It's no secret that you need money to live and I am not the most proactive person in the world which I will be the first to admit, so when I became exposed to the gigantically overpriced bill, aka. life, I quickly gathered that living of bank of Mum and Dad was not going to last long and I needed to make my own money.
The prospect of getting a job did not appeal to me as I didn't want to be tied down to hours in order to make a bit of cash along side being in full time education and so I turned to the internet, like any other millennial and google'd 'how to make money without a job'. So, I tried countless survey sites which offered me no more that pounds and pennies with the occasional gift card (if I was lucky), but even this took weeks.
After several failed attempts at making quick cash I decided to sell some old clothes on eBay to get quick cash, which I did. This then became a hobby and I would mostly sell clothes to buy clothes, essentially making buying new clothes cost neutral whilst also making a bit of extra money. (I was able to make money after buying clothes as buying a full priced item is unthinkable, maybe I'll talk about some tips and tricks for buying things you want in a later post).
This continued to snowball and now I have a small shop on eBay that makes a nice little profit that means I don't need a job in order to afford fun days out and fancy meals etc...
I stock my small shop with mostly charity shop and boot sale items. I buy the clothing for a few pound a piece and if it's a big brand I can then sell that item for a couple times the amount of money that I paid. What I really like about this is that I'm giving money to charity when I buy some of my stock and then when I sell it, the buyer is still getting a good deal as the item is a fraction of the cost if they had bought it in the shop and I make a little profit in the middle. Everyone is happy.
Here is a little break down of a recent shopping trip I went on to re-stock (what I paid and what I sold it for) -
Topshop jeans x2: I paid £3 each pair and sold each pair for £15 (RRP: £30)
Next work trousers: I paid £1 and sold them for £6 (RRP: £20)
American Apparel skirt: I paid £4 and sold it for £20 (RRP: £60)
Atmosphere dress x3: I paid £1.50 each and sold them for £7 each (RRP: £15)
In total I paid £15.50 and made a gross profit of £61.50
*All my RRP are ball park figures going off similar stock that is currently being sold by the companies
*I don't normally get this many high ticket items but I imagine a lot of people had a clear out around Christmas time so this is a particularly good shop with a big profit margin, how much I make fluctuates throughout the year. I also tend to stick to ladies clothing, mostly the same size as myself as I have more knowledge on what items I can sell and how much for.
Something else I recently became involved with were the deal sites that operate as forums and allow users to post deals they find. (I find Hot Deals the best site for this) I take full advantage of this and keep an eye out for the price glitches online, but this is a bit hit and miss. If an item is incorrectly priced online sometimes they send out the items and sometimes they don't.
I bought a Laura Geller makeup set for £15 (RRP: £60) and sold it for £30. I believe the item should have been displayed as £45 as shortly after I bought the item it was taken off the site and all similar make up sets were £45. The offer on eBay at the time was £1 selling fees on 100 items and so instead of fees alone being £3 on this item, fees for all the items I sold last month were £1 when they should have been roughly £20. (eBay/Paypal take 10% of profits as fees). Overall, I spent £15 and made a profit of £15, so I doubled my money! (minus a few pence for fees after the £1 is averaged out across all the items I sold whilst the £1 fee deal was on).
Another great find I got my hands on was the You Beauty make up advent calendar which had £270+ worth of goodies inside (24 items) and before Christams cost £70 and after Christmas I bought for £35 at 50% off. This was a cost neutral deal with a small profit as there were a few items I didn't want and so sold 4 of the items for £10 each which essentially made the rest of the items that I kept free.
(These are just a few examples from the past week or two)
(These are just a few examples from the past week or two)
This sort of savy-ness has allowed me to be my own boss and shop in order to make a small income every month whilst I am a full time student. I have a rotating wardrobe stocked with high priced items that I buy for a fraction of the price and beauty products that are essentially free!
*Postage costs were not included in any of the prices listed, the buyer paid for this on top of the cost of the item itself.
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