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I sold a number of things, including:
• A pair of one of a kind Nike sample shoes for $85.
• Two Guitar Hero guitars for $60 apiece — HERE and HERE.
• A Chevron toy oil tanker for $45.
• A McCoy vase, which I sold locally for $30 through Facebook Marketplace.
• A Prince dance costume for $60.
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My daughter started working at a high end grocery store and has been bringing home random leftover food, which is amazing, but also kind of a challenge.
So far I’ve been the lucky recipient of:
• Three (maybe four?) pounds of pastrami and sliced deli turkey. We ate “French dip” sandwiches swapping out the roast beef for turkey, as well as turkey wrapped around cream cheese and pickles. The pastrami went into my husband’s work sandwiches.
• A large container of pickle spears. See above.
• Two beat up looking grapefruit, which ended up being really sweet and juicy.
• Multiple boxes of gluten-free donuts. No need to work these into a recipe. Urp . . . -
I salvaged the sturdy plastic sheeting from my son’s new mattress to create two drop cloths for future projects. I also cut another piece into strips and drew bats on them as reusable Halloween decoration. The last random bits got cut into pieces for use as packaging material.
Such a enormous amount of plastic, and I’m happy that it’s not going straight to a landfill.
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My neighbor let me put out an extra bin of leaves with his yard debris pickup, (he rarely puts one out) I was able to give away the under-bed trundle and mattress from my son’s old twin bed through the Buy Nothing Group, and I went to Trader Joe’s and bought nothing but the 19¢ bananas, truly a feat of self control if there ever was one!)
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I didn’t purchase a seat on a rocket ship with my fellow billionaires.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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Disclosure: This blog post includes eBay affiliate links, which earns a small commission for me. This costs nothing extra to you.
{ 49 comments… read them below or add one }
You’re a good artist! Those bats on the plastic sheeting are so cute.
You’re too kind, and perhaps need to get your eyes checked!
I like the bats too. Their googledly eyes are cute.
1. A few $$ from consignment store that I reinvested in a NWT. dress I can wear to a event this month
2. Received first of 1/2 free boxes from Hello Fresh. 4 days of meals
3. Sold a pair of jeans online $27
4. Haven’t turned on heater yet here in so California
5. Inventorying what I have for holidays (gifts, wrapping and decor)
I love it. You probably don’t have Ridwell where you live (yet), but they are able to recycled plastic film. Likely not what you’re working with (which I bet is sturdier), but it does take care of a lot of my plastic waste (bread bags, frozen food bags).
I take it back–Portland has Ridwell! It’s less of a frugal thing than a non-consumer thing, but it does keep certain things you can’t put in your blue recycling bin (or yellow glass bin) out of the waste stream. Every pickup that’s plastic film, lightbulbs, clothing/fabric (any condition), batteries. There’s also a rotating category that has included pet items, (new) diapers, food, wine corks, crayons, and more. For a small upcharge they also take plastic clamshells/clear plastic boxes, and I think styrofoam is $9 for a gigantic bag.
Ridwell is available in Portland, but I already have a system for recycling pretty much everything for free. Batteries and light bulbs go to IKEA, corks to New Seasons, miscellaneous art/craft supply stuff to SCRAP, etc. So I’m not going to pay extra at this time.
Wine corks also make good fire starters I discovered.
Wow. Great use of the plastic and good job on those bats.
1. I went on a weekend trip with a friend to Traverse City. We chose Halloween weekend since the peak color is supposed to be over and the prices for lodging go down. Since we’ve had such wacky weather we lucked out and the colors were beautiful.
2. We chose a less expensive AirBnb that didn’t charge a cleaning fee and allowed dogs for no charge also. so we brought our dogs along. This was more savings for her than myself since I have a live-in dog sitter for a couple more months anyway. I wanted to take my dog anyway so it worked out for both of us.
3. We ate food we brought along for breakfast and shared a charcuterie at Mari Vineyards and each enjoyed a flight of wines.
