Tips and Tricks on Saving Money – Heather’s Personal Saving Story {And How She Makes Money on eBay!}

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in their Personal Savings Stories and photographs.  I hope by sharing other people’s money savings tips here on One Hundred Dollars a Month we can all find new ways to save rock our budgets this year.

~Mavis

This week we are featuring Heather from Texas.Hi Mavis! Last year I showed off our pantry – the “College Dorm Indian Pantry” story. We changed jobs and moved over the summer so I thought I’d update you and also chime in on your Personal Savings Stories Series…

So we ditched the “dorm” and moved into a much larger house, my husband changed jobs and is working long hours these days – the raise in salary has been one way we’ve been saving money. But I actually wanted to tell you about my hobby-turned-business, which allows me to stay home with our kids and still put extra money into savings each month. My “real” job is a freelance graphic designer. It is great because I have flexible hours and can work from home, but I wanted a way to earn extra cash to supplement my freelance business.

Like you, I have an eBay store, but instead of selling handmade items, I sell thrift store/garage sale items. The name of the game is buy low and sell high. Though I had sold random things on eBay (mostly from around our house) for several years off and on, I got serious about a year-and-a-half ago, after reading an ebook, Amazon Mom. I also joined some eBay seller’s Facebook groups, which were a tremendous help knowing what kinds of things SELL on eBay (the group calls them BOLOS, “Be On the Look Out”). I bought this “shootsac” lens bag at a thrift store for less than five dollars – I found it among the purses and you can see, the bidding ended at $132.50!

The first time I went “thrifting” to look for items to sell, I was totally overwhelmed! I soon learned how to use my smartphone to look up items on eBay while I was in the store and check the “sold” listings to get an idea what it will sell for. I also learned that pricing your item much lower than the others listed doesn’t really help you (or the other sellers much!) I also learned “best practices” for ordering supplies, organizing my inventory, handling returns, customer inquiries, etc. I would say the first year was definitely the learning curve, and I am still building my store to where I want it to be… but I have had some great success so far.

In fact, I had one JACKPOT sale, that was totally unexpected, I sold a discontinued cross stitch kit for over $4,000! Two buyers got in a bidding war and drove the price up from around $80 within the last 2 hours of the auction. I will have to say, that was probably a ONCE in a LIFETIME event, and I would never expect that kind of return again (even if I found the exact same item). It was really just two people who had the money and had to have it and it was the only one listed at the time. However, it taught me to be more selective about what I buy.

As I buy things now, I try to find items that will earn me at least $20-$30 profit each but occasionally I’ll sell something that is highly desirable and get $100 or more in profit. And you do sometimes get a “bidding war” going which is a blast to watch! I still have some lower priced items for sale, sometimes those items are things I found around the house to sell, but I try to be careful to factor in costs, including paypal and eBay fees, so I find that generally things under $15 aren’t as profitable to list, because you still do the same amount of “leg work” per item…photographing, listing, packing, shipping.

The other advantage to hitting the thrift stores every week is that I find things which our family can use as well, and I never have to pay retail price. You’d be surprised how many “new” things you can find in these stores, for example, I needed a humidifier for our daughter’s room this winter, and I found a crane frog new-in-the-box for $5 (right now, listed for $37 on amazon!). One of my favorite thrift stores is the Goodwill Outlet, where things are dumped in bins (see photos above) and you pay by the pound. My husband jokes that it is one step above dumpster diving – but I have found some great things here!

In other thrift stores (which are a bit more organized), I also find great deals on clothes for our kids – I always check the clothing section in their sizes since I’m there anyway, and I often find name brand clothing (sometimes with the tags) for $1-$5 to supplement their wardrobes. And once they outgrow the clothes, assuming they are still in good shape, I can sell them as a “lot” on eBay and get some or all of my initial investment back. Its basically like clothing the kids for “free” or “nearly free!”

My husband and I decided a few weeks ago to save my eBay profits up for a new mattress, ours is totally shot and we don’t like to go into debt for those kinds of purchases, so it has been fun to watch the balance go up after each sale – we are almost to our goal! We also plan to use eBay profits for our kid’s college fund and for family vacations. We go to India to visit family every 2-3 years so we add to that fund continuously, and in the “off” years, use a small amount for a less extravagant trip, last spring break we drove to Reynosa, Mexico. We love giving our kids “experiences,” Our daughter just turned 6, and in a recent kindergarten project, we shared about all of her “travels.” She’s been from coast to coast in the USA, including Yosemite National Park, Niagara Falls, Vancouver Canada, Hawaii, Mexico, all over India, France, Belgium, Holland, England, etc. Traveling with kids is not only doable, but also extremely rewarding!

If any of your readers have questions about eBay or how to get started, I’m happy to answer questions! It’s not a “get rich quick” scheme, and it does take work, but I’m able to spend time with our kids and take them along on thrifting trips with me, and I am able to photograph and list items during naps/or after their bedtime, and they love to “help” me packing and shipping items. I have the postman pick up the packages, so I rarely have to make a trip to the post office. And it gives me something to do in-between graphic design jobs.

I really love that I can be “off duty” from eBay, doing something all together separate and my phone will “cha-ching” with a sale at any time of the day or night. I was painting some thrift store furniture the other day for our room and our daughter’s room – SAVING money by buying inexpensive thrift store furniture and giving the pieces a “makeover” – and EARNING $100 in profit with 3 sales while I was painting. I call that win-win multitasking! All in all it has been a great way for our family to earn and save money.

– Heather from Texas

If you would like to have your Personal Savings Story featured on One Hundred Dollars a Month, I would love to feature it on the blog. Just answer 5-7 {or all if you really want to} of the questions listed in the original Personal Savings Story post and submit 3-5 QUALITY photos to go along with them.

Send submissions via email to onehundreddollarsamonth @ gmail.com {remove the spaces} and be sure and put Personal Saving Stories in the subject line.

If I feature your pictures and the stories behind them on One Hundred Dollars a Month, I will send you a $20.00 gift card to the greatest store in the world: Amazon.com. It’s that easy.