Category Archives: Self Sufficiency

Flipping Items on Craigslist/Ebay/Facebook Groups for Extra Income

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In keeping with the theme of financial preparedness I would like to share some of my tips for buying and reselling items to make a little extra income.  For most of my life I’ve been intrigued by the thrill of buying something for a low price and selling it for a profit.  As a kid I had a number of side hustles I did to “enhance” my allowance money.  I used to by baseball card packs and sort out the rookies and other valuable cards and resell them for more than the whole pack cost to begin with.   In the 3rd grade two friends and I started a “trade box”.  We would buy packs of pens, pencils, posters (really anything we thought we could make money on) and sell them individually to other students.  That first year we made $24 before we got shutdown.  Back then the amounts were small but it triggered an entrepreneurial spirit inside of me that still gets me fired up today.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve branched out from baseball cards and school supplies to just about anything I think is a good deal and my target market has expanded from 8 year olds to just about anyone who is interested.  Some of my better finds include Hewlett Packard toner cartridges at a Goodwill store that i bought for $40 and sold for over $600 to a vintage shortwave radio that I bought for $5 at an estate sale and sold for $250.  Neither item by itself will pay for a mortgage but they were both certainly good for some extra spending money.

Where to Buy Stuff

My main source of items for resell come from Craigslist and local Facebook selling pages.  I don’t really have any particular items that I specialize in, I just look for unique and underpriced things that I know will bring more on EBay or a website that is dedicated to that particular type of item (hunting forums, gun forums, etc).  Some of my favorite items to resell are military surplus items, ammunition reloading equipment and hunting stuff.

Each day I average about an hour browsing Craigslist and my local Facebook groups looking for things to buy.  I generally start off with a couple of searches for “reloading” or  “military” then narrow my searches down for more specific items in each of those areas, for example, instead of “reloading” I might search for a few popular brands of reloading presses, (Dillon, RCBS, MEC) or some specific military terminology like “multicam” or “ocp” or “rucksack”.  If I don’t find anything that catches my eye, I will just move on and browse all of the for sale items.  If I’m short on time while I’m searching craigslist I will usually enter a maximum price that I’m willing to spend, this cuts down on all the things that are overpriced or out of my budget.

Determining How Much to Pay

If I see something interesting but don’t know anything about it, I’ll do some quick research on EBay or search for other similar items on Craigslist to see what everyone else is asking to determine if it’s worth my time to buy or not.  I usually try to double my money on items that are priced under $50.  For example, if I see some military uniforms that I know will bring $150 on EBay, I will try to get them for under $75.  On higher priced things I’m okay paying $150 for something that I know will bring $200 or so.

Once I find an item I’m interested in I have 2 approaches that I take depending on the price.  If it’s already priced low and I know I can make money on it, I will contact the buyer by whatever means they have put in their ad and ask when they are available for me to come buy it.  I’ve found that if I make it clear that I’m ready to buy without any haggling and I have cash in hand they will be more willing to meet up and make the sale sooner.

If the price is just so-so, or sort of high I will still contact the seller, preferably by phone, and let them know that I’m interested but would like to discuss the price.  I think many sellers are turned off by emails or texts asking to lower the price because it can be so informal, a phone call lets me be much more personable.  I also like to do all my price negotiations before I go look at the item.  This way I’m not wasting my time if I show up to look and they turn down my offer.

Where to Flip the Merchandise

Where I resell the items depend on the type of items I buy.  Most big, bulky items like lawnmowers, weed eaters or large appliances I tend to resell on Craigslist or the local Facebook groups.  Sometimes, all I have to do is some simple cleaning or light repairs and it’s ready to sell again.  I’ve found that good pictures and a well written description will help sell stuff a lot quicker than dark, out of focus pictures and no, or minimal information in the description.  I always try to describe the item as accurately and specifically as possible.  For example, if I’m selling a riding lawnmower I’ll mention how big the cutting deck is, how many horsepower the motor is, how many hours are on it, what condition the tires are in, basically anything that someone might have a question about.

