My story - any advice welcome

lynsayjane

hey toots, i'm afraid i have to get lynz back here. when i first started on here i tried to find ways around stopping all the luxury things i had (sky, gym, cinema card etc) by saying that i used them to their full potential. i go to the gym five times a week which works out less than £2 a visit, the cinema i visit weekly which would cost £24 but i pay £11 for my card. but then i did the snowball calculator thing. just by adding the £40 a month i spend at the gym it took nearly nine months off my dfd, so the gym is getting cancelled at the start of next month (my contract ends), cinema card and sky have both been cancelled along with tv license.

i know it's hard to give up all the luxuries you get used to having, especially if it fells like you don't have many. but think of all the luxuries you could afford in the future without getting into debt by giving up a few now. your car appears to cost you around £70 a month, taking your salsa classes with that its £100 a month saving. try the snowball calculator with the £100 off then on and see the difference it'd make.

bargainbetty

You could consider going third party on the insurance - it'll save a few hundred a year. Go back to fully comp next year.

I'm with Lynzpower - you say you won't give up this or that, and that you want to go out and have a life etc.... when you can afford it, you can have it. Simple as that.

I hope it works out for you x

londongirl

Ok point taken. Salsa lessons will go then. I'm not quite ready to give up the car just yet but have changed my route to work to the one that takes much longer and have bought a weekly ticket for part of that journey and will pre-pay the rest which works out the cheapest way of doing it - will save myself £73 a month by cutting out salsa and changing my route to work.

I'm babysitting tonight also which will make me an extra £27.50 for tonight.

Will defintely make sure i find time to do ebay too , going to sell some books- i forgot to say i'm also an avid reader and buy quite a few books - always search around for the best deal and cheapest way of buying them but i still spend a bit - but no longer , i've dug out my library card and although i tried using our local library when i moved here and it was utter pants for any decent fiction books - all barbara taylor bradford and nothing up to date, i've realised my bf lives 5 mins from the main library for the borough which is massive so i'll start borrowing books from there instead. I know books don't go for much on ebay but better than nothing. I also have some text books that i would be quite sad to part with as it would mean i would feel i was shutting the door totally on my speech therapy career but i guess i can always buy them again second hand if i really need them and if i take up speech therapy again.

londongirl

checked out citycarclub - thanks. But nearest car is 8 miles away from me unfortunately. It also seems quite expensive from what i've looked at , i wonder if it would be cheaper just to hire a car if i needed to do a long journey.

kathfisch

If you want to sell books you'll probably get more on amazon than ebay to be honest. Books that'll sell for a bit are good to put on amazon and ones that are quite cheap (there are some books listed for 10p on amazon!!!) are best going on https://www.greenmetropolis.com i think, others can advise you more!

Enjoy!!

kathfisch

londongirl wrote:

checked out citycarclub - thanks. But nearest car is 8 miles away from me unfortunately. It also seems quite expensive from what i've looked at , i wonder if it would be cheaper just to hire a car if i needed to do a long journey.

That's a pity, I guess its either convenient or not! Might be worth looking into others though, I just did a google search to come up with that one! Hiring a car can be great for journeys every now and again cos you don't have to worry about paying for it the rest of the time!

TallGirl

Hiya

Sounds like you are on the rigth track, just a bit of advice regarding book. I am selling my old Uni Books and lots of paperback on Amazon. It is really quick and easy no photos, writting up etc, much quicker than Ebay and you don't pay anything unless they sell. Get them on there girl it really doesn't take long.

londongirl

Thanks kathfisch and tallgirl - i will check out amazon then to sell books. I knew i could sell them there but i guess i always do ebay as i know what i'm doing with that, i didn't realise amazon was so easy. Also i had heard people saying you don't always get your postage back with amazon or something, wherease with ebay you can at least set your postage to whatever it will cost.

By the way how do you quote someone else when you reply to posts on here?

Thanks!

kathfisch

londongirl wrote:

Thanks kathfisch and tallgirl - i will check out amazon then to sell books. I knew i could sell them there but i guess i always do ebay as i know what i'm doing with that, i didn't realise amazon was so easy. Also i had heard people saying you don't always get your postage back with amazon or something, wherease with ebay you can at least set your postage to whatever it will cost.

By the way how do you quote someone else when you reply to posts on here?

Thanks!

There is sometimes an issue with postage on amazon, i agree. They've got a set figure based on what they think the postage would be. I'd weigh it myself and then, if they don't allow enough, factor the difference into the price you list it at.

At the bottom right of every post there's a 'quote' button. press that and you'll get the 'advanced' message screen. write your message, press submit and there you go :T

TallGirl

Amazon is fine as long as you don't get silly and try and sell for 1 pence. If the book is a hardback and it is heavy - usually you can charge more in price so don't worry too much. Also Amazon sorts the payments out and pays it every two weeks into your own bank account. At least you don't have the fee for Paypal and the the listing fee if it doesn't sell. Good luck let us know how you get on.