Thriftyaffair

08/25/2026

One of the weirdest things I’ve had to learn since being thrown into full-time reselling while I look for my next corporate gig is how to structure my own damn day.

For years, even with flexibility, work gave my day a center. Now suddenly everything could be work: photograph, list, relist, organize inventory, pack orders, prep for the flea market, clean, research trends…

And when there are 15 perfectly reasonable things I could be doing, sometimes my brain responds by doing approximately none of them. 😂

So I’ve been experimenting with turning it into a game.

I’ll have AI give me a scavenger hunt based on what people are shopping for right now, with pictures, and then I go hunt through my own inventory.

Find it. Photograph it. List or relist it. Check it off. Next.

And weirdly? It’s working.

Not perfectly. I still get distracted and some days completely go sideways. But instead of staring at a mountain of inventory thinking where the hell do I start?, I have one thing to go find.

I’ve especially been using it this week while going through inventory and getting ready for the flea market Saturday. It gives the chaos a little structure without making me feel like I’m back on somebody else’s clock.

Apparently when my brain sees 500 things, it freezes.

When it sees a scavenger hunt?

Oh, we’re playing. 😂

08/23/2026

Remember that $5 bag of quarters?

I finally got everything cleaned up, pictured and processed, so here are some of the cooler finds from my little shoestring-budget experiment.

I found a really cool sweater, a vintage purple silk shirt, the funkiest pink and green top, a Halloween Disney shirt, some nicer everyday pieces, and even a really interesting book from the early 1930s.

I also spent $4 on jewelry pieces at a steal of a price and then hit the stuff-a-bag-for-$1, which was a pretty big shoestring budget win.

Not everything I brought home is going online, either. Some pieces make more sense for the flea market, and others can help fill out the clothing bundles I’ve been selling. I’m getting much better about looking at inventory as where can I actually move this? instead of assuming everything needs its own listing.

A lot of this is stuff I probably would’ve walked right past a year ago, too. Trends change, buyers change, and I’m learning to pay more attention to what people are actually buying instead of only what catches my eye.

Now to start getting the good stuff listed and see where the buyers actually find it.

Not bad for a bag of quarters.

08/19/2026

A little delayed getting this one posted because I’m learning there are only so many hours in a day 😂 Between listing, packing, prepping for Famous Joe’s on the 29th, and still looking for my next corporate job… balance is apparently part of the experiment too.

Being a single mom and sole provider means I can’t exactly throw a bunch of money at inventory and hope for the best, which is really where this whole shoestring thing started.

And honestly? Some of my quickest wins lately have been the things I spent almost nothing on.

A shoestring find that sold within 30 minutes. Free inventory that sold in about an hour. And then there’s stuff I already had sitting in my garage that I literally tried to sell during the 2025 holiday season with no luck… moved it to a different platform and suddenly it was gone in minutes. 😂

There’s definitely a LOT of trial and error happening over here, but I’m starting to wonder how much generating more sales is about constantly finding more inventory… and how much is figuring out what you already have and where its buyer actually is.

That might be my favorite part of this experiment so far.

If you resell too — have you found one platform where something just randomly TAKES OFF after sitting everywhere else? Because apparently I’m testing all the theories now. 👀

Next up: that $1 stuff-a-bag, some surprisingly good Garland District finds for fall… and yes, somehow a book I’m ridiculously excited about. 📚

08/17/2026

Happy Monday!
This sure gave me a good laugh.

Excited to show you later today what I picked up in Garland District and Hillyard in Spokane, and what’s shipping out from this weekend.

Wayyyy better! 🤣😅

08/15/2026

Still seeing how far I can stretch this little shoestring sourcing budget 😂🪙

I started the weekend with $5 in quarters and one rule: just because something is cheap doesn’t mean I have to buy it. It still needs to be something I think I can actually resell.

I only spent $1 yesterday… so today I headed back out with the same little bag and $4 left.

How far can $4 go when you’re sourcing for a small resale shop? 👀

I’ll show you what I found next.

08/15/2026

Turns out finding free inventory is the easy part. The real experiment is turning it into profit without accidentally becoming a warehouse. Boundaries. 😂

These four items cost me a combined 25¢ and produced $98.44 in profit after fees and cost. All four sold within four days—three within 24 hours.

My usual goal is $20+ profit per item, but I’ll take less when the investment is tiny and I believe it can move quickly. Free inventory isn’t valuable if it takes over my house forever.

