Will work for Amazon Gift Cards

It can be very hard to make it on practically a single income. While I do work part time, the income 10 hours a week is a drop in the expense bucket specially after paying for childcare. Childcare is becoming so expensive that it’s not cost effective to get a second job or switch to full time, as it is I am having a hard enough time finding affordable care for 1 day a week when a sitter wants to charge $10 an hour for me to work my $12 an hour job. But I think I have ranted about that before…

So what do you do when you want something that you can’t afford and traditional work is not an option?
I have found that I have 4 options:

• I can go without
• I can “save” for it which would take months and years for all but the cheapest of items and the money ends up having to be diverted for some emergency.
• I can sell something to buy something new
• I can barter and trade

I don’t include MLM and Independent Distributor sales among my options because they require a start up cost that I don’t have and I don’t consider sales to be a strong suit of mine. Plus anytime I see something that I wouldn’t mind selling I feel that there is enough competition out there.

There are many things that I go without, the saving is strictly left for gifts, I usually have to save for 6 months for Yule presents and the other 6 months are spent saving for birthdays and Father’s Day. For a while I was doing really good at selling things but after a while you just start running out of things to sell so that leaves us with trading.

I love the concept but it can be a logistical nightmare since it’s very hard to find someone that is willing to trade what you want for something you have to offer. Thankfully I’ve been blessed with having some skills that can be helpful to others such as web design and bookkeeping.

This week I hit the jackpot when I found a person that is starting her own business and needed a web presence but lacked the technical skills to DIY or the budget to hire a “pro”. What she did have were Amazon gift codes that she had no plan to use. I had the skills and she had the need, she had the gift codes she didn’t want and I have an extensive Amazon wish list. It’s a win-win!

In the end most of the Amazon order comprised of things for the kids (yay for a magnetic dry erase board!) but it’s still a victory as we wouldn’t have been able to get one unless we found it in the trash.

I wish people did this more often.