Stuff For Sale!

So, today I managed to list a few more items for sale on EBay, mostly things I'd liberated from a craft box that had been languishing in the bedroom, beneath another pile of clutter.  Some cross stitch patterns - a wedding sampler I'd previously stitched for my sister's wedding in the summer, Holly's Cats pattern book which had been the first cross-stitches I ever did and Springtime by Pierre Auguste Cot, my most recently completed cross stitch project.  I know for a fact that I have at least two more patterns I no longer need, but they have mysteriously disappeared so will have to wait until they emerge from wherever they have gone to hide.

I also listed some E-Z rub on transfers that I found - I think I probably bought them about seven or eight years ago, certainly before we moved house, and never got around to using.  There are two sets of blue alphabet letters, some ivy leaves and ivy borders.  Also found in the same craft box was a handmade lace jug cover, which I honestly cannot remember acquiring - I have literally no idea where it came from or how long I have had it!  It's very pretty and delicate though.  Finally from the craft box, a set of three cushion covers which I think we probably bought in Turkey, with the intention of putting them on the sofa in our old house, but then moved and had a totally different colour scheme.

The last item I've listed on EBay is a promotional DVD from the newspaper of Flight of the Navigator, which I found in the drawer whilst sorting out the camping equipment - don't ask me what relevance it has to camping or what logic inspired us to put it there in the first place!  The other item which has been liberated from the camping equipment is a set of 12 Wag Bags - basically toilets in a bag, the idea being that you put this bag with special "powder" in it into a bucket and use it as a toilet when you are camping.  The "powder" turns liquid to solid and the whole bag can then be sealed up and disposed of (it's biodegradable).  Back when we first decided to try camping I was very worried about the idea of getting up to use the toilet in the middle of the night, imagining all sorts of threats and dangers to a wandering lone female on her way to the toilet block!  Therefore the idea was that we'd have a bucket and these bags in the tent so I wouldn't need to venture outside the tent.  This is a great idea, but I soon realised that the toilet block is normally warmer than the tent in the middle of the night, and actually I was quite happy to go and linger in it for quite a long time, at least until I'd warmed up a bit!  Hence the bags never got used.  I am now selling them on UKCampsite.co.uk - they cost about £30, so the other half will be happy if I can pass them on to someone else, as he never saw the point in the first place.

I also managed to make a list of the Usborne books I have available for sale, leftover stock from when I was an Usborne Organiser.  If I could sell them all at half the RRP that would be £139 or so.  I emailed the list to a friend who home educates her kids and she's agreed to buy about £27 worth of them so that's a good start.

In other financial matters, it has been a quiet day - no post means no new bills or increased prices.  Due to it being half term, we also managed to not leave the house so didn't spend anything either.  I've decided to take charge of the weekly shop, as the other half has a tendency towards buying fresh pasta, speciality cupcakes and other non-essential items. I, on the other hand, can manage a trip round Sainsburys without even looking at the aisles we need nothing from.  I am planning on trying out the supermarket comparison sites tomorrow morning to try to get the bill down even lower, although I suspect any savings made this way may be negated by extra petrol to get to the various supermarkets on offer.  We will see - I'm going to try to stick to the £90 budget, although last year we overspent each week by about £14.

Starters Orders...

So, this is the first day of charting our progress to clear the overdraft and get ourselves back in the driving seat as far as our finances are concerned.

Just for a bit of background, we're both 37, have been married for eleven and a half years, and own our own home (well, not own exactly, but you know what I mean!)  We've got two kids together, both boys, who are now 10 and 8, and the other half has a son from previous relationship who is 13.  We both work - the other half works 40 hours a week on varying shifts, including both days and nights, and I work 30 hours a week term-time only (and boy do I LOVE those holidays!!)

We have been in various financial positions during our time together - good when the other half was working two jobs doing over 70 hours a week, bad when he retrained and had to give the second job up.  I am aware that on the face of it, the above makes me sound really lazy, but believe me when I say that I have tried my best to earn as much as possible around him and the kids over the years.

We have made bad financial decisions (getting involved in a franchise operation that I wish to God I'd never heard of) and good ones (thankfully, getting on the property ladder when we did, or we'd never be where we are today).  Throughout it all, our bank balance has wavered between okay and scarily overdrawn, especially after I went a bit loopy after the birth of the second child!

We finally made the decision to really focus on clearing it once and for all last January, and by the end of 2010 we had reached an almost halfway point, which had been our aim from the beginning.  Unfortunately, since the beginning of this year, it all seems to have stagnated a bit, and we are finding it more difficult.  Hence the blog to try to keep us focused and on track.  (Well, I say we, but it's me really - the other half just goes along with my hair brained ideas for an easy life I suspect!  However, he will be expected to curb his cashpoint and Sainsburys habit this year, unless he can explain why it's necessary to visit both at least twice a day sometimes...)

So, to summarise this year so far - we started with an overdraft of £2,451, and I managed to sell about £60 worth of general household stuff on EBay.  The other half was not paid for a chunk of overtime as expected at the end of January, meaning that by the end of the month the overdraft hadn't changed much and was still at £2,439.  This was particularly disheartening, as this time last year we managed to clear a god £500 in January.  I'm not sure what has happened this year.

I have managed to sell a few more bits on EBay this month, but nothing like as much as in January.  I have therefore spent a big chunk of today trying to clear a few cupboards to get a few more bits and pieces to list.  That and clearing up the spare room, as this is where I keep my supply of "useful" things I just can't bear to get rid of - basically a mountain of cardboard boxes, jiffy bags and bubble wrap that have taken over one half of the room.  I very cleverly organised a lot of the bits and pieces to be listed on EBay into a cupboard in the corner...and then boxed it all in with the cardboard mountain!  I suspect it may take me a while to finish clearing the rest of the house, but I guess de-cluttering can only be a good thing in the long run.

So, as of today I only have one item actually on EBay, an Oxford Reading Tree play transcript called Pirate Adventure, which will not make me rich as the starting price is only 75p!

I have also updated my 2011 budget spreadsheet to show the actual costs this year of our water, gas and electricity, as the water bill arrived yesterday, along with a notice from the gas & electricity company to say they were putting our direct debit up.  Hopefully tomorrow will bring something that will have a positive impact on the finances - I will also try to list a few more things on EBay and prepare a list of Usborne books that I could sell, as they are left over from when I used to be an Usborne organiser, many moons ago.