Money Maker

In just over two weeks, Mother is heading off on the trip of a lifetime (more on that later) and I wanted to give her something to take on her travels.

After much thought, cash seemed the best option; that way she can spend it on whatever she wants, whether that comes in the form of a keepsake or a night out with the friends she’s joining.

So, I set myself a target of raising £100 and have been frantically Ebay-ing over the last few weeks to achieve it.

Today I’m proud to announce that I’ve made £92.40 on items I wasn’t using and who now have happy new owners. I’m delighted!

Mother’s coming over to Glasgow tomorrow, so we can have lunch together before she jets off. All I have to do is add the last few pounds to the total, then tuck the whole lot inside the cover of the journal I’ve bought her to record her adventure and wish her ‘Bon Voyage’.

Hey Small Spender

One week on from my promise to control my cash flow and, so far, my £5 a day rule is working rather well.

The money from cashing in my Premium Bonds has been put towards a credit card debt and I even managed to sell something on Ebay for more than twenty pounds, which has to be a record for me.

During my year of not shopping I sold a jacket on Ebay and failed to take into account the fact that the buyer was overseas. She got a complete bargain at 99p and I ended up six pounds out of pocket to cover the postage.

Anyway, this week’s only weakness was forgetting I had committed to a work’s night out, but as the meal came to just £15 a head and I’d been carrying the same crisp fiver in my wallet for three days without breaking into it, the evening still fell within budget and I was able to enjoy my grub guilt free.

And it seems I’m not the only one to be curbing my cash withdrawals to a minimum.

HSBC and Barclays have said that their cash machines will soon be issuing £5 notes again to help credit crunch hit customers manage their money.

Let’s hope more banks follow suit and start listening to their customers’ needs again.

Dogs, Duvets & Debt

My blissful lie in this morning was shattered by Hobbs dashing into the bedroom, jumping onto the bed (and my rib cage) and vomiting on the quilt.

This appears to be a favourite, tried and tested technique of his and is certainly more effective than the alarm clock in getting me out from under the duvet. I had the entire bed stripped and in the washing machine before I even realised where I was and that it was my day off from work.

Anyway, the extra time out of bed and away from dreaming about how one day I’ll wake up and the entire Joules collection will have been delivered to my door as a gift, has been well spent.

Money - and the lack of it - is never far from my thoughts and I’ve decided that a few months of revisiting my days of not shopping wouldn’t go amiss right now.

Cash flow is fine when it’s two way but when it’s heading away from you faster than a rubber dinghy on the rapids, then it’s time to throw it a life line.

So, instead of an extra hour snoozing this morning, I used the time filling out the form to cash in my premiums bonds that have won me precisely nothing in the ten years I’ve had them and started listed unloved items on Ebay, and from tomorrow I’ll be back to my £5 a day rule until the end of November. After that, my scarily huge loan that swallows up over £350 of my salary each month will be cleared and I can re-assess how best to use the extra cash to clear my remaining debt.

Hobbs might still be feeling a little queasy but I’m feeling better already!