Author: andrea

Hi and Welcome! This blog is a way to chronicle my efforts towards a happy, healthy, and financially secure future. I have my hands in many pots and will be writing about my wins, my fails, and the comedy in between. I have two kids and a husband and you will likely hear a lot about them as we all navigate the nuances of that territory we call home. My goal is to learn and interact with readers and I am always open to ideas from readers who may have more experience on a particular subject than I do. This blog is not intended as expert opinion, though I may have a few wacky ideas to pass by you once in a while. Most of all, I hope you join me.

A Little Habit

When I was in my twenties, I had a little habit that brought me great joy. It was consistent. It took very little time. It cost very little money. It was so small that I don’t know how I began to recognize it as something that had a profound effect on my life.

This habit was simple: every Thursday, on my way to community college, I would wash my car at the self-serve car wash.

I don’t know why it gave me such a good feeling. Maybe it was the fact that it was an easy task, requiring little thought. Perhaps it was the satisfaction of accomplishing a chore in 15 minutes or less. (Those self-serve washers are timed!) It got me up and moving, and outside—sometimes a little sweaty if I was rushing.

Part of the enjoyment was that I started school just a little later on Thursday, and it seamlessly fit into my schedule. I kind of felt like a pilot making a smooth landing and then gliding off into the airport, head held high, disappearing into a well-oiled life.

No matter the reason, I remember those days fondly. Me and my vintage red Volvo, freshly vacuumed and washed, driving to school in the warm Southern California weather. Never mind that the car was completely unreliable and took ”unplanned breaks” whenever it felt like it. Or that it wasn’t a particularly happy part of my life, but that weekly carwashing habit stuck fast in my memory and is, oddly, a highlight of those days.

So, when I began to feel out of sorts last year, I purposely searched for ”things” that made me happy. I know happiness, contentment. I’ve felt it before. But what could I do now to create a reliable happiness? I was at a loss for a long time. It didn’t help that when you’re in a funk, you tend to dismiss every possibility.

I remembered that old car-washing satisfaction, but at first, I didn’t think much of it. I’d developed a pessimistic resistance. To maintain my confidence, I realized I needed something to grab on to. Something to build myself back up. I was getting desperate.

But there was the conundrum. I just kept thinking ”big.” As I spent time ruminating in regrets, I began to doubt my own decision-making skills.

And then realized. I could try it just once and see how it goes. I could give it a go.

So, I came up with the idea to start washing my car once a week on a certain day, just like I did back in my 20s.

Like old times.

My white 2005 Honda Accord certainly needed it. That slow and despondent attitude that I’d been carrying around was not good for my car. It’s an outside car, and I think there may be an owl that sits on the wires just above it and poops on it. I mean, it was filthy.

Friday became my day. I grabbed my blue bucket, heavy with shampoo and polish that my dad had given me over the last 20 years, and I went to work. I didn’t press myself too hard. This was a trial. I’d just give it a good wash and a good dry. I parked my car right out on the street since we have an oddly sloping driveway. It was so far from the house that I had to get the backyard hose to attach to the front yard hose so that I could reach it.

My neighbor was the only one to comment—“‘You never see that anymore, someone washing their car in the street!” We laughed about it, but I took it as a compliment, and it felt good.

As the weeks progressed, my car began to look better. It’s 20 years old, but I started to notice it in the parking lot of the grocery store. It had a couple of dents that I was working on pulling out with a Harbor Freight suction device that I’d found, and there’s one nickel-sized spot of rust that I intend to figure out. But still, it looked good. I also couldn’t help noticing other cars, dirty, dusty cars in the parking lot. I allowed myself a little well-earned pride, but wished I could spread the word about my little habit and how satisfying it had become.

Last week, I spent almost an entire Sunday cleaning the interior. I even dyed the stained brown floor mat with black Rit Dye. It looks so much better.

