Create and Market Seasonal Items

It seems silly and overly obvious, but if you're trying to sell items on Etsy, eBay, or anywhere else, pay attention to the seasons and holidays. I don't think anyone is going to forget about Halloween of Christmas, but pay attention to the 'smaller' holidays, too.

I have knot work items for sale at The Silver Puffin in Charleston, SC and on Etsy. Last night, the store owner shot me an email to let me know several of my items had sold and wanted to know if I had white coasters I could package with the blue and red varieties for the Fourth of July. I could have kicked myself! I didn't even think about putting special "patriotic"items on Etsy, and now it's getting too late to list anything for the holiday online because of shipping times. Luckily, I still have time to bring a few things down to the Puffin.

If you want to sell more items, make sure to have some seasonal offerings. Unless it's a really big commercial holiday, like Christmas, you might want to consider somewhat 'reusable' seasonal items. For example, red, white, and blue markets well for Memorial Day, the 4th, and even holidays like Labor Day and Veterans' Day. Fall items with leaves and pumpkins can be made to sell well all season long, not just for Halloween and Thanksgiving. If you sell your items online, make sure to list the items with sufficient time for customers to feel certain their merchandise will arrive on time. I know I hesitate to purchase anything online starting at a week, or even a week and a half, out because I don't trust the postal service. Don't go crazy and list your things two months early, but two or three weeks early is a good idea.

Family Meal Ideas

Family friendly meals should be tasty for kids and adults, make plenty for everyone to have seconds, and have easy to store leftovers. I made macaroni and cheese and invited my sister and her (also) musician boyfriend. It was fun and delicious! My way of making mac and cheese is slightly unconventional, but well worth a try if you've never used cayenne pepper, onions, or Ritz crackers in/on macaroni and cheese before. One of the advantages of inviting two musicians over for dinner is that you have plenty of entertainment while waiting for your food!

My sister was wearing a shirt for "The Trippin Tones," a student-run a cappella group at the College of Charleston. Evidently her boyfriend directed the group for two years and is also a composer. I found out he even has a capella arrangements available for sale online! How cool is that? Though it is a little depressing to feel so talentless when compared to a younger sibling...

It Runs in the Family

I just found out I'm not the only member of the family aspiring to starving artist status - my sister has a new website advertising her singing services here in South Carolina. She's not just a singer - she's a soprano, to be exact.

According to the altos of the world, there are two types of sopranos: divas and ditzes. My sister is not a soprano diva, not at all. So...please don't take offense if you read this, sister, but you are a bit of a soprano ditz. I don't mean it badly. She's just always (as far as I can tell) thinking about music. She's the only person I know who can wear headphones and sing along in key. Out of all the people I've lived with in my life, she's the only one who ever sang opera in the shower. She's kind of a music nerd and really enjoys taking on difficult pieces. The harder, the better, as far as I can tell. That's where her slight soprano ditziness comes from - her love of music. I don't hold it against her, though, she really can't help it. She's also an astoundingly good person who spends her limited free time volunteering and wouldn't take a pack of crackers home from a restaurant.

If you're looking for a singer for an event, wedding or otherwise, in South Carolina, please take a look at her website. At the time of writing, her music samples are not yet available online, but they will be soon. You can already see her experience and send her a contact form.

http://tatianahoover.com/

Tatiana - Soprano

Frugal Living Tip #3 - Frugal Does NOT Equal Terrible

Many people immediately associate "frugal" with terrible. They think frugal means no fun, nothing nice, and being like the guy at work who reuses paper plates (if you're reading this, no offense! But it does weird me out). That's not what I'm about.

I believe it is possible to live a frugal lifestyle without compromising what is enjoyable about life. It isn't just about rice and beans every night, it's about finding food that tastes good and is easy on the budget. It isn't about doing without things and making yourself miserable just because you didn't have to spend money, it's about not wasting money on unnecessary things. I know some folks out there disagree with me - that's ok. This is my version of frugal.

For the past several months, I have biked far more than I've driven. My bicycle is 13 years old next month and the seat was literally falling apart. It felt like riding on a brick and the staples were falling out. I put up with this ragged seat for a long time, telling myself that I didn't need to spend the money on a new seat when mine was, technically, still working. Monday, I decided that enough was enough. I rode down to Afforda Bike and bought myself a nice, cushy new seat. Yes, I'd be $39 richer if I hadn't, but I would also continue being miserable for miles of every day. This morning, I'm looking forward to my bike commute.

Ultimately, the decision to repair, or even upgrade, little things that make thrifty choices more likely is a good investment. My uncomfortable bike seat made me less eager to ride and more likely to drive. With construction and summer traffic, driving in Charleston currently uses a lot of gas. Now that I have a comfortable bike seat, I'm a lot less tempted to hop in the car for those short, stop and go, around town trips that kill your gas mileage.

So, just remember: frugal does not equal terrible. If something is making you miserable and you can fix it, fix it. Don't decide to ignoreyour broken stove and eat out every night. You'll save money today, but not in the long run.

The False Economy of Fast Food

One night, a former housemate of mine came home with a couple bags of groceries. This guy never, ever bought groceries. On his days off, he loved to order Jimmy John's or run to Taco Bell. When I remarked on his grocery purchases he replied that "He finally had the money" to do some grocery shopping.

Sadly, this kind of attitude is common today. People look at the cost of buying a loaf of bread, cheese, and deli meat, mustard, and whatever else and compare it to the price of a Subway sandwich and conclude that fast food is less expensive than making food at home. Yes, the cost of all the sandwich ingredients might be $10, which seems a lot more expensive than the "$5 foot long," but the grocery store purchase makes several meals, making the overall cost per meal far, far less. According to The New York Times, the cost of feeding a family of four at McDonald's can easily exceed $25, while the same family can eat a healthier meal at home for less than $10.

When you also take into consideration the unhealthy nature of most fast food options, the true cost of fast food is clear. Sure, we all know that the high fat and sodium contents are 'bad' for us, but most people do not realize how many chemicals, stabilizers, fillers, and other additives are present in most fast food. The award-winning US Food Safety Blog points out that "...additives commonly found in many fast food items include propylene glycol, used to prevent ice cream from becoming rock solid; and silicone dioxide or calcium silicate, used to prevent caking in cheese products. Propylene glycol is similar to ethylene glycol, the main ingredient in anti-freeze. Silicone dioxide is essentially sand, and calcium silicate is found in cement and bricks." Yikes!

For years, people have turned to fast food as a 'convenient' way to get 'inexpensive' food, but what is convenient about waiting too long (realistically) to pay too much for low-quality food that may simply serve to shorten your life? Many Americans are under time pressure and feel they don't have the time to make home-cooked meals, but it is actually possible to carefully plan a menu, use the freezer, and cook once a month.

Please, for the sake of your health and wallet, stop and reconsider the next time you want to head to the drive-in because you think it's the cheaper, easier option.

First Etsy Sale!

What an awesome image to get in my email. I'm very excited and grateful to my first ever Etsy customer!

How to Become a Starving Artist - Get Yourself out There!

How can you ever become a starving artist (or, hopefully, ultimately a not-starving artist!) if no one knows who you are or has access to your creations?

Today's Internet marketplace provides unparalleled opportunities for marketing yourself and your art, writing, jewelry, etc. Of course, the world's premier source for handmade items is Etsy. Competition is stiff on the site, so you have to do your research, find a niche, and promote yourself in order to succeed. Or, so I am told by experienced Etsy user, RandomCreative, who has a series of articles on HubPages about how to create an Etsy store, sell handmade jewelry online, and develop a pricing formula. If I succeed at Etsy, it will be thanks to her knowledge and willingness to share her experiences. I'm still waiting for my first sale on Etsy, but my store has only been 'open' since Monday. If you want to become my new hero, visit my Etsy store, Stalking the Wild Snark.

Not only did I just open my Etsy store, but I also managed to get a limited selection of my items available in a brick and mortar establishment here in Charleston, South Carolina. I am deeply thankful to the store owners for allowing me the opportunity to sell my handmade coasters and doormats. The Silver Puffin is a fantastic gift shop in downtown Charleston and is known locally for its selection of high-quality, handmade items.

So, there you have it. A step on the way to becoming a genuine starving artist! If you want to open your own Etsy store, or try to sell your items in a local store, I urge you to read, read, read. RandomCreative's hubs and the Etsy blog are fantastic places to start. I read everything I could for about two weeks before even uploading a single picture to Etsy. I also took RandomCreative's advice and had professional business cards printed. They look fantastic and current online specials meant I spent less on professional business cards than I would have spent on the necessary paper to print them at home! I used Staples' online program because, as a former Staples Copy Center employee, I knew I could expect high-quality. I love my new cards and hope I have the chance to placed one in a box with a sold product soon!

Turk's Head Coasters now for sale on Etsy and at The Silver Puffin

Ways to Make Money Online - Amazon Mechanical Turk

I first discovered Amazon Mechanical Turk, called MTurk, about a year ago. I was very active on the site for about half a year (and by very active, I mean 'spent almost every minute of my free time working on MTurk'), and became quite successful. Some days I made over $100 from home, which is better than my 'day job' pays.

