How Much Money Is Lying Around The Average House?

Most people would be surprised by the amount of money that they can find around the average house. Looking behind sofas and in clothes can yield a significant amount of change, while decluttering and going through your home to find potentially valuable items and things that can be sold on in bulk can also result in a windfall. Alternatively, you can consider the benefits of short term cash loans and using pawnbrokers to build money off items that may have been gathering dust in attics and basements.

Finding Cash

The average house contains extensive places where you might find loose change and money. The first place to look should be down the sides of cushions on sofas and chairs in the living room. Move furniture to check underneath, and look inside the lining of items. You should also go through all closets and drawers for any change that might have fallen out of pockets. Old coats and jeans that haven’t been worn for a while may contain loose change, and even the odd note. Check inside the lining of coats if they’re particularly old.

Going through drawers and cupboards throughout the house can also be rewarding, either for finding loose change that can be added up, or for finding old wallets and purses. Particularly check any handbags that might have fallen behind the back of a cupboard. It’s worth going through the linings of washing machines and dryers if you don’t regularly, as they may contain loose change. If you have young children, then it’s also an idea to check under floorboards, under beds, and inside toys. Moreover, check the floor of your car, and your garage, attic, and basement for old boxes and clothes.

While doing so, you may find some valuable goods, as well as bulk items that can be sold on. Decluttering is always a good idea if you want to go through your stuff in the most efficient way possible, and you’d be surprised by the odd things that might have disappeared into a box during a move that may be of value. These things might include wearable clothes, old toys, and even high value items like gold jewellery that you no longer wear. Other items, such as old mobile phones, can be sent away for a cash payment, as can parts from PCs and old laptops. When selling, use car boot sales for bulk items, and take care to present anything that might be more valuable online, or through a specialist shop. This can be a good idea with old furniture and any pieces of art, as well as with clocks and jewellery.

Alternatively, you can take high value items to a pawnbrokers, where you can receive a short term cash advance against their value. At the end of a month, you can choose to buy back the item, or use it to pay off the loan. Cash Loans in Colchester and Braintree, and many other places, have been founded on this kind of approach. Remember, though, that going through a pawnbroker does carry the risk of losing an item, so think carefully before putting anything into a scheme. You can also sell items outright to secondhand shops, and to specialist online sellers.

Rob James is a father of four. He recommends CashInHandPawnBrokers for cash loans in Colchester and Braintree. Rob can be found blogging about the many different aspects of family life.

Guest Post from The Party Works

It’s a first for me but today I am featuring a guest post. We have all been to and held kids parties, and the food is always a conundrum – go healthy and some kids won’t eat, go traditional and they are bouncing off the walls, here’s some ideas…….

 

Healthy Kids Parties

My son was invited to a birthday party about a month ago and I immediately began to worry. I knew the mother of the boy who was celebrating his 7^th birthday and I knew that she had a tendency to spoil her children with sugary treats and fatty foods. Sure, those things have their place, but I didn’t want little Arthur gorging himself on pizza, candy and ice cream. I had it on good authority that this mother, who in all other respects was a great parent, kept a candy bar in her purse for every time her kids got an “A” on a test or held the door open for an old woman at the grocery store or ate a carrot. To top it off, her husband was an amateur hot dog eating champion! I was worried going into it so I came up with a few ways to make sure little Liam’s next birthday wouldn’t end in a sugar crash.

Pizza! Pizza!

Pizza is one birthday party staple that is hard to replace. I’ve experimented with making my own pizzas and I’ve always had a great time while doing it. It’s pretty simple to let kids make their own pizzas. You can buy wheat dough, have them roll it out, cover it in pizza sauce and top it with veggies, a selection of cheeses and pepperonis. This is a much healthier alternative to the grease-soaked bread that most pizza places will try to get you to eat.

