The Saved Quarter Challenge: Make a Budget For The Coming Year Income

Good morning everyone. This posting is on the first and second week of the New Years Saved Quarter Challenge
My sweet hubby takes care of the budget of our fixed income. Money comes in, money goes out. Every penny is counted and spent. Of course there is not enough money. When you are retired and did not really plan for retirement things are tight. This is a HINT for all you younger than us SAVE today and SPEND less than you make.
I can not really complain there are so many who do not have the income we have and still attempt to support a family the best they can.  For this very reason I look for ways to share with others food and personal items when I find them at a good price. They will go to the food shelf via the church.
As I have shared before one of our biggest expenses is health insurance and will stay that way until I reach 65. It then will go down some. I am in no hurry to age to 65, but it is coming faster than I like.
So what is someone to do.?  What we do is work at making extra money selling on eBay and Amazon.
We go to the local auctions to buy items to resell at those on line venues plus at the antique stores.
I always estimate that about one third of what we make on eBay goes to fees  from eBay and Paypal.
Amazon is totally different, at this time we do not sell enough in a month to warrent paying a fixed monthly fee, so instead it cost us an extra $1.00 to sell. We would need to sell more than 40 books a month to make it pay, the sellers fee is $39.95 a month.
Besides eBay and Amazon we are selling at two different antique mall. We have a glass case in mall #1 and a case and small space in mall #2.  We just expanded to the all of the small space the beginning of this year. Before that we had a glass case, a book case and few things in the area. Time will tell how we do but I feel it will be a good thing.
Payment to us at the antique stores is every two weeks. A friend of ours who has been in the antique business for over 30 years that we should set a goal to make at least three times our rent. One third is the cost of the space, one third is cost of goods returned and one third to us to add to our living expense.
My goals are to attempt to find more GOOD books to sell on Amazon. Finding good books is tough. To make it worth while you want a book that you can sell for at least $10.00. So many sellers on Amazon are penny sellers, this is not worth my time.
I look forward to increasing our sales at eBay. We sold about $6,000 gross last year. I would like to see this double if possible. At one time we did sell at least $1,000 a month but we have slipped from that sales amount.
Another way we make extra money is during the garage sale season we find items to resell at the local auctions to make some fast cash. Rather than wait for it to sell at the antique stores we turn some cash fast. We even do this during the winter time if we come across something at a thrift store or at one of our local book stores. I some times can find some good books that I can sell at the auction house for a profit. Just this week we have some gun books at one auction house and this next monday we have a few items to sell at the other auction house.
So my goal for this coming year is to bring in at least $1,000 a month to us after expenses at ebay, amazon and the antique stores.
1/4 would go into savings.
1/4 would be added to our income for the extras like eating out, a movie or just something fun.
1/4 would go towards paying extra on what debt we have
1/4 would go back into making more money

Week 1 and 2 are over and nothing went into savings as of yet. Money coming in has not been as good as needed, but that can change over night.

During the first half of the month on eBay we grossed $73.88
Amazon we sold 4 books for gross amont of $58.32
More time and effort need to go into our internet work. 
I will update this after I find out what happened at the antique stores during the first two weeks of the month.
I was asked recently if I had tried etsy. My answer was with antique stores, auctions and internet business I have enough on my plate already.
Add into this time with family and work on my family research and my days are pretty full.
I am sharing all of this at Saved Quarter Challenge. Take a moment to see what others are doing.

Thanks for stopping by.. check back in a few days to see how the antique stores did. Grace

DECLUTTERING AND COLLECTING CASH Savings Challenge

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. We had a great weekend with our 2 day garage sale. As I posted a few days ago we are busy selling STUFF to gather up money for our rental deposit and busy working harder than ever to sell items to gather cash.
Our yard sale was a success.  We brought in over $300.00 cash of which $200.00 of it went into the savings account.
We had a good week on eBay and another $100.00 will be going into savings also.
Hope that you all had a great week and now I am off to the auction house to see how our items sell tonight. I brought in some costume jewelry, a vintage wagon that hubby found at a garage sale plus other STUFF.
Will give you an up date on how that went later. Our savings for rental deposit is now at $285.00 with another $100.00 on its way.
thanks for visiting. I will be sharing this over at Saved Quarter Challenge. Drop in to see how others are doing Grace