But, it didn’t end there. I chose Friday as the day to clean my car because the trash pickup is on that day, and by the early evening, when I clean my car, the cans are empty. I figured a lot of dust comes up that day—best to clean the car afterwards. For some reason, maybe because the hose was out there, I decided to water the plants in front, and then a new idea occurred to me: I should wash the outside of my trash cans. The big plastic bins are havens for muck and scum and spiders. Locally, we have a lot of Black Widow spiders, so taking out the trash is risky business. After cleaning my car, I take the bucket of soapy water and scrub my trash cans, giving them a quick rinse and a dry.

It sounds silly, I know, but I did get one satisfying reaction from a friend.

One day, we were taking a walk. She is pretty sceptical, but has a great sense of humor. I joked with her about my trash cans as we walked past a particularly dirty can in front of a neighbor’s house. She laughed, but when we ended up at my house, I showed her my trash cans. No spider webs, no smudges of dirt, and the big green one even had a pleasing sheen to it. She was noticeably surprised. As funny as it sounds, I know it does make a difference.

The thing I learned is this: don’t underestimate easy habits. Make tasks simple and avoid perfection—each week, my car (and trash cans!) got incrementally cleaner. It didn’t happen overnight. Slowly, slowly, it is the process itself that has become enjoyable. Most of all, while other people may choose to pay someone to do their chores for them, I think there’s something inherently happiness-boosting about doing your own. It’s cheaper too!

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Just a Little Tap

A magical thing happened yesterday. I sat next to my son on the couch as he typed his first college paper. It’s a long, 10-page doozy on Jane Goodall’s book, In the Shadow of Man. Mostly I’m there for support, to light the proverbial fire under his keyster, to be the steerer in this new adventure, but as I sat, reading my bright yellow copy of You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero, I heard it.

It was him typing. The click of fingers, the keys. That soundless echo, that little flow. There was, at first, a faint connection, like a lantern in a dark tunnel. Maybe a small tunnel for mice, even perhaps next to a curving river, kind of like in Ratatouille, dark and craggy and drawn infinitely better than real. It wasn’t bright, just a soft tinkle, as if there was a smooth silver bell on that lantern, and I felt my head cock so that my left ear could bring the sound closer, place it.

It was the hum.

I haven’t felt it in so long.

That interest in words, the desire for reading, writing, and imagining swooped in like a long, lost dog, suddenly appearing, perhaps you see only the profile of his face first, or a glimpse of his tail and you don’t dare think, ”could he be back?” because that would be way too much to gain and lose again.

But there it was, that feeling along with all the companion possibilities that burble in beside it.

Suddenly, I felt free. Untethered. Like helium balloons were lifting me up and I could get a deep breath.

I’m not sure now, in hindsight, why this all came crashing into my psyche. I mean, I type daily and I often hear my daughter typing. I hear other typing—mostly clacky typing that is, frankly, annoying.

Why at this moment did my sleeping neuron shift groggily and wake from hibernation? Did our minds align? Did we sort of sync up and suddenly, that one decrepit neuron, long unused, dusty, and weedy, say, ”Okay, I’ve got an idea?”

Could it be the telepathy of a nearby human and the similarity between us?

Or is that too whoo whoo?

I guess I’ll never know, but I’m fine with that—as long as my typing fingers are happy, I’m good.

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Roomba!

Over here at Cheapy Hollow, there’s one thing we love: Free Stuff and Vacuums. Okay, two things.

I’m not sure where my love of vacuums comes from, but probably it’s those visions of my mom, slightly sweaty, huddled over them when there was a vacuum catastrophe. The pulling out of rubber belts, dust bunnies flying. I loved the dissection of the rotating brush, the unscrewing of the mysterious cover. Often there was some ‘thing’ lodged in the recesses, a Lego, a sock. There were the intermittent, ”uh, oh’s, maybe even an under-the-breath, ”shit.” Best of all, when she was done, she’d always say, ‘now we’re cookin’ with gas!’ She always fixed the problem. It was always 100% success.

Vacuuming was our indoor sport when I was in high school. We even had a carpet rake back in the day. I was the messy raker, taking the Jackson Pollack approach. My brother, the perfectionist, would then jump in. When he was done, the rake lines were seamless. Eventually, my method was met with a ‘ya big edjit’ from my Irish mother, which I found hilarious. My brother, also incensed would rerake the living room on the spot. Before Netflix, this was one source of entertainment in our family and it must have stuck with me over the decades.

