03 Jun

June Money-Saving Challenge: Sell Everything You Can

At the beginning of the year we issued a challenge for you to try to save money every single month out of the year. We set a modest goal of saving at least £750 ($1200) in 2010. If you’ve been keeping up with the monthly challenges then you’ve saved money by turning off the heat, quitting the gym, going on a diet, giving up your TV and canceling your summer vacation. For the month of June, we’re not asking you to reduce your spending. Instead, we’re acknowledging the fact that one way to save money is to make money in unexpected ways. That’s why June’s challenge is to try to sell everything that you can.

June Challenge: Sell Your Stuff

You have many, many things in your home that you aren’t using and don’t need anymore. The challenge for this month is to sell everything that you can. This will serve a two-fold purpose for your frugal life. First, it will allow you to make some extra cash. If you have income coming in that you hadn’t budgeted for at the beginning of the year then you’re effectively saving money. And second, you will learn to really let go of material possessions which can end up saving you a whole lot of money over time. The less attached that you are to your stuff, the more likely it is you will reduce your consumerism and spend less money.

How To Do It

The basics of this month’s goal are simple: find everything in the house that you have to sell and sell it. However, here’s a more concise plan for making this money-saving challenge work:

• Set aside two full days to do a massive house cleaning. You will commit 48 hours to going through everything you own.
• Go room-by-room and see what you can sell. For every single item in the home ask yourself two questions: “do I use this?” and “do I love this?” Any item that does not get used and isn’t loved does not belong in your home. You can sell it. Be ruthless. Don’t use any other criteria. Don’t say “maybe”. Your gut instinct will know if you use and love something. If not, let it earn you some money which you can then use to buy things you do use and love if for some reason you feel compelled to own more things again.
• Identify your ideal method of selling your stuff. Some people want to have a yard sale and get rid of it all in one fell swoop. Others are willing to make the time and effort to sell their items through online auctions or to consignment stores. Other people will let everyone in their online social network know what’s for sale. Knowing how you are going to get rid of the stuff will help with the follow-through.
• Set aside one full day for making your sales. Even if you are ultimately going to have a longer-term sales process, you can set aside one day to list all of your items for sale or take them around to the stores you’re consigning things to.
• Go through the entire process again. Once you’ve cleared the entire first round of stuff out of your house, be strong and go through it all again. You inevitably kept things that you didn’t need the first time around. Now that you’re on a roll, you will find letting go of that stuff easier.
• At the end of the month, give away anything that hasn’t sold. You don’t need it and letting go of it is good for you.

How Much You Can Save

A true commitment to this month’s money-saving challenge can earn you a lot of extra money. It all depends on how much stuff you have, how valuable it is and how much effort you put into selling it. You should have no problem at all earning the £60 ($100) we’ve challenged you to make this month. And if you haven’t been keeping up with the monthly challenges until now, you might even be able to catch up to the rest of us in this month alone.

Tips for Saving Even More

Ways to make more money with this month’s challenge include:

• Sell something big. Let go of that second car that your family doesn’t really need.
• Sell something valuable. That old china might be an heirloom but do you even really want it?
• Identify the best market for individual items. Designer clothes, antique furniture and old jewelry have markets that make them more valuable than what you can get if you sell them at a yard sale. By identifying the best place to sell each item you’ll end up making more selling the same amount of stuff.
• Figure out in advance whether your family will help or hinder the process. Will your husband insist on hanging on to things he doesn’t need or will he pitch in and double the savings effort? How much time should you put into enlisting his help?
• Educate yourself about how non-materialism can save you money. This month’s challenge could be a great start to saving even more money as time goes on if you use it as a way to commit to a lack of attachment to your consumer items.

Things to Consider

Some of the things that you’ll want to keep in mind as you do this challenge:

• There are items that are much more profitable if sold in a specific season. For example, nobody wants to buy a snowblower in June but they might in December. However, if you don’t think that you’ll repeat the challenge process anytime soon then it’s better to get a little bit of money and get rid of the stuff than to hang on to it and make nothing.
• Some items do have sentimental value. This is important to remember when deciding whether or not to sell items of major importance to you or someone else in your family. While it’s great to let go of material attachments, you don’t want to make a decision that you’ll truly regret.
• Most stuff is replaceable. If you get rid of something and end up wanting it back, you can probably replace it. However, you should institute a 30-day moratorium on new purchases to make sure that you really want what you think you want. This prevents wasting money.

Alternatives to the June Challenge

Can’t bring yourself to sell your stuff right now? We believe that everyone does have something to sell. Remember that you’re only trying to meet a minimum savings goal this month of  £60 ($100). Nevertheless, we always suggest an alternative challenge for those who for some reason can’t complete the traditional challenge. June is all about making more money so alternatives to the June challenge include working extra hours, picking up a short-term or seasonal job, taking a risk and asking for a bonus at work or educating yourself about new money-making methods such as earning passive income or starting a home-based business.

Other Blogs on Selling Stuff to Gain Income

• How to Sell Your Stuff at Reader’s Digest
• Where to Sell Your Unwanted Stuff for the Most Cash at Frugal Living
• Earn Income from Selling your Stuff at OutOfYourRut.com
• 8 tips for a successful community yard sale at Smart Spending
• And previously here on our blog: 20 things you already have that you can sell

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