How Craig and His List Helped a Mom Like Me Make Some Extra Cash

Let’s cut to the chase – in today’s day and age, what do you do when you need some extra cash? I mean, come on let’s face it – the economy is in bad shape.  I keep hearing that we’re coming out of the recession, that “they” are trying to create jobs, blah, blah, blah. Well, that’s great but I need money NOW. I can’t afford to wait and see “if” gas prices are going to go down (and it doesn’t sound like they will anytime soon). All I know is trying to make ends meet every month can sometimes be a challenge. Or maybe you’re situation is a little different – you can make ends meet, but it would be nice to have a little extra spending money.  Maybe go out to dinner a couple more times a month, buy your honey something special, or even a weekend getaway spur of the moment.  TOTALLY DO-ABLE!!

So here I am brainstorming one day on how I was going to make a few extra bucks, when I hear my kids fighting down in the playroom. “MMMMOOOOOMMMM!!!!!!  He’s being mean to me!!!!!!”  Ugh – when will they ever learn to get along so I can bask in the glory of peaceful co-existence? Probably not anytime soon.  Anyway, I go down to the playroom to help them settle their differences when it hit me. My playroom is full of unused, unwanted, unplayed with, outgrown “stuff” for both kids and adults.  All too good to throw away. BINGO! I’ve just struck gold! After patting myself on the back and briefly, VERY briefly, feeling like a rocket-scientist to have come up with such an amazing, ingenius idea, I realize that people do this very thing all the time and that I’m just slow to catch on.  Whatever, better late than never, right? Right.

Ok, so now that I have my “brilliant idea”, how am I going to sell it?  Well, my two best choices are yardsale or online.  Both of which have pros and cons (I’m trying to be diplomatic here). Now, I don’t want to offend anyone who loves yardsaling, but seriously… yardsales stink.  I hate yardsales…really, really hate them.  Why? Because they are time killers.  And I don’t know about you, but my time is valuable.

Now I’ve had a few yardsales in my day, and if you enjoy that sort of thing, then go for it! Whatever works!  The  downside, though (and in my opinion it is a BIG downside), is the amount of time and effort that goes into having one. Because I’m disorganized and also very lazy.  Well, no I take that back, maybe not lazy; I just highly value my time and I don’t want to waste it if I don’t think it will be worth it in the end.  I mean let’s face it: YARDSALE = WORK.  You have to gather the goods ahead of time and put price labels on them, get up super early to get your stuff outside, put up signs so people actually come by and see your stuff, sit out and monitor everything for 4-6 hours, then clean all your leftover crap up, and in my case it usually just ends up sitting in my garage indefinitely in a big, freaking mess.  Oh, and the whole while you are PRAYING it doesn’t rain.