Last pieces of the jig-saw

I have managed to find a very cheap DVD writer (about £15) which has 'lightscribe' capability, this will be the main CD drive for my 'Frankensteins Monster' PC that I am building. I am now bidding on a SATA hard-drive for storage - I already have a 80GB IDE drive for the operating system, and this will be my first venture into SATA drives. I have noticed that there are a lot of different sizes of hard-drives available which makes it tricky trying to find a bargain on eBay (the DVD writer is new, but the hard-drive will probably be second-hand).
I started with the idea of a 300GB drive, but had to also try 320, 350 and 360 to make sure I had the best price - I then noticed a couple of 400GB drives which were not more expensive (one even on buy-it-now) and then the 500GB drives didn't seem to be attracting many bids.
My resulting strategy (after failing to secure a number of 250GB drives) is to place some big bids on 500GB drives and if I don't get those, I will do a 'buy-it-now' on a reasonably-priced 400GB drive (assuming it's still available). This demonstrates how a 'buy-it-now' price can work in your favour if you price it right - it offers a definite alternative to the bidder and is fairly likley to sell way quicker...
My eBay rating is now 103 transactions (100% feedback) and I really MUST look seriously at flogging off the flotsam and jetsam of PC parts I have lying around in my loft..

House renovations

The one room in our house that desperately needs a makeover is the bathroom, a job which I have only 'dabbled with' so far. When we first moved in, I did strip off the nasty vinyl wallpaper, gave it a lick of fresh paint and made a new bath panel.
Since then, I have replaced the bathroom faucet with some nice new shiny ones, and I have stripped and sanded the floor. I know that at some point I am going to have to fork out for a complete new bathroom with a shower (still haven't fitted a shower...) and a new suite to replace the lovely pink one we inherited...but it does for now.
The two areas of the house that demand the most attention (and expense) nowadays are the kitchen and bathroom, but this wasn't always the case - kitchens and bathrooms of yesteryear were hardly given any thought at all.
We are actually 'blessed' with an extra outside loo which we tend to use for storage, but as the household expands, there will come a time where having an extra toilet will be extremely useful - turning this outside facility into something usable is a job that is a bit more up my street...

My mistake...

What an idiot! It turns out I moved a 'jumper' on the new motherboard that I was attempting to boot up and forgot to reset it in it's proper place - so my previously reported eBay failure was a success after all...
Fortunately I was outbid on a replacement that I had already lined up - so I have been busy for a couple of days configuring my new set-up.
I have ended up with a 2.2GHz AMD Athalon CPU on a ECS Extreme motherboard in a nice new case using one of my old hard-drives (80GB) and an old 512MB RAM stick. I intend to get some more RAM and a nice big SATA drive to finish the system off, but this is what the system has cost me so far:
CPU (eBay) £31.00
Mobo (eBay) £30.50
PC case (eBay) £25.92
Hard-drive - already had
graphics card - already had
CD drive - already had
XP pro - already had
RAM - already had
A grand total of £87.42
(all including postage) which I don't think is too bad for a complete PC which seems to function very nicely even with the single RAM stick (I am already bidding on some RAM!!) I will probably treat myself to a new DVD writer, but right now it's not really essential.. I must report though that installing a new OS and getting things just as you want them on a new PC is quite a satisfying experience, it's only when they start to get loaded up with lots of different applications that they start to become erratic, slow and generally annoying.

Getting Older...

Aging happens to us all of course, but I have been 'blessed' with youthful looks since childhood. When I was a teenager, having youthful looks was not really helpful although there were times when it could be used to my advantage. In the main it was a pain to always look younger than your mates when you are young - however I always knew I would have the last laugh when I got older. So when all my old school-friends are looking for the the best skin-care products and eye cream, I am 'product-free' and proud of it..
There is a down-side however, and at somewhere between my fourth and fifth decade, I am certainly feeling the physical effects of age, not least of which is my newly-deteriorating eyesight. I am going to have to get some glasses pretty soon...
My back is struggling to keep up with my sporting ambitions, and playing football twice a week generally ensures that I am in a permanent state varying between back-twinges and full-blown 'can't get out of bed' back pain.