SAVED QUARTER CHALLENGE ~ Time To Get Into Gear

Good morning everyone, this is a picture of my beautiful city from the beach we live near. I love to look at my Lake Superior.
I have to admit I have been a bit of a slacker lately. Not planning my menus like I did in the past. Not posting on my blog as often as I should which is why my numbers are going the wrong way. I have been putting alot of my energy into selling on eBay.
One of my weekly posting was my saved quarter challenge. How did we do on saving money and budgeting what we have.
Well while I may not have saved as much money as we want , we have been busy trying to make money on eBay.
We have been busy going to estate sales and garage sales. Going to auctions and even putting items in the auction house to sell.
Reason is we want to move into a larger apartment end of July and we need to come up with $1,000 for the deposit. We do have a currant deposit on this 400 square foot apartment but can not count on getting that back in time for the new apartment.
So hubby and have been working harder than ever. My goal is to put roughly half of the money made every week into the bank. The other half will be going into the hunting for more treasures envelope.
I started this savings account yesterday with $10.00. We received $29.00 from Amazon. I pulled a twenty dollar bill for the hunting envelope and had hubby deposit $10.00 into savings. $990.00 to go.
We do have a garage sale planned in June. We live on park point and every year there is the big park point garage sale. We will take part and I am hoping to make money for our moving account.
Will give you updates as money goes into our savings account and will share about our new apartment soon.
Will share some of the items I have found in another posting. Thanks for taking the time to read my posting. See you soon. Grace

SAVED QUARTER CHALLENGE Week # 14 Making Money On eBay

Time for another week to report Saved Quarter Challenge. Was I able to save any money from my grocery budget to go into savings NO again. Every thing is creeping up and we have been spending time at McDonald's where I can get FREE internet connection. So those cups of coke come out of my food budget.
I am on a limited Internet plan and always come close to my limit. I spend alot of time on the Internet blogging, family tree research and working to sell on the Internet. Hubby and need to stop into Verizon and see how much to move my time limit up.

But I do like being at McDonald's.The table is huge and I can spread out my family research note books. My desk at home is half the size and room does not allow for me to get a bigger table in this small apartment.

We did have a good week selling on eBay but there were no sales at Amazon.
Hubby and I spend several days a week hunting for items to resell, mainly books. We are retired and this is how we suppliment our income.
Hubby found a desirable Bible at a community sale that he bought in a bag for $2.00. Last night he sold it for $43.00. I had some cook books up for sale and last night made about $25.00 off the cookbooks. In total we had sales of $93.00 before any costs.
Any money we clear will go into the budget to help with April.

I plan to be in a craft fair in May and need to spend $38.00 of the $93.00 for my table space.

I hope that your week goes good and that we can have a great week finding and selling on the Internet. I will be linking this up at Saved Quarter Challenge. Visit there to see how others are doing saving money.

Thanks for stopping by... lets keep saving together.. Grace

SAVED QUARTER CHALLENGE # 13 4/4/11 Selling on eBay

Thirteen weeks into the Saving challenge and even though I have not been able to cut back on my grocery budget we have been busy working to sell on eBay and Amazon. We spend several days these last few weeks out hunting for treasures and have found some success.

This last week we sold $79.00 before costs between eBay and Amazon.

Just a matter of putting in the time and a little luck finding the right items at the right price.

I will be linking this up at Saved Quarter Challenge.

Hope that you are doing well with your savings or earning program.
Thanks for stopping by.. Grace

SAVED QUARTER CHALLENGE # 12 3/28/11 $ MADE ON eBay

Hard to believe a week has passed already. I did not have a very thrifty week with groceries this last week again. Groceries are going up and for the second time we bought a pot roast rather than hamburger. We do squeeze that roast into three meals plus left overs,but does eat up a sixth of my weekly budget. It is so good.
So in other words no money put into savings from cutting back on our groceries.

We did have a good week this on eBay plus a small sale on amazon. We sold in $128.00 before fees and cost of product so that will help.

It has been a tough month on the budget. Must be fix the car month as I know others out there have had car trouble. We have spent about $260.00. Brakes, oil change and then a new front tire.

Hope you are all having a better month then here. I will be sharing this over at Saved Quarter Challenge

Thanks for stopping by.. lets keep saving together. Grace

SAVED QUARTER CHALLENGE # 11 INCREASING INTERNET SALES

Savings Challenge update #11 ... this last week we have been working to increase our Internet sales by going out and hunting more often. We have found a few fairly good books and have been busy putting them up for sale. Some have already sold already. Here are some fun cook books we found this week end at an estate sale.






