Ketchup

I know, I know. I've gone from faithful daily blogger to ... this patheticness. I've been spending most of my evenings listing, listing, listing. And the evenings that I'm not listing, it's usually because I'm doing something else. So either way - no time to blog.

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I dropped off all my stuff at the kids' consignment sale this morning. I had originally signed up for a 3-hour volunteer shift, but then she dangled the "70% of your sales" carrot in front of my nose and I bit. I left there having signed up for a 9-hour shift on Sunday. Eek.

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I just finished filing our taxes. Phew. I don't know why I put it off as long as I did. I was expecting to really owe a lot of money, but we actually ended up getting a pretty decent refund. SUCH a load off my shoulders to have that done.

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I've set an official financial goal for myself, in order to have my storage shed by the end of the summer. I'll need to transfer an average of $500 per week out of my Paypal account into my checking account, while leaving as much in my checking account as possible in the meantime - which is always hard with the kids' extra-curricular activites, etc, but I'll do my best. I will try harder to curb the spending that I CAN control: restaurants, shopping, etc... I seriously need to get my thrift shopping under control. I have enough inventory here to last me a couple more weeks, a month or so if I dig hard enough.

Hopefully, by having a firm weekly goal, I will be better able to keep focused on cutting my spending. It's pretty sickening to look at my sales and see how much I've made, and then look at my scrawny little checkbook balance and realize that it all went to pizza and inconsequential nothings...

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Just a quick sales highlight from the last couple days, because I need to hit the hay:

As usual, I've been selling a lot of homeschool books and denim skirts. I sold 2 denim skirts just yesterday, in fact. I have discovered that my Goodwill seems to accidentally hang their denim skirts in with the jeans. (But that's my secret... don't tell anyone!)  Yesterday, I found the exact same skirt that I was wearing. That was kind of cool. I bought it, because mine has a hole in it and the new one didn't. :-P

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Don't be afraid to list Christmas items year-round. I sold this set to an Australian buyer this evening:

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I bought this vintage Sears buttonholer at Goodwill one day without being able to look it up on my phone. It sold for my full asking price. I seem to be getting a little better at following my instinct when I can't research (well, except that Kodak instant camera I bought yesterday, but we're not going to talk about that...)

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These both sold to the same buyer the other day. That was pretty cool. I never get repeat buyers except for shoe cream. They're both headed to Canada, and for nice prices too! The buyer did kind of push her luck on a third item, offering me $5.99 for something I have listed for $23.99. I was perfectly willing to give her a decent deal, since she was buying multiple items, but that was a little much...

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I also sold another set of books super-fast, which tells me I again underpriced them. I've not got the hang of pricing books yet. This particular set hadn't sold for over $14 recently, so I priced mine at $16.99 and they sold the next morning. That tells me I could have sold them for more, so I'll definitely pick them up when I find them for a quarter or so. Goodness knows they're easy enough to find - I see them everywhere!

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I haven't forgotten about the blog topics that I promised last week. I just haven't had a minute to write them yet. But I will - I promise!