June 15, 2009

Success?

Friday night, Jay looked over the stuff we had for the yard sale. "You'll be lucky to make $50." Shocked that he thought I would make so little, I rolled my eyes and chalked it up to him not knowing how yard sales work.

Only it turns out that he was right - I made $39.50. I paid $5 for the signs and newspaper add, so I netted $34.50. My father sold two pair of shorts for $6 and he has requested the money (the rest of my family just gave me stuff to get rid of for them) but when he found out how little I made, he felt bad and told me to keep the money.

Of course that didn't make any sense to me, since he was the one that didn't break even. After spending $20 on lunch for himself, my mom, Jay and I, he actually lost money on the deal.

Truth be told, I was hoping to make around $100 or so. I had already planned on what I wanted to buy. I never just buy a pair of pants without checking the price. That results often in a pair of pants that don't fit me properly.

I thought it would be nice to go into one of my favorite stores (The Limited, Express, Banana Republic) and not concern myself with the price, just buy a pair pants that fit me well and look good. With less than $35 profit, that's not going to happen.

My mom tried to make me feel better by reasoning that it was $40 that I hadn't started with. I had gotten junk out of my house, gotten a little money for it, and she and I had gotten to hang out. Using her logic it the sale was a success.

It also made me think of my weight loss goals. I felt skinny this weekend, even though I seemed to be eating anything and everything in site. Do I choose to measure success by the number on the scale, the size of the pants, or the way I feel?

Depending on how you look at it, I'm either a wonderful success or a huge failure. For today, I choose to be a success.

7 comments:

  1. bummer but WAY TO TURN IT AROUND!! :)

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  2. Man, I'd count it a success just to get rid of some clutter. And to spend time with mom :)

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  3. I'm sorry the sale wasn't what you hoped for but your mom's right - you got rid of some stuff and it was money you didn't have before. Next time, just donate and get the tax write off.

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  4. It could have been better, but you have more money and less stuff now, so that's a success!

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  5. being a cup-half-full typea girl myself, i'd call it a success! you could have donated it or curbed it, but instead you got some money back and really, money is money! what i wouldn't give to just get rid of the overwhelming mounds of stuff we don't need and get some money for it! ya did good!

    i also call feeling great about yourself a pretty big success too! good for you!

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  6. What a great attitude! =) I've gone garage sales twice in my life. The first time was to benefit the American Cancer Society (funny story on that -- need to blog about it, actually...), and the other was at my house, when I got to sale my refrigerator (I had two at the time -- my MIL moved and gave me hers), so I think that put my sales around $70 with the fridge (which I sold for $30...probably could have gotten more. It was a good fridge.).

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  7. I hate yard sales - too much time and energy to get everything together and sit outside all day. And then you don't make any money. Yuck, yuck!

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what up yo?