TOO MUCH WORK? CONSIGN
Depending on which site you use, you’ll have
to write listings, package your items and send
them either directly to the buyer or to the
platform you used to make the sale. In some
cases, you can deliver in person.
To save time and effort, take your stuff to a
local consignment store instead. You’ll likely
make less, but the store does the selling for
you. Expect to pocket half of the selling price,
Wolf says.
Other options? Give things away to family and
friends. Donate to a local charity. And throw
away items that have absolutely no use.
TOO MANY TEMPTATIONS? SCALE BACK
Once you’ve sold and donated what you can,
fight the urge to impulse shop again. Keeping
up your current habits could get you right back
to where you started. One way to avoid that?
Save first and buy later.
This approach is the exact opposite of putting
something on a credit card and paying it off after
the fact, says Pam Horack, a certified financial
planner and the owner of Pathfinder Planning
LLC, based in Lake Wylie, South Carolina.
Save money and wait to place an order until you
can afford it in full. Horack says her family has a
designated clothing account. When someone
needs a new pair of shoes, the money comes
from what they’ve set aside.
You can do the same with a general spending
account. “If you don’t have money in that
account, then you can’t buy it,” Horack says. “That
needs to be your rule.”