Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

How to Turn Unwanted Christmas Gifts into Cash

By 1 Comment

The stress has come and gone and Christmas is over. As you go through your gifts you might see some that aren’t your style, don’t fit, are duplicates of something you already have or something you just don’t need. You don’t need to have them sitting around your house collecting dust in the back of your closet. Christmas is also a financially difficult time of year, and you might need to get some cash in your hand along with another type of assistance such as a car title loan to use toward your debt. Consider turning your unwanted Christmas gifts into cash and use it for something that you really want or need through one of these five ways.

Return them to the Store

One of the most common things to do is to return the item you received back to the store where it was purchased. It helps to have a receipt when returning something to avoid receiving a lower price than what was paid or being limited to store credit for the amount of the return. Stores tend to have more lax return policies around the Christmas holiday and take items back for longer time periods than usual. Don’t take too long to return the item or you might get stuck with it if you end up trying to return the item after the specified time frame. If you do end up with a gift card and don’t anticipate using it, read on to see how you can turn them into quick cash.

Trade Them

Trade your gift online through one of the many trading websites and services available. Sites such as Cardpool, allow you to trade or sell gift cards to others. Trade your gift card for one to a business that you’ll patronize, or sell it for cash. Depending on where your original gift card is for, you can typically get back up to 90 percent of its value. You get rid of the gift card and the recipient gets a small discount on their purchase. It’s a win-win for everyone. PaperBackSwap is a book lover’s dream. You list your unwanted books and earn credits to get books others are looking to get rid of. Gamers benefit from Game Trading Zone to swap games and accessories with others interested in gaming.

Sell Them

It makes sense that selling your items can give you cash quickly, but it helps to understand where your item will sell quickest and give you the most money. Don’t expect to get the full value of the item, because buyers want to find a good deal, but you can still get some cash from the item. Craigslist is a quick way to sell items without needing to pay listing fees or worry about shipping costs. Always meet people you meet from Craigslist in a public location for safety reasons. Other sites, such as Poshmark, allow you to list accessories and clothing that you don’t want. You’ll appeal to a large pool of buyers looking for your items, but keep in mind that you’ll be required to pay small fees in exchange for listing your product on their website.

eBay is another site with millions of users. You can sell pretty much anything and everything on eBay, but keep in mind you have to pay a listing fee along with a seller’s fee, which is a percentage of the sale price of your item. OfferUp is an app only service that allows people to buy and sell items to individuals in their local area. It requires parties to meet in person to exchange items, which saves on shipping costs but stay safe by always meeting up in a public location.

Give them as a Gift

Indirectly get cash by saving the item and giving it to a friend, family member or coworker who you feel would benefit from it. Clothing you got might be too small or large for you but would probably fit someone you know perfectly. Keep in mind who gave you the gift so you don’t embarrass yourself by trying to give it back to them or someone you mutually know.

There’s no reason to leave unwanted Christmas gifts lying around when you can turn them into cash while helping someone else get something they want at the same time.

4 Ways to Make Money for Christmas Presents this Year

By Leave a Comment

You may have started with the best intentions.  You didn’t want to go in debt to pay for Christmas presents, so this year you resolved it would be different.  This year you’d set aside money every month, so when November came, you’d be able to buy Christmas presents with cash on hand.

But then, you’re car broke down and the repair was more expensive than you thought, so you had to dip into your Christmas savings.

It happens.  Sometimes Christmas is only weeks away, and you don’t have money to pay for the presents.

Don’t worry.  There are still ways you can make money to buy presents for Christmas.

Consignment Shops

4 ways to make money for christmas this year
Make Money for Christmas Presents

Do your kids have clothes they’ve outgrown?  Do you or your spouse have clothes in the closet that you don’t wear anymore?  Why not take them to a consignment shop?  When the shop sells your clothes, they’ll give you a portion of the sales price.  Or, they may just offer you a flat fee upfront.  Either way, it’s money in your pocket for items you weren’t using anyway.

