House Keeping

 

My new game plan for daily organizing and house keeping.

These are copies of sheets I found on MONEYSAVINGMOM’s site. I have found them to be VERY thorough.

I thought I would share them with everyone. You don’t need to use the sheets but I do believe they give you a great idea of a place to start changing one’s lifestyle.

If you do list all the time this is a great idea for you!

 

The other half of the page is a weekly to-do list. Now, the lady that made this list keeps it and has at least 2 kids. I found that to be encouraging!

You can print it here: from Money Saving Mom

Saturday super sales!

This was my first pick of the morning!

It is a little metal teacup and saucer, complete with a candle and a doily! I nabbed it for 25 cents and my daughter has yet to put it down…well, she started eating the wax so I had to take it away and now I’m burning the candle so she can have it back. I would love to find a set of these…of course only if they are 25 cents each! Lol!

It is amazing what you find then you broaden your horizons! I just sold a package of the new Financial peace envelops for $4. Now I found these for 50 cents at a garage sell. Yay! It is actually a booklet with the envelopes so it might go for more.

My next great find was only $1! 

With the baby coming my oldest (3 yrs) will be moving to the back seat of the van. Life will just be easier if he could buckle himself in and out. So I’ve been looking for a cheap car seat. I was thinking about $10 would be good for a nice one that was used. I set my sights too high! I found this for $1. Yep, I didn’t leave that 0 off. It was $1 at a church garage sell! Not sure whoever donated would have let it go for $1! It is Cosco brand, and has a stain but I’m hoping it will wash out. Other than the stain it seams rather clean compared to some I’ve looked at! I might put my daughter in this on and my son in hers…we will see. I have yet to find out if he can buckle himself in this. But he can’t in his booster for sure.

A few months ago I got a crock container for my bacon etc grease. It is cute and good size but when I saw this for 25 cents I knew the other would have to be replaced. This smaller one will fit in my kitchen much better!

I banked at that church garage sale. All purses, bags, and pairs of shoes were 25 cents. Yes. 25 cents. This is something I only hear about in blog land! I finally got to experience it!

Got a baby bag for the the baby, or to give away at a baby shower. I didn’t think it would sell, never heard of baby sac, but just found the only bag of this brand on eBay sold for about $17, but was much nicer than this one. I think I’ll keep it till I have my baby and see what type of bag I will use for him. The bottle came with it and is brand new!

Oh but there is more!

I found the ultimate diaper bag for 25 cents.  I mean check this baby out!

It is big, about the size of a backpack! It has pockets upon pockets and snaps, zippers, and buckles! This might be my diaper bag during the first few months when I’m figuring out what I need to take for 3 kids.

I love the rustic look!

And then there is this. The outside is a soft, albeit orange leather. I could just sit and rub this. Ok, here is the catch. I have never been a ‘purse’ girl. Maybe a bag gal, but for 25 cents a bag. I just might start.

 

Got some levi’s for my son for 50 cents. (I know, their pricing didn’t make much sense..er cents!

Did I mention the shoes.

These were in box, used for 25 cents. I put them on Ebay and they sold for $10.25 within the first few hours (buy it now). Wow! I only made about $6 on them after fees (boo) but I was excited about the quick sell!

These are used but good condition, we will see what they sell for…

These are for my little girl. They are probably more like a 6 1/2. They are soft leather which is nice for her pudgy feet! LOL!

I know these look worn but they are Ariat brand. Isn’t that like Justin boots competitor. Anyway, for 25 cents I nabbed them. Leather alone they were worth that!

These dresses aren’t sold much on eBay that I could find, but it looks like the ones that are sold go for from $12-15. I think I’m going to sell them separately instead of together like I thought. For one they are the same size but different lengths, as you can see! And I think I can make a good bit more off them if I separate them.

I found this dress for $1. It is a maternity dress. No idea how well it sells, we will see!

 

American Eagle skirt for $1, should do well this summer.

American Eagle pants size 10. They are very nice, if they don’t sell now I will hold them until the fall. They were $1.

And a bunch of shorts for my son/to sell. They all fit him now but the red are Oshkosh, which I believe sell well, the patchworks always do well and are Gap and the browns are Wal-Mart brand but fit my boy great. The name brands were $1 each and the Wal-Mart's were 75 cents.

Yay! Now time to do some posting!

Linking to:

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

Flea Market Finds 

Magpie Monday

My secret to clean windows!

 

Alcohol.

Yep! Rubbing Alcohol, 70% seems to work the best. I just screwed a spray bottle lid on it, and spray it on the windows. It works great and is very streak proof!

Just thought I would share my two bits!

 

Round up! It’s been a long time!

It has been too long since I last did a round up!

 

I was reminded that you can sell anything when I saw on another blog selling Dave Ramsey Financial peace pieces. I’ve had this around for ages. I didn’t ever used the envelops from Dave Ramsey because I always made my own. I have been holding these for ages. Now I just made a couple of bucks on them AND I don’t have them sitting around my house! Score! And someone else got a GREAT deal on these. I think they sell for $15.

