Debt support thread #2

[Nerfmother]

Here we are! Can't be bothered to think of an exciting title, sorry

What (if anything) do you do about the fact that as soon as you have listed something, other people lower their prices to undercut you? I listed half a dozen of my ds's old cello books this afternoon. When I listed them, I chose to equal the lowest price listed (rather than undercut it) but by this evening, the inventory is showing that there are now lower prices being offered by others on all the items except one.

Is it important to have the lowest price, or is it more important to have good feedback?

Quite a few things are important- price, feedback, book condition, location of seller. There are a lot of USA sellers on Amazon UK, but UK buyers will pay more to have a book quickly delivered domestically so I like to put a note in about fast delivery from UK. How many other sellers have listed the same item? Many of the big sellers have auto-pricing software which will automatically undercut as soon as you do. Sometimes it pays just to keep your price higher and wait until the cheaper one sells.
Do you have a link to one of your items so I can have a look?
Selling on Amazon is not an instant thing, you will probably have to wait weeks or months, that's why it is good to build up a bit of stock.

This is the stuff I've just listed because I happened to have it to hand and wanted to get rid of it - I was going to ebay cos I've been ebaying a lot recently and am geared up for it, but then though I'd try amazon instead.

Amazon def easier, no faffing around taking pictures and compiling listings. But there seem to be some glitches in the way they're listed, one of them is showing as me having the lowest price when I look at the sales options on the item itself, yet my inventory shows it as having been undercut by someone else.

I will have to play around with it when I'm not zonked off my head on lemsip and nightnurse. [cough]

Not a glitch, when you change a price it can take time for all parts of the system to update.

frogs for some of these items you have the only copy available. I would be tempted to put the price up a bit, and if they don't sell then you canm lower the price. Take time to rub out the pencil marks, and list them as good. These will all sell, but perhaps not immediately, they may take a few weeks. You need a little parience or more stock. I am off to three jumble sales tomorrow. you have to get there early though as lots of other people are in on the game. The first dozen or so in the queue are all dealers, around here they arrive and wait for an hour before the hoards arrive. I take a flask of coffee and have a good chinwag, most of them I have known for years.

Why am I so scared to up our payments to £40 per month between the 4 debts!

I've double and triple checked my figures and im sure its doable...but...its still worrying me.

I guess im going to have to bite the bullet and do it because I would say i'll have to drop back to £20 when I go on Maternity leave.

Winter, can you use the cards to get back the difference if u need to? Try it and see?

Nerf My debts are with debt collectors now

My goal is to up it to £40 between them all, then when I realise we dont miss that extra £20 up it a bit more again. We really want to be in a positiion to buy a house but with just under £11k in debt and no real means to pay it I cant see it happening in a hurry.

Oh sorry winter. Could you try increasing by 20 this month? As a toe in the water? Would feel safer?

Yes, maybe start slow to make sure you don't over commit yourself. It IS scary, leaving yourself with just the bare minimum. I meant to reduce my credit card limits every other month or so but I have stalled with "what if this happens..." type thoughts.

Winter
If you are pretty sure you can manage 20, then do 15
and then maybe another ten in a couple of months
you are heading in the right directions
smaller steps forward will protects against falling back later

Agree with the others Winter - raise it by 20 now and see how you go - you can always try putting another £10-20 by each month into anther account and seeing if you miss it.

Im just wondering what the chances of finding another job whilst being pregnant is? Will need to weigh up the cost of childcare whilst working summer holidays too.

Was looking forward to a few weeks of me and DS but im not sure if we will be able to afford it. Term time jobs are amazing but also suck!

temping?

Jeezy peeps...it's Friday...again!!

Evening all, hope everyone is well 4 NSDs out of 7 this week, only buying fresh bread and milk. Everything else came from freezer and cupboards...will do next week meal plan over weekend. Pay day on 20th, super excited as bonus has been confirmed and planning to repay CC1 in full, restock emergency fund (£500 had to go towards replacement car) and will have enough left over to make a fair dent in the overdraft! Food budget good this week too, should have around £20 left on Sunday which will go to ID too...

