Nichelette wants her own house (and to be overdraft free)

yukkibear

Her car did pass yes (sorry Nicki for butting in lol)

Nichelette

Evening all,

I know I haven't updated for quite a while, but that's mainly because I've been busy, I'll explain why in a second.

As Yukki said my car did pass it's MOT, I was quite surprised but I wasn't going to argue. My dad did say that it needed some oil which set me back £17 something, but that was nothing in contrast to what I thought I was going to have to pay, so it was a good day really.

I may as well update on the free money front too... I *finally* got to £40 on onepoll, so that is on its way to me, and I've got a £7 Amazon voucher from auto insight which takes my TV total up to a whole £27. I'm going to try and get myself up to £10 on dooyoo tonight so it will all have validated by Wednesday and be paid on Thursday. I'm also waiting for some points to be added to IPSOS and valued opinions (have already done the surveys) which will get me another £20 on Amazon. I really wanted to do the live on £4000 challege, but discovered that the second you go to town and buy from more than a couple of shops it's quite hard to keep track of, so I've decided I'm, too incompetent to do it lol. Oh, and a surprise £120 was deposited into my bank account by Boots on Friday, I'm pretty sure now that it is holiday pay so that was nice, especially as I really need some extra cash to live on now....

I finally realised as I was about to send my Prince's Trust application form and covering letter off that they wouldn't even consider me if I hadn't applied for finance anywhere. I didn't really want their money, just their advice. I had a bit of an epiphany, and realised that although I'm a bit scared of starting a business alone I'm not an idiot and I CAN do it without their help. Since then I've been busy sorting stuff out.

My dad has lent me £500 to get it up and running. I know I have the money in my ISA I didn't really want to touch it as I wouldn't be able to put it back in this tax year, and also taking money from there would have felt a bit like I was going backwards. Once I've got my P45 I'll get a bit over £300 in tax back which I'll give to my dad, and he can have my first £200 profit, or if he needs it before then I'll take the money from my ISA if I really have to. So really it isn't as bad as it sounds. Sadly though it means that my ISA is unlikely to grow too much for a while. I really need a new computer as mine is dying (especially as my business is online based) so I'm trying to decide whether to save the £40 from onepoll in my regular savings account rather than my ISA, and put any free cash I earn towards a new computer.

Anyway, that's all for now really. I've got lots of business related jobs to be doing .

********************
Amazon vouchers saved for free TV - £27/350

ISA Total - £2,652.18
********************

Free money/vouchers from 21/10/08:

Consumer Pulse - £50
Lightspeed - £3
Free Scratchcards - £150
IPSOS - £20
Dooyoo - £25
Toluna - £12
Pinecone - £20
Ipoints - £11
Ciao - £12
Auto Insight - £14
Global Test Market - £31.93
Quidco - £10.95
My Voice - £20
Topcashback - £25.01
Onepoll - £40

Total - £439.89

Nichelette

I thought I'd do a quick update as I don't have much I can do at the moment. I'm waiting for the card for my new businss account to arrive, and without that I can't buy supplies (I buy 99% of the stuff online), so I'm a bit stuck til then. That said we get our post quite late and the postman still hasn't been today.

I've withdrawn £10 from a scratchcard this morning, and I've done a pincone survey which will give my dad another £4 towards the shopping. I've also done quite a few other surveys, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to cash some of the points in soon. I'll be around at least 700 points on global test market (possibly more), so hopefully I'll be able to cash those in soon whilst the pound is still weak and get a cheque for a decent amount. My onepoll money has arrived and I'll be getting at least £20 from quidco at the end of the month, so I'm debating whether to set up a free computer fund as well as my free TV one lol.

********************
Amazon vouchers saved for free TV - £27/350

ISA Total - £2,652.18
********************

Free money/vouchers from 21/10/08:

Consumer Pulse - £50
Lightspeed - £3
Free Scratchcards - £160
IPSOS - £20
Dooyoo - £25
Toluna - £12
Pinecone - £24
Ipoints - £11
Ciao - £12
Auto Insight - £14
Global Test Market - £31.93
Quidco - £10.95
My Voice - £20
Topcashback - £25.01
Onepoll - £40

Total - £453.89

edinburgher

Silly question, but is the website in your sig your business?

Nichelette

I got a bit confused then as I don't have a link in my sig and had completely forgotten thre were even public profiles on here . It's more a hobby that got out of control than a business. It's a horrible jumbled mess that I haven't given any real attention to for ages, but yes, I'm in the process of turning it into a 'real' business. It started when I made people jewellery as presents and kind of sprawled out a bit from that.

edinburgher

That was what I meant - sorry for mixing things up. This networked world of avatars, signatures and profiles overwhelmed my sleepy brain Some cool stuff there, I used to make jewellery when I was a teen (not that I admitted it as a guy!) I've recently started looking into taking up lapidary as a hobby (I've always liked crafty things, but it's somewhat fallen by the wayside of late) and hope to sell on some of my finished stones etc. to help pay for the supplies etc. in time.

The only thing that I'd advise would be to make sure that you have as many sales channels as possible (so eBay, the site you already use, a personal website with a basic shopping cart etc.) It can be hard to get mass sales in markets that can be a bit saturated with not entirely dissimilar products, but the more ways you sell the better. You have some good quality items and I'm sure with a bit of attention and clever marketing it could become a great second income for you. Are you hoping it will be your main 'job' in future?

Nichelette

Thanks . I've had all of the above at one point or another, I used to do very well from ebay when I was at uni. With a small amount of effort I could easily make £500+ per month. I didn't usually have the time for that but could pretty much rely on it to bring in around £2-300 a month.

At the moment I've just opened a new bank account for it so I can start buying new supplies soon. Once I've done that I'll start work on the new website (I'm just pointing the address to etsy for now as the site isn't up and running yet), and tend to the new etsy and ebay accounts I've set up. I've also got a Dawanda one and have some other bits sorted for promotion. I don't think I'll ever make enough to sustain myself so the plan is to put in the time getting it all set up and then look for another job as I'm pretty sure I could just manage this in my spare time once I've set everything up. I'd really like it to work as any extra money could go towards my house deposit (and getting rid of my student debt).

edinburgher

Like yourself, I used to support myself as a student on eBay (I used to buy punk and rock accessories and vinyl wholesale from the States and then resell here). Used to make ~£250 profit a month, but eventually the import duties and taxes made it less than viable.

Thinking to the future, too, I suppose that a few hundred pounds a month could mean 30-40% overpayments on a typical mortgage, which could wipe 10 years off a standard 25 year mortgage. Who knows, maybe you'll graduate to the Mortgage Free Wannabe before too long?

Nichelette

That would be amazing, but I'll try and get the mortgage first , lol. I'm quite lucky in that the components for my jewellery arenn't too costly so there is some money to be made, and I enjoy making it so I'm happy to spend the night in front of the TV doing so without really considering the labour cost.

edinburgher

Yeah, I always try and write off labour when doing eBay and sales related things. After all, it's that or watch TV and one of them makes me money