My Quest for Financial Comfort

My Easter was good. I went over to my older sister's house where we made turkey with a ton of side dishes. I had a strawberry daquiri and sipped it by the pool. It was a nice day out. Man, I love the summer.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've had some problems with ebay lately. I've had 3 disputes and 2 of them ended in my favor and the other is still ongoing. I have 5 Xboxes to sell, an old cell phone, and a couple of random things around the house. I'm going to be selling them slowly though so I don't get too frustrated and overwhelmed.

In terms of making extra money, I think I've found something that just might work. It's going to take some time and some research but I think I can make a good amount of money off of it. I won't say what it is for now but if it fails, I'll let you guys know. Btw, the last thing I tried, I failed at. I was trying to buy broken Xboxes that needed replacement dvd drives. The time it took to receive all the parts I needed was too much so I had to put a stop to that business venture. I'm crossing fingers that my new plan works out.

So about that trip to Europe... I'm thinking a 14 day cruise. I have one picked out. It'll cost about $3500 for everything if I plan it right. Is that too much, you think? I still have to talk about the details with the friend I'll be going with.

So that's my brief update. I haven't been spending a lot lately. My friend's 21st birthday is tomorrow. I'm probably going to get her a card, a balloon, and some flowers. I also need to go grocery shopping soon but it should be no more than $20 spent. I'm also going to a friend's house tomorrow. She is redoing her house and she has some kitchen items she wants to get rid of so she's giving them to me! Yay for free stuff!

So I think I'm pretty much done with ebay in terms of seriously making some good money with it. Over the past week I've had problems with 4 different buyers. Two of them bought high priced items and never paid. One bought something from me on half.com (ebay's media site) and wants a refund because she bought the wrong book. And another person bought something from me, paid, and then wants a refund because he never intended to bid so high. Buyer's remorse I guess.

I recently sold one xbox which the buyer never paid for. I opened a dispute so I should be getting my fees back for that. Then I sold 2 broken xboxes a couple of days ago. One of them, the buyer hasn't paid yet. Yay for that. Then I'm trying to fix two more and then I'll be trying to resell those. I also have a couple of other things around the house I'd like to sell but then I'm done with ebay for a while.

I will continue to sell things here and there but it's too much work to try to make some good money on it. I'm trying to come up with other ideas to make money. I really don't want to have to get another job.

I spent about $10 yesterday on food. My sister is having Easter lunch over her house on Sunday and I asked her if she wanted me to bring anything. She asked if I could bring an appetizer. I bought stuff to make queso dip and chips. And then I bought stuff to make a pound cake with strawberries and whipped cream.

I'm a bit stressed lately. I just wish everything will resolve itself quickly. My head hurts.

Last week I was talking to my older sister about how I wanted to buy my own house. She basically told me that I'd fail because I didn't have a high income. I was furious that she would think I'd fail. She was furious because she thinks I have no idea what I'm doing. My sister and her husband make $100,000 a year. I made $12,000 last year (not including bonuses which I get 4 times a year and my income tax return which I count as income because it goes straight into my savings account). I can totally see why she would think I couldn't afford a house of my own.

But here's the thing. It's not about how much money you make. It's about what you do with the money you make. My sister bought her house for $2xx,000. The house I want to buy is 1/3rd of that price and it's actually a really, really nice house. Almost nicer than her's (lol)! Sometimes I read the blogs on here and see that many of you have monthly mortgage payments that are higher than my monthly income! I'm like, man, I want to have that much money! But I don't NEED a $2xx,000 house. My sister spends close to $150 per week on groceries. I could easily spend less than $20 on groceries and still make nutritious meals because I don't buy expensive meats all the time and I shop using sales and coupons. I can't remember the last time I bought something for myself that wasn't a necessity. My older sister bought her husband a $1300 TV for Valentine's Day. I went on a short vacation last month. I bought a $2 box of cereal and a $1.59 quart of milk for my breakfast. I set a limit on how much I could spend eating out. I always picked one of the cheapest items on the menu. Water to drink only. If my sister and her husband went on the same vacation I did, they would have spent 3 times the amount I spent on food alone! I have one friend who spends $1200 every year on Christmas gifts. She buys for maybe 8 people. I buy for 7 people and last year I spent about $300 on really nice presents. She spent $40 on a trivet for her sister. $40! FOR A TRIVET! WHY?! I have a coworker who is a single mom living with her own parents. She really wants to move out of her parent's house so she can start her own life with her daughter but she can't afford it. On her lunch/dinner breaks at work, she spends $10-12 every time! I bring food from home and my meal costs no more than $1!

I do understand that unexpected expenses come up. That's why I have an emergency fund. And if my emergency fund dwindles down to nothing, I'm not afraid of using credit cards because I'm absolutely responsible. Am I never going to buy a house because an unexpected expense may or may not come up that I might not have the cash for? I have a friend who has almost $500,000 in medical debt. Is she never going to buy a house of her own because she has a serious illness?

I'm going to take this one day at a time. I'm going to make smart choices. Dental insurance. Medical insurance. Hazard insurance on the house. If an unexpected expense comes up, so be it. I'm never going to be a millionaire. This is my life. And my happiness. I'm going to do the best I can.

Last week I was talking to my older sister about how I wanted to buy my own house. She basically told me that it was a bad idea because I don't have a high income. I was furious that she would think I'd fail. She was furious because she thinks I have no idea what I'm doing. My sister and her husband have a household income of about $100,000. Last year I made $12,000 (not including bonuses which I get 4 times a year and my income tax return which I count as income since it goes straight into my savings account). Although money isn't tight for them, they are not rolling around in riches either. I can totally see why my sister doesn't think I could do it.

