Saturday, June 13, 2009

Garage Sale News

The garage sale is over and things went OK. I sold enough stuff to cover the cost of my airline ticket to see Shaun’s ship return from deployment. Some of the stuff I really hated to sell but the sacrifice of my jewelry is a small price to pay to see my son return. I’ve not missed a ship’s return since his first deployment and I hated for this to be the first one to miss.

One of the pieces of jewelry I sold was a watch from Premier Jewelry. It’s very classy and probably my favorite watch. It retails for $72 and I sold it for $35. The lady who picked it up commented on how pretty it was and how nice it looked on. Sadly, I agreed and said that it was a very nice piece of jewelry. She bought $145 in jewelry (I sold everything at about ½ of retail, or a little less) and knew exactly what it was worth. Most of it was Premier but she bought some freshwater pearl bracelets that were Silpada. I have a few Premier things left and my the rest of my Silpada things. I’ll put those on eBay to see if I can make some more. In addition to the medical bills I still have to get paid, I've got to come up with enough extra to cover the cost of the rental car ($271) and a hotel room for the night we get to Seattle ($96) since it will be 11:30 PM when the plane lands. It’s a 90 minute drive to Shaun’s apartment and there’s no way I can attempt that when my body will think it’s 1:30 AM.

We still have a massage chair for sale ($75 or $100), and we have some other watches that I need to put on eBay (Invicta Lupa Wave (mens), Invicta Baby Lupah (ladies), Silpada Hammered Silver (ladies), and Silpada green leather banded watch (ladies)). Ron also has a few knives that I have taken pictures of but haven’t had time to list yet. I need to get those online so I can maybe sell something before I need to leave.

I never ask my family for help on anything and I'm not about to start now. I’m usually the one with my hand out giving the cash or the check, but our medical expenses in the last couple of years have been the most medically expensive years we’ve had, with the least amount of income to go toward it that we’ve had. I haven’t had much of an excess to give to anyone. Even though there are a couple of my siblings who are in a position to be of assistance, they don’t offer and I don’t ask. I don't want any of them to think I've got my hand out for anything at all. I figure if they feel like offering anything, they will. I did ask one brother if he had any excess miles I might be able to use to help towards my ticket. I didn’t want to take miles that might be planned for his family vacation or travel, but wondered if he had any in excess that he might lose if not used. I didn't get an answer one way or another, so I decided that I’d not mention it again. (Update - he did answer me and wanted to make sure that I hadn't asked our mother for any money for this trip because I "sort of" asked him for money. I didn't think I'd asked him for money at all but I guess he misunderstood my intentions. I happened to find my original email to him and I actually offered to compensate him someway and said maybe we could work something out where I could pay for them. My brother and I had a long conversation that spanned several days and several emails. I think he understood where I was coming from and what I had been saying. I love my siblings but sometimes I do want to shake some of them. LOL!)

I went to a fundraising scrapbook crop today and I was able to sell my Cricut, tote, one cartridge, and a couple of extra sticky-pads for $140 - which will go right on my rental car bill. Ron sold a couple of things and he's got a bit of money to put towards my trip, too. So, I have the bills covered and just need to sell a bit of jewelry to cover some spending money. (Update: sold some stuff on eBay so we're cooking now. Travel expenses covered; medical bills will have a chunk paid on them.)

No comments: