A GREAT idea!

I have been throughly enjoying a site I stumbled across the other day called Like Merchant Ships. This blog is a wonderful resource of ideas for living frugally. I have added it to my RSS feed reader (if you do not have one of these, you need to get one, they are FREE, and a VERY easy way to track all your favorite blogs) individually rather than in one long email like days of old. :) Just do a google search on "RSS feed reader" and find one that suits your needs. I personally like NetNewsWire - I use the LITE version because it is free.)

Anyways, here is just a quick tip she shared the other day and I share it here as just a sample of the great stuff on her site.

When I clear out my excess stuff, my goal is to buy one thing every time I garage sale or thrift that will pay for the things I plan to keep. For instance, we needed some fall sweaters. We went to Goodwill on 99 cent day. I bought four sweaters for us and one Christmas sweater by Storybook Knits/Home Shopping Network. The sweater is already up to $12, so I've earned double what I paid for our own sweaters.

What a GREAT idea! The next time I am out shopping at Goodwill for things I need (and I always ending up getting things I also want - I need to be MUCH BETTER about controlling my spending at Goodwill), I will look for one thing that can be Craigslisted or Ebayed the make the money back from what I spent.

If you have never seen Craigs List, I highly encourage you to head over and see if there is one for your city (or a nearby city). It is better than ebay because 1) you can SEE it, feel it, TOUCH it before you buy it, 2) no shipping! no no way to damage in shipping, 3) no ebay effact of paying more than it's worth because you want to win the auction, 4) most people who sell on Craigs List sell for cheaper than ebay because they are more interested in getting rid of the item than making a whole lot of money on it. Check it out! :)