Mrs ashamed

sweetpea26

Hi Mrs A

How are you ? Hope all going well for you.

Lesleyzz1

Hi Sweetpea.
Still off work with bad back so haven't had chance to go out shopping hehehe!
Get paid next week so am going to pay as much as i can off debt. I have dog in at vets next week though so that may set me back. However in the past I would have put the vet bill on credit card which I am NOT going to do this time. Ive worked out that if I don't spend beyond my means I can cut at least two years off the overall time it will take me to pay off my debts - ie 3 years instead of 6 or 36 months instead of 72!!!!
How about you Sweetpea???:):)

PlymouthDad

Good morning Lesley,

Great to see another diary. They keep me inspired as I've only just started my recovery too. You have nothing to feel ashamed about. I however do. I lost half of my debt (£25 of £50k) gambling. The single most selfish thing you can do. That is real deceit.

But alas I am not going to think about the past, only the future. I'm going the DMP route as I cant snowball anymore due to using up all my credit and be refused for new credit (rightly so too)

Good luck and keep going!

Lesleyzz1

PlymouthDad wrote: »

Good morning Lesley,

Great to see another diary. They keep me inspired as I've only just started my recovery too. You have nothing to feel ashamed about. I however do. I lost half of my debt (£25 of £50k) gambling. The single most selfish thing you can do. That is real deceit.

But alas I am not going to think about the past, only the future. I'm going the DMP route as I cant snowball anymore due to using up all my credit and be refused for new credit (rightly so too)

Good luck and keep going!

Hi Plymouth Dad.
I think the main thing here is that we have both realised there is a problem and have started to do something about it. Its very difficult when there is such a long road ahead to getting back to where we should be ie not in loads of debt. I can hardly believe how easy it is to spend money that isnt yours that has to be paid back. Its an easy mess to get into but not out of!! And very easy to get drawn back into when you have a compulsion and tendency to ignore the problem.

Does anyone else know about the gambling or have you kept it to yourself?
Its good to be able to come on here and share experiences/get support from others even if its not face to face. Keep looking forwards and be positive. Thats what i am trying to do.
Xxx:):beer:

wayme

Lesleyzz1 wrote: »

I like the idea of selling unwanted stuff on ebay.I have lots of books and things I could put on there when I get the chance.

I would DEFINITELY recommend putting stuff on eBay, people will literally buy ANYTHING!

I once put a mini catalog that I got for FREE with a t-shirt I ordered on there and it went for £6 in the end. I eBay quite regularly now and i'm making about £100 - £200 every month which is really helping at the moment as my car is determined to bankrupt me!

Lesleyzz1

Hi Wayne.

I have a really demanding job and the only thing that puts me off is having time to do all the wrapping and posting etc. Do you find that this takes a lot of time up.???
Also, what sells best, clothes or house hould items etc. im a secondary school teacher so I have a week off for half term and was thinking of looking through stuff and giving it abit of a go putting some stuff on as a bit of a trial run. i could certainly do with an extra £100-200 p month to pay off my debt!!!x

wayme

Lesleyzz1 wrote: »

Hi Wayne.

I have a really demanding job and the only thing that puts me off is having time to do all the wrapping and posting etc. Do you find that this takes a lot of time up.???
Also, what sells best, clothes or house hould items etc. im a secondary school teacher so I have a week off for half term and was thinking of looking through stuff and giving it abit of a go putting some stuff on as a bit of a trial run. i could certainly do with an extra £100-200 p month to pay off my debt!!!x

Hi - it's WayMe, not WayNe btw. I'm a woman! (Everyone gets it wrong, so no worries!)

I work flexitime so I set off early in the morning and usually get home about 5/5:30 and I do my eBaying between about 7:30 - 8:30 (You'll find you attract more bids if you have an auction that finishes when everyones managed to get home from work and get on the comp.) I do it all using the iPhone eBay app because it's really easy and quick to use for me. I can take my pictures, add the listing etc. all with my phone and it's really easy. I take a bit of time to tidy stuff up as well when picturing it. If it's a bit dirty, clean it! You'll find that, Again lol, you'll attract more bids by taking a couple of minutes to clean it up and make it look more attractive to buyers.

I'm a warehouse manager so we get a lot of boxes lying around and I just use those when sending things. You can advise buyers of your handling time when listing so if you can only get to the Post Office maybe once a week then you can put your handling time as around 5 days say. If you're selling items that can be easily put into a bag / box then packaging it all up doesn't really take long. You can also pay for postage and print the postage labels off Paypal and just get the Post Office to stamp your proof of postage form (also from Paypal) to save you faffing about in the Post Office.

Things that sell really well for me are boardgames and retro toys. Basically any boardgames from 70's/80's/90's are really good. I sold a Dreamphone boardgame that I bought from a carboot a while ago for £2, for £32!

I put everything on with a 99p start. Everything I sell I want to get rid of so if it sells for 99p or 999999p it doesn't bother me. 99p is more then it was making sitting in my cupboard! Again, I find a low start with no reserve attracts more bidders....plus it's free to list items that start at 99p with no reserve!

I've sold clothes in the past and, obviously, brand names sell the best. I haven't really sold any household items either so can't really comment. But i'm guessing same rules apply, if it's in good nic and a brand then there's going to be people interested. You can also use the eBay advanced search tool to look at how much similar items have sold for in the past on there and see what kind of money you can make.

Another thing you might consider - when the weather is a tad better - is going to a carboot. I did one just before I moved last year and I made £200. I'm a Film Studies graduate so I had alot of DVDs which I sold for £1 each. Oo! Also thinking about people buying anything; I sold a carrier bag from Pandora at that car boot for £1. A CARRIER BAG FOR £1!!!! People will buy things like that for packaging maybe if they are reselling jewelry etc, so it's worth checking the worth of everything!

Think i've covered most things! Sorry for the essay. Most i've written since uni that!

Fmess

I'm a secondary school teacher and I eB4y. I usually list items between 4 and 7pm on a Sunday evening, and then if they sell I package them the following Sunday evening. I then put them in the car and post next time I pass a Post Office that is open.

I also start everything at 99p, then it costs you nothing if it doesn't sell. I sell anything and everything, including toiletries and empty old perfume bottles. For packaging, I use anything I have lying around the house; old shoe boxes, recycled envelopes or just wrap things in black bin bags. I'm sure people must think it's strange when my packages arrive but the contents are always as described I love the iPhone/iPad app, once you're good at it, it only takes 5 minutes to enter an item.

You should give it a go in half term. I love it