NetMums Finds It’s Tough Out There – Could RentMyItems.com Offer A Solution?
Netmums, the UK’s fastest-growing online parenting organisation, surveyed over 2,000 of its members earlier this month to investigate how the economic downturn was hitting families’ incomes and what the impact of rising prices was having on families around the UK. Their research found:
- One in five mums is missing meals so her children can eat
- A quarter of families are living on credit cards
- Almost half of families have sold or pawned goods to make money to live
- Sixteen per cent of parents are being treated for a stress-related illness due to lack of cash
Certainly none of the above is good news for the economy or David Cameron who is committed to promoting family values and cohesiveness as primary in his government’s mind. However the UK does face itself, through little fault of the common-man, in tight-straights financially.
At RentMyItems.com we have been championing the idea of making a little extra cash from little-used household items not simply because it is our business model – we also believe it makes a huge amount of sense. We believe that, in many cases, when hard-earned cash has been spent on a little-used item it is better to rent it to others than sell it entirely.
At RentMyItems.com Finnian in Edinburgh has a Moulinex Juice Master Plus which he has listed for rent at £4 per day. A similar item currently listed on eBay is listed for sale at £20. It does not take much working out that if Finnian was able to hire his juicer out once a month for five months then he would have achieved the price he would have received if he had sold it outright – and he still has it in his cupboard and available to rent to others. By renting the item rather than selling it Finnian gives himself the opportunity to earn more than the amount that he might have sold the item for online.
It’s a similar matter with Margaret, again in Edinburgh, who has a ladies electric bike for rent at £30 per day on RentMyItems.com. A similar bike for sale, again on eBay, has a price tag currently of £180. If Margaret is able to rent her bike twice a month for three months she will have achieved the same amount of money as the similar bike for sale on eBay – and again she will still own it and it will be in possession for her own use, the use of her friends and also to those that she rents it out to.
Another example is Gillian in East Sheen who has a Graco Travel Cot for rent at £4 per day or £20 per week – with just one week’s rental Gillian would make more money than selling it on eBay as the current price for a similar model is £10! So by renting, rather than selling her unused Graco Travel Cot, Gillian would make £10 extra!
So, as you can see, think twice about selling or even pawning one of your household items as you could make more money even in the short-term by renting it to others in your local neighbourhood rather than selling it outright.
Our advice if you find yourself a bit strapped for cash? List your little-used household for rent on RentMyItems.com, where ALL listings are currently FREE and there’s NO COMMISSION to pay unlike other competitors.
Make a little bit of extra cash this week – with free listings, you literally have nothing to lose!