So, you can imagine my delight when I saw the Roomba—the Golden Unicorn of vacuum acquisitions on Facebook Curb Alert. Immediately I prompted my daughter to put her shoes on and run over with me—it was only two streets away.

On the way to this Beast of Free, we ran into my neighbor in her van. She’s also a freebie lover, so I gave her the scoop and she offered us a ride. One look at her van full of other curb-alert goods and in need of exercise, we declined. Secretly, I love the old-school travel-by-foot method when possible.

She was there when my daughter and I huffed to the top of the hill. She had put our precious new Roomba in the Safe Harbor of her front seat. It’s a score and I know if I hadn’t gotten it quickly, someone would have snagged it. Luckily we’re watching out for each other.

Now, the curb alert advertisement said the vacuum worked, but as soon as my neighbor opened the front door, she said, ”You’re going to have to clean a lot of hair out of it.” But, that’s the thing, remember? I love that work part of it.

More than that, that’s the thing about Cheap People—they don’t mind the labor, the tinkering, the questionable, will it work? I was worried that the Roomba would have some major flaw, but I was willing to clean it up and give it a go. The cleaning took a while—I’d never taken apart a Roomba before and I had to look up a few YouTube videos for instructions. Inevitably, vacuums are simple structurally and unless there is a major mechanical problem, getting them clean and running is not usually too difficult.

So, after an hour or two of cleaning, videos, and waiting for things to dry, we gave it a go. Wouldn’t you believe it, the thing worked perfectly!

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Flexibility

My chiropractor did not solve my sciatica.

In fact, as I moved throughout the day, it seemed that the $175 bill did nothing but deplete my bank account. And yet, I took something away from the appointment that may have been more valuable than the immediacy of a ‘fixed’ back.

He left me with the reminder to let go.

This is a new chiropractor and he took his time, but he was leery about cracking my back in a forceful way— the way my main chiropracter, who was on an untimely vacaction, normally did. I understood his hesitancy, perhaps there are risks of injury to the patient. With this new appointment there was the usual poking and prodding, a little push here, a push there, then a heavy massaging gun that felt like my internal organs may be shoved out the other side of my body.

After those efforts, which unfortunately for both of us, amounted to dancing around the problem, my chiropractor was suddenly on the ground while I lay prone on the table searching the ceiling for answers. It took me a minute to notice that he was at ground level and another minute to figure out what he was doing. What was I missing here? Had he lost something? I turned my head sideways and realized he was awkwardly involved in a stretch exercise demonstration.

One stretch involved a contorted twist that made me wince just to look at. I didn’t air my concerns to him, instead I opted to listen as he showed me how I could modify the exercise to avoid pain. He emphasized the notion that the stretch was to happen—it should not be forced.

Then he said, ”we have a tendency to force a stretch, but we’ll often get faster and better results by allowing the movement to progress on its own.”

Later, after I’d left with my sore back still sore, my checking account significantly less robust, and a foggy, lingering cloud of disappointment, I tried to make the best of my visit and realized that his message, Let Go, while it did not take away my discomfort, gave me something to think about.

At home, from the comfort of my yoga mat, I had a new layer to my process: Don’t rush it, let it happen. I slowly found that this message alone make me enjoy my stretching exercises. I feel like I want to lay there, turn and rotate, breathe. Letting go is enjoyable. Moreover, I now had ”permission” to do so. Wasn’t I getting faster results by allowing it to happen?

Maybe my back was not fixed in that visit, but something else was allowed to seep in that was equally important: If you listen to it, and let it guide you, your body may just tell you what it needs to adjust itself to normal.

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Things I Learned From Selling On eBay and Facebook Marketplace That You Can Apply to Almost Anything.

A number of years ago, I’d been happily selling on eBay for over a year when a friend suggested I try my hand at Facebook Marketplace. Within the blink of an eye, I sold two things that we had lying around the house—a sled and a small side table—each for $15.

