Thrifty "Ebay" Selling

Good Morning to all!

How many of us have things around the house that we either don't use, bought on a whim or someone gave them to us? With Fall fast approaching and Christmas following close on it's heels it might be time to generate some extra cash.

After several years of talking about putting some things on Ebay, last August I finally got up the courage to sit down and get signed up. What I thought was going to be complicated and hard ended up being pretty straight forward. Ebay walks you through the process. You also set up a Paypal account which is where the money goes when someone buys your listing. Again this is a simple process.

I listed about 20 things. These were things lying around the house. A set of place mats I had purchased from Hobby Lobby but never even took the price tag off of them, a couple of stuffed toy Disney characters someone gave me, an old cream pitcher I hadn't used in years, a purse I didn't want any more, a old tie clip with matching cuff links that I found in the bottom of a box and Thrifty Honey even donated some things to get me started. You can take pictures of your items with your phone them upload to your listing. Next you add a description and set your price. You have to choose how you will ship, USPS or UPS. Most of my items are small so I use the Post Office. One of the great things about using them is you can pay for the postage through Paypal, print a label and ship right from your house. Ebay (10%) and Paypal ( 3%) charge a small fee for each item once it sells. Your items can be viewed from all over the world by anyone who searches for something on Ebay.

There is an app you can download to your phone so you can check your listings. The app with notify you of messages from buyers and it will ding when someone bids on one of your listings. How fun is this? You are having lunch with you best friend, your Ebay app goes off and you have a sale. Money in the bank while you go about your normal day.

So selling some things gets your closets and dresser drawers cleaned out and puts dollars in your bank account. Sounds really thrifty to me!!

Coffee Bar

Good Morning:

I hope you have your cup of coffee, fixed just the way you like it and are all set to enjoy your day. A cup of Joe says good morning especially if it is in your special cup. Since I am a morning person, coffee is first on my agenda, then open the window so I can listen to the birds welcome the day and watch the sun rise.

There is a lot of buzz out there about coffee bars. I guess we have Starbucks to thank for that. But I remember there were a lot of coffee houses in the 60's and 70's too. But if you are truly a Thrifty Sissy, spending three to five dollars for a cup of coffee is not necessarily an option. So why not have your own coffee bar at home?

A lot of big kitchens have plenty of extra counter space for setting  up a coffee bar, but our kitchen has limited space so I had to "make do". Don't you so appreciate "Make Do"? Making do is one of the many things which made America great.

To set up the coffee bar I took a tray and placed our coffee maker in the middle of it then added our favorite mugs around it. Presto....Coffee Bar. Again our space was limited so I could not put the sugar bowl or creamer on the tray, but it sure does make me smile when I walk into our kitchen and the mugs are ready for some coffee .

 

Thrifty idea ready to enjoy!

Post It Note Gift Idea

Since my last post was about Christmas gifts, I thought I would share a cute gift idea you can make. Now don't go on about you are not very crafty. All you need to make this is a few minutes, a pair of scissors, a little left over ribbon, stick on letters, a post it note pack, a clear plastic photo frame and a piece of scrapbook paper. The picture frames are $1.00 (Dollar Store) and the scrapbook paper is $.59 or less depending on the size you get. You probably have a pack of post it notes in your desk drawer you could use. The letters were the most expensive thing ($3.00 using a 40% off coupon). There are multiple letters in the pack so you could do more than one of these note holders. There are so many different scrapbook papers so picking you color scheme will not be hard.

The photo frame has a piece of paper in it you can use as your template to cut your scrapbook paper. If you have any of those fancy scrapbook scissors you can trim the edges with those to add some flair. The first thing you do is take your ribbon and slip it under the back of the frame all the way to the top. Be sure the ribbon and string are long enough to tie a bow on top. I used ribbon and some brown jute string to make it fluffy. Next you take your piece of scrapbook paper you have cut to the right size and slip it under the back. All it needs now is the name and the notes. The letters are sticky so just be careful of the placement. There is room for five letters if the name is more than that you could just put their initials on the frame. Add your notes and your are finished. I did not hot glue my notes onto the frame, but you could.

You could put in a photo instead of the scrapbook paper. The ribbon and the name would make it personal.

 

 

So thrifty folks let's make something cute today! 

Christmas in July

 

Good Morning Thrifty Folks,

I know this post will be about as popular as a snake in a hen house but it is never too early to start thinking about Christmas gifts. Hopefully you have picked up some bargains along the way to help your Christmas budget. If not now is the time to take a few minutes and make a little list. The bargains will be increasing now that the 4th of July has come and gone. Labor day will be right around the corner with even more sales. Here are some places to pick up a thrifty gift or two.

 Men are so hard to buy for but Lowes has sale shelves and bargain baskets most of the time. What man alive doesn't like a new flashlight or screwdriver set. They usually have some really small flashlights for $1.50 that are great for kids stocking stuffers. Of course Target has their dollar bins loaded with little things to help fill those stockings. T.J.Maxx and HomeGoods have a clearance section at the very back of the store. Let's not forget JoAnn's reduced price area. You can pick up some crafts for the kids. Probably the best bargains of all are in the 70-80% off aisle in Hobby Lobby. You can snag some pricey items for less than $10.00. What a great gift for those ladies on your list. If you have someone who likes to shop in Goodwill, a gift card goes a long way with all their sales.

I hope this gives you some ideas to think about so you can start gathering your gifts early and thrifty as always.

July 4thThrifty Wreath

Good Morning July,

Now is the time to get your thrifty 4th on so you can celebrate our blessed independence all month long. Of course the first thing we want to decorate is our front door, so here goes.

Now don't think you don't have anything to work with. If you have an old artificial Christmas wreath you have the start of your creation. Yes, I did say Christmas wreath. Now if you want to go and buy one of those wreath frames with a few fluffy ties on them that is fine but remember we are trying to be Thrifty Sissies! So now that you have your wreath you can use some of your left over deco mesh in red or blue (if you don't have any Hobby Lobby and Trees and Trends have if half price) then add some matching ribbon and some stars on a wire to your wreath. You are adding things to the wreath using the wire branches to twist tie your decorations onto it. It is very easy and you can take it off if you don't like where you have placed things.

You just keep building one decoration on top of the other. You will be adding the big things last ( in this case the America sign and the hat). All of this is left over from years past. I saw the hat on a wreath on Pinterest. How cute and so cheap. I just punched two holes in the back and tied it to the wreath with a bread tie (LOL). That is almost too thrifty for me. All of this holiday stuff will be 80-90% off soon. So if you don't have any 4th decorations you can get them at the end of the season and have them ready for next year. You can use these decorations for Memorial day and Labor day too.

While this wreath may not look like the $69.00 one at the store, it still makes me smile and reminds me to thank God for all the men and women who served to gain our freedom and keep it. So girls, let's get our 4th on and enjoy it!