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frugal

7 Frugal Trim Healthy Mama Dinners

January 4, 2019 by Stacy Craft 2 Comments

Trim Healthy Mama can seem overwhelming and expensive. Eating healthy doesn’t have to cost a ton. Here we have planned 7 Frugal Trim Healthy Mama dinners for your family of 4 (that your non-THM family will actually eat).

7 Frugal Trim Healthy Mama Dinners

When I am following Trim Healthy Mama, I like to keep it really simple. Simplifying the plan helps this working mama of 2 young kids stay sane and eating healthy. Today I am going to share 7 Frugal Trim Healthy Mama Dinners that we eat frequently. They are all quick to prepare, will feed your family of four and are inexpensive.

(Affiliate Links are used in this post. A small commission may be paid to me at no extra cost to you and that helps to support this page. Please see my disclosures page for additional information.)

Eating Cheap On Trim Health Mama Plan

Myth #1: Eating healthy is too expensive! Ya’ll that is fake news! I know you can buy junk food that is cheap. Sure you can buy a frozen pot pie, a can of chips or a box of orange mac n cheese for a $1 or so.

But you can also buy a carton of 12 eggs. Yesterday at Aldi, for less than a $1.50 I found a huge bag of gala apples. So I can eat a hard boiled egg (S) or an apple (E) for snacks and I spent less than $2.50 for both.To make those snacks complete, I would add probably add a lite string cheese or even a slice or two of lean deli meat.

Another tip to save money on THM is to only buy the lite string cheese or the lean deli meat. If you pair your boiled eggs with the lean cheese or meat, you are still getting enough fat from the eggs to make the snack an S. However, you won’t have to buy additional cheese and meat to go with your E snacks like an apple where you can only have the lighter varieties.

I encourage you to open your heart and mind to researching the plan and finding ways that you can do it, even on a tight budget. It may be a little more difficult than just walking into the store and buying whatever you want. However, it is so worth it to have your family eating better foods.

These 7 frugal Trim Healthy Mama dinners will help get you and your family on the right track.

Want to budget but hate cash envelopes? Try this FREE digital tracker.

7 Frugal Trim Healthy Mama Dinners

Myth #2. You will be in the kitchen for hours a day on THM. Ok, ain’t nobody got time for that! Whether you are working 40+ hours a week with two little ones at your feet like me or you may be running from the football field to ballet every night, we need quick and easy and THM compliant. That’s not too much to ask, right?

My favorite THM meals are cheap, quick to prepare and something that my whole family will eat. My husband will usually at least partially participate in my Trim Healthy plan so long as I don’t get too crazy with cauliflower or onions (or other things he doesn’t think he likes). My daughter (5) is in that phase where if it isn’t shaped like a chicken nugget, she may or may not eat it. The baby will currently eat anything, so naturally he is my fave.

So, getting my family to eat the food that I prepare can be a challenge. These meals are all things that my family of four eats frequently and for the most part all enjoy. (being 5 can be tough, so her level of love can vary from day to day!)

Trim Healthy Mama Meal Plan

Here is the list of 7 Frugal Trim Healthy Mama dinners that we eat at our house often.

Day One: Cheesy Salsa Verde Chicken with Cauliflower Rice (S)

  • Ingredients: Steam bag of Cauliflower rice, Salsa Verde, cream cheese, Frozen Chicken tenders (1/2 bag)
  • Recipe: My most popular Recipe, read all about it here!
  • Tips: Use mild salsa if you want kids to eat this. The medium is quite spicy. This is a very rich and filling meal. If you want an additional side, I would go with a green vegetable or a side salad.

Day Two: Black Bean Tacos (E)

  • Ingredients: black beans, Mission Low Carb Tortillas
  • Recipe: Warm your black beans and serve in tortillas. Top it with some greek yogurt as a sub for sour cream if you have it, Shred some fresh spinach (you should have some to spare from Day four), some hot sauce and a sprinkle of cheese (go really light if you want it to be an E, too much and you will XO)
  • Tips: This is such a quick meal. It is probably our go to “it is 6:30 and we have no dinner plan” meal. We love it.

Day Three: Whole Baked Chicken, Steamed Vegetables, Sweet Potato (E)

  • Ingredients: Whole Chicken, bag of mixed vegetables, sweet potatoes
  • Recipe: Season and roast your chicken (I use a Rotisserie similar to this but you can do it in the oven or even buy one already cooked from the grocery), Steam the veggies in microwave and cook your sweet potato.
  • Tips: This can be an “emergency” meal if you pick up an already cooked chicken at the store and do your sweet potatoes in the microwave to prevent a drive thru run.

Day Four: Smoked Sausage with Grilled Vegetables, Cheesy Spinach (S)

  • Ingredients: Smoked Sausage, onion, Red, green and yellow Bell peppers, Fresh Spinach, portion of heavy whipping cream, Portion of cheese
  • Recipe: You can find the recipe for the sausage and veggies here. For the spinach, wilt the spinach and cheese it up with the HWC and cheese
  • Tips: I really prefer this with Chicken sausage but Walmart doesn’t have one that fits the plan that I can find (I get it from Aldi). The meal itself is pretty light so make sure you bulk it up with all the veggies. Adding in a zucchini or yellow squash would be good too.

Day Five: Ground Pork and Vegetable Stir Fry (S)

  • Ingredients: Ground Pork, Stir Fry Vegetables
  • Recipe: Just brown your pork, drain any fat and combine with vegetables. Cook until veggies are softened. Add in a tablespoon or so of liquid aminos and some ground ginger (tsp) if you have it.
  • Tips: Very quick meal. You could add in some cauliflower rice if you wanted to bulk this meal up.

Day Six: Grilled Chicken Tenderloins, Fried Radishes, Cheesy Zucchini (S)

  • Ingredients: Remaining 1/2 bag frozen chicken tenders, Radishes, Zucchini, Small portion Heavy whipping cream, portion of shredded cheese
  • Recipe: Just season your tenderloins with what you have on hand, fry radishes in olive oil (save some bacon grease from breakfast for extra flavor) and make the cheesy zucchini
  • Tips: the cheesy zucchini makes it to our plate at least once a week. It took a little convincing to get my girl to try it but it tastes a little like mac n cheese so she gobbled it up.

Day Seven: Turkey Ham & Beans (E)

  • Ingredients: 1/4 – 1/2 of turkey ham, white (Northern) beans
  • Recipe: Easy 15 minute recipe here
  • Tips: Top it off with a little parsley if you have it. This is so easy and my kids always eat it. If you can find sprouted rolls, those are yummy as a side.

More Cheap And Easy THM Meals:

THM S No Tortilla Cheese & Onion Enchiladas

THM S Instant Pot Taco Meat (With Secret Nutritious Ingredient)

THM S Tortilla Pizza

THM E The Best Crockpot Taco Soup 

THM S Mama’s Italian Salad

THM E – White Chicken Chili (A Pantry Meal)

Walmart Grocery List

A low grocery bill is great. But I also need my THM grocery list to be easy to get. Going to three different grocery stores is not something I have time to do on a weekly basis.

I do shop at Aldi often, but I know not everyone has access to this store. So I chose to show this meal plan with a Walmart grocery order since I think most people have access to a Walmart. And because I love their free grocery pickup! It saves me so much time and sanity to just pull up to a parking spot and get my food. No getting the kids out of carseats!

Here is exactly what I put in my cart to make the 7 frugal Trim Healthy Mama dinners. This list does assume that you have a few basics like olive oil, seasonings and liquid aminos (I just use regular soy sauce but that is not on plan, you can read how I make the plan work for my budget here).

Also, your family, your meals. These are ideas for basic meals. Add additional veggies or fruit as you see fit. If you buy fruit or veggies in season, you can usually get a serving of 4 for around $1. Also, frozen veggies are almost always available for around $1 a bag.

Walmart Grocery Online Order THM Meal Plan

Walmart Grocery Snip 2

Cost Per Meal

Using this 7 Frugal Trim Healthy Mama Dinners meal plan, the average cost of dinner is $8.15 per meal. That works out to $2.03 per person.

These meals easily feed our family of four which consists of my husband, a 5 year old, a 1 year old and myself. My husband is a pretty big eater and most meals we still have some type of leftovers.

