The Big Adventure

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

I am impressed with the reduction in your food spends, we really need to follow your example this year. As for your plans to widen your circle, we find we have the opposite problem - as we are married for the second time,we have some separate groups of friends, and some joint groups, and as a result have an awful lot of social occasions which sometimes gets a bit much. I also do exercise classes and belong to a choir so I always really enjoy some quiet time.

Do you have plans for more holidays when oh pension begins?

Goldiegirl

Secret_Saving_Squirrel wrote: »

Do you have plans for more holidays when oh pension begins?

We're away for 7 weeks in Feb / March 2017, so I think the rest of 2017 will be fairly quiet on the holiday front, as I'll need a bit of home time. But, after that, I think we'll be likely to have a few extra short breaks in the UK, maybe a cottage rental or B&B.


We want to try and make sure the additional money we receive is used for something significant like holidays, rather than having it swallowed up in normal day to day living

Goldiegirl

As I've mentioned before, we like doing jigsaws, and normally buy second hand on eBay.


It's a bit of a risk, as there could be missing pieces, but it's worked out well for us over the years. But, the last three puzzles we've done have all had missing pieces!


So, we've decided, we're going to cut down on the amount of jigsaws we do, and will just buy a new one from time to time, at least it has a better chance of having all the pieces.


Also, it fits in well with our theme of being more active, doing jigsaws is very sedentary.


It'll also mean less activity on eBay. Over the last few months, I've eBayed less, but I've had more difficult buyers than ever. Coupled with these unsatisfactory eBay purchases, it means the eBay love affair is well and truly over.


Another wet day here, so no walking achieved at all

greent

I've had more issues than ever before in recent months with ebay - silly questions, quite a few non-payers (compared to before) and 1 person refusing to sell an item to me because the winning bid I placed was too low! I shall still be doing the odd thing on there, but not as much as before
x

Karmacat

Oh my word ... I haven't used ebay these last 4 / 5 months or so - sounds like thats been a good thing! I've earmarked any selling activities I manage to do for the weekend only, and I'll definitely be going to facebook and gumtree. Ebay have had some wildly attractive offers (final fee of 1p per item) and now I can see why!

RoaringTwenties

I haven't sold on eBay for ages either, I too am glad now! It's an awful lot of faff these days unless the sale price is decent. I think if I do try it again I might try bundles & local collection as its mainly kids clothes I sell & they aren't costly first hand nowadays so the profit margin is low. Plus the hassle of schlepping to the Post Office & buyers complaining about the cost of postage, when you usually lose money on that too. Think I've just talked myself out of it again actually

Do you have one of those big boards for your jigsaws Gg? Think my aunt had one, it was magnetic or something, not sure how it worked but it stood up on a slight angle & prevented her doing her back in bending over a table!

Goldiegirl

greent wrote: »

I've had more issues than ever before in recent months with ebay - silly questions, quite a few non-payers (compared to before) and 1 person refusing to sell an item to me because the winning bid I placed was too low! I shall still be doing the odd thing on there, but not as much as before
x

eBay used to be so easy. I'd have a batch of auctions finish on a Saturday afternoon. People would pay on Saturday or Sunday, I'd post on Monday and it was done for the week. But these days there's always at least one late payer, or non payer, and it drags on for the whole week. And some of the contract I have with other eBayers is bizarre, verging on surreal. I exchanged messages with one buyer who had bought something from me, and he was making no sense at all - it turned out he should have been messaging somebody else!

Karmacat wrote: »

Oh my word ... I haven't used ebay these last 4 / 5 months or so - sounds like thats been a good thing! I've earmarked any selling activities I manage to do for the weekend only, and I'll definitely be going to facebook and gumtree. Ebay have had some wildly attractive offers (final fee of 1p per item) and now I can see why!

If I did Facebook, I'd definitely try them for selling. We have a large ladder we want to sell in the spring, so I think that'll be a candidate for Gumtree. I keep getting these selling offers from eBay - they are beginning to sound a bit desperate

RoaringTwenties wrote: »

I haven't sold on eBay for ages either, I too am glad now! It's an awful lot of faff these days unless the sale price is decent. I think if I do try it again I might try bundles & local collection as its mainly kids clothes I sell & they aren't costly first hand nowadays so the profit margin is low. Plus the hassle of schlepping to the Post Office & buyers complaining about the cost of postage, when you usually lose money on that too. Think I've just talked myself out of it again actually

Do you have one of those big boards for your jigsaws Gg? Think my aunt had one, it was magnetic or something, not sure how it worked but it stood up on a slight angle & prevented her doing her back in bending over a table!

Yes, I've got a sort of large folder for my jigsaws, so they can easily be moved off the dining room table. But it's not an angled one like your aunt's - no wonder I get back ache :rotfl:


Today has been quite productive


I've caught up on all the housework, which I've been avoiding over Christmas
Did a walk before it started raining
Ordered our new EHIC cards
Wrote out a letter to the Winter Fuel payment people so that Mr Goldie's payment next winter can go to our new bills account.


That'll do for today

misscousinitt

Hi Goldie and Happy New Year to you and Mr Goldie

You have done absolutely fantastically during 2015 - long may it continue.

I never considered the money off vouchers used as 'money earned' - think I might keep a track of that this year myself.

I look forward to reading your adventures this year.

All the best.

MCI x

Goldiegirl

misscousinitt wrote: »

Hi Goldie and Happy New Year to you and Mr Goldie

You have done absolutely fantastically during 2015 - long may it continue.

I never considered the money off vouchers used as 'money earned' - think I might keep a track of that this year myself.

I look forward to reading your adventures this year.

All the best.

MCI x

Hello there, happy new year to you.


When you start adding up everything, including vouchers, it's surprising how much it adds up to, But I have to admit, I had to push myself to keep recording the totals - I was bored by July!


Quite a busy couple of days


On Tuesday, I had an unexpected afternoon out with my friend. She's thinking of changing her job, and we had a session of weighing up the pros and cons. The job she is considering is part time for the first six months, so we were in a caf!, working out the tax and NI she'd pay, so she could get an idea of her take home pay. She's currently about 90% sure she'll go for the new job


Yesterday, we went to see Star Wars, which was fab. The adult ticket price had gone up to £10.95, and that's off peak - thank heavens for Meerkat Movies!


Today, we walked to the local large shopping centre (40 mins each way) and each opened a Kent Reliance regular saver (4%). It's a brand new office, but I can see their systems are very old fashioned, sort of an 80's time warp! The account is branch based and can't be operated online - we even have passbooks!


Then we had a coffee and very small cake as a reward for our endeavours.


This should finish the current round of account opening. I'll look at a S&S ISA, but will leave it for a little while, as we'll start to focus on our holiday which is now just over a month away

misscousinitt

Glad you enjoyed the film - I have loved the franchise since I was 5 years old and I was very pleased with the way they staged the comeback.

Thank heavens for meerkatmovies indeed - although I must say that as I pre-booked tickets for the opening night - we didn't have the opportunity to use it on that occasion.

Will be revising my spreadsheets on Saturday - so will add a tab for vouchers.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

MCI