On the up (Hopefully)

sugarcube84

Ive just had a sort out of my jewellery box, ive got

- a decent white gold,sapphire and diamond band bought about 7years ago for about £200
- A gold chain with a yellow and white gold pendant with small diamond set in
-yellow gold and tanzanite cluster ring was about £70 new 5years ago
- either white gold or silver with a diamond ring bought 6years ago for about £200
- loads of chains some gold some silver some im not sure

What do i do? Do i take the decent pieces to a local jeweller to see if they will buy them or do i sell them for scrap.

What about the chains? take them as well or stick in an envelope to a cash for gold type site, do they even take silver?

Or do i just stick the whole lot in an envelope to one of those gold sites.

Any ideas????

sugarcube84

Just done some calculations about the car v van

Van estimated market value £2500 so at 50% thats £1250
Car estimated value £3500 but webuyanycar would byt it for £2440 if we needed to get rid quick if it wasnt selling privately.

So even allowing a bit for the increase in insurance we would be able to pay £1k off our debts, plus there is the reduced diesel costs to consider. It seems like a good idea doesnt it...

just checked the insurance :eek: £682 more expensive than the 4x4 so we would have to save at leats £60 in fuel to make it viable, the tax on the 4 x 4 is low due to age but ill check how much of a saving for the van but still thats scarily expensive!!

sugarcube84

Just done my meal planner for up until we go away, dont need much which is good. Think im going to nip to lidl and then to either asda or tesco, ive got a £4 voucher for Tesco but ill be shopping at Tesco next week when i go away so wanted to save it. Will check mysupermarket for which will be cheapest in a minute.

Got home last night and found id been sent £3 of luncheon vouchers for doing a survey and a couple of shampoo and condirioner freebies.All good!!!

Hubby enrolled at uni last night so he now offiicall a student (even if just a part time one!)

No other news off to check the freebies and banks

sugarcube84

Went shopping last night, i went to lidl first as i planned and managed to get the majority of my shopping cheaper than if id gone to asda first (how good is mysupermarket!!:D) then had to go to asda to get the last few items scourers, swim nappies, smartprice shampoo and conditioner and smartprice cookies.

So total spent

lidl- £27.09
asda - £7...something
Total - At most £35, really happy with that as i have got more than a months worth of items like the shampoo, scourers, toilet rolls, coffee and enough food combined with what ive already got to last until Monday and to not have to go shopping on the friday night we get back or even the Saturday, and stuff to make soup to freeze.

Must admit i liked lidl it was lovely and quiet and i got my shopping done so much faster it was also nice having some new items to choose from like the cold meats, the salami is lovely, must nicer than other supermarkets!!

The items on ebay are doing well £55.95 at my last check and they still have 4 hrs to go, plus we put them on when it was free insertion so not loads to take off in fees.

The surveys are going well so far since i started them at the end of sept ive got

£3 luncheon voucher
£2.25 (need to get to £10 for payout)
160 points (need 1380 for a £10 voucher so worth about £1.16)

Started the free bingo but ive been finding ive just not got the time as i cant do them from my work computer perhaps over the weekend.

Thats about it ive updated my sig, £35 spent on food so far and £39 pounds from the £5 a day challenge, so far thats paying for my shopping!!!:T

savingholmes

Hi SC - on the gold - I would take it to a jeweller first - and check out online how much an ounce the other post your gold sites pay. Martin has a gold selling guide I think and he found most jewellers paid better prices than the post away ones. If they have jewels in - they are also worth something. It may be worth finding out what your second hand jewellery shop would pay for them and what they go for on ebay before making a decision

Well done on the LIDL stuff. We don't have a LIDL - we have an ALDI but I've never been that convinced there much difference between them and Mr As. I do like Aldi's cold meat section tho

With cars/vans it is always a big decision what to do - sometimes you have to weigh up the pros and cons and then just make a decision and go for it. How well has the van been maintained? Is it reliable?

Great you are doing well on the Make £ challenge

sugarcube84

I think hubby has plans to take the jewellery to a secondhand place in town he just wants to be sure that im ok selling it, which i am i mean i never wear it and forget its there most of the time so it may as well earn us a few extra pennies.

The van is 4 years newer than our car and well maintained and reliable (his dad doesnt scrimp on stuff like tyres so it will have had the best on) its not been hammered and been used within the surrounding 20 miles for work. I just worry that short term we would be better off, being able to pay a chunck off the debt, but next year if insurance rises again we would be stuck, monthly we probably wouldnt be saving anything.

I have also made a big decision (well hubby thinks its a big one i think its a no brainer) im selling my wedding dress! Ive been told i could make around £400 so less dry cleaning and courier that means it will give me at least £300. Im not bothered about selling it, ill never wear it again so again the pennies will be more useful. Though i may say to hubby that when we have paid off the debts we will go shopping and buy me a nice bit of jewellery so its like i sold my dress to buy something that will last and remind me of the wedding.

sugarcube84

well thats the wedding dress gone,it was picked up by a courier this afternoon and has gone to be cleaned before going to the shop to be sold. Little bit sad but hopefully someone will enjoy wearing it as much as i did.

Cheques came through from Scottish power so they have been banked along with the money from the penny jar.

We are going away tonight!! Woohoo!! Almost finished packing and just finishing off a packed lunch for the drive tomorrow (we are staying halfway tonight and finishing it off tomorrow) get me! a few months ago i would have just stopped and got food at a service station now ive packing a lunch including homemade scones and cookies!!

Going to update my sig with my updated £5/day challenge total and grocery total and then im signig off til next weekend. Going to have a lovely relaxing holiday, internet/emails are banned and holiday spends has been withdrawn from the bank so we can relax and hopefully (!) not overspend, its so much easier overspending when you just use your card for everything.

Have a good week everyone!

savingholmes

Have a lovely time away

some big decisions there - re wedding dress and jewellery! Hope you get what you need for them.

sugarcube84

Im back!!!!! Had a lovely holiday, really relaxing, didnt do much although we did go to the zoo. We managed to stay within the holiday budget, hubby didnt though as he treated me to a massage at the spa for my belated birthday prezzie, but never mind.I enjoyed it and it just means that any overpayments will be a bit smaller this month.

Had a big row over money yesterday , hubby thinks im going a bit far with things so i laid it on the table

- how big the debts are
- how long they will take to clear if we just carry on as we are which ultimately means no new car for hubby when he finishes uni and putting baby number 2 on hold for longer, no holiday abroad in the near future and no moving house.

I think this really got to him as he has been a bit quiet since but he has listed a load of stuff on ebay so hopefully he is putting his sulking to good use.

Wedding dress arrived at the cleaners ok and is only minimally marked so should come up as good as new but it will take 4-8 weeks. Im not counting on this money yet its going to be a nice bonus whenever i get it so im going to forget about it for now. We havent had chance to do anything with the jewellery yet, depending on how busy hubby is this weekend we might nip into town and go to a couple of independent jewellers or it might have to wait.

I have caught up on my emails and surveys and checked the banks, just need to do a meal planner for the week and nip to the supermarket although i have got enough in for tonight and tomorrow but i need milk so i might as well do it all at once.

Thats it off to catch up hope everyone has been ok.

savingholmes

HI SC glad you had a good holiday. Hope your OH responds well to the chat...