Where Are We Going to Get the Money For This? °o° *•._.•* ‘ *•._.•* °o°

It will come from sacrifice, pure and simple. When the decision was made that we would be moving to Florida, we immediately imposed a freeze (or at least a chill) on movies, eating out on a Friday or Saturday night and internet shopping (that was a hard one). Of course, freezing your frivolous spending doesn’t really earmark the savings, so we put a more formal plan into action as well.

Just around the time that we started dreaming about the move, and wondering how we would ever afford it, I was reviewing a history of book sales that I had made in the past year on Amazon.com. I have been selling books for several years now, and I have been able to afford some things that I otherwise may not have been, including trips to Disneyland in California. I was looking at the numbers and wondered to myself how much money I had earned in one full year. I added up the  and found the amount was just slightly over $1400!

This boggled my mind. Had I stashed that money away into a savings account and not spent it on things that are unaccounted for today, I would have that money right now. Suddenly, I had a savings-account epiphany – what if I saved my earning for the upcoming year? How much would I have at the end of the year? If sales maintained at the level that it has been, then I could easily have the same amount by the end of 12 months, without any more effort than I was used to.

Then, another thought popped into my head. What if I wanted $2000 by the end of one year instead of just $1400? I did some quick math and divided the $2000 dream total by 24 (the number of paydays in one year). I would need to earn $83.50 every two weeks.

When I first think about socking away $83.50 every pay period on my current salary, my excitement kind of evaporates.  However, with the kind of sacrifices that I have been making recently, I might be able to supplement the balance of my book sales, UP TO the $83.50 goal. So for example, if I have a slow book sale week, in which I earn only $40, from my following work paycheck, I would transfer the difference ($43.50 in this case); a prospect much easier to swallow.

On good sales weeks, I might even go over the goal amount, in which case I would not need to supplement any deficit. Of course at the end of the day that translates to earning MORE than my goal amount.

The first thing I did was to adjust my half.com payments account that that all deposits were made straight into my savings account, instead of checking. This way, I save myself the added effort of doing it, and I’m not tempted to hold any amount back when things are tight. I made a plan, and I need to do everything I can to stick to it.

The year was already two months in by this time, so I had missed three or four deposits and I wanted to make them up.

Since book sales had been decent, mostly approaching the goal, I didn’t need to supplement much more than 10-20 dollars, but there were those first few weeks in January and February that I needed to make up. It took some belt tightening, but I was able to double up on savings transfers and I matched the half.com deposit, to the penny for the weeks that I was missing.

Of course, second-hand books don’t list themselves, and they also don’t shop for themselves to be sold in my store.  As they say, your success is dependent upon the effort you put forth, so I started increasing my efforts. I had rummage sales to visit, and thrift store bins to dig through. Church and School fund-raisers were priority because they are usually on a much larger scale than a garage sale, and there is usually no shortage of books they are trying to unload and the church or school staff don’t mind taking lower price offers when I come up with a huge box of books and a five or ten dollar bill in hand. Rock bottom discounts are usually more frequently accepted as it gets later in the afternoon; no one likes to pack up heavy book boxes at the end of the day.

The rest of my afternoon is spent inspecting my booty, getting them listed for sale, then stored in the garage, awaiting their new owners. I like to think of myself as a book-broker; someone who goes out and finds an unwanted or abandoned baby, cleans it up, and gets it into the hands of its rightful owner; someone who will appreciate the beauty of the thing… at least until they have finished reading it and the cycle starts again; hey, kind of like Buzz and Woody and the toys of Toy Story 3, eh?

 

Comments are welcome. Positive feedback encouraged!

Mouseketeer Ken

 _     _

( ).-.( )

 `(   )`

   '-'