4. We took the dogs for free walks. We also drove up the Leelanau peninsula to enjoy the colors and lake views and we also stopped at an estate sale. We took the dogs to the beach for a walk and a swim. We also took a walk down a street in town with beautiful homes that are all decked out with Halloween decorations.
5. I also didn’t take any trips on rocket ships instead of choosing to end world hunger (It gives to new meaning to “Eat the Rich”).
Sounds like a perfect getaway!
1. Made a delicious potato cheese soup that included withering potatoes and carrots.
2. Shopped around for the best price on baby trees for a privacy screen across our back fence. Found smaller trees from a cheaper source and hired a landscaper to plant them. I am delighted with the result and the landscaper now has another source for plants. He was impressed with the quality and fast delivery.
3. Continuing to sell on Etsy.
4. Got my covid booster shot.
5. Decided to abandon attempts to sell on Ebay . Frugal in preserving my mental health. I welcome comments on whether my experience is typical. Inspired by some of the success stories here, I opened a first time Ebay account a few months ago. I really wanted to try to sell a few things that don’t fit Etsy’s profile. I was told that my email account had already been used and that whoever hacked me did something so heinous that they (that is, me and my email address) are banned for life. Ebay would not tell me what they did. So I set up another email just for Ebay and listed a few things. The first “sale” was cancelled by Ebay because the buyer’s account had been hacked. Then I had six “sales” in a row in which the buyer never paid. I ended up cancelling each one after sending an invoice twice and waiting the required period of time. Is this typical? How does anyone ever begin selling? I suspect this sort of thing does not happen to people who have been ebaying for a while, only to new sellers. I have been selling on Etsy for about a year, 70+ sales and all 5 star ratings. So I decided Ebay was not worth the aggravation for me. Have others had similar experiences.? I would love to hear advice that might help other new sellers, though I think I am done.
I’ve heard of this happening to other new sellers. I wish I had some sage advice, but alas I do not. Sorry.
I have had 2 people falsify that I sold an item that was not what it was. I argued that the item was a hoodie from Am. eagle but was not a fleece hoodie but rather a knitted material hoodie. The buyer never sent
back the hoodie yet they were refunded. Another stayed the item was not new in box just opened but all of the pieces were wrapped in plastic/cellophane. I got 2 pieces unwrapped that were used. So it is not just newbies. A lot of dishonesty lately on ebay.
I recently started selling on eBay after several years off when my account was hacked and it took literally months to get my $1000 back. This time I sold a few items and the first two were people who wanted me to send a gift card that they would pay me for when it arrived, in addition to the item I was selling. It took days to get the stuff relisted (who would be foolish enough to fall for that scam). The next time it was a pair of shoes that had never been worn, and I even showed a picture of the soles to prove that. The purchaser said they were in terrible condition, and showed a picture of the same shoes that they must have worn before buying mine because they were a wreck. eBay elected to believe them, not me, despite the pictures I provided. I think I will leave what I have posted up but stop selling through them. I have had pretty good luck with FB Marketplace, so will go back to that. Very frustrating.
I am sorry that this happened to you, Ava. However, I don’t think your situation is unique. I have sold on eBay since 2000. Last year I was asked to sell some items from the estate of my sister who was a collector of fine antiques. I felt it was best not to commingle estate funds and set up a new and separate eBay account. It was a disaster! eBay did little to help support the new account and actually help facilitate the loss of valuable merchandise and funds. To make matters worse, eBay had discontinued sellers access to its customer service call center. Thus, as a seller, I could no longer access help in a quick and efficient manner.
Despite this, I do still sell under my original account. (I closed the new account). However, the number of listings that I now have are about 20% of what they were two years ago. I also do not sell overseas any longer, nor do I sell any item valued over $65. Since I have also been encountered numerous problems regarding shipping, I have successfully investigated other resale options.
I don’t think this is a problem that any seller can ever come. I think it sits solely on the shoulders of eBay. The company recognize that you can’t have buyers without sellers. Then update it’s security and software so that it can handle the new issues that have arisen.
