Earning/Saving Extra Money ~~ March ~~ Think Spring!!

[delladea]

I'll join in, I think I need the motivation.

I'm a SAHM/sheep farmer (small scale for now). Everything kinda overlaps between farm and home expenses. Our current goal right now is to pay down some debt. We're considering trying for another baby at least a year from now, so it would be good to have less bills and a new baby fund for when the time comes (and hey if it never happens, we agreed it would go to paying down debt).

Last year the big one was DH paying off his student loan. This year we're working on paying off CC's and really paying down our tractor loan. So far we've managed to stem any balance increases other than automatic utility payments and DD's formula. Now we're working on decreasing the balances.

Right now I'm concentrating on our grocery budget since that seems to be where we go over constantly. I'm trying for $150/week for food and toiletries. I've started meal planning and I never really did that before. Last week I went over a bit, but there was no food wasted!

I've also been selling some of my books and Wii games on Amazon and my revenue from that went to the CC.

[wolffie]

Originally Posted by Tiffanylamp I am looking to get some of my gentle used baby items sold, and have considered one of the local consignment sales, except they charge a fee to sell and then take about 40% of the sale price! It seems awfully high and I can not find anything better I have been thinking about doing ebay or craigslist, but have no experience selling on those sites, so a little nervous to try. I really would like to do it in one shot at a sale, but it just looks like a lot of work for not much return. goodluck selling! Hope it is a success!!!

My local consignment store has a 40/60 split (me getting the 40%) but the larger seasonal kids consignment sales are better. The first one I am participating in has a base earning amount of 70% but if you add volunteer shifts the percentage increases. I did one volunteer shift so I will earn 80% but if I was able to get two shifts I would take home 90% of my sales. There is a sign up fee of $12. The second sale isn't as good and the base is 50% I believe but also increases with volunteer shifts. I figure I will take my leftovers from the first sale to the second one.

Try looking around in your area a little more or inquire about volunteering to help with the sale. I listed some clothes on CL last month and ended up selling them for next to nothing when I broke it down by price per item.

[Tiffanylamp]

Originally Posted by badmisterkitty Give CL a try. It's a very easy platform to use. Take some pics, go to CL, click on post to classifieds and it will walk you through a couple of short steps. It's very easy to do and user friendly. If you get confident there, try ebay. Ebay is more complicated because they ask for so much information for one little listing, but even after you do it a couple of times you'll be good at it. For the consignment, does it come around every year? Perhaps just send a handful of items and see what happens. If you like the outcome, do more next year. If not, then you know. AFM, I got sidetracked on my one and only weekend goal (to set up the Nintendo and test the valuable game) and ended up sorting through stuff for our garage sale. I could post a thread over in Minimalist with my basement of shame. I got everything sorted by category so I can easily price it and have it all ready for the sale. So I'm no closer to my goal for the week.....

Thanks for the words of encouragement about selling on my own This consignment sale is I think every six months. I went to it while I was pregnant to buy and was really disappointed but there was a TON of people there, so I do think my items would sell.


And, even if you didn't get your nintendo system up and running, you did get a lot of work done to get ready for your garage sale and that is something to be very proud of

[Tiffanylamp]

Originally Posted by wolffie My local consignment store has a 40/60 split (me getting the 40%) but the larger seasonal kids consignment sales are better. The first one I am participating in has a base earning amount of 70% but if you add volunteer shifts the percentage increases. I did one volunteer shift so I will earn 80% but if I was able to get two shifts I would take home 90% of my sales. There is a sign up fee of $12. The second sale isn't as good and the base is 50% I believe but also increases with volunteer shifts. I figure I will take my leftovers from the first sale to the second one. Try looking around in your area a little more or inquire about volunteering to help with the sale. I listed some clothes on CL last month and ended up selling them for next to nothing when I broke it down by price per item.

I can do shifts to earn more, but dh travels for work and I don't have anyone to watch my daughter. And, I did find another consignment sale that offers 70/30 which I am thinking about signing up for. I don't know how the foot traffic is, but I really only have about 20 things to sell. And they are big/bigger items. Not clothes really as I don't mind selling them to my local once upon a child.

Good to know about the CL price issue. I think I am mostly nervous about nut jobs contacting me, or wasting a lot of time for someone who says they are coming to look at something and never showing. Just not a confident seller

[badmisterkitty]

Well, fiddlesticks. I went looking for the Nintendo and learned that DH's brother is "borrowing" it. Ain't never gonna see it again. Fiddlesticks!!!!

Our daycare gave us a garbage bag full of clothing that their oldest outgrew/didn't like. It's nice stuff and I contemplated saving it, but realized I might be holding onto it for 5 years before it gets used, so I think I'm going to take it to a Plato's Closet or Clothes Mentor. And I'm working on another bin of stuff for OUAC.

I guess I'll put the Nintendo games away for awhile and concentrate on some more Franciscan pottery again. That was doing well for me, I just hate shipping it. I also have a sizable postcard collection to sell off. Urg. All the research that must be done!!!

[wolffie]

Originally Posted by Tiffanylamp I can do shifts to earn more, but dh travels for work and I don't have anyone to watch my daughter. And, I did find another consignment sale that offers 70/30 which I am thinking about signing up for. I don't know how the foot traffic is, but I really only have about 20 things to sell. And they are big/bigger items. Not clothes really as I don't mind selling them to my local once upon a child. Good to know about the CL price issue. I think I am mostly nervous about nut jobs contacting me, or wasting a lot of time for someone who says they are coming to look at something and never showing. Just not a confident seller

The work shift I did was "advertising". They assigned me an area and I distributed flyers and informational cards to places that parents would frequent. Check out if there is a shift similar to that since it would be easy to bring your dd. I wasn't able to do any other shifts because I work part time and the shifts were either days I work or they were days that dh works and we also didn't have childcare. If they don't have "work shifts" like that you should offer and see what they say.

If you don't have a lot of clothes and mostly have bigger items they will probably do okay on CL. The only issues I have had are when I was selling kids clothes in lots. People basically wanted me to give them the clothes! I have had my share of no shows but I try to schedule people coming over at times that I would be home anyway. That way I don't get annoyed that I am waiting and have someone not show up.

[Keiki]

I'll join in! We just bought a house, so I'm trying to really keep spending down.

I just bought a membership to Sam's Club, I'm going to see if that will save a bit on groceries. I actually bought it through Living Social, it's basically $5 for the year since you pay $45 but get a $20 gift card and then just under $20 to spend on food. The deal is still up here if you want to try it. (I hope that's okay to share on here! if not I'll remove it, just thought someone else might get use out of a good deal)

Otherwise to save money I'm really trying to curb my online shopping. As a sahm I kind of spend too much time on the internet, and I do swaps on one site and now I'm only swapping if I truly need something since shipping gets so expensive!

[wolffie]

Tonight I am dropping off my first LARGE batch of clothes to the first kids consignment sale that I am participating in. If everything sells for my asking price (which I doubt it will) I could potentially make $715! If ALL of my items only sell on half price day I will still potentially make $445. Hopefully I will make at least somewhere in between and not have to lug home a bunch of clothes at the end of the sale.

Once I get these items dropped off I can get back to listing on CL and ebay and then start preparing for the April consignment sale I am participating in.

[wolffie]

Sorry, dp!

[Keiki]

Originally Posted by wolffie Tonight I am dropping off my first LARGE batch of clothes to the first kids consignment sale that I am participating in. If everything sells for my asking price (which I doubt it will) I could potentially make $715! If ALL of my items only sell on half price day I will still potentially make $445. Hopefully I will make at least somewhere in between and not have to lug home a bunch of clothes at the end of the sale. Once I get these items dropped off I can get back to listing on CL and ebay and then start preparing for the April consignment sale I am participating in.

whoa, good luck! I have a TON of stuff for our garage sale this summer, I'm looking forward to it to potentially make a bunch of money! We'll see how it goes, garage sales are super popular back home where I'm from in WI, but I have never done one here in MN so I'm not sure how it will go. A consignment sale would be awesome!