Selling out

In an uncharacteristic move, instead of dragging my old furniture to the curb or calling Goodwill to pick it up, I listed a few pieces of furniture on the Corporation's employee bulletin board. I've used this bulletin board plenty myself, scoring a couch, a car, a dog crate, some video games, and a few other random items. (Should I mention that I've since sold the dog crate via the same bulletin board, and that the couch was one of the pieces of furniture I recently listed?)

But in the interest of the house projects, I have now sold our computer desk, the couch (it was an extra and crowded the guest room, but I'll miss it...it is extremely comfortable), and a dresser.

The funny part is how stunned Craig is by the amount of cash I generated by these sales. He remembers our yard sales, which essentially were our version of the dollar store. We'd sell a dinette set for $10. An entertainment center for $5. But in the Corporation's employee bulletin board, prices are a bit more realistic. My three items, along with the random Arbonne products I was selling, raised about $250, and there's still another furniture item to be sold. Maybe more.

We also tried something else recently. We have loads of books in our house. Many we'll keep forever, but a few we really didn't need. We were already planning to go to the used bookstore that day, and I suggested we bring a few (seriously, a few, like ten) books with us to see if they would buy them.

The store credit we garnered from this transaction (they didn't take all the books, more like three-quarters of them) was sufficient to cover all the items we wanted to buy (a new book for Susie...To Kill a Mockingbird...pretty impressive, right?...three used books for Alex...Lemony Snicket...and a cookbook for me) and even get about $3 back.

True enough, this time of year, from late August to late September, is a financially tight time for our family (one of us is a contract employee with odd pay periods, with a few six-week breaks with no paychecks), but these kinds of things are reasonable. Not humiliating. Not difficult. Not even more effort than taking unwanted items to Goodwill. And they save us money. Which I can definitely find ways to spend.