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Shawni's $20 Challenge

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  • #1

    Shawni's $20 Challenge

    Well this challenge looks just too interesting to pass up! I have been passively learning here and it is about time to jump in.

    A little about me...

    I am 28 years old and married to the love of my life. We bought a 115 year old house last year and we are working on restoring it without getting into more debt. The house was owner financed by my former employer and friend. Our credit is a little shaky and we got a better deal from him than the banks were willing to offer us. After 15 years, we must get a bank mortgage and pay him off. We got the house in poor shape for a great price, we should be able to sell it then and with good credit...buy or build the house we really want. I work full time for a non profit clinic.

    My goal...

    I am hoping to establish a $5000 emergency fund within a year without doing any thing I would normally do. (We are pretty frugal, but terrible at saving due to home improvements.)

    My plan...

    I thought I would start by putting my $20 into a HSBC account and grab that $25 bonus. I wanted a separate account for my emergency fund anyhow, and a great percentage rate to boot.

    I just learned about ebookdrop.com here. I have a ton of books and figure I will start there. I live near many thrift stores, so I may see how that goes. I have sold a few things on ebay in the past, but it is very time consuming.

    Starting total: $20.00
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: Shawni's $20 Challenge

    Good luck, Shawni, I know you can do it!!!!!!!!

    Comment

    • #3
      Re: Shawni's $20 Challenge

      Thanks Ima saver!

      Well ebookdrop.com wanted 10 of my books for a total of $24. Not bad, considering these were going off to goodwill. I also went to bookcloseouts.com and tried some of their ISBNs to see if they would see without much luck. I got them all ready to ship out and added them to my total. I'm not sure its worth buying second hand and selling them as I entered so many it didnt take. I will keep some aside though and keep trying. I won't add this money until I get the check. I'm hoping they don't deduct for the condition on a few of them...I'm probably being a little anal about what "good" condition is.

      I'm not counting the HSBC yet until the transaction goes through. With it being a holiday weekend, it may take a little longer.

      Investing in Sharebuilder might be something I try, although I got a bonus for it years ago. I'm still not feeling ambitious enough to take pictures, ect for ebay. I signed up for a ton of survey and mystery shopping sites on one of my email accounts a few years ago and never really did anything with it. Maybe I will look into that again....they still send me tons of stuff.

      Starting balance- $20
      Pending- $49

      Will bring me to a total of $69 if all goes as planned.

      Comment

      • #4
        Re: Shawni's $20 Challenge

        Good luck with the books. I'm still making a list of mine, but so far they are pretty worthless.

        I do surveys and points and get prizes and gift cards for my trouble--never win anything from the ones that offer to put me in a contest to win $$.

        I do ParadePerks and have sent away for my first gift. I could refer you if you are interested.

        Comment

        • #5
          Re: Shawni's $20 Challenge

          sure pieceofcake...I'm willing to give it at try! My email is shawntrellh(at)yahoo.com

          I looked up my sharebuilder information. I opened it in 2002 and havent done much with it since then. I bought and sold for about a year and made a little profit. I like the low trading fee, but it's not real time trades. It looks like the next day you can put a purchase in for is the 24th. I've got my eye on something so I may wait until it gets closer. I did find .36 left in there though.

          Total: $20.36
          Pending: $49.00

          Comment

          • #6
            Re: Shawni's $20 Challenge

            I did a survey today for a company which actually pays cash after so many "points" .03 per point with survey ranging I think from 50 to 100 points. If you don't qualify for the survey, they still give you 3 points so it doesnt seem to bad...It's just going to depend on how many they actually give me. (msg me and I can refer you) Notice: I havent made any money, but at least it just doesnt boast huge cash prizes. Other than that, I'm pretty much standing still. I looked into half.com and the prices books were at didnt seem to be that much more impressive than ebookdrop.com. ebookdrop is definately more convenient. I havent gotten all my account info for for HSBC. When I get that, I may put some of what I have so far into a stock I've been watching.

            I am so frugal as it is about grocery shopping, packing my lunch, driving one car, ect...I'm having a hard time finding "new" ways to make money.

            Comment

            • #7
              Re: Shawni's $20 Challenge

              I agree with you about being so frugal it's hard to find more ways. I do have a few items I could cut, but they are all DH related and he won't budge.

              Comment

              • #8
                Re: Shawni's $20 Challenge

                Shawni,

                I need you to start a journal...once you do, I will transfer all your old entries into your new blog...we are now featuring the $20 challenges on the front page so there should be a lot more people viewing them from the blogs. Thanks

                Jeffrey

                Comment

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