I was, well, sold.

Suddenly, the sun seemed a bit brighter and I was seeing small ‘saleables’ everywhere. Despite my eagerness, however, I held myself a bit in check because I’d learned from eBay that it’s pretty easy to get crazy excited and then find yourself in a mad mess. Like, how do you get rid of four bulky printers that you picked up for free? But, before I go off on a tangent, let me just start…

No. 1

Start Small. By this, I mean literally and figuratively. I’ve learned the hard way that starting big is great if you’re really energetic, extremely gung-ho, or simply have a lot of time on your hands, but for most people the best thing to do is start small and get those first few attempts really, really, right.

I began with Facebook Marketplace by selling a small side table that I had owned and used for a number of years. It was lightweight and easy to clean and I knew all of its flaws since I’d owned it for so long. I scrubbed it down and let it dry in the sun. Then I moved it around to find the best place to take a photo. It turned out that my driveway, in front of my garage door, was the best spot. My daughter and I (she’s our tech-savvy 11-year-old) decided to try posting the entire ad just using my cellphone—this was also something new. My computer has gotten a bit slow and cranky in the past year and I wanted to streamline the process—I use the phone for photographs, so why not just attempt the whole process that way?

By focusing on one easy-to-move table I was able to concentrate on taking the photos and uploading a decent ad. You can see that if I were lining myself up with a lot of heavy items that took up space and required constant moving it could get really confusing—or even worse, I could have gotten into some bad habits and made a lot of mistakes. Think if I had moved a large desk to the backyard only to find out that the water heater does not make the best backdrop? If you start small you’ll avoid a lot of beginner errors that may sour you to the whole process. Plus you’ll save your back.

For the same reason, I also suggest—whether you’re selling on eBay or any other platform–to start with something physically manageable, easy to move, and/or something easy to ship if you’re mailing it out. If you get the processes down pat in the beginning, you’ll handle larger, more challenging items in stride.

That reminds me of the Ronco Rotisserie oven I sold on eBay. This thing was massive. The shipping alone was close to $50 and it took me over an hour to wrap the parts and box it up so that nothing broke along the way. I had to drive the package to the next town over for shipping which took another half hour each way. Luckily the sale was worth it, but if all of that had occurred when I first started selling I probably would have been a quivering mess.

But the story gets even crazier because a week or so later, the buyer emailed me to let me know the oven was missing an important part. Oh, no! I had no idea because this had not been mine to begin with. Still, I’d been selling a while and was determined to solve the problem. I quickly looked on eBay for the part and noted the price and gave my buyer a refund for more than double that. I wrote an apology to them, letting them know that I did see that they could purchase the part on eBay and that I was giving them a refund so they could adequately pay for a new part and an additional amount for the inconvenience. I still made a small profit and in the end, the buyer got a heck of a deal. Best of all, they wrote very nice feedback, thanking me for my generous resolution. I hope they’re eating rotisserie as we speak!

If that had happened to me in the beginning I know I would have probably given up selling with the assumption that eBay was one big giant racket. I wouldn’t have had the benefit of success behind me and I would have concluded that other sellers had ”some special skill” that I didn’t.

So, trust me—you’ve got all the skills you need, just take one step at a time and start small.

No. 2

Have a Plan. I began selling my own things on Facebook Marketplace so it wasn’t hard for me to breeze past the ”planning portion” of the endeavor. Still, in the back of my mind, I wanted to sell ”other stuff.” I spent a couple of weeks mulling it over—I was so happy selling on eBay that I wanted to expand. My dad used to clean and sell used appliances. Those memories stuck with me and I knew I wanted to sell furniture. I decided to focus on small furniture items that I could carry in the trunk of my Honda Accord. I liked the idea of tables with drawers or bookshelves—things that are small but versatile. Though I wanted to go full swing and maybe redo the furniture by sanding it and painting it, I decided that it would be better to start simply by selling items as-is and use that as a selling point—there are a lot of people who want to paint something themselves and give it their own special touch. Not to mention, that I found it extremely difficult to decide on a color that would appeal to the greatest number of people!

