New Series: Staying Sane While Being A Stay at Home Mom (and selling online)

I find myself going a little crazy this time of year. I get overwhelmed and things feel hectic, the to do list seems like it will never get done. I know that in the next 4-5 months I will make the bulk of my profit for the year and I want to do it well. But it's hard sometimes.  I need to double the amount of things I get sent into Amazon and listed on ebay. Yet somehow I need to still manage to keep up on the housework and spend quality time with my family, especially with my husbands recent health concerns.

I'd like to start a new series about what I've found that makes things easier for me. I hopehat it will make things a little easier for another mom out there, whether working outside the house, a stay at home mom or a work at home mom. I'll post a tip every week of things that I find are working for me.

I realize that some things might not be the best for everyone. I live in a very rural area and it's about 45 minutes to 1 hour to the town where I do my shopping. "Going to town" is an all day event, where we pack a lunch and stay for the day. If you live closer to town, my tip for today might not make sense for you. If you have a great tip on how you make it all work, please share in the comments.


My tip for the week:
You're on the internet everyday anyway, why not make the most of it.

I order everything online that I possibly can. I can usually get it to my house before my next town day, often for less or the same amount it would cost to drive. I also don't have to drag one or both kids in and out of stores, and the days I do go to town, there is more time for things like going to the library, sourcing (more room in the car too.) Ordering things online also means less errands to run so  I'm not as rushed to get everything done in time to pick up my son from school.

Some things I have ordered in the last two weeks online:

• items to sell on Amazon- ordered a case or more instead of driving store to store to find more
• banker boxes- 140 of them to be exact, so I can organize and store more inventory (they qualified for free shipping, so I had them delivered. This way I won't have to lug them and the little one out to the car.) 
• shipping boxes for Amazon, I ordered them online for store pickup and had my hubby pick them up while he was in town
• library books for baby girl's homeschool preschool program and also some books to read about my hubby's condition, quick in and out with the library self checkout
• Groceries- I usually use Amazon Prime Pantry. I already have a prime account for our tv, (instead of cable) and I had gotten a bunch of $5 credits for prime pantry with things I have been ordering anyway.  I belong to several facebook groups that will alert you when there is a good deal on something. I do have a stockpile in our basement, so I order multiples while they are a good price. You can fill a very large box that will ship for a flat $5 (or free if you have a promo code) no matter how much it weighs
• Grocery and other items I have ordered recently: potato and corn chips .99-1.50 for a large bag (we donate these a lot for our church functions) beans, taco shells, vitamins, drinks, soup, soap,  shaving cream, drink mix, juice, shampoo, conditioner, and many more. You can also subscribe and save, so each month or whatever time limit you set, Amazon will automatically send you the items you need. We use this for toilet paper, baby wipes, pull-ups, vitamins, essential oils and supplements. Now that my stepdaughter is expecting in January, I have been having Amazon automatically send her some subscribe and save items as well.
• Prescriptions- I have them on automatic refill from Walgreens and they ship them to us. Before I was having to go to town 2-3 times a week to pick up my kiddos asthma/allergy meds,  I have an extra backup of each med so if they get lost or delayed in the mail, I still have some. 
• I buy a lot of my business supplies (packing tape etc) from one local store, but they sometimes don't have the amount I need (I try to stock up once a month) so now I just order a case online and them pick it up in store
• I've also seen restaurants are starting to have apps where you can order online and pick up in the store or thru the drive thru. We don't eat out very often, but I think occasionally it would be nice to order our food, drive thru and have dinner ready when we get home. (especially if I forgot to put something in the crockpot before we left) 

Listen to my podcast interview at So you wanna sell on ebay

Back in June I was contacted by the podcast  http://soyouwannasellonebay.com/
I was nervous, but accepted and had a great time being interviewed by Ron and Ali.
It's been a long wait, but I am so excited to announce that my interview went live today!

We talked about how I've been selling on Ebay since 1997 (has it really been that long?!?) We talked about why I decided to be a stay at home mom and knew Ebay was a great place to start. We talked about how my children (even the 2 yr old) and the rest of my family help me run my business. We talked about how sometimes people think I'm crazy when I tell them my job is selling on Ebay and Amazon. We even talked about avoiding your own hoard. :)

Be sure to head on over and listen to my interview and lots of other great ebay sellers. And if you are one of my readers, sell on ebay, and are interested in being interviewed, please let me know, I would be happy to recommend you to the show. I am a total introvert, but I really had a great time being interviewed and Ron and Ali are some of the nicest guys I have met.

If you haven't listened to them before, I highly recommend it! I love to listen to podcasts while I list or take photos. It's a great to multi task and learn information to help your business while you list all the things.


I'd love to hear what you thought of the interview, please let me know in the comments!

Catching up

I apologize for being MIA.

I have much to share, but don't really have the right words to share it yet. 

Things have been going on with my hubby behind the scenes for a while now. We are finally getting some answers, but they are hard to accept and adjust to. He is ok, it's not cancer or anything like that, but it is something that will shape and change our future from now on. It complicates things for me and changes my role in our household quite a bit. 

Right now it is requiring lots of appointments and time commitments for me, and lots of time on the phone to insurance companies and filling out paperwork. It will all be okay in the end, it's just hard to see that right now. Let me process for a little while longer and then I promise to share what's been going on. 

There is some good news, my friend with stage 4 lung cancer has gotten in to see one of the best Dr's and they were able to do a DNA test to narrow down the cancer she has. The kind she has is only found in 4% of people with lung cancer and there isn't much to look at to compare. It is easier to target with chemo that has less side effects, at this point only time will tell, but we continue to pray for her complete recovery! 

and more good news, I am finally got my TRS back today! It's been a long 2 years to get there, but it showed up today! It sounds like with the new defect rating system things should get a little easier from here on out, but I will still be keeping a very close eye on it! 

Tip Tuesday: Amazon repacking service

I've been hearing a lot about Amazon suspending people's accounts in the last few weeks and I'll admit it has me a little bit on edge. I'm trying to be proactive and do all I can to prevent a suspension myself.

One way I am doing that is to turn off the automatic Amazon repackaging service. I opted in when it first was offered because I thought it would be great to not have to have an item sent back to me and then repackage and send it back to Amazon again. Instead what I have been finding is that Amazon repackages things that are not in a condition to be repackaged and sold as new and that I have gotten a few returns because of this.

I ordered a new Wi-Fi from another Amazon seller and received an item that was marked it had been repackaged by Amazon. When I opened it I discovered that it had was really just a regular, cheap, photo card. I think someone switched the cards out and then returned the cheaper which Amazon didn't check very carefully and just repackaged. And I'll admit as a buyer it was really annoying to get the wrong item and have to deal with sending it back.


So, from now on I am going to have my items sent back to me so I can repackage and if needed relist them in a different condition.

I've heard that it's automatically selected by Amazon now and that you have to unselect it if you don't want it. So, here's how to do that if you don't know.

login to your seller account
go to the top right and select settings
in the middle of the page you will see the repackage settings box
click on the top right of the box where it says edit
choose disable
click update

I also recommend checking periodically to make sure that it still says disabled, as there have been some people that it has reverted back to enable.

Hope that helps.