That should read the company has not recognized that it cannot have buyers without sellers.
Wow! I hope you can figure out what I was trying to say. I guess I shouldn’t write anything till I’ve had my 1st cup of coffee!
Those bats are adorable. Bravo!
Love your new #5.
Thanks, I think it’s a keeper.
1. Paid a chunk off my mortgage, working toward our goal of retiring early.
2. Picked up a heap of new work this month. See goal 1.
3. Still eating spring veggies and planting new summer veggies, and eating eggs from our hens. Looks like a good crop of summer fruit this season as well.
4. My husband build trellises to espalier our fruit trees, saving the cost of a professional, and they look wonderful.
5. I had a couple of days off, and painted some old outdoor furniture that was looking terrible. For $35 we now have two new looking sets of outdoor furniture on our balconies. We also still have half the paint left, so will probably paint some other things as I think of them. Looking at a couple of old concrete pots that we inherited when we moved here.
It’s amazing what a lick of paint’ll do.
Cheeeeeeeese, Grommit! 😉
1. Made a huge pot of really good hamburger cheese soup, using up freezer burned hamburger and freezer burned cheese, four soft potatoes, and milk that was about to go turn. Very, very tasty and will feed us for at least three days. (We don’t mind eating the same thing day after day.)
2. Did four mystery shops, netting $104 plus two meals for free. I was not excited about doing them but worked them around errands.
3. Traded eggs for homemade cream cheese poppers dressed in strips of puff pastry to look like mummies. I love poppers but never buy them, due to price and the fact that they are not all that healthy…but who can turn down homemade ones? Bonus is that my husband hates them.
4. library for books and puzzles.
5. Sold a baggie of British stamps that I have had hanging around since we lived in Scotland 36 (yes, 36) years ago. I offered them on FB, thinking it was a fool’s errand, and they were snapped up within the hour by someone who is getting ready to move there for work. There was about 100 pounds (the currency, not the weight) worth of stamps and I was happy to get $50 for them; they got a good deal but I was going to shred them so I got the better deal I think!
One more thing that I thought was going to be an expensive disaster but wasn’t: when we had our backs turned handing out candy, pound hound managed to speed gobble an untold amount of chocolate, foil wrappers and all. I called the vet and he told me to wait and see what happened. I was never so happy to be woken up in the middle of the night by an upchucking dog, who was kind enough to walk into the bathroom before vomiting. I should put the retching sound as my alarm on my phone, it is so very effective in making me and the husband leap out of bed—much faster than a fire alarm would.
It’s amazing how quickly everyone here moves when we hear the upchuck sound. Congratulations on the stamp sales. I love it when I sell something so useful. It’s a win for both parties.
Our cats’ hairball “coming up” cough wakes all of us up out of a sound sleep, since the cats prefer doing it on upholstered furniture and the good rug. 😀
I’m sitting here cracking up about your alarm clock being set to a dog retching sound. I don’t have a dog but I do have two cats who chunk up the occasional hairball. There is something about that sound to wake me up out of a dead sleep, toss the covers and RUN to find the offending cat and get him to a bare floor. This from someone who has always been slow to wake up. One more thing…why does it always seem to happen at night?!
Staying out of Trader Joes without spending extra money is truly a win. I’m always picking up things “I didn’t know I needed” when I walk in. 🙂
1) Made a lot of meals over the weekend, some for the freezer, some for this week. The recipes included a lot of produce that needed to be used right away, saving them from waste. It’s a double bonus to have avoided food waste, and have meals for the freezer: spaghetti meat sauce, chicken & dumplings, beef stew.
2) We have a pomegranate tree (planted when we moved in) & it’s finally producing fruit. Pomegranates are very expensive, and we love them, so this is a huge win. We probably have 30-40 fruit on the tree.
3) Charged our electric car for free at work.
4) Picked up a couple of Christmas gifts early, earning some rewards that I will use for our holiday donations.