Without realizing it, I was forming a plan. Since I was going to focus on Curb Alert finds, I wasn’t running amok by spending my own money and I’d decided that if I couldn’t sell an item, I would be able to put it out for free—or in the worst case scenario, break it down and put it in the trash.

Additionally, since I was dealing in exclusively small furniture, it would be easy to store things in my garage or on the side of my house for a month or so—long enough to try to sell it or move it along if it didn’t find a new owner.

I’d run the idea through my mind and there was now a memorable well-worn trail there. It was basically the beginning of a map of the job territory. I also learned from selling on eBay that, while it is good to be highly optimistic about your new business, it’s also a fact that not all things sell and some things sit around for a while before a buyer comes along. I certainly didn’t want to become known as the neighborhood junk lady.

Your plan needs to be complete. You need to know how you’re going to get items, how you’re going to photograph, list, store, sell, and keep track of your income for tax purposes. Moreover, it’s important to have a plan set in place for each item before it gets put into the trunk of your car. What are you going to do if it doesn’t sell and how long are you going to give it the benefit of the doubt if you don’t get any bites? Some items are different than others. Picking up a refrigerator is going to be more of a commitment than grabbing a bunch of books. You’ll have to take this into account and spend a contemplative moment before you impulsively load up.

Planning ahead and creating a process for handling each step streamlines your business. You won’t pick up everything to sell and you won’t waste time waffling about whether or not you ”should try that new thing.” You’ll find yourself making less mistakes, having more time, and enjoying yourself more.

No. 3

Strategize. It’s one thing to plan, it’s another to plan your planning—I call that strategizing.

Strategizing your business is creating a plan or process for scaling up. It is a plan for how you want to proceed once you reach your goals. You may have heard of the term metacognition which is defined as the awareness and understanding of one’s own thought processes. Strategizing your business is similar. It involves a knowledge of your current business structure, your goals, and a step-by-step process for creating new goals as you achieve the old ones.

If you have a good sense of your business as it is now, you’ll be able to decide how, and if, you will expand.

Selling on Facebook Marketplace gave me a really good sense of how I wanted to move forward. In truth, because there were so many boundaries on what I sold (size, cost, weight, etc.) I quickly fell into a very specific niche. Part of me wanted to spread into refinishing furniture, but overall, I realized that this is not my skill set, nor does it fit in with my more casual and less detail-oriented personality. I was quickly able to let that notion go. I liked telling people in the description of each item what I think could be done with a piece. Doing the work myself would have put on the pressure and the more I sold, the more I realized how nervous I would be if someone was coming to pick up something I had determined was ‘finished.’ I know I would have seen every flaw rather than felt a pride in my work.

Once I determined the ”physical” structure or foundation of my business, I realized how much fun I was having. To put it lightly, I was obsessed. I realized that I wanted to keep this up, to keep searching for ”finds” and to include this in my reselling business plan that had just been eBay up until a month ago.

But, that’s not all.

I realized that I was not losing interest in reselling and I could see from how quickly things sold that were definite possibilities out there.

This gave me pause.

I decided to look into other selling venues and as my earnings increased, I started to tentatively make financial goals. As I worked away, I could begin to predict what might happen if I sold on other outlets, such as Poshmark and Mercari, or increased my inventory.

Finally, I began to see that I needed a daily structure—I couldn’t just think about selling all day. I have two kids, a husband and 3 dogs. I wanted to be able to drop things for a few hours a day and walk the dogs, catch up on other tasks, play with my kids, or even just read a book for a while. This all takes strategizing.

The thought finally occurred to me: it’s probably a good idea to take a day off to plan. Most of us resist taking time off, especially to (pffft, what?) plan. The idea here though is that you strategize. You’re thinking ahead—what do you want from your business? What are your goals and what steps do you need to take to reach the next goal? I think it’s worth it to think about how much you’d like to earn weekly, monthly, and yearly. On the other hand, if you’re just in it for a little extra income and for the fun of it, you may find that a more relaxed attitude is a better approach.