At the end of this meal plan, you should also have about half of the turkey ham leftover, most of the heavy whipping cream, some shredded cheese and some fresh spinach leftover. You could make some yummy omelettes or 2 minute microwave eggs with those ingredients.

More THM Help

If you found these 7 frugal Trim Healthy Mama dinners helpful, here are some other things that may make your THM life easier! As a working mama, easy lunches are a must. Here are 6 THM lunches for work and 5 things to do with leftover chicken for lunch.

Another easy and fairly low cost dinner option is a twist on my popular cheesy salsa verde chicken and cauliflower rice. These Salsa verde chicken enchiladas require just a handful of ingredients and 20 minutes in the oven.

If you want something totally different, try my Granny’s low carb cajun shrimp casserole. She always made it with white rice but I THM’d it by using cauliflower rice. So good!

You can find two other meal plans here & here if this 7 frugal Trim Healthy Mama dinners guide was more your style.

What are your THM goals this year?

Filed Under: Featured, Main Meal, Plan, Recipes Tagged With: 30 minute, Cheap, dinners, fast, frugal, meal plan, THM, Trim Healthy mama

Summer Water Fun for Kids – Slip N Slide Hack

May 18, 2018 by Stacy Craft 8 Comments

Summer Water Fun for Kids with Inexpensive Slip N Slide Hack

Slip N Slide Summer Hack for Little Kids

Water Play Activities Slip N Slide Hack

Summer heat. It isn’t in full swing here yet but it is coming! We have already had a couple of 90 degree days and it is still May (all my South Texas friends are probably laughing because it rarely dips below 90 there). Anyway, when it is hot, water play is on my mind for the kids.

This idea is easy to execute and involves just two main items. It will cool the kids off and keep them entertained for hours. If you need simple summer water fun for kids, this is for you!

Quick Disclaimer: Of course when your children are playing near any type of water, remember to always have them under constant supervision.

Affiliate Links are used in this post. A small commission may be paid to me at no extra cost to you and that helps to support this page. Please see my disclosures page for additional information.

Check out this Awesome Summer Theme Schedule – An easy way to have fun with kids all summer long.

Summer Water Fun For Kids – Slip N Slide Hack

Last year I bought a cheap slip n slide for my then 3 year old. She did not really understand the concept of running an sliding the way that the slip n slide is intended to be used. It took me 3 days but I finally came up with a way for her to have fun using her new toy!

What you Need:

Slip N Slide

Little Tykes Slide 

Baby Shampoo

Set Up Instructions

This does work best if you have any kind of small incline in your yard. We have a very small hill but it gives just enough height to help propel the kiddos down the slide. If you don’t have any kind of hill, it will still work, they just will not go quite as fast.Going Up slip n slide

  1. Place your slide in your yard (preferably at the top of a small incline).
  2. Place the top of your slip in slide a few inches under your slide and secure it into the ground with the included spikes.
  3. Roll out your slip in slide. I always like to check the area as I am unrolling for any big twigs or rocks that might cause boo boos for the little ones as they speed over them.
  4. Attach your Water hose.
  5. Wet your slide, this just helps for the first few slides. Once the kids get going, their wet bathing suits will keep the slide wet. Little Tikes Slide and Slip N SLide
  6. Drizzle the baby shampoo over the slide and the slip n slide. The baby shampoo helps to get it extra slippery so they slide down fast. You may want to reapply a few times but I don’t end up having to do it much. *Any body wash/shampoo would probably work but I use the tear free variety just in case it gets in the kiddos eyes.

Summer Water Fun For Kids

Recommended Ages

I did this for the first year when my daughter was 3. She has already been doing it this year at four. The slide that we have recommends a maximum of 60 pounds so we will probably have at least a few more summers out of this little creation. I would say in general it would probably work for kids aged 3-6 or maybe small 7 year olds.

Why Not buy the Little Tikes Slide & Slip Combo

So it appears that Little Tikes can up with the same idea that I had last year.

Don’t worry, they didn’t ask my opinion and I am not a bizillionaire for my awesome slip n slide hack idea. So why not just buy what they made? Here are my thoughts:

  1. Cheaper – On Amazon, you can buy the two items I suggested for about $6 or $7 less than the combo.
  2. Existing Slide – The Little Tikes first slide is kind of a household staple. I feel like so many people have this for their kids already. So if you already have the slide, for less than $12 you can buy the slip n slide and have a new use for your slide that results in lots of summer water fun for kids!
  3. Longer Slip N Slide – The Slip N Slide I use is 14 feet long. The one that comes with the combo is only 10 ft. So especially as the kids get older, the longer one will probably be a little more fun.

We have tons of Little Tikes items that we absolutely love, but for this slip n slide hack I just prefer to make my own!

Want More Fun Summer Ideas? Check these out. 

Vegetable Soup Water Table Play

Flower Planting Sensory Bin 

Princess Rose Petal Tea Pretend Play

Invitation to Play – Birthday Party!

Filed Under: Featured, Play Tagged With: activity, buy smart, frugal, kids, slide, Summer, water

No Cook 5 Minute Blueberry Banana Pear Baby Food

March 31, 2018 by Stacy Craft 4 Comments

A simple no cook blueberry banana pear baby food puree recipe that you can whip up in less than 5 minutes.

No Cook Blueberry Pear Banana Homemade Blender Baby Food

5 minute Blueberry Banana Pear Baby Food Puree
Easy Blueberry Banana Pear Homemade Baby Food Recipe

Making baby food at home is really as simple as making a smoothie! This particular combo reminds me of a lot of fruit smoothies that I make for myself.

In this 5 minute Blueberry Banana Pear Baby Food Puree, a basic combo of banana, blueberries and pears make a breakfast or treat that your baby will love! And if your baby loves avocados, don’t miss this 5 minute no cook Avocado Banana baby food puree.

I am always up for no cook baby food recipes. If I am going to do something homemade, it is so much better if it is quick and easy.

Follow these simple instructions to make your baby a wholesome blend of food that is good for them and even better on your wallet!

(Affiliate Links are used in this post. A small commission may be paid to me at no extra cost to you and that helps to support this page. Please see my disclosures page for additional information.)

Is it Really Cheaper to Make my Own?

It really is. My 5 month old currently eats at least 4 pouches of baby food per day (sometimes big boy eats 5 but we are going conservative for the analysis). The cheapest pouches that I can find are at Aldi or the Walmart brand and they are around .78 or .79 a pouch. So I’m looking at $3.16 a day in baby food or $22.12 a week.

If I make my own, I use different fruits and veggies so the cost may vary some but for simplicity we will look at the breakdown of the Banana/Pear/Blueberry mix and extend it across a week for comparison to pre-made pouches.

Bananas – $0.43 a lb or $0.16 per banana

Blueberries – $1.49

Pears – $0.33

Cost for this Batch -$2.784  (1 Banana – 0.16 / 1/2 pint blueberries – $1.49 / Pears -.99)

Total per 4 oz – Equivalent to one pouch – $0.55

Your Savings

So if I fed him my homemade baby food vs. pouches for one week, I would save $6.72 that week! Ya’ll that is more money for formula or diapers!  You could make this even less expensively if you waited until the blueberries were more in season. I often see them for .99 a pint when in season. It is so simple to make your own.

Hungry Baby Waiting on Food

Here’s how to make the 5 minute Blueberry Banana Pear Baby Food Puree!

What You Need:

  • NutriBullet
  • 4 oz containers
  • Fruits and Vegetables

5 Minute Blueberry Banana Pear Baby Food Puree

This is so simple and quick. You will have this whipped up in 5 minutes or less!

1. Prep your Fruit

Wash and peel your fruit.

Bananas Pears Blueberries Fresh Fruit

2. Load your blender with the fruit.

3. Add a Liquid.

For this I just added water, but you can add breast milk or formula if preferred. I added 1/3  cup of water in this recipe. Since the pears and blueberries have a decent amount of water naturally, a lot of added liquid was not necessary to get the desired consistency.

4. Blend!

Banana Pear Blueberry Baby Food Blending

5. Divide out into your 4 Oz cups.

Depending on your consistency, you may get more or less. I got 4 from this recipe with a consistency of guacamole. If I had made it a little thinner, I probably could have gotten 5 (making it even more economical) and easier on babies that may have trouble with thicker purees.

These 4 oz cups are cool because they are freezer/dishwasher safe and come with a dry erase marker so that you can easily label your combinations. 

