Increase your cashflow with free stuff.

I don't know if you have heard about Freecycle.  Freecycle is a website found at http://www.freecycle.org .  Its a really simple idea.  If you have something to throw away, before you do you advertise on your local Freecycle group.  The idea being that someone else may want it, and if they take it, it saves the item going to the tip. Both parties win, as the giver clears space and the receiver gets something for free. Its a really good idea and works well.  Courtesy of the website over the years I have picked up a 24inch Sony television, a stand, a DVD player and even a digital aerial to go with it. Six or seven years ago, a 32 inch television would sale for about £800. Now they are being given away by persons upgrading to plasma screens.  Who would blame them.  A 32inch television can easily weigh 50Kg.  One year we added an extension to our house.  Its amazing what people will collect.  We free cycled the old patio, the old perspex roof of the demolished seventies lean to conservatory that we were disposing of.  Some one even collected the old water butt for use on their allotment. Over the last two years we have regularly given away old baby clothes and toys, the odd pushchair and other assorted items.  We chose to give them away as we wanted people to benefit, and because some of the items we also received through Freecycle.  We didn't want to sell them.  Then last year something happened.  We gave away a pushchair and a new born baby moses basket.  The person we gave them to, emailed us as soon as we offered them, with a story about her friend who had a premature baby.  A few hours later my wife noticed the items were on Ebay.  The buyer was selling the items as hardly used and from a smoke and pet free home.  This is what annoyed us, as we had bought the items on Ebay. The pushchair I had collected from a farm.  We checked the other items that had been sold on Ed onEbaince then the credit crunch has taken hold and Freecycle has become more popular than ever.  Our local Freecycle group has a policy that you can only post one wanted request per month.  It works well, and ensures that your in box is not snowed under for wanted bay. We still give items away on freecycle but nowadays we are choosy.  We only give to people that we have seen posting other items to give away.  If we have received from you, thank you!  Rest assured you are top of the list when we have items to offer.  If you are throwing something away that you feel has no value, why not Freecycle it instead.  Someone somewhere may benefit and it saves a trip to the tip.  Its great for the environment too.

Boost your returns or cut your debt with Peer to Peer

The weekend is the time to review where you are with your plans. This week I am looking at my social lending or peer to peer portfolio, The internet has brought about many changes to our lives. Not least is the fact that you can now do your banking 24 hrs per day via the internet. At the same time you can also get a better savings rate or a loan. Traditionally to get a loan you went to the bank. Now it is possible to get a loan from people in your community, from people you do not know, and without the use of a bank. The concept of social lending via the internet in the UK began with the website ZOPA. Zopa is an accronym for Zone of Possible Agreement. The Zone is a concept that in simple terms, refers to an agreed range of offers at various interest rates and amounts, equal an agreement to lend. Complicated, yes, but do not worry too much about it. Let me explain. Miss Borrower wants to borrow £5000. She uses a social lender. The social lender credit checks and grades Miss Borrower. If ok, she is allowed to advertise that she wants to borrow. The website, does not lend her the money, we do. Her loan is made up of lots of different small loans funded by individuals are able to offer lump sums at different interest rates. As of today there are a number of social lending websites. The largest and most established is ZOPA. If you are looking to borrow money, and do not want to use a bank, look at a social lender as the rates are competitive. If you are looking to invest, look at Ratesetter or ZOPA as they have protection funds in place should a borrower default. If you want to take a look at peer to peer, please use my referral links. Thanks. Ratesetter

It's the Weekend!

Friday night and it is raining.  The UK stockmarket shares I follow are mostly up.  Top gainer today on my board is CEY, Centamin closing at 39 pence.  I have not seen the share at this price for at least three months.  CEY is a gold mining company, and its share price has been kept down by unrest in Egypt.  It's a longer term play, and is currently a negative valuation, but hopefully as Egypt stabilises, it will recover.... Fingers crossed!

CPP Trading Frenzy!

It's all go this morning.  CPP shares have dropped by 25 per cent following their interims.  Volume was over 2 million in the first 45 mins.  I think we are over the worst of it now.  Shares have recovered slightly.  The real surprise today was the initial drop.  Most of the news was expected so I suspect we are going through a panic phase. , I am expecting the shares to recover today, and knowing how volatile this share is, we may even go into positive territory by the end of the week.

Keeping an eye on TCG (Thomas Cook).   Share price up 2.4%.  Shares priced at about 146p.  I first bought these last year at 20p!

Update 2020

Holiday Trading

August in the news media world is often called the silly season, and in the share trading world, volumes of trades are lower and prices can be more volatile.  I'm still on holiday, but I'm never far away from the I Pad, so as normal I am keeping an eye on things.  Tomorrow CPP are announcing their half year results and I am currently holding a lot of shares.

Trading in CPP has been volatile.  A month ago they were priced at less than 5 pence, and they have climbed to 38 pence, before dropping back.  Two weeks ago I bought 5000 shares at 22p and sold at 32p a few days later. However a day later I bought at 33 pence, tried to sale at 36 pence but couldn't get a firm quote.  Big mistake, they dropped down to below 20 pence. I'm hoping that good results will cause CPP to surge allowing me to reduce my positions whilst taking some nice profits.

I'm also keeping an eye on Greka Drilling. GDL.  I've traded GDL on and off since last Autumn.  On one day I bought and sold three times in 2 hours as the share was having a volatile session, making me a few hundred pounds.  Some weeks later I bought 10000 shares and watched the price drop in half, wiping out my profits!  I still have the shares and this week I reinvested and bought just over 3000 shares at about 14p.  I've set them to sell at 18 pence making about £100.  That's a days pay on average, but as the shares are in my Self Invested Pension Plan I can't get the money until I'm 57!

Summer Holidays

Well it's the summer holidays and we are currently away in Cornwall.  We started the week, waking up in The Manor House, near Okehampton.  We spent the weekend there, enjoying every opportunity to have a great time.  The Manor House is an all in one complex where you get three meals a day and a whole package of activities from Art and Crafts to sports as part of the deal.

We left there on Monday to stay at our secret get away place in Cornwall.

Well it may be the holidays, but the markets are open so the week started with a sell of my CPP shares.  I bought some last week, and sold them on Monday to bag about £50 profit.  Not a massive profit but CPP is currently a volatile share.  Then on Tues I bought back at about 22p, and set an automatic trade at 28p.  What a day.  The wife and I went to St Ives, and visited The Tate, St Ives. We were sat in the Tate having lunch and watched the share climb up to just short of 28p and then it fell away to about 22p closing.  Damm, I missed a sale opportunity! However the view from the restaurant was fantastic!

Also topped up on GDL at about 14p, within my SIPP.  Have set these to trade at about 18p.

CPP climbed again on Wednesday, only to fall back ahead of Thursday results. I also noticed ADT dropped from 145p to 117p.  No idea why, but If I had the cash I would have jumped in.  Shame, it recovered 1o pence.  Would have been a nice deal!