Free + For Sale

Spoiler: We aren't giving away or selling anything.. (sorry)

After buying Loretta (our used 2005 Subaru Outback), it was time to make up for our financial losses. We invested in our adventure mobile and didn't have any regrets, but we hoped to have a little more money before even thinking about planning two life-changing adventures (a EuroTrip followed by a cross-country road trip to our new home in Bend, Oregon).

I graduated from college in May 2015 and was very fortunate to be gifted a solid chunk of change from my generous family members. So, while we may be in a better financial situation post-Loretta than we had initially imagined, we are still extremely mindful of our budget and spending. Every morning I wake up and open my calculator app to add up how much money Em and I should have by the time we leave. 

To help add to our savings (because, com'on, who doesn't like a little extra cash in their pocket?) we teamed up with Em's parents to have an early June yard sale. We did an insane purge: clothes, camping gear, miscellaneous trinkets, etc.- anything that we hadn't used in the past few months/year was donated or set aside for the yard sale. We were very mindful of how many of our things we'd be able to fit in Loretta when we eventually set out on our cross-country road trip to Bend, Oregon. 

We may not have made a significant amount of money from the yard sale (and then post-yard sale Craig's list sales) but every dollar counts. Every couple dollars we make is another croissant in Paris we get to enjoy (a joke Em and I share when we're trying to justify our frugal way of life while we save/budget). 

Don't be afraid to get rid of your stuff. We were actually extremely relieved when we got rid of a lot of the extraneous THINGS that were just laying around our room. When we stopped thinking "we might need this at some point" and realized that we didn't use it in any of our daily situations within the past year (i.e. through each of the seasons), it was clear it wasn't a necessity. 

So go and purge and sell! Make a few extra dollars off of the things that you don't need. Make room for the new trinkets and memories you're going to invest in. Craig's List profiles are crazy-easy to set up and sell things on. So do yourself a favor and make some extra money this weekend. 

Cheers, Mike