Archive results for “September 2008f 2008”

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How to Sell Stuff Without Having a Garage Sale

Jessica left a comment on the post about our sale:

I was wondering, besides garage sales, where do you go to sell your stuff? We still live in an apartment, and are not able to have a garage sale. So, I am always on the lookout to sell more stuff.

Here are a few places that I know of. Feel free to add more suggestions for Jessica in the comments!

1.) Craigslist.org. Craigslist has grown leaps and bounds as a great place to buy and sell stuff. If you live near a major city, chances are good you have an active Craigslist community in your area. It is free to list your stuff for sale. One word of caution – keep sales local! According to Craigslist, that will prevent most of the scams on the site.

2.) Ebay.com. I haven’t used eBay, but it’s on the back of my mind. I do have some things that would sell well. If you have something collectible or highly desirable, you might be able to make more money from it by selling on eBay.

3.) Local paper. Our local paper runs deals every now and then where they have a special to list items for sale. Otherwise it’s a little pricey unless you have something big to sell.

4.) Flyers. Some stores by us have community boards where you can tack up flyers. Take a picture of your item, make a flyer with your number (with easy tear-off ones interested people can take with them) and post them.

5.) Amazon.com. A few readers here have had success with selling books through Amazon.com. I’ve never done it though.

6.) Ask family/friends/coworkers. It’s funny how a potential seller may be right in front of your nose. I’d personally never ask someone if something they owned was for sale, but if they mentioned that they were going to be selling something I’d definitely pipe up if I wanted it!

If you have more ideas, feel free to leave them in the comments

Posted by Tricia on September 30, 2008 at 9:32 PM in Making Money | 15 Comments »
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Note to Self – Don’t Hide the Credit Cards So Well You Can’t Find Them When You Need Them

Our 0% offer for our credit card debt is expiring this month. I have been wondering about what we should do. Should I get a new card with a 0% offer? Should we transfer the balance to an existing card with a better interest rate? Should we live with the interest and just pay it?

As it turns out, the answer was right in front of me but I didn’t see it. I checked all of our cards for balance transfer offers, or so I thought. There was one that I forgot about so I looked into their offers. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the 0% balance transfer offer in front of my eyes. There was our answer. Woohoo!

I started the process of the balance transfer and hit a roadblock. I needed the card number from the company I was transferring from. I checked my usual credit card hiding spot. It wasn’t there. I checked other places I have hid them. Not there either. I hid our unused cards so well I couldn’t find them. Of course, I started wondering if I hid them in a piece of furniture that we recently sold.

Then, it hit me. I should check one more place. There they were. Whew. So I logged in last night and completed the transfer.

There is a balance transfer fee of $240. I’m not thrilled about that, but the finance charges would run close to $100/month if we kept our debt on the current card. Since it’s unlikely that we will be able to pay off our debt in a few months, the fee is worth it to have our debt at 0% until mid next year.

As for our cards, I put them back where I found them. It’s a pretty good hiding spot. But I should remember next time where they are LOL

Posted by Tricia on September 29, 2008 at 9:50 AM in Credit Cards | 21 Comments »
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Debt Update: $8,150.00

Thanks to selling more of our stuff, we ended up having some extra money to put towards our debt this month. That brings our debt total to $8,150.00. We are so close to getting under the $8K mark. If we didn’t have to save some of that money for junk removal, we would have made that milestone. I’m not sure how much the junk removal will cost, so we may end up having some left over.

We said goodbye to many things, like furniture and a video game system. Those brought in the most money. We also did have a garage sale and sold more stuff. But a lot of that stuff was under $1.00 (cheaper nick-nack types of things). It all adds up, though. My son also sold some of his old toys and made over $75 (he kept all money from selling his stuff). He was quite the little salesman. If someone had a question on one of his toys, he was right there showing them the ropes – even showing them other toys. There’s a lego set he’s had his eye on for some time now and he worked very hard to earn the money to get it. He was so cute!

I think we are basically done with trying to sell all of the smaller things we have. We have had four sales now (last year and this year), so all remaining smaller items are being donated to St. Vinny’s. That store has helped us so much when money was really tight, so it’s only fitting to give back. There are a few bigger things still left, so I might advertise them in the paper or make up some flyers.

