by Tricia
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!
Just wanted to say hello and congrats on the progress. I’ve been keeping up with a bunch of personal finance blogs in the last few months and I definitely find your one of the most interesting because it’s very simple and to the point– my wife and I just finished our debt in July, so it’s very fun to see you go through the same process.
Keep working at it! It’s more fun when you get to pay yourself! 🙂
Yeah to you. Glad to hear that you are clearing things out and makin’ cash, as well as some room. Yeah to you on your debt total. I am envious. Keep up the good work. It today’s market it is tough to make ends meet, and yet you are still paying off debt and building your saving, little by little.
Great job, Tricia 🙂 You are making real progress.
You should try Craig’s List to get rid of the bulk stuff to avoid paying a guy to remove your “junk”. As long as it’s not literal garbage then check out the free section of Craig’s List. Basically, you leave it outside of your house, list if for free and tell folks to stop by and pick it at their own expense. One man’s junk is always another man’s treasure!
I love making it to the milestones. It helps to affirm that you are making progress. I was looking over our debt situation yesterday. At our worst we were at $31,000. It’s only around $21,000 at the moment. At least the milestones let us know that we’re not just spinning our wheels.
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.
Good job on the sales. I know they’re a lot of hard work. Just an extra tip for the sales. Whenever we had a yard sale, I would sell bottled water and sodas. We would buy them in bulk (usually store brand) and sell them for 50 cents to a $1 depending on costs. I found a lot of people who came were unprepared, very thirsty, and most people didn’t consider 2-3 quarters to be a big spend at a sale. Sometimes I made more selling water than my mother did at the sale. But if you’re going to do this, try and get something you like to drink in case it’s a cold day. 🙂
Congrats Tricia – your site is an inspiration for people when they realize just how badly in debt they are. When the economy is good people don’t bother worrying about things like their debt.
I second the idea of trying to sell the other items on Craig’s List. I recently moved across the country and sold several items, large and small, on Craig’s List. A dozen or so more I listed for free, left on the porch, and people picked them up.
What’s this about junk removal? I feel like I missed a post somewhere!
Brittany – no, you didn’t miss a post. It’s one of those things that is “normal” to us but I forget I haven’t mentioned it anywhere on here 🙂
When we moved into our house, we stripped a lot out. Some of it was removed last summer, but there is still some left that we finished getting together this summer. We also have broken household items that we’ve put out for free but no one has taken. There were a few people who were going to take a lot of the old building material we had, but both backed out and never showed up. Unfortunately, that’s a big problem we’ve had with sites like Craigslist. Also, our local Craigslist isn’t very active yet. If we were in a larger city, I bet we could get most of it taken. Same with Freecycle. We only have a small membership.
I’m new to this blog site. I don’t know where you live but for yourold building material, you could try the Habitat for Humanity Restore stores. See if there is one in your area.