I wrote recently about saving $ by recycling. I failed to mention something very important. There are some items that can be recycled and you can actually get paid for bringing them in. We have a county recycling center that will take many different items; there is no charge to bring the items and drop them off. There is also no financial incentive for bringing them in and dropping them off, except for the money saved through trash bags that didn't get purchased.
However, many metal items (particularly aluminum) can be recycled at a junk yard or specified metal recycling business. These businesses can sell the metal to companies that use it to make new products, and will pay you for bringing it in. Copper has been especially lucrative this past year. So much so that in our area there has even been a rash of thefts of metal items from peoples yards.
There are ways to get metal other than stealing it!
1) If you have a truck, a dolly and a strong back, you can post a notice on area bulletin boards stating that you would gladly haul away old appliances and other metals for free. You are offering a service to people who want to get rid of these items, but are unable or unwilling to drive them to the recycling center themselves. Most centers will purchase the metal based on weight, so the heavier the appliance, the bigger the payout.
NOTE: Call your local metal recycling center to ask about current rates (they are not all the same - if you have a couple of places to choose from, one may pay out better than another). Also, be sure to check on regulations for appliances that contain FREON, like refrigerators and freezers - you may have to do some additional work before these can be taken in.
2) Trash picking. We have not done this ourselves, but know a friend who has had some success at it. He regularly trash hunts for several types of items, but also carries a pair of wire cutters in his truck. When he comes across a trash pile that has old electrical items (like tvs, vcrs, lamps, etc), he cuts the cord from these, and puts them in the back of his van. When he has a large pile, he can take them to the recycling center (his local center will purchase the cords by weight; they take off a certain amount for the plastic outer). If metal prices are especially high, and he has the time, he will strip off the plastic outer and take in the wires for an even better payday.
Remember that like any commodity, metal prices fluctuate with the market. Call around and regularly check on the current rates. It may pay to take a small load when prices are high, or it might be better to store the items until you have a large amount if prices are low.
Corinne Johnson is a Christian homeschooling mother of six, and help meet to her husband Don. The Johnson family has lived without a steady paycheck for 15 months, and by the Grace of God continue to have all their needs met. This blog is to share the tips and tricks to making a living and supporting a family when no one has a job.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Free Clothing Center
The free clothing center; our community has one, and yours might too. It's run by volunteers, and only open for a few hours three days a week, but everything is FREE. There are no income guidelines and you don't have to fill out any paperwork: except that they do ask you to sign an agreement that anything you take is for your own personal use and that you won't resell it.
Obviously, I like it because I have eight bodies worth of clothes to shop for - a free center helps out a lot. I also like donating items there because then I feel like I'm trading. In our family (biological and spiritual) there is a lot of hand me down and pass me around items when it comes to clothes. We are often given bags of items with a message, "I was taking this to Goodwill, but thought you might like to go through it first." We always say yes! Anything that we are sure we won't use, goes to the free clothing center; I drop the items off and take a list of items I do need and look for them while I am there.
My clothing budget last year? I spent $5 (for a whole bag) on baby clothes at a yard sale. One of the items was a nearly new Columbia snowsuit; I sold that for $7 online and kept the rest for our new baby. My oldest daughter got a new pair of church shoes from the same sale (they weren't priced and she went up to ask; the lady said $5, and Summer said, "oh, I only have $2" and started to put them back. They lady said, "oh, alright, I'll take $2" (She wasn't just saying that to get a deal, that really was all the money she had with her).
So, overall, I spent nothing on clothing for anyone in my family, until Christmas, when my husband needed new jeans, and we couldn't find them at the clothing center. We've spent about $10 on mens jeans at area Goodwills and thrift stores. We also received two new pairs of kids tennis shoes and one pair of pajamas for each of the kids (all from Grammas at Christmas). I personally have an aversion to purchasing anything at a retail store!
I expect this year, I'll spend about the same amount, or possibly less, now that I have gotten more experienced at picking out items from yard sales that sell well online. Maybe I'll even make some money back this year! Isn't that what "making money from home" is all about?
