Start a 'cottage industry'... official MoneySavingExpert.com discussion

Tabby_Kitten wrote: »

I've sort of just started this, in the new year I took a seed beading course and have had a great time making bracelets and ear-rings, I've started to build up a collection that I'm going to list on ebay.
I also wanted to have ago at making pinic/gardening/camping mats out of olld carrier bags which I'm to list.

It would be good to hear what others are doing/going to try.

I'm Starting a cottage industry too
My (and a few others) 2007 money challenge was, or still is, to live off £4,000 for a full year and use everything else to pay off debts and start saving. This doesn't include rent or council tax, of course. Using every MSE piece of advice I could, I have managed quite well - see signature for progress. Not only did I pay off all outstanding debts, my income is now up by £25 a month from tax free interest alone

I have a new challenge for 2008; I guess you could call it a cottage industry with a difference LOL I'm going to attempt to make money from nothing! I'd like to make an extra £3,000 to fill an ISA and anything above this, I'll check MSE to find out the best place to save it or invest it.

My first order of 'nothing' has already arrived so I can start preparing for my new entrepreneurial enterprise. It's a load of off-cuts from a wood yard that would, otherwise, have been burned. All sizes, thick and thin, some fairly large at almost half a metre long! I've thought of allsorts to do with these! I've asked friends & family to save me any old packaging materials so I'm prepared when the sales start flooding in.

I also have a pile of old books that could have ended up as pulp in the landfill! They're for charity fundraising from a local secondhand book shop, but every penny helps, even if I have to be a little inventive to shift heavy old Readers Digest volumes.

Can anyone remember the days of unwinding jumpers to make pom-poms with those card circles? Or chopping up old jewellery to redisign your own? Collecting buttons and beads from friends and neighbours, offcuts of material and broken toys in the hope you collected enough of the same to make a complete item? Those were the days! Oh! Oh! Oh! I've just thought of something I can do with my freebie offcuts of card from the framer!
Back soon but please let me know what you think of my wacky ideas, plus add your own. I love reading about 'alternative' methods of earning. I'd like to know more about what to do with old carrier bags and milk cartons as I already have enough plastic petfood scoops to last me a lifetime

thinkrich wrote: »

Well done! what an inspiration - I really admire you for being able to manage on £4000 a year - can you give tips on how you did it ?:p

I, and several others, documented everything. First tip is to write out your cashsheet or budget (you can download them free) reflecting every regular expenditure you have, from electricity to grandparents' birthdays and anniversaries. I have been following money saving challenges for some years now, so I already knew what week to week living was costing. Once you know what you've spent in the past it is so much easier to see where you can make savings. I will say, though, it is really difficult! And, I still have the rest of the year to go LOL I've also been receiving the MSE newsletters for some time but never joined these forums until I was completely debt free.

Hi guys I'm gonna do this, I am working on a temp job untils xmas, and gonna use some of the extra cash to buy jewellery making bits, and card making bits from ebay and build up a good stock, done earrings and cards before so no what to do. Also I am gonna make jams and fudge and some cakes and sell all these at carboot(gosh, I'm gonna be busy). Can anyone tell me the right sort of price to sell cards at, they will be costing about 35p to make including the bags they go in, also does any one have any nice fudge recipes. This is a great thread. Thankyou.:A

I think it depends on the sort of school Tru. I've sold fairies at various school fetes. Needless to say the independent girls schools made me a fortune, but I've also done well in some pretty poor areas without lowering prices too far. I tend to thinks any stall is luck of the draw anyway - my best ever stall was at an outdoor halloween "witches bazaar" and firework display - the last place I would have expected fairies to be top sellers! The stall cost a quarter of the big christmas market stall I did the next weekend and sold next to nothing at!

nykmedia wrote: »

I'm Starting a cottage industry too
My (and a few others) 2007 money challenge was, or still is, to live off £4,000 for a full year and use everything else to pay off debts and start saving. This doesn't include rent or council tax, of course. Using every MSE piece of advice I could, I have managed quite well - see signature for progress. Not only did I pay off all outstanding debts, my income is now up by £25 a month from tax free interest alone

I have a new challenge for 2008; I guess you could call it a cottage industry with a difference LOL I'm going to attempt to make money from nothing! I'd like to make an extra £3,000 to fill an ISA and anything above this, I'll check MSE to find out the best place to save it or invest it.

My first order of 'nothing' has already arrived so I can start preparing for my new entrepreneurial enterprise. It's a load of off-cuts from a wood yard that would, otherwise, have been burned. All sizes, thick and thin, some fairly large at almost half a metre long! I've thought of allsorts to do with these! I've asked friends & family to save me any old packaging materials so I'm prepared when the sales start flooding in.

I also have a pile of old books that could have ended up as pulp in the landfill! They're for charity fundraising from a local secondhand book shop, but every penny helps, even if I have to be a little inventive to shift heavy old Readers Digest volumes.

Can anyone remember the days of unwinding jumpers to make pom-poms with those card circles? Or chopping up old jewellery to redisign your own? Collecting buttons and beads from friends and neighbours, offcuts of material and broken toys in the hope you collected enough of the same to make a complete item? Those were the days! Oh! Oh! Oh! I've just thought of something I can do with my freebie offcuts of card from the framer!
Back soon but please let me know what you think of my wacky ideas, plus add your own. I love reading about 'alternative' methods of earning. I'd like to know more about what to do with old carrier bags and milk cartons as I already have enough plastic petfood scoops to last me a lifetime

That sounds like a great challenge, my challenge for next year is to produce as much food for myself as possible.

I've sort of got a head start on this as I already keep goats and have just started keeping quail again. I still live at 'home' with my parents (I'm still only a tender 21) on the family 'smallholding', which is really just a big back garden and a few rented/borrowed fields so there are loads of other aniamls around as well has mine including sheep, chickens and ducks, donkey's and ponies/horse and a herd of cows.

Me and my dad are veggie but the rest of my family aren't.

One of the cows, Primrose (my grandmother named her) who isn't mine but I do sort of think of her as part mine as I was the one to teacher to bottle feed when her mum sadly die, is due to calf for the first time in Feb and I'm really looking forward to handmilking her and I've just taken on an un-used field (the owner does know) to grow so extra veg.

I know it's not really 'cottage industry' but I'm really looking forward to it. I was hoping to start a blog with details of it and how I'm getting on but am having problems with Microsort where I signed up for one of their free websites and now they've got the domain I wanted :mad: