Zennioptical 8-)

Hey world,
I know it’s been a while. I was busy with summer and all 🙂 Now, school is back in session and I’m working a little less.

So I have time to share my new great find. zenni website
This is zenni optical. They are a web based optical warehouse. They have beautiful, stylish frames for men, women and kids.

Their prices range from 6.95-50.00
Obviously bi-focal and progressive lenses cost a little more

I got 4 pairs of glasses for back to school for $44 dollars ( that includes shipping)

Be sure to Check them out.

Cheers
Lauren Mae

How to shop at a thrift store.

Hey world,

I hope everyone had a good spring break!

In the recent years, I have fallen in love with thrifting. I was thrifting before it was a popular song on the radio. Ha, but really there are soooo many good deals to be had. This post is for you new comers to learn how to shop at the stores.

First of, most thrift stores go by a tagging system. Each week when new clothing is put out they put a new color  on. This helps them to determine how old or new the clothes are, and which pieces are selling. For you as the consumer, this is great! Usually the thrift store will have one color of tag a day that will be marked down. So on Tuesdays, it might be that all green tagged items are half off!! SHOP THE GREEN!

Secondly, you have to check all items closely. Thrift stores don’t have time to pick through each item to make sure they are 100% well. If you are buying clothing check these things:

• Smell (make sure it doesn’t stink!)
• Holes (check seams, armpit area, and where the tag is)
• Buttons and zippers (Make sure they are there and they work!)

For furniture, make sure it is comfortable, doesn’t smell, and doesn’t have stains!

Just remember that what you are buying is NOT NEW! It had a previous owner, so don’t set your expectations too high!

Another tip: Don’t pay too much money for the item, it was USED!

Don’t pay more than:

• $3.00 for a shirt (unless it is super cute, or a really good name brand
• $5.00 for a dress ( it might not fit!)
• $7.00 for jeans (Unless they are Miss Me!)

Of course you can make your own judgement!

 

Cheers yall,

Lauren Mae

Organizing for your garage sale!

Hey everyone,

I haven’t posted in a while, because I have been overwhelmed with midterms. Now that I only have one more test, I have found a few minutes to update 🙂

Once again, garage sales should be starting up. I have seen about 3-5 signs on the past two Saturdays in my town. I haven’t stopped at them, because it has been too cold or I was on my way for a meeting. By the end of this month, you should be seeing 10-15 of those bright colored signs leading you to good deals.

This post is how to help YOU set up a garage sale. I have already posted some tips on how to make money, and how to get rid of a lot of stuff. But let’s dig just a little bit deeper.

Garage sales can be overwhelming. My dad hates when we have one, because our dinning room because a mess of old stuff, clothes, and boxes.

First, don’t get overwhelmed. You are doing this to have fun, and make money. Start by going through one room at a time. I usually start in my bedroom, then help my mom with the living room and kitchen.

Bedrooms:

• Start with the closet- if you are like me, then your closet is over-flowing with clothing. One tip I have for you is to turn your hangers backwards. Once you wear the article of clothing, place your hanger the right way. If in 6 months your hangers are still backwards, SELL IT! 
• Look under your bed- Scary I know, but once again…I store my winter clothes during summer under my bed in storage bins. My brother has toys from when he was 5, and my mom keeps pictures. We all have things under our bed. If you are like me, take your clothes out. If they don’t fit, sell them. If you are like my brother who hoards toys..watch age appropriate toys. He hasn’t played with Lego’s in probably 5 years.
• Go through those drawers of yours- I have a whole night stand of miscellaneous stuff. Things that you haven’t used, or are broken…sell them, or trash them

For the living room:

• Look for decorative pieces that you don’t like anymore.
• Look for DVDs that you don’t want to keep
• Go through all of your storage spaces

For the Kitchen

• Go through all of those dishes of yours! DO NOT GIVE AWAY ANYTHING FROM GRANDMA! Some of those tubberware containers, or baking sheets (because we all know you have 5 of them) or even your cups..sell them!
• DONT SELL YOUR FOOD….that’s just gross. Unless you are selling bottles of water, that you buy from Costco 🙂

Make sure you give yourself time to go through all of these rooms! It usually takes my family about 1-2 weeks to prepare for a garage sale!

Have a designated place that you can compile all of the items that you want to sell.