Exciting update - I applied for the Thorpe park tickets via mumsnet and we were chosen. So have a free day out for the older ones - brilliant as dd is the one most worried about doing stuff and the cost of things

Hello mum! Well done, had a spendy day as it's Friday weekly shop. But we do need to eat.

Hey Nerf great news on the tickets!! And yeah, this food lark is a real pain lol ...

Dd has been scouted by an agency so at least we can spend less as she will be on tissues and black coffee soon

Hi all, non spendy week for me too. May I ask a favour: could someone send me their meal plan for a week? I just cannot seem to get started, have researched online but... It would be hugely helpful to have one which works for this time of year to get me going.

My meal plans are not very brilliant and rely heavily on quorn and convenience I'm afraid. Too many variants of what people will eat (dairy allergy and asd) to plan cheap and easy food.
Pitta and various fillings
Pizza and salad
Roast
Pasta bake
Jkt potatoes
Cowboy pie - veggie sausages and beans, tipped with mash
Wedges and quorn fillets with veg

Nerfmother thanks . That's so helpful. So it is just listing the hot meals for the week and not also costing them like a girlcalledjack does, with breakfasts, puddings and snacks being just what is in the house. That's probably why I found it so daunting. Including everything and costing would be just too complex. Basic, cheap and easy is good, no special dietary requirements and I am now thanks to this thread totally into Aldi.

Hey puffer you could try Frugal Queen's blog, she's been doing a series of meal plans for feeding a family of 4 for £40, or maybe this ...

Mine for week of 3 March-9th March

Mon: Sausage Hot Pot (veggie sausages, can kidney beans, can baked beans frozen sweetcorn, onion, garlic, can tomatoes, paprika) serve with bread or topped with potatoes

Tues: Veggie Paella (any veg, I used Aldi peppers, onions, carrot, peas, sweetcorn) made with a pinch saffron (I brought it back from holidays ages ago, a little goes a long way!) and topped with tofu chunks baked in paprika for protein.

Weds: Homemade pea and ham soup with crusty bread (made from dried peas)

Thurs: Jack Monroe's fishcakes, carrots, spinach

Fri: Egg fried rice and stir-fried veg (again aldi special - leeks, spring onions, peppers, carrots and courgettes!)

Sat: homemade pizzas (DH makes the dough, sauce = can of tomatoes reduced down, topped with little bits of veg/cheese as liked)

Sun: nut roast or tofurkey with spuds, greens, carrots/parsnips (veg determined by what's on at Aldi!!)

ALL of these except the stir-fry serve 6 so I freeze leftovers and we will have it all for either lunch or dinner another day.

10-16th March

Mon: Veggie curry with chickpea dumplingsSimilar recipe here, I adapted it for frugality purposes

Tues: Pasta with pesto, chopped fresh tomatoes, spinach and haricot beans stirred through (veg from Aldi, haricot beans are dried and soaked, you could use tinned)

Weds: Sausage, champ Here , peas, carrots

Thurs: Couscous with tomato paste, sundried tomatoes, olives, onion, fresh tomatoes (Aldi does super cheap sundried tomatoes/olives) served with sweet potato chunks, spinach and hummus OR falafels and hummus (I make my own falafel from dried chickpeas, v. cheap)

Friday: Cauliflower and basil soup with Aldi gnocchi and haricot beans in it (sounds disgusting, was actually lovely, Similar recipe here

Saturday: Jack Monroe's Fishcakes with home made Italian tomato sauce, leeks in butter and carrots (Fishcakes frozen from last week)

Sunday: nut roast with trimmings (Nut roast already in freezer from last week)

By this point I'll have enough tupperware in the freezer to run almost a full week or more with no cooking.
The paella, pea soup and saus hot pot in particular make loads and are usually DH's lunch for 2-3 days plus 2 dinners for the pair of us.

I use a table in microsoft word with a box for Breakfast Lunch Dinner and Snacks across the top and the days of the week down the side.

Then I can fill it in and swap days, make shopping lists etc.

Hi puffer, I usually decide what we will be eating and try to make sure there's variety, then list what we need for the shopping list. Not as advanced as some people but it's the only way I can keep track. Then if I'm shopping and something's on offer, I work out what I can swap it for.