Declutter - And Earn Money

In an article on Money Watch called How Much Money Is Lying Around Your House? the author talks about how you can declutter your house one room at a time – and then sell the things you find you no longer need on Ebay to generate some extra cash.

Now we all know this, however, I’ve never sold anything on Ebay myself (I’ve bought a few things though :) This article struck a cord with me, however, because I liked the thought of cleaning out all my old stuff AND earning money.

Especially since recently I’ve been thinking a lot about all the stuff I have in my basement, and how I have a feeling that a lot of it is rather useless for me and really just kept for sentimental reasons.

This Ebay tip sure sounds pretty useful. I’ll have to look into this some more.

Saving Challenge Day # 9

Saving Tip # 9: Turn Off The Lights, Dammit!

Yes, turning off the lights to save on your electricity bill – an oldie but goodie.

I’m adding this as a saving tip because I noticed just now that ALL the lights in my entire apartment are ON.

And I live in a studio apartment(!) So it ain’t that big.

But somehow I managed to turn on (and keep on) all the lights. Both the one in the bathroom, the 2 in the kitchen and the 1 over by my tv.

That’s 4 lamps – and I only have 5.

They’re all shut down now.

There’s a reason why people keep mentioning this as a saving tip and that’s because people continually forget to do this.

I’m no better…

So this is what I’m doing/have done today.

The heating guy

The heating guy from my building came by today to do the annual check of our building’s heating consumption. He checked my heaters and whether or not I’ve used more or less than the estimated amount for the year then I’ll either get an extra heating bill or get some money back. I’ll know next week.

Luxury Cars Can’t Sell

I read an article on the Wall Street Journal today that luxury car manufacturers are having problems selling their cars. This doesn’t seem surprising when you think about how the state of things are in the world economically right now. But according to the article, historically, luxury car makers have been less affected by economic downturns. It’s only because the global economic crisis that we’re experiencing is so massive that also they too are now affected.

But the most striking thing about all this is that earlier today while I was surfing around the internet I came across an article on Technabob about an amphibious Lamborghini Countach (wow!) built by Mike Ryan of SeaRoader.

So being curious and wanting to know more about this super cool car I looked up SeaRoader.

And here’s the webpage I was met with

Due to other business commitments the Worldwide manufacturing & design rights to SeaRoader are now for sale at a lower price!

Click on the business opportunities link.

The Worlds #1 Production Amphibious Car

SeaRoader

What the ##??! They’re selling their manufacturing and design rights?!! Meaning their selling their entire business. That spelled from the get-go that they were in a rough spot, but then again how big is the market for amphibious cars normally, and then how big is it during a global financial meltdown. I guess they were bound to be one of the first luxury car manufacturers to go.

So when I read that article in the Wall Street Journal my heart sort of bled for poor SeaRoader and the rest of the brands that we know and love and hope to one day buy. 

I hope good old BMW, Lamborghini, Ferrari,  Porsche, etc. (yes, you know the names ;) make it through this.

I still have my eyes set on one of them. Maybe I’ll even go with the amphibious version ;)

A look at my financial situation

Ok, it’s been a while since I took a look at my financial situation here on the blog.

The last time I did this was when I was just starting this blog back in July 2008 (last summer). But a lot has changed since then.

So here’s a recap/summary:

• I owe 33,000 ($6,600) to my dad. He helped me pay my rent for 3 months.
• I owe 20,520 ($4,104)  in student loans. I just took out my first loans in January 2009.
• So my debt total (so far) is 53,520 ($10,704).

And I say so far…

Because I had to quit my job back in the fall to study full-time. So until I finish my Master’s thesis at the university (estimated 6 months from now) I won’t have any earnings or income whatsoever. I’ll be living on and racking up some killer debt.

So that’s also the main reason why I haven’t really talked about my finances these past months on the blog. I’ve just been talking about saving, saving, saving (as opposed to in july when I was talking a lot about earning and job hunting and working - you can notice a striking difference in the posts). It’s because I myself (and of course my family) knew how bad it looked, but I didn’t want everyone else in cyberspace knowing how bad it looked.

But I guess blogging is about honesty, and sharing your life and struggles and putting it out there. Even when it goes bad. I think I’m still learning this hard circumstance about blogging.

But ultimately, I might sound a little down and out today, but the fact of the matter remains that I know (and remind myself) that this financial hole is merely temporary. And that when I’m finished with college I’ll be earning some money. I have to keep my sights on that. And normally I do. You just caught me on a bad day :)

So that’s how the money situation looks like today.

But just for the fun and humor in it, here’s a graph to show the inevitable downfall of my finances the next months.

Hopefully, I can look back on all this in half a year and smile and laugh a bit. You’ve got to “always look on the bright side of life”, as Monty Python would sing.

And heck, people all around the world have it much worse than me. I should be thankful I’ve got a roof over my head, food, heating(!), clean water and a great supportive family.

So I’m hopeful, confident and will be working damn hard to make it through the next 6 months.

Got money back

On a brighter note, I got some money back. I got 3,778.26 (roughly $755.50) back, so that’s quite a nice sum. It’s actually a system where they take a small amount of your paycheck every month and put it aside for “vacation money”, and in March every year you get a check saying that you can cash it out now. So you always feel very happy when this arrives. ‘Cause you’ve pretty much forgotten about it the entire year, and suddenly you always get “extra” money every March/April. Which is actually yours to begin with, don’t ask me, why they hold it back, but nonetheless, it’s always very cheery and feel-goody when it comes through the door.

So great news today.

And if I get slammed/pulverized by that extra heating bill next week. Then at least I have some “extra” money now to pay it off.