For smaller, higher value items it’s hard to beat EBay for getting the best price.  Many people are scared of EBay because they think they will get scammed or get a negative feedback or they don’t want to pay the “high” seller fees.  I have personally never had a bad experience selling on EBay and I’ve got close to 800 positive feedbacks.  I’m not saying that it can’t happen, but I just follow the same rules that I mentioned earlier about good pictures and accurate, honest descriptions.

As far as the seller fees, I’m more than willing to pay 10% of the selling price to get worldwide marketing for my goods.  Recently I bought a like new military issue, multicam patterned backpack for $50 on Craigslist and sold it in 3 days on EBay for $200.  After all fees and shipping costs, I made a profit of $110.  If I had tried to sell it locally I might have been able to get $75 for it.

Just like with everything else we do in life, you have to take action and do something – get on Craigslist tonight and browse for items you are familiar with and try to find a good deal.  Take a few hours on a Saturday morning and go to your local thrift shop or hit up some garage sales.  I’m willing to bet that you can find something to resell for a profit.  Don’t be scared to negotiate prices, you never know if you don’t ask.

How to Build a Quail Hoop House

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About one year ago, before I found out that I was going to go on a 6 month trip for the Air Force, I had a small pen in the backyard and raised about 20 Coturnix quail.  I got them from a guy on Craigslist who had hatched them out and didn’t have room to keep them.  We had them for about 12 weeks before I butchered them, long enough for them to start laying a crazy amount of eggs – we had 14 hens and I swear there were days that we got 15 eggs. They laid better than any chicken that I’ve ever owned.  The plan was to keep the 20 for breeding stock and hatch the eggs in an incubator and raise the babies for our consumption and sell the ones we didn’t eat.  Once I found out that I’d be leaving for 6 months I didn’t want to leave my wife with 20 quail to bother with while she was busy with our three young daughters so I butchered all of the quail and now I’m ready to start over raising quail.

In addition to butchering all of the quail, I also sold the pen that I raised them in.  So….it’s time to build another pen, this time a little bigger and one that I can get in and out of easier to check for eggs and to catch the birds.  My last pen was a mobile “tractor” that I pulled around the yard and I would move it when they started to wear down the grass, it worked well enough but this time I’m going with a stationary pen just to make things a little easier.

After looking at 1000’s of coop designs on the internet I decided to go with the hoop house style coop for a couple of reasons.

  1. Cheaper to make (remember, we are trying to become debt free and do things as economically as possible)
  2. Easier to build. I do enjoy building things but I consider myself something of a “rough” carpenter. Most things I build would never win any beauty contests but they are functional and will do the job I built them for.
A few of the materials I used.

A few of the materials I used.

The hoop house design is pretty straightforward, all you have to do is fashion some sort of material into hoops and cover it with chicken wire.  The following is my list of materials:

  1. Two, 16 foot cattle panels –I found them used on Craigslist for $5 apiec.e.
  2. Four, eight foot 2”x8” treated boards – about $7 apiece at Lowes
  3. Chicken wire – I had about half the wire I needed just laying around, leftover from other projects but I did buy one roll of 2’x 50’ chicken wire from Lowes for $23
  4. Welded wire – I used about 25 feet of 3’ tall welded wire (with 2”x4” holes) for stability on the front and back to tie the chicken wire to.
  5. 2”x4”’s – I used approximately 50 feet of 2’x4’s and they all came from pieces that I had laying around and stuff I’d scavenged from pallets.
  6. 2”x2”s – I needed about 20 feet of these for the door frame – approximately $3.50 apiece – $10 total
  7. Plywood – I bought one full sheet of 3/8” plywood from Lowes for $14
  8. Hardware kit – for the door to the pen itself and for the quail house inside the big pen. – This kit was $7
  9. Nails/screws – all were leftovers from other projects

The first thing I did was make a square out of the treated 2×8’s and screw them together with 3’ deck screws – this will be the base of the hoop house and what holds the cattle panels in the “hooped” position.

