eBay Sales: August $2601.00 & Driving Without AC

$ Monthly Progress September 23, 2017 1 Comment

Last month I sold $2601.00. Which isn’t bad at all. I’m really happy. Selling on eBay isn’t all fun. It may seem like it is but I do have days where I just want to give up. I have days where I  doubt myself. That also includes asshole customers that return things item not as described when they clearly wore the item. I also have customers who don’t pay, and customers who want a partial discount claiming a minor flaw… blah blah blah blah. Still I’m able to do this on my own time. Please don’t use my experience/example if you should do it by yourself. I have to also point out my husband works too and we do have health insurance through him.

I also have been driving my car without the AC on. Living in the desert requires…REQUIRES AC in your car. Unfortunately we already have been spending on my car,on other things, and other household expenses have priority. It’s not too bad. I’m just lucky we live close to almost everything and the weather has become considerably better ( mostly 80s this week).

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Mommy Thoughts

Life September 13, 2017 Leave a comment

As my son lives the carefree life of a toddler, I’m always wondering if what I’m doing will help him become a good person. I’m also wondering how can I protect him? Then I remind myself I can’t. I can always hole him up at home and give him things he wants but I know that isn’t right.

I want to protect him from his first heartbreak. My heart rate always raises a little when he falls and gets a boo boo. I also try to expose him to things hes not normally around (like outside, it’s friggin hot right now). I also try to limit him to shows he won’t pick up bad words from. Yet in reality I do have to say no, and let him fall, and let him get dirty.

I mentioned back something awful happened to my side of my family which is currently under investigation. While I’m not under investigation, close direct family members are and it’s already tearing my family apart. It involves one of my nephew and niece and this really is proof we can’t protect our children. I wish I can blog about it more but it would just make me cry.

 

We Are Emotional Beings

Life September 3, 2017 Leave a comment

Quick blog today. I just wanted to blog about something my husband’s therapist said that really resonated with me. “We are emotional beings trying to be rational, which doesn’t always make sense to do.” That’s the gist of it. There was definitely more to that saying but hearing it really made me think. This struggle to be “Happy” probably is really everyone trying to be rational, and maybe trying to be seen as normal.

There is always this need for everybody from all walks of life just trying to make it day by day. Even people like me who is seemingly happy does need therapy to truly understand what I need and want. I’m not the one seeing a therapist but there are times I wish I could speak to one to truly understand why I behave the way I do and how to effectively live my life. Then again I am an emotional being trying to be rational. No one always lives their life effectively as possible.

As for my husband, yes its sessions for a while. I’m glad his therapist suggested he sees him one on one. My husband really wanted me to be there but it didn’t felt right to me.I know we generally don’t keep secrets from each other but I shouldn’t be the only outlet for him to deal with what’s going on with him. If you just happened to click by, my husband has been having anxiety and depressive episodes. Which may or may not have any relations to his childhood ADD. His therapist seems to think so though.

Student Loans $14,870

Thoughts on $ August 20, 2017 Leave a comment

I don’t update my side bar enough. It’s because I’m ashamed to admit that I haven’t been paying down my student loan debt as fast. So I updated it today and there is $14,870 left.

I feel like I have to look at our finances again. You know, combing through every credit card statements, loan statements, bills etc. Even though we generally have an idea how much we are saving and spending, every now and then it’s good to do this. Especially since we have a new monthly bill for our used car now. We are not spend thrifts by any means but doing this keeps us in track. Perhaps I’ll put up our numbers come September.

eBay Sales, New Car, Random Updates

Life August 8, 2017 Leave a comment

Just a note: I’m actually more active on my instagram page maithriftsthings. Click there to see my latest post.

My latest post on Instagram was me posting my numbers on eBay & Poshmark. My numbers were great in my opinion. Most of those items sold were stuff I’ve been trying to get rid of so I sold them at cost plus fees. Aside from my reseller life, we bought a new (used) car, and finally had our first meeting for a therapist.