One day, I started to wonder about where everything I wrote went. Is it online? Is it someone's catalog? Clearly, someone planned to ultimately make more than they paid me to write articles. That is when I stopped working so much at MTurk and began trying to do my own thing on the Internet. As a result, I spend just as much time online, but make about 1/10 as much money.

If you want to make a reasonable amount of money, and are curious how to become successful on Amazon's Mechanical Turk, check out my HubPages Hub about the topic here. I share what I did, as well as how much money I made. If you follow my steps, I'm confident you can make decent money on MTurk, too.

Success takes both planning and dedication, but the payoff is worth it. If you do not have any freelance writing experience, or have no desire to jump into the world of SEO, social media, etc., writing for MTurk is a great way to get a feel for Internet writing without the hassle and stress of managing everything yourself.

Frugal Living Tip #2 - Stop Driving so Much!

Gas prices have risen a lot in the past few years, and it is unlikely they will ever fall in any meaningful way. Just as we fondly remember the 99 cent gas of 2000, soon we may reminisce about when gas used to cost less than $4 a gallon. I used to spend $20 a month on gas to get to and from work, Now, if I drive every day, I spend almost $60 to travel the same distance. Not only does stop and go city traffic kill your gas mileage, but starting your car takes a large chug of gas, which makes around the town errands much more costly than you might realize.

So how can you combat rising gas prices? By not using your car. Yes, it can take a few extra minutes, but if you make the conscious decision to bike, or walk, whenever possible, you can dramatically reduce your gas budget. Many police departments hold regular bike auctions where you can find a high-quality bike for a low price, or you can check sites like craiglist, eBay classifieds, and freecycle for bikes. 

Biking and walking save you more than gas money - they can reduce your medical costs by helping you loose weight and get healthy. Just hour of light cycling can burn over 500 calories! If you want to know how many calories you could burn biking, check out this easy to read article. If you are interested in switching to a bike commute, I wrote a series of pieces on HubPages about my decision to bike to work and tips for safe bike commute. You can learn the basics of what you need and how to plan your route by visiting this page.

Amazingly, with afternoon traffic, I actually can bike home on a Friday faster than I can drive. Switching to a bike could save you time and money!

How I get to work and save $$

Frugal Living Tip #1

It seems counter-intuitive, but if your budget is tight, avoid the $1 rack and clearance aisle unless you have a very specific plan and can stick to it. Just the other day, a coworker and I discussed how easy it is to spend way too much money at the dollar store. He said the last time he visited the dollar store, he spent over $30! Sure, he got a lot of stuff, but he also spent more than he meant to because it is far too easy to pick up an item and tell yourself "oh, well, it's only a dollar." The problem is, dollar after dollar, these items add up.

It is difficult to resist an item that is only a dollar, or anything with a clearance sticker. Unless you have willpower made of steel and need to look for a specific item on sale, avoid these 'value' bins. Stores place them near entrances and checkouts (think about it - what's the first thing you see inside almost any Target?) because they work. They are a proven way to trick people in to spending more money. Don't fall into the store's trap - avoid these money-draining pitfalls and spend your hard-earned cash elsewhere.

Avoid temptation and the $1 rack!

From Starving to Starving Artist...I Hope

I feel distinctly lied to about life. I'm not really bitter about it, and I don't think anyone tried to mislead me, but sometime between when I was a kid and when I graduated from college, the world changed.

As a child, I was told a formula: make good grades, go to college, (go to grad school,) find a job you love, and you'll have a fantastic life. When you're a girl, people also assume that marriage somewhere in your early-mid 20's and some kids is normal.

So I made great grades, went to college with a full scholarship, graduated summa cum laude, and got a job I though I would love. Unfortunately, I graduated in May, 2008 - right after the whole real estate bubble fiasco. When I told people I was about to graduate, I frequently heard "I'm sorry - I wouldn't want to graduate from college now." No, you wouldn't, especially not with a history degree!

Since May of four years ago, I've learned that many adults are really just kids, the paradigm of 'what works' no longer works because the world has changed, and no one knows really how the world of the future will work. In the past four years, I've worked up to three jobs at a time just to make ends meet!

Now, my main life goal is to take myself from starving to starving artist. I love writing, creating things, and photography. Using the power of the Internet and a strong dose of creativity, I hope to use what I love to take the place of at least one of my jobs.

So far, I've muddled through a lot of this Internet stuff on my own, but I don't want everyone else out there with a similar dream to start from the ground up. I created this blog to share my experiences, failures, struggles, and (hopefully) successes with writing online and living a frugal lifestyle that isn't depressing. I hope you come along for the ride - I'd love to have you here.