Amatheya's £4,000 in 2011 Diary

Amatheya81

So the buyer finally came to collect my wardrobe yesterday which means that I'm £62 up and I can walk through my hall unhindered again. It was a bit of a palava though, despite me mentioning several times on the listing that the wardrobe was one of those huge Ikea ones the stick figure woman turned up alone in a floaty dress and sandles :rotfl: I had to carry the whole thing down to her van for her. Apparently she hadn't told her husband that she'd bought it... I bet the air was blue when she got home!

I've probably got another 100 items to go on ebay this Sunday (I had another scout around the flat yesterday for stuff i really don't need... I even conssidered selling my iPod but then decided that that was a little drastic! lol). Mostly of the items are small but I think I should scape another £100 out of them. I'll only be able to list 66 this month though as the free 99p listing only counts for your first 100 listings. I'm also going to have a look around the bootsale tomorrow just incase i see some bargains that need to be baught :money:

Hope you all have a good weekend planned. I'm off to collect a lasagna that is being donated to me by a friend, bless... she's always making sure i don't go hungry/occasionally eat a meal that isn't beans on toast!

Amatheya81

Turns out lasgna wasn't the only thing I get yesterday. My friends brother had given her lots of fruit from the trees in his garden so she sent me home eith lost of cooking apples and plums which are curently sat in my freezer in the form of a couple of crumbles.

The bootsale today wasn't terribly productive. I think subconciously I was aware that I've got lots of things to ebay so I wasn't trying that hard. I did pick up some glass bead necklaces that should sell but that was about it.

Final bit of news is that I've scarily started my Christmas shopping!!! I'm making my mother a hamper because she thinks they're really posh *bless* and becouse she's not too with it these days buying her anything else is usually a wast of time as the stuff just sits around and never gets used. So yesterday I went to TKMax and got a very posh looking wicker basket with a cotton lining and a lacey edge for £7 and them got some flumps and a huge toblerome that were on offer in a cheap shop to start the filling off. I'm thinking of knitting her something to go in it too but I haven't decided what to knit yet.

Wordsmith

Afternoon, Amatheya! The hamper sounds a lovely idea - though I can't so much as think of Christmas for another four months!

Amatheya81

Wordsmith wrote: »

Afternoon, Amatheya! The hamper sounds a lovely idea - though I can't so much as think of Christmas for another four months!

Yeh, my mom loves hampers and I can get her lots of little things on the run up to Christmas instead of buying her big expensive things closer to the time.

I'm absolutely mental on Christmas, I love it and always have. I drive the girls at work mental because as soon as Christmas is over I start a monthly countdown until we can put the trees up again... We're currently 3 months to go and counting. I'll have to change to weeks soon

By the way there's only 125 days until Christmas :rotfl::beer::j

Amatheya81

I forgot to add. 11 items posted on eBay tonight

Amatheya81

It's pay day on Friday so of course the week is going unbelieveably slow! I'm looking forward to making my first extra loan payment which after I deduct all the postage, ebay and paypal fees should be about £170.
I've already got bids on two of the items I've listed this week and the tent I listed has 13 watchers! Sunday is supposed to be good weather so hopefully it will end well. It was about £200 new (It was a present a couple of years ago) and is a really good one, just not very practical for the type of camping I do. I'm hoping I get at last £30 for it but as it's the end of the season I'm not holding my breath.

Speaking of camping I'm supposed to be away this weekend but as my knees still hurt and it's supposed to chuck it down I may just stay home and start winter proofing the flat instead!

Amatheya81

Autumn is definately in the air already. The trees down my street have started losing thier leaves and there's been a odd chill to the air the past few days. I really hate winter! I get SAD which makes me misurable and grumpy and my winter wardrobe is a bit lacking but I'm always too broke to top it up.

I'm going to try to tackle it early this year. This weekend I'm going to start winter proofing my flat. I've got lots of fabric lying around and some dowells in the cupboard so I'm going to get some fleece blankets from Premark and make some fleece lined blinds for the living room. I'm also going to re-seal all the windows (I live in a relatively new appartment and all of the winder seals keep popping with movement of the building) I need to think of other things I can do to keep the heat in and the cold out during the winter because my appartment gets seriously cold. On the bright side I've decided this year not to be as miserly with the heating. Last year I only used it the bear minimum and it was horrid. This year even with the price hike I think I can afford to have it on a little more... Speaking of Gas and Elec bills I'm sure it's time for me to switch again, must look into that.
Naughtily I'm thinking of buying a little tumble dryer this winter. I don't want to as I'm sure it's going to cost me a arm and a leg to run but last year I couldn't get anything dry and all my cloathes were stiff and smelt damp I don't actually own that many cloathes so it was a real problem.

