Follow the Golden Graham Cash - Week #2

A week ago I blogged about a $5.00 gift card I found in a box of Golden Graham cereal.

$5.00 may not sound like much, but when shopping at Goodwill’s $1.00 day, it can go a long way. I bought five things for $1.00 each and made $44.97. I reimbursed myself the original $5.00 and shopped again.

Let’s see what I purchased with my lucky $5.00 bill and how they did when listing them on EBay.

I had never heard of the designer Carrie Hutton, but when I saw this dress I knew it was something special. The tailoring is awesome.

This Women's Carrie Hutton Size 6 Silk Feminine Dress sold for $9.99

J. Crew is always a winner. These Women's J. Crew Size 6 City Fit Army Green Cotton Pants sold for $10.00.

J. Crew can thank Michelle Obama for wearing their label more often then not. She has brought a lot of attention to J. Crew’s clothing line. In this photo, Michelle is wearing the Crystal constellation cardigan and Dazzling dots pencil skirt. I found this information on a great blog called J.Crewaholics. Love it and sign me up. I'm a J. Crewaholic too.

Photo by Dan Kitwood, Getty Images

Next, hooray for these Women's Calvin Klein Size 16 Black Boot Cut Jeans that sold for $8.99.

I find name-brand clothing sales best when it is a size 14 or higher. Why is this? I did a little research. In the article Is Plus-Size The Average Clothing Size?, author Jodi Piepkorn says “Despite what the fashion industry thinks, the average clothing size in the United States is not a svelte 8 for women and a 40 regular for men. The average women's size is 14, the size at which "plus-sized" clothing begins. And the average size for men is 44.”

But my size 16 jeans are not to be outdone by these Women's Hollister Size 0 Short Low Rise Flare Jeans.

Size 0! Seriously? The size 0 woman is still out there and she’s shopping just like the rest of us. They sold great for $10.50.

And lastly, these Women’s Lucky Brand Size 14 Black Denim Button Fly Jean didn’t sell.

Bummer for me and my challenge, but that’s the law of averages. Maybe they’ll sale on EBay next week.

So what’s my profit after two weeks?

$74.47.

I love that I’m making money off of no investment of my own, except for my amazing eye for fashion and precious time of course. Selling trash on EBay is so much fun it doesn’t feel like work at all.

I wasn’t sure what to call this experiment.

Last week, many of you left comments as to what I should title it.

Some of the suggestions were:

Golden Graham Goodwill Gold

Bids for the Kids

Follow the Trash

Seed Money Tree

Green cash or Trash cash

I combined a few of these great ideas into the somewhat catchy phrase:

Follow the Golden Graham Cash

Does this clever title remind you of a song from The Wizard of Oz?

Can’t wait to see what I make next week. I’m saving up for a new vacuum. Hey, in this economy it can’t be all fun and games with the money I make off my dear trash.

Start your own challenge. Does anyone else get these coupons from Fresh & Easy?

I see a Follow the Fresh & Easy Coupon Savings Challenge in the works, but some how that title is not as catchy.