For the base of the pen I just used 3" screws to attach treated 2"x8"s in a squard.

For the base of the pen I just used 3″ screws to attach treated 2″x8″s in a squard.

Once the boards were securely connected in a large 8 foot square, I brought the cattle panels over and put one end in the square against the board and pushed the other end so the panel formed an arch.  Then I did the same thing with the other panel, it was a tight fit with both panel in so I had trim out one of the squares on the front and back bottom corners of each panel and slide them torwards the front/back of the wooden base so the panels hang over the ends by about 6 inches or so.  By trimming out the bottom corners, I was able to butt both panels up flush with each other and zip tie them together.  As soon as I got the panels secured to each other I used fence staples and connected the bottom rod on the panels to the 2×8’s so they wouldn’t pull out.   One of the panels had some pretty severe bends in it from it’s previous owners so it was a little out of round.   This was fixed for the most part though once I started putting the wood braces in place.

Here the panels are "hooped" up but not attached to each other or the base

Here the panels are “hooped” up but not attached to each other or the base

Next I framed up the front and back to have something to support the chicken wire that I was going to use on the outside to keep the birds in.  For the front, I cut two 2×4’s to run from the base to the top, spaced 2’ apart to create a frame for a door and also attached more supports from the door frame to the sides of the hoop spaced about 2 feet apart.  The back is similar to the front without the open space for the door.

I used 2"x4"s and pallet boards to support the hoops and to have something to attach the wire to.

I used 2″x4″s and pallet boards to support the hoops and to have something to attach the wire to.

Instead of just attaching chicken wire straight to the boards on the front and back I decided to use 2”x4” welded wire fencing to provide some extra stability and hopefully more protection from predators.  Once I was done attaching the welded wire the hoophouse was ready to be covered in chicken wire.

For the front and back I just molded the wire to the shape of the hoop (leaving the space for the door uncovered) and trimmed the excess.  To attach the chicken wire to the welded wire, I used a bunch of small zip ties.  I realize that they will have to be replaced eventually but it was so much easier than using wire.

When I was done covering the front and back with chicken wire, it was time to cover the top.  Compared to the front/back this was a pretty simple and straightforward operation.  There was no molding and very little cutting, just lay out the right length and zip tie it to the cattle panel.

The door is just a simple frame made from 2”x2” boards and covered with chicken wire.  I bought a hardware kit for gates from Lowes for $7 that had hinges, a screen door spring, a handle and a lock. I mounted the door on the inside of the pen (it opens into the pen) to hopefully make it harder for any birds to escape.

All finished except for a shelter and birds.

All finished except for a shelter and birds.

All that’s left now is to build a small shelter inside the hoop house to help the birds stay warm and dry and to cover the back half of the pen with a tarp to keep the rain and wind off of them.

Once I’ve done all this it will be time to find some more Coturnix quail,  I’ve been scouring Craigslist and some local Facebook animal swap sites but haven’t found any that  are very close by.  If I’m unable to find any I will probably order some eggs and hatch them out.

All in all, this was a fun project and I’m excited to start raising quail in it.  I hope everyone enjoyed this post and if you have any questions/suggestions or comments please post them.

Subdivision Survival Goals for the winter

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* Each of one these goals will be developed into a full blog post in the near future, I just wanted to share a few of the important things that we are working towards here in the subdivision

1. Become debt free
I decided to list this goal first since it is the foundation of personal freedom and self-sufficiency in my mind. It will also give us the flexibility to pursue so many more options than we could if we were strapped with debt.
Many years ago we heard about Dave Ramsey and his Total Money Makeover plan and we become completely on board. Or so I thought. We struggled off and on for a long time (8 years) to pay off some credit cards and car loans. We didn’t have the discipline to create a budget and stick with it, or to pay off a car and not go out and buy another one. We’ve been doing much better the last couple of years and no longer have any credit card debt and only have one vehicle payment, which should be gone in the next 4 or 5 months. While we haven’t been following the Dave Ramsey plan completely, we are budgeting and have goals in place for many financial milestones.

