Well, hello there!

It's been awhile since I've written. All is well in Thrifty Teacher land. I have been focusing my energies on work as well as my Master's Classes. I am learning so much and am loving my job. I've also been picking up a few extra hours a week doing aftercare duties (daycare so-to-speak; the cherubs work on homework, get a snack, we take them outside.... easiest money I've ever made!) which will hopefully help for Christmas presents as well as the never ending debts. I have no clue how I'm paying for college next semester. I'm just hoping the funds will miraculously fall from the sky I guess. But my plights are no different from the average middle class 20-something!

My love celebrated his 28th birthday about a week and a half ago. I tried my hand at making him an X-Box cake. I think it turned out decently. It would have been better if I had been patient enough to wait for the cake to cool, but alas. It was delicious nonetheless.

I have been mostly absent from eBay these past few months. I have plans to be in full swing for Christmas. We'll see how that goes. Here's my most recent sales:

SANDRA BOYNTON COFFEE MUG IT'S JUST ONE DAM PROJECT AFTER ANOTHER BEAVER TEA CUP

Sold for $12.00 + $7.00 shipping; paid probably 59 cents. I'd been looking for Boynton mugs for over a year and what are the odds that I found two at different stores in about a week's timeframe.

VINTAGE GREEN GUCCI SNAKESKIN BRACELET BANGLE 24KT GOLD PLATED FIRENZE ITALY

Sold for $49.99 + $3.00 shipping; this one was so close to having a $1.00 price tag slapped on it and being sold at my garage sale! Fortunately my intuition told me to check "Firenze Italy bracelet". Ends up this is a Gucci. Then I remembered my mom telling me my grandmother had brought it back from her trip to visit the Pope in Rome some 20+ years ago. IDK how much it originally cost, but it's all profit for me.

Wilton Ballet Slippers Ballerina Recital Dance Shoes 2105-2065 Cake Pan Mold

Sold for $15.99 + $7.30 shipping; picked up with a bunch of other items for probably $10 total at a donation church sale. 

3 Disney Higglytown Heroes Plush Dolls Bean Bags Squirrel Eubie Wayne Fran Kip

Sold for $10.00 (Best Offer) + $3.00 shipping; paid 90 cents for all at VOA. Originally snagged them thinking they were Little Einsteins.

NEW NIB CENTENNIAL OLYMPICS MONOPOLY BOARD GAME 1996 ATLANTA GA GEORGIA USA

Sold for $12.99 plus $8.00 shipping; paid $3.00 at GW. Originally sold to an annoying guy who left me negative feedback for trying to cancel his transaction without refunding him first. UM. Cancelling the transaction automatically refunds the money. He denied my cancellation request then emailed eBay saying I must be upset that I sold this game for less than it's worth. Yeah, cuz I spent so much on it. *eyeroll* Anyway it sold problem-free to another buyer.

LOT OF 5 SHEETS VINTAGE SCRATCH N SNIFF INNOCENT MOODIE STICKERS BABY POWDER

Sold for $3.99 + $3.00 shipping; picked up a bag of 75 sheets of these stickers at a consignment store for $9.99. Still have 70 sheets left!

And finally... add this one to your BOLO list!

NEW WITH TAG 2001 RED JELLO JELL-O JELLY BEANS SHOTS JIGGLERS CANDY MOLD

Sold for $9.99 + $3.00 shipping; paid $1.99 at Ohio Thrift. 

It was the 2nd time I'd sold one of these. The most exciting part is it sold within hours of being listed. I literally listed it, took a nap, and woke up to the sale!

Happy Thrifting to you, till we meet again.

Slammed

Ugh. eBay and I are not friends right now. In this past month I've had to open 3 unpaid items cases. Two closed without any communication from the buyers, and one was like "oops so sorry". How do you order something by accident? Then I had a lady's "son" order without permission and she's asked me to cancel the transaction. Riiight. To top it all off, I got a neutral feedback from someone who said my communication could have been quicker, even though I apologized and tried to explain to her that it was the first week of school when she ordered and I have a life job. Now I just got hit with a negative from a super annoying guy who kept emailing me over Labor Day weekend. Yes, I admit, I was bad with communication, but, hello, banks can close on Labor Day so I can too.

This better not get me in trouble with the eBay powers that be!

Today I dropped my goodies off at consignment sale #2. I have good feelings about this! Shooting for at least $200.

Consignment Sales

Got my check for the Polka Dot Tots sale: $95.71. Not a bad start! Second sale is this weekend, so I'll be dropping my items off on Tuesday. I have $1017 worth listed in the database. We'll see how much I get tagged in time!

Back burner...

Well my eBay adventures have been put on the back burner as school and college take precedence. This fall I'll focus on doing consignment sales; in fact I did one this weekend. It was a new-to-me sale. What I liked about it:

• They mailed you the bar codes & tags so I didn't have to print anything
• They sorted all the clothing for me at drop off so I didn't have to 
• They gathered all my unsold items together for me so they were in one location when I went to pick them up.

What I didn't like:

• No online database to see what sold
• The sale is under new management so they're still working out the kinks, and I don't think they had as much business as the other sale I do.

Nevertheless, I was able to make a wee bit of money (I'll let you know how much when they update the totals) and I still have loads more to sell for the other sales. My goal for fall consignment season is to make at least $1000. We'll see!

Paying off the Mattress: Week 4

Here's what sold last week...

LOT OF NEW NIP 8 MAXELL UR 90 60 BLANK AUDIO CASSETTE TAPES NORMAL BIAS RECORD

Sold for: $12.99

Paid: no more than $2 (probably VOA)

LOT OF NEW NIP 4 SONY CD IT 90 MIN BLANK AUDIO CASSETTE TAPES HIGH BIAS TYPE II

Sold for $12.99

Paid: probably .90 (probably VOA)

NEW NIP RARE BLUES BLUE'S CLUES BIRTHDAY PARTY ACTIVITY MAT PRESCHOOL NICK JR

Sold, again, and this time the buyer paid! $22.99

Paid: $2.92 (VOA)

NEW NIP X FILES XFILES CCG COLLECTIBLE CARD GAME BOOSTER BOX 12 DECKS 1996 RARE

Sold: $30.00

Cost: FREE (Dad)

I also have two items which sold but have not been paid for, and I'm doubtful they will be paid for as one buyer has 1 fb and the other has 0. Both are from foreign countries too... Interesting...

Total this week: $78.97

Grand total: $1191.98

Left: $161.32

I'm back...

from our short little vacation.

We did some hiking...

and here is my friend, the baby goat...

Paying off the Mattress: Week 3

Here's what sold this past week:

eBay

NEW NIP 3 MAXELL XLII 100 MIN BLANK AUDIO CASSETTE TAPES HIGH BIAS BLACK

Sold for: $12.99

Cost: Probably around .90 (VOA)

NWT NEW LANE BRYANT FLARE BLUE JEANS TROUSER SIZE 22 TIGHTER TUMMY TECHNOLOGY T3

Sold for: $31.94

Cost: $5.00 (Goodwill)

Blue's Clues play mat lady never paid. Argh. Unpaid Item case has closed. Need to subtract $22.99 from my totals.

Half.com

Battlefield 3 (Limited Edition) (Sony Playstation 3, 2011) (2011)

Sold for: $25.83

Cost: ?? (one of the games DH got when he bought a PS3 on Craigslist)

One Tree Hill - The Complete Sixth Season (DVD, 2009, 7-Disc Set, Canadian) (DVD, 2009)

Sold for: $16.74

Cost: $10.00 (Black Friday sale)

Craigslist

As previously mentioned, DH's iMac sold for $700. Most of the money will go to buying a new laptop, but I'm still including it in this list :)

Also sold an entertainment center we picked up near the construction dumpster at the end of our street.

Sold: $30

Cost: FREE

And I must throw out there, that despite my previous ranting post, I do love my husband dearly, and am appreciative of him because he is the one in charge of the Craigslist deals. He lifts all the heavy items and all that jazz. :)

Total- Week 3: $794.51

Grand total: $1113.01

$240.29 left

I am very close to my goal! However, priorities have changed a bit with where the money will be going. Instead of paying off the mattress, most of it is going to go to paying for my tuition as I was accepted into grad school and will be starting classes in two weeks! But money is money and it's nice to see my progress.

eBay has taken a back burner as I've been working on "school stuff". I start back the 13th. I'll be posting some pics of my classroom, as well as telling you about the sweet deals I got garage saling on Saturday. But first, I will be departing on a short trip for our anniversary!