They all have been listed for auction on eBay, so hopefully we will sell some or all of them.

We had a total of 7 sales this week on eBay and Amazon which brought in $85.00 before fees and cost. Here are just two of the books we sold.

This money will be spent looking for more items to sell and some will go into savings.

It has and will be a tough couple of months. We just spent money from savings to fix our brakes and the van is still may need some work. Taxes are due in less than a month and there is some shortness there.

So motto around here is work work hunt hunt and sell sell.

How did your week go with making more money or saving money.

I will be sharing this over at Savings Quarter Challenge

Saved Quarter Challenge # 10 .. Lowering Health Insurance Premiums

Saved Quarter Challenge Week #10 Sold a couple of items On Ebay this week. Not much so profit is small.
The one thing we did do a couple weeks ago is apply for cheaper health insurance for me. Negative part is our deductable will increase to $4,000 from $1,000.
I am pleased to let you know that I was accepted and our monthly premium will be $360 less. The plan is to bank all or most of that amount to build up the $4,000 deductible.
So while we did not add anything to savings this week that will change next month. No I just have to stay healthy for a year or more. I was in the hospital in Ocober for 11 days so think I should be good for awhile.

What are you doing to reduce your monthly expenses? Are you doing anything to increase your income?
To read how I did other weeks you can go here.
I will be sharing this over at Saved Quarter Challenge .. take a look to see how others are doing.
Thanks for stopping by.. lets keep saving together and please always remember
Never under estimate the value of a small amount of money.. Grace

Saved Quarter Challenge Week #9 Sold Items On Ebay and Amazon Plus Check Received FINALLY

Well another week of working at making more money or saving money from the budget. Was not able to save any money from the grocery budget, but we did sell few things on eBay and Amazon.

Not much really so the money will go towards the cost of running the business on the Internet.

We had sales of $28.71 before costs on eBay and a net profit of $13.00 on Amazon.

I got a surprise check in the mail today. Even though I should wait and report it next week but instead it is going into todays blog.

Back in July of last year I had left some items at a auction houes in Richmond Texas. We then moved back to Minnesota end of July.

We got busy with life and sort of put it on the back burner just waiting for a check in the mail.

Months past with nothing. Finally a couple of months ago I started to wonder what was up. Found the paper that listed our items and found a phone number. After several trys of no answer hubby found another phone number for me. I called and left a detailed message along with my phone number.

Nothing and weeks passed again. I kept planning to call them, but it got put off day after day.

Much to my surprise I received a check in the mail today for $118.12 from the auction house.

Just a check along with the tags from each auction showing me what the item had sold for and then an adding machine tape adding it up. No note or letter along with it.

I can not believe the poor service we received. No explanation for delay of months, no explanation of why no phone calls. I would never recommend this place of business and I believe if I had not made a phone call my items would of just sat there waiting to be auctioned off in their sweet time.

At least we have the check now and will come in handy .. brakes are making noise and of course there is no money in the budget for car repair.

Lesson learned make noise rather than just sitting back and waiting. I am sharing this over at Saved Quarter Challenge

Thanks for stopping by... lets keep saving together.. and please remember

Never under estimate the value of a small amount of money... Grace

Saved Quarter Challenge Week 8 Sold Some Silverware

Well it is already week 8 of the Saved Quarter Challenge. Sadly we only sold one book on eBay from our eBay store. My auctions were a bust. Nothing sold at Amazon either.

There were no estate sales this weekend so did not find any treasures there. Will go out this week to the thrift stores but pickings are slim.

I did decide to take some silver up to the mall to sell. I had 5 pieces of silverware that I had bought at an estate sale some years ago. I bought this to resell and now mission is accomplished. I received a check for $47.00 that will go into the bank today to help with the short fall this month. With the up coming tax bill and life insurance bill I need to step up with the selling on the Internet and cutting back on the budget to get every thing to balance by April.

How are you doing with your budget and saving money. Do you sell on eBay or Amazon. I would love to hear your ideas and tips. I always enjoy hearing what others sell.
You can see how I did the other weeks by reading my previous postings about the challenge.
Saved Quarter Challenge Week 1
Saved Quarter Challenge Week 2
Saved Quarter Challenge Week 3
Saved Quarter Challenge Week 4
Saved Quarter Challenge Week 5
Saved Quarter Challenge Week 6
Saved Quarter Challenge Week 7

See how others are doing on the challenge here. I am sharing this post here. Take a look to see how others are doing.

