Friday, November 8, 2019

Elvis has left the building - Again and Again!

I've been busy - with scouting Christmas stuff for resale, volunteering and working.  The title refers to this Elvis record which I keep finding and reselling.  In fact, last week I sold one on Tuesday, found another on Wednesday and sold that one on Thursday!  I am trying to ramp up my tiny sideline business a little bit.  The last couple of years I have just played at it but I enjoy looking for stuff and reselling it. My favorite is reselling Christmas stuff.  I used to just stick with vintage but now I look for any quality Christmas stuff. One day, when hubby does actually semi retire I want to ramp it up even further.  Retirement for us means many streams of income, not all passive.  This side gig doesn't make a huge amount of money but is one I enjoy and now is the time to get better at it.  I've spent the last two weeks trying to sell more on Facebook Marketplace and actually had good success.


The Christmas vintage hunt for my collection has also begun, although this year it is much tougher since the thrift stores have caught on and went from underpricing to overpricing.  Oh well, the hunt is fun and every Saturday that Mom and I can we spend the morning looking.  I also have loads of it and really don't want my collection to get any larger, so if I find good stuff this year I will sell off other not as good stuff to keep the collection manageable.   And no, I am not decorating the house, that waits until the last week in December.  We might put up the exterior Christmas lights this weekend as the weather has been unusually dry and mild but won't turn them on until December.  Buddy has been loving is physiotherapy walks.

I only volunteered once this month, mostly because there hasn't been as much opportunity to do so but I've scheduled myself 3 times at the wild animal rescue in December plus also have the volunteer Christmas party to attend in mid-December. 

I've not really started my Christmas shopping, usually I like to be done by December 1 so I best get on that.  All the money for Christmas was saved by summer which is super nice since we are still on reduced salaries.  We have signed new contracts, we just are being super careful to make sure we always have 6 months of salaries in the company bank account. 

Our annual November/December trek to Alberta to see the kids that are there and hubby's Mom is in 3 weeks and our lovely week long trip to Mexico (Zihuatanejo again this year, we loved it) is only 83 days away!  And yes, I am counting, plus I have an airline app that tells me how many days.

And that's about all I've got right now!  Have a great weekend everyone.





18 comments:

  1. The non-passive, but fun side income streams is what I would love my hubs to find. He won't be content to not have anything coming in once I can get him to retire. I think as a natural born salesperson, he can move quality stuff along, but will need some tech support.

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    1. Lol I am tech support at our company. Plus then we pay a real tech to help us for the super hard stuff (I used to work with him). We've pretty much decided hubby will always consult on the side...likely at least until age 65 (he is 57) as he will go bananas otherwise. That will help with side hustle income for sure although we have already completed our retirement savings as stuck a lot of house money in that fund when we downsized.

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  2. Those two trips you have lined up sound great, and your business of selling things online is one you can grow when you retire. I retired ten years ago and it is surprising how busy I am. Volunteering, home improvements, Bible study, Widow Friends group, keeping the garden pretty, etc. Today our group of 4 friends is treating one of us to birthday lunch.

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    1. I am always shocked at how busy most seniors are. I wanted to start volunteering now to see how I like it. I actually really enjoy it!

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  3. You sound busy. I do like your idea of visiting the kids before Christmas. There is no way I would travel at Christmas again. Enjoy the thrill of the hunt, so nice you can share it with your Mom.

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    1. We used to go much closer to Christmas, I found the travel part started to ruin the fun of it. I much prefer going a few weeks early. That also allows the kids to still fly out for Christmas if they want to. One of them is coming out this year, usually they alternate years.

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  4. I tried selling a few items on our city's buy and sell site and while everything did sell, I found it a bit of a nuisance waiting for people to reply back to messages, making arrangements for pick up or delivery. I still have some things I need to get rid of (even though we aren't moving yet), so I'll probably try again.

    Elvis is apparently an easy sell!

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    1. It is hard sometimes to deal with flaky people...and from time to time I take a break from it as get really tired of it but lately I have had really good luck.

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  5. Ha just yesterday I was going through a whole bunch of old CDs and I found an "Elvis" one but it was crap so that actually went in the pile to give to a former colleague who collects them. I don't have the patience or the interest to try reselling stuff but I'm always amazed at how well some people seem to do with it, although I'm sure it's more work than it appears right!

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    1. It is a lot of work, but I refuse to ship so they have to come pick up which saves a lot of the hassle/work. I do love the scouting part and I would be going to these places whether I resold or not so it just helps pay for my other purchases.

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  6. You just reminded me that I have a couple of Christmas items in the attic that I want to list on the Marketplace. Love the idea of a countdown app. I need one that tells me how many days till summer vacation!

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    1. Lol..this one is Westjet and we booked both trips with them so I can always see how many days. Good thing as I just realized I need to have half our Christmas sorted by the 27th when we fly out. It made me do some shopping yesterday

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  7. Side hustles with multi streams of income are fabulous. TheHub and I are currently investigating a few ideas, in addition to some property rentals. I need to reduce my personal Christmas stash right away. Maybe I should try my local marketplace

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    1. November is definitely the month to sell Christmas!

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  8. I think that is a great sideline and fun as well. have fun putting up the outdoor lights. I just want to get settled someplace, Never mind think about Christmas.

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    1. I have to get all my shopping done for the kids by Nov 26 to take with us to Alberta...but other than that and a bit of baking that's all I'm doing until December. The lights make Christmas for me...I could do without the rest

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  9. Ha! Fancy finding Elvis twice.
    I bet you cannot wait to get to Mexico! xxx

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    1. Seriously it is has been that kind of year....I just wish we were going for longer but a week will have to suffice :)

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