Day 147: Good Deal, Bad Deal

My craigslist ad is online since 4 weeks and I haven´t sold or traded the soundsystem yet. The price of 165$ is apparently too high, so I am now going to lower it every week for about 10$ until somebody buys it or until it becomes profitable to sell it on ebay (at around 125$).
I received a lot of interesting emails from people whowanted would like to trade some of their belongings for my soundsystem. Often it was easy to see that it would not be a profitable deal for me, but several times I was nearly at the point to make the deal. I am still convinced that bartering is a great method to make a profit, but I need definetily a better sense of what is  valuable/ marketable and what is not.
I listed all the noteworthy offers below, with pictures, if I received any. Below the description I explain, why I decided to deny the offer in the end. Would you have done the same?

Yamaha RGS 121 E-guitar + AMP
A student offered me this yamaha electric guitar with new "jazz strings", cable, a small amp, a tuner and custom strap. The model number for the guitar is RGS 121, I did not find any detailed information about the other things.
 

ME: I nearly accepted this deal. The problem for me was: I was only able to figure out the value for the guitar, which was between 66 and 120$.
I checked ebay and found some auctions that did not really give me any confidence:

• ebay auction 1
• ebay auction 2

The other things, such as the amp seem worthless or at least terrible hard to sell/trade. I expected that the price for the e guitar + amp etc. would be around 150$, maybe lower, but not higher.
In the end I decided to ask in a forum for advice and received responses that described the deal as "not a big loss to me". ..I wanted to make some profit with it..   So.. I did not take the e-guitar.


Toshiba 5205-S705
The person who offered this one said, it " has the blue screen of death (I think it just needs new memory), but if you are good with computers it is a good deal, its in very good condition other than the blue screen. It is definitely worth more than 165 even with the memory issue, but I don't feel like figuring it out."

 (picture was not included)


ME: This was an easy one. The laptop is now 7 to 8 years old and is known for having a high component failure rate. It is definetily not worth anything close to 165$, I wonder if it is worth anything at all with the blue screen.




Fishtank with stand
A 55 Gallon (210 liter) fishtank with wooden stand and some basic supplies (shingles). A very similar fishtank is being offered on craigslist for 350$ in used condition.  The stand is made out of real wood (not plywood).

ME: This was the toughest decision. I always liked to have a fishtank and the size and price was reasonable. However, the one for 350$ on craigslist had a more recent design and looked more attractive to me. I guess I would also have kept the fishtank.

I finally did not take it, because I decided that if I am already trading the soundsystem for something, it must be something I can and want to retrade afterwards. The fishtank above has some serious disadvantages to the one on craigslist (the one below). The one below is much more stylish and has a black lid. I have the feeling (and that might be totally wrong) that the one above is very hard to resell, as it looks rather old. If the guy would have offered me the one below (which is the same model with different design),  I would have taken it, as the design is much "fresher". The fishtank on craigslist is online for many weeks already.  I finally denied the deal because I expected that I would not be able to sell or trade the fishtank for anything including the stand.  I am still not sure whether this was a good decision, some people might think that the fishtank stand is looking great. What do you think about this? Should I have taken it?

Fender CD-60 Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar
The most recent offer was a used accoustic guitar. Its new price is 199$, I could not find any price for it in used condition.
(picture was not included)


ME: I do not see an chance to resell the guitar. I was able to find several guitars on craigslist, but the prices where not close to the prices in new condition. I could have sold it on ebay for about 140$, but it would not have been a good deal after ebay fees.






Conclusion:
I am really curious whether you would have traded the soundsystem to any of the objects above. I am not sure whether I am too picky and might have missed some good chances.

Day 123: Where is my creative mind!

I am still trying to sell my "new" soundsystem on craigslist. It is not as easy as I thought to get rid of it and I am now at a price of 170$. I am not under time pressure, but some more interest in my add would be good.
This morning I got another bag full of cans from the Hudson River Coffee House and I will return it this week. However, I am looking for other ideas to make some dollars. I worked on (and already completed) a website, but cancelled the project due to copyright issues. I do not want to get into legal problems and the company whose pictures I wanted to use did not reply to my emails.

