Income I'm Doing A Yard Sale Today

[SilverClouds]

It's this damn electricity bill... Fuck, I landed in Lanka for exact same reason, they upped the electricity bill, it was almost like another rent

 

[RiskyStuff]

Yeah, at the end of the day, I just don't like doing anything for money.

I have passion for money and making it by what I am interested in, just like Tim Ferriss said in his the 4 hour workweek book I read yesterday.

Earning money by hard work is not the best thing... it's a big liability taking a lot of time. It's common sense.

I found a lot of people working modern tech jobs are just slacking off and talking most of the time... it's a big clown fiesta. It's not that fancy...

There are many emerging markets, but you still have to be careful to be lazy well in them and have little work! If you push too hard, you'll end up with 15 hour workday!

 

[Zwielicht]

It's this damn electricity bill... Fuck, I landed in Lanka for exact same reason, they upped the electricity bill, it was almost like another rent

That's exactly how it is here.

The electricity bill has always been high, but I watch my electricity usage very carefully. I don't run the A/C all the time, I fixed the insulation all around the house, I have very few appliances that I don't use often, everything is on energy-conserving modes, etc. It's not like I have a heated pool or a bunch of stuff I leave on 24/7. But the rates are so high and there are now all these new taxes and fees getting added on every year. Oh right, they're building a new data center near where I live, and I got a pamphlet that the rates are going up.

I've paid upwards $800/month on my electric bill. It's $200/month in the winter because I don't use a heater and $300/month in the summer because of the A/C, which I'm using less because I don't need it like I used to. But that's still ridiculous. That electric bill is 62% of what we made from the yard sale today.

I have passion for money and making it by what I am interested in, just like Tim Ferriss said in his the 4 hour workweek book I read yesterday.

Earning money by hard work is not the best thing... it's a big liability taking a lot of time. It's common sense.

I found a lot of people working modern tech jobs are just slacking off and talking most of the time... it's a big clown fiesta. It's not that fancy...

There are many emerging markets, but you still have to be careful to be lazy well in them and have little work! If you push too hard, you'll end up with 15 hour workday!

There's that saying about working smart, not hard. Just don't tell anyone you're working smart, because they interpret that as not working at all and will give you more work to do.

 

[RiskyStuff]

The electricity bill has always been high, but I watch my electricity usage very carefully. I don't run the A/C all the time, I fixed the insulation all around the house, I have very few appliances that I don't use often, everything is on energy-conserving modes, etc. It's not like I have a heated pool or a bunch of stuff I leave on 24/7. But the rates are so high and there are now all these new taxes and fees getting added on every year. Oh right, they're building a new data center near where I live, and I got a pamphlet that the rates are going up.

Which is how much for kilowatt-hour?

 

[Zwielicht]

Which is how much for kilowatt-hour?

So here's the real shocker: it's only 22¢/kwh!

Sounds decent, right? After all, some states here in the US have rates as high as 40¢/kwh

But where the local electric company gets you is in the many extra fees they add on.

• A "customer charge", whatever that is? It seems to be random each month.
• An "energy cost adjustment" charge. This one is just random as well.
• A "state mandated" charge. That adds an extra 3¢/kwh
• A "convenience fee" for paying online.
• A "California energy surcharge".
• Sometimes there's just an extra generically named "service charge".
• A "deposit charge".

These are small charges on their own, but all of those extra charges can double my electric bill compared to my usage.

 

[SilverClouds]

So here's the real shocker: it's only 22¢/kwh!

Sounds decent, right? After all, some states here in the US have rates as high as 40¢/kwh

But where the local electric company gets you is in the many extra fees they add on.

• A "customer charge", whatever that is? It seems to be random each month.
• An "energy cost adjustment" charge. This one is just random as well.
• A "state mandated" charge. That adds an extra 3¢/kwh
• A "convenience fee" for paying online.
• A "California energy surcharge".
• Sometimes there's just an extra generically named "service charge".
• A "deposit charge".

These are small charges on their own, but all of those extra charges can double my electric bill compared to my usage.

Eh. I was ordering some basic items on Daraz in bulk yesterday - soap, shampoo, shower massage gloves, etc. Suddenly at the end price went up +500 pln on the transport, idk if oil prices are that bad or what . I hesistated if I should buy this or not but my sister convinced me to buy eh. Tbf I'm allergic af and these products are good eh. Jeez.

A lot of hidden tax like this in Poland, people in yt comments joking we pay tax like in scandinavia but live like in Belarus .

That's exactly how it is here.

The electricity bill has always been high, but I watch my electricity usage very carefully. I don't run the A/C all the time, I fixed the insulation all around the house, I have very few appliances that I don't use often, everything is on energy-conserving modes, etc. It's not like I have a heated pool or a bunch of stuff I leave on 24/7. But the rates are so high and there are now all these new taxes and fees getting added on every year. Oh right, they're building a new data center near where I live, and I got a pamphlet that the rates are going up.

I've paid upwards $800/month on my electric bill. It's $200/month in the winter because I don't use a heater and $300/month in the summer because of the A/C, which I'm using less because I don't need it like I used to. But that's still ridiculous. That electric bill is 62% of what we made from the yard sale today.

There's that saying about working smart, not hard. Just don't tell anyone you're working smart, because they interpret that as not working at all and will give you more work to do.