5) This one could go either way, but tracked down a professional to do our taxes this year. I’ve been doing them myself for decades. However, we sold a vacation house in another state, and wanted help with all of that back & forth, & ensuring we were doing all of the right stuff this year. He noticed an error on our prior taxes that will save us some money, and had some recommendations for future years that will benefit us. No funny “tax evasion” stuff. Just normal deductions/credits we didn’t know about.
The bat streamers are awesome, Katy! I bet they sounded wonderfully spooky when the wind blew.
My FFT:
1. Mixed granulated white sugar with molasses we had on hand to make brown sugar, so no extra purchase needed.
2. Mended the worn padded cuffs on my husband’s shoes with foam from an unused piece of mattress pad, some black scuba-type fabric from my fabric stash, some buttonhole thread gifted to me, a curved needle and some patient hand sewing. The shoes were otherwise in great shape.
3. Used up the last of October’s big purchase of apples to make apple-flaxseed muffins. The apples were bought with a store coupon.
4. Bought our son a stack of much-needed winter clothes from an online thrift store. Shipping was slow but free, and he received 11 items new with and without tags clothing for $96 and some change. Everything except a sweater fit, and that fit his dad, who was retiring two worn-out sweaters, so that worked out fine.
5. Still doing the frugal everyday: Wearing almost entirely thrifted clothes, packing my homemade lunches to work, using up all the leftovers, sticking to the grocery budget, making do, mending, scrimping and saving.
It’s been really windy lately, so yes — the bat streamers made a lot of spooky noise!
1. I walked to the grocery store as we were out of bananas and I wanted to pick up Bergers cookies for out of town relatives. I was rewarded with a bag of bananas for $.29/pound and they all look edible.
2. We have been eating at home. It’s healthier as we often find takeout expensive and full of disposables.
3. I was able to book a hotel stay with points earned with a credit card promotion pre-pandemic.
4. A friend is going to pick up some apples for me at an orchard. A half bushel is always a good deal.
5. I continue to wear the same clothes, use the possessions, etc. I am trying extra hard to be green and there is often overlap with thrift.
1. After the insulation was pulled down during cleanup from the Moldy Mess in our basement following the hot steam silent boiler leak, DH noticed holes near the foundation that had never been sealed when the house was built (2002). He filled these with spray foam so hopefully our cellar will be a bit warmer this winter.
2. I made a Swedish Almond Cake as thanks to my neighbor for gifting us tomatoes, string beans and Zucchini from her garden last summer.
3. I received my free Covid booster and flu shot two days ago and I’m feeling fine. Had a headache and fatigue yesterday but two generic acetaminophen did the trick and I went about my day as usual. I know these vaccines are free for most but I also consider them frugal in that I will stay healthier and not have to spend money on medications or doctor visits and perhaps hospitalization.
4. Eating down the freezer and cabinets while only picking up milk, bread and fresh fruit.
5. We’re having friends over on Saturday night for a campfire and outdoor dinner. The weather forecast says in the 40s, doable with coats and blankets on our laps. We started this monthly get together with this couple to avoid indoor entertaining due to Covid and it’s become something fun to look forward to. I have always cooked when it’s our turn, usually a crockpot meal, but I won a $25 gift certificate to a local pizza parlor in a charity raffle so pizza is on the menu.
1. Used a Groupon for an oil change.
2. Was maid-of-honor (only bride’s maid) at a wedding. Told bride that I would take care of food during the “getting ready for the wedding” part of the day. Rather than pay $56 + tax/tip for charcuterie for 2 at the resort, I brought cheese/meat/veg with me for a fraction of the price. Nervous bride ate nothing, so I’m REALLY glad that I did not pay the catered price.
3. Got “free” coffee at wedding resort, and brought home the coffee that they had provided in the rooms.
4. Eating from the freezer and only purchasing loss leaders and produce from the grocery store.
5. Having dinner at friend’s house this weekend and bringing dessert. I found a recipe that uses the apples that we got for free and we have all of the ingredients needed… (French apple cake by David Lebovitz)
1) I made chili over the weekend and have been eating it every night after work! Frugal and easy when I’m tired.
