First Steps to Solvency

enthusiasticsaver

Weighing in on the watch debate I have an omega, now 10 years old which was relatively expensive but keeps brilliant time. Does anyone really notice what watch others wear though? 

As for not bothering to sell items for £10 I agree get your wife on it if she doesn't work. You really need to change attitude if you you are to succeed with this. There are only usually a few big money saving outgoings which will make a difference and as you don't want to let go of the RR and your wife won't give up the beauty treatments and neither of you will substitute the £42 champagne bottles those seem to be out for you so small changes can pay for some of the frivolities you want to spend your money on. How much are you saving on swapping the personal broadband cost to your business? 

ladyholly

With regard to the champagne are you aware that most people can't tell the difference between it and sparkling wine. Try a blind tasting with a really good sparkling wine or even several as like champagne they vary in flavour you may be surprised and save some money. 

QueenJess

There probably is a point at which it isn't worth selling things (take them to charity or recycle though... don't bin them!), but it is surprising how much things add up.  In the same way as if you had a £4 coffee every workday, that adds up to £80 a month pretty fast.  Selling 20 items for £10 profit would be a nice £200.

I do little bits and pieces and I do track it.  I am surprised every month about the extra I've been able to make by just doing small things.  So don't write this off completely.

theoretica

Depending on how long hours you are working you are earning somewhere around £20 an hour take home from your main job, so I agree it possibly isn't the best use of your time to spend an hour for £5 back - but gathering a bunch of smaller stuff to sell at the same time might well be worth it.  But as you are, start with the higher value stuff for most return.

ryanm8655

enthusiasticsaver said:

Weighing in on the watch debate I have an omega, now 10 years old which was relatively expensive but keeps brilliant time. Does anyone really notice what watch others wear though? 

As for not bothering to sell items for £10 I agree get your wife on it if she doesn't work. You really need to change attitude if you you are to succeed with this. There are only usually a few big money saving outgoings which will make a difference and as you don't want to let go of the RR and your wife won't give up the beauty treatments and neither of you will substitute the £42 champagne bottles those seem to be out for you so small changes can pay for some of the frivolities you want to spend your money on. How much are you saving on swapping the personal broadband cost to your business? 

As a watch person/geek I do notice what people have on their wrists and even notice on tv shows what people are wearing ha. I don’t judge people based on their watch though. I know plenty of wealthy people that couldn’t give a crap about sinking thousands on a watch.

My first purchase with my £8k interest free loan from my first grad job was a Breitling Blackbird, so watches actually started my journey to debt and wanting things my budget couldn’t really afford without borrowing...did have a bit of a side hustle buying and selling watches for a while, made a little bit of profit but I didn’t have the free cash to hold onto more than 1 or 2 at a time and they usually took a few months to sell, so it wasn’t worth the hassle in the end. 

Watches were also the inspiration for my lightbulb moment and the drastic change in lifestyle too...I had just purchased an Omega Seamaster Chrono (for a good price). Did pay cash, though was in £30k of debt so it was stupid... Any how, I ended up getting mugged at knife point a couple of days after buying it and before I’d sorted the insurance. I was gutted but it also made me feel stupid for having an expensive watch while being in masses of debt and also convinced me to move out of London for a bit to save some cash. Losing that amount of money in an instant also have me the kick up the butt I need to commit to clearing the debt.

I’ll get a decent watch again when I can genuinely afford it. I just love them. Love the Rolex Datejust II on a jubilee bracelet but the attention they attract in London is ridiculous. Not sure I could be doing with the risk...

ladyholly

It had never occurred to me that wearing an expensive watch would put you at risk. I hope you were OK as well being is more important than "stuff" as we discovered with health issues putting an end to our 2 holiday a year life. I now wish we had saved that money but can't change it so just have to get on with the debt busting. 

alt80

Re the selling I agree it could work if wife did it; don’t trust she will though - fairly sure she’ll get bored with it soon. My thinking is getting the higher priced items we aren’t bothered about gone first until she gets bored dealing with it. 

Me wanting to move is not about needing a bigger house - we don’t need a larger house at all nor is our current one cluttered. I have a nice home but I would just like somewhere better, move to the next level. Seven figure property around these parts = something seriously nice. Whether that will happen or not I don’t know. Not on my radar currently need to clear some of the cards, pay for the Range Rover and buy a few more houses before getting a much larger res mortgage.

Can’t say I’ve sat down and worked out what I earn on an hourly basis. A lot of my work these days is managing staff/ business and dealing with some big jobs that come through so whilst I’m always on so far as work is concerned it’s not like I can’t go out for lunch etc. Don’t think it can really be measured in hours tbf.

Saving £35/m for the broadband wish I’d not bothered. Put me in a terrible mood for the day after the call centre woman I lost it with one of my staff for no real reason so had to apologise for that this afternoon. Need some anger management lol.

Also know plenty of people not bothered about watches. I’m sure some make judgements too whether positive or negative. Sorry to hear re the seamaster mate unfortunately you don’t surprise me about the attention attracted in London. My city certainly used to have a reputation for gangs and crime, there are a few places I’ll still leave my personal possessions in the car tbf even though I reckon the murdered out Range Rover probably demands a bit of respect haha.

Doing well on the spending today, £0. Do still use a credit card for spends but know what we can put on it to clear off at the end of the month (so does wife) - so not actually getting into any more debt on cards. Drawn a line under that now.

enthusiasticsaver

Good to see that you are no longer putting stuff on credit cards so hopefully it will not go any higher. Unfortunately nice things do attract the attention of villains.  Luckily down here in the West country it does not seem as bad but we are always very careful in London. My husband jokingly says I am very cheap as I am not in the least bothered about labels, high end goods or cars.  I just want a car that works and gets me from A to B, a watch that tells the time and a comfortable house  in a good area that is not too huge to  clean but still big enough for us to spread out. We do like nice restaurants  and hotels when we go on holiday though so everyone chooses their priorities. 

alt80

Yeah definitely about priorities. Not gonna lie I want it all but need to deal with the cards/ have a review of the lifestyle until I sort the income. Short term pain for long term gain get some more houses, hopefully no downwards pressure on the other business so work on maximising income from that too. Hopefully won’t have to make so many choices in the future.

Don’t get the whole being happy with not a lot thing. Wish I could be like that in some ways would be a lot cheaper and easier to obtain if my goals were 3 bed semi, 320 on the drive, ‘Bolex’ on the wrist and no holidays. Just not for me. Lots say they’re happy with mediocre lifestyles but I do think for some (not directed at anyone here just generally) it’s just a defence mechanism: tell yourself the BS about being happy with your lot for long enough and it may actually happen because you know it’s never going to get any better.

monetxchange

The thing is, lifestyles that aren't centred around having lots aren't "mediocre". That's just your opinion. It's fine to want to achieve money and things, but a lot about how much pressure you put on yourself is based on this notion that more is more and means more happiness. At the end of the day the idea of more stuff to make us happy has been perpetuated by companies trying to sell you stuff. It's not the accepted meaning of life by any means. Just think that a little working on your thinking in this regard would help as you move forward.

I've mentioned before I'm a relatively high earner and am not into "stuff" at all. I work hard and am successful in my hobby as a part time career too. It's not that I'm fooling myself that I don't want it. I've actually had more and got into loads of debt and it brought me no more happiness.