No no no bro, don't let them make you think that you use too much, etc, no. It's these damn datacenters, wtf everyone around has to pay their electricity bills? Every normal small business would go bankrupt already and they keep these AI companies up at everyone's elses expense. Americans pay their bills, job market fucked everywhere, tbh even polish brick and mortar small businesses started complaining recently on fb, wtf.

 

[Zwielicht]

Eh. I was ordering some basic items on Daraz in bulk yesterday - soap, shampoo, shower massage gloves, etc. Suddenly at the end price went up +500 pln on the transport, idk if oil prices are that bad or what . I hesistated if I should buy this or not but my sister convinced me to buy eh. Tbf I'm allergic af and these products are good eh. Jeez.

A lot of hidden tax like this in Poland, people in yt comments joking we pay tax like in scandinavia but live like in Belarus .

I used to order stuff like that, like this toothpaste I used to get from Canada that has novamin and flouride (they work synergistically for the purpose of remineralisation). Toothpastes in the US only have flouride as it's the gold standard here. Same thing with some UK chocolates you can't get here (or if you can, the US version makes it with powdered or condensed milk ).

But yeah, the import fees always made up the bulk of the prices. I can imagine that they would be much higher now than they were several years ago.

You're allergic to the products? What happens when you use them, if you don't mind me asking?

No no no bro, don't let them make you think that you use too much, etc, no. It's these damn datacenters, wtf everyone around has to pay their electricity bills? Every normal small business would go bankrupt already and they keep these AI companies up at everyone's elses expense. Americans pay their bills, job market fucked everywhere, tbh even polish brick and mortar small businesses started complaining recently on fb, wtf.

Oh, no, I don't think I'm using too much. Anything to do making things more efficinent is just an ongoing effort for me.

For instance, the A/C. Prior to 2018, I could be out here in the desert and tolerate the summer heat just fine. After 2018, I started becoming reliant on it to the point where II was running it 24/7. Okay, sure, I had issues that required me to keep it cold, but then I had all these air leaks around the house that weren't helping the issue. Fixing the insulation in the house meant that the house got and stayed cooler. Working on my heat tolerance means that I don't need to run the A/C as much.

However, the efficiency isn't about "saving money" so much as it is just about mindfulness; it's generally a good thing to practice.

 

[Zwielicht]

Okay, day 3 of the yard sale, and it's the final day.

We're not going to stay as long because that's just miserable and we sold much of what we wanted to get rid of.

We had our first customer of the day already. A Hispanic man in a proper work truck. If you read my guide I posted the other day, then know that this is not to be confused with those guys who come up in those beater truck.

As expected, he was looking for cheap stuff. He went for the chair as expected, but he also a couple of these decorative toys, and I was not expecting that one. In total, we sold him the metal/wood chair and the 2 toys for $12.

Total for the day so far: $12.

 

[Zwielicht]

Around the same time yesterday, we had so many people that we felt like we couldn’t get a break.

Today, I can hear and see it’s a lot quieter around here.

If I run another yard sale here, I’ll likely just stick to Saturdays. 3 days in a row of running a yard sale and cleaning the garage is a bit miserable.

 

[RiskyStuff]

Nobody wrote this yet...

maybe you could turn it into a YouTube channel and start a business from your garage... lol

When I said I like to glue couple pieces together in DIY way, someone told me exactly to turn it into business.

But I know it's not the way to go... and probably for you it isn't too.

 

[Zwielicht]

Nobody wrote this yet...

maybe you could turn it into a YouTube channel and start a business from your garage... lol

When I said I like to glue couple pieces together in DIY way, someone told me exactly to turn it into business.

But I know it's not the way to go... and probably for you it isn't too.

It’s not for me, but it’s a funny idea

 

[Zwielicht]

We got another person at the yard sale. Kind of looks like a hippie who likes rock music. That's a new one.

He's looking around. Looked at the DVDs. Looked at some of the computer parts. Looking at some dolls now.

He didn't buy anything. He just said "See ya'.

 

[Zwielicht]

We're slowly putting some stuff away: mostly stuff we decided we want to keep, stuff we're going to sell on OfferUp & Nextdoor, and stuff we know nobody is going to buy.

There are other things we need to do, so we'll put everything back in the shed and garage by 10AM and head out.

I'll write up a separate thread as summary of my thoughts of this experience at a later point.

 

[Octavia]

People be like

 

[Zwielicht]

People be like

I mean, yeah, that does summarise it. A lot of people don't seem to know what they're getting or that they were getting some things for $20 that I know were worth used at $150 (but those items were large and I just wanted to get rid of them).

 

[SilverClouds]

I mean, yeah, that does summarise it. A lot of people don't seem to know what they're getting or that they were getting some things for $20 that I know were worth used at $150 (but those items were large and I just wanted to get rid of them).

They know

 

[Zwielicht]

They know

Sometimes they do. The guy who bought those cages didn't know about the value of a Critter Nation specifically, but he did know the value of a sturdy cage and that he could resell it in Mexico for x3 what he bought it for.

Those kind of guys just don't know anything about why a particular brand would be worth more.

People who did recognise something and were still trying to get a deal on it tended to give that away in some regard. In some cases, they suddenly brought out the "salesman" voice and tried unusually hard to reason with me on lowering the price.