As the weather warms up many of us decide it is a good time to spring clean. Clear out the wardrobes/cupboards and donate clothes, shoes and small electrical appliances we no longer use to charity.

With the emergence of Ebay, more people are selling their unwanted items than ever before. Ebay is certainly a lot easier than a garage sale and definitely no 6am early birds knocking on your front door!

 When the goods are sold it feels like a windfall, some extra cash to splurge. Some of us are good and pay it off our debts or put the money into our savings. But how much do these items truly cost.

If we have 1 pair of shoes, 3 shirts, 2 pair of pants and 2 small appliances with a total cost of $910 that we no longer use, when we sell these items we may be lucky to receive $260 for all the items in total. We can now reason that we only paid $650 for the privilege of wearing these clothes and using these appliances.

You may now be thinking – what a bargain, but is it? If we had invested this $910 one year ago, we could now have almost $1200 if our investments grew at the same rate as the ASX 200 or almost $1600 if we had purchased BHP Billiton shares! Now you may be arguing that if you had invested this money you miss out on the privilege of using these wonderful items you just sold. True, but as we just sold them – did we really want them to begin with!

Share prices are based on information obtained from www.bhpbilliton.com for the period 25/9/06 to 24/9/07. Boutique Money Management have used this information for general use only and readers should seek expert advice regarding any financial decisions they undertake.