Corinne Johnson is a Christian homeschooling mother to five (almost six) children, a help meet to her husband Don and the author of Vacation Education Books. Learn more at www.vacationeducationbooks.net
Obviously, I like it because I have eight bodies worth of clothes to shop for - a free center helps out a lot. I also like donating items there because then I feel like I'm trading. In our family (biological and spiritual) there is a lot of hand me down and pass me around items when it comes to clothes. We are often given bags of items with a message, "I was taking this to Goodwill, but thought you might like to go through it first." We always say yes! Anything that we are sure we won't use, goes to the free clothing center; I drop the items off and take a list of items I do need and look for them while I am there.
My clothing budget last year? I spent $5 (for a whole bag) on baby clothes at a yard sale. One of the items was a nearly new Columbia snowsuit; I sold that for $7 online and kept the rest for our new baby. My oldest daughter got a new pair of church shoes from the same sale (they weren't priced and she went up to ask; the lady said $5, and Summer said, "oh, I only have $2" and started to put them back. They lady said, "oh, alright, I'll take $2" (She wasn't just saying that to get a deal, that really was all the money she had with her).
So, overall, I spent nothing on clothing for anyone in my family, until Christmas, when my husband needed new jeans, and we couldn't find them at the clothing center. We've spent about $10 on mens jeans at area Goodwills and thrift stores. We also received two new pairs of kids tennis shoes and one pair of pajamas for each of the kids (all from Grammas at Christmas). I personally have an aversion to purchasing anything at a retail store!
I expect this year, I'll spend about the same amount, or possibly less, now that I have gotten more experienced at picking out items from yard sales that sell well online. Maybe I'll even make some money back this year! Isn't that what "making money from home" is all about?
Corinne Johnson is a Christian homeschooling mother to five (almost six) children, a help meet to her husband Don and the author of Vacation Education Books. Learn more at www.vacationeducationbooks.net
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
HOW I SAVED $156
In the city where we live, curbside trash pick up is every week. There are seven people in our family, and we create trash! The cost for this service is just the cost of the bags. They will only pick up certain bags and these must be purchased at a rate of $15.51 for a package of ten bags.
For the purpose of this illustration, I will round the cost of the bags to $1.50 each. Our family filled about three bags per week, for a cost of $4.50 per week. Multiplied by 52 weeks adds up to $234 per year.
Then, we found out that our community had a local recycling center. We can take cardboard, newspaper, glossy paper (like magazines, catalogs and much of the junk mail), metal, plastic and glass).
Now, honestly, we did not put a lot of effort into this project and still do not recycle every possible item that we could, but we did manage to set aside enough recyclable items each week to bring our average down to one bag per week. That's $1.50 multiplied by 52 weeks, for a total cost of $78 per year for trash removal.
$234 that we were spending minus the $78 we are currently spending equals a savings of
drumroll please!
$156 per year.
Corinne Johnson is a Christian homeschooling mother to five and a help meet to her husband Don, as well as the author of Vacation Education Books. Learn more at www.vacationeducationbooks.net
For the purpose of this illustration, I will round the cost of the bags to $1.50 each. Our family filled about three bags per week, for a cost of $4.50 per week. Multiplied by 52 weeks adds up to $234 per year.
Then, we found out that our community had a local recycling center. We can take cardboard, newspaper, glossy paper (like magazines, catalogs and much of the junk mail), metal, plastic and glass).
Now, honestly, we did not put a lot of effort into this project and still do not recycle every possible item that we could, but we did manage to set aside enough recyclable items each week to bring our average down to one bag per week. That's $1.50 multiplied by 52 weeks, for a total cost of $78 per year for trash removal.
$234 that we were spending minus the $78 we are currently spending equals a savings of
drumroll please!
$156 per year.
Corinne Johnson is a Christian homeschooling mother to five and a help meet to her husband Don, as well as the author of Vacation Education Books. Learn more at www.vacationeducationbooks.net
Monday, January 5, 2009
Sharing the Recycling Bin
I should have known that I wasn't the only person with great ideas. I did know actually, but it's still just a tiny bit frustrating to see someone getting to the trash ahead of you! AAAAARGH!
