I’ve posted this photo of our landing before, but I wanted to show you what lurks behind the door.

Over the last few months I’ve slowly been purging and simplifying all the rooms in our house. The trouble is when you do this the stuff has to go somewhere. Now some of it has been recycled or donated, but most of it is behind that door in our good old box room. It’s funny as Rachel blogged a similar thing the other day; where do people with organised homes keep their mess? Well it seems we all have a hidden room!

Now that I’ve purged every room comes the task of selling it all and making some extra money. I’m inspired by other bloggers who have done this.

I’m giving myself the whole of February to clear that room out, leaving just our suitcases.

Less clutter = Freedom

The Earn More Challenge is now being hosted over at The Good Life on a Budget. Thanks to Jess for hosting and thank you to Christine for starting all this; I find it really motivating to do a challenge with other bloggers and it’s spurred me into money making action

Extra income earned Week 2:

£18.82 Music Magpie
£43.66 eBay
£2.64 Amazon
£154.16 Blog

A total of £219.28 this week, bringing my full total, after two weeks, to £229.51.

I found the link to Music Magpie over at Money Saving Expert. They pay you 50p-£3.00 for cd’s and DVD’s and I’ve used it for all the items that weren’t selling on Amazon. It’s a great way to clear your clutter and boost your income at the same time.

{photo credit: on2wheelz}

Quick update on my progress:

Made a small £10.23;£8.88 from book sales and £1.35 from cashback credit.

I was able to list a few items on eBay after my wardrobe clear out, and currently have 7 items with bids. This should bring in more money towards my target of £100. I’m planning on another round of eBay listing this Friday.

Follow the progress of other challengers over at Money Funk.

**The Festival of Frugality is up this week at The Centsible Life and includes my post on Simplifying and Reducing My Clothing. Thanks to Kelly for hosting; head on over there for some great posts on frugality**

In September I’m taking part in the Earn More Challenge Christine is holding over at Money Funk. The idea is to make some extra money outside of your normal income. Last time I counted there were 21 of us taking part; it should be fun, why not join in?

I’m aiming to make at least £100 ($160) mainly from selling things on Amazon and eBay. I’ve listed lots of books on Amazon and I’m planning on a massive wardrobe clear out on Friday; even with not buying clothes this year, I still have too many that I don’t wear, time to be really ruthless!

Do you have any plans to make a little extra money this year?

Further reading: A Simple Guide to Selling on EBay

{photo credit: jeff belmonte}

I’ve made a conscious effort over the last few months not to spend any money out of the joint account. My aim has been to save up spare money from our budget, to put into our big trip fund. 

When I’ve come in under budget on anything, I’ve saved the money for the fund. For example, We’d budgeted £500 for a new window, but it ended up only costing £379, so that £121 is going in the trip fund. I reduced the cost of our contents insurance by looking around for the best deal, and saved £48 on last years cost, so that money is going in the fund. I’ve also resisted spending. There are some items that I would love for the house, but we don’t need them, so I haven’t bought them, I would rather have the money for the trip.

Overall I’ve managed to save £500, which I’ve already transferred to the ING account. This motivates me, making savings on things to fund a dream. It keeps me going.

What do you do to keep you motivated?

{photo credit: the amanda}

We set out at the start of the year with an aim of saving a years basic living expenses; 12x£1,500 {£18,000}. So far we have £10,225. To reach our target we will be saving £1,450  every month, for the next six months, with a revue in December. £7,200 will go into cash ISA’s, and £1,500 into a Direct saver, this will enable us to reach our target of £18k. I will not consider leaving my current job until this money is saved, so this is an added incentive. More on how we came to a figure for our basic budget in a separate post.

Big Trip Fund:The balance of this currently stands at £101, however I want to make sure this is up to £1k by the end of the year. This may involve some extra frugality.

Mortgage Balance: £123,783. Just ticking along.

{photo credit: hans s}

My apologies for not being around much at the moment, but I’m doing what I’ve gotta do to get to Portugal; earn money!

It’s times like these when I wonder if it’s all worth it. I know it is, it’s just tiredness creeping in.

Focus, focus, focus, only 1137 days to go

 {photo credit: daviddmuir}

This is a completely rambling post about retiring, semi retiring, net worth, passive income and frugal living.

Option 1: To completely retire from the rat race.
You will need some sort of income. This income could be from a pension, from investments, from lottery winnings or from rental income. It could be from anything that provides you with ongoing passive funding to live your life.

Option 2: To semi retire from the rat race.
You will possibly have a part time job and some sort of passive income, or just a part time job, it depends on your expenses.

The amount of income you need for either option depends on how much you spend. If you live a frugal life, and your mortgage is paid off , then you will need a lot less money for both the above options, although Option 2 is the one we’re aiming for.

Net Worth question:
Do I calculate our net worth the traditional way, Assets minus Liabilities, do I think of Net Worth in terms of how much passive income we receive or do I do both?

An ideal scenario would be (example)
Expenses =£1,000 a month/Passive Income=£1,000 a month

There’s a long way to go yet!

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Here’s a quick guide to selling on eBay for anybody wanting to make a little extra money next year.
I’ve been selling on eBay for six years now, and have a feedback score of over 1300, this is all positive feedback and I’ve worked hard to keep it that way. Good customer service and good communication works online, just the same as it does in the real world.

How to Register to start selling:

• Go to the eBay site and click on Register
• Register your credit card details
• Take a look around the site and get your bearings

Once you’ve registered you will then need to sign up for a Paypal account – you have to offer Paypal as a means of payment on your auctions, but it does protect you and give buyers more confidence. (Thank you Caroline for for the update on this)

Here are my simple tips for selling your stuff:

• Before doing anything research the completed listing for items similar to yours, this will give you a guide price
• Take a good photo of your product and use the gallery facility on the selling form
• Use up every letter available in your Title and put in keywords, like a Designers name – this is the first port of call for buyers, your shop window
• Do an honest and full description of your goods, this will give buyers confidence
• Charge the correct postage for your item, plus a little charge for packaging – pick up a postal charges leaflet from your local post office for the current rates
• If accepting cheques for payments, never post the item until you have received the cheque and it has cleared at the bank
• When an auction comes to an end and your item has sold, email the buyer thanking them for their purchase – responding promptly to all emails from buyers/potential buyers will get you good feedback further down the line
• List a few things at a time, not fifty all at once -its too difficult to manage
• Always and I stress always, post items as soon as possible, preferably within 24 hours of payment being received
• Sell items at the right time of year – flip flops in December, not here in the UK!
• Always remember to leave polite, honest feedback for your buyers

Does anyone have any other tips that might be useful?

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If you have an old mobile phone lying around the house did you know that you can trade it in for cash? A company I use, Envirofone, will give you cash for your old mobiles.
It’s very simple to use, you just register with the site, put in the make of phone and they will tell you how much it’s worth. If you decide to trade, they will send you a Freepost jiffy bag to return your mobile in and then after it’s tested they will send you a cheque. I’ve made over £100 so far.

You can also recycle mobiles at Tesco and Boots.

-Tesco will give you 300 clubcard points, worth £12 in deals vouchers or they will donate £3 to Marie Curie Cancer Care if you recycle an old working mobile with them. They will even give you 50 clubcard points and donate 50p to the charity if you have an old non working mobile. You can visit here or you can pick up a pre-paid envelope in a Tesco store.

-Boots do a similar scheme, register with them, enter your mobile details and they will give you up to 5000 advantage points, redeemable in their stores

From all the sites,’There are an estimated 80 million old mobile phones in the UK and over 80% of the phone is recyclable’ so this is a win win scheme for all concerned.