My first real eBay failure

I have to admit that things did not really go according to plan with my recent eBay purchases. I have been attempting to build a new PC from eBay spares, but the Motherboard I bought decided it was not going to work after initially booting up successfully.
This was a disappointment, and to be honest I am not sure if it was the mobo, or my CPU that failed, but there are no signs of life and I have had to go back to the drawing board. Not to be put off, I am already bidding on another mobo/CPU bundle (!) and am determined to emerge with a working system. I have promised myself that once the new system is up and running, I will have to clear out any remaining computer debris from my loft. Currently this comprises four Motherboards, three CPU's and various power supplies.
I have described this as my first eBay failure because usually eBay sellers are very good at refunding when you have out of the box failures - my problem was that I knew full well that when it arrived, the mobo did actually power up and it is only since I tried fitting it into a new case that it decided to fail. So I cannot in all honesty threaten negative feedback when the seller has sold a working board in good faith.
To expand on my recent experiences with eBay, I also recently had someone sell an item I had bid on (and won) to an off-eBay customer, which to say the least was disappointing. This was the first time ever that I have left negative feedback for anybody, and I have just reached the 100 transaction mark...

Get yourself a bargain online

Such a wide variety of products are now available online, one can't help wondering how high street shops are going to be able to survive the current economic crisis. Even the tradition of Christmas shopping is now largely carried out online. We gave cautiously embraced online purchases over the last decade, and at the same time have seen the steady erosion of 'off-line' retail outlets.
We are able to obtain anything from doughnuts to diamond rings, and mostly at a vastly improved price over high street equivalents.
There are two main reasons for the lower online prices, the primary reason is that overheads are lower where there is no need for a physical 'shop front' to be maintained, and the other reason is the level of competition in the growing online community is definitely hotting up.
Jewelery is certainly one of areas that can benefit from online retailing. In the main, jewelery outlets are in high-cost premises with expensive fittings and must invest in a lot of security before they can even open their doors to the public. Once you switch to online, the overheads are drastically cut to a mere fraction.

Surviving the economic crisis

Shopping around for the best deals will become more and more necessary as the economic climate worsens. Shopping online will definitely become more popular due to the fact that online stores usually offer a price advantage over high street stores. High street stores will hit back with Sale after sale, and some stores will be going out of business altogether.
Whilst that may mean a few extra bargains in the short-term, having less choice of retail outlets is a bad thing in the long run. Controlling your spending and keeping to budgets will be the key to surviving the current recession.

Health and wealth

The healthy option is almost if not more important that the wealthy option nowadays, with health and dieting in particular being one of the most discussed topics on the internet. dNeero wades in with it's own survey on health - easy to participate and you can get paid for taking part...

One step closer...

I am one step closer to building new PC (almost) entirely funded by blogging earnings and purchased from eBay.. I found a nice new PC case and didn't quite have enough Paypal funds to pay for it. The case was on a 'buy it now' or 'make an offer', so I made an offer which was about £2 below the asking price of £16.99. The seller countered the offer with a price of £16, which was reasonable for the case, but I only had enough in my PayPal to pay £15.93 plus postage...
So I countered with £15.93 and sent a message to the seller to explain that I wasn't being funny, but that was the full extent of my available funds. I was pleased to find that my offer was accepted and this should be the final piece that will get my new PC up and running. The case includes a 500W power supply, I have a CPU and motherboard from recent Ebay dealings, and a hard-drive that was languishing in my previous 'spare' PC. I also had a 512MB stick of RAM left over from a previous upgrade which is enough to get me started.
I intend to spend a little more on RAM and a SATA hard-drive, but after that, I promise faithfully to actually save some money so that I have something to show for the hours spent in front of a computer monitor.
So far this month earnings have been slow, but there should be some payouts due for previous work. I am encouraged however to find that passive earnings from Adsense on my blogs are building up and would like to maximise this revenue.