Thanks for stopping by.. lets keep saving together... Grace

Saved Quarter Challenge Week 7 Money Made On eBay

Well it is already week 7 of the Saved Quarter Challenge. Most of the tupperware that I had listed sold and I made some money. I also sold the Janette Oke books on auction at eBay.

No great sales but I need to always remember " Never under estimate the value of a small amount of money ". Sales totaled $93.46. After deducting the cost of the tupperware and Oke books plus the eBay and pay pal fees I have a profit of $33.72.

Some of the tupperware did not sell and will be relisted to give them one more chance. How are you doing with your budget and saving money. Do you sell on eBay or Amazon. I would love to hear your ideas and tips. I always enjoy hearing what others sell.

You can see how I did the other weeks by reading my previous postings about the challenge.

Saved Quarter Challenge Week 1

Saved Quarter Challenge Week 2

Saved Quarter Challenge Week 3

Saved Quarter Challenge Week 4

Saved Quarter Challenge Week 5

Saved Quarter Challenge Week 6

See how others are doing on the challenge here.

Thanks for stopping by.. lets keep saving together... Grace

Saved Quarter Week # 6 Sold Some STUFF On Ebay and Amazon

Week 6 of Saved Quarter Challenge.. another week of not saving anything from my grocery budget. This week what I did not spend on groceries was spent on buying STUFF to sell on eBay and or amazon.

We went to a couple of estate sales and I found some vintage Tupperware to sell. Also found some Janette Oke books that should sell on eBay. 8 hard covers 2 stories in each book so here series right her in 8 books. She writes Christian romance novels.

They are up for sale as are some old tool books I found in the basement.

So far we have one bid on my Tupperware, the measuring cups and spoons.

$32.00 of the money spent had to come from next weeks money for groceries.

yellow canister set

orange canister set

also found green canister set plus other Tupperware items

measuring cups and spoons have a bid already.

I bought lots of Tupperware so hopefully I will be able replace the money spent, have extra to put into the envelope for buying STUFF and put some to savings.

We try to go to the estate sale the first day and buy what we think may not be there the next day. If there is items we want to buy cheaper we will go the last day and buy items at half price. Some times we win and some times we do not win by playing the waiting game.

Last week I sold Campbell soup rewards and rewards for education on eBay plus one book on Amazon for a total profit of $7.67 from both places.

This money will go towards replacing next weeks grocery money that I spent.

Good news is some of my granddaughter's Manga books sold. I had listed these Super Bowl Sunday night. One set sold for way over $100. I have a total of over $200 to give her minus my eBay selling costs.

Just need to get paid for all her books from the buyers, so I can give her money to her.

She says she wants to save some and buy some clothes.. Way to go girl save some and buy clothes. I am so proud of you. Plus I sure will have my eyes open for these books.

Well that is how my week went for the Savings Quarter Challenge. A profit of $7.67.

I will be sharing this over at Savings Quarter Challenge.

thanks for stopping by.. lets keep saving together.. and please remember

Never under estimate the value of a small amount of money... Grace

The Saved Quarter Challenge Update #5,Saved $0

The Saved Quarter Challenge Update #5 ,Saved $0. Sadly I was not been able to save any money this week. What we did not spend on groceries we spent taking my oldest step son and his family out to dinner to celebrate his birthday. Costly but sometimes you need to share what you have with family even when things are tight.

I did sell one book this week on eBay for $6.99 but after costs there is not much profit. Was an error to buy it and I am happy to have sold it first time out. Money will stay where it is so I can use it to buy something to sell.

Will need to share some of my experience of selling on eBay in the future. In the past we have made some good extra cash but slow right now. With spring coming and being able to garage sale I know things will get better.

On Super Bowl Sunday we went to one of my son's house for a party. I spent the time at the dining room table listing Manga books for one my granddaughters. I am not really into football but I love being with my sons and grandchildren.

.. update.. hubby says we have a bid on one of the Manga auctions.. great!!! I asked her what she was going to do with any money she got from her books. Save some and buy some clothes was her answer.

Hope this week will be better with grocery shopping and on eBay.


I will be sharing this over at Saved Quarter Challenge .. stop to see what others are doing.
Thanks for stopping by... Grace

The Saved Quarter Challenge Week 4,Saved $13.00

The Saved Quarter Challenge Update #4, Saved $13.00 of my grocery budget. This will go into the savings account towards our emergency fund.

