Getting back on track

peaceandfreedom

jwil wrote: »

Thanks Brizzle and Penny, it helps to vent.

Little jwil slept better last night, so I'm feeling better on that front today. A payment I thought would bounce hasn't done, so that's also a huge relief. It does mean I'm overdrawn, but that is a lesser evil than the payment bouncing. I can work on paying that back now.

So all in all, I'm feeling a little better this morning.

I'm here and organised and ready to list. Let's see how far I can get today.

I will seriously consider the time off. I don't get any time on my own really, so think it will be valuable.

Have a good one everyone.

Hi Jwil,

Glad baby Jwil had a good night and therefore so did you.

I think a couple of days off to spend time alone to make plans and get things straight sounds like a great idea. Sometimes, you just need that bit of space and a bit of down-time. When you are a working Mum, you don't get very much time alone nor much time to yourself. And you do so much, Jwil, in addition to working and being a lovely Mum to baby Jwil.

I need to follow your example and get stuck into a bit of ebaying, I just can't seem to get myself started. But I hope some of your energy and dedication will rub off on me.

jwil

Thanks P&F. I'm going to try and build up a bit of flexi so I can take part of it as that and then use less leave. It will be nice to do I think.

jwil

Well I managed 42 listings for me on Thursday and about 21 for DH :T

Mine were a little experiment really, as I wasn't sure the items would sell. 3 were bid on almost immediately and now have been bid up to almost £10 from 99p starts :T I have loads of this item and so there's hope now!

The last couple of days have been a bit up and down. I've had some good sales on ebay which has been nice, and I've uploaded a few more listings.

Little jwil had a little accident though, and I've been feeling very bad about that. It's nothing serious and he's fine, but it shouldn't have happened.

Going to spend today listing listing listing!

Have a good weekend everyone

pennywisepoundstupid

Hi jwil, well done on the ebay listings

Don't beat yourself up about the accident, KIDS have accidents and we can't watch them 24/7. Like you have said he is fine, he will be getting to that inquisitive age where they are into everything and anything, there is not a mum alive that hasn't said " I only looked away for a minute and they did such and such", my son is now 10 and some of the stupid things he has done amaze me, but that's boys I'm afraid and let's face it even when they grow up into men they still have silly accidents.

Take care.x.

DedicatedDFW

Hi jwil,

Huge ((hugs)) i am so sorry to hear about your friend x The time off to yourself sounds good - especially i you are able to build up any flexi time to help with the amount of leave you need to take.

I would say have a clear idea of what you want to achieve on your day off then you won't feel like its a 'wasted' day if things don't go to plan. I only say this as a friend of mine who has a little one in nursery recently took a weeks holiday to clean the house from top to bottom (getting rid of anything not needed along the way) and she just watched tv and had an afternoon nap most of the week. She's now back in work with the house still in the same state :eek: I did say she may well have just needed the sleep but I know she needed to get the house sorted to feel better about coming home each day without as much to do and now she is thinking she can't take more time off for this x

Listings, sales, and survey acceptance all sound good :T

Regarding the spends, you can maybe use some of the sales income to redress some of that and also i guess you are thinking (as you have multiples of the items) you can offer 2nd chance offers to those nearet the highest bid at the end? Should clear some funds into your account fairly quickly. But we all have blips with the spending - the important thing is you've recognised it and are trying to do something about it. Is there anything you can return? Not the takeaway of course As that will reduce the overall amount and anywhere you can tighten the spending belt at all? I have become alot more focused on the food spend - we do buy alcohol every week so i aim for £50 now and sometimes aim for less too but if there is a bargain on meat or fish i tend to buy it. But i do consider every single spend now down to assessing each item in the trolley that wasn't on the list - is it really a bargain? Can it wait until another time? etc.

Wise words from PWPS - kids have accidents, we all do and of course you will feel bad when it happens but try not to beat yourself up too much hon xx

Hope its a good weekend for you and thank you so much for your advice xx

jwil

pennywisepoundstupid wrote: »

Hi jwil, well done on the ebay listings

Don't beat yourself up about the accident, KIDS have accidents and we can't watch them 24/7. Like you have said he is fine, he will be getting to that inquisitive age where they are into everything and anything, there is not a mum alive that hasn't said " I only looked away for a minute and they did such and such", my son is now 10 and some of the stupid things he has done amaze me, but that's boys I'm afraid and let's face it even when they grow up into men they still have silly accidents.

Take care.x.

Thanks penny

DedicatedDFW wrote: »

Hi jwil,

Huge ((hugs)) i am so sorry to hear about your friend x The time off to yourself sounds good - especially i you are able to build up any flexi time to help with the amount of leave you need to take.

