I set out an adventure today to explore the idea of selling some books online. My first journey was to webuyyourbooks.com. What a creative name. I collected about 30-40 books that we've read but will most likely never pick up again. You simply put in the ISBN number of your books, and the site tells you how much they will pay for your books. Most of the books I tried were not books they were willing to buy. However, I was offered a total of $61.05 for 10 of the books. I was fairly pleased with that.
The next step is to print out the shipping label and the receipt (which goes in the book). I packed up the books in a box I had and stuck that shipping label on top. If you send in more than $10 worth of books, which I did, they will reimburse you for shipping. I took the books to my local grocery store, which has a postal station. It cost a total of $9.70 to send the books. If I have this right, I should get a check for $70.75 after the books are received and processed.
The second part of my adventure involved half.com, which is part of Ebay. I think I've only bought about two things on Ebay in my life, and I have never sold on Ebay before, so this was new territory. Here is how it works--You put in the ISBN number and designate the condition of the book (brand new, like new, very good, good, etc.). There is also a place to write descriptions. I listed a total of 21 books.
The site shows you what this book has sold for on the site and also shows you what people are listing it for at this point. Then you get to choose the price. If people buy your book, they get to leave feedback, so others will know you are a reputable seller who follows through. I have no feedback as a seller at this point, so I am wondering if people will be hesitant to buy my books.
I got a little out of control with my descriptions and started to TRY to be funny. For example, I listed a book on nutrition. I wrote something like, "Lots of good tips but I've decided I prefer to eat potato chips and sit on the couch. My sweatpants are stretchy anyway." Okay, so I know that really isn't very funny, but I thought maybe it would add some interest and make my listing a little unique.
I have no idea what to expect in terms of this half.com deal. I will get an email when someone buys a book from me. The buyer pays half.com and they, in turn, pay me at two week intervals. I don't have to worry about the buyer flaking out on paying. I'm not sure that this whole deal is for me, but I guess we will find out. If I decide I don't like it, I can just take my books "off the market" and take them to Goodwill like I did with a box of books in December. At least I get a tax deduction for that.
I have a budget set up for us on mint.com, which is my new favorite website. The website tracks our spending in various categories, and I find this not only extremely useful but really neat. Get this--In December, before we started being conscious of our spending, we spent $1088 on food and dining. This figure includes grocery shopping and eating out. In January, after we reigned in our spending (drum roll, please), we spent $349 on food and dining. That is a 68% decrease! Apparently, we had some room for improvement there. In our defense, we did spend four days in Las Vegas in December.
With the budget and tracking of expenses, it just feels like we are so much more in control financially. We were never completely out of control, but if you had asked me 8 weeks ago how much money we spent each money on food, I would have had absolutely no idea. I would say that same thing about some other expenses, like gas and pet food. I think there was a sense of denial there--maybe I didn't entirely WANT to know. However, in this situation, knowledge is power.
We have the power to get ourselves out of student loan debt, but we need to know as much as possible about our spending patterns. I've spent time every day for the past month working on some aspects of our finances, whether it's been researching refinancing the mortgage or deciding what are "needs" and what are "wants." Now that we've got a plan, things don't seem hopeless at all. We've been excited about making changes, and most of the changes really don't seem so difficult. What I'd really like to do is write about this experience (getting out of student loan debt in 5 years) and have something that could be turned into a book when it's over. We are not the only people in student loan debt. Maybe I could support someone else in making a similar plan.
Setting aside rambling about money stuff here...I've been sick all week. Although I've worked out some (mostly because I had to teach aerobics), I am feeling out of shape. I was on the spin bike today for about an hour and half. I wasn't exactly hard core, but I wasn't loafing either. I haven't run in about 10 days--when I last used the treadmill. Tomorrow I should get myself down there for a run, even if it's just a short one because I'm still not feeling great. I have been fortunate to pick up more aerobics classes recently. This is great because it allows me to make money while exercising. However, it does decrease my running because I don't have time to run in addition to the classes. I am committed to teaching extra aerobics through the end of February, which is perfect because I should be ready to concentrate on running outside when it warms up a bit.
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