We sold 5 books on eBay this week. After fees for pay pal and eBay we net $33.90 before cost of books. Take away cost of books and we net $27.40.

From this of course you have the cost of supplies and gas to hunt and go to post office. Not much really made when you take everything in.

Key is to sell more expensive books but of course they are hard to find.

This money we made from eBay will go for ink, end of the month eBay store fee and is helping to reimburse the pocket book after taking oldest step son and his family out to lunch after church.

This was a special treat since his birthday was 2 weeks ago and we had not celebrated.

Not much added this week to savings but we are putting away $13.00 and that is something.

How are you doing with saving money.. My goal is to work harder on my Internet business and to make more money that way.

I am linking this up to Saved Quarter Challenge

thanks for stopping by... lets keep saving together... Grace

Saving Quarter Challenge Week 3

Saved Quarter Challenge: Savings Update.

Last week I was able to reduce our grocery budget by $18.00 so this will go into the savings account.

This week I was attempting to cut back by hiding a $20.00 in my wallet. If needed for groceries it is there but by having to dig it out makes me think twice whether I really need to buy what ever caught my attention.

Balance in savings $163.00 for emergency fund.

We sold a couple of books this week. That will be used to buy ink for the printer. We went to a few thrift stores over the weekend and found some books to put up for sale on eBay and Amazon. Hubby put two of them up for auction on eBay and one already has a bid.

How did your week go with savings?

I need to keep in front of me this thought .. cut back $20.00 a week, save it and after 52 weeks I will have over $1,000.

I am sharing this over at Saved Quarter Challenge

Thanks for stopping by.. lets keep saving together.. and please remember
Never under estimate the value of a small amount of money.. Grace

Saved Quarter Challenge Week 2

Saved Quarter Challenge: Savings Update. Nothing saved this week sadly from the budget. To many great deals at the grocery stores.

This week I was attempting to cut back by hiding a $20.00 in my wallet. If needed for groceries it is there but by having to dig it out makes me think.

I had forgotten to buy milk and had to break the $20.00 for that.

We did put $150.00 into the savings this week, giving us a a balance of $180. We signed up with a different bank for a checking account. With direct deposit after 3 months they would give us the $150.00 bonus. That came into the checking account this week.

$35.00 of that will come out of that to be put towards the income tax preparation program.

Balance in savings $145.00 for emergency fund.

Not much sold on eBay so nothing to add from that.

How did your week go with savings? Hope that it was better than mine.

I need to keep in front of me this thought .. cut back $20.00 a week, save it and after 52 weeks I will have over $1,000.

I am sharing this over at Saved Quarter Challenge

Thanks for stopping by.. lets keep saving together.. and please remember

Never under estimate the value of a small amount of money.. Grace

The Saved Quarter Week 1

Over at Saved Quarter there is a Challenge to build our savings. Some want to save a quarter of their income. Some are looking for ways to save or make money so they do not have to dip into their savings account during rough spots.

What ever our goals may be the most important thing is to save what money we can. To build our emergency fund and pay off our debt.

To know where we want to be ... we need to know where we are right now.

The first important thing to do is to make a budget.

They say you should pay yourself first. This is nice if it is possible. For us and many others that just is not a possiblity.

Our budget is so tight that do have enough at the end of the month to do what we have to. We draw the line and then work to make more money.. mainly selling on eBay or amazon. Our main this to sell is books or what ever may catch our eye.

Our food budget is below the national average for 2 senior citizens.

We pay for our own health insurance with hubby being on medicare and paying his supplement and I am not 65 years old so I pay my own health insurance. Health insurance takes 1/3 of our income.

The only way that I can save any money is to sell on eBay which we have done since 1998 to suppliment our income.

This week I was able to sell an item for $75.00.

From this amount plus what I had in my pay pal account already

I paid eBay $20.00 what we owed this month plus a little extra

I paid $13.00 for my year on line refundcents membership.

After all that had $62.00 left.

I sent $30.00 to savings and kept $32.00 for hunting for more to sell on eBay.

Not a lot of money saved but will come in handy if it is needed to pay bills.

If not needed will go for my first goal of $1,000 emergency fund.

And as I always say..

never under estimate the value of a small amount of money. So I am pleased to put anything into savings.

Take a look at what others are doing to save money over at Saved Challenge

Thanks for stopping by... lets keep saving together Grace