But somewhere along the lines, in our culture shopping for a hobby seems to be quite a popular pastime. It’s so easy to go into the mall ‘just to look’ and come out with something that you don’t really need, but also can’t afford.

The solution?

Keep out of the store. This is harder said than done, because it’s a habit and trying to break the habit takes time and effort. But if you can get out of the stores – whether online or phycical malls, over time you will find that you don’t miss the shopping and you can fill your days with more profitable pastimes.

I used to shop all the time. I grew up in a mall in my 20′s as both an employee in many retail stores, but also as a shopper in those same malls too. The mall has many great qualities about it. It’s warm in the winter, cool in the summer. You can get there easily as most malls are out in the suburban areas offer ample free parking – as opposed to inner city shopping where you have to walk outside from shop to shop AND usually pay for parking as well. There’s fun food to eat. Chances are your neighbours and peers will be there. It’s a fun social activity. The trouble is: it’s costly.

It should come as no surprise to you that home audio is my thing, and many of the cables I’ve recently been selling on eBay came from either ebay or other sites dedicated to home audio. It’s taken some willpower to stop visiting those sites. There was always a good deal on something that I ‘needed’ pretty much every day on those sites. If you recall, I once owned 27 tennis racquets – all bought on eBay over time. Shopping is fun. No doubt about it.

How to break the habit? Just stop going to the mall. I know, it’s not easy and you won’t be able to resist every day, but if you do, when you do shop for fun and can afford it, it’s much more enjoyable than shopping just because you have nothing to do and always end up at the mall by habit.

I’m finding that I’m currently reading more. Yes, I buy the books and I’ve got some work to do there as I could start going to the library instead to save further, but I buy my books online and buy the electronic editions which are less than half the cost of the physical books. I’m also buying books that are educational, either in personal devolpment or to enhance my skills in some way. I’m investing in myself, instead of investing in stuff I don’t need. The kicker is I still get to have that “I bought something” high from shopping but I’m paying for a tool to invest in myself to improve, which is always a good thing, instead of blowing it on a six dollar cookie in the food court.

I’m also researching in making my own speakers via some night school course in the new year. I think it would quite an accomplishment to say “see those? I made them?”, instead of “See those? I bought them”. This allows me to further enhance my skills, and scratch my itch for high end audio at the same time. Win-win. If you factor in the costs of the schooling, and the materials they still won’t be a cheap pair of speakers but I will be investing in myself, instead of just bidding on eBay and waiting for the Fedex guy to show up.

So next time you’re on the way to the mall, just for fun – ask yourself do you really need to go? Is there something else you could be doing with your time that would be just as enjoyable but less expensive? or that would get you out of the habit of constantly shopping just for shopping’s sake?

I’m finding that it’s really been a worthwhile effort to break the shopping habit. Remember: spend less is half the equation to get out of debt.

Related posts:

1. Downsizing from a Hobby
2. Christmas Shopping With Your Credit Card. Day 25
3. Grocery Shopping Challenge. Day 3

Well, I think I’ve got that pretty much under control. Sure, I still waffle a bit and before you know it the invisible force field in front of the starbucks pulls me in and I’m handing over all of my money to the baristas and their green little aprons. But for the most part, I’ve got the spend less part pretty much down pat. I’m cooking at home, reducing my starbucks intake, and just generally being happy with the now, and what’ I’ve got, rather than chasing the next purchase or BMW, or fancy house. If there’s one thing I’ve learned is that money doesn’t really buy happiness. Enough money does. There’s the differnce. If you have enough money for your needs, not wants, the rest is gravy.

So, this leads me to the next part of the equation: How to make more money? There’s a myriad of ways to do this, but when it comes down to it there’s really only two ways:

1. Do it yourself. Work for yourself.
2. work for the man.

As my income is created from online ventures, I’ll talk about the the online methods today. I haven’t had a job in some time but it might be an avenue to explore.

How to Make Money Online By Working For Yourself.

The first thing you really need to do is just create value. That really is key. There’s no easy pill or ebook, or 12-step course that will provide you with the magic bullet. Believe me, I’ve tried. And with internet, and free tools from the web there’s no reason why you can’t create value too. Everybody is an expert at something, and you are too. Maybe it’s a website about all the different types of cables for your TV, or your gardening. What do you like to do? Can you write about it? Can’t write? Can you talk? Can you record a video of yourself? I worked with a sports editor who could rhyme off stats non stop about sports. If he started to share his knowledge online, over time the search engines and more importantly, other people would notice and he would be creating more value every day, with every little sports tidbit he knew.

Take ramseeker.com for example: I started ramseeker because I read somewhere online once that memory for a particular mac was hard to find. At the time, the only other site that listed memory prices, only listed the high/low/averages of computer memory but not the memory prices that the different vendors charge. And I thought that was kindof silly. That site was obviously tracking the prices anyway, so why not go the extra mile and list the prices? So I made a list. And value was created. People visited ramseeker.com because I had done the legwork. It wasn’t rocket science. I visited the online stores, checked out their prices and made a list of what I found.

Over time, the memory vendors that I listed for free started to notice that the traffic was coming from ramseeker.com. They started to write and ask how they could make their listing stand out? That was easy, I replied. Get your checkbook out and there’s a world of possibilities.
And, they did. And a few years later, I quit a perfectly good day job due to the fact that I created the value of listing and tracking the memory prices online.

Once you’ve got the value created, the rest just kindof takes care of itself. If you can create something that’s unique to you, and distribute it, then you can create value and profit from it. It’s that simple.

So the question I’m asking myself right now is how can I create more value? I’m doing it with this site. Now it’s only 28days old and truth be told there’s not a lot of value created. Yet. I’ve got 972 days to go to keep on writing, to keep on sharing you with my successes and failures and my ebay sales, and any other income I’m making.

In essence I’m telling a story. It’s unique to me. There’s no other Jim Fitzsimmons’s out there (Well, there are, but no sad sacks like me that are 28k behind the 8 ball). And it’s my story.

Tomorrow, I’ll explore how to make money from telling my story.

Sacrifice of the day

Three quesses what it is! That’s right, you win! More cables. I’m still sorting box after box of these things so we’ll be here a while doing this. I have some other more pricier things I can sell but this is a good way to test the ebay waters without losing my shirt. It’s a generic s-video cable today – 9 feet in length. The auction on eBay starts at $1 on this.

Updates

Not much to report today, except that I made somebody’s day. A buyer of my tennis string wrote to say I’m the best ebay seller he’s come across and he’s pleased as punch to get the tennis string and how happy he was with the purchase. This is something you can’t put a price on. Tecnically, I probably lost money if I researched how much I spent, and then what I spent to ship and what the auction ended at. But you know what? who cares? I’ve got a bit more cash flow, don’t have to deal with the string, and made somebody in the world a bit happier today. It’s been a good day.

Related posts:

1. How to Make More Money Creating Value
2. A year from today. Day 45
3. Ways to Make More Money With Your Blog. Day 29