So Far So Good-ish

Since my last post I've made some headway, of sorts, well of miniscule sorts!

I've only been to a couple of garage sales, mainly due to our 4 month old daughter deciding that Saturday mornings around 7-8am are the perfect time for a screaming 'give me milk' session. So my plan of being the early bird catching worms has been a bit delayed!

However I have a buy:

I picked up this Paul Frank handbag for $2 at a garage sale, I thought it was funky, and I'm sure I've seen the 'monkey face' logo in shops.

Paul Frank 'monkey face' bag - $2 at garage sale

I think I'll list it on a local Facebook page first and see how I go, rather than Ebay & Gumtree, I think it's a funky little bag that might appeal to the Facebookers.  The local sale page seems to have a good audience, and things sell pretty quick, so it hopefully will be a winner!  We shall see.

If it doesn't sell I'm going to give it to our 6 year old neice as a Xmas pressie, so while I wouldn't make money on it, I'll save some of the usual $50 per kid spend that the extended family has in place.

I've added a permanent tracker to the blog (top right) where I'll update my buy/sell/profit/loss info.

I have my eye on an antique cabinet at a local seller that I think is way underpriced, but not sure if I'm willing to back my judgement and outlay the $180 as yet, it's a big chunk of my $250 budget, but if my research pans out, I might just give it a go!!!

On the 'savings' side of things, I put my sewing machine to good use and sewed up the split seams in 2 pairs of my leggins, that I previously probably (ok definitely) would have thrown out and replaced, so I've saved us $49.00 x 2, I had black cotton, and was able to get 30 mins while bubs slept to take the sewing machine to the laundry and sew in isolation so I wouldn't wake bub! Yay.

It's amazing where you can cut corners when you put your mind to it.  It was my hubby's birthday on the weekend, and rather than spending up big on steaks for the bbq lunch I bought a big chunk of silverside/corned beef, and a lamb shoulder from our local butcher, and slow cooked them both for the lunch, they were a huge hit, with 3 of hubby's mates wives asking for the recipes. And the best part was instead of spending $100+ on meat for the bbq (steak, sausages, hamburgers), I spent $48 on the lamb & beef from our local butcher, and put them on at 6am after bubs feed, by lunch at 1pm they were melt in the mouth delicious!

Amount Spent - $2.00
Budget Remaining $248.00
Profit/Loss - $0.00

Till next time,

First Idea - Converting Garage Sale Finds to Moula

My first thought was to tackle something that's easy, well in theory it's easy!

The town I live in loves Garage Sales, I mean LOVES them, in a relatively small town there would be at least 10 garage sales in the paper each weekend, plus another 10 or so that don't advertise in the paper, just put up signs around town.

So my thought was to see what I can find at garage sales and try and turn them into extra cash, either through Gumtree, Ebay or local Facebook sale pages.

I have been buying & selling on Ebay for over 8 years, and have 100% feedback, with over 350 buys/sells, so I would look legit to buyers (I am legit by the way :), but you know what I mean about 'Ebay legit'!).

I also have a bit of form for making a profit, as last year when we got married (see my other blog - Our Surprise Wedding), I scoured Ebay, Op-Shops, Garage Sales, local shops here and in Newcastle & Maitland to source everything to decorate the hall for our reception.

I found that buying alot of the items was in fact cheaper than hiring them, and then selling them afterwards gave an opportunity to turn a bit of a profit. Which I was able to do.

As an eg, I bought 6 cake stands for an average of $11 each, and sold them on Ebay for an average of $22 plus postage.  I was able to make a similar percentage profit on the chair sashes, bird cage, and a few other things.

Mr Mel & I discussed the idea, and we've decided to give me a shot, Yay!

I have a budget of $250 to spend how I see fit, then sell on Ebay, Gumtree, Facebook, and I'm going to track each purchase in Excel, and see where that $250 takes us, taking into account costs like petrol etc.

IF I can turn a profit on this $250 I'll then up the budget and see if I can turn into a bit of an income.

Wish me luck! I shall report back, I'm heading to a garage sale this arvo!

Till next time,

So Why Do This Blog?

I guess that's the question I've been asking myself when thinking about starting this blog.

I have a couple of other blogs:

• http://canwedoityepwecan.blogspot.com/ - which I started in 2010 as a challenge to myself really, putting on 'paper' my goals for my life over the next few years, ie starting a family, losing weight, paying off a mortgage, etc
• http://oursurpriseweddingjuly2011.blogspot.com/ - which I started in early 2011 to document the leadup to our suprise wedding, which we held in July 2011.

I will definitely keep posting to my 'Can We Do It' blog, as that's more of an overview of my world.

At this stage I think this blog will just document my attempts to make some extra income, and make savings, find bargains etc, so that I can be a Stay At Home Mum as long as possible, and so our family can still stay on track with our goals re paying off our mortgage etc.

I have worked full time since I was 19, I'm now 38, that's nearly 20 years straight (hell!), so since I started maternity leave in April 2012, (our daughter was born on 1 May 2012), I found myself in a whole new world, even more so Ms Mel has arrived!

Having always worked long hours, at one time I started one job at 4am till 7.30am, then another job from 8.30am till 6pm, my current job that I am on maternity leave from I was working 8am till 6pm 5 days a week, plus extra work from home, I wasn't sure how I would cope with 'not working'. 

Well let's wipe 'not working' from the situation, as all you other SAHM's know, being a Mum (and SAHD's, being a Dad), is a full time job.  I mean 'not working' outside the home.

Mr Mel (my husband) works from home, and while his income is enough to allow me to be a SAHM, being down my income means we have had to reduce our mortgage repayments (still paying over the minimum), and we have tightened the belt so to speak across the board.

So why I don't have to bring in extra income, I want to, plus you just never know what is around the corner, so it won't hurt to put my thinking cap on.

Plus while I'm currently on Paid Parental Leave (for another 6 weeks!) I thought it's a good time to see what I can get stuck into that could pay off, as I really really really don't want to go back to work full time away from home.  I am going to ask my boss if I can just do work from home, but not sure how that will fly so always good to have options!

I have a few thoughts as to how I'll attempt to bring in some extra cash and save some money, so stick with me, it could get interesting!

And PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE feel free to make any suggestions/comments, my ears & eyes are well and truly open!

Till next time,