Learning to Live on Less!

White_Iris

Well, according to the estate agent they really, really loved it but they have their own property to sell, so no offer yet. Positive but I'm not planning the move just yet!

White_Iris

I think I'm going to struggle to meet my financial targets this month. My first lot of eBay items ended last night with no bids, first time in ages I haven't sold anything :-( Still I've relisted it all and have a few watchers, so maybe it'll go second time around. I've also got some items finishing on Saturday and although I do have some bids we're only up to £5.50 so far.

In the spirit of decluttering DH and I have decided to cut back on the number of TV programmes we watch. We did have about a dozen we followed (mostly american crime dramas) but most were starting to become predicatable and unrealistic and we realised we were only watching them out of habit. So we culled them, deleted them from out Sky+ planner and now we only watch about 4 or 5, in fact we had a whole evening of no TV yesterday and we both sat and read instead. I can't remember the last time we did that.

lucielle

I love evenings like that.
L

White_Iris

So, we had another phone call from our estate agent last night telling us that the people who came to see our house have told them that once their house is sold (they're putting it on the market on Monday) they will make an offer on ours :j The first positive house news we've had since it went on the market 13 months ago (although there is still some way to go before the good news becomes a firm offer).

Now this has got me a little paniced, as although we've come a long way with the de-cluttering, we still have more stuff than I want to move, including three or four large items of furniture which would be better sold before the move.

So I'm targetting the clutter hot-spots again (utility room and spare bedroom) - I've already got a few things on Freecycle, earmarked some more to go after I've ok-ed it with DH and have about a half dozen items to list on eBay this weekend, once I confirm it's free listing again. I'm also going to look at areas I've already gone through to do a bit more fine tuning and check through the things I've packed away to eBay over winter, to see if it is all suitable quality or if any of it would be better going to charity.

Busy, busy, busy!

White_Iris

£6 made from surveys this week and £15 made on eBay yesterday. A good start and means about half a dozen things have left the house but I've still got a long way to go to reach this months targets.

Quick up-date...
1 - utility room has been decluttered
2 - half of freecycle things have been collected (remained will be thrown away/recycled if not taken by next weekend)
3 - all ebay inventory is listed bar three items which I need to photograph
4 - cleared away mountain of empty boxes and packing materials in spare room which I was hoarding in case I needed it for eBay sales

Still to do...
1 - organise top two shelves in cupboard in spare bedroom
2 - decide whether to keep or give/throw away the two spare pillows
3 - decide whether to keep or give away/sell the spare duvet coverset for the sofa bed
4 - photograph and list the last three eBay items
5 - nag/encourage DH to get his stuff listed on eBay

White_Iris

White_Iris wrote: »

Still to do...
1 - organise top two shelves in cupboard in spare bedroom
2 - decide whether to keep or give/throw away the two spare pillows
3 - decide whether to keep or give away/sell the spare duvet cover set for the sofa bed
4 - photograph and list the last three eBay items
5 - nag/encourage DH to get his stuff listed on eBay

As it's Fathers Day I've sent DH out for a few hours to play on his bike, so as long as the children have a peaceful morning I may tackle item #1, or at least one of the shelves. I'll certainly be able to get two of the last three eBay items photographed and listed but the third required some assembly and I don't think I'll have the time/space to do it today. I might also get some of DHs things photographed and listed for him, since I'm feeling generous (plus it mens stuff out and money in, always good!).

The pillows (item #2) have been listed on Freecycle and if they don't get requested in a week then they'll get thrown out. I'll also list the spare bedding set and put it in the charity bag if no one is interested.

DH and I were talking about the possibe house move last night, deciding what furniture we'll take and what we can throw away or sell, and I was quite surprised by what he agreed to get rid of. Things that currently serve no purpose other than to look nice; an empty bureau in our bedroom that we put the alarm clock on, an empty blanket box we're using to keep the children away from the broadband wires and an empty chest of drawers in the dining room that we've put the radio and a lamp on...notice an "empty" theme! It seems like moving house should be a breeze, we even talked about selling our bed (something we've wanted to replace for a while) before the move and living with a mattress on the floor afterwards, until we could find a suitable replacement! I just hope we can resist the urge to buy replacement 'stuff' once we're in the new house.

White_Iris

Well I've just learnt a valuable lesson about reading paperwork properly! Got my tax credit annual review and after flicking through it, thought I needed to phone them to confirm our income for last year. After five minutes on hold I started to read it properly and realised that actually, I don't need to phone at all At least it was only five minutes wasted, I could have been on hold for hours!

Managed to get all my eBay stuff listed last night. Had a few sales yesterday and I'm still waiting for two buyers to pay but everything else now finishes at the end of the week, so I can stop checking it every five minutes :rotfl:

DH didn't manage to get his stuff on eBay but he did sell some bike bits on another forum, so I can't be too cross. Unfortunately the money is earmarked for more bike stuff but at least he's got the idea of selling the old to buy new

So this week will mainly be sorting out the cupboard in the spare bedroom, shouldn't take too long but it's a case of emptying everything out and making a big mess before it can get sorted and tidied away again.

White_Iris

Grrrrr :mad: I could kick myself. For the first time ever, I've messed up postage and significantly undercharged. Fortunately it was only for 2 items, unfortunately they only sold for 99p, so with the postage mistake and eBay fees I've ended up selling them for about 20p each . Still, could be worse, at least I still made a teeny bit of profit.

debtfreewannabe321

afternoon iris, I have also culled lots of programmes from my sky + planner! One being eastenders which i have watched since the beginning, but purely out of habit really. It is depressing as hell and never any fun lol

Great news on the prospective buyers it shows the house is ready to sell and hopefully you will get someone through the door now that is ready to buy right away xx

White_Iris

Top shelf of the cupboard cleared and a few bits put in the charity/freecycle pile.

Trying to decide whether to bother with the second shelf as it's toys the children are too young for, so it'll either all be put back again or give me more for the eBay pile which I'm trying to get rid of before the summer holidays.

Think I'll leave it for now and maybe tackle it when I can see the bed in the spare room again, once the eBay stuff has gone.