Jumble Sales, Car Boots Sales And Getting To Paradise

I was talking to one of my friends called Mike a few months ago, who has had enough of life in London and wished to escape for a few months to paradise. But he had a problem that many of us have from time to time, he was a bit broke.

His idea of paradise is some place in the Caribbean with nice beaches and lots of pretty girls. I can understand where he is coming from on that one, The Caribbean is a sort of paradise I suppose. Well it is if you are going there to laze around for a couple of months as opposed to working there.

Mike has the dream, he knows where he wants to be. He maybe couldn’t have what he wanted instantly. But I told him back then all he had to do was work towards his goal and if he wanted it badly enough he would find a way to get to paradise. I told him that his aim of having a 2 or 3 month break in the Caribbean was easily achievable.

All he had to do was save up the money to make his dream become a reality. His present job didn’t seemingly allow him to save very much money. We can all make cut backs and sacrifices if we really want to.

I know for the short sighted and moaners out there, that it is more easily said than done. The problem in society is that nowadays people want everything the easy way, they want it now and without working for it. The usual case for most people is that the dream doesn’t get beyond the dream stage because they cant be arsed to do the hard work to make the dream come true.

I know from experience having spent 9 months in Barbados how difficult it is to get the money together for such an adventure. In my case I wasn’t just lazing around in the sun, but I was involved in a business venture. It all came crashing end because of personal reasons and a marriage break down. It was however a great life experience and I will be heading to the sun again on my own terms when the time is right!

Something I learned very quickly when saving up to head to Barbados, was that I needed to cut back on my outgoings. As I told my friend it is amazing how much money you can save by cutting back on takeaways, eating out, boozing it up in bars and clubs. Becoming smarter in how you generally live your life, whether it’s using your mobile phone less or spending less money on household bills.

I never lived my life like a hermit or monk, as I would still occasionally go out and enjoy myself. But if you are saving up for a goal you have to make sacrifices. I used similar methods when I saved up to buy a franchise way back in 2001.

Even with making a few cut backs it is was still going to take Mike forever to reach his goal. The simple solution is to get a part time job, I used to deliver pizzas, which was a job that I hated with a passion, but the extra wage came in useful, along with the tips that my good service and smiling face used to get me. You have to think of the end result, that’s what kept me going for the 6 months of working 3 nights a week on top of my 40 hours a week day job.

Another way to take in some extra money, which I found useful was selling stuff on Ebay. In fact this can be a very lucrative source of income. I sort of fell into becoming an Ebayer by chance a number of years ago. I bought a load of boxes of music books, sheet music and such like at an auction. They were from a local music shop that went out of business. The various boxes that I bought cost me £50, which I turned into around £750 selling on Ebay.

I had discovered the potential of making money from Ebay and I was soon, frequenting local Jumble sales, car boot sales and auctions on a regular basis looking for more stuff to sell. I developed a reasonable nose for finding things that I could make a few quid on. If I can do it anybody can, because I was no expert before I started out, but I ended up making a few quite a few quid out of it. If the tax man is reading this, it is a figment of my imagination, it is a story of complete fiction, intended to inspire people!

I recently bought a camcorder on Ebay, which I wasn’t too enamoured with. So I instantly put it back on Ebay and amazingly made £25 quid profit, which shows me that there is still potential to make money from online auctions. Just do some research and find out what is selling.

Mike took my advice about spending less money and even though he thought he was selling his soul, he has been working a in a bar a few nights a week, along with making a few quid out of Ebay. I was impressed when Mike told me he had booked his flight to Barbados for September and that he will be spending 3 months travelling around various Caribbean Island. And even better he wont have to stay in shitty hostel type accommodation because he will be able to afford reasonable comfortable diggs, that’s the way to do it.

I plan on doing a wee experiment of my own, mainly for a little bit of a challenge and fun. I intend to take the £25 profit, which I made on the camcorder and use it to buy stuff from jumble sales and car boot sales. And then sell the items on Ebay, to see how much I can turn my original £25 into over the course of the next 12 months. Wish me luck I’m going to need it.

Jumble Sales and Car Boot sales are of course not just for people looking to make a few extra quid from Ebay, you can also pick up some real bargains as well as hard to find items or collectables.

I received an email recently regarding a Jumble sale in Camden known as, “Let’s Get Ready To Jumble” which is held on the 1st Saturday of every month. With the next sale happening on Saturday the 7th of November.

There will be a variety of stalls selling the usual stuff you would expect to find at jumble sales including, men and woman’s vintage clothing, records, books, bric a brac, crafts, jewellery and delicious cakes. There will also be a DJ playing relaxing music and a bar to have a few drinks at. It sounds good to me and it looks like a fair bit of effort goes into making “Let’s Get Ready To Jumble” more than your normal run of the mill type of jumble sales. And best of all it is free entry.

“Let’s Get Ready To Jumble”

Saturday 7th November

12 – 6pm

London

NW1 8BG

The Monarch

40-42 Chalk Farm Road

 

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