Balancing the Books and My Life….

Squirrelz92

Happy shiny new diary!!! 
You are most definitely right about the cost of living soaring! Its becoming sooo painful to purchase my weekly diesel to get to work I cant even stomach what sort of DD amount my energy provider will want to rob from me! How are you finding the selling of personal items on fleabay? I'm debating having a go but worry for postage costs etc.

Lykke

Thanks for stopping by Squirrelz92. I’ve managed to get rid of a couple of bits on fb, but haven’t started with flea bay yet. The sellers fees are putting me off a wee bit, so I’m trying fb first and then will brave eBay. It’s changed since I last used it, as they’re no longer affiliated with PayPal. The take the fees off you up front now and it seems quite a chunk as you also get charged a percentage of p&p costs! 

So I’ve been quietly ticking along in the background - here’s a list of MSE things I’ve done….

1. Discovered I had £10 in Tesco points (I’m not sure how I rarely shop there 🤣) - exchanged for days out vouchers for half term trip.
2. OH been paid, so I’ve put part of our shopping and petrol budget onto Morrison’s cards - I’ve earned about £18 in ready payable cash back.
3. Reduced data allowance on phone as I’ve realised I have approx 8 months worth of data in my ‘piggy bank’- will reduce bill by £6 this month and a further £10 going forward (need to check OH’s)
4. Paid off the deficit on utilities account ahead of our fixed rate ending. What I didn’t realise was they hadn’t credited this months payment so I’ve in effect put us a month ahead (no bad thing at the minute!)
5. Paid off Klarna (yes I know 🤦‍♀️) ahead of it showing on credit files from today.
6. Set up online access to my pension account - don’t really know what I’m looking at at the minute, but need to get more savvy with this - I’m already half way through my working life! 
7. £5 Amazon voucher for listen to a podcast on Amazon music
8. Two more days out planned for half term using annual passes
9. Started a free trial of You Need A Budget - my current system obviously isn’t working so thought I’d give this a whirl.
10. Re-listening to Dave Ramsay’s Total Money Makeover in an attempt to give me a kick up the backside! 

bigbeff

Hey - just a thought. I used vinted for the first time this week,no fees and I sold my dungarees within hours. May be worth a look? 

Good work on your money saving! 

Lykke

Is it easy to use @bigbeff? I’ve bought a fair bit but wasn’t  sure how it works from a selling point of view. 

bigbeff

I've only sold one item so far, but it seems pretty easy to list. You don't get the money until the item is confirmed as arriving, but so far so good! 

Squirrelz92

I'm currently also in the middle of selling some of my things. Panicked at first as I have never done it before but about to go buy my parcel packaging and drop off at what I can only describe as a giant bin with compartments (Inpost locker). Hopefully it's as straightforward as that! The worst part was fighting with my printer to give me the labels!

Lykke

Morning - hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend. 

I’ve dipped my toe in the water with Vinted and added an item! We’ll see how it goes. I’ve got so many of DS outgrown clothes to get rid of so if all goes well may have to have a bit of a listing spree. 

I sold a few bits on fb and will use some of this money to purchase annual passes to our local farm park. We were planning on going next week anyway, so will upgrade to annual passes. Its within walking distance and has a good soft play area so we will make good use of it all year round. It also takes the pressure off financially through the summer holidays as we’ve got a couple of other passes which have more than paid for themselves already (Black Friday bargains!).

Had a short run yesterday (2 miles) and then spent the day sorting the garden out. Was hoping to go to parkrun this morning, but my body is feeling the after effects of the gardening! DS wants to do the junior parkrun on Sunday, so I’ll have a bit of a leg stretch with him tomorrow.

Squirrelz92

Yesss! Well done on the Vinted item Fingers crossed it sells for you! The farm park annual pass sounds like a great investment even though it's a spend. Wish we had something like that around here within walking distance  

Lykke

We are really lucky. I’m very conscious that our DF journey doesn’t negatively impact DS, so definitely see it as an investment for us and the fact it’s been paid for by stuff that’s been sat in a drawer for years makes it all the sweeter 😊

bigbeff

Good work on the sales 😊