Buying Out a Yard Sale

It was stormy again last Friday, but there were thankfully a handful of yard sales on Saturday. One yard sale we went to had a ton of clothes that were exactly what I look for when I'm sourcing for resell. I wanted to buy everything, but each of the items were priced around $5 and up. I picked a few key pieces and paid $16 for them and asked the woman running the sale if she would be interested in doing a deal on whatever she had left at the end of the day. She told me to come back around 2 p.m. and we could work something out. I went to an ATM to reload and hit a couple more yard sales while I waited. When I went back, I was able to work out a deal to buy all of her clothing she had left for $150. There were a few really nice pieces that she didn't want to include in the deal, which was a little disappointing, but it still ended up being a great deal for me.

I brought all of the pieces home, and sorted through them. She had a lot of t-shirts that I was able to give to Mom for her projects, and I ended up with 84 great pieces for resell, including those I had purchased earlier for $16. This made each item $1.98. I also totaled up an estimated resell value for the haul based on what I thought each item would sell for. I was very conservative with this number because I wanted it to be realistic and know for sure if this had been a good move. I came to a value of $915, making this haul a $749 profit!

I'm always nervous when spending a ton of money on inventory, and yes, $150 is still a ton of money in my eyes! However, these are the moves that end up being my greatest successes. I could never have done anything like this a year ago, and it is so exciting that I've come so far in a year. I can't wait to see where my reselling journey takes me!

~*~ 

"If you don't love what you do, then you shouldn't do it." - Marcus Lemonis (The Profit)

~*~

Over and out. 

Rolling with the Punches

It has been a rough few weeks. I was rear-ended by a distracted driver at a red light when Mom and I were running errands a few weeks ago. We were both fine, but this was quite a shock to me. My car was totaled, but I was thankfully able to get a new (to me) one when I received money from my insurance company. I had a 2015 Ford Fiesta and was able to replace it with a 2017 Ford Fiesta with very low mileage. I like this car because it is compact and easy to drive. I often joke that driving my Mom's car is like driving a tank.

 ~*~

In other news, my income from reselling nearly doubled in June. I've been putting a lot of effort into my Poshmark closet and I am definitely seeing results. I have also been exploring other sourcing opportunities as the weather has not allowed for many yard sales. It has been a very stormy summer! I discovered that the Salvation Army near me makes their color of the week $0.99 on Thursdays, so I have been making that my regular Thursday sourcing trip. I've been able to get about thirty more items each week this way.

One of my goals this summer was to get a routine down to amp up my productivity. This is what has been working for me lately...

Sunday = Take Photos
Monday = List
Tuesday = List
Wednesday = List
Thursday = Source Thrift Stores
Friday = Source Yard Sales (Weather permitting)
Saturday = Source Yard Sales (Weather permitting)
Sunday = It starts all over again with pictures!

My biggest hang up with reselling is taking pictures. I hate taking pictures, and I'm not ashamed to admit it! This is why I do all of my inventory for the week on Sunday. I make a day of it and get it all over with so I don't have to do again until the next week. I pick an audiobook to listen to, bring an exorbitant amount of drinks (water and tea), grab my tape measure and hide out in my room until all of the photos are finished. I include measurements in my photos because I find it easier than pulling the item to answer questions later.

~*~

Speaking of audiobooks, I'm still enjoyed the app Scribd. As I mentioned in a previous post, the app has many bad reviews but I am still loving it. It's $8.99 a month and has unlimited books and audiobooks. The reason it has bad reviews is because it pauses your usage if it thinks you're reading too much. I have yet to hit that wall and am still very impressed with it, especially for the price. The only thing I don't like about it is the limited selection. This wouldn't even bother me that much, but it's annoying when they only have the first (or first few) books in a series and don't have the rest. Other than that it has five stars from me!

~*~

I read a comment on my Mom's blog, Frugal Workshop, this week that really bothered me. One of her readers commented that she was told that she was stealing from the government by using the library. As someone with aspirations to be a librarian and who genuinely loves the library, I would like to share this photo I found floating around Facebook.

