Post Your Wins

[Gailete]

Paid the weekly bills today and then got up the courage to open the property tax bills for our house and the rental. After paying off so many bills last week, I wasn't positive what was in all the accounts, so I opened up the rental tax bill. Looked at it and then at the the rental money account, and my first thought was will there be enough money to pay this next month after the loan was paid? Then I remembered, the loans are paid and I have more than what I need to pay the taxes! What a great feeling!

[james.hendrickson]

Paid the weekly bills today and then got up the courage to open the property tax bills for our house and the rental. After paying off so many bills last week, I wasn't positive what was in all the accounts, so I opened up the rental tax bill. Looked at it and then at the the rental money account, and my first thought was will there be enough money to pay this next month after the loan was paid? Then I remembered, the loans are paid and I have more than what I need to pay the taxes! What a great feeling!

HUGE win Gailete. Nice job.

[Gailete]

HUGE win Gailete. Nice job.

Thank you and thanks for that mention you made about Bing rewards that I think you said your wife was doing awhile back. I well on my way to my third $5. I'm investing them into an Acorn account and when I checked yesterday it was $10.20!

What is sad about that is some of the reviews I saw about Acorn, people were upset that they put their money in and 2-3 months later they apparently weren't rolling in cash, so they withdrew their money! The instant everything generation! They even think investment money should double or triple over night!

We are living in an amazing age for making money in a multitude of ways, but you must be patient. Nothing is as easy or quick as you might want it to be.

[QuarterMillionMan]

I just returned home from a profitable Las Vegas trip.

[corn18]

Congrats! Were you able to generate 17% returns?

[QuarterMillionMan]

$180 in $1 coins.

[QuarterMillionMan]

[disneysteve]

My wife sews and quilts and sells items from time to time. One item she has done well with is invitation pillows. When someone gets an invitation to a wedding or Bar Mitzvah, they give it to us. I scan it in and print it on an iron on transfer. She irons it onto a piece of fabric and then uses that as the centerpiece of a pillow custom made to complement the colors, pattern, and/or theme of the affair. She sells them for $50. They cost her under $10 to make (not counting her time, of course, but she's gotten pretty quick at doing them).

She sold her latest one yesterday and when she delivered it to the friend who ordered it, the friend gave her another invitation she had just gotten and ordered another pillow. This same friend has already purchased 2 or 3 other pillows from my wife. So DW got $50 yesterday and another $50 order. Plus, another friend saw the pillow and was asking how much they are and seemed really interested, so hopefully the next time she gets invited to something, she'll keep DW in mind (this friend has previously bought stuff from my wife including a custom blanket for her husband last year for his birthday).

[Gailete]

My wife sews and quilts and sells items from time to time. One item she has done well with is invitation pillows. When someone gets an invitation to a wedding or Bar Mitzvah, they give it to us. I scan it in and print it on an iron on transfer. She irons it onto a piece of fabric and then uses that as the centerpiece of a pillow custom made to complement the colors, pattern, and/or theme of the affair. She sells them for $50. They cost her under $10 to make (not counting her time, of course, but she's gotten pretty quick at doing them).

She sold her latest one yesterday and when she delivered it to the friend who ordered it, the friend gave her another invitation she had just gotten and ordered another pillow. This same friend has already purchased 2 or 3 other pillows from my wife. So DW got $50 yesterday and another $50 order. Plus, another friend saw the pillow and was asking how much they are and seemed really interested, so hopefully the next time she gets invited to something, she'll keep DW in mind (this friend has previously bought stuff from my wife including a custom blanket for her husband last year for his birthday).

That is so terrific Steve AND I am so glad that she is charging a reasonable price for something handmade! So many crafters will charge $10-15 for something like that and figure they enjoyed doing it. They just really don't think they will get their money's worth. I made a baby quilt for my sisters first granchild. She asked me to make it, but I didn't discuss payments with her. She did give me some fabric to incorpoarate into it, some sports themed and the other patriotic themed and then told me what the girl that cut the fabric at WM told them would be a 'good' design, although I doubt she had ever made a quilt in her life. But I had to buy more fabric, backing fabric, batting, thread and I spent about 40 hours or more all together on making it. She handed me a check and I could see it in her eyes that she thought she was greatly overpaying me. $65! But that is one of the reasons that I don't like sewing for others. Either you get someone that doesn't appreciate your effort and feels like they are forking over way too much, or you get someone that is so appreciative, I feel like giving them the item for free just because they appreciate your work.

