So, we moved! 15 years of living in our 1200 square foot house to the point where I had 8 kids ages 2-14 SO CROWDED but happy --- I really really worked on the happy part!!!! Every door slammed shut through the later years when we tried to position ourselves into a place where we could save money or move and also get a new car, ours only held 8 seats. Tempted to be bitter, to be angry (hello, children are supposed to be a BLESSING, God!! Helloooo...?!!!!) that He wasn't meeting our needs, but oh how I FOUGHT that battle and refused to give in to that! So thankful now, looking back, for that precious time...I see it now very clearly as similar to the children of Israel going through the wilderness. Miracles happened yes, but did they complain? Would they just trust Him? So thankful now for how we both took it! He definitely led us into the "promised land" which ended up being so much beyond our expectations!!!
Anyways....a year ago on July 4th, God quite simply put, booted us out of there. Barely any warning and then bam, things were set in motion and we moved out, living with family & friends for 45 days of last summer not knowing where we'd live or anything. He sure did take care of us! But wow that was a whole new pressure cooker right there! Our empty home was being completely remodeled and put up for sale during that time so we couldn't live there.
August 30th we moved into our beautiful 2700 square foot home AND 2 days later the 1999 car we'd driven for 11 years with no problems. and owed nothing on, just died. ☺️ So I got a brand new (to me!) 2009 bigger car, new home, and Bret ALSO got a raise. When God wants to pour out the blessings He just really does! Very big adjustment as we moved to south Salem and our kids had a hard year with the new schools, Rachel 15 in particular ended up in 3 different high schools last year.
And, Our home didn't sell until 2 days before Christmas!! 😳 Another test in faith in God, ha! I bought all their toys/gifts FULL PRICE at Target and Amazon so we could have Christmas, 3 days AFTER Christmas, lol. You can imagine that pain, lol, I hate paying full price ESP for toys, gah! So fast forward to now, we're still on a fairly tight budget but are comfortable --- need to work on the savings part of money more but we're getting there.
I have this beautiful back patio that up until summer had nothing on it. we bought a gorgeous patio set on Craigslist for a steal with our house profit money, and that was it. So I've been slowly finding deals on toys or anything I can find that I know I can turn at least a $5 profit on (found a pair of Miss Me bling high end designer jeans yesterday for $15 for instance at a garage sale that I hope to sell for $40 at least) and buying things I love for my patio with the profits. Now it looks like this!
I've been toying lately with getting back into the online business somehow...I'm not sure what. I started to get out of it (I authored two ebooks, wrote a bi-weekly newsletter to a paid subscription fan base, and sold children's clothing & toys on EBay) back when my 5th child was born and she is now 9 years old! I have a passion for fitness which is a good niche I suppose since I have 8 kids, at least that gives me a bit of unique-ness in a very saturated market. But I really still love the thrill of the hunt for treasures. I love the idea of finding a diamond in the rough for pennies that the people selling it have no clue of its worth, and turning a profit.
For instance, I found a baggy full of squinkies at Value Village for $2.99, and I had a 30% off coupon. So $2.09. I knew if they were a dud, Harmony 6 would LOVE them because they're tiny and she likes tiny toys. A little research later, and in the 68 squinkies bunch there was a full set from Disney's Sleeping Beauty. I played around with the price a bit, listed it on EBay for $19.99 OBO and when I was offered $16.50 of course I took it 😋
After postage & Ebay fees, my profit was $12 on just that little set. The rest which was 60 pieces but no complete sets, I put on Craigslist (no fees and instant cash when it sells, I like that too!) for $12 and I have a lady coming on Monday to buy them. The best part is I can just leave them on the front porch and the buyer will put the $$ under the mat per my instructions. Thus no interaction with people (love that) and I don't have to work my schedule around meeting with anyone to sell it. In the end I will have...
$2.00 initial cost to buy
$4.50 cost to sell on EBay
=$6.50 out of pocket
Sold for $30.50 = $24 profit
Want to know what I did with the $24?? I bought these two outdoor pillows for my patio!
Don't you just love that happy happy color?? I plan on putting them on the two chairs you see by the two red geranium pots on my back patio...they match the yellow umbrella ☺️.
I don't HAVE to earn money (so thankful!!!) but I also don't get play money really from our every month paycheck.
I don't have ANYTHING left from my old stuff, all those hours and years I poured into writing articles. I think I still have that computer somewhere buried in the garage but no access to the data, unless some techie guy can somehow extract it because it doesn't turn on.
So whatever I do will have to be from scratch except that I do have the two ebooks I wrote & co-wrote with Jenni Hunt from www.jennihunt.com - "Secrets of Garage Sale Bargains" and the "Step by Step Guide to Selling Halloween Costumes on EBay"
