Money

Do more with less: eBay collections

Written by Kirstie Pelling

Doing more with less using eBay collections

Families can be expensive. Family outdoor play, adventures and holidays even more so. Kit is a major part of the cost, and that’s where sites like eBay come into their own if you want to be doing more with less money. And now eBay has gone one step further; launching Collections, visual pinboards where you can make a list of what you need for an adventure, or checkout what others use, suggest or advise. In this sponsored post, brought to you in collaboration with eBay, we tell you what eBay collections are all about and share some of our own…

How do you adventure more for less?

Adventure costs. And families don’t have a lot of spare cash hanging around. So what can you do with a limited budget and a desire to sleep wild, scale rock, paddle a lake or put one foot in front of the other on the fells? Especially with a family, with kids who refuse to stop growing and need different gear each year. If you are like us, you beg, borrow, recycle and ask Santa for equipment. And when you’ve explored all those options, you go on eBay.

Bivvy at the Chapel Bosnia

Family adventures can require a lot of gear. You’ve got to make your money go far.

An online institution

You probably don’t need me to tell you about eBay. It’s up there with Google and Facebook as an online tool that has become a part of modern life. And eBay just got even smarter. The site recently launched its ‘Collections.’  If you’ve visited the eBay home page recently you’ve probably seen them. These are personal galleries, similar to Pinterest pinboards. But unlike Pinterest the pins have a price tag and you can buy them at a click of the mouse if the mood takes you. Or you can just browse. It’s a browser’s paradise; already there seem to be collections on every theme on earth, from favourite things to hobbies to random ideas based on a colour or idea.

You can find out how to kit yourself out for a festival with Alex James, you can see what’s stylish right now for your home with interior design leaders or you can see what people like you are putting up on their dream lists.

Our collections

eBay asked us to come up with some of our own collections and if you follow us regularly you won’t be surprised by the kinds of collections we’ve been building. Our collections aren’t necessarily full of the things we regularly use as some kit comes up quite infrequently on eBay. Just try searching for a touring equipped triplet bicycle and you’ll see what I mean.

Our collections are more about ideas, fun and inspiration, a starting point for you to choose kit for your own family fun, whether for playing in the garden or travelling the globe.

Protecting your family whatever the weather

If you go out whatever the weather you’ll appreciate our whatever the weather collection!

What’s in our eBay collections?

We seem to always find ourselves battling the elements, whether bothered by sun or battered by rain which inspired our visual collection of ideas for protecting your family against the weather in rain or shine; a gallery populated by buffs, sun shades and even (shock horror) a cagoule!

Sticking with water, all our children are water babes whether swimming, paddling, splashing in puddles or canoeing which got us thinking up ideas for water loving families. Check out this range of fun suggestions from blow up jet ski’s to paddle boards to pirate water bombs.

Food is fuel and camping is a necessity when travelling wild or trying to keep the budget down so you’ve just got to have a good camp cooking collection (now I really want a pizza maker I can pull along!) and a gallery of ideas for outdoor play, from making your own geocache to making a den in a little wooden house.

And the kids really got into it too; detailing their own enthusiasms. Unicorns, Warhammer and globetrotting were just a few. Hannah chose travel gadgets for girls. Matthew even made a collection just for me and Mums like me (who apparently love chocolate and cake and bubble baths-who knew?)

Beans on the Barbeque

Beans on the Barbeque

Why make a collection?

If you catalogue your life, make lists and wish lists, then you’ll love these galleries. They’re filled with the things people treasure and the things people want. You can use them as a bookmark of things you like, and a marker of where you are in life. They are also useful; providing information about the things other people recommend.

They’re strangely beguiling too; like an online Sunday supplement but filled with things you can actually afford. In a way, they are art. But ultimately they’re a less dog eared shopping list than the one in your handbag. If you like eBay and you like to shop, you’ll be making your own collections before you know it. And using other people’s galleries as a source of ideas and inspiration for a family adventure.

Ebay Collections by The Family Adventure Project

eBay collections by The Family Adventure Project. Check them out!

Disclosure Note: This post was brought to you thanks to support from eBay who invited us to be early adopters of their collections feature and help spread the word about them. The collections we have developed, the opinions and experience remain, as ever, entirely our own.

About the author

Kirstie Pelling

Kirstie is the Editor of The Family Adventure Project. A professional writer and poet, she's the creative and journalistic force behind many of the stories and features published here. She's a co-founder and co-director of The Family Adventure Project and also works as the #poetinmotion producing and performing poetry for print, video and live performance.

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We're Kirstie & Stuart. We share an adventurous spirit, a passion for indie travel and 3 kids. The Family Adventure Project is our long term experiment in doing active, adventurous things together. Find out more...

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