I still have hundreds of pieces to sort into individual listings, bundles, flea-market inventory, and things to pass along. We’re still discovering what works—and enforcing warehouse boundaries as we go.

Which currently listed piece do you think sells next?

08/14/2026

This experiment started with a quick $20 bundle sale of 31-inch-inseam pants—because apparently pants are now venture capital. 😂

With my budget extremely limited, my responsible plan was to spend only $10 at the vendor mall across the street.

Then I saw a booth marked 75% off.

The responsible plan lasted approximately four minutes.

I spent $17.97 on three working vintage musical figurines, an original 1980 Where the Wild Things Are plush, and a new-with-tags Pokémon Meowth.

Then my remaining $2 went to a 25-cent sale, where I found vintage plus-size clothing, new-with-tag fall and winter pieces, and a handmade quilted grandmacore vest. The seller even threw in a bonus item!

Total invested: $19.97.

At least I saved three cents. Responsible. 😂

The 25¢ vest is now listed for $42. This week, I’ll track what sells, where it sells, and how far that original $20 can stretch.

After losing my corporate career to restructuring, I’m experimenting with multiple ways to rebuild my income while navigating a feral job market and life as a single mom. I don’t have all the answers—we’re learning and pivoting in real time.

NEXT: I received another batch of inventory completely FREE—and two pieces have already sold. 👀

Follow along to see what happens next! Which item would you have grabbed first?

Tiny correction: I said “25 cents off” once, but I meant a 25-cent sale. That little bloop wasn’t worth re-recording the entire video, so we’re calling it authenticity. 😂

08/13/2026

A little sneak peek before I share the full results of my shoestring-budget sourcing experiment later tonight… 👀

I gave myself a very small amount of money to work with, found some surprisingly good pieces, and tonight I’ll show you what I picked up, where the numbers landed, and which finds were the absolute must-haves.

And because apparently I like adding another challenge while already on a shoestring budget… I also spent $20 to reserve a flea market space. 😂

I wasn’t sure I wanted to try another flea market after feeling a little burned by my last experience—but I’m giving it another shot!

Come shop with me:

🗓 August 29
⏰ Starting at 10 a.m.
📍 Famous Joe’s Vendor Emporium
9126 E. Sprague Ave.
Spokane Valley, WA 99206

I’ll have clothing, vintage finds, jewelry, accessories, bundles, and plenty of affordable treasures.

Full shoestring-budget haul and results coming later tonight! What do you think was my best find? 👀

08/11/2026

Today’s resale experiments 👀

I’ve been playing around with bundles lately because I’m trying to get better about one thing: moving inventory instead of just storing it forever.

Experiment #1: I’m dropping off a $20 bundle of men’s dress pants today. Most had that apparently-annoying 31” inseam, but bundled locally they moved in under 30 days. I’m taking $10 of that sale and seeing if I can find one solid flip to reinvest it into.

Experiment #2: I was about to take this kids bundle somewhere just to move it… then realized some of my fastest sellers this week have actually been small kids’ sizes. So instead, I’m breaking the bundle back apart and testing the stronger pieces individually on Vinted, Marketplace and eBay to see what can move in under 30 days.

ADHD win already this morning: clothes steamed, bundle packed, today’s orders packed, and I’m actually leaving the house with the things I intended to leave with. 😂

We’ll see what today brings.

08/11/2026

Month 4 after a corporate restructure and apparently… I’m a full-time reseller now. 😂

I’ve actually been reselling for more than 3½ years, but it was always part-time — a hobby, some extra money, something I did around my corporate career.

Now it’s a completely different experiment.

I’m paying way more attention to what sells, where it sells, how fast it sells, what sits forever, and what’s actually worth my time.

This weekend was a perfect example.

Some things sold the same day.
Some moved within a couple weeks.
And a few finally escaped inventory jail after about six months and multiple relists. 😵‍💫😂

I’m not coming on here pretending I’ve cracked some secret six-figure reseller code. I’m rebuilding income after corporate life and testing things in real time.

Reselling. Content. Maybe other income streams along the way.

Basically, I’m throwing spaghetti at capitalism and seeing what sticks. 😂

The goal is to see if I can eventually build multiple income streams into six figures instead of waiting for one corporate job to solve everything, especially when the job market lately feels like 100 people fighting over one chair.

So I figured I might as well document the whole thing:

the good, the bad, the ugly, the wins, the flops, the “why the hell did I buy this?” and what actually works.

If that sounds entertaining, follow along. We’re figuring this s**t out in real time. 😂