Ebay Sales 6/14 - 6/20

Total items in Store: 320
Total sales:$135.97
Number of sales:6
Cost of items sold:$19.00
Highest price sold:$54.99 Lego set. This included free shipping which cost me about $8
Returns: 0
GPS sales:0

So sales were slow last week.  Highest priced item was a Star Wars NIB Lego set. At the end of last year when I was still running the day care I received a gift card for $250 for a fancy online school supply store. After the first of the year I purchased several Lego sets that were on clearance. This was the last set. I did give one to my son as a gift. So all those sets were 100% pure profit. I shouldn't be complaining too much. Every time I have a slow week it's still the same money or more than I would have if I still had just one kid in the daycare with a lot less stress and time. 

So a big thing that is happening in my area is an Aldi grocery store is coming. And they are hiring store associates $12/perhr. Most jobs in this area are minimum wage ( $7.25 per hour) so this is a big deal. When I was working as a call center supervisor I was only making $10.50 per hour and that job required a Bachelor's degree. So it will be interesting to see if other employers in the area will follow suit. Especially since the town was recently named poorest city in Maryland here's the local papers take on it. http://www.times-news.com/news/cumberland-named-poorest-city-in-maryland/article_c7da0544-13b5-11e5-bed1-e35447fb9c39. And it's almost tempting to apply but then I would have to put my child back in school and find before and after school care. So not quite worth it to me.

Ebay Sales Week of 6/7-6/13

This week was a good week. The biggest sale I has was old homeschool curriculum from a few years ago I still had laying around the house.
Total items in Store: 305
Total sales:$350.91
Number of sales:10
Cost of items sold:$12
Highest price sold:$225.00 Homeschool curriculum
Returns: 0
GPS sales:0

My husband and I are frugal and don't go on dates very oftens. This weekend kicked off a free summer series of concerts in our town. So for our date night along with our son we took our camp chairs a few beers and spent the evening enjoying some awesome music for free. Good times.

My eBay Sales week of May 31st - June 6th

Number of items in store: 310

Number of items sold: 13

Total Sales: $248.38

Cost of items Sold:$24.00

Highest Price Sold $80.00 used homeschool curriculum syllabus.

Returns 0

I finally broke the 300 item mark in my store. I sold two books from my son's' old homeschool curriculum books. I was really hoping that syllabus would have sold for more. But I sold it at auction and only got one bid even with about 10 watchers on it. I did start the bidding at the least amount I would take so no big loss. I have another set of curriculum books I will be putting up for sale soon as well which should be another nice sell.

How I save Money at CVS

So I know a lot of people don't like to use coupons or shop at 2 or 3 different stores.  I don't mind and it saves me money. Does it take more time probably but I wouldn't say a lot of extra time. I don't buy Sunday papers very often anymore for my coupons  I print out from the internet the coupons I want and will use.  So today I went shopping at CVS for some non food items. I only really needed a few of the items today.However these items were on sale today and these items won't go bad and I will eventually need these items. I broke up my items into 2 transactions to maximise my savings. See the break down below.

Transaction #1
 Nivea men's body wash (x 2) $5.99 each = $11.98 - $3 Coupon + MD Sales Total $9.70
Plus I recieve $5 CVS Extra Care Bucks to use on the next transaction.

Transaction #2 Buy $30 worth of certain items recieve $10 CVS Gift Card
2- 4 packs of Gatorade $5 (  We our bringing snacks for my sons baseball team next week, I don't usually buy these type of items.)
2 packs of Quaker Oats granola bars $5
1- bottle of Dawn $.99
1- package of Charmin Toilet paper $9.99
1 Tube of Colgate Tooth paste $3 - $2 in store Coupon $.99
1- Box of Hefty Trash Bags $10.49
Sub Total $32.46
- $.75 Coupon for the Charmin and -$5 CVS Extra Care Bucks Brought my total down to $26.72
After I paid taxes total came to $28.49. For a Grand total spent today $38.19
Plus I got a $10 CVS Gift Card for our next trip.
So this is how I usually shop at CVS and they have items on sale every week that you can earn Extra Care Bucks and I just keep rolling them over from one week to the next. Stocking up buying what's on sale not what I need. Then when I do need it it's there in my closet of goodies.

Ebay Sales Week of May 24-30

So this week wasn't as good as the prior week. However I'm still happy with what I did make. 

• Total Items in Store 303
• Total Items Sold 12
• Total Sales $163.88
• Cost of Items Sold $15.34

Ebay Sales Week of May 17-23

Since closing my daycare I've been selling on Ebay, Etsy and Amazon. I primarily sell on Ebay. I'm going to start sharing my weekly sales to show people that I am making real money on ebay. For comparison I will share what I made as a daycare provider. For the last year and a half I only had 1 full time child and two part time children in my care despite my best efforts to bring more children in. I charged $100 a week for full time and $25 per day for part time children. So I think you can do the math there. I worked most days fro 6:30 in the morning til about 5:30 in the evening. This time does not include the hours I put into training or the childcare association meetings I attended. Right so now that you got the math there. Let's get into the Ebay numbers.