This shows just a few reasons why libraries are still relevant today, and I wholeheartedly agree with all of them. I think libraries are also great for building communities, aiding college students, and fostering a love of reading in children. I often attend a monthly book club that is held at my local library and I've found that they offer many free resources such as coupon classes, computer classes, Zumba, resume building, etc.

~*~

"I'm in a tank, pal. Come and get me!" - Lorelai Gilmore (Gilmore Girls)

~*~

Over and out.

I graduated!

I graduated from my two-year college last Saturday! The journey was not easy and I feel incredibly accomplished. During the last two years, I worked in the library on campus, and I took a full class load during three semesters. I have to say that the most valuable knowledge I gained during my college experience was from working in the library. I now want to continue my education to become a librarian because I was so inspired every day I was working there. Furthermore, I wanted to write a blog post in reflection of some other lessons I learned during the last two years.

Grit - I learned the true meaning of keeping my head down and working my tail off to get an impossible load of work finished well done and on time. Between working in the library, trying to grow a reselling business, and taking five to six classes a semester, I learned what it meant to have too much work in too little time. I had to learn how to power through and when to stop when I really needed to. Take a breath and then jump right back in. It wasn't easy, but it showed me what I was capable of.

It's a Big World Out There! - I grew up in a rural community. My high school graduating class had less than one hundred students, and wasn't very diverse. While I was always liberal and open-minded, my corner of the world didn't really expose me to different cultures and values. During my time in college, I took a Cultural Diversity and a World Religions class and I like to think that they helped broaden my horizons and give me a better understanding of the world. One of my best memories is when our World Religions class visited a Mosque and we got to listen to their service.

Just Go with It - This is something I wish I had learned in high school. Through college, I learned not to build up situations in my head and to just let things unfold. If I had a presentation coming up or a major school event, I didn't stress on it and play it out in my head beforehand. Doing this made the experiences smoother and easier to take in. I didn't end up disappointed, and I enjoyed the experiences more for what they were.

You Can't Please Everyone - This may sound like an excuse, but it isn't. There are, unfortunately, some professors and others that you just cannot please. I learned to roll with the punches on these, make the corrections they ask me to make, do the best I can, and let the rest play out. Sometimes it's better to move on to another task and achieve it successfully than to pour too much time on mission impossible.

Live in the Moment - It's all too easy to become overwhelmed with tasks in the future. The semester I was taking six classes, I had to focus on the now. I was out of hours and there was no such thing as working ahead. I learned to focus on the tasks in front of me and not become overwhelmed with things to come. This goes along with the grit idea. In the words of Charles Winchester, "I do one thing at a time. I do it very well, and then I move on."

~*~

Over and out.

Rainy Yard Sale Day

It was a very rainy weekend here. My class was canceled Friday, so I decided to go yard sale. Since I had a long essay to write for my Literature class, I wanted to hit all of the yard sales on Friday so I could focus on school work over the weekend. Several of the yard sales were canceled because of the rain, but I was still able to hit a few. (Of course I forgot my rain coat!)

The first yard sale I hit was a $5 fill a bag sale. The person holding the yard sale said that his grandmother had recently passed away and she was a collector/hoarder. There were a lot of vintage Disney items, and it was a really fun dig. I only picked up a few items because a lot of her stuff was really dirty and hadn't been stored properly. I did manage to pick up an Aladdin Micky Mouse lunch box, a Micky Mouse Etch-a-Sketch, a Sesame Street pillow case, a Raggedy Ann plate from the 60's, and a set of Star Wars cup lids. I paid $7 at this yard sale, $5 for a bag and $2 for the bag of Star Wars items. This wasn't anything super exciting, but it was a fun dig and I enjoy finding unique items like these.

At another yard sale, there was a large box of what I thought were sheets. As I was digging through them, the lady running the yard sale informed me that they were clown pants that her husband's father and grandfather used to go "clowning" in. I loved that she was using the word "clown" as a verb! They were all handmade with nice vintage fabric. There was a ton of fabric to each suit, and she only wanted a $1 a piece. I picked up three, that were not worn out, to recycle the fabric for Mom's sewing projects. This was a total win!

Part of the fun of yard sales is that I usually come out of each week with an interesting story. Even though I don't always find something awesome, going to yard sales is always an adventure.

~*~

"Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive not after he is dead" -F. Scot Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby)

~*~

Over and out.

Tuesday Thrift Finds

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~*~

I don't have any classes on Tuesdays, so when Mom came home from work yesterday, we decided to go thrifting. At the first thrift store we went to, I found a coat for me that was half off at $2.50. I'm very picky about coats and jackets, so this was an exciting find for me. I also managed to pick up a couple of pairs of shoes. One pair was was $5 and the other was $3. I'm hoping to resell them for at least $30 each. We also found a couple of nice dish towels for Mom's sewing projects.

   

I found the next thrift store to be very picked over. We looked for a while, but only found a Mary Engelbreit bag that we wanted to add to our reusable shopping bag stash. I was going to check out with just the bag when I noticed a Louis Vuitton bag in the display shelf of the checkout counter. It had a $40 tag and was half off! So I paid $20 for my first Louis Vuitton find! Plus, the cashier looked at the Mary Engelbreit bag and said that an employee must have accidentally put it on the floor because they were using it to carry stuff around, and she gave it to us! This was a super thrift experience!

The last thrift store we went to was very crowded! I picked up another $5 pair of shoes similar to those in the first thrift store. I also picked up a Columbia purse, some fabric for Mom's sewing projects, and a Yankee Candle topper. Mom found this vintage Playskool Mail Box toy. As I've mentioned before, I am on a vintage toy kick right now and have been on the lookout for them. As she was shopping with the toy in her cart, she had TWO people try to get it from her. One was a man who followed her and was saying things like, "We shouldn't be buying all of this stuff. We should just put it all back." The other guy was trying to tell her that it was damaged and had parts missing. This thrift store was very crowded and the other shoppers were vulture-like!

~*~

I read a hack on Instagram that you can clean up a piece of clothing that has deodorant stains by scrubbing it with an inside out sock. I tried it on this prom dress and was very pleased with the results.

Before

After

~*~

RIP Big Kitty
2006 - 2018

~*~

"I have a masters degree in American literature. There's nothing I can't handle." - Ezra Fitz (Pretty Little Liars)

~*~

Over and out.

Cat Cots and Other Critters

Happy Easter! It's finally April, and now the yard sales are starting up again. I've been able to go two weekends in a row now. I've been on a vintage toy kick lately and have managed to find some 80's Care Bear toys and a Cinderella Ugly Step Sister Barbie doll. I enjoy watching States Place videos with a Mighty Mushroom because they talk a lot about researching different things and expanding your knowledge into different areas. I think vintage toys are a fun thing to look for and sell, and it's something that keeps my interest.

Some other finds include a sewing machine I picked up for mom at $60. It is a techy sewing machine that is almost $200 at Walmart, and it had all of the accessories in it and everything was still in the Styrofoam. The guy I bought it from said that his wife bought it to make clothes for their daughter but then she never used it. We've had it in the house for two days, and Mom has already used it a ton. 

I also picked up a nice fan for $2. We pick all of these up when we find them cheap because our air conditioner is elderly and doesn't cool like it used to. I also picked up this "cat cot" (as I'm calling it) for $1. My cat, Polka Dot, thoroughly sniffed it out before laying on it and now he and Miss Kitty love it. A dollar well spent!

Also, there was one yard sale that had some decent clothes and I was able to pick up a few pairs of jeans. When I got them home and was tagging them, I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. One pair of jeans had a huge centipede in it, and I am a huge bug-aphobe! I ran the pair of jeans out on the porch and tried to shake him out. The centipede won that battle and I ditched the jeans on the banister. I then brought out all the other pieces I'd gotten that day and shook them out as well and steamed them for good measure. Did I mention I'm not a fan of bugs? The next day, Mom had the pair of jeans and said she was able to shake the centipede out. I was just going to let him have them at that point, but I washed them and they are good as new now. 

~*~

In other news, I signed up for this program called Scribd because I think Audible is crazy expensive. The reviews of Scribd online weren't very good, but the idea of unlimited audiobooks for $8.99 a month is too good to not give a chance. I'm still in the free 30-day trial period, but I really like it so far. I finished Unwind by Neal Shusterman, but they don't have the second in the series which is super disappointing. However, I looked up all of the books in my Goodreads "Want to Read" list and there were many available on Scribd, so I'm not giving up hope yet. 

