, when I get time, I will start to go through each page and replace all of the old programs with new ones.

I've got a few similar sites that are sitting idle, gathering dust, so once I get this back up-and-running I'll move onto some others to try and get some more visitors across a range of websites.

Hopefully I can get some referrals between sites and cross-sell on them. I have to do something. Last months bank statement is in and it looks like we are spending around £100 more than we are generating each month.

A slow, steady descent into the poorhouse beckons unless I can reverse this trend. So need to start generating some income quicker than I had anticipated.

Our first competition has ended. It closed yesterday at midnight and form submission has now been disabled so no more entries can be sent.

We received a total of 285 entries and the three winning numbers have been drawn. I used our random number generator to pick three numbers between 1 and 285.

For information purposes, although it won't make any sense to anyone, the numbers picked were 223, 128 and 112. I will match these up to the entries that were received 223rd, 128th and 112th and email the lucky winners.

Once I receive address and date of birth confirmation from them I will post the winning names on the relevant competition page. Prizes will probably be despatched Monday subject to getting all of the details in.

The next competition will probably also start on Monday, once I have more time to get the necessary pages sorted out. Keep reading this blog for more info.

Thanks to everyone who entered. Congratulations to the winnners and, if you didn't win, better luck next time.

Another competition prize received today. A Mighty Glass from Irn-Bru. Not exactly what I've been comping for but it will at least get used. I've added it to my competition wins for 2009 page.

As mentioned previously, the breakage of my laptop has meant I've entered very few comps in the last week and I don't know where I'm going to find the time to enter all of those I've missed.

I will have to be very selective and just enter the big ones where there is a holiday or big electronics prize involved. The rest will have to wait or just not get entered.

I'm just about up and running on my new computer. The final few bits of software I need are now in my possession, just have to get around to installing them. Then things will be back to normal.

However, for the future I need to think about what would happen if my computer breaks again, or is lost/stolen. I need a better form of data recovery to get myself moving in double quick time.

I have seen that there are online storage websites that might allow me to upload info on a daily/weekly basis. This might be the answer. I will have to try and find a free one.

Or alternatively I suppose I could use this website and just ftp everything on my hard drive every week. Could take a little time though. I would probably prefer a professional solution.

Anyway I'm back online and working hard now. My new competition will probably be delayed a few days, I'm thinking around the 20th October for a start date now.

Good luck to all of those that have entered the DVD competition. Only a couple of days until the results are announced!