Pantry Challenge

Take a minute to go look in your freezer, refrigerator, and cupboard.  Chances are you have a lot of food there, probably more food than your family will eat in a week.  Why not have a pantry challenge?

There are several ways you can do this.  One idea is to just take a week off completely from grocery shopping and just eat up what you have in the house.  If you normally spend $150 a week for groceries, that’s $150 you now have for Christmas gifts.

Another idea is to do a pantry challenge for a month.  That doesn’t mean that you don’t buy any groceries for a month.  Instead, it means that if you normally spend $600 a month for groceries, try to mostly eat up what you have in the house.  Give yourself an allowance, say $200 for the month to buy perishable essentials like fruit, veggies, milk, etc.  At the end of the month, you’ve saved $400, which you can use for Christmas presents.

Credit Card Rewards

If your credit card offers cash back rewards, start saving that money now.  You won’t make a lot this way, but you can use that money to help supplement your Christmas fund.

Swagbucks

Swagbucks is an online search engine.  You use it just like other search engines, but you’re sometimes rewarded with Swagbucks.  Earn 2,200 Swagbucks, and you can get a $25 Amazon gift card.  With diligent effort, using Swagbucks every day and doing other activities as well as meeting your Swagbucks daily goal, you should be able to earn enough points for the $25 Amazon gift card in a month.

If you need money for holiday presents, a pantry challenge will give you the most reward for your effort.  However, the other three strategies will help you make additional money.  By combining all four strategies, you may have enough money to purchase your gifts in cash.  Take some effort now, and you won’t have to go in debt this holiday season.

What other strategies do you use to raise money for Christmas presents?

 

1 Simple Trick to Find More Money in Your Budget

By Leave a Comment

Do you have a budget that already feels tight?  Have you cut and cut but still have more month than money? Are you struggling to find more money in your budget?

I know how that goes.  Over the last few months, my husband and I have been working hard to cut our budget as much as possible.  We thought we’d cut all that we could, but I discovered one more secret, which, depending on your budget could help you “find” another $20 to over $100 a month.

So what’s the magic secret?

Make your payments on a semi-annual or annual basis rather than on a monthly basis.

Paying Annual Can Provide Big Discounts

1 Simple Trick to Find More Money in Your Budget
Find more money in your budget.

We have Ooma for our home phone line.  I pay $17.99 a month.  Recently I had to call Ooma because I was having an issue with the service.  After the customer service rep had finished helping me, she asked if I wanted to pay annually instead of monthly.  An annual payment would be $105, the equivalent of $8.75 a month.  In other words, I was paying an additional $110.88 a year for the convenience of monthly payments.

Our life insurance is the same.  When I checked into it, I realized that we would save $22 a month if we paid annually instead of monthly.

We already pay our car insurance semi-annually, but if we opted to pay monthly, we’d be charged a $2 per month fee.  Other car insurance companies charge as much as 5 to 10% more for a monthly payment.

Convenience is expensive.

Take a look through your monthly bills.  Are there any that you can choose to pay annually or semi-annually?  If so, how much will you save per month if you pay annually instead of monthly?  In our case, we “found” an extra $32 a month.  Sure, that doesn’t sound like a lot, but over a year, it adds up to an additional $384 we now have that we didn’t have before.

Two Caveats

Before you change your payment method, it’s important to consider two factors.  First, if your budget is already tight, you may need to wait to switch to an annual payment until you have a windfall like a bonus at work or an income tax return.  If you’re used to paying $80 a month for car insurance, even with a discount for paying annually, you may still be looking at paying $800 or $900 in one swoop, which can be difficult on a tight budget.

Second, only use this method if you know you’ll be disciplined enough to set aside money every month for the annual payment.  If your annual car insurance is $800, then set aside approximately $65 a month so you’ll have enough to pay the annual payment when it comes due.

Making payments annually or semi-annually can be a great way to find extra money in your budget, but before you change to this method, make sure that you have the discipline to set aside (and not spend) the money each month for the annual payment.

Do you pay bills like your insurance monthly or semi-annually or annually?  Which do you prefer?  Why?