In the beginning, I was simply selling one item. But, as I leveled up to more items, I went so slowly that I didn’t really think beyond the excitement of finding out if something would sell. As I progressed, I reached little milestones—a dollar amount, for example, that was a bit of a surprise. At that point I had to think am I moving into this? Is this a possibility?

Perhaps most importantly, when you do take that day to strategize, think about what you need to do or create to make this fit in with the rest of your life. Don’t leave yourself out of it—make your breaks and enjoyment an integral part of your life plan.

No. 4

Keep Track of Your Numbers. This one is so easy to neglect in the beginning. You think that a few stamps, new ink for the printer, or the new cellphone you got to take photos with are unimportant. You’re caught up in the excitement of the moment and you just don’t keep track. Maybe you think to yourself, ”I’ll deal with it later.”

When later comes along you don’t remember the details.

Maybe you see that those tools you purchased, the paper you needed, everything you bought actually adds up. And, that’s how money works. it really does add up one penny at a time.

One of the worst things that can happen as you become happily successful is you get audited by the IRS.

My husband and I were audited when he started his commercial fishing business. He worked for about two years and I struggled to learn his bookkeeping. He didn’t have the time to sit down and explain each part or receipt to me and often I wasn’t quite sure how to prepare our taxes.

We did our taxes yearly and then one day, that awful letter came in the mail. It was such a blow. Running your own business is exciting, exhausting—and costly. You need to get all of the tax breaks that you can in order to survive. If you are not keeping accurate records you will have to recreate everything for the IRS. I had to do this for two and a half years of our business and it took weeks to get everything together into a cohesive document. Tension in our home was through the roof and of course, as the bookkeeper I felt personally responsible. I had two young kids in tow and not enough mental bandwidth—or time—to think through it all.

In the end, we somehow managed. Our taxes were accurate and we were not fined excessively. Later I was able to laugh at the whole ordeal—I started to tell people it was not a big deal, but when the IRS is done with you, you’ve essentially gone through a Business 101 class.

Now I keep everything in binders. I’d like to get comfortable with spreadsheets and bookkeeping software, but I’m not there yet. I like the tactile feel of paper and I can picture handing my binders off to the IRS so they can make copies. One thing I really try not to do is put things off or assume I’ll remember something. I keep a notebook with notes for each check I write. I keep all receipts—I print them up when I buy online. Most importantly, I try to question each expenditure. Did I use have to drive to get something? Did I purchase a cleaner or tool that I’m using for my business? These are all things that are deductible. Running a business can be quite costly—and it does not come with the security that a regular job does. Trying to earn an income without taking deductions is foolhardy at best.

Not all small businesses survive: According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS),approximately 20% of new businesses fail during the first two years of being open, 45% during the first five years, and 65% during the first 10 years.

Keeping track of your finances is the surest way to succeed.

No. 5

Take Risks. Ahhh…okay, it’s kinda cliche. But, really, where would we be without taking chances? Taking chances is what life is all about—without a forward momentum we cannot succeed.

I look back on my first eBay item: The Aquasana Water Filter. I remember how it sat on the high shelf of my desk and the day it sold. I was so excited. I can practically feel the dry plastic shrink wrap and the panic of ”now what do I do.”

But, that day—the day I picked up the filter and decided to take a chance and sell it was important for me. It was happening at the end of a long depressing winter—one in which we were very low in funds and though we are not poor by any means, it frankly felt like we were. I didn’t like that feeling. I didn’t like having no control. Moreover, I didn’t believe that this was who I was–someone who traipsed along in life and allowed myself to feel lost. My image of myself was much stronger, much smarter, but that year had been a repeat of all the years before, only worse.

The first risk—a wispy thought in my head, ”just try it” was what led me out of that weak hole and into a whole world of excitement.

It took a few sales and lots of failures for me to learn the ropes, but by following the 5 steps outlined above, I was able to ratchet up slowly while taking challenges in stride. I know one thing though—without taking the chance, I’d be nowhere.

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