Supplement Income

Have you ever been in a bind when you needed some quick cash? We were two years ago when my husband's doctor told him he is border-line diabetic. His insurance paid for part of the office vist and his supplies but didn't cover them 100 percent. We were left finding a way to produce more income to cover the costs and I am out of work and unable to a job.

The most immediate solution I thought of (or to stay with the theme of my blog, dreamed of) was to have a garage sale. We didn't have enough items to sell so I asked my mother and brother if I could rummage through their closets and garages explaining to them that I was having a garage sale to earn some money to help pay medical expenses for John. They were more than happy to have me go through their unused items as long as I got their permission to sell what I found. Also, they allowed me to keep all of the money I collected since - in essence - I was helping them to consolidate unused items literally cluttering their storage spaces.

Since I wasn't willing to dip into our income for the additional expense of advertising the garage sale in the local newspaper, I used Craigslist, a free service for people like me to advertise items for sale. The web site as well as the registration process were easy to navigate and in just a few minutes I was on my way to creating an ad.

I wanted to make sure I enticed not only women to the garage sale but men, too. I did this with the header or title of the listing, "Garage Sale Tools & Household items". Then in the body of the advertisement, I typed out those things I had gotten from my brother like rolling toolbox, tools, air compressor. I knew these would be the high ticket items. Below those I listed the things I had and had gotten from my mother like end tables, king sized mattress, homemade candles, etc. Making sure I had entered my address and the time of the sale, I waited for the day to come. I made no preparations like pricing items but I did set up the garage with tables on which I put my smaller, not-easily-seen items.

The ad worked. At 15 minutes to the official start of my garage sale, men began meandering in and looking. In fact, I had more men than women who didn't start wandering in until after nine. In no time at all, I had sold all of my brothers tools, tool boxes, air compressor, grinder, etc. Although the women bought nothing whatsoever, I still made a whopping $200 which was more than enough to pay for John's medical expenses.

And that's how I made some quick money.