Challenge $1000 2020 – Final Update

G’day folks!

As you may recall back in February B.C. (Before Covid), I challenged myself to make an extra 1k over and above my usual income from my day job.

I’m happy to report I managed to exceed my 1k goal by around $200! Oh Happy Day!

There were really only 2 methods I used from my original list of 4 ideas to complete Challenge $1000:

1. 1. 1. UserTesting
      2. Selling stuff I no longer need, mostly on Facebook, but also on eBay and Kijiji.

For #2, the majority of stuff sold was KID related. When you have a kid, you accumulate a ridiculous amount of stuff over a period of time, use it for a few months to a year, and then said kid doesn’t fit in it / need it / care about it anymore. You end up with many still perfectly good items that just lounge around your home in the nooks and crannies until you spend countless hours sorting, assessing value, and donating or selling the items. It’s frickin’ exhausting. On the bright side, there is lots of demand for gently used baby and toddler items since you can get practically new stuff for a lot less than retail price. Heck I even sold some things that were already second hand, but in great shape and totally usable for a couple more kiddos.

Shockingly there still seems to be a fair bit of kid items left. Hubs also wants to sell some board games and collectable cards. There are a few household items we want to unload. Oh, and our 2006 CR-V that’s been sitting in the driveway ready to be sold for 3 weeks. That’s another FUN STORY (she typed sarcastically)  that I plan to share in my “Saving September” Challenge update post. SPOILER ALERT: Worst spending month since we bought our latest house in 2016.

Now what?

1. We need to sell the rest of our excess belongings. I’m getting a bit addicted to the thrill of cash hitting my bank account every time we unload an item. Not to mention the fact that the house is a teeny bit less cluttered each time too. If we could get a bit more diligent about posting items (ESPECIALLY on eBay because it’s more work), we could actually get good at this and start a buy & sell type side hustle. Generally though we don’t seem to have time. Or, make time.
2. I want to do another challenge like this soon to motivate us to unload the rest of the stuff. Maybe if I get Hubs involved, we could do a 2k challenge in a 6 month timeframe. I think we can do it with a bit of extra effort!

Where did the money go?

Originally the plan was for the challenge money to go directly to my registered accounts. As noted above, we had the unexpected (early) expense of buying a new car (our plan was to make ours last till next April…). So, the extra cash went to a new car purchase. More about that in another post.

I am looking forward to doing another challenge like this. When we’re ready I’ll post it on the blog, and see who wants to join in. Toodles!