2) I’m bringing coffee to work more than I used to, which means coffee bought out seems like more of a treat.
3) Using my budget app and really being consistent about entering transactions.
4) Hiking on the weekends, and enjoying our glorious Colorado fall.
5) I am so over COVID. I work in healthcare and it’s annoying af to see people gathering and doing all the stuff, while our hospitals are nearly at capacity.
6) I also did not buy a seat on a rocket to the moon. 🙂
Hi Tonya – what budget app do you use? I really want to be more budget conscious but find myself forgetting all the time to enter spends. Thank you for your commitment to healthcare for others
1. I always thought those pill boxes with the little flip lids for the days of the week were for people who had lots of medications or were likely to get their drugs confused. Finally realized if I would get one, I could set up my (not life-threatening needs) pills for two weeks ahead, instead of having to open three child-proof bottles each morning. Appreciating the convenience and time saved.
2. Leaving for the library as soon as I finish this note. The book I want is available in large print, which I don’t need, yet it still has all the words.
3. Plotting a way to complete final lawn-mowing with the least amount of leaf raking. We let the leaves mulch on the grass when possible, but the neighbor’s sycamore leaves are thick. Our lawn is currently very short, so the leaves can blow back at them.
4. Gave out Halloween pencils I had previously bought on after-holiday clearance, not even sure how many years ago.
5. Pretending I can keep my outdoor potted rosemary plant alive indoors this winter. Hasn’t happened in the past, though I still hope.
Your #1. Good idea even though I don’t need reminders for pills either. I have to take my meds at night and it will be easier when I’m tired just to pop them out and take them. I believe I still have my Mom’s old pill reminder (she was legally blind) to use, too. Thanks.
I use a pill box and I only take one pill per day! I need both the visual reminder and the confirmation that I took it.
I used one of those pill boxes when traveling but then my dog ended up with 2 pills in the morning and 1 at night and the pandemic put the end to my traveling. Now she is the lucky recipient of the box helping me remember to give her all her pills each day. She certainly reminds us about meals but not pills lol.
I use one of those days of the week pillboxes for myself and also for my dogs. Each of the three dogs takes a morning pill rolled in peanut butter, and it was just too hectic unscrewing bottles and scooping out peanut butter with the dogs jumping and whining around my feet in anticipation of their “treat.”
I got nothing, other than to say thank you for posting more often.
1. A few weeks ago, I found a gift card while walking along the highway. Since I often pick up trash while walking (I keep a bag and gloves in my pocket for this purpose) of course I picked this up. As the PIN or code or whatever it is wasn’t scratched off on the back of the card, I realized it hadn’t been used. And since there was no way to find who lost this card, I took it home and checked the balance. $50. The next time we were in a town that had one of those stores, I bought another LED grow light (I grow lettuce and a few other things in the basement in winter), a cover for our central air unit, and a ratchet strap to replace one that got lost last year (probably somewhere along that same highway – I’ve found a lot of things that apparently fell out of boats, cars, trailers, etc. on the side of that road – and yes, lost a thing or two myself). Not the world’s most exciting free purchases, but they were things we needed and/or will save us money.
2. Now that our growing season has ended, we’ve been freezing, preserving and indoor ripening what remained. To say the produce quality in stores up here in winter is lacking would be an understatement. Plus since food prices keep going up, anything we can save for later will help keep the grocery bills low(er) this winter.
3. Cashed in fuel points for 60 cents off per gallon of gasoline.
4. My house is looking like an enchanted forest of up-ended bottles and cut open tubes lately. But just about every pump bottle quits working before it’s fully empty and every tube seems to need a little quality time with a scissors to get all the product out. I have a bunch of little 2 ounce tupperware containers that I store the rescued products in, and every one of those tubes and bottles has given me between one and two additional ounces.
5. I resisted buying a $100 coffee mug I saw advertised that would keep my coffee hot (she says tongue in cheek). My many-years-old travel mug does the same thing for less than 1/10th the price – heck, I think that one was actually a freebie. I don’t know, maybe there’s something magical about that super pricey mug but I’m not going to spend the money to find out.