Pop Replacement

Sodas are one thing I try to steer Liam clear of all the time. Did you know that one soda a day for a year will add 10 pounds of fat to the average person? If you can cut these sugary indulgences out of your child’s diet and out of their party, you’ll be doing everyone a favor. Instead, replace the soda with all natural fruit juice. For a pool party, try whipping up some smoothies using fruit, yoghurt and ice.

Cake Conundrum

How do you have a party without birthday cake? That’s a hard one to answer and you’ll probably find that a cake is the hardest thing to replace at a party. The good news is that cakes come in a lot of varieties. You don’t have to have a rich, thick cake with buttery icing. You can have an angel food cake with a light, sugar-free icing. This fluffy birthday cake will provide the perfect denouement to your child’s soiree.

Genny is a guest blogger who writes about party planning issues, such as how to throw the perfect Super Mario birthday party.

Barmy about my Boys – Guest Day Post

Guest Post Day has come round again thanks to Erica at Littlemummy.com and this time I am pleased to announce my guest blogger is Ramblemum, so without further ado it’s over to Ramblemum:

 

This is my first guest post day so please be easy on me! I am glad to be paired with Super Single Mum as she has been able to help me with this process.We decided as I have all boys and she has all girls we would do a comparison, so here is my perspective on having all boys.

 

I recently almost got thrown out of Asda. It was nothing really to do with the boys behaviour (for once) Albert was at playgroup, Stanley and Ernest were both asleep in the buggy. I was walking round minding my own business and an old lady peeked in at Ernest,

 

Her: Awww two boys?

Myself : Yes, well three actually, the other is at playgroup

Her: Oh well try again maybe you will be lucky next time and get a girl

Now this is not an unusual remark and normally I would let it go so I could run after Albert and stop him filling the trolly but as the two were all asleep and I had half an hour to kill I took the decision to follow it up

Myself: I think I’m I am lucky now thank you (In a very sarcastic tone)

Her: No need to be rude!

Myself: I think insinuating I am not lucky to have my boys is rude

 

The conversation continued until a manager asked us to take it outside and we both slunk off.

 

I am very protective of my boys, when I was pregnant with Albert everyone thought I would have a boy, we thought we would have it at the weekend and true we did. With Stanley again everyone thought boy, he was and born at the weekend at night the same as Albert. So with Ernest we joked that he would be a boy born at the weekend at night and true to form he was! No one could believe it and now everyone thinks I can produce to order, Will this he has super ‘man’ sperm, I think we must have a predictable sex life.

 

Life with three boys born within three years is loud, dirty and fun and I am not sure what people think is wrong with that. I get asked if I would like to continue to have a girl or wish I had one but I really do not think I am missing anything. At the moment I think there is not much difference, its when they get older that the differences come. I am hoping it will be easier having boys. I have a guilty fantasy of other friends having arguments with their teenage girls whilst my boys are hidden in their rooms looking at porn or on their computers, then again most probably looking at porn on their computers. Whatever, I am getting some peace.

 

The most difficult thing about having boys is buying things, retailers are still very much on the side of girls. Clothes especially, I am sick of zoo/farm/jungle/safari baby clothes and tractor/car based toddler clothes. Formal clothes are a nightmare, the selection is minimal and very predictable as opposed to the rails and rails of dresses available for girls. Do not get me wrong, there are a lot of hideous girls stuff out there, billowing polyester fairy princess dresses and lelli kelly shoes to start but at least there is a choice. Boys toys tend to be educational or skills based as opposed to creative but that is ok as my boys have a range of toys. Stanley is getting a dolly, push chair and tea set for his birthday as gender specific does not happen here, well we do not, I cannot vouch for what others get them.

 

Emotionally I would like my boys to stay as close to me as they are now but I do understand that boys tend to rely less emotionally on their mothers as they get older. Maybe I can replace them with a very girly needy dog once this happens, I jest-Will hates dogs. In all honesty at the end of the day as long as they are happy and healthy I will be a happy Mummy.