2. Start a rabbit operation
My main goal for raising rabbits is to have an extra source of meat to supplement what we buy at the grocery store. In the past, we’ve raised New Zealand and Californian rabbits which are the stereotypical “meat” rabbits, however this time we were given a free, pedigreed buck and doe mini rex pair and we decided to start out with them. My early thoughts on this change of plans is that instead of just a meat operation we will be able to sell some of the little ones for pets and breeding stock.

3. Raise Quail
When it comes to raising quail I hope to achieve three things –
1: Extra meat source
2: Egg source
3: Extra income
Coturnix, or Pharaoh quail are very fast growing, maturing birds that will start laying eggs around 8 weeks and are also large enough to be harvested at the same time. They are easy to take care of and don’t require a huge amount of space so they should be perfect for a backyard homestead environment. I’m currently working on an 8’x8’ cattle panel hoophouse that I hope to use to house 25 – 30 adult quail. With a good mixture of hens/roosters and a couple of incubators I think I can maintain a self sustaining breeding and egg hatching operation.

4. Prepare garden soil
We have six 4’x4’ raised beds filled with a mixture of aged, composted horse manure and store bought soil that we have been trying to raise food from for the past few years with marginal success. I have never really put much effort into figuring out if the soil was good from a scientific standpoint, I just mixed some random “stuff” together and hoped for the best. My goal here is to research what needs to be done to have a successful and productive garden and work to build it up over the winter/early spring.

“Free” Rabbit Hutches – My First Project

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Rabbit HutchesThroughout the winter I’m going to work on different projects to turn our little subdivision backyard from a barren rectangle of worn out grass into a self-sufficient, small-scale homestead. My first project was building some rabbit hutches for the mini rex rabbits we plan on getting in the near future. I searched craigslist for a while and couldn’t really find any suitable rabbit cages and I didn’t want to break down and buy wire to build all brand new ones since saving money is one of our main areas of focus lately. So, with frugality in mind, I contacted the builder in charge of the new construction in the back of our subdivision and asked about a big stack of pallets that was next to one of the new houses. He was more than happy to give them away so I went and loaded up about 10 4’ x 4’ wooden pallets and brought them home.
I’ve used pallet wood for a few projects in the past and always struggled when it came to separating the top boards from the bottom skids. I’ve tried hacksaws, pry bars, and hammers with lots of cuts and scrapes but very little success. For this project I bought a Porter Cable reciprocating saw with a “bi-metal” blade from Lowes.
The reciprocating saw was absolutely vital to the success of building these cages. There is no way I would have suffered through using a hacksaw or pry bar on this many pallets. To separate the boards I simply cut through the nails that were holding the top boards to the skids. Each pallet took about 3 or 4 minutes to completely break down. The pallets were all 4’x4’ which made planning the cage dimensions pretty easy, I ended up making them 2’ wide by 4’ long with a 16” box on the end and the roof is hinged on the back to make it easy to catch the rabbits whether they are in the cage part or the house part.
In addition to using the pallet boards I had to buy plywood for the cage roof, paint, caulk for the gaps in the wood, hinges, screws, two different types of wire (1/2” x 1” mesh for the floors and 1”x 1” mesh for the sides) and a lock for the door. I’ve got approximately $50 in each hutch. It would be a little less without paint but I wanted to try and protect them from the elements as best I could.
As of now, I’ve only finished two of the hutches but I have plans to build one more, to house two does and one buck. My next project is to build a fence across the backyard that separates the garden and animal area from the rest of the yard. I placed the hutches are under a couple of oak trees and next to the shed so they do have something of a wind break and plenty of shade in the summertime and I’m confident that the rabbits will be protected from the wind and rain very well and will be comfortable even on the coldest, windiest days.