Anyway, on a more cheerfull note I've finished knitting a little sampler and decided that I will knit my mom a patchwork quilt for Christmas (how hard can it be) I think I'll do it all in red (my moms favorite colour) and make each square a different stitch type and the finish it off with a little black border I'm sure I can manage that in 3 months. Maybe I'll take some wool to work and knit a quare every lunch break lol

Amatheya81

Oh bother...

I sold the box and special features for Cinderalla a couple of weeks ago on eBay. I though I made it really clear what I was selling, I've copied what I wrote in the listing below.

"You are bidding on Disney’s Cinderella special features disc and box only.

Unfortunately I’ve lost the movie disc so this sale is for the box and special features disc only. So if you happen to have a copy of the DVD but have lost the box, this is the perfect auction for you!"

Now I thought I was pretty clear that the movie disc wasn't included but I've just had the buyer email me to say that they played the disc and were expecting the movie to be on it. I've replied saying that I was pretty clear that the movie wasn't included but now I'm worried that they will go to Paypal and get their money back anyway as this has happened to me before.

I thought this eBay thing was all going way too smoothly

Amatheya81

Is it me or is this the longest week ever?!

It really does seem like this week is dragging, but maybe that's because I know it's payday tomorrow and then a long weekend. I've already sorted out my to do list for the weekend which looks something like.

Paint out feature wall in the living room with leftover paint - the feature wall is dark purple and sucks the light out of the room.
Re-seal windows - The building's relatively new and the sealant keeps poping. You'd be surprised how drafty it makes the appartment in winter.
Make thick blinds - For keeping the heat in this winter. I have lots of left over fabric so I hope I won't have to buy much.
Start making pressents for Christmas - I need to start on the blanket I'm going to make for my mom among other things.
Finish current painting - I'm still practicing on PS but I should be up to a sellable quality soon. I just need to look into how I'm going to make prints. As long as I'm not selling them for mega bucks I should be able to home print but I need to look into costs etc.
Get boxes out of the attic - I have a couple of ornaments etc. to sell on ebay but I need the boxes out of the attic to do it.

I'll also need to package my ebay sales and get a whole new batch on for next Sunday. It's off but my ebay pile seems to be getting bigger not smaller. I know I keep adding little buts to it but I'm certain that I'm back up to 100 items again and that can't be right!
Hopefully I'll make my first Loan overpayments with the proceeds of my eBaying tomorrow. It's silly but I'm so excited. This overpayment alone should pull my loan free date one month closer. That's one month closer to being able to buy the things that I want with my own money instead of buying them with the credit card like I have done in the past.
Humm I think I just hit on my Christmas goal... to not use my credit card for ANY of my Christmas shopping. I've never managed it before but maybe as I'm starting so early and I'm staying home I'll manage it this year.

Amatheya81

It's pay day!!! :beer: (Finaly!!)

I've reached pay day at last and have made my first loan overpayment :j I've paid off £141.81 on my loan which has chaged the finish date from April'13 to March'13. I need to pay off about another £300 to pull it back to Feb'13 which is my next goal. I've got another £608.19 to go on my pay off £750 by the end of the year challenge, which works out at £152.05 per month. So this is my goal for next month although I think it will be a little more difficult that this month as I have no more big ticket items to sell.

So, goal for September - Pay £152.05 off my loan. I'll do this by...

- Listing more items on ebay every Sunday.
- Ask mom to have a clear out and give me all her old junk instead of throwing it so that I can eBay it.
- Have a even more bruital clear out of the flat, just in case I missed anything (I've been eyeing up all the old Disney DVD's I never watch... I think if I need to I will throw them on the sacrifical pile! lol)
- List some of my ratty card designs on Folksey.
- Produce at least 1 print of sellable quality by the end of the month. (I'm about half way through one now.)
- Do as many paid surveys as possible.
- Play Bingo whenevery I'm not doing anything else (and get Peanut the rat to cross his lucky tail for a win )
- Put my £30 Birthday money from mom in the pot.
- Try to have a cheap month so that I can put all unused pay in the loan repayment pot... Don't think I will be ver sucessfull at this as I've got a team meal, birthday party, hen weekend, wedding, and hockey match to go to but on the bright side I've already got outfits for everything in the sales I just need to run around the charity shops for some matching shoes :beer:

Humm... it looks like I will be having a busy month as I will also be starting to knit a throw for my mothers Christmas hamper, finishing a cross stitch for her birthday, Making new blinds for the flat, making a family tree book for a friends Christmas present, and taking on more responsiblility at work. I feel tired just thinking about it all!

Speaking of Christmas, I had a word with my mother last night and agreed a £30 limit on Christmas this year. This is good as I usually go over the top just because I love christmas so much but it also means that I'm going to have to do a lot of shopping around and topping up with crafty pressents. It's a good thing I've started early! :rotfl: