Just like I record weekly how much I have been able to earn for our family in The Saved Quarter Challenge, I am starting a new weekly feature, Debt Free Journey, which will recount what we have paid on our debts in the previous week.
Last week, we had a great week! I put my son’s outgrown clothes on Craigslist. A person saw the stuff I was listing and asked if I had anything else. I did, so I sent her pictures of all of the other stuff; I asked for $150, and she immediately backed off. I countered with $100, and she quickly accepted. I think I sold it a bit too quickly, but it would have been a pain to list everything individually and meet up with a number of sellers, so she really did me a favor. I also sold 35 storage tubs that I used for eBay, and earned $35.
Total sold on Craigslist: $135
I had some kids clothes I bought about 6 weeks ago that the kids really didn’t need. Since I hadn’t taken off any tags, I returned all of it to get $68.57 credited back on my card. I also had 5 clothes that I had bought for myself for our trip to Washington D.C., but I ended up finding other pieces I had in the closet that I had forgotten about, so I returned all of the clothes and got a $103.99 credit.
Total for unused, returned merchandise: $172.56
Last month, I paid my credit card bill electronically on the due date, but one hour after the 7 p.m. cut off. I was hit with a $25 late fee. I called last week and asked to have it removed, which the person on the phone happily agreed to do. This took less than 5 minutes.
Late fee reversed: $25.00
All of this activity was on the same card, which happens to be the first card on our debt snowball. Between the items I sold, the items I returned and the reversal of the late fee, we were able to snowflake $332.56 this week!

That’s awesome! I’m very impressed. Keep up the great work!
Awesome! I love these examples. I’ve got a piece of clothing to return and some stuff I should put on Craigslist and this post is a good reminder to me to do it. Congrats on your progress!
Thanks, Julie. Let us know how you do selling your stuff.
That’s great news! I returned a few unused items this week for about$150! Anything helps to reduce debt. Will be watching this series very closely! 🙂
Great job! Last week I spent a few hours canceling subscriptions and changing our phone and cable TV packages and was able to cut down $125/month to put towards debt. It’s a thrilling feeling! Would love to join you on your debt-free journey!
Great work! It is amazing what your per hour earnings are for the time it took to make the phone calls.
Great job Melissa!!! Keep up the great work. Every dollar counts!