I'm still spending

I know I said I should try and build up some cash in my PayPal account to pay back into my bank account, but I've got the spending bug, and although I haven't broken into my 'real' money lately I have carried on fueling my plans for building a new computer...
I now have a new Motherboard to go with my recently purchased CPU, and I am bidding on a replacement case with power supply... I can see myself buying a new hard-drive and a stack of RAM before there is any surplus in my PayPal account - at least I am not spending 'real' money - that would be far more difficult to justify.
Therein lies my error of course, because money in PayPal is, in every way as good as money in the bank, and I have already spent a good deal of good hard cash pursuing half-formed ideas of taking my computer(s) to another level. When I have finished this project I will have two very similar computers and what will I have gained? Not much... I console myself with the thought that the whole project is of course a learning process. I am learning about fixing computers whilst I am learning how to build them - I have already fixed a PC for a work colleague, and used my new-found knowledge and expertise (and willingness to poke around inside a PC..) to fix a panel PC at work, saving us a deal of money...
I am determined then to complete this project and then curb my spending until I have actually built up enough money to shift it back into a bank account - I am getting very close to ridding myself completely of a credit card debt, and I am starting to feel that my compulsive spending is holding me back from finally paying the thing off..

This month has not seen a lot of blogging earnings coming my way so far, but I have been paid by Adsense, so all is not lost... I have a few 'jobs' to complete which will bring in a few dollars, but they will be online earnings that do not come under the banner of blogging cash. I have been reasonably successful in building a bit of interest and traffic to one or two of my blogs and will continue my 'organic' method of comment posting and links placed in relevant forums to try to extend that traffic to levels that will bring more Adsense income.
Once I have completed my PC project, I promise to put all my efforts into paying off the remaining credit card debt and relkeasing myself from those particular shackles - I will be sure to blog about it here and on my finance-related blog.

Server Systems

Whilst I am not about to search eBay for KVM switches, I have considered turning one of my PC's into a server and running the other, and any subsequent PC's on the same network. This does not have to entail purchasing a network operating system as XP pro can handle a network without too many problems. The advantage is that I could use the server for routine tasks and backups , leaving other PC's to handle dedicated tasks. This may sound over the top for a home system, but more and more home systems are run from homeservers combining media handling tasks with other home-based or gaming tasks.
Dedicated homeservers are now commonly advertised and the likelihood is that this will become the norm.

New Survey from dNeero

Looks like dNeero haven't abandoned surveys altogether and are running twitter and surveys side by side. It's been a while since any survey were offered, but this music one came up today and it's fairly topical - click the widget to take part in dNeero surveys to boost your online earnings...
If you are on twitter, then you can make extra cash by replying to twitter questions too...

How do we use the web?

I am honestly getting to the stage where I wonder how we survived without the internet. I use Google all day every day at work to find all sorts of items and find out all sorts of facts. We get our car insurance, term life quotes and any number of items and gadgets from eBay. Added to this is the massive factual resource the internet provides, whether you need information about, travel, insurance, electronic or any scientific queries you might have, the internet has the answer if you know how to look for it. A modern business, even if it has no link to technology or the web MUST have a web presence if they are to be taken seriously, even if it's just an entry in a directory. With the demise of high street shopping comes the rise in internet shopping, and with the recession getting worse, the internet offers a chance to get items you want at a keener price. These savings can also be extended to things like internet banking and insurance service which can offer better rates than their high street equivalents.

February 2009

A return to recent good form, with a little over $110 this month (having turned $100 down!), also been paid by Adsense recently, a good portion of this now comes from blogs. I am experimenting with ideas for publicising blogs and getting more traffic organically trying to do it in an informed, smart way!
I am having some success getting attention to my credit crunch blog, especially with being able to post about current events and link in with forums and other social sites. My latest post has been about Sir Fred Goodwin's pension. I am running a poll to see how many people I can attract to the blog to vote on whether Sir Fred should be allowed his £700,000 pension at the age of fifty.
I ran a similar poll on another blog, but didn't really make the effort to attract visitors, I am making a bit more effort with this one and so far, it has paid off.
Having blogsvertise back on line has allowed me to add some revenue to the steady earnings from PayU2blog, but the spreadsheet tells the full story...