I've popped my Steem trading cherry. In the middle of a slump in the price of steem I decided to cash some out for... well... erm.. cash actually. Am I mad?
That was a rhetorical question!
Yes, okay, I'm mad. But that's not the point. The point is this last month has been rotten to me and mine and we were in desperate need of a cash infusion to keep the wolf from the door. We don't live an extravagant lifestyle by any stretch but belts can only be tightened so far and the kids can't go without. We needed a little help...
Then I looked at my steem wallet. I had nearly 45 SBD and nearly 400 Steem Power.
I said at the start of the year, I wasn't going to power down, in fact I'm on a quest to power UP! But I was going to start withdrawing my SBD. I hadn't got that far yet, being busy and a little green to the whole process. And Steem was in a slump.
I made a post about this here - Sorry to anyone wanting to sell SBD this week... - about how deciding on the Monday to do a trade led to prices falling through their own arse by Friday. I swear I'm a jinx.
None the less, I'm a man of my word. I said I'd sell some SBD and I stick to it. If the price had skyrocketed I'd be just as adamant, perhaps a little more so lol ;)
The trade
I'm fairly certain it's no secret, since you'll see it in my wallet, that the trader in question was none other than the rising celebrity himself - 
Turning SBD into Steem (and back again) is fairly straight forwards through the Steemit Market page. Possibly my experience with EVE Online helped a little as I'm used to buy and sell orders - all trade in EVE is done through realistic stock market systems. I don't think I got a brilliant return there but there's no fees at least! I was watching the rate go down and down, excited that I was making more by the minute - went to make a coffee, came back and it was going up again... sod it, I just traded and got on with it! Probably lost out on a couple of pence...
Spit on hands...
He threw some money in my PayPal account - very sporting of him to go first, and I duly sent the Steem to him. 10 Steem for £30 (it was £30.03 I think but to hell with odd numbers!). The money sat in PayPal for all of 2 minutes before I had it hurtling towards my ailing, and rather red, bank balance - it should arrive Monday.
Wrap up
So the trade was done, done nice and easy and to great satisfaction.
Will £30 change my life - no.
Will it makes life easier - oh hell yes!
It costs us almost £30 a week to get my son to school and back. He's a bright lad and because we got him into the best school in the area we don't get free transport.
It costs us about £30 a week to heat the house - buying locally sourced hardwood logs.
We currently pay ~£30 a month in overdraft interest - something we're desperately battling despite the hell that's descended upon us lately.
When I'm not sat working until 3am, I'm coming up with ideas to post here to make ends meet - any help is sorely appreciated.
I'm not a religious man - but Bless Steemit!