Banana Pear Blueberry Puree Baby Food

6. Store

The purees will keep for a few days in the fridge but I usually put mine immediately in the freezer.  Every night, I just pull out the number of purees that I need for the next day and put them in the fridge to thaw.

I hope you will try homemade baby food for your little one! What are your favorite baby food combos to feed your little one? Don’t forget to try my 5 minute Avocado Banana Puree too!

 

Filed Under: Buy Smart, Featured, Recipes Tagged With: 5 minute, baby food, banana, blueberry, Cheap, frugal, homemade, pear, purees

2 Free Summer Fun Ideas That You Must Sign Up For Now

May 22, 2018 by Stacy Craft 1 Comment

2 Free Summer Fun Ideas That You Will Want to Sign Your Kids Up For Now!

Kids Skate and Bowl Free All Summer

My 4 year old just learned the word “bored.” She loves her new vocabulary word and shows it off often. Since I don’t want her to be bored all summer, I was thrilled to find 2 free summer fun ideas.

Ok, so in all fairness, I actually do not mind if my daughter is bored. I think it is good for kiddos to be occasionally bored.

It is amazing the creativity that can come out of not having every minute of every day planned by an adult. But, I’m also a realist. I need things to keep her entertained over the summer and it is a bonus if those activities are cheap or free.

Affiliate Links are used in this post. A small commission may be paid to me at no extra cost to you and that helps to support this page. Please see my disclosures page for additional information. 

2 Free Summer Fun Ideas to Sign up For Now

When it heats up in those early summer months, I usually let my mind drift to the pool. I blow up our inflatable toddler splash pad and set up our awesome Slip N Slide hack.

Even though water is a great way to cool down, sometimes we need a little change of pace. Here are 2 Free summer fun ideas to sign up for so that you will have built in fun all summer long.

Kids Skate Free

Kids Skate Free All Summer

For this freebie, go to the Kids Skate Free site and sign up. You can look by State and city to find the closest location to you. This is all facilitated by each individually owned skating center so I am sure the rules change for each one. For example, the location that we will go has 2 weekday afternoons (2 until 8 pm) and one weekend afternoon that you can attend for free.

Even my 4 year old loves to “skate” now (holding on to the rail and walking on the rink). While she works on mastering the skill, she is building up her gross motor skills, exercising and most importantly at this point getting her wiggles out! To use this freebie, you need to go back to the site and print off a weekly pass to take to the facility for use. Not a large price to pay for this awesome freebie.

It does cost $4 per child processing when you sign up. I am not sure exactly what this goes for, I am assuming that it may be to maintenance the site. There is also a rental fee ($2 at my location) if you need to rent skates for your kids. Even with that processing fee, skating free all summer is a win!

If you take one child 5 times over the summer, you would save about $36 once you subtract the $4 processing. If you have 3 kids, that is $108! Wow.

Kids Bowl Free

Kids Bowl Free All Summer Long

Sign your kids up for 2 free games of bowling all summer long. Complete the form at the Kids Bowl Free site, where you can sign up all your kids that are 17 or under.

There is no processing fee for this, just simply pick your location, register your kids & print your coupons as needed for their two free games. You can do this all summer long! If it is free and an air conditioned location, I consider that a success.

The Kids bowl free site does give you one paid option when you process the free kid memberships. For less than $30 (this was my location and may change by site), I could sign up 4 adults to play 2 games all summer long as well.

I decided to do this because my husband and I will probably at least go together once or twice plus all the times I will take the kids solo just to get out of the house. For this one, I could sign up our two older girls, the 4 year old and both of us.

On a Sunday, the cost of a game is right at $30 so if we play two games on one Sunday we make up the cost.

If we go three Sundays over the course of the summer and play 2 games each time, we save $150! I also signed my mom and sister up two because I could sign up 4 adults for that one time fee of $30.

It is unbelievable. Adults can only bowl during Kid Free times but at my location they have WAY more times available than I will ever actually go so it is not limiting to me.

Bowling shoes are required at most facilities. If you don’t have shoes, the rental fee is usually around $3 a rental. 

Summer Savings – How Much will I Save?

It depends on how many times you go to these 2 free summer fun ideas.

If you go just a couple of times to each, you can easily save $50 to $100. If you go a lot or have a bunch of kids, you will save even more!