Here's the thing though. It's not about how much money you make. It's about how you spend it. My older sister bought her house for $2xx,000. The house I want is about 1/3rd of that price and it is actually a really, really nice house. Sometimes I read blogs on here and some people's monthly mortgage payments are higher than my monthly income! I'm like, man, I wish I had that amount of money. But that's the thing. I don't NEED a $2xx,000 house. My sister spends about $150 per week on groceries. I can easily spend less than $20 per week because I can make nutritious meals without buying expensive meats and I like to shop sales and use coupons. I can't remember the last time I bought something for myself that wasn't a necessity. My sister bought her husband a $1300 TV for Valentine's Day. They don't live paycheck to paycheck but if they lived as frugally as I did, they'd have thousands and thousands of dollars in savings! I went on a short vacation last month. I set a budget for myself. I bought a $2 box of cereal and a $1.59 quart of milk and that was my breakfast. I set a limit on how much I could spend eating out. I always got one of the cheapest things on the menu. Water to drink. If my sister and her husband had gone on the same vacation as I did, they would have spent 3 times what I spent on food alone.

I do know that unexpected expenses come up. But that's life. I'm not against using credit cards if I don't have the cash because I'm absolutely responsible. Am I not going to ever buy a house just because there is a chance an unexpected expense might come up? I have a friend who owes nearly $500,000 in medical expenses. She will be paying that off for the rest of her life. Should she never buy a house of her own because she has a serious illness? I'm going to take it day by day. I'll make some smart decisions. Dental insurance. Medical insurance. Hazard insurance on the house. If any other expenses come up, so be it. I'm not a millionaire and I never will be. I'm going to do the best I can.

I wanted to figure out how much profit I've made over the past few weeks on ebay. Here's what I sold and how much profit I made on each item. Some items I actually made a dollar or two more on because I seem to make my shipping a little higher than necessary but I'm not including that in my totals. The text books I actually bought a month ago on ebay in hopes to make a few extra dollars reselling them. I bought about 6 of them and have sold 4 already.

Rock Band-17.60
Mario Party 8-20.07
Legend of Spyro-7.76
A book, cd, and 2 dvds that I made about 50 cents on each-2.00
Thrillville-4.19
Grand Theft Auto-6.11
Physics Textbook-3.86
Business Textbook-23.46
Management Textbook-11.34
Accounting Textbook-27.44
Rollercoaster Tycoon-3.65
Xbox 360 Hard Drive-11.86
Estee Lauder Cream Samples Lot of 2-6.93
Exorcism of Emily Rose UMD-1.18
Estee Lauder Cream Sample-1.05
Evanescence Anywhere But Home DVD-2.00

That comes out to 150.50. I know I said in my last post that I've made close to $300 but I remembered I had to refund an $130 item. Also, I sold an Xbox 360 but I highly doubt the buyer is going to actually pay for it so I'm not counting it yet. We'll see what happens with that one.


Currently I have two broken Xbox 360s listed, a broken cell phone, and a Playstation game up for auction. I have a couple of other things I'd like to sell but I need to borrow my sister's camera to take some pictures. Honestly, I just want to make a few extra bucks, get rid of some of the junk I'm not using, and get some more positive feedback. I've ordered a couple of items that I'll be testing to see if I can make a good profit on within the next couple of weeks. I'll keep this updated when I find out how well these items sell. Crossing my fingers!

I've never been like other people my age. I got my first job at age 14. I worked in a small coffee shop 2 days a week. I would spend my tip money (which was a measly $10-15 a week) usually on school lunches. I never let my parents buy anything for me. My parents were certainly not poor. But I never did understand kids who expected so much from their parents. Luckily for my parents, my sisters and I were appreciative of every little thing they did for us. I have friends and coworkers who depend on mommy and daddy for so much when it comes to money. I have a friend whose parents have put a certain amount of money in her bank account every week since she was born so that she could buy her own house. I have multiple friends whose parents bought them their first car. What?! I saved every single dollar from my $60 paycheck when I had my first job. And up until a few months ago, I saved probably 75% of my paychecks.

In November, I moved out of my parent's house and in with 2 friends and my sister. Long story short, it's really not working out with my roommates and they have agreed to let me and my sister off of the lease on June 1st. I want my own house. Not to rent. To buy. I have enough money for a down payment and then some. I really want to do this on my own however I'm hoping to rent out one room to a carefully chosen friend so that I will be able to save some money every month.

I also really, really love to travel. I'm currently planning a European vacation with a friend next summer. It's going to be expensive but it'll be well worth it.

I am on a quest to make more money. I tried college for two semesters and I didn't like it. Truthfully, I couldn't qualify for financial help and I don't feel like paying school debt for the next few years of my life in hopes of getting an extra $10,000 a year. So I work in a grocery store. I don't get paid much but I am able to currently save half of my paychecks and even when I get my own place, I'll be able to save about $100. I'm not OK with living paycheck to paycheck. So to add to my income, I'm trying my hand on ebay. I've been selling some things around the house and I've made about $300 over the past couple weeks. When I've run out of things to sell, I have an idea of a couple things I can sell to make at least $200 extra per week. Adding that to my paychecks from my regular job, I'll be able to save at least $500 a month. I'll have to decide what to do with that extra money. I'd like to build up my emergency fund because the deposit will take up a lot of it. And then I'd like to add to my vacation fund. I'd like to have about $3500 in there by next summer.

We'll see how things go. Wish me luck!