Thrifty Thursday: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Ebay

There are lots of ways to make a little money from home without costing you anything.  My favorite way is eBay. It is quick and easy to learn how to make money on eBay and it costs nothing....unless you sell something.  I sell coupons that I am not going to use so that I can make a little money on something that costs me nothing.  There are a lot of rules specific to coupons that make it hard to do but I try and it nets me about $50 per month.  I am going to try to branch out and use a few of these helpful hints to make a little more once my son goes back to school.

Make sure you follow some simple rules:

-Free Shipping Not Neccessary: Don't bend to the pressure to offer free shipping if there is a cost for shipping the item unless you think that it is going to be covered in the cost of selling the item because you will quickly see your profits drop.

-No Inflated Shipping: Don't charge more for shipping to cover charges.  No one wants to pay for someone else's fees and will easily not want your item based on the shipping.  If I mail something that only needs a stamp, then I charge $0.49 (currently the price for a stamp) and I don't charge anything for the envelope or other packing supplies.  If you don't know what the item weighs, you can get a small scale to do it at home or you can take it to the self serve section at the post office and weigh the item to price properly.

-Starting Price: Calculate the starting price high enough to cover both ebay and pay pal fees plus shipping.  Ebay wants the starting price for items at $0.99 but make sure you understand what happens when the item sells.  There is a $0.10 fee to ebay (10%), $0.33 fee to pay pal ($0.30 plus 3%), and the shipping for minimum of $0.49 which leaves you $0.07 cash in your pocket.  If the shipping is any higher (and you have offered free shipping), then you could be out money when trying to make some.  Of course, if you set it too high then you won't get a lot of people interested either.

-Pay Pal Account: Set up a pay pal account because this is the way that most money exchanges hands in eBay.  Always leave money in your pay pal account to cover fees and returns that might appear and don't transfer all of the money to your bank account yet.  Even though you are making money, it might not be as fast as you think because the fees do come back.

-Pictures: Take some great pictures of your item and there should be more then one.  eBay allows up to 12 for a listing so it is easy to do some overview and some close up.  If the pictures didn't get close enough, there is editing right in the eBay software to crop and fix the picture.  Make sure you have a plain background so that it doesn't take away from an item.  No one wants to see the entire picture of your basement to get a picture of the one item you are selling so make sure to stage the picture and get good lighting. It helps prove to others that you have the item and what condition it is in.

-Descriptions: Make sure you put a detailed description of the item including any details that the person reading would be interested to learn.  There are tons of different examples on eBay so check it you and make a template for what you think that you will use and adapt it as you find better examples.

-Spelling: Make sure you spell everything correctly.  eBay is based on search engines and if you don't spell the item correctly then no one will find it!!

-Reply to Messages: There are questions that come up and people send you a message through eBay so make sure you check your inbox and answer questions in a timely manner or people will move on to another option.

-Track your sales and profits!!  This helps at the end of the month to know what sold and what didn't but it also tells you how your hard work is paying off.  You may start to think that you are making the amount that ends up in the pay pal account and be upset when eBay comes back to take their fees.

Just like at a garage sale, it depends on your audience because some things sell quickly and others don't because the right person isn't looking at the item so you can always try again later.  Try, try again!!  It is worth the payoff!!  

Do you have any tips that work for you??

Kids Wednesday: Summertime Archaeologist with dinosaurs

I tried a little summer school at the beginning of the year which my son loved until he didn't anymore.  I got a little overwhelmed working on the lesson plans and trying to stay busy all day with him so I stopped planning.  Then I saw this great post and decided that I needed to do this and work a little lesson in at the end of the summer on dinosaurs.

I started by freezing some water in a container.  Then, I added two dinosaurs and added more water.  The first part of the water at the bottom of the container thawed while I was adding the new water so that step might have been a waste of time.  Then the dinosaurs started to float!  I put a frozen container of broth on top of them and put it back in the freezer.  I added the last dinosaur to the side and filled the water to the top.  There was less floating and I finally got it to freeze.  Next time I am going to use things that are a little heavier!