Guest Blog Post

Ok so there are a fair few of us joining in on this Guest Blog event today, and I have done my intro so you all know Kerry from And Then All I Thought About Was You is posting on my site today.

We decide, having not done this before, to throw a few ideas of Title’s around and both write a blog post to fit the title. Here is Kerry’s, I think it is beautiful and it’s a true reflection of her honest and creative writing that you will find on her blog. So take a look, and visit her blog to find out more about her and also to read my post of the same title! Take it away Kerry………

Life Without Kids

Life without kids would be quiet

It would be tidy

It would be clean

It would be organised

Life without kids would be a full time job

It would be a 37 hour working week

It would be free time at weekends

It would be out partying Friday/Saturday

It would be lying in Sunday till midday

Life without kids would be having money

It would be money to spend on me

It would be money left after all the bills are paid

It would be savings

Life without kids would be holidays

It would be holidays abroad

It would be hot, sandy and sunny

It would be for two weeks at a time

Life without kids would be living in another country

It would be just going and trying

It would be no ties

It would be a lets see how it goes

Life without kids would be no loving you unconditionally

It would be no one needing you

It would be no cuddles in the middle of the night

It would be no looks of pure love and adoration

It would be no feelings of pride and joy at your child

It would be not having someone loving you till the end of your days

And My Guest Blogger is……….

Kerry from And Then All I Thought About Was You

I hadn’t come accross Kerry’s blog before so I was really happy to find someone new through this experience straight away! So for anyone else who hasn’t met her before as  blogger or on Twitter here is some info about her.

Kerry is 29 years young and mum to 16 month old Little Man. She is wife to Mr L and has T the three year old Beagle. She works from home as an Avon rep, and Little Man goes to Nannies 2 days a week so she can deal with her business and get a bit of adult time too! She would love to be a writer and is currently studying from home, completing a Creative Writing Course.

Kerry, like myself, has been blogging for a month now and loving every minute of it. Her blog is pretty open in it’s content, although her main subject is parenting, family and things she is learning along the road as a Mummy. She loves getting involved with the Blogging community, as well as this Guest Blog Day event, she takes part in the writing workshop each week and yesterday she took part in The Gallery too.

Tomorrow Kerry’s 1^st Guest Post will appear on my blog, and mine on hers. Both having never done this before we decided to go about it in a particular way…..I won’t spoil it now, hopefully you will notice straight away when our posts are published tomorrow. Please make her feel welcome here and I hope you will all come see my post too. Fingers crossed you will like what you see and become regular readers of hers too!

Guest Day Blog – Friday 5th March

Some of my fellow Mummy Bloggers are joining in on Friday’s Guest Blog event organised by the lovely Erica at http://www.littlemummy.com but for those of you who don’t know about this, a fair few of us Mummy Bloggers have been paired up to guest blog with each other. My Guest Blogger will be revealed tomorrow when I introduce her to you all but I just wanted to record a bit about why I decided to join in and having just finished my post, how I feel about it now.

My main initial reason for being involved was to get me known to fellow mummy bloggers. I have been blogging here for just under a month now, whilst I have got out into the blogging community through British Mummy Bloggers and Twitter I am always looking for new ways, like this, to get my blog noticed. However, it is also a way for me to find new blogging friends. The wonderful Mum I have been paired with I have never come across before. Straight away I have found a new blog to read and we have both been blogging for around the same time too, so already it’s a positive experience for me!

I have just written my blog post for the big day! I have never felt nervous about writing my blog posts before, but the fact this is going on someone elses site has reallymade me think more about what I write!!! Now yes that is a good thing but it also makes me worry what I write for myself is utter drivvle!!!! I just hope come Friday everything goes to plan!!!

For anyone who hasn’t taken part this time, I would definitely recommend it. It is part of the learning curve and I have found it makes you look at your blog in a different way, whether you have blogged for years or just started that is always a good thing. So until Friday……….Good Luck to everyone else who is taking part in this!