My new venture

Good evening, I have decided to try another avenue to make a little extra cash.
I got thinking the last few days to see what I have in abundance and what I am able to do.

It turns out I have plenty of fabric and I can sew! It has been mentioned to me in the past that I could sell the things I make. however I have always thought hmm not sure. Recently I have had a few request to make presents for frineds and family. This made me think perhaps I could sell my wares.
This would certainly help as I have more fabric than I need so I can use it to stock my little shop.

Do you want a peek?

My shop is called littlefamilyof3sarah and you can find it on Etsy here. Go on take a peek, let me know what you think and if you have seen anything on my blog I have made that you would llike to buy. I am in the very early stages of the shop so haven't got much stock listed yet but I have plans for more items over the next few weeks.

Do you already sell on Etsy- or somewhere else? Do you have any tips for a newby like me?

These 2 aprons are currently in my shop.

Slip and a leap

I felt that the last month I have slipped off the non spending band wagon. I have bought a lot of things, although needed I have spent more than I budgeted for. The children have need new clothes/ footwear. I needed new shoes when mine got a leak! With the weather as it has been leaky shoes are not an option!

So this week money has been eekkky. I have had just £0.50 sat in the bank. I had £4.00 in my purse, now that is down to 50p. Stephanie had a non uniform day at school in the week costing £1.00, then the tooth fairy visited last night cost £1.00. Today I took my sister for her wedding dress fitting cost £1.50 for parking. So I have been creative with cooking/meals. It has been good for me as I haven't been able to do what I normally do when tired on a Friday and pop to asda for a pizza. I had to make it using ingredients already in the house. So I have done ok. I will be ok as I have money due in Monday and Tuesday this week. Phew! Not much but enough to cover what I need. I have booked Stephanie on a dance course on Monday which will cost £15.00. The rest of the week we won't need to spend as we have memberships etc we can use. I will need to top the car up it is almost on empty. However, we will just do more local things we can walk to as far as possible. Monday the children have th dentist and from their to Stephanie's dance class, we can't walk to these as they are a couple of towns away and we just won't have time between the 2. I need to collect Stephanie from her dad's tomorrow as his car is broken so he can't drop off as he normally would. Apart from that we will be local all week until Sunday. I have booked us a day out through groupon the day out is half the cost it normally would be and Stephanie has been asking to go for over a year. Its costing me £15.00 for the day instead of £30 thanks to the vouchers. we may pop to the zoo one day as well if the gale force winds die down soon. I don't mind going out in the cold/ wet but I do object to being blown away!


The good news is the money situation means that I have got my total no spend days this year to 25! which I am fantastically pleased with.
The freezer is emptying nicely (needs defrosting) as we are eating up what we have.




Oh and my iron broke today, so I can't do the ironing :-)

Making extra cash

Yesterday I sorted out our old cloths

 and took them to a cash for clothes collection site near where I live. I sold our old clothes for 50p a kilo and came home with £14.00. Not masses of money for what looked like oodles of clothes, but lots more than I had in my purse to start the day with!

We have decided that as a family we would like to cycle together more, to aid this I need a new bike and Stephanie could do with a bigger bike as she has grown a lot recently. Now I very much doubt this will be new bikes, more likely 'new to us' bikes. The money received for the clothes has started off our budget for buying these. I will be on gumtree/ebay/facebook selling sites and so on until I find what we need.

I shall add a counter to the side bar where our financial stats for the month are to keep a check of this progress.

A little inspiration;

some of these so we can do this;

more often :-)



These pictures are to help me keep inspiration and get up in the cold attic, and cold shed to find things to sell. I'll be back later

An expensive purchase.

I have always owned old card, however the last one I had was so unreliable and turns out it had BIG problems with it, I have taken a  big step and purchased a brand new car. I spent a long time researching cars with good reviews, ones which are practical for our family and which I can (just!) afford. After several weeks deliberation I traded in the old one for this;

 

I love it! It is fantastic to handle, it is shiny and it's mine.

 

I have taken it out on a finance agreement but with some careful penny pinching I am hoping to be able to pay it off sooner rather than later.

 

I needed a car that is reliable and practical as where I work it is very difficult to get to on public transport. It would take me several hours to get there and cost me time with my children, a LOT in bus fares and almost double in childcare due to the times I would spend travelling. Buying a new, reliable car is a big commitment but financially, and personally for my family the only sensible thing to do at this time.

 

So given that I have taken out this massive commitment my financial goal of getting on the property ladder has been set back temporarily. I am now aiming to pay off the car loan in as short a time as I can. I will still be exploring and having fun out and about but I will be saving as much as possible towards this rather than a house deposit. Once the car is paid off it is back to the mortgage saving. I am tied into a monthly repayment for 2 years and then I have the lump sum to pay off at the end so that is what I am saving towards as of last week when I signed the finance agreement.

 

making extra money

I am trying to save in order to buy our own home. Saving is going well but I want it to happen faster. I have been trying to find ways of making extra money. I filled I'm an online survey and got paid £4, then the other day I stumbled upon a blog post telling about the money saving blog post where I could earn £30 for sharing thirty tips for saving. I have since been reimbursed for both of these meaning an extra £34 has gone into the 'get a mortgage pot'.
I have also listed some items on amazon, I have sold one of them. After amazon fees I have made another £6, I haven't factored this into my extra income as I've not received the money yet but I have made a nice extra amount so far this month. I am going to organise more items to sell over the weekend. I will use what I have to make more money (within reason!)

How have you made extra cash recently? Do you have ideas I or others can try?