Your 16 year old daughter tells you she needs a formal because she was asked to prom by “the hottest guy in school”. But there’s a problem. Your 14 year old son needs dental work because he stopped a line drive with his face. The money hungry giant of retail consumerism is chomping at your heels. What is a parent supposed to do? I can’t help with the dentist but I can help with the dress. If I told you, the reader, you might be able to get that costly formal in gently used or even brand new condition for under $10.00 USD would you keep reading? Well, keep reading because it can happen.
I’d like to introduce you to a fairly new phenomenon called sharing economy. It’s pretty cool. In the virtual world, sharing economy lets you give away things you no longer want, need or use so you can shop for things you really want. That sounds interesting, right? There has to be some catch because it sounds too good to be true. There is a small catch. But you’ve come this far, stay with me for a little bit longer.
I started this journey after reading an extreme thrifters blog sometime in August of 2015 and agreed to an unshopping challenge. When you take the unshopping challenge you commit to buy nothing new for 30 days. I hope you’re not thinking I’m going to direct you to National charity thrift stores and garage sales. I’m not. While there’s nothing wrong with either of those examples, I have something better. Do I have your interest now?
What could be better than getting up at the crack of dawn to hit every garage sale in the weekend paper? How about sifting through other people’s stuff all day long from wherever you are from your smart phone? There is an app that was created for just this purpose. I was able to unshop every single Christmas gift. A very nice lady somewhere in Massechusettes was cleaning out her closet which included a large selection of Coach purses. I was able to trade enough of my items to get four of them, plus a Danielle Nicole from Notdsrom that retails for over $200 for myself. Another lady in Maryland was going through her footwear. I cannot even imagine the retail cost on a pair of Gucci boots, but I got them. I also traded for a too cute pair of Coach tennis shoes. What’s the catch? I can read your mind from here.
You have to offer up your unused or unwanted item. I’m happy to give away things so I can shop for things I really want. I remember years ago, I had a neighbor that lived two doors down. Every Wednesday we traded refrigerated leftovers so we wouldn’t have to cook dinner for our families. Sometimes we even planned our menus together. Tammy and I traded everything from applesauce to zucchini and everything in between. Sometimes we even traded our children for a while. I can only imagine what exchanges we could have made had smartphones and apps been available to us more than 20 years ago.
If you’re interested, in de cluttering and trading your unwanted items for something you need, join me on yerdle. Use my link to sign up and you’ll receive $35 reuse dollars (in app currency). It comes with a free shipping just to try it out. So basically you get something for free. I earn $10 reuse dollars for the referal. Should you choose to actually participate and successfully ship your first item, I’m rewarded with a free shipping credit. If enough of my readers love this app as much as I do, I could possibly never pay shipping again.
Join me. You’ll thank me. Your family will thank you.
Stay tuned for more money saving tips, freebies and discounts. In January I was able to purchase $879.44 in products our family needed or wanted from Amazon for a total cost of $23.62. I’m no mathematician but over $850 in savings is huge.
Freeloadinghousewife 
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