Since we have a big family when my step daughters are with us, I love frugal ideas where we can go and have fun but not spend an arm and a leg.

More Fun Activities to Do At Home!

Need some more summer fun ideas? Try some of our favorites.

Vegetable Soup Water Table Play

4th of July Graham Cracker Flag

Gardening Sensory Bin

Weekly Summer Schedule for Kids

Filed Under: Featured, Play Tagged With: activities, bowling, exercise for kids, free, frugal, fun, Inexpensive, kids, physical activity for kids, skating, Summer

Make Money by Selling on BST Facebook Groups

April 20, 2018 by Stacy Craft 11 Comments

What if I told you that you could outfit your kids each season for almost nothing out of pocket? Would you be interested?

I do it every season and it is easier than you think.

Simply post the kids gently used clothing and make money by selling them on BST Facebook groups. Then take the money earned from the clothing that no longer fits them and buy things that will work for them in the current season. Resulting in little or no out of pocket expense for me.

Make money by selling on Facebook BST groups

How To Dress Kids In Boutique Clothes at Discount Store Prices

What if I told you that you could outfit your kids each season for almost nothing out of pocket? Would you be interested?

I do it every season and it is easier than you think. Simply post the kids gently used clothing and make money by selling them on BST Facebook groups. Then take the money earned from the clothing that no longer fits them and buy things that will work for them in the current season.

Resulting in little or no out of pocket expense for me. And my kids are dressed in the hottest trends and classic smocks. 

(Affiliate Links are used in this post. A small commission may be paid to me at no extra cost to you and that helps to support this page. Please see my disclosures page for additional information.)

What is BST?

It stands for buy, sell, trade. There are literally tons of Facebook groups that allow BST of kids clothing, maternity clothing, books, toys, home decor and more.

Some of these are local to your town such as “fill in your city” resale. Most of these, you meet the person locally and sell your products.

But for this post, I am talking about groups that have people from all over the country and you ship the item you are selling to them as opposed to meeting. It is so easy and safer than meeting random strangers on the side of the road. I will show you how to make money by selling on BST Facebook groups.

How do I start?

You can get started with just a few minutes of prep, a couple of supplies and some gently used clothing. You are going to do all of this from your house! No loading up the car with all your stuff to head to consignment and you are not even going to have to go to the post office to ship!

How to Make Money Selling on BST Pages

Join Some BST groups

Check out my post here if you need some ideas on groups to join to sell your stuff.

Purchase Your Materials

Polymailers – These are the shipping envelopes/bags that you will use. I like these because they are inexpensive and I have never had reports of them tearing or opening during transit.

Shipping Labels – You do not have to use labels. You can just print on regular paper and tape it to your package, however, the labels just make it a lot easier. They last forever and only add a cost of $0.04 to each item you sell.

Gallon ziplock bags – Again, this isn’t necessary but you will find lots of people put the clothing in a zip bag and then put it in the polymailer for extra protection. I sometimes will also just put the item in a grocery bag and then into the polybag. My way of going green!

Kitchen scale – You definitely need this! Having your package returned to you because you didn’t buy enough shipping is no fun. Buying an inexpensive kitchen scale allows you to weigh the items you sell and buy exact postage.

Gather and Take Photos of Your Items

Take your photos in a well lit area against a clean background.

A Hardwood floor or hanging on a hook against a white door work well. Try to show the entire item and be prepared to provide close up pictures if requested.

Closeup pictures are especially common if you are selling smocked items or if you disclose a flaw or stain.

Determine Your Sales Price

I would recommend searching around on the BST page for the same brand that you are planning to sell to get an idea of what prices sell for that type of item.

For example, it is common to see smocked or boutique items sell for $20-30 or more used but a Carters item may only sell for $2 or $3 plus shipping.

List Your Item(s) For Sale

Find your group of choice, find the box that says “write something,” List a descriptive description of your item, size, disclose any flaws, list a condition (if you need the Lingo for conditions read this), choose a cost and upload a picture.

Send Your Invoice

After someone lists their paypal email address under your item in order to purchase it, you need to send them an invoice. Most groups require that you do it through paypal and this is currently your best bet to make sure both you and the buyer have good protection. Here are quick easy steps on how to create that invoice.