~*~

Poshmark has a new feature where you can send a private discount to people who have liked a certain item. I have mixed feelings about this, but I've been using it and it's had good results. I've been running these private discounts every Friday, and last Friday I had four sales because of it. When the feature first launched, I had many sales the first day. This feature has been helping me move things in my Poshmark store, however, in order to sell using this method the price has to be marked down significantly. It requires that you send the buyer a discount AND a shipping discount. This means that on lower priced items, this takes at least $4 off the asking price, which on a $12 item is pretty significant, not to mention Poshmark's fee. I've also noticed that buyers simply buying items for the asking price are becoming less and less common. Most, if not all, of my recent sales have been due to some type of discount, so I've started adding $5-$10 to the asking price of my items on Poshmark because after discount and fees I'm not making nearly as much on Poshmark sales as I would if I sold the same item on Mercari or Ebay. This way, I am able to make closer to my asking price and still enjoy selling on Poshmark. 

~*~

"Do I dare disturb the universe?" 

- T.S. Elliot

~*~ 

Over and out. 

A $5 iPad & Cat Carrier Adventures

It’s been a fantastic week. I had my biggest flip yet, and I am super excited about it. I found these Tom Baker Doctor Who DVD’s at my area’s Salvation Army grand opening for $1-$2 a piece. I sold them all in a lot for $250 on Ebay! This is my biggest flip to date! I love sales like this because it excites me and gives me renewed vigor for reselling.

It’s warming up a little here. It was eighty degrees this weekend (despite it being February), and there were a couple of yard sales in my area. I went to one on Friday and found some great clothes and an iPad Mini for $5! The screen is shattered, but I ordered a $12 screen protector from Mercari to protect my hands while using it. When I got it charged up, it was activation locked. I was so glad it was Friday and I was able to go back to the yard sale on Saturday and ask the lady to unlock it. She was very nice about it and even helped make sure I could log into it and it would have no further problems. She also had brought more clothes out and I was able to pick up some more pieces.

This was a great find and I am so lucky to have gotten it. I’ve been wanting to try out an iPad for cross-posting and Poshmark sharing for a while to see if it is easier/faster, but haven’t yet been willing to drop a ton of money on it. This way, I’ll be able to try it and see if I like it and if I do, I can pay to have the screen replaced. If not, it doesn’t hurt to have a spare device around when a laptop or phone goes down. 

The clothes I got from this yard sale were really good also. She was charging only $1 a piece for them, and I was getting great brands, such as, LuLaRoe, Ann Taylor LOFT, and Lucky Brand. I’ve already sold three of the LuLaRoe pieces and pulled a profit on the entire haul, including the iPad! Many resellers on YouTube are saying that LuLaRoe is dying fast, and after some of the articles I’ve read about them I tend to agree, but these pieces were really good and $1 isn’t too much of a gamble. 

~*~

I finished The Great Gatsby for my Modern American Literature class. The ending was not at all what I was expecting. I knew a little bit about the characters from watching the movie in highschool, but I missed the second day of that, so I didn’t know everything that happened. I was sad by the fact that Daisy ended up not being a very good character. I thought she was one of the good guys, but I realized at the end that she was very shallow and this was disappointing. I’m glad to have it read though and all of the assignments on it are finished. My Lit class hasn’t even officially started yet, so I’m ahead of the game. 

~*~

I had to take my cats to the vet this week. We are fixing the boys so that they will stop tripling the population. I decided that it would be easier to take them on different days rather than trying to transport them together. So on Monday, I loaded up Polka Dot into a pet carrier that I either got at a yard sale or a thrift store, I don’t remember now. He was relatively calm as I was putting him in the car. Mom bought this calming spray on Amazon that I had doused the carrier in prior to putting him in it. About halfway out of my driveway (It’s about a half mile long), Polka Dot managed to UNZIP the carrier and climb out. The drive to the vet was about thirty minutes long, and I really didn’t want the cat to wander around my car in that time, so I was able to put the cat back in the carrier and make sure that he couldn’t unzip it again. I was talking to him and trying to keep him calm. It was evident at this point that the calming spray was doing nothing for him. 

