SITTING on the sofa after bedtime, mum-of-three Lisa Beever wondered how she could make some extra cash during her maternity leave.
But instead of turning to money gurus like Martin Lewis, it was ex-Loose Women panellist and social media star Stacey Solomon who inspired her to go on a money diet – and now she’s £2k richer in time for Christmas.
The 36-year-old from the Peak District was made redundant from her job as a website designer with a high street brand in 2024 – just three months before giving birth to her third child, Olivia, now one.
When her maternity pay ran out in the summer, she and partner Phillip, 42, were really feeling the pinch after losing her £32,000-a-year salary.
As well as one-year-old Olivia, the couple has son Taylor, 10, and daughter Harriet, seven, and things were beginning to take their toll.
Lisa says: “It’s a big chunk to lose each month, especially now that we have an extra child.”
Scratching her head over how to make cash, Lisa had a eureka moment when she remembered her favourite show, Sort Your Life Out, presented by Stacey Solomon.
On the show, Stacey is joined by organiser Dilly Carter, carpenter Rob Bent and cleaning expert Iwan Carrington, who go into people’s overstuffed homes to sort through their junk.
Lisa decided to use the clutter-clearing premise of the show to make money by reselling her old junk on reselling platforms – and made £2,000 in just 60 days.
She says: “I was looking around my house and thought, ‘There is so much stuff everywhere.
“We also want to convert the garage into a home office, but I’ve been dumping the kids’ old clothes in there, and Phillip says we can’t do it unless I clear everything out. That set me a challenge.
“We had a target of making £1,000 a month, which seemed a bit like a lot, but I’ve been surprised how doable it is.
“It helps to think about what Stacey and the team do in other people’s cluttered homes.
“I’ve made £2,000, mostly from clearing my clutter this way – it’s like following a Stacey Solomon money ‘diet’.”
‘Like a weight has been lifed’
Like Stacey and her team, Lisa started dividing her things into three piles: Donate, recycle or sell.
She then researched on different sites like eBay, Facebook marketplace and CeX to see how much items were selling for.
She says: “Keeping Stacey’s methods in mind has really helped me through this process. As I take things out of the cupboards, I ask myself, ‘Does it make me happy? Do I need it and do I use it?’
“If I haven’t used it for a while, it goes.
“I feel like a weight has been lifted when I put a much smaller pile back in the cupboard.
“Before, when things fell out of some of the cupboards, it would stress me out.”
She prioritised selling her most valuable items – old tech – opting in the end to sell most of them to CeX as that was less hassle than selling them herself online.
Since starting, she’s sold two iPhones for £90 each and a four-year-old Nintendo Switch with 12 games for £250.
A pair of Apple AirPods fetched £100, and Beats headphones sold for a further £50.
A fancy Nikon camera and accessories, which she was planning to upgrade one day, brought in £400.
Her biggest sale was a Canon vlogging camera, which she got a whopping £700 for on eBay.
Lisa says: “In my first month of selling things, I made £1,250 – most of it from tech.
“That was a great place to start, as it made the most money.”
She then moved on to selling the children’s unwanted, unworn or outgrown clothes on Vinted and made a further £300.
“I am quite selective about what I sell,” says Lisa. “I list brands like Next, Nike and Joules.”
“With baby things, I sell things in £10 or £20 bundles. I put some good quality labels in and highlight those in the listing, and then I can pad it out with cheaper items.
“Selling in bundles makes people feel they are getting more for their money.”
Now, Lisa is beginning to sell her own clothes.
She sold two pairs of dungarees for £20 each from trendy label Turtledove London, unworn with labels.
Her most recent sale was a baby attachment for a Stokke Tripp Trapp high chair, which Lisa got £50 for on Vinted.
Top organising tip
Like the Sort Your Life Out team, Lisa has a clear system for selling.
She has organised all the kids’ unwanted clothes into crates according to age, so she can easily find items when they sell.
She will soon be getting a trunk of her own clothes down from the attic and selling them for extra Christmas money.
Lisa has now become a selling pro thanks to following her Stacey Solomon money diet plan – and has shared her secrets to shifting items on reselling sites fast.
She adds: “With Vinted, putting things in bundles helps sales.
“I also try to message people if they’ve ‘liked’ an item, letting them know that I’m going to the Post Office, to give them a bit of a nudge. That often works.
“If someone asks me a question about an item, I often reply by suggesting a little discount for them. Knocking a pound off can make all the difference.”
The key to selling tech items is to take lots of good photographs and list as much information about the product as possible.
Lisa said that you could send off your items to a tech recycling service, like O2 Recycle, where you’ll be paid cash for up to five items at a time.
She’s put £1,500 aside to pay for Christmas presents and food.
She says: “It feels great to have made the money and be able to buy some nice things for Christmas, and take the kids on some days out.
“I now realise I don’t need as much stuff as I thought I did. It’s so easy to think you need what other people have, but actually, you don’t.
“More stuff means more washing and more tidying – and more stress.”
How to get your finances in fantastic shape
ANDREW Hagger, founder of MoneyComms, shares his top tips to slash your spend and avoid piling on the pounds.
Slim down your direct debits
Check your last few bank statements to see if there are any regular payments or subscriptions you can do without.
Cancel any non-essential direct debits to give your bank balance a breather.
Slash your lunchtime spend
Take a few minutes to make sandwiches for the next day to save a packet compared to shop bought lunches.
Dine out on switching bonuses
Switching your bank account could help you to bag a cash lump sum.
You could earn £100 or more by swapping banks, which can give your balance a big boost.
Shed costly credit card balances
You may be able to save hundreds of pounds by switching to a 0% credit card if your credit score is good.
You can transfer your balance to a 0% credit card for up to 34 months without needing to pay interest.
Drop your overdraft
You could save money by ditching your overdraft and paying with a credit card instead.
Doing so could slash your interest rate from 40% to 24.9%.
But if you pay off your card in full each month, then it won’t cost you a penny.
Money boot camp
Doing a pre-Christmas clutter raid and reselling your items is just one way which you can get your finances in better shape in time for the big day.
Every little helps, as families are set to splash out a huge £1,626 this Christmas, says MoneySuperMarket.
Start by pinpointing your binge spending.
If you find that you are shopping late at night, spending too much with friends or on family, or treating yourself when you’re feeling low, delete your card details from online shops and remove shopping apps from your phone.
According to NimbleFins, the average person spends £171 a month on recreation and treats like the gym and subscriptions, and £75 on clothing and footwear. So cutting out these unnecessary splurges could save you £492 between now and Christmas.
Just like scheduling exercise days in your calendar can help you keep on track with your fitness, plotting “money” check-ins every week can help you get richer.
By monitoring your spending by checking your bank account regularly, you can avoid overspending.
Sarah Coles from the investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown says you could save £100 between now and Christmas thanks to this simple budgeting method.
Restricting your diet to just salad means there’s a higher chance of binge eating.
The same goes for your finances – so have “cheat days” when you treat yourself to something nice but affordable.
That could be something like a takeaway coffee on a Friday, or a new nail polish as a payday treat.
“At such an expensive time of year – especially Black Friday – paying more attention to your spending could save you over £100 by Christmas,” Sarah says.