Great find on your #1! I immediately thought it’s sort of like you were being rewarded for helping to keep our environment clean. Happy for you.
I never thought to reuse plastic like that, I love it!
1. We have hit every deductible/family cap on our insurance this year. So all procedures are $0 out of pocket now and we are definitely taking advantage.
2. Getting my booster shot tomorrow – not getting sick is definitely frugal.
3. I was having trouble with my iphone so we headed to the apple store. It is 3 years old and I had resigned myself to possibly needing a new one. After talking with a rep she helped me rearrange things, add the Cloud for my pictures and freed up a ton of storage. This allowed me to update the IOS and all my apps. For $2.99 a month for the Cloud my phone is working great again.
4. Dh keeps fiddling with my washing machine as it keeps throwing an error message and stopping mid cycle. It’s only 1.5 years old. He is able to get it working again for awhile, so hopefully we can keep it going.
5. The usual packing lunches, washing ziploc bags, at home hair cut for dh, eating all the leftovers, etc.
A few nonsubstantial items for me:
1. I tried holding off turning the heat in the house until we could no longer stand the cold. We made it to 11/2/21 when we got our first snow flurries here for the season.
2. I received a rebate check in the mail from our camp electric carrier. It was the same exact amount to the penny that I spent on dinner out with my niece for her birthday. What a nice surprise! It was like free dinner!
3. We won a gift card at a stag and drag party this summer, but hadn’t seen the hosts until the end of October. We finally remembered to get it. It’s worth $250 for a local meat market. We will stock up our freezers as I’ve been running them low to make room for this prize.
4. Cashed out points from FETCH app and got an e-gift card to gift to daughter for a Christmas gift.
5. My daughter gifted me her Old Navy super cash which i combined with sales and rewards. I got 4 Christmas gifts of clothing for only $6.28 out of pocket!
6. My daughter’s boyfriend’s parents gifted us 3 different cheeses and pepperoni (that they buy off of a friend in large quantities) and also 3 specialty bagels.
1) Heater is on but I’m still able to line dry clothes outside some days. When we get into winter I’ll use the 3 drying racks I place over vents to get the job done.
2) Shopping lost leaders and close out stores to stock up on soup ingredients. I collect veggie scraps to make stock which is portioned and frozen. Pots of soup have always been the cornerstone of my budget.
3) Found a doctor in my neighborhood so I can walk to her office.
4) Met with a new financial advisor after selling our rental house and determined we are doing just fine acting as our own financial advisors. We’ll meet with a new account to help with taxes because we don’t trust ourselves to get that part right.
5) Found some coins in parking lots and walking to work.
Bonus no. 6) My coworkers are saving empty bags from the dry food items for me to take home and reuse as trash bin liners. The espresso bean bags are my favorite because they smell wonderful.
Shona: Within the last couple years, I too have been freezing vegetable scraps to make broth that I then freeze. It’s so easy, nutritious and frugal. Only wish I had started doing it sooner!
* Had MIL over for the week-end. We got a free meal and 4 free French Vanilla Capuccino out of it (and good company!)
* Still using library like a mad-woman! Books for myself and the kids+board games.
* Hosting a board game night this friday, using those games+the ones we already own. Free entertainment
* Getting together with girlfriends for a at-home movie night. Again, free entertainment
* Groceries will be low this month since we are set on using up the food we already have on hands (full pantry and chest freezer+ still lots of veggies from the garden) and supplementing only with dairy, eggs, fresh fruits and veggies. Some creativity needed! Still using price matching and clearance rack when I shop.
Katy,
I’d love to see a post on the highs and lows of selling on ebay. I’m sure you’ve got a good story or two up your sleeve. As a long-time ebay buyer and seller, I’ve got some doozies as well (both good and bad!).
I’m sure your expertise will come in handy to scores of others, including me!
Just a thought. Love your posts; they ofter inspire me to new levels of non-consumerism.
Cheers.