Our estimate of what we need for the building work is £100,000. That’s quite a big number. So big that it’s difficult to know where to start to raise it. But really, it’s just £1 lots and lots of times, and there are lots of ways to raise that. (While cutting down what we spend will help us reach the target faster, what we need to do is actually make the money.) But, and it’s a big but, if I concentrate on raising the money £1 at a time, it’s likely to be a very long time before we get there.
So, I need to make it into manageable chunks that are worthwhile. 100,000/365 is 274, give or take a few pence, so that’s what I’m going to think in terms of. If I could raise that every day, then we’d have the money in a year.
Well, that’s less than two of the website packages we sell on our business site. We could do two of those a day. (Every day, including weekends, no holidays. Or maybe not. ) If you fancy having a website/blog set up, do give us a yell.
There’s probably at least enough stuff in just this one room that could be sold on ebay to raise a day’s worth, but I bet it would take me a lot longer than a day to list it all. I’m sure there’s a knack to ebay. I’m equally sure I don’t have it. The last time I was pleased with the price of something I sold the seller didn’t bother picking it up from the post office and I ended up having to refund him and being out of pocket on the postage. It’s not just me that sort of thing happens to, is it?
Tonight, while hunting (unsuccessfully) for a photo to accompany this post, I started to consider taking pictures and selling them. I’m told though that it’s very difficult to get your photos accepted by istockphoto, so that may be a washout too.
What else can I sell? There are these words of course, but as they’re available free via wordpress I’m not sure why anyone would pay to receive them on a Kindle. I’m going to set it up though, just in case.
So, it doesn’t look like I’ve found the easy answer yet. Back to the drawing board for the time being then.
You may also want to look at the other end of the equation: what’s the cheapest you can get the extension for? Look into timber frame and SIPs.
I used timber frame with and external render finish for our rear extension and our loft extension. You can’t tell it’s not masonry, except that the walls are cheaper to build, thinner and more insulated. (There’s a pic on my blog of the transformation)
Tim was saying something along these lines last night. Apparently as they cut down on the weight also makes it more likely the foundations can take it. Thanks for the tip.
I’ve been thinking about this and on reflection my original answer may be more helpful than it seems. There would appear to be a number of possibilities. Firstly, the areas of work which can save people the most money if they’re in them themselves are food, clothes and shelter, so in other words, farming, making your own clothes and building. Is there any possibility someone could retrain as a builder or already has relevant skills? That way, you would be able to get the materials at trade prices and you wouldn’t have to pay for labour. Secondly, i mentioned payment in kind. Would you be able to negotiate a discount by offering your own services for free to a construction business?
My approach to this is, in order to do what you suggest, i would have to own land and whereas i do in fact own land, it’s in Bolivia, which is not very convenient! However, it all comes down to land ownership in the end, i think.
The issue as i see it is how to bring that initial figure down and still have time to derive an income from labour.