  1. Login to your Paypal account
  2. Choose Send & Request at the top of the page & then choose “More.” After clicking the “More” button you will see an option to Create an Invoice.
  3. Select the blue box to the right of the screen that says “+ Create.”Create an Invoice in Paypal
  4. Add the buyer’s email address in the bill to box. Add an item description in the Item section and the price that you sold it at in the price section. I always add details that I provided to the buyer here as well, especially if there is a flaw. Creating an Invoice in Paypal
  5. Next you can list another item if needed.
  6. At the bottom, there is a section listed for shipping and discounts. If you offered a discount, you can list it here. I typically always sell my items “shipped” meaning shipping is included. However, if you are on a board that allows you to charge freight, you can add it in the shipping box. Invoice Subtotal Section
  7. Review your total at the bottom to ensure it is correct.
  8. Send the Invoice.

Collect Your Money

Before shipping an item, always make sure that your invoice has been paid and that your money is in paypal. Once you receive payment, Paypal will give you the option to print a shipping label right from your paypal screen (no loading up screaming kids to go to the post office!). See how easy it was to make money selling on BST Facebook groups? Choosing to print a shipping label in paypal

Package and Ship Your Sold Items

  1. Assemble your shipping items and sold items near your computer.
  2. Log in to Paypal. On the summary page, you will see a list of people that you have submitted invoices to. Choose the item that you want to ship and click on “Print Shipping Label” (shown above).
  3. Next, you will choose the carrier, service type and enter details about your package. If I am shipping in a polymailer , I always ship USPS. I also choose First Class Mail service if my package is under 13 oz. Your package type is package/thick envelope. Then use your kitchen scale to weigh your item(s). Enter your package weight & choose to Calculate shipping cost. If you are happy with the amount, just click Confirm & Pay to generate your shipping label. Shipping in Paypal
  4. Your label will open into a new window & ask if you want to print. Print your label.
  5. Place your items in your polymailer, affix your label, and seal the bag.
  6. Get on the USPS website and schedule a pickup. It is free and only takes a second to schedule. Now you can put your package at your front door and you are done!

Why Is My Stuff Not Selling?

If you list things and they are not selling it could be for a few reasons.

  • Are your pictures dark, blurry or hard to see? Think of this as buying anything else online. The buyer doesn’t want to see your cleaning supplies scattered on the counter or trash on the floor. Try to capture an image of just the item on a clean surface.
  • Is your price too high? I can sell pretty much anything if the price is right. Remember most people want to buy at big discounts when they join BST pages. In order to make money by selling on BST Facebook groups, you need to price competitively with the market. You can research other items that are comparable and see what they are selling for at the time. I usually do at least 40-50% off retail which is why boutique clothes or brand names do better than Walmart or Carters clothes. It might not be worth your time to sell a $4 item that will cost 3.50 to ship and paypal fees but it is worth it to sell something that you can make $20 on. (You can even resale items you bought 2nd hand! Just make sure you disclose flaws and that you are 2nd owner).
  • Advertising in the right group? If you have a Gap item, you may have better luck in a general resale group than if you post it in a Smocked Dresses group. If you have an upscale Smocked dress that you are trying to get a large amount for, you may have better luck selling it in the specific brand group where more people understand the value of the product and will be willing to pay a premium.
  • What time are you posting? In particular the really large groups can be hard to get visibility. Post your items for sale when more people are likely to be active on the group. For example, 8 pm is probably better than 2 am when you are up feeding a baby.
  • Do you have a good descriptive listing? The more descriptive that you can be, the better your search results will be. For example, 3T dress is only going to pull you up if someone searches for 3T or dress. However, if you list the item as 3T Stellybelly Crab dress and then add a further description in the body of the post that says “VGUC 3T Stellybelly Red Crab dress. Perfect for the beach this summer. Would look great for photos at the ocean.” you potentially capture a much greater audience. If someone searches 3T Beach, now you will be in the running for purchase.

Do you make money by selling on BST Facebook groups?

Filed Under: Featured, Plan Tagged With: clothing, frugal, kids, make money

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Hey - I'm Stacy! Join me on a journey to buy smart, plan and save so that you can also PLAY!

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