Engaged!

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I’m finally back from Florida – it has been a glorious three weeks, including a sneaky cruise to the Bahamas. I won’t bore you with tales from the trip (although there are some money saving blog posts lined up in regards to our trip!) apart from one tiny announcement.

If you follow me on Twitter, Instagram or you know me, then this will be old news to you…but I’m pleased to announce that I am now engaged:

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It was a very magical experience, being in Disney’s The Magic Kingdom, outside of Cinderella’s Castle. Tony is very keen for me to share that he did get Quidco cashback on the ring – that’s my boy.

I don’t have the first idea about planning a wedding, so I’m very excited to see how this all pans out.

Eeep – now I’m jobless

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This is a really difficult post to write, but for those of you who follow me on Twitter or perhaps know me ‘in real life’, you may know that I’ve left my job. There’s a whole host of reasons, and I really can’t go into them publicly due to a tribunal claim I’m submitting, but it was the right decision to make, albeit a tough one. Things are definitely scary as Tony, my boyfriend, is out of work too. We’ve also recently booked a holiday to Florida that we will lose money on if we don’t go – thankfully it isn’t until November so we have some time to save for that.
I have to say that I’m very excited for what the future will hold. It has only been three days so far, so I’m not entirely sure which route I’m going to end up taking. I have five interviews in the coming week or so, one of them being a second interview. I’ve also learned that I will be eligible for financial help from The Open University, perhaps allowing my to complete my degree and go into teaching. As a friend of mine says, the world is my lobster!
Another thing I’m very eager to do is to overhaul this website. I think it is about time I stepped away from a premade template, and actually made it a ‘job’ to blog more often. I’ve got so many money making schemes going on and things that I’m testing out, I cannot wait to share them with you all. There just aren’t enough hours in the day at the moment.
Being out of work is going to take a lot of self-motivation to stay on top of things; to ensure an income is coming in and also to ensure that I don’t become lazy. My plan at the moment is to have a set number of tasks I must do every day, and treat each day as a working day, working my way through each task as well as researching new projects.
Wish me luck on this new venture!

Happy November!

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Happy November everyone! November means the inevitable panic, wondering where the past year has gone and panicking about the run up to Christmas. Yes, we can officially start muttering the C-word now.
With just two months left of 2011, it’s time for me to start really putting some effort in to achieve all that I want to get out of 2011. Therefore I’m making two “simple” goals for November: lose 10lbs and make £20 per day on top of my normal income. I do enjoy a challenge! £20 a day is going to be quite difficult to achieve, especially as eBay and car boot sales seem to have dried up and aren’t as fruitful as they once were – or perhaps I’ve sold all the good stuff and am only left with the crap that no one else wants! I’ve made a good start by having 120 auctions on eBay at the moment (as I mentioned, a lot of crap) and I’ll be doing lots of surveys. But apart from that I feel completely out of ideas, which is a first for me!
Is there anything you’re eager to achieve in November? How are you going to go about doing it?

Hatton Gardens Metal – Cash For Gold

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Something magical happened though. I was clearing out my room the other day and I came across some scrap gold – a few broken necklaces and bracelets, a couple of old rings and some coins – and I sold them to one of those “cash for gold” places. I would have been happy with around £20. In fact, £50 would be “beyond my wildest dreams” for some crap old jewellery. I checked online, and after reading reviews, decided to sell to Hatton Garden Metals.
 
 
Yes, you read that right, £698.82! £75 of it was for my colleague, but I was so impressed. The money was in my bank the day after posting – not even 24 hours after posting off the gold.
 
 

Baby You Just Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet

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I’ve just finished parcelling the last remaining items from the last free eBay listing weekend so I’m now happy to announce that my total for May is…£562.90! My original target was £465 so I’m thrilled to have not only hit it, but almost add another £100 to that. Amazing.

Lately I’ve been feeling a bit frustrated by my situation. Florida seems like a distant memory and I’ve lost sight of why I’m working my arse off to earn extra money. Over the weekend I got really upset about the size of my box room and went in to some sort of meltdown. It wasn’t a nice place for me, but the result of it is that I’m completely motivated for June. I therefore am setting myself a massive target of £750 in June.

This target absolutely terrifies me if I’m honest. Broken down it is a massive £25 a day. Excuse me whilst I go and pick myself up off the floor, dust myself off, recall my goal and fall over again. But then I look at May’s total and think…yes…I can do this.
I seem to have fallen into quite a nice little earner for myself in selling things for my neighbour. I’m working on commission and I sell her items all over the place – so far I’ve taken items along to a boot sale and sold a few bits online for her. Within a week I’d made her £70 for nothing and I’m really hoping this expands into something bigger. Selling online yourself is so easy, but there seems to be a whole generation who haven’t got the interest, time or knowledge of how to do this. It won’t make me rich, but now with my afternoons free it gives me something else to fill my time with…something that earns me a bit of cash. My next plan is to expand this by advertising in my company newsletter for clients and seeing how it goes from there.
So far my other plans for money making in June include overtime and doing on call for work, a boot sale or two, eBay listing (free listing weekend again this weekend, start preparing now), I’ve listed items on Amazon and Play (and already had a sale!) and then I’m fresh out of ideas. I’m both confident and scared about such a big target. Here goes.