Financial Peace Univ. Envelope system/ Dave Ramsey $4.00

 

These leather pants were interesting. I had someone ask if they would work for a guy. I said I didn’t know but all the measurments where there. He said he wanted them but I would need to repost them since they had expired by then. So put them up again with a low Buy it Now price of $6.50. I rarely go this low on BIN but I figured they would sell to the person who asked those questions and with a low BIN I would get a few more bucks out of them. I was right! He bought them and to my surprise he lives in Australia. That is a long way to ship leather pants!

Leather pants.Maxima Wilsons size 10 Fully lined. $6.50

 

I got really excited when I realized these Liz Lange Shorts have gone for around $12 on Ebay. I wasn’t so lucky, but I still made money and that is ALWAYS  the goal right?

LIZ LANGE MATERNITY No Panel Shorts Grey Linen L $6.00

 

These Tennis skirts from Addidas or Nike always go fabulously. Even with a terrible picture. I posted these and by the next day they were sold for the BIN price of $14.50. I then did some research and found they can go for $30 if they are new on Ebay. Definitely keeping my eyes open for name brand tennis skirts!

Nike Tennis Skirt Size 4-6 black fit-dry $14.50

 

Maternity clothing is a win/miss. You never know if they will sell or not.  These did just fine and are very comfy, (yes, I’m regretting selling them. I should have waited 2 more months until I have this baby!)

Motherhood maternity size Small capri $5.99

 

This skirt went crazy! I would guess name brand makes a large difference with leather. Used to be it didn’t matter on Ebay. Leather always sells, but not always this well. I just got a ton of bids.

Croft and Barrow Lambskin Black Leather skirt size 10 $10.59

 

On this Chico’s skirt this lady sent me a note after buying saying that she was so excited about this skirt & to let her know when they shipped. Well, I was going to ship them as I left town but I couldn’t get to the PO so I emailed her and told her I would try to ship them while on my trip. She was very nice but when I emailed her back saying I had found a place and that I had shipped them she actually seemed offended that I had tried so hard. Guess you can’t please them all! (the po was .4 miles from my hotel!-I didn’t try that hard!)

Women's Black skirt Chico's design size 2 (Med 12-14) $7.00

 

Land’s End swim clothes seem to do better then their other clothing items.

Lands End size 15 Swim skirt Pink with design $8.00

 

Once again I realize that Ebay doesn’t need a great picture to sell items! People know what they want and they go to Ebay to get them! Love that, specially when I realize how bad some of these photos are! Sometimes it just isn’t worth the time to retake the pictures when they sell well anyway.

Women's Gap khaki slacks Size 14 ANK $6.00

 

Name brand athletic wear. Once again, always does well!

Women's black Adidas shorts M $5.00

It was a crazy week so I don’t have totals but thought everyone would be encouraged by knowing what sold for me!

Making my own Chocolate Syrup

One thing I love about blogs is you can let someone else do the legwork for you!

I ran across a blog by Rachel Meeks. I actually found it because she writes a book about blogging with a busy life. Haven’t read the book but started reading her blog! It seems very down to earth. For instance she took a bunch of coco recipes and found which one was the best. Thank you for saving me that step Rachel!

Here is what she said was the best:

½ cup cocoa powder
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
⅛ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon vanilla

Mix the cocoa powder and the water in a saucepan. Heat and stir to dissolve the cocoa.

Add the sugar, and stir to dissolve. Boil for 3 minutes over medium heat. Be careful not to let it get too hot and boil over! Add the salt and the vanilla.

Let cool. Pour into a clean glass jar, and store in the refrigerator. Keeps for several months, but trust me it will be gone before then. Yields two cups.

It only takes about a teaspoon per glass of milk!

I only made a half batch to test it out first!

Buy it now listing tips

When eBay offers free buy it now I try to always use it. Why? Let me show you.

I recently purchased this Nike tennis skirt.

Nike Tennis Skirt Size 4-6 black fit-dry

They usually do pretty well so I listed it for $7.99 with $3.50 shipping and a buy it now price of $14.50.

That is a higher BIN price than usual but I thought that people might bid it up so I wanted it to be out of bidding range.

It sold with in hours for the $14.50! Sweet! I’m pretty excited about this and now wish I would have bought the glass dishes I saw at the same garage sale since this would have paid for that splurge! Oh well, ya never know!

PS: This also shows you don’t always need a great picture of your item.

My tips for Buy it now pricing:

• List it only for what you will be thrilled with if it sells.
• If you don’t know its top dollar worth (used) then don’t use the BIN. You might cap off something that could go higher.
• If you start something at .99 cents I would say don’t do a buy it now price. It can turn people off when you have something for that little and you have BIN for $40 or something. Makes you look vain and greedy.
• Buy it now is great for large electronics. Like laptops and even cell phones. People looking for these usually don’t want to sit around in a bidding war. I list these with BIN even if eBay isn’t running a special. They always do very well and usually are bought using BIN.

Thrifty reuse

I very well may be the only person that goes to a city wide garage sale and gets excited about a pill organizer:

Only 10 cents! What a steal!

I got the idea for it’s use from my mom, who gets all the credit.

Color and size organized hair ties! I love it!