About a third of the way to the vet, Polka Dot began ripping through the mesh on the side of the carrier. I was able to get him to stop this, but he quickly began doing it on the other side and broke free. I pulled over to the side of the road (I’m sure all the people behind me were very happy), and petted him to calm him down. I was going to go back home, afraid that he wouldn’t calm down and might run out of the car at the vet, but he was fine once he was out of the carrier and curled up in my passenger floor board (as far away from me as possible) (I told him I was sorry). Once I arrived at the vet, I went inside and asked for a carrier as my cat had Houdinied out of his and managed to get him inside. I was going to just carry him inside at this point, but there were large dogs barking all around the parking lot. 

Monday afternoon, I went to Petco to look at new cat carriers as the thrifted one was rendered useless by Houdini (Polka Dot’s official new nickname). As I still had to bring our other male cat, Dirty Nose (Mom named this bunch of cats), into the vet the next morning. I found this one for $35. It was the smallest they had which is perfect since we don’t cart our cats around very often, and I don’t want to have to store a large carrier. Plus it was pink! 

Tuesday morning, I put Dirty Nose in the new, hopefully Houdini proof, cat carrier. He was not happy, but this carrier was much sturdier and was able to withstand his abuse. I got him to the vet with little struggle. He did manage to destroy the table cloth I had placed under the cage in my passenger seat floor board by clawing it inside through the bars of the carrier. I had purchased the tablecloth this weekend, at the same yard sale with the iPad, for $1. I pick these up when I find them cheap enough for events such as this. I would much rather the cat destroy a $1 table cloth than the floorboard of my car. 

The moral of this story is to maybe not trust mesh cat carriers or at least ones from thrift stores. 

This week's victims:

RIP $5 Thrifted Cat Carrier

RIP $1 Yard Sale Table Cloth

~*~

I’m going to be spending the rest of this week and this weekend dog-sitting for a friend. She lives in a larger city than me, so I’m excited to thrift and yard sale in her area. I would normally have to drive an hour to get to her area on weekends to yard sale, so it’s nice to be that close for a change. 

Until next time. 

Over and Out.

Books & My Valentine's Weekend Poshmark Sale

It's been a busy couple of weeks. The semester is in full swing, and I have been super focused on reselling and hitting my listing goals every day. I've also been working on my photo taking area, and becoming a Poshmark Ambassador. I have lots of goals that I'm trying to achieve and only so many hours in the day. I've been enjoying being really busy though because at the end of the day I can feel accomplished.

~*~

As before mentioned, the semester is in full swing, so I'm of course reading several books at the  moment.

This one is for

my Modern                                               

American

Literature 

Class. I've 

only read

through chapter

one, but I really

like it so far.

I'm reading this

one for a book

club that we have 

in the library

on campus. 

It seems very similar

to other books I've

read recently, but 

I'm giving it a

chance and hoping

                            it has some

                            originality.

I started reading

this over winter

break because

I love Neal

Shusterman's 

books. I always

seems to forget

how good they 

are until I start

another one.

And then there's this one

that I've been reading

for months because

I can only get through

so much of it at a time.

(It's actually kind of 

terrible, but I need to 

know what happens 

between Cathy & her

mother, but that part

                          isn't until the end. Ugh.)

~*~

My Mercari sales have been down this week, but I ran my first sale on Poshmark, so my sales there are up. I had a sale running from the start of last weekend through Valentine's Day on winter items and other things I've had in my store for a while. It moved a lot of things, which is fantastic, but I really didn't make much money with it as the items that sold were up to 50% off. However, it is good that those items are out of my store and I did profit a little on them. I am working with very limited space inside my home, so I can't always hold on to things until I get the price I want. I find it's better to get stuff out the door so I can get new, fresh inventory to list.

~*~

I called Ebay and got my selling limit raised! This is very exciting for me because my listing limit was 120 items, and they raised it to 300. As I tend to keep about 200-250 items up at a time, this new limit is perfect for me at the moment. I'm still deciding whether or not to get an ebay store subscription as I believe the cheapest one is $25 a month. I know that the benefits will outweigh the costs, but it still feels like a big move for me.

