Or maybe this title should read, ‘Where there’s rubbish, there’s dosh’ - potential dosh anyway.
Respected financial journalist Rob Griffin (yes, there are some) and I have been talking money for a few years. He pens pieces on finance and occasionally I slide in the odd quote from a downshifted perspective.
On Wednesday, the Daily Express published, ‘From Jewellery to Junk, We Can All be in Profit’, an enlightening piece by him on turning our crud into money.
Here’s a nibble.
How about making a little extra money? With finances already tight and Christmas coming up, such an offer will be music to the ears of hard-pressed families bearing the brunt of the global credit crunch.
Easing household budgets is easier than you think, according to Tracey Smith, author of The Book of Rubbish Ideas. In fact, there are plenty of innovative ways to turn unwanted goods into hard cash.
“De-cluttering the house and clearing out your superfluous stuff can also be a very cathartic process,” she says.
“Once you start feeling the benefits of having pockets of both time and money, it will inspire you to do more and save more.”
You can also turn skills and knowledge into a potentially lucrative part-time business run from home.
Not only will this bring in extra money but it may end up being so successful you can pack in the day job. So where should you start?
In my experience, people who embrace a simpler life have to be more entrepreneurial than ever and clever downshifters never miss a trick.
There’s a steady increase in work-at-home enterprises and I suspect with the forthcoming redundancies forecast for the UK (and in neighbouring European countries for that matter) it’s set to rise even further.
If you’re planning to pick up the sole-trading baton, be prepared! Get all the information you can and do as much research as is humanly possible! Take advantage of any necessary training courses while you are still in paid employment - you can thank yourself for doing that later on.
The benefits of being self-employed are many, but with every upside, there are worrying downsides too, but you are the one cracking the whip and that can often be the deciding factor.
The best advice for anyone looking to work for themselves, is to start-up as you mean to go on. Pay attention to your impact on the environment and plan your business with sustainability in mind. It’ll earn you green points with your clients and it might help keep the pennies in your bank too.
Rubbishly yours,
TS x
