HELP! I have unwittingly spent all our money except £20 for the month on Christmas gifts - Tips for being frugal and making a quick quid needed please!

[Astrophe]

idiot me

can you ebay anything?

Blimey how the hell did you manage that? did you not check your money state before spending?

You either need to put old things on ebay or here or get the things you have brought back to the shop if you have a receipt.

Well it will all be unused and I'm guessing that you've got the receipts, so if you're really down to £20 then I would take some or all of it back and create a budget for Christmas - one that you can afford at the risk of stating the obvious.

But it is always tempting to go overboard when you're buying for others. I still think it helps to have a budget regardless of how well off you are.

er, thanks scoooby...no, obviously not.

It was a combination of lack of communication between DH and I about our spending, and things not being charged to the card straight away, and then all being charged at once.

Most presents have been either posted to Australia (at great expense - sigh), or delivered straight to recipients in Australia.

Still, the spending included a large grocery shop and our vegie box, so we will not starve. If we get really stuck we can tap into some invested funds, but its far better if we can see the month out being frugal.

I am racking my brains for things to ebay, but coming up with nought. I already have a pic trail on here, but no bites so far... washable nappies and kids clothes anyone?

Do you have any direct debits or standing orders on your account? If so, I would cancel them right now, so that you don't go overdrawn and wrack up charges. If there is a bill that's due to go out, you can tell the company that the cancellation was "in error" and then sort it out to get paid as soon as your salary goes into the account.
Bit sneaky, and I don't really approve of lying, but you can't afford the cost of nasty letters!

I would love to see a house that had nothing ebayable in it I could be here for a year, and not clear ours out!

Kids clothes over 12m seem to do quite well on Ebay if you get the auction listing right (good pictures and descriptions with 'key' words in). Do you use Auctiva? You can add as many photos as you like for free. Very helpful.

If there are any boot sales still going on where you are then they are pretty good for adding an extra £20-30. We have a year round one near us which we have used when desperate - we never make loads but an extra £20 or so is always helpful.

It's hideous when everything gets charged at once.

We've also had frugal weeks of eating lots of jacket potatoes and beans on toast - cheap and filling. Not that exciting but has got us through.