£50k to zero - made it across the finish line

One-step-at-a-time

I've lost patience and stopped waiting for a cheap final fees offer on eb4y. Bet you anything one turns up in the inbox tomorrow!
4 items, a minimum of £12-£17 each after fees if they sell. It's taken getting annoyed at my dodgy budgeting to list them, but hey, whatever works as motivation! 

One-step-at-a-time

Another morning! Hmmm, 4 days to payday and I've managed to delay shopping for a bit and had another look through the cupboards - we have lunch and dinner for tonight sorted, and with what we still have in, < £5 on onions, peppers and cheese should see us through to Monday. That still leaves me a bit short, but if I make the marketplace sale on Friday that will cover the remainder of the postage costs as well.

While I was doing the ebay listings I also noticed someone selling an item identical to one I have in the shed, that is currently over £40 with three days to go and nine bids on it. I'm going to dig mine out and clean it up at lunchtime. 
Putting the app on my phone was a good move - part of my 'meh' about auction sites is that I've always uploaded photos from camera to laptop which has made doing the listings much more of a faff than it needs to be. The app takes way less effort, and I'm happy to have it on the phone as I'm not a random spender.

Unfortunately it's getting more and more evident that I need to replace my home office chair, so it's not a bad time to be trying to sell more stuff. The one I have is really old and no longer doing what it needs to do, which is not great with 6 more months of WFH. First step is to re-do my DSE assessment and contact our admins to find out if it's possible for me to borrow a chair from the office (in which case I can get a parking space booked and arrange a time to collect it). If that can't be done, then I'll need to budget for a new one. As the EF is at target then theoretically I have £200 to play with in October; this was going to be split between debt/savings/buying  extra groceries, but my back has to come first!

Drawingaline

Your back definitely does have to come first! We need a decent office set up if we ever manage to move, looks like hubby will be WFH forever. 

One-step-at-a-time

I suspect I'll be WFH forever too! Not that I mind at all, I've reclaimed more than two hours a day from the lack of commute. After a fair amount of chair research I've settled on one with lots of excellent reviews on Trustpilot that has all the adjustable parts I want, is chiropractor-approved, and comes in at under £130. I haven't ruled out the possibility of being able to get one from the office (I will find out tomorrow), but if the answer is no, I will get this one ordered next week. There's no point trying to sell this one on but I'll offer it up free of charge in case it can be of use to anyone. It's still comfy enough if you don't need it for computer work.

alt80

You should be able to expense the chair - I have provided my staff with home office equipment including chairs / desks. 

BlytheDoll

One-step-at-a-time said:

I've lost patience and stopped waiting for a cheap final fees offer on eb4y. Bet you anything one turns up in the inbox tomorrow!
4 items, a minimum of £12-£17 each after fees if they sell. It's taken getting annoyed at my dodgy budgeting to list them, but hey, whatever works as motivation! 

I was only reading through your diary last night, and thought the same, no offers from EB.. for along time and then this morning an email with new offer! Hope you got the same.
Still catching up on your diary, but fantastic outlook for you, well done on all of your hard work.

One-step-at-a-time

alt80 said:

You should be able to expense the chair - I have provided my staff with home office equipment including chairs / desks. 

Not an option currently - we have a total finance freeze and massive budget cuts required across all departments, which has been done in part to preserve jobs. We can't put furniture on expenses - all requests in certain categories have to go through our procurement system with approval from two managers, so it's either arrange to pick up a spare from the office (I'm waiting to see what's available) or get my own (my boss has already bought his own chair).  And honestly, I'd be happy to get my own and know that I've got the exact chair I want rather than a compromise. It'll fit into the October budget without too much of a problem (the chair I'm looking at costs less than we have been putting into the emergency fund, and the EF is topped up, so all it means is a smaller card overpayment for one month).

@BlytheDoll Thank you! You were right - sure enough, after months of waiting for offers, I list four things and VOILA the email appears. Good thing I'm lazy and have only done four listings so far!   

One-step-at-a-time

Right, October spreadsheet is organised. Scheduled payments at £1000 are now more than 4x the card minimums. Overpayment target is £180 which will see us hit 75% paid (should be more than covered by this month's invoices I'm waiting payment on). Credit utilisation will drop under 20%. Debt will be under 41% of net annual income, meaning that at the current rate we could be shot of it in October '21, not November. 
I am determined that sub-£10k will be a reality by the end of December. That'll be a double milestone month, as the mortgage will dip under £30k too.
Weekend action plan:
1) More listings tonight - if all items I've pulled out so far sell, the minimum revenue after costs adds up to more than £100. In the short term the office is horribly cluttered, so I really hope this stuff shifts.
2) New Photos & videos for Etsy items, work on some new stuff to sell
3) Organise rest of bits to post (including now-paid-for marketplace item).
4) The usual weekend clean/tidy/declutter/batch cook 

Drawingaline

Just looking at your numbers really puts into perspective how much you have achieved!

One-step-at-a-time

Drawingaline said:

Just looking at your numbers really puts into perspective how much you have achieved!

Thanks - I think that's why I'm obsessed with updating it, it's a reminder that the slog is worth it
Saturday progress:
1) More listings tonight - Done
2) New Photos & videos for Etsy items, work on some new stuff to sell  In progress, and one sale made today!
3) Organise rest of bits to post (including now-paid-for marketplace item). Done
4) The usual weekend clean/tidy/declutter/batch cook - In progress. Last night we made a 3 day/6 portion chilli.

Sorting out some of the posting has made the office *slightly* less of a bomb site, but still a way to go.
I've used a bit of my cash buffer to stock up on the packaging I need for the sales I'm hoping to make over the next month, and the sale I made this afternoon has paid for half of it. I'm really feeling the need to be productive today so I'm rolling with it while it lasts!