• ANOTHER TIP: price items as you go, that way when the morning of the garage sale comes, you can just throw your stuff out on the tables, or yard. Customers will start showing up as soon as you have your stuff outside. It doesn’t matter if your sign said 8 am, if you are setting up at 7 am, you will be busy! 

Within the next few weeks, I will start garage selling weekly. I will have a few post of things that I, or my family has bought! I hope this has inspired some of you to make some money!

Cheers,

Lauren Mae

Recycle, Recycle, Recycle.

Hello everyone.

I hope that you had a great week. Mine was so consumed with school and studying for midterms, that I did not have time to write a new post. Luckily, I did have some time to think about what I wanted to post. How about recycling. 

Here is an interesting thought from Greenwaste.com

Food for Thought:

The average person generates 4.5 pounds of trash every day – about 1.5 tons of solid waste per year. Although the EPA estimates that 75 percent of solid waste is recyclable, only about 30 percent is actually recycled.

 

 

Isn’t that insane? Well, my family keeps a separate bin in our house for recyclables, and if you don’t, well you should.

Things we recycle:

• water bottles
• empty ketchup containers
• cereal boxes
• milk jugs
• paper from school (that we don’t need anymore)

Easy enough right?

Well have you thought about recycling your leftovers? Create a compost pile, especially if you grow things in a garden. Compost is great!! Or what about your old clothing? You can always donate your clothes to places like Helping Hands in Rockwall, Salvation Army, Goodwill and so on. As a fair trade, you get a tax write off for it!

 

Recycling can be as easy as not throwing away old containers. Klint’s mom had an old bamboo box that she was going to throw away. He asked if he could use it, and he created this super cool watch holder!

 

So now he is neat and organized.

 

Leave me a a comment letting me know about your project! 🙂

 

Cheers,

Lauren Mae

 

Handmade Gifts

Hello world,

I just have a quick question. My cousin and I are thinking about getting crafty! We want to sell some homemade gifts, at reasonable prices. Our items would include: picture frames, hea dbands, cards, etc.

So before we start investing, we want to know if you prefer some homemade gifts, that can be personalized to your needs. Or do you prefer to buy products from places like Wal*Mart, or Target.

Please take the survey, so we can see if this is worth our time 🙂

Thank you, and Cheers!

Lauren Mae

Two Types of Garage Sales

Hello world!

 

I hope everyone had a good week! Garage sales should be starting up in March, so I am posting this to help you if you decide to host a garage sale. Next week I will tell you how togo garage selling in the right way!

 

There are two types of garage sales. You either have a garage sale to make money, or to get rid of a bunch of your used items.

 

Garage Sales to Make Money:

Pricing: Prices need to be a little high,  you can always lower then if someone asks.

Items to sell: I would not put out a pile of 50 cent shirts. Leave that for the garage sale that you are just getting rid of stuff.

Advertising: Use social media sites, Craigslist, Online garage sell websites, and good old fashion signs around town.

Make clusters of items, display is everything. Put all of your jeans together, and make them easy to find the size. Since people can’t try them on, it is nice for them to know what brand and what size the jeans are, especially if they are paying 5-10$ a piece.

 

Garage Sales to Get Rid of Junk:

Pricing: should be low. You should be wanting to get rid of things to have a cluster free home

Items to sell: Anything and everything is appropriate for these garage sells.

Advertising: Word-of-mouth, online, and once again good old fashion signs around town.

For this type of garage sell, don’t worry about displaying your items, people are nosy. They will dig through your unpacked boxes, and they will take time to look through your 50 cent pile of clothing.

 

General Tips:::::

1) Don’t host by yourself, I am sure your sister, mother, cousin, or neighbor has some stuff they wouldn’t mind selling. Garage sellers stop more often if they see a TON of stuff!

2) Be reasonable. Don’t price your items too high. If someone picks up one item and thinks it is outrageously priced, they will set it down and probably walk away.

3) Offer cold bottles of water. You can buy a 36 pack of water from Costco for under 4$. If you have them cold in a cooler for 50 cent a bottle, you can make up to 18$. That is a 14$ profit for you!

