Have a Nosy Around my Home and Writing Space
How I Got My Desk and Home Furnishings for Free
Life wasn't always easy for this poor wee author. Back in June 2018 my landlords sold the house I was renting in the Lake District and all the places I looked at moving to wanted six months rent upfront because I had pets and was self employed as a professional speaker and working on film productions. I put an offer in on the cheapest property I could find to buy, anywhere in the UK, and ended up moving from the north west of England to the north east, with the plan of staying in a B&B for a couple of weeks until the house sale completed. Turned out the universe had other plans, the sale fell through and I ended up staying in the B & B (one room with three cats and my dog) for about 18 months, which also meant I had to find a way of earning money from my laptop since I could no longer travel for work or leave the pets at the B&B alone all day. I set myself up on Fiverr and Upwork offering ghostwriting, proofreading, and Vellum formatting services, and used any dead time I had to do 'Human Intelligence Tasks' (HITs) on Amazon Mechanical Turk. Some of my favourite tasks included typing in those letters and numbers to prove I was not a robot, or clicking on boxes which featured traffic lights, and sometimes I have conversations with artificial intelligence about my favourite foods, weather, and the kinds of things that might help Alexa to work more smoothly. I got paid pennies for those tasks, but they were super quick and easy. My goal was to earn £40 a day online, which would cover the room at the B&B for the night, allow me to buy dinner and pet food, and to put a bit aside as a deposit for a rented house, until I could buy a place back in the Lake District. Believe me, those were very dark days, away from my outdoor swimming, mountain walks with my dog, and everything I loved in an area I had never been to before and where I knew no-one. The B&B was mainly people released from prison or people like myself who had fallen down on their luck and staying for the longer term. Even more frustrating (but empowering) was seeing the books I had ghostwritten for other authors doing well on Amazon and making them a nice chunk of money - that was when I discovered FIRE (Financially Independent, Retire Early - this is a good movie to watch on the topic), and realised I needed to stop being paid by the hour for clients and to start to create passive income that would continue to earn me money. I also began investing in fractional shares on my Trading 212 app and use my tax free ISA allowance to generate monthly dividends.
After many months in the B&B, a property came onto the market in an area that had been saved from demolition and had been lovingly renovated (yay for being a pet friendly company), and I was finally able to get a rental place of my own. The next step is to work hard and save (and invest) hard so that I can buy some land and build my dream home back in the Lake District in 2021 so I can write and swim each day, and hang out with my pets to my heart's content! I'm now working some awesome architects in New Zealand on the design of my forever home, and now work full time on my own business, and no longer work with clients, which is pretty amazing.
But the whole point was to tell you how I got my furniture and office furnished for free (and how I got Vellum for free too). Well, I used those Amazon Mechanical Turk credits to buy Starbucks vouchers, and tech things like iPhones, which I sold online and in places like CEX and Game. I then used that money to buy returned and minimally damaged items from Ikea's discounted section in their store (FYI they are opening second hand stores too), and from Amazon Warehouse. Sometimes I got stuff I didn't need, and then sold it for a little bit extra on Facebook Marketplace to local folks. It took almost a year before I had a TV and sofa, and I slept on a camping mat on the floor for many months before I got my bed. You see, I was time rich, but money poor, but it didn't matter because I knew that I was going to get nice stuff eventually which could one day be taken to my forever home. Hope that helps any other struggling folks out there. Dream big and focus on one little step at a time.
After many months in the B&B, a property came onto the market in an area that had been saved from demolition and had been lovingly renovated (yay for being a pet friendly company), and I was finally able to get a rental place of my own. The next step is to work hard and save (and invest) hard so that I can buy some land and build my dream home back in the Lake District in 2021 so I can write and swim each day, and hang out with my pets to my heart's content! I'm now working some awesome architects in New Zealand on the design of my forever home, and now work full time on my own business, and no longer work with clients, which is pretty amazing.
But the whole point was to tell you how I got my furniture and office furnished for free (and how I got Vellum for free too). Well, I used those Amazon Mechanical Turk credits to buy Starbucks vouchers, and tech things like iPhones, which I sold online and in places like CEX and Game. I then used that money to buy returned and minimally damaged items from Ikea's discounted section in their store (FYI they are opening second hand stores too), and from Amazon Warehouse. Sometimes I got stuff I didn't need, and then sold it for a little bit extra on Facebook Marketplace to local folks. It took almost a year before I had a TV and sofa, and I slept on a camping mat on the floor for many months before I got my bed. You see, I was time rich, but money poor, but it didn't matter because I knew that I was going to get nice stuff eventually which could one day be taken to my forever home. Hope that helps any other struggling folks out there. Dream big and focus on one little step at a time.
My Author Setup
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Laptop
iPhone Apple Watch Noise cancelling headphones Kindle Fire Streaming laptop laptop stand for streaming Desk Bookcase Sheepskin for seat Office chair Desk Lamp Yellow tea pot Mug Yellow Chair Yellow Foot Stool USB Candles Light Box |
Fish tank and plants
Endler guppies, Nerite snails, shrimp Vellum software Google Docs Canva Authors.ai Alliance of Independent Authors Klytics Mark Dawson's SPS 101 Course Rechargeable Batteries/Charger Extension Cable Neom Candle Storage Drawers for Desk Printer Printing Ink Small Desk Table Printer Paper Highlighter Pens |
Save the Cat Writes a Novel
The Anatomy of Story Take Off Your Pants Sprint Journal and Author Planner Plot Gardening Six Figure Author Write to Market Help! My Facebook Ads Suck Leuchtturm Notebooks Spark Joy Wicked Plants Investing app Playing with Fire Movie Travel Mug ISBN Numbers Ingram Spark Creative Penn Podcast SPS Show Podcast Six Figure Author Podcast |
My Home Gym/Health Setup
My Home Setup
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Roomba iRobot (hoover)
Alexa Echo Dot (I have three of them) Smart Light Bulbs Smart Bulb Kit Amazon Smart Plug Bed Bedroom Drawers Bedside Table Bedside and Office Lamp Bedroom Shelf System Egyptian Cotton Sheets Egyptian Cotton Bedding Set Egyptian Cotton Pillow cases Washing Machine (Hose Extension) Basics Hoover (for stairs) Wooden stool/side table Glass Storage Jars Storage Jar Black Labels |
Bathroom/Cupboard Shelf System
Lounge Rug Sofa Sofa Cushion Covers Sofa Cushion Interiors Pink Vase White Vase Cafetiere Coffee and Tea Reading Lamp Bamboo Cutlery Tray Kitchen Scales Curtains Net Curtains Curtain Poles |
Letterbox Flowers Subscription
Television Sofa Blanket Sofa/Bed Blanket Picture Frames Mirror and Frame Kettle Toaster Smoothy Maker Plate Set Cutlery Sticky Hooks Tin Opener Clogs Packing Boxes |
Pet Things
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James Wellbeloved Dry Light Food
James Wellbeloved Small Breed Dog Applaws Tin Food (chicken, fish, mix) Applaws Treats Codliver Oil Extra Strong catnip Applaws Dog Wet Food Cat/Dog Brush Dried Sprats Dog Doorbell |
Cat Bowls
Sparkly Balls Lilly's Kitchen Dog Chews Cat Grass Seeds Laser Pointer Scratching Post Dangler Toy Cat Toilet Training Kit Alexa Dots for training |
