Frugal blog: Carboot sales, no dig gardening, money

By Value hunter on Jun 4, 2018 | In In real life, Common sense, Frugal thinking, Dear diary

Carboot sales used to be fun places to spend an hour or two, pick up a bargain when people are having a clear out, not anymore.

A variety of stalls now, selling fruit and veg (that they cannot shift from their shop), stalls that are the same week in- week out (travelling around various sales buying and selling), charity shop staff from a nearby town (using their position to obtain things that "might sell" on the cheap in the charity shop they work in, selling them on at carboot sales) and the "everything wrapped" obviously bought from a cash and carry to try and sell on, stalls.
Very few stalls are now just someone having a clear out of their attic or bedroom, etc.

I spotted one item I almost bought a week earlier (at the same sale) the stall holder wanted £4 for it, I thought about it, then declined.
This week, the very same item (an old collectable) was for sale on another stall for £8. No thanks.

No dig gardening planting out is finally complete, I feel a bit of a fraud now, nothing else to do on it except wait for things to grow (if they do).

It looks a bit silly, with various mesh protection all over it, but that's just to stop the birds from eating the seedlings as they come through and to stop the neighbourhood cats from leaving messages all over it. It's generated a lot of interest on the street, lots of jokes, etc.
For an unused so called driveway, full of rubbish and stone/plaster/concrete/ash, it wasn't being used. Work wise it hasn't taken much, a bit of raking the compost and being patient while the old carpet did it's job of killing off all the grass/weeds is all.
You can see some pictures on the gardening blog (select from the top if you are so inclined) and if the veg comes through, it will have paid for itself a couple of times over by the end of the summer.

Money doesn't go far these days, wage comes in, then almost all goes back out the other side.

I hit the markets again this week for fruit and veg, where there was a "food event" taking place. Various stalls all over offering everything from gingerbread to indian cuisine. People stood in the street drinking at dinnertime, while people walked around aimlessly.
These pop up stalls were charging a fortune for their wears, I don't really understand how they manage to do it?

A simple bit of research reveals the sheer bull of their marketing. One of the stalls was hardly taking anything, no one around it, selling about 6 product lines, nothing much doing.
Yet when I took 5 minutes to look into their background, I was staggered to find the supposed value of their company.
In the space of two years, the value of their company has gone from around £16,000 to over half a Million pounds!

How could this be?

The company have listed their "goodwill" for the business at £1.4 Million alone!
Assets have been aquired by bank loans and their tax bill outstanding for the last financial year is worth more than our home.
It's no surprise that their own "goodwill" valuation matches the value of their luxury farmhouse I suppose.

I wonder if I should set up in business...