Frugalous

Part of the issue with the downsizing is that I’m moving from a house with a large custom kitchen with more than ample storage into a tiny galley style kitchen. When I first looked around I was shocked by how small it was. The oven, for example, is only 24″ wide. That’s the outside. The inside is only 16″ x 17″. None of my roasters, baking sheets, or even muffin pans will fit inside!

The apartment kitchen doesn’t host much cupboard space either so I’ve spent the past 6 weeks trying to use up what’s in my pantry and my large upright freezer here at the house in preparation for this move. I’ve been a little too successful though.

Last night when I stopped packing long enough to think about making dinner for the family I found the following: 1 lb frozen raw shrimp, 1 onion, 2 tired and depressed looking carrots, 1 wrinkly and wise looking green pepper, 1 can of jellied cranberry, 1 can of large pitted green olives, about 1 cup of wild rice, a small jar of anchovies, 3 cans of evaporated milk, half a loaf of bread and just about every kind of condiment you can imagine. I was exhausted, mind numb from packing and organizing and I stared at this motley little group of foodstuffs in utter confusion.

Finally the boychild decided he could brave the rain and walk to the local grocery store. He returned with some whole wheat tortillas and announced that shrimp fajitas sounded like a great idea for dinner. And so it was. It was also a great breakfast – I just ate the leftovers with my coffee.

Wonder what sort of wonder we’ll whip up for today’s dinner?

As I’ve likely mentioned a number of times I’m moving from my house of approximately 2200 sq ft of living space (plus garage, garden shed, patios) to an 800 sq ft apartment. Needless to say I’ve had to get rid of a lot of things.

I started out listing the main items to sell (furniture, tvs, sewing machine, lawnmower, etc.) with a description and my asking price and I emailed it to everyone on my local contact list and ask them to forward it on to anyone they thought might be interested. I’ve sold all but 2 items this way so far so I haven’t had to post items on my local buy/sell group or craigslist. Amazing what you can do when you have a network, even a small one!

We’re now down to less than a week until the movers arrive and I’m getting things ready for a yard sale. I made a decision that nothing that I’d want more than $20 would be in the yard sale but would be offered up to my email network and it’s worked great.

Whatever doesn’t sell in Saturday’s yard sale will be donated to a local charity so the goal of the yard sale for me is to get rid of things I can’t take with me and I’m pricing things accordingly. About 85% of the items I’m selling will be priced at 25 cents. A few items priced at one dollar. Only 5 or 6 items will be priced over one dollar.  Remember… at this point the goal is to get rid of this stuff, not to make a big profit. The more that goes in the sale means the less I have to cart over to the donation centre saving me both time and gas money in the long run.

Next strategy is to do an “early bird” friends and family pre-sale on Friday evening. I’ve told all of my neighbours, friends, people in my local network about the pre-sale and told them to feel free to bring a friend. Hoping to have at least a quarter of the stuff gone before I even open the garage door for the official sale on Saturday.

Fingers crossed I get rid of all or most of the stuff in the sale. Every little bit counts.

It’s been a crazy few weeks (months, years) but I’ve finally sold the house and am in the middle of moving – less than a week to go.

It’s the start (finally!) of my new life. New place to live, new people in my life, new focus.

The new focus is why I’d love to attend Blog World Expo. I’ve sold my house and am using part of the money from that to start my business. The money will give me time (12 to 18 months) to launch a number of niche blogs (including this one), write some info/ebook type products to sell and hopefully I’ll be making enough income in that 12 to 18 month time frame to pay my living expenses.

Going to Blog World Expo will enable me to learn from the folks who are already writing amazing blogs. I’ve looked over the schedule of sessions and I almost wish I could clone myself 2 or 3 times so that I could attend each and every session. I know that what I could learn from the sessions and just from meeting other bloggers in person would more than justify the cost of a return flight from Toronto. It would be an investment in my future.

I know most of those who are earning full time blog income discourage the whole “just throw yourself in and go for it” and suggest you start blogging part time but I figure with all of the other changes in my life it’s time to just do it. I know it’s not going to be easy but I’m looking forward to throwing myself full time into the blogging lifestyle and Blog World Expo would simply ignite my passion and drive even further.

John Chow, one of my blogging heroes, is offering an opportunity to win one of two free passes to Blog World Expo in September and I’m so excited. I’ve entered (this is the entry) to win one of the passes and I’d be there in a heartbeat should I win. Wish me luck!

John, if you read this and decide I should receive one of the passes you can contact me at merlene@merlenepaynter.com. Did I mention my fingers are crossed?  (Toes too. Even my eyes are crossed although that’s starting to give me a headache.)  The cost of flight, hotel, etc. would be more than worth if for this event.