Americans are so used to imported 'homemade' goods from China that they don't appreciate having to pay for something that isn't made out of sweatshop/slave labor. Once I figured out what the woman who 'handmade' a quilt from China selling for $29.99. I figured that by the time it was all said and done the person making the quilt, made way less than a dollar. It was at that point I refused to buy anything like that from China. But who wants to spend 10-20 times that much on a quilt when you can get one so cheap?

Anyhow kudos to her and I hope it keeps up. I have made ring bearer pillows for several nieces when they got married as well as my son and that can be another source of income for her.

[disneysteve]

That is so terrific Steve AND I am so glad that she is charging a reasonable price for something handmade!

This is a constant struggle for me. She is not good at self-promotion or valuing her own work. I always push her to charge more. I show her Etsy shops and other sites selling similar items and how much they are charging but she still wants to charge less, especially when selling to friends.

She made a quilt a year or so ago and a friend saw it and wanted to buy it. She had actually made it for herself so wasn't even prepared for the "how much is it?" question. She threw out a number that the friend, thankfully, thought was way too low. The friend insisted on paying her $300 for it, which my wife thought was nuts, but I keep showing her how much other handmade quilts are going for and how that was actually on the low end.

If you have customers who understand and appreciate what you have made, they will be willing to pay a fair price. If they want a $29 quilt from China, then they just aren't your target market, and that's fine too. I've got a $20 comforter from Target on my bed and I'm perfectly happy with it. I would never spend $300 on a quilt but I'm glad there are people out there who will.

[disneysteve]

QuarterMillionMan will appreciate this one.

I deposited $50 into my online casino account on 3/9 (internet gambling is legal in NJ). I don't play often as it's too easy to go overboard, but I hadn't been on for months and felt like playing a little.

I ran the $50 up to about $130 and was thinking of cashing out but decided to keep playing. Last night, I hit a bonus and now have $245. I'm going to take out $100, so doubling my $50 in 9 days, and just leave the rest to play with. If I win more, great. If I lose it, at least I locked in my 100% profit, and I'm okay with that.

[msomnipotent]

March must be casino month. My sisters and I went to a casino last weekend. I only won $50. My sister won $400 by betting it all on red and then letting it ride. And she spent the rest of the night rubbing it in our faces.

When using the IRS calculator for W-4 withholding today, I realized that we will max out the 401k this year for the first time. I project that we will have $23,300, but we have to wait and see what his bonus will be in July and then adjust.

[scfr]

About a month ago I got one of the #InvestingLikeABoss mugs free from Vanguard.

https://twitter.com/vanguard_group/status/953703546347773970?lang=en

I've been enjoying using it to sip coffee at my desk while tending to financial tasks.

Today I'm taking care of the Solo 401(k) contributions. sip ... sip ... sip

[QuarterMillionMan]

QuarterMillionMan will appreciate this one.

I deposited $50 into my online casino account on 3/9 (internet gambling is legal in NJ). I don't play often as it's too easy to go overboard, but I hadn't been on for months and felt like playing a little.

I ran the $50 up to about $130 and was thinking of cashing out but decided to keep playing. Last night, I hit a bonus and now have $245. I'm going to take out $100, so doubling my $50 in 9 days, and just leave the rest to play with. If I win more, great. If I lose it, at least I locked in my 100% profit, and I'm okay with that.

I wish California had a legal online casino like New Jersey. I've often been tempted to sign up with one of the off shore casinos but of course that would be illegal so nice dice for me.

[Gailete]

This is a constant struggle for me. She is not good at self-promotion or valuing her own work. I always push her to charge more. I show her Etsy shops and other sites selling similar items and how much they are charging but she still wants to charge less, especially when selling to friends.

My problem as well which, is why I like selling on line. Hubby whose whole family including extending relatives, are all self-employed and I was used to paychecks, he really encouraged me to jack of my prices and the money was rolling in. However, so many sellers are on board now, many not even understanding the product they are selling nor, can they answer any questions that crop up, so I have been having to lower prices to sell. I think it would be wonderful if I could sell out all my inventory and get up in 7 1/2 years on my 70 birthday and be retired at least from the on line sewing and then be able to move into arenas that I want to try, I'm not sure I am going to live long enough though for everything I want to do.

But keep encouraging your wife! I love sleeping under quilts, but then I can make them for myself, while hubby uses quilts as well, his favorite are the hand crocheted blankets he made. But once I split all the top bedding into twin size for our king size bed so that he doesn't choke me anymore, we each get what we like.