Sold! Getting rid of stuff to make way for more stuff

My house is lik a giant ball of clutter. You can barely walk anywhere without running into or tripping over something. So in an effort to do good to the house and to get back some money to buy clothes (and other needed items) for the family I am trying to sell some of our old stuff. I started with baby stuff since I don't expect to have anymore. We have lot of old baby clothes and some other things. First thing I listed for sale was on my local Yahoo sales group and also on my local Craigslist. I uploaded my pictures on Share a Pic which pays $.22 per 1000 views (remember, I do almost nothing for free! Though I won't lie, the site is almost more trouble than it is worth). I posted a doorway infant jumper for $5. Sold in a day. Almost made enough to pay for the pink sparkly ballet shoes and pair of jeans that I picked up from someone else on Craigslist. Those together cost $7. So now I am behind $2.

I also have some stuff on consignment in one store. Most of my funds there I have already spent on some new pants for my daughter since she is growing out of all of her 3t clothing and we have almost nothing that is 4t (anyone have anything to donate?) But when I go pick up the leftovers in the beginning of December I might have some more money there. I will most likely just use store credit and get new clothes for everyone- we all need them. I wish that was just me being a clothing whore but unfortunately it isn't. I have 8 or 9 pairs of pants but only 2 or 3 pairs actually fit me. I have NO long sleeved shirts that fit and WINTER is coming fast in PA. My oldest son has plently of pants but he is growing out of all of his shirts. My daughter, as I mentioned before has almost nothing in 4s but that is what she needs. My baby boy needs everything. We don't do shoes so I won't even bother looking for those and I just bought him some socks. But he has so few clothes that I am doing laundry 3 times a week just for him.
And did I mention that our DRYER broke, we have VERY LIMITED space to line and hang dry...AND it's cold out a lot now. But line drying has advantages like stiff jeans that make us itchy. Oh yeah, it also saves us some money!

Anyhow, I also listed some baby boy 0-3 month clothing. All of it is in pretty good condition- it was brought to my attention that there are a few stains on some of the stuff but I had trouble seeing them and there is some wear on a few things but no holes or rips- if it were me buying and I checked it all out I would totally buy it, especially at less than $1 per item! I have 19 things- all winter stuff like pants and long-sleeves and a jacket. I have that listed for $15. Is that too much? Because I have no buyers.

That is all I have so far. I have gotten together approximately 50 items to bring to the consignment shop though I don't like making the 25 minute trip so I try to find other reasons I could go out there. It is close to the only local Home Depot and I have a $25 gift card to use there courtesy of Gather. I could buy a new door handle for our backdoor since we don't currently have one. They only take 50 items per visit. I was thinking of trying some other consignment shops too. Most of them have terms I do not like. One place makes you pull your own items at the end of the consignment period. Ha! Like I could do that with 2-3 kids in tow. So that one is totally out. Some want everything on hangars and some require that anything unsold goes straight to charity. Sorry, but I am practically a charity case myself. But I need to start calling other places to see where I can take my stuff. That will get rid of it much faster. Some of them might even take household items, which I have too much of. People give me stuff assuming I want it and I DON'T...but I don't have the heart to reject things.

I think I will stick to baby items, clothing and household goods that are just sitting out. Then I will move on to more. Start small...start small. I have to keep repeating this!


Sell anything online for FREE

Unemployment- at least we have something, but I want more

Jason lost his job on October 13, 2008. Forget plans to have a vasectomy- that costs about as much money as we will be making a month or maybe more. Shoot, we might as well forget Christmas. Anyway, he got approved for unemployment so while he is off and looking for non-existant jobs he is also SUPPOSED to be going back to school. I already got all excited over that but I forgot who I was focusing on and realized this weekend that I should NEVER EVER look forward to something when it comes to him. He does what he wants, when he wants and it doesn't matter that he has 3 kids and a girlfriend that have to work around HIS schedule. I'm starting to think that Everquest will forever be more important than anything else and that he will not be going back to school (more about that Everquest crap later).

Before he lost his job we had about $3,000 in the bank from tax returns. Now that we will be getting way less than $400 (closer to $300) a week, we are quickly losing that saved money and we will start having serious money troubles soon. We just got a van back in June which costs $400 a month. Our mortgage is around $600 a month. That plus insurance is what we will be making a month with his new paycheck.
So the same day he got fired I took on a job babysitting full time. But I only getting $50 a week from that. But $200 extra a month is something. That will pay the electric bill and the house phone.
Preschool I paid in full at the beginning of the year so that is something I won't have to worry about anymore.

I do some things online to make money but none of them make me enough. I am not one of those people that rocks at getting referrals and it seems with so many places that if you want to make money you need other people helping out. I have a lot of referrals on one of my sites and there I earn about $5 a month doing nothing. Though it would be pretty awesome if every site I was a member of was earning me $5 a month. I might be making a good bit of money then! I suck at writing, otherwise I would go for places like Associated Content to make a few bucks a week.

Find thousands of freelance writing and editing jobs...fresh jobs daily. Kickstart your writing career for just $7.00. Click here

Trying to "go green" but it's more like going broke

For quite some time I have been interested in the green movement. Everytime I learn about something new I try to do some research, mainly looking at cost. I get to a site and the first thing I note is their mention of how "it will save you in the long run". As I read that statement my hope abandons me. That says to me: "it's gonna cost you a fortune!" And of course I am always right. I know how they can justify it- you are doing so much for the future and the earth. But how am I supposed to pull hundreds or thousands of dollars out of an empty bank account? Especially when I need to feed my family NOW- not in five years.
But I do do what I can. I buy those cool light bulbs. They don't last as long as they promise but they do last much longer. Savings on my electric bill? No clue. A plus: you don't need to constantly change your light bulbs! Good for us since our "ladder" is usually a wobbly chair. Who needs a stinkin' ladder?
I turn off lights when I am not using a room. Unfortunately everyone else in the house compensates for my savings by making sure you can see our house from space no matter what time it is.

Green gifts: