To celebrate its 125th birthday, Marks & Spencer is going back to its roots and becoming a “penny bazaar” again for three days from Wednesday 20th May – Friday 22nd May.

In what is likely to become a bit of a bun-fight for the best stuff, it is planning to sell a range of items for just 1p. There will be 2 million items at that price, and the sale will apparently feature jewellery, underwear, ties and socks, although I’ve seen no mention of M&S food being included in the sale.

Goods will be sold on a first come first served basis – we’re unsure whether people will be limited to buying a number of items, otherwise the first in the queue could probably buy everything for a tenner, and then make a profit from it on eBay.

Update: put your fivers and tenners away – apparently customers will be limited to just 5 1p items each. The 1p sale will be available in 300 of its main stores.

The money raised from the sale will go to charity, although M&S are obviously hoping the interest in the sale and the extra footfall in their stores will generate added income elsewhere in their stores. Like many retailers, M&S has suffered this year, so it’s hoping this will be a boost for them. At the end of last year they had some succesful one-day sales in the run up to Christmas.

photo credit: piglicker

M&S 1p Sale was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

I’m a little late linking to this interesting post over at Monevator which discusses what your salary is really worth to you.

In order to work out what it is worth to you (and not just the amount you know you’re earning each year), they suggest you look at your salary in relation to how much you’d have to earn as a passive income.

Let’s say you earn £35,000 a year (about $50,000)… to earn just £35,000 a year through passive investment income will be an impossible task for most of the population. With cash interest rates at around 3-4%, you would need around £1 million in cash to generate the same income as your £35,000 a year job. This is just one reason why younger lottery winners usually end up back in work!

It’s an interesting way of looking at things, and certainly helps to put your salary in to some perspective.

A lot of us concentrate on generating a second income, from hobbies and a variety of side businesses – but by comparing your salary to a passive income, would it not be better to be concentrating on advancing in our careers?

For more thoughts on making the most of your salary, it’s also worth reading Monevator’s follow up post on turbo-charging your salary with compound interest.

Just to take this subject on a little, if you are considering what your salary is worth to you (perhaps you’re wondering whether to change jobs?), then you definitely shouldn’t forget to include any other benefits in your overall calculation. If you receive death in service benefit (life insurance provided by your company), or your company contributes to a pension for you, or there are any other valuable benefits such as group income protection or healthcare, then although you might be moving to a job with a higher salary, make sure the package gives you all that you’re currently getting.

Of course, people change jobs for other reasons than just money, but if that is your main motivation to move, make sure you’re comparing “like with like”.

photo credit: a.drian

What’s Your Salary Really Worth? was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.