Learning to Live on Less!

White_Iris

Had a chat with DH this morning, about saving for a new house and he's really on board with saving (which is a relief because sometimes he lacks momentum when it comes to starting a financial challenge) but is a bit intimidated by the amount we need to save.

Our first target is £5k which we really need to achieve by the end of 2014 as we're hoping to sell our old house then (as our third party lender has stated we can only rent it out for 24 months - I think we could successfully dispute this if the housing market is still weak, but that's a post for another day). If the housing market doesn't improve in the next 18 months and we definitely have to sell, then we may only be able to sell at break-even price and the £5k would be a safety net to cover selling fees.

Once we've sold it'll be time to save for the new place. I have guess-timated we'll need about £4k for buying costs and stamp duty and around £15-20k deposit for the next place. By this time I should be back at work so we've agreed that all my wages will go towards the new house, so we should be able to save this in about 3 years. Which is good news, because I want us to be in a position to buy by the time we're 40 in 2017!

Oh and I'd quite like to pay off the new loan we've taken out a few months early, Dec 2017 instead of April 2018, so that's another £1600ish to find!

Wow, that's a lot of money to save in 4 years :eek: better get cracking with eBay!

White_Iris

£14 claimed from surveys over the past few days! That's almost as much as I've made from eBay this month! Also weighed and photographed about 10 more items to list on eBay - I'll try to get that done this evening.

White_Iris

Just got a parcel of girls clothes for my DD from eBay. Described as being in good condition about half of it is the wrong size, stained, damaged or so bobbled I wouldn't dream of letting her wear it! :mad:

Most of what's left is just plain cheap and nasty, so out of quite a large bundle that I paid nearly £20 for (incl. P&P) there are probably only 5 wearable items. I know £20 doesn't seem a lot of money but to me it's more than I can afford to waste.

I've just sent what I hope was a firm but friendly message to the seller as for a part refund and I keep what's salvageable or for her to arrange a courier to collect the whole lot and give me a full refund - we'll see what she says next. :mad:

debtfreewannabe321

Oh no I hope seller does the right thing! I bought a bundle once of boys clothes for my eldest and that was the same, all out of shape, had been worn to it's death and lots of different sizes even though it stated one age! I got all of my money back after disputing it and she told me to keep it! I put nearly everything in the recycling/charity shop pile as it was really that bad ! Luckily all other bundles i've had have been good so only one bad one xx

White_Iris

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

Oh no I hope seller does the right thing! I bought a bundle once of boys clothes for my eldest and that was the same, all out of shape, had been worn to it's death and lots of different sizes even though it stated one age! I got all of my money back after disputing it and she told me to keep it! I put nearly everything in the recycling/charity shop pile as it was really that bad ! Luckily all other bundles i've had have been good so only one bad one xx

It's the first time I've bought a bundle, normally I like things with nice close up photos that I can scrutinize. I should have been more cautious as she just used one group photo with a lot of the stuff overlapping so you couldn't see everything clearly and her descriptions were a bit vague too. But with postage costs being so high I thought it would be worth a shot - I'll be much more discerning next time!

On the bright side she has agreed to a 50% refund but she doesn't have the money at the moment and she's asking me to wait for the refund. I'll give her a week and then start making a fuss I think.

White_Iris

Well she's refunded and included 50% of the postage costs as well, which wasn't expected but I'm not arguing! The odd thing though is that my PayPal balance is showing as £0.00, where it should be about £12. I'll check again this afternoon and if it's still not showing I'll get in touch with them to find out where my moneys gone!

debtfreewannabe321

I hope the money shows soon! Yay she did do the right thing, perhaps she is a little blind and really thought the clothes were in good condition?

Well done to all the money from surveys, I haven't done them in forever! I kept getting half way through and it would kick me off so i gave up! I might see if i can remember my passwords and have another go xx

White_Iris

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

I hope the money shows soon! Yay she did do the right thing, perhaps she is a little blind and really thought the clothes were in good condition?

Well done to all the money from surveys, I haven't done them in forever! I kept getting half way through and it would kick me off so i gave up! I might see if i can remember my passwords and have another go xx

I've emailed PayPal so we shall see what they say about the missing money!

I've decided to be a bit more selective about the survey sites I use and ditch the ones that don't pay out for ages. If I can't get a payment after about five surveys then they're going. I just need to complete two more for Ipsos to get a voucher and then it's bye bye and I've already given OnePoll the boot, YouGov will be next I think. That leaves me with Pinecone and MySurvey, both of which I can get £3 payments from fairly quickly and easily.

White_Iris

PayPal issue resolved - a long and slightly complex reply but basically I should get the money by the end of Thursday.

White_Iris

It was my birthday at the end of last week and DH decided to arrange a night out on Saturday - a rare treat as we don't often go to the trouble of organising a baby sitter! Well, without going in to details, it was a bit of a wash-out and not at all what I would have chosen for a special birthday night out. Slightly disappointed that DH didn't think things through a little better (or consider what I actually like and don't like!) but I'm more upset about blowing through most of my birthday money on overpriced drinks and food :mad:

I did have a very good evening with eBay sales last night though, several items sold for much more than expected (always makes me a bit nervous, lets hope the buyer is happy!). I won't update my signature yet because I have postage and fees to deduct from the total but I think I can probably add about £50ish to the pot (not a fortune I know but I'm very pleased)