4) Watch your stuff closely. As much as I hate to say this, people do steal. Keep your expensive stuff close to you, or keep a very good eye on it. I sadly had someone try to steal a phone case…I had it marked for 1.00$, so why she couldn’t pay for it…well I probably never find out…’

5) If you are trying to make money, keep your stuff clean. Don’t put out ripped clothing, or stained shirts. That is gross, and it will send people the other way.

6) Don’t get too serious. This isn’t a business that you have to run all week long. It is one day, probably 6 hours of work, and you are done.

7) Spend your money, your way. You earned it.

 
I hope this helps some of your first time garage sellers. Have fun, and make some money, ya’ll.

 

 

Cheers,
Lauren Mae

Online Garage Sales.

Hello world,

I hope that everyone had a good week! Have you heard about online garages sales on Facebook?? I think they are the next best thing!!

There are two sides to online garage sales: buying and selling.

If you are interested in selling items on an online garage sale site, you need to make sure that you are a member in that group. On most sites all you have to do is just ask to join and you will be a part of the group within 24 hours. Make sure you join a local group, unless you like to travel because most people selling items like to meet in their town.

Tips for selling online:

• Pictures, Pictures, Pictures
• No Lying
• Make it a fair deal
• Bundle items together

Make sure when you are pricing you let everyone know if the price is “firm” (you are not willing to make a deal) or if you put OBO (or best offer) so the buyer knows you are willing to compromise.

Good reasons to compromise:

• They are picking up from your house (convient for you, but just be careful if you do this. It’s not always the best to put your address out there)
• The item is damaged
• They are purchasing more than a few things from you

Other than that, sell away! You can reply to anyone, but be fair. If someone says they would like you to hold the item for them, then hold it. You don’t want your reputation to be bad.

Now, on to buying.

These websites always have something to offer. I have seen things like houses, cars, furniture, name brand jeans and odds-n-ins. Usually, you can trust these people a little more than you can someone over sites like Craigslist. WHY? You know they live in your town, you can see their profile on facebook, and you can always ask some of the other people on the online selling site if they have bought from this particular person.

Some tips on buying:

• If you are interested, say so!
• Ask questions, or if you have a lot of questions you can PM (personal message) the seller.
• DONT POST YOUR PHONE NUMBER on these sites. Always PM the seller, or ask them for their number. The whole world doesn’t need to know your cell phone, unless you don’t mind prank calls at 2 AM.
• Ask if they are willing to compromise on the price, or place to meet.
• Take someone with you when you go to pick up the product. I personally like to bring my hunk of a boyfriend, that way I am not alone.

Here are a few of the sites I am part of:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/470882686264842/

http://www.facebook.com/groups/404533426306990/

http://www.facebook.com/groups/403933469623132/

http://www.facebook.com/groups/305157412841573/

So find your town, ask to join, and shop away!

Cheers,

Lauren Mae

Student I.D.

Hey world,
My boyfriend and I just celebrated our three year anniversary. Yay us, but I want to tell you about the awesome deal we got.

If you are a student, your I.D. Card gets you a lot of discounts. We recently found out that the Allen Americans hockey team is one of the events you can get a discount at. We sat behind the home bench, two rows up for 36$.

Because Allen supports hard working students, tickets that are normally 27$ a piece ended up being 18$ a piece and we got free parking.

Moral of the story is, never hesitate to ask if there are student discounts. You would be surprised at how many communities support hard working students like us.

That’s us on the big screen!!

I hope you use your student cards as much as possible, y’all.

Cheers,
Lauren Mae

Birthday Freebies!

It’s going to happen once a year, so you might as well make the most of it! Usually, you want to spend as little money on yourself as possible on your birthday, so I have found someone who has compiled a list of every restaurant you can think of that sends you some sort of coupon for your birthday!!

Most of these sites want you to sign up for their email to receive newsletters. My suggestion to you is to make a separate email just for that! Keep your personal e-mail private, and keep what I call a “ghost” e-mail.

Another suggestion is to make your birthday happen on different days of the year, that way you will receive ideally a coupon a week!

 

Here is the link:

700 Best Birthday Freebies in 2023 & 2024 – Where to get FREE Birthday Food Discounts: Treat Yourself Celebrate with Birthday Deals, Rewards, Gifts

 

Cheers,

Lauren Mae

First poll, click here!

Just trying to understand my market 🙂

Cheers,

Lauren Mae