I was going to put the big ice block in a container for him to work with and then I decided that it would be better to do it on the grass without anything to catch all of the ice.

The dinosaurs could be seen clearly through the ice so my son knew what he was doing as soon as he saw the ice and he was excited. 

He tried all of the tools and quickly determined that the meat mallet was the only thing worth using.  He loved it.  I explained to him that just like archaeologists, he would need to use other tools when you got closer to the dinosaur so that you didn't damage the dinosaur.

He used the brush to clear off ice when there were small chunks.  He also used warm water to clear the area. 

All of the dinosaurs were sticking out of the ice block.  It took a little hard work to get them out but we got them all out with a little team work and dried them off with a towel.  The warm water really helped a lot at the end and waiting a little for things to melt but patience isn't the best when they see the thing that they want so close.  In case you can't see, my son also wore his protective eye wear just in case any ice flew towards him and it did!!!

He took all of his dinosaurs in the tent that we set up in the backyard to enjoy a little snack after a lot of hard work.  It was easy to set up and a great experience for him.  He still talks about it and it got him a little more interested in the dinosaurs so we hope to be getting lots more books on dinosaurs at the library soon!

When the Heart Cries Book Review

I was looking at my pile to find out what the next book was going to be and realized that my pile might have gotten out of control.  I got the whole series of two different series and another book that I wanted to read and found on the shelf.  It was great but hard to pick which one to read next but I picked up When the Heart Cries (Sisters of the Quilt, Book 1) by Cindy Woodsmall.  I was glad that I had the whole series when I started so that I could go from one book to the next without waiting for the library to get the others in the series but that might have led to my confusion over which book to pick.

In this book, Hannah Lapp, 17 year old Amish girl, has built a friendship and relationship with someone outside the Old Order Amish.  She is in love with Mennonite Paul Waddell and has been seeing him for three years.  He lives with his grandmother in the summer months which is near Hannah but returns to college every fall to study social work.  Before he leaves for his final year of school, he asks Hannah to marry him.  Hannah accepts knowing that her choice will change her relationship with her family forever.  The evening that they get engaged, Hannah walks home and she is attacked by an Englisher in a car.  Her life is changed forever in that minute and she faces loosing everything.

This book was a slow start and I was shocked by what happened near the beginning of the book.  The subject matter was so deep and heavy that it was hard to pick up the book and do a little light reading.  I was reading very slowly at the beginning and then I finally got into it and had to find out what happened next.  When that happened, I got a lot of reading done in a very short amount of time.  When the book was over, I was ready to pick up the next and start it immediately.  I luckily couldn't reach it and decided to go to bed since it was really late (or early depending on how you look at it) but I needed to get some sleep before going on to the next book.  It is a great story with great characters but be prepared that this is not light summer reading and had a very heavy subject matter.  I hope that you check it out and read this series too!  Let me know what you think!  I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did after I got into the book.

Menu Plan Monday 8/11

Monday- Olive Oil Pasta with garlic bread
Tuesday- Pizza Bites with fried cheese ravioli
Wednesday- Chicken tacos with saffron rice
Thursday- Grilled Chicken with herb rice
Friday- Leftovers
Saturday- Leftovers/Dinner with Sister in law and Brother in law (menu to be determined)
Sunday- Leftovers/ Chicken Paninis

I am working on making up the meal plan for the month but there were so many missing spaces when I stopped last time and for some reason I have no idea what to make.  We are also trying to jam pack our days to enjoy the end of the summer so there isn't much time for cooking or trying out new recipes. 

My husband asked why I don't make Mexican eggrolls or wontons anymore... umm, okay, I will add them back to the list of things that I have to make.  Of course the reason that I made them is that I got a really good deal on egg roll wrappers which I haven't seen in ages.  But I have obviously gotten a lot less creative with the meals that I am making!  We end up eating a lot of the same things but it is hard when I make one meal for the adults and one for my son so I know that I have started making things that we all eat.  I guess I will use the beginning of school to get back to being more creative with my recipes and get back to some of the old favorites.