~*~

That was my week. I am working on trying to find a time balance between school and reselling. It's all too easy to focus on only one and let the other slip, but with only taking a couple of classes this semester, it's a little easier. On to the next week!

Over and out. 

Printer Struggles

Printy has failed me!

*sigh* My printer that has been struggling to print shipping labels for a few weeks now has finally thrown in the towel. It started with Poshmark labels. For some reason it seemed to struggle with them more that anything else, but now that the new semester has started it has become apparent to me that Printy wasn't going to print anything without a fight. I have a recycle bin filled with half printed labels and syllabuses to prove it.

After a quick google search for a cheap printer, I found Printy 2.0. It was $25, and I was able to pick it up at Walmart the same day. I don't pay a lot for printers because it seems that no matter how much I pay and how "nice" a printer is, they only seem to last a couple years at most. This one also has a scanner which I'm happy about. I wasn't looking for any frills, just something that would print labels and school assignments, but if it's included, why not?

So here's Printy 2.0....

R.I.P Printy

Over and out.

Exciting Poshmark Sale!

I had an exciting Poshmark sale this week. It was a bundle of six items! The bundle included several items that I'd had for a while including a Lilly Pulizer Coat and a Free People Dress. It's always nice to sell things that I've had a while. She also purchased several "bread and butter" pieces, and I was happy about that because it's almost better to sell these items in a bundle so that they are worth the shipping cost.

I've noticed a lot on Poshmark that buyers will bundle items and then send offers for half the price of the items, and it's easy to get discouraged by this. This sale really boosted my spirits on this matter. I have an automatic discount of 10% set on bundles, and I usually throw in a little extra discount for encouragement, and this buyer bought the whole six item bundle with no fuss over price. It was great!

In other news, Ebay sent me an offer for 50 free listing, so I've been working on getting those uploaded. I love Ebay's offers since I haven't purchased a store subscription yet. I can see doing that in the near future though.

Over and out.

My Year of Books: 2017

I enjoy recording what I read on Goodreads, and the past two years they have published a page called Your Year of Books, and I really enjoy the opportunity to reflect on the books I've read over the past year.

My favorite part is the longest to shortest meter, and the most popular to least popular. My favorite of the reads this year would have to be Fantastic Beasts, but I have to say that it was a good year in books entirely. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was for extra credit in one of my classes, and it was a very enlightening while comical read. I also reread many books this year, including, Miss Peregrine's Home of Peculiar Children and The Bad Beginning. The Miss Peregrine one was for a book club at my college's library, and it gave me an opportunity to refresh before reading the last of the trilogy as I hadn't had the chance yet. As before mentioned, this was a great year in books and I can't wait for the next one. 

Over and out.

My Experience at Teavana

Only a few times a year, my mom and I will go to the mall and spend the day walking around. We do a little shopping usually, but not much as retail prices in the mall are so high. One store we like to go into is Teavana because they usually have about five or six tea samples to try, and they always have cute teapot displays.

The last time we were in there, I believe it was around Christmas, we made the mistake of talking to an employee. We had a little bit of extra money and were interested in buying some tea. After telling the sales person that we wanted two ounces of a tea, he filled a bag with just over two ounces, much closer to three. Then, the talking began. Instead of ringing us up, the employee continued to badger us about all of the teas on display, and wafting them all towards us.

Eventually he had us suckered into buying two other teas, two ounces of each, and proceeded to put almost three ounces into those as well. Let me tell you, if you've never shopped there, these ounces aren't cheap. This man was obviously so determined to sell us as much as possible, and my mother and I were being so tortured, that I actually started to laugh uncontrollably at one point, which earned a glare from the salesman. He then asked me if I was interested in what he was showing, and I made another mistake in telling him that I like spice teas, not floral.

After perhaps ten minutes of showing us teas with spice, my mother excused herself and whispered "follow me" to me. We all but ran from the store and didn't stop until we reached Forever 21 on the other side of the mall, laughing all the way.

This whole process took perhaps half an hour, maybe more as time has no meaning in Teavana.

When we got home, we looked up reviews on Teavana and saw that many people had similiar experiences that we had. They fill the bags with more tea than you ask for, and their employees are encouraged to adapt agressive sales techniques. Needless to say, we will not be returning.