On eBay my total sales (does not minus fees, shipping, taxes, etc) was $2470.00 I’m REALLY happy with that number because that means my profit after said fees, shipping, and taxes) is usually 50% or 60% of whatever I sell. So let’s just say I profitted $1,250.00 Much needed profit for the new used car we bought (eBay also pays my side of bills such as insurances, and etc).

Yup… we bought a car for my husband. Actually we bought a minivan. My husband car was a 2001 Honda Civic and it was just getting costly to fix. Plus with our growing family, we wanted something bigger. Could we afford it? Well to be honest no. I still had my student loans to pay off. The car payment is roughly $300.00 a month…except it’s for 72 months. It’s not super expensive but why would we get a loan for 72 months? Couldn’t we just get a car that’s $200 a month? Sure but to be honest we have been talking about getting a minivan for a while now. Plus I have been putting $500-$700 in the savings account based on the profits of reselling. The 72 months gave us the better rate of 2.5 percent . I’m hoping we can pay this off earlier though. We are talking about paying $350 instead of $300 a month to speed off paying it off.

Another thing I want to mention was that we finally saw the consultant at the Mental Health place for my husband. It went well and she referred us to a licensed therapist who has dealt with people who are suffering the same depressive episodes. She doesn’t think my husband needs medication right now but it’s for the other therapist to really do a better diagnosis. She is a licensed therapist too but she feels the other one would be a better fit. It’s a therapy sessions for us for the next couple of months and I am happy. My husband is happy too and feels he should have done this sooner.

 

eBay Percentages Returns & Cancellations

Running A Business July 27, 2017 Leave a comment

Ugh… today just sucks. I have 3…THREE open returns on eBay. One of them I have to pay return shipping back because the buyer didn’t like the color. While that is a poor reason to return it wasn’t worth my time to call eBay. From other re-sellers perspective, calling on eBay from improper returns like that, they tend to side with the buyer in the end. The other two the customers doesn’t like the item and they will pay return shipping. I also had 1 return earlier this month so 4 returns this July. That is normally high for me but can’t do anything about it. That’s just business. This just got me curious though. What are some of my number on eBay in terms of returns?

Return Rate: 1.53%  11/719 Transactions

Return Rate Based On Condition: New 0%, Used 1.53%, New Other 10%

Return Rate Based On Price: Less Than $40 1.16% (8/689 Transactions), $40-$100 11.11% (3/27 Transactions)

Defect Rating: 0.14% 1/720 Transactions…this I received for item being out of stock.

I don’t think my return rate is that bad considering I sell clothing. Condition wise I sell mostly used so having that there isn’t a big deal. Though New other…I’m not sure what that exactly means but that’s probably my products that are considered new with defects. Now my defects isn’t on any on the condition. It’s actually me cancelling an item for being out of stock.

On my return base on price I’m actually not surprise about this. Basically my numbers mean I get the most returns quantity wise on items less than $40. Yet I get the most returns price wise on items $40-$100.

Interesting right? Now percentage based on cancellations because buyer didn’t want to pay? It’s pretty high. I looked back and counted the number of times I had to cancel because the customer didn’t want to pay and it’s almost double the amount of returns. That did shock me at first but in reality that’s still less than 5% of my overall transactions. Meaning I deal with this using a short amount of my time spent on eBay (sourcing, listing, shipping, answering customers, dealing with customers, and etc).

Blah Kind Of Day

Life, Thrift Finds July 22, 2017 Leave a comment

Today is Saturday. Usually on this day I’m pretty busy. Listing, shipping, cleaning, watching Calvin, and planning what to make for dinner for the whole week. I’m in a blah kind of mood so I decide to just take a break from everything but taking care of my Son and dinner.  The mess will be here tomorrow still and my eBay store is still up and running.

Do you have one of those days? Most days I just charge on even if I am tired but today I’m just tired. I feel it in my bones I need to rest. I feel fortunate that this is a luxury I can do. Technically I’m still busy doing mommy duties but that’s a duty I don’t turn off ever even if I am sick.