July Reading Review

I read a lot last month but I was planning on keeping it up this month but I didn't think that I had time.  Well, I guess I was wrong.  I have a lot of mornings that are hard to get out of bed because I didn't get enough sleep the night before finishing a book but I have read a bunch this month.  I guess it could be worse but I enjoyed my summer reading and before long, I won't have that to say anymore because school will be starting.  I was shocked to see how quickly the summer months have gone and hope to enjoy the last month with lots more books that are left on my list.

If you missed any of my reviews, click on the title and it will take you to my original review so that you can see what each book is about and my review of the book.  I enjoy a lot of books and would love any suggestions to add to my list so let me know if there are any that you think are great and I will add them to my list for the rest of the year.

The Covenant

by Beverly Lewis

The Chance 

by Robyn Carr

When I Fall In Love

by Susan May Warren

Still Life With Chickens

by Carolyn Goldhammer

The Betrayal

by Beverly Lewis

The Sacrifice

by Beverly Lewis 

The Prodigal

by Beverly Lewis  

The Revelation
by Beverly Lewis

An Amish Kitchen
by Beth Wiseman, Kelly Long, and Amy Clipston

Four Friends
by Robyn Carr

Books Read for 2014

January     8

February    9
March       6
April          6
May          8
June          13
July          10

Total Books 60

July Budget Review

This month we had the vacation in the middle of the month so it was a little hard because there was no grocery shopping while we were gone but obviously there was a little bit more money spent on other things.  There was also a little bit of a break before the vacation while I was packing and trying to get everything else ready to go.  I am still pretty set on most of the basics in the cupboards and I have been working on only buying what we need because there is still the hope that we are going to move (sometime if we ever find a house) and the less stockpile that I have to move the better.  I am sure we could live off what we have but there were some basics that we needed like milk, lunch meat, rice, ketchup, corn tortillas and a few other things (as seen in the last picture).

Check out what I got this month and how I stayed under my $160 per month budget!

Harris Teeter $1.53

I got a bunch of things at the end of super doubles and splurged on a bunch of things that I didn't get during the rest of the sale.  I used a rain check for the L'Oreal and made a little money on it with the coupons and evic zvr coupon.  I got free Domino Sugar, So Delicious Coconut Milk, Weber Seasonings and Whole Grain Nuggets.  We really wanted to try to the ice cream deal so I was excited to see that there was still some in stock by the time that I got around to it.  Great news is that it was also free..I think.  I grabbed the Cabot cheese which were $0.50 each.  I got the Simply Land O' Lakes Roast Beef (normally priced $5.99) to make some yummy sandwiches and it had a meat discount on it for $3 and I had a $1 coupon which doubled so I paid $0.99!!  It made two meals with homemade rolls and some of the melted cheese!  I knew that the overage was going to be a little bit crazy so I grabbed a container of baking powder which ended up being a good thing because the subtotal before tax was only $0.62.

Giant $0 OOP 

($3.53 on gift card)

We needed milk so I went to the store and grabbed some and got to use my gift card from my credit that didn't come off from the previous month.  I was glad to have it to use because it is hard to get a good deal on milk.

Harris Teeter $20.82

I had a coupon for $5 off of $25 in groceries so I went to the store prepared to use some rain checks and get some deals so that I could stock the fridge and the cupboards while saving as much money as possible.  First stop was for the white vinegar and I had a rain check for Buy one, get one free.  I also used the rain check for the Dixie Crystal Sugar.  I grabbed a bag of discounted bananas to make bread.  I got soda and free House Autry products and Mahatma Rice.  When I got all of the deals I could find, I went to the meat counter and grabbed chicken for $1.99 per pound until I was at the dollar amount to spend.  I got lots of stuff and was super excited by the haul even though it is more then I would normally spend.

Harris Teeter $2.08

I got my two six packs of Coke for our trip to the beach and my free cornbread and rice.  It was a great to have the soda at the beach and the freebies when we got home!

Harris Teeter $2.44

We needed lunch meat and I decided to get the free House Autry biscuits and Mahatma Rice.  It is always good to stock up on freebies because they always come in handy.