September has been a rough month financially with taxes, medical bills, a car repair bill and a few yearly bills that were due. Selling some things helped to make it a positive month after all. Besides putting some towards our debt, we used some of it to replenish our savings account a little. The balance today is at $3,600. Yay!

Posted by Tricia on September 28, 2008 at 8:18 PM in Debt Updates | 11 Comments »
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We’re Paying More for School Photos This Year

Many prices are going up lately. Groceries are of course a biggie, but there are some that we might not even notice unless we are really watching. That’s the case with my son’s school photos. We buy the same small package every year. If it wasn’t for Quicken pulling up the last amount we paid to the photographer, I wouldn’t have noticed that the price went up 50% for that picture package.

Since we purchased a small package, the increase only amounted to a few dollars. Percentage-wise, that is a huge increase in price. I can’t help but wonder if this is happening all over or if it’s a local thing. If the prices go up again next year, I may think about taking our own pics next year. I did that when our son was in preschool and he loved posing for the pics in our backyard. They turned out so cute and I even put his name in the corner like with senior pics. But I have it in my head that we need to get the official school photos.

Anyone else feel that way? Have school photo prices increased for you?

Posted by Tricia on September 26, 2008 at 10:44 PM in Spending Money | 17 Comments »
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A Home Made from a Shipping Container

If you have been following here for a while, you know that I have a thing for tiny homes. I have found some really nice plans (hint – look under vacation plans) and we have pretty much decided that we are going to go for it once we can afford it.

The following tiny home is a steal, with a price tag set at $8,000. The only drawback is that they are 320 sq. feet. That’s a little too small for our family of three. What are they made of? Shipping containers.

I know…I know…my first thought was “No way.” Even checking out the outside picture of the shipping container home I still wasn’t convinced. But click on the second picture. Wow. I am impressed!

Here are a few more details, as well as a link to the full article with pictures:

They designed a galley-style kitchen with a stove, sink, refrigerator and dinette, and a 48-square-foot bathroom with a pedestal sink, shower and commode. Adjacent to the kitchen is a bunk area for children; separate sleeping quarters for the owners lie behind the bathroom wall.

[Via CNN.com]

The creators showed the prototype to some residents of a poor neighborhood in Juarez, Mexico, and one said living in a home like that would be a dream. If you read the story, there are even ideas to make communities out of these shipping container homes, since they are stackable and easily portable.

I still can’t get over that inside view. Amazing.

Thanks Allison for the tip on these amazing tiny homes!

Posted by Tricia on September 25, 2008 at 6:59 AM in Saving Money | 17 Comments »
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The Importance of Back-ups

Sherri left a comment yesterday about an experience she had. I thought it brought up a great point, so I’m posting it here for everyone to see…

This is unrelated to your post, but I wanted to pass this information on to you. Iâ€™ll try and keep it short!

My credit card information was compromised via US Mail approximately 1 week ago. I immediately called my credit card company, they froze my account, and issued me a new card. I am fortunate that no fraudulent charges went through. However, I would not receive my new card for 7-10 business days (I wasnâ€™t willing to pay an express shipping charge).

I use my credit card for all purchases and pay it off each month. Without my credit card, I was left with the only â€œliquidâ€ money I had, which was in my brick-and-mortar bank account, and I could access it with my debit card. I donâ€™t keep very much money in there since I transfer much of my salary into my ING Savings account. Luckily the amount of money in my brick-and-mortar bank account was plenty to cover several unexpected expenses that occurred the past week, but it easily might not have! It was an eye-opener for me that I either need to keep more money in my brick-and-mortar bank account (can be accessed virtually immediately), or I need to have a back-up credit card!

Just thought Iâ€™d share my experience in case it might help you or someone else reading this!

Sherri is right. It is important to not have all of your eggs in one basket, so to speak. Thanks for sharing your experience and glad to hear there were no fraudulent charges!

Posted by Tricia on September 23, 2008 at 7:04 AM in Credit Cards | 3 Comments »
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