• Total number of items in store 300+-
• Items sold 11
• Total sales $211.98 (includes shipping)
• Cost of items sold $19.60

So is this isn't  full time money at least not yet, but it's more than I was making with the daycare and working a lot less hours. I do miss the little munchkins minus changing their dirty diapers.

So When Are You Going Back to Work?

I had to close my daycare due to lack on enrollment recently. And the one question I've been asked the most by friends and relatives is so when are you going to go back to work? Or where are you working now? Then after I tell them that I'm still working at home running an online store on ebay they proceed to tell me who's hiring and where I should look for employment.

Uhh hello? Didn't you just hear me? I have a job working for myself. Really not that much different than before.  I get it Ebay. I know when I think of someone selling on ebay I think of some overweight, chain smoking, cat hoarding, old lady selling crap from a smoke free/pet free home.

But really I am selling real items and I am making real money. Nothing to write home about too much yet, but it has been equivalent to caring for the two kids I had in my daycare. So I'm not loosing money.

And with us only having one car. There's not a whole lot else I can do or would want to do. I'm really enjoy selling on ebay.

So what am I selling. Well just about anything that will make me a buck. I started by selling the stuff in my house that I no longer wanted. Then I have moved up to going to thrift shops and buy stuff to resell on ebay or even amazon.

That Monster is Someone I Once Loved

Below is a link to news story that is so heinous you'll think What a horrible monster! How could someone do such horrible unspeakable things?! When I read stories like this it makes me mad I hope the asshole rots in hell or better yet get what's coming to him in jail from all his new room mates.
 http://www.wboc.com/story/28772746/former-md-counselor-pleads-guilty-in-infant-sex-case


But this story is a little different for me. A few days ago a friend of mine from college called and said she had news about our friend Stephen. My first thought was oh god he's dead. Then she said the words I couldn't believe what she was saying. I immediately opened my laptop and googled his name and there was his picture along with all the news articles. My heart sunk. How could this be?
I read the articles all the horrible articles of our dear friend doing all of these horrible thing to these poor children.

This monster had been my friend during college we hung out on a regular basis. I cat sited for him, I truly loved and trusted him as much as any of my other close friends during that time of my life. Last time I saw him was 2005 when I helped him move. I was pregnant at the time. I haven't really spoken with him much over the last 10 years aside from a few emails. I shared my life with him through facebook, myspace, and emails just like I did with all my family and friends.  I just don't understand how the man in that story is someone I once loved, someone whom I would have left with my son with, without a second thought.

For the past five years I have operated a small family daycare out of my home. For just over the last year I have only had one full time child and two part time children. Times have been tough. I have not very many calls for daycare over this time either and only one interview which did not result in me getting a new client.

In order for me to make up for this lack of money I started selling on Ebay to help pay the bills, Christmas and our sons birthday. I have made more money then I ever thought I would. Recently  I received an email from one of my daycare clients that they will no longer be needing my services starting in the next few weeks. This leaves me with only one child enrolled. Not really worth the hassle of operating a daycare with only one child. So I have decided to  close the daycare and give Ebay my full attention and make it my full time job.

Here's to a new chapter.

Grocery Budget Series: The Bread Outlet

This pass week there was a major snow storm on the east coast. And even in my small mountain town people freak when they hear the word snow. You'd think they would be used to it by now. Everyone rushes to the stores to stock up on milk, bread and toilet paper. But not us. Because we have bread in the freezer from the bread store outlet.

So I know not everyone may have a bread store outlet in their town. But if you do you really need to shop there instead of buying  bread at the regular grocery stores. It really saves us money. Loaves of bread 3 for a $1.50 as compared to $3 or more for 1 loaf of bread. They also have bagels, snack cakes and some other items. But we try to just stick with the bread and bagels.

Another thing they sell at the bread store is feed bread. Now I have never purchased this myself you have to ask for it special. So I've hear that  you get a ton of bread for very little money. Apparently this bread is closer to being out of date which is why it is being sold as feed bread. But like I said I haven't tried it out, and  my freezer isn't that large. I'm happy with my 3 loaves for $1.50. I put two in the freezer and pull as needed.

By shopping at my local bread store outlet not only can I save money I can save my sanity by not being one of the many freaking out that there is a snow storm coming at the grocery store.

Hi, My name is Jamie and this blog is going to be about how my family and I live on our small budget while still living a rich life. And by rich life I mean a meaningful,enriched, love filled life.