2018 New year, new focus and new mission

Choccygirl123

Ebayer arrived 30minutes early and told me to keep the £1 change, bless her. She was so lovely and it's another bundle out the house! It takes my cash sales wallet to £70 made this year. The plan was to put it in the EF, but knowing we'll dip into the overdraft possibly next week I've decided to do the sensible thing and use it for food shopping instead. It's been another 'ONE OF THOSE MONTHS" I normally do a weekly shop, but this week i'm on a store cupboard and freezer blitz and will just buy odds and ends to pad out the stock.

I know we'll need milk, carrots and potatoes this week so will collect those today at the local farm shop, when i meet up with my best friend for a mooch around the garden centre. It's a little bit more expensive than aldi, but normally around same price as co-op. I've got just under £4 left from last week's shopping budget, so should nearly cover the mini shop today.

No doubt we'll have coffee and a cake this afternoon, but that spending comes out of my own account. I've around £200 sat in there as i've not bought any clothes for months and only spending has been hubbies xmas. When we married we decided we should both have a small account to keep some money just for us. It works well and I don't feel guilty if i buy new work shoes or lunches etc out with friends. Hubby has the same amount every month as I do and it equals out the huge pay gap. It works well for us.

Storm89

Sounds like things are going well. I've had that lightbulb moment too . I don't know if it's January that does it to us? makes us really appreciate what we have around us . Well done on all the selling, I've given up on that because people never end up buying haha.

Choccygirl123

Selling us hard going abd I find it’s the junk and crap that sells but nice kids clothes that don’t. I just don’t understand it, but I’m hoping to get few more bits listed.

Had a lovely day with my bestie abd her kids. I spent £12.25 at the farm shop which included huge bag of spuds, carrots, 3x cakes , 2x bottles coke and 6 posh granary bread buns fir lunch tomorrow. Chuffed with that as thought it’d be a trip to cafe and £20 later. We sat outside on picnic benches watching the rabbits.

Back to work tomorrow after a catch up with another friend I’ve not seen in ages. Going to pay kids Xmas money into their savings account abd going to ask if we can upgrade those accounts and I can scrap their Osper cards - which will save me £24 a year in fees.

Choccygirl123

Managed to survived blue Monday and had lovely catch up with friends. £2 for a pot of tea - which was from my gift card. Food shop of sandwich bits, milk etc £11.01 out of the £70 selling junk stash.

Today has been a NSD #8 was due to meet another friend st the pub (lunch abd coffee) but invited her here instead do saced £12ish our my own spends.

Sold another item £3 on Facebook group. Will add to food wallet as overdraft looming, still in credit but only Just.

Have had some great news my pothole damage tyre and alloy claim fir months ago will be settled and the cash hopefully in my account my Wednesday next week. With s bit of luck this will definitely get us into the black until payday, but I’m not going mad. It’s save, save and save!

Choccygirl123

Have just placed another bargain meat order to fill the freezer up again. I've been using muscle foods for a few months now and the chicken is beautiful. Great value and constant offers to save you money. If you order using my referral code you can chose a free item worth roughly £5.

I've just bagged the new year deal with a free hamper worth £10. If you need any more information, please send me a pm and i'm happy to answer any questions.

http://www.musclefood.com/HL763847 My code is HL763847.

Don't forget for moneysaving, use the cashback site quidco. Can send a link for that too, if you'd like to join and you'll get a free £7.50 credit onto your account and i'll get £2.50

Choccygirl123

Well yesterday should have been a NSD, but it started off with a trip to A&E with the youngest. Nothing broken, but £2 for a bottle of water and hot chocolate ruined my plan. Didn't pay for parking so that was a bonus! I placed my meat order which is out for delivery tomorrow. That'll fill some of the gaps in the freezer on the cheap.

I had a bit of admin catch up day and called Sky for a 96p refund on my old account from 2010! The lady laughed and said ooh big refund, but i figure better in my pocket than theirs. Finally called the vets for the refund from the pooch's op - their admin department will call me tomorrow but that's another £15 on it's way.

I've sold another item on ebay and should make around £5 profit after fees, so off to drop that in at the post office and this is my only spend. I've updated my sales sheet for the total so far and we're around the £96 mark. Chuffed to bits and just thinking of the extra space in the house now!

Things are slowing getting there and i spoke to my mortgage advisor who is looking at new deals for us. I think he'll be able to save us a few pounds and the extra will go into the savings pot. I've talked hubby into reducing our 'pocket money' for 3months. We have £200 me / £220 him for all clothes, presents, socialising, hobbies etc. It's a lot of money every month, but at least we don't dig into the joint and it keeps our spends fair. He's quite happy to go out with the lads and blow £80 on beer, food and taxi. I'd rather have coffee, cake and natter for £5.

That'll give us an extra £360 over the 3months, which is go in the savings pot. We are getting there and I feel like we're making good progress. We just need to keep on track and continue the selling too!

Choccygirl123

Haven’t been well (full of cold again) last couple of days and I’ve not been checking my accounts etc. It’s a slippery slope, so I’m back at it today.

I registered for ClearScore abd it’s anazing! It shows credit rating abd every account etc I love it! It’s very user friendly. My current rating is 507/700 which I thought was low. Average in our area is 443 so it can’t be that bad.

I have noticed that my credit limit was £14500 which shocked me! I not sure if your available credit affects your rating and a lot of it was just sat there. I’ve reduced two unused 2 overdrafts down to £500 each abd my next account from
£5000 to £750. Never use this account either, but nice to have the luxury of ordering sake items without paying for 4 items, when you know you've ordered for choice and 3 will go back.

Postitive note : It's friday and i'm really in need of a long lazy weekend!

ElusiveLucy

I did a declutter before christmas and was amazed by what sold and what didn't. Having said that though, I got rid of an old tablet that went for a stupid amount and also my old ipod. Both had been sitting in the cupboard doing nothing for years,so it was good to clear the space and make some money. I found collecting things over time into a big bag, then listing them all in one go worked well for me and I managed about £300 after fees, which is fantastic. I will do the same again in the spring, but without tech items it won't be such a large amount. I found stupid things like free samples of cosmetics sell well and I had loads sitting in a drawer. It is time consuming and you do get the odd awkward buyer but it is worth it in the end both for the financial gain and for the empty space.

Storm89

I never have any luck with selling . I only really have kids clothes but people want to pay pennies for them and with fees it's not been worth selling them. I may try again when I have a bit more but I've been scarred and disheartened by it all haha. Sorry you're feeling poorly choccy , I know loads of people with the lurgy at the moment, germs seem a lot worse this year like they've mutated haha.

Choccygirl123

That’s brillant elusivelucy! It’s draining but the money you can make is definitely worth a bit of work. I’ve started a box already abd summoning the motivation to get it all on. Have listed a lot of bits on FB, but had no luck.

I’m still feeling rubbish but had a lovely catch up with my friends today. NSD yesterday which was fab. Only spent £23 abd oddments in Lidl, but stocked up on fruit and veg for the week.

Can’t brlieve it’s bavk to work tomorrow and wishing it’s be a snow day.