This week, I have been mainly buying second hand! You will know if you read Shoestring Cottage regularly that I have gone self employed. Scary!! I have been self employed once before – years ago when I was a childminder. However, that was very much a part time income. I need to earn a more this time, so the plan is to do all sorts (I explored various options for quitting the 9-5 in this post).
I left my job of over 10 years last Friday. It was so emotional and I cried buckets – along with several of my colleagues. I intend to stay in touch with regular visits and trips to the pub.
Buying second hand for eBay
One of the ways I want to earn money is via eBay reselling. For many reasons I often buy second hand items for myself. It saves money, I can afford better quality than I could new and it is environmentally sound. Buying second hand stops things from going to landfill before their time and, for the most part, the packaging has already happened.
It follows then, that I am happy to sell second hand too – if it helps to close the loop it can only be a good thing. I am mainly going to be selling clothing. This is why I have been hitting the boot sales and charity shops hard! I need to stock my little shop.
This is a really interesting news article about why buying second hand and vintage clothing is becoming so popular. It seems the fashionistas are beginning to realise that fast fashion is an environmental disaster.
Researching the packaging
Because I am trying to run an environmentally sound business, I have been researching eco-friendly ways of packaging my wares. I reuse where I can, which is easy when sending out bric-a-brac. There is now a large stash of boxes and newspapers in the shed for this purpose.
I have also looked at paper mailing envelopes. The issue I have is, because I am mainly selling clothing, it is really important that they don’t get wet in transit. I tend to wrap each item in recyclable tissue paper and then put in a plastic envelope. However, I don’t intend to buy any more ordinary plastic envelopes.
For now, I have found some biodegradable versions. They don’t come in any pretty colours – just grey, grey or grey! I am not convinced by biodegradable plastic, though, and have a feeling I read it takes so long to degrade it’s almost as bad as proper plastic. If anyone has any brilliant ideas on eco-friendly packaging that will resist the damp and isn’t too expensive I would be very happy to hear in the comments below.
Boot sale prep
I have been having a bit of a declutter, as well as sorting through items I have purchased for sale that are just not up to scratch. So this week I have been pulling stuff from the attic and shed to sort through to do a boot sale.
I actually really dislike selling at boot sales – I would much rather be buying! However, it is a necessary evil and will make a few extra pounds too. My daughter’s room looks like a jumble sale – good job she is at university. I wrote a post about selling at boot sales here.
Growing our own food
We took advantage of the nice weather this week and got the runner beans and courgettes out. We still have quite a bit to plant outside, hopefully Sunday.
We have lots of tomato plants. I am looking forward to roasting some of them for tomato soup. We have a way to go yet though! I wrote a post this week about why you should make your own soup. It’s good, cheap and nutritious food.
We are also growing more flowers than usual this year, which will save us lots of money.
Exploring my old cook books
The internet is absolutely brilliant for finding recipes, and I do this all the time. However, once in a while I like to go back to my old cook books for inspiration to remember some old favourites when I do my weekly meal plan.
Talking of buying second hand, my lovely mother picked this one up somewhere. It is from the late 1990s. Food trends come and go, but this one seems to be full of really nice, classic veggie recipes. I may use some of them in my food plan tomorrow.
If you missed yesterday’s post, check it out. It is the first of a new series looking at side hustles and unusual ways to bring in extra income. Fiona from Savvy in Somerset kicked off by writing about making extra money by selling stories to the press.
As ever, I am linking up with Cass , Emma and Becky in this week’s Five Frugal Things I have done this Week linky.
Lee says
Well done with taking the plunge and going self employed – buying and selling second hand is a great idea! I wish I had more of an inclination for it but I tend to dread selling on eBay.
Su says
I’m at a bit of a loss to understand why you need to use waterproof packaging, or am I totally missing something? I don’t think most delivery companies store packages outdoors!
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
I have seen the way they are treated. I saw a whole load of parcels just sitting in the rain outside a delivery company last year. I think Royal Mail are better though
Su says
Well you could always reuse carrier bags. If your listings state that you reuse packaging I can’t see a problem and address labels can be stuck on.
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Yes could do but I don’t have many of those these days to reuse so not practical. I might get a sample of some thick paper ones I have found to see how strong they are
Bev says
Hi Jane – do you know of any upcycling bloggers. Clothes I mean as I have started re-making clothes from boot sale finds. Whilst there are quite a few American sites I can’t find much for the UK. Is this something you would ever consider doing? Really enjoying the extra posts, thank you.
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
I would love to do that but not creative enough. Love the idea though . I have up cycled a couple of furniture items
Dianne says
What lovely ideas I hope you have lots of success and make what you need. I do think that feeling of how much you need changes over time I know it certainly has for me. With regards to upcycling clothes I do that from time to time as I sew a lot. You could have a look on my blog for ideas I used a duvet set this week. Failing that look out for duvet sets with good prints, cut them up for fabric and sell that on ebay, just a thought. x
Shelly says
Have you looked into Tyvek envelopes? I do not where they fall in boi-ethics, but definitely durable! Is there such a thing as a compostable food wrap that you could use to protect the clothes items? Personally, I wouldn’t worry about the colour of the bags you have found- grey is a great neutral! Make your own labels that are colourful or source some cheaply and just pop one on and voila! High end!
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
I haven’t heard of them. Will have a look. The issue with buying compostable stuff in bulk is that it might compost before I use it!
Julia says
I have that cookbook sitting in a cupboard. Most of my collection comes from the late 1980s-1990s – probably because that is when I became a newly independent adult!
The last few fabric items I have bought from Amazon have come folded in a flat box, like the smaller books come in – no plastic or anything, with no problems. I was very impressed, but I think it was more the seller than the company as they also used an environmentally safe, vinegar-based dyeing process on their fabrics. 🙂