Have you ever been there? When you stop at a tag sale, and you see a great looking dresser, solid wood, dove tailed drawers, for just $5 and a BIG SOLD! Sticker on it. AAAARGH!
Or you see the item you've been looking for... in the arms of another shopper!
Well, we've been having great fun and great luck digging items out of the recycling bin and selling them online. We've dug out hundreds of coupons (my daughters have now been given the job of cutting all of these out, checking exp. dates and organizing them - for a small fee, of course); we've collected hundreds of magazines, some of which have sold for as much as $7.95 online (many sell for $1 or even in a penny auction, but we are certainly making money at this little venture.
I know I'm not the only person who does this; it wasn't even my idea, I got it from someone else's blog who actually makes a living selling magazines and magazine clippings (we aren't making that much money... YET). But, we've been having a lot of fun looking for treasures, and seeing how much they'll bring, if anything (sometimes we take as many items back to the recycling center as we took out).
But, here's the rub! We went over there the other day, actually our son was part of a workshop in a nearby building. It was our intention to head straight over to the bin when he was done. However, we arrived to find two women already actively digging in the bin. AAAARGH!
I wasn't mad really, but more like, "Hey! That's what I was just about to do!" Just like when you show up at the yard sale to find someone leaving with the item you really wanted and think, "Hey! I was going to buy that!"
I kept catching myself peeking out the window across the parking lot to see if they were still there. The longer they stayed, the more convinced I was that they were getting all the good stuff ahead of me. AAAARGH!
However, it was not as bad as I thought. Nothing ever is! I was sure that going to the bin now was a waste of time, but my husband insisted that we should check anyway. We went over to the bin when we were done with the workshop and the other garbage pickers were gone. We did have to dig a little deeper than normal, but we found many good items that they either didn't see or saw and didn't want.
In the end, we still found some good items, and were reminded that there are others who have the same idea as us, no corner on the market here, and also reminded that while we got a good haul that day, it would have been better to get there first.
So, if you are hoping to live off the items you find in the trash (and it can be done), be sure that you are digging early and often! And, don't give up even when you sometimes get there late!
Corinne Johnson is a Christian homeschooling mother of five, almost six; a help meet to her husband in his online sales business and the author of Vacation Education Books: travel guides for families who love to learn; unit studies for families who love to travel.
Learn more at www.vacationeducationbooks.net
Have you ever been there? When you stop at a tag sale, and you see a great looking dresser, solid wood, dove tailed drawers, for just $5 and a BIG SOLD! Sticker on it. AAAARGH!
Or you see the item you've been looking for... in the arms of another shopper!
Well, we've been having great fun and great luck digging items out of the recycling bin and selling them online. We've dug out hundreds of coupons (my daughters have now been given the job of cutting all of these out, checking exp. dates and organizing them - for a small fee, of course); we've collected hundreds of magazines, some of which have sold for as much as $7.95 online (many sell for $1 or even in a penny auction, but we are certainly making money at this little venture.
I know I'm not the only person who does this; it wasn't even my idea, I got it from someone else's blog who actually makes a living selling magazines and magazine clippings (we aren't making that much money... YET). But, we've been having a lot of fun looking for treasures, and seeing how much they'll bring, if anything (sometimes we take as many items back to the recycling center as we took out).
But, here's the rub! We went over there the other day, actually our son was part of a workshop in a nearby building. It was our intention to head straight over to the bin when he was done. However, we arrived to find two women already actively digging in the bin. AAAARGH!
I wasn't mad really, but more like, "Hey! That's what I was just about to do!" Just like when you show up at the yard sale to find someone leaving with the item you really wanted and think, "Hey! I was going to buy that!"
I kept catching myself peeking out the window across the parking lot to see if they were still there. The longer they stayed, the more convinced I was that they were getting all the good stuff ahead of me. AAAARGH!
However, it was not as bad as I thought. Nothing ever is! I was sure that going to the bin now was a waste of time, but my husband insisted that we should check anyway. We went over to the bin when we were done with the workshop and the other garbage pickers were gone. We did have to dig a little deeper than normal, but we found many good items that they either didn't see or saw and didn't want.
