Boarding the Bus of Positivity (for 24 months of travels!)

debtfreesomeday

Yes, I felt obliged to remind one winning bidder the ethos behind ebay. I wouldn't have minded so much, but it seems people have forgotten their manners lately and don't bother being polite; or is that just me getting old??

I had two emails last night regarding the pushchair I'm selling. Both worded badly, one written in 'text speak' and both without any niceties. As it is, bids are currently at £67 so I'm glad I didn't have to take their pretty poor offers.

On a plus side of ebay, I have had a BIN sell for £19.99 (with free delivery so about £14 profit). I think this is the 4th or 5th time I've relisted this one, so it is worth trying again sometimes.

Still awaiting payment on two items. Oh, and the lady who bought some garden stuff from us locally failed to show last night too. :mad: I received an email from her this afternoon saying simply "I didn't make it last night." (no? really?). "Will be there tonight". Good job we're in eh?!

debtfreesomeday

The buyer turned up for the items tonight and duly paid £25, although didn't have the right money so we had to scrabble around for change. That money is going in the bank account tomorrow as it has already been paid off the credit card.

I've complete one £3 survey today and have just done a few more for points towards a £10 amazon voucher tonight. I'm a way off yet though as seem to get screened out of a lot more these days.

I've looked through the remaning bits I have for ebay and have decided to leave it until the autumn to sell these as most of them are more wintry items, such as baby coats, thicker jumpers etc.

I will be listing IL's items at the weekend though. No - am doing it through my account Chocs; MIL is elderly and in poor health so she wouldn't know where to start!

We have some local events to attend this weekend, hopefully the weather will improve in time for them!

debtfreesomeday

Well the ebay buyer finally paid off but not before I'd opened a case and told them I would be opening a second chance offer. Second chance offer was taken up quickly and buyer was really appreciative, so original winning bidder has been refunded.

I listed a BIN last night for £19.99 with free postage and it was sold overnight, so another £15 or so profit to go towards the credit card. Once all of the pending paypal payments have hit the bank account I'll pay it off the credit card.

I've spent £29.99 this morning on a little tikes cozy coupe from the grabbit board for DS's christmas gift, but also got a £10 voucher back for free with Mothercare's price match offer, so it was technically only £19.99. A real bargain for this item as they're usually £40 - £55. He'll be so excited to receive this, I can't wait to see his face when he opens it!

debtfreesomeday

Another £40 off the credit card today, paid with some of the eBay money. I've used another £40 of it to pay for Dh's birthday gift. I have two auctions ending today which are currently making another £78 or so, so that will be another little chunk off the card.

Chocforever

You are really chipping away at that credit card balance. I hope you get a surge of bids later today.

I have had another expensive day. I bought a bike a couple of weeks ago because it doesn't look like I am going to get my driving license back anytime soon and just running errands around town is getting very time consuming.

I got a very good deal on the bike itself because it was an end of line model I got from a dealer online.

I went to a bike shop today to get all the necessary accessories; lock, mudguards, bag, pump and lights. They will cost at least 50% of the amount I paid for the bike!

The bike shop was full of gear for mountain and serious biking. I would have preferred a removable metal basket to go under the handlebars which I could put my handbag in. Apparently the style of my bike restricts which baskets I could have and my only option was one that could only carry a very light weight. I didn't dare ask if my handbag came within this category, but I suspect it doesn't.

So I have ended up with a heavier duty bag which looks like a big camera bag. Apparently this is more sturdy so will not affect the stability or steering of the bike. He told me it was waterproof. I nodded thinking that if it was raining that hard, I probably wouldn't be on the bike.

When I think of what I used to spend on the car, petrol, road tax and insurance, the bike won't cost that much really. I just hope I will get into the habit of using it. If not, there is always Ebay!

Chocforever

Hi DFSD

I hope everything is OK with you. I feel like I have settled in the new place, I have bought all the bits I needed (and a few I just wanted) and I am getting back to normal.

I can't believe it is still raining. Are you managing to get out and about a bit with DS?

debtfreesomeday

I hope you've had better weather to use the bike Chocs! It's been absolutely horrible and wet here, as most of the country I believe. What a summer so far. I hope it improves soon, everybody seems very down about the weather now.

The ebay bids ended a week or so ago and I was pretty pleased with the results. The pushchair went for £82 which was an excellent result as it wasn't much more than that new! I paid the money straight off the credit card after taking the postage and fees out. This meant a nice little extra payment towards the card.

For the first time in ages, I presently don't have anything listed on ebay, except for my MIL's items which are ending today. A lot of things she bagged up weren't really suitable for selling, so the charity shop (and the bin!) have had some of the other bits.

Tonight we have been talking budget. It's got to the middle of the month and again we are overdrawn. We really need to manage our money better. I get so determined to pay as much as I can off the credit card that it means we're short in the main bank account. We have had a couple of unexpected expenses this month and no savings to cover them. We changed energy supplier back a few months ago and, I bore you with the detail, but we're having trouble with them - no shock - so we are currently paying both our old and new supplier, both of which owe use money. We will get it back eventually but the've told me it could take a month to sort out. Grrrr. :mad:

We should have a bit more money coming in this month as we have reduced our childcare voucher payments by £40 from this month as we were overpaying. I have also worked a little bit of overtime. I am extremely annoyed, as I was informed AFTER working the overtime that I will only be paid single time, not the usual time and a half/double time. There's no particular justification for this, just the manager's throwing their weight around and doing it 'beacause they can'. I am not the only one affected or annoyed by this, so we shall see what becomes of it. There's no point me dwelling on it to be honest, but I shan't be working any further overtime until it's sorted.

Tonight I have downloaded the EEBA app which looks really helpful. It's basically an envelope budgeting system to keep track of spending. I'm itching to use it now, but it will have to wait until we actually have some money in the bank!

debtfreesomeday

The car needed petrol today so that's another £48 gone. :eek: Hopefully that should last us a good 10 days now if we're careful to use the car as little as possible.

debtfreesomeday

The overdraft is just getting bigger and bigger at the moment. Things to pay for just keep stacking up at the moment, the overdraft is not going to be pretty by the time we get paid. It's currently hit the £200+ mark.

I have all but run out of suitable things to ebay too. I could probably gather 3 or 4 things together but that's about all. I have some items which will be ok to sell in a couple of months as they are wintry bits and bobs, but there's little point listing them now.

We also have company coming to stay this weekend, as well as hubby's birthday next week. I have his gift sorted, but we shall need to spend a bit on ingredients for catering for people etc. We have to try and keep it as cheap as possible.

Feeling very blue about the lack of money at the moment.

Chocforever

Hi

Sorry you are feeling down about it.

You were doing really well last month. Are there more one off expenses this month?

I know I should not wish for time to go faster than it already does but it is already the 17th of the month. I recall you get paid before the end of each month so hopefully you don't have too long to last until then.

Best wishes