Harris Teeter $0.09

There was a deal on saffron rice and House Autry products after coupon so I went back to get a few more so I think that it was well worth the trip to spend only a few cents.

Aldi's $3.07 

We went to the store after we got back from vacation with the whole family which is always a bad idea.  My mom threw in 4 boxes of ice cream cones.  We were obviously getting way too much since we went with a list for butter, milk, lettuce and a few other things but our cart ended up being way more full.  The total was $43.07 and my parents paid $40 and we paid the rest.  I didn't take a picture of the items because we came home and my mom starting putting them all away.  Although I tell her that we always take pictures, it wasn't worth the fight.

CVS $0.00

Great deal on paper towels and we were totally out of them.  I got one on my card and one on my husbands so we should be set for a few months...plus or minus visitors that tend to use them all up :)

Giant $0 OOP
($2.08 gift card + $10 Giant Community Credit)

I went to spend my community credit for the month since it was coming close to the end and we had a few things we needed.  I made a list of all of the things that we were out of and I went in search for the best deal.  I grabbed a bunch of things that were on sale and used only one coupon.  After my bag credit, coupon, and $10 credit, and gift card, I didn't have a balance left!  I still have a little left on the card for next month but I think that it is only $0.70.  Woo Hoo!!!

Aldi's $3.68

We ran out of milk so I ran over to the store while we were out at the library to grab another gallon but the price at Aldi's wasn't much below the grocery store so it probably wasn't worth the trouble but at least we got it.

Harris Teeter $1.57

I went to the store to get a bunch of freebies before the sale was over and I grabbed 6 packages of Mahatma rice and they had a new kind so I grabbed it.  I also got the two Kraft salad dressings which were free after coupon and zvr.  The Jif cereal and the Rice Krispies were supposed to be $0.09 after all of the savings but it turns out that the evic zvr coupon expired on the 27th and I went on the 29th!  UGH!!  I dislike losing money over something so silly but we really wanted the cereal so I kept it.  I was going to get the House Autry corn bread mix but the customer service person had to ring the coupons and decided to manually override the coupon to not double so I didn't get those this time.  Overall, I left a little sad but I think that I got a lot for my $1.57 so I am glad that I made it to the store...just wish I did it this weekend when I made the list!

Total Retail $273.44
Total Savings $238.16
Total OOP $35.28

We are over half way through the year and we have been mostly using things that we already have on hand which has made the budget really low for every month.  It has also cleaned out of a lot of the refrigerator, freezer, and pantry.  After seven months, I spent $582.35 for the year and this month was keeping me on track to stay low.  The monthly average is about half of my budget at $83.19. 

  

I know that most families spend my yearly total on a monthly basis. I work hard to spend as little as possible so I am pretty proud of the total that I have worked towards.  Although I don't know how much longer these really low months will be able to last for much longer based on the stockpile remaining unless we only eat pasta cause we might have enough to last a lifetime!  Here is hoping for some great sales to keep the progress going and get some more great food for our family.

How have you done so far this year?  
Are you on target for your yearly budget?
Trying to save a little more at the end of the year to make up for the beginning of the year?

Kids Wednesday: Getting Ready for Kindergarten Books

My son is going to Kindergarten this year and I can't believe it!  After three years of preschool, we are preparing for a new school.  I have worked a few back to school books in through the summer and we have done a lot of talking about it.  He was upset at the end of the year because everyone kept talking about how he was going to go to kindergarten but when he looked at the calendar, he realized that he had to wait months.  Now we are getting closer and we are making sure he is just as excited to make it back to school.

Here are a few books that we have read so I hope that you check them out if you have anyone going into Kindergarten.

Mrs. Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten
by Joseph Slate
 

The Night Before Kingergarten

by Natasha Wing

Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come!

by Nancy Carlson

Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten?

by Audry Vernick

 

I hope that these books give you an idea of some fun reading if you have some one going into Kindergarten!!  Do you have any on your list that I should add?  Let me know and I am sure we will find them and read them soon!!!