Moving Forward. My First Week.

Wow, my first week of being (primarily) self-employed sure went by fast!  In addition to working in my FBA business, I also put in an extra 12 hours taking care of the baby.  A week ago, the baby developed pneumonia (thankfully caught very early), so the family has decided it is best to keep him home rather than send him to daycare.  I don’t blame them.  Although the kiddo is doing well overall, he is medically still compromised.  Less exposure to others (especially during cold and flu season) really is in his best interest.  The timing worked out well for me  (and them, too!) as I have now agreed to cover two six-hour shifts with him.  I did put a condition in for when and if I need or want time off.  I figure this still gives me four full days to work my business.  On the days I’m taking care of the baby, I’ll combine that with some shopping and shipping of boxes.  

As for my business, I managed to get two shipments off to Amazon.  Each shipment consisted of three boxes, all going to different warehouses.  The majority of these items I sourced via retail arbitrage.  Since we live in such a remote area, there isn’t a lot of brick and mortar stores which does limit me.  For this reason, my goal is to shift primarily to online arbitrage.  Profits, however, tend to be higher doing retail arbitrage which right now is helping to rebuild my funds.  I also enjoy the thrill of the hunt, which is another reason I will continue to do both, but with a focus on online.  With the items that have arrived at the warehouses, I already see an increase in my sales.

Hubs was home the week.  We took a day trip and went to some towns/areas we hadn’t been to in a while.  We felt like a couple of tourists since we used the rental car with out-of-state plates that Hubs drove to get home.  When it comes to getting Hubs home, his company doesn’t always think things through.  It would have been far cheaper for him to have flown back than drive.  To our benefit last week, whenever possible, we put the miles on the rental car rather than our own vehicles.  I also did some sourcing during our trip and managed to come home with a trunkload of items.  Can’t pass up an opportunity to earn some $!

Not a lot going on with our debt reduction right now.  Other than sending a little extra to The Beast (aka Discover), I paid the minimums on the debts that were due.  No action at all with our Visa as the new statement won’t be out for another day or two.

I think it will take a month or so for us to find our comfort zone with my recent job change.  We also still need to re-figure our sinking funds and add a maintenance fund as both areas are falling short. I forgot to mention that six weeks ago, we had to put new tires on our Summer vehicle.  One tire had a staple in the sidewall, making it unfixable.  Another tire had a slow leak.  They had all seen better days.  Last week the battery completely died, so that had to be replaced.  We have three vehicles, and they have all needed new batteries this year.  Our zero-turn mower needs one too, but with the grass not growing much anymore, that will wait until next year.  To add to our expenses, we ordered (much needed) snow tires for our Winter car, so that is yet another item we need to cover.

Today I am staying home.  First time in what feels like ages!  Won’t be a day of doing nothing.  I plan on getting the items I purchased inventoried, boxed, and ready to ship out tomorrow.  After that, I want to spend some time learning other areas of my business.  May try and sneak a few M-Turks HITS in as well.