The save the Mundo campaign continues, and so much more....

The save the Mundo campaign is in full swing, in an effort to add more to the fund I have ordered some trinkets and beads with which I plan to create unique bicycle charms for Good Luck and Bling!  I can't furnish pictures yet as shipping takes forever, but I know they will be a fun addition to the blog. They may arrive too late to actually sell before we move, but being light and compact I thought I could easily tuck them in the suitcases.

I've been selling lots and lots of stuff online, which really keeps me busy, one wouldn't think you could collect as much stuff as we have in such a short time, considering we moved here not 3 years ago, with barely enough stuff to fill our vehicle at the time. I love selling stuff, as the offspring of a south Londoner I have inherited it along with the "gift of the gab" as my mother calls it.

Basically when we decided to move I got a pen and paper, walked around the house and did a rough estimate of how much money we had sitting around in the way of pots and pans, sofas, books and so on...calculated how much we'd need to move, looked at the difference and decided a little wheeling and dealing could probably fill in the gap, or get us pretty close to it. All my life I've been around the second-hand trade and it has proved to be great way to earn money for me, it just happens naturally. I was the youngest of four children, with a Mother that took us to car-boot sales and auctions as children, now as an adult I only buy used stuff unless we're talking underwear, of course, oh and bikes apparently.

When we moved here it was out of necessity and need, and I knew I didn't want to stay long, I've been yearning for home forever and have a hard time veiling my dislike for this conservative small town. I knew we didn't have the extra income to stick money in a savings account, as a one income household we had made a choice to not pay someone to raise our child, but the cost to that is we don't enjoy fancy restaurant meals or the latest and greatest cell phones of the week. What we do enjoy is time together and shopping at yard sales, flea markets and thrift stores for bargains, things we need, that are a necessity, but that can be sold at more than what we will pay for them, even if we use them for a few years.

There are so many positives to this way of life that even if we were millionaires we would still shop the same way, for one we're doing the planet a service by keeping less packaging from being used and in keeping another used item from being tossed in a landfill. Secondly, we're teaching our child a set of ideals and a trade which he can always fall back on if life throws him a curve ball. Thirdly, when we move or sell off our junk we generally make a profit, and sometimes a pretty decent profit, which is more than can be said for most people who sell their stuff at a yard sale. Lastly, we get to enjoy used stuff, interesting things, little unique items that decorate our space and fill it with more interest than can ever be purchased at a big box store, and AGAIN, I must reiterate, when we are done with them, we turn a profit!

So, to all those people who tell me they can't save money and can't possibly afford to move or travel, just change the way to buy and you will save up a little cash in no time. Of course you can't get attached to things when you live like this, you can't put sentiment into objects, they are just objects after all, when you die you can have objects or experiences, and I want experiences. I want experiences because to me they are the truest form of education, more than can be learned in a book. I don't know that I've ever even mentioned this, and maybe it's because at times I have found it embarrassing, but the truth is my mother was a bit of a gypsy and, well so many other things, but basically she took me out of school at 6 years old and with the exception of a few awkward terms in the British public school system I never went back. She didn't home-school me either, but that is what I was instructed to tell people, rather she just bought me any book I wanted and took me and my siblings on never ending quests for the perfect place to call home, which resulted in us never actually having one. 

This is what happens when Jack gets involved in watching Sesame Street, I get to ramble, I hope I haven't bored you all to tears!

We're still hoping to be blessed with a little more help with the Mundo, everyone has been so amazingly supportive and it really helps.  I had the unexpected expense of having to buy a new laptop, I say unexpected, but really it has been an obvious expense waiting to happen, as this one has more issues than we can fix now, and some that the repair guy just shook his head at.  So I got a used (of course!) laptop from eBay, which should arrive in a week or so, my greatest fear was that I would be left computer-less and therefore unable to blog, so it became a necessity in my mind to secure a laptop that can carry me through the next year or so. If you can help throw a few bucks in the pot I will send you out a little bicycle charm when they are made up, of course if you have already helped you should send me your address so I can mail you one too! So much genuine appreciation for you all, cheers! youaintgotjack(at)yahoo(dot)com