In the end, we still found some good items, and were reminded that there are others who have the same idea as us, no corner on the market here, and also reminded that while we got a good haul that day, it would have been better to get there first.
So, if you are hoping to live off the items you find in the trash (and it can be done), be sure that you are digging early and often! And, don't give up even when you sometimes get there late!
Corinne Johnson is a Christian homeschooling mother of five, almost six; a help meet to her husband in his online sales business and the author of Vacation Education Books: travel guides for families who love to learn; unit studies for families who love to travel.
Learn more at www.vacationeducationbooks.net
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Praying for Cash!
Prayer pretty much always works. Of course, we aren't talking about praying for frivolous items, but for our necessities, and this is actually just calling on God to keep His promises. He says that He will provide for us, and so when this last month, our renters didn't pay their rent (which we had planned to use for our house payment), I began to worry. I try not to let myself get too stressed out. But, the house payment is our biggest bill each month and it's not a bill that can be covered by a few days of trash picking (usually).
We sell items online on consignment, and right now we are down to a lot of small items. These are good for day to day needs, a few dollars here, a few dollars there, but nothing in our current inventory looked valuable enough to bring in the $800+ that we needed. We were really relying on that rent to come in.
We worked every spare moment, organizing and listing, visiting our favorite trash spots, hoping to find some big item that would sell for a miracle price. We sent an eviction notice to the tenants, hoping that it would remind them to pay their rent (I don't enjoy the idea of having to evict anyone). And, most importantly, we began to pray that God would somehow provide the funds we needed to cover the first of the month bills. My experience has been that He always provides, but quite often it is at the very last minute, sometimes even after the shut off notice has come!
Then, we got an email from an online buyer who said, "I love this item that I bought from you (for $10). Do you have more? I'd like to buy them all." We had a two whole boxes full, 108 in all. We offered a significant discount on the lot, and the buyer paid immediately. Praise God!
To be honest, I am a do it myself, rely on my own intelligence and ingenuity, and when all else fails, ask God for help. But, admittedly, He has provided for us in ways unimaginable. So, while I may continue to post and boast about all of my money saving genius ideas, I do know where it all really comes from - so here's to giving credit where credit is due.
And, here's to praying that the rent still comes, soon.
Corinne Johnson is a stay at home mother to six, help meet to her husband Don, a homeschooling mom and author of Vacation Education Books. Weareunemployed.blogspot.com is a mission to encourage others that a family can live and work at home together, and survive financially without anyone having to be separated from the unit for hours or days at a time.
Do you work to live, or do you live to work?
We sell items online on consignment, and right now we are down to a lot of small items. These are good for day to day needs, a few dollars here, a few dollars there, but nothing in our current inventory looked valuable enough to bring in the $800+ that we needed. We were really relying on that rent to come in.
We worked every spare moment, organizing and listing, visiting our favorite trash spots, hoping to find some big item that would sell for a miracle price. We sent an eviction notice to the tenants, hoping that it would remind them to pay their rent (I don't enjoy the idea of having to evict anyone). And, most importantly, we began to pray that God would somehow provide the funds we needed to cover the first of the month bills. My experience has been that He always provides, but quite often it is at the very last minute, sometimes even after the shut off notice has come!
Then, we got an email from an online buyer who said, "I love this item that I bought from you (for $10). Do you have more? I'd like to buy them all." We had a two whole boxes full, 108 in all. We offered a significant discount on the lot, and the buyer paid immediately. Praise God!
To be honest, I am a do it myself, rely on my own intelligence and ingenuity, and when all else fails, ask God for help. But, admittedly, He has provided for us in ways unimaginable. So, while I may continue to post and boast about all of my money saving genius ideas, I do know where it all really comes from - so here's to giving credit where credit is due.
And, here's to praying that the rent still comes, soon.
Corinne Johnson is a stay at home mother to six, help meet to her husband Don, a homeschooling mom and author of Vacation Education Books. Weareunemployed.blogspot.com is a mission to encourage others that a family can live and work at home together, and survive financially without anyone having to be separated from the unit for hours or days at a time.
Do you work to live, or do you live to work?
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