Moving Forward in Today’s Economy Part 3

Find It Free

When you are seriously working on stretching your budget, you can’t beat free.  You can join the Free Cycle Network.  In it, people who have something they no longer want offer it free for the taking to anyone who wants it.  The problem is that things move quickly and it’s hard to connect for what you want.

The Second Rule of Couponing

My local store doubles coupons up to $2.00.  That means that if you have a manufacturer coupon for $2.00 and the item costs less than $4.00, you get it free.  Now sometimes the item costs a little more than $4.00.  In that case, you wait until the store puts it on sale so that you can still get it free.  I know it sounds crazy but I know people who buy10+ of the same item for free and smile all the way to their car.  (I think you still have to pay the tax on them but you can use a store coupon with a manufacturer coupon.)

Now, here comes the good part.  You don’t have to use the item that you ‘buy’.  My friend started doing this and ended up with a lot of stuff in her garage.  Her family kept coming over to ’shop’.  Finally someone urged her to have a garage sale and she made a bundle.  When you get stuff free, you can sell it super cheap and still make money.  She has been doing it long enough that people have gotten to know her and call her up to shop even when she isn’t having a yard sale.  Now that’s a good thing.  She takes the money she makes for these things that she doesn’t use and buys the stuff she wants.  All it costs her is time to clip the coupons, visit the store several times and then sell the stuff.

Listen, my friend had to quit her job because after childcare, she wasn’t making enough money to make it worth it.  Her couponing is adding to her family finances and she is doing it on her schedule while she stays home with her son.  Sometimes we get so caught up is what isn’t working for us that we don’t see the opportunities that are staring us in the face.  What can you do to make extra money?