I would say have a clear idea of what you want to achieve on your day off then you won't feel like its a 'wasted' day if things don't go to plan. I only say this as a friend of mine who has a little one in nursery recently took a weeks holiday to clean the house from top to bottom (getting rid of anything not needed along the way) and she just watched tv and had an afternoon nap most of the week. She's now back in work with the house still in the same state :eek: I did say she may well have just needed the sleep but I know she needed to get the house sorted to feel better about coming home each day without as much to do and now she is thinking she can't take more time off for this x

Listings, sales, and survey acceptance all sound good :T

Regarding the spends, you can maybe use some of the sales income to redress some of that and also i guess you are thinking (as you have multiples of the items) you can offer 2nd chance offers to those nearet the highest bid at the end? Should clear some funds into your account fairly quickly. But we all have blips with the spending - the important thing is you've recognised it and are trying to do something about it. Is there anything you can return? Not the takeaway of course As that will reduce the overall amount and anywhere you can tighten the spending belt at all? I have become alot more focused on the food spend - we do buy alcohol every week so i aim for £50 now and sometimes aim for less too but if there is a bargain on meat or fish i tend to buy it. But i do consider every single spend now down to assessing each item in the trolley that wasn't on the list - is it really a bargain? Can it wait until another time? etc.

Wise words from PWPS - kids have accidents, we all do and of course you will feel bad when it happens but try not to beat yourself up too much hon xx

Hope its a good weekend for you and thank you so much for your advice xx

Thanks DDFW

Yes, I will certainly have a plan for the time off if I take it. I never sleep in the day so that's not an issue, but I will need to keep away from the computer as that's what slows me down.

It's not duplicates for sale, but are similar items, so not suitable for 2nd chance offers. (Not that I've ever been successful on the odd occasion I've tried it!).

There's nothing I can return as it's not 'stuff'. It's things like needing more fuel, groceries, general day to day costs. Everything running out at the same time etc.

The thing that annoys me is that I am recouping daily spends with my sales - I'm not making any progress with the debts. I know you know what it feels like. I do all this work, but haven't overpaid my debt by a penny

Oh, I'm getting all whiney again Sorry!

jwil

Hey everyone, hope you had a good weekend.

I've been very busy and lots of listing and sales! Still haven't made any progress, but hey ho.

The new ebay changes come into force today, so will have to make a new plan.

Interestingly my account was still showing the 99p listings allowance, AND 20 free listings, AND 20 free scheduled listings :huh: I'm intrigued about that. May have a visit to the ebay board and see what everyone is saying.

I've got another 25 items selling today :T Fingers crossed for some more. I've got loads of packing to do now though.

DedicatedDFW

jwil wrote: »

The thing that annoys me is that I am recouping daily spends with my sales - I'm not making any progress with the debts. I know you know what it feels like. I do all this work, but haven't overpaid my debt by a penny

Oh, I'm getting all whiney again Sorry!

You are not getting whiney hon. OK i am sure you have done this but with your soa does your fixed income meet your outgoings?

I had to get myself in a position where i knew my income would cover all my regular outgoings, this included minimum payments to debt - part of how i did this was frugal shopping so i reduced spends that way so the books would balance. I then targeted 1 card (most of my debts were cards) And i checked my banking every single day. Any time any extra money came in i paid it straight off the targeted account. There may have been the odd blip where i'd overspent on food so had to use the income to level things out but overall i was making extra payments and the balance was reducing. There really was no room for error / extras. But the logging in and automatically moving money over is one of the biggest things to getting me to debt freedom. I knew my numbers so that extra was extra for me and so was paid to the debt - no buffer just in case etc. Of course once that target was gone - and i had several, i could snowball (?) the money from that bill onto the next account so was already making headway before any extra income.

I know i am probably telling you what you already know but this was a huge thing for me in getting the debts paid off and it was motivating and felt good - even if it was just £1 i was paying :cool:

jwil wrote: »

Hey everyone, hope you had a good weekend.

I've been very busy and lots of listing and sales! Still haven't made any progress, but hey ho.

The new ebay changes come into force today, so will have to make a new plan.

Interestingly my account was still showing the 99p listings allowance, AND 20 free listings, AND 20 free scheduled listings :huh: I'm intrigued about that. May have a visit to the ebay board and see what everyone is saying.

I've got another 25 items selling today :T Fingers crossed for some more. I've got loads of packing to do now though.

Let me know if you find anything out about the changes

And :j:j:j to those sales - decluttering and money making :T I have only sold about 8 things so far and everything finishes tonight pretty much :eek:

jwil

DedicatedDFW wrote: »

does your fixed income meet your outgoings?

Nope, and herein lies the problem Everything I do balances things rather than reducing them.

Oh well, I guess it's not getting worse at least. It's got to get to a point somewhere where I actually make progress.

DedicatedDFW

jwil wrote: »

Nope, and herein lies the problem Everything I do balances things rather than reducing them.

Oh well, I guess it's not getting worse at least. It's got to get to a point somewhere where I actually make progress.

That is really difficult - i am in the same position now. Do you have the figure of what your shortfall is each month?

I ask because i don't really as there is the stuff i don't budget for that causes the shortfall - car, utility bills, presents, etc.

xx