My Experience Sugar Waxing

After watching Jazzybum's video on Sugar Waxing, I decided to try it. I was excited for this because it is an all-natural alternative to waxing your legs, and I already had all of the ingredients on hand. After giving it a try, I have one things to say...

Don't do this! Ever!

Never!

It was a nightmare to make!

It was a nightmare to do!

It was a nightmare to clean!

I have never done traditionally waxing, so I don't really have anything to compare this too. However, this experience has turned me off of waxing for life. Firstly, I had much trouble cooking it. I was unsure of how long it was supposed to cook and how "brown" it was supposed to be. After cooking it several times, I worked with it and tried to wax my legs for a long while. I ended up having to reheat it several times, and eventually gave up when it essentially turned to stone in the pan.

The clean up process: To clean the tools and pan that I used, I had to use boiling water to melt the concrete mess I had created. After several repeats of that, it took lots and lots of scraping.

Did it remove any hair? - A few patches on ONE leg...

Was it worth the trauma? - Absolutely not.

This, of course, is nothing against Jazzybum! She has a totally awesome channel, and I suggest you check out some of her videos because she is quite funny.

P.S. I can say with certainty that the plastic tray she used to cool the mixture is in the garbage.

Book Burrow's Grand Opening!

I am super excited to announce the opening of Book Burrow! Book Burrow is an Etsy shop that I have been working on all summer, and I am so glad to finally be able to share it with the world.

Things that will be sold in Book Burrow are wallets, handbags, shoes, book safes, etc. These will feature pages from some of my favorite books, such as, Harry Potter, Divergent, Susan Branch, Neal Shusterman novels, Maggie Stiefvater novels, and more!

Book Burrow Shop

Book Burrow Instagram

How I Fund My Reading Obsession on $15 a Year

From Little Women to Harry Potter, reading is one of my favorite hobbies, But like all hobbies, it usually comes with a price. We all know that when a new books comes out, it immediately lines the shelves of our favorite stores, making us want to read it immediately. Especially if it's by one of our favorite authors or the next in a series we're reading. However, the price tag usually makes me take a step back and wait a while. A new Nicholas Sparks or Danielle Steel book can be over twenty dollars! So how do I avoid these prices?

-McKay's

McKay's is one of my favorite places in the world! I take all of the books, movies, CD's, etc. that I'm finished with, and trade them there for store credit. They are much more generous when you get their store credit versus when you want to sell your stuff to them for cash. During most visits, I am able to get at least four or five books. (I also get most of my movies here, so it's like getting them free too.) Many people shop and trade their stuff here, so there's always new things to look at. I bought the entire Skinjacker Trilogy by Neal Shusterman here, and just used my trade credit for them. There are also some free bins outside where McKay's puts their rejected books. Most of the time they're full of junk, but sometimes there's some really neat stuff in it. 

-Tennessee R.E.A.D.S.

My local library is set up with Tennessee R.E.A.D.S. so I can download eBooks and audiobooks to my phone whenever I want. The only thing needed for this is a library card, which because I don't live in the same city as the library I frequent, I pay $15 a year for it. It's completely worth it however because I use it SO much. I constantly have at least two books checked out, so I definitely get my money's worth. The only downside to Tennessee R.E.A.D.S. is that you can only check out what your local library has paid for, so it's like the inventory inside the library. If someone already has a book checked out, then everyone else has to wait. This makes it difficult to check out new releases, but it's worth the wait.

-Patience

Sad, but true. Patience saves money on books. As I mentioned before, newly released books are rarely under ten dollars. Despite wanting to read the next book by a favorite author or the next in a series immediately, I know that if I wait a few months, perhaps even a year for some, they will come down in price considerably or will finally be available on Tennessee R.E.A.D.S. After all, there's plenty of other books to read in the mean time. 

One Reason I Love My FitBit

I have had my FitBit Flex for about three years now, and one of the reasons I love it so much is because the FitBit software is really motivating for me. Today I received an email saying that, over the time I've had my FitBit, I have walked the entire length of India!

I get an email like this from them about once a month, and I love it! It's such a great motivator to move and be active!