I am repeatedly thinking about ways to earn some dollars through my German origin. Selling things from the USA to Germany or shipping whatever needed there. But I cannot think of anything yet... do you have an idea? Leave a comment :)!

Day 110: Let´s make the most out of it!

Income: 06.61 $

Round 2: After being so lucky with my first trade, I hope to be able to make at least 150$ with the new soundsystem.  I spent some hours cleaning it, especially several spots where wall paint dropped on the cloth on the front of the speakers. I carefully cleaned these spots and used a black marker to overpaint some resistant drops. I am really surprised how clean and tidy they look after I removed dust, paint, dirt and worked on some scratches.

I am usually not too good in making "high quality" pictures, but am quite happy about these ones. I think the system looks way more attractive than in the picture of my last post.

I just started my ad on craigslist and noted that I will sell OR trade it. I actually prefer trading it, but don´t want to be too picky. The soundsystem sells in used condition on ebay for 140-190$ plus 20-40$ shipping. I recognized that the stands make apparently quite a big difference in the price (didn´t make a picture of them).

Anyway, as I am not in a hurry, I optimistically chose to sell them for 200$. Maybe I am lucky and someone urgently needs exactly such a soundsystem. I basically do it the same way, as with my vintage speakers and slowly lower the price until someone buys it. My realistic goal is 150$. I paid 60$ for it in addition to the free vintage speakers, for which I expected 65$. An additional 25$ sounds ok to me at this point.

Review of the last 3 weeks:

During the past two weeks, I found 3 pennies on one of the parking lots and continued gathering cans and bottles wherever possible.  However, it is getting colder and people are starting to choose tea and coffee instead of soda and beer. Because of this (and a bad cold) I had just 128 bottles and cans (6,40$) to return yesterday.  This is not a lot for two weeks of collecting. As usual, I made some pictures of all the cans and thought about posting them, but they look actually all the same. Instead of posting a cart full of plastic bags, you get thus a picture of a hawk (?), who I met on my way to university. Maybe next time empty cans and bottles again...

Day 98: Vintage Speakers traded for... Bose Soundsystem!

 Income: 00.18 $
Finally some post-worthy content and progress! During the past week I returned another 74 cans (3,70$) and I had a bankroll of 60,18$... at least for a few days.

After refreshing my ad on craigslist and offering to trade my speakers against anything of higher value, I received an email from a person who was already interested in them several weeks ago. He offered me a variety of things (such as vintage shaving gear ), but I was most interested in his  Bose Soundsystem (Acoustimass 5 Series II ). We agreed that I´d have to pay him an additional 60$ and that I would receive some wire cables.
I hope the Bose Soundsystem is easier to sell or trade than the vintage speakers, as I was quite lucky to find someone who is interested in such old speakers. Ebay.com price for the soundsystem is around 150$. Currently it has a few drops of wall paint here and there and some resistant dust. I´ll clean them now and see what I can get for them on craigslist as soon as possible.Maybe I can make some additional dollars with the unused speaker wire. There should be around 30 feet left, 100feet are worth around 30$ at bestbuy.

 Bye Bye 50 year old Vintage Speakers:

Welcome 20 year old Bose Soundsystem (and 60 feet of wires):

Day 91: Cans and Speakers

Income: 56.48 $

 The semester in New York has started and I have a little more time pressure and a little less time to keep my blog up to date.
Anyways, some interesting things happened during the last 10 days:

1.  Cans:
I returned 187 cans (5 were notrefundable) and received 9,10$ for them. I also found a dime and a penny at University, which adds up to 9,21$. As the semester started, it seems that I am receiving some more cans every week.

2. Speakers:
Apparently, asking on craigslist to make me an offer for my speakers didn´t work at all. No replies. A week later I changed my ad and asked for a clear amount and shortened my long description. It worked! Within 2 days I received 7 emails. However, many were asking whether the speakers had tweeters. As I couldn t see any, I said they do not. Later I found out that the tweeters are build into the front of the speaker and that I can only hear (not see), whether my ones have them or not.  I found this out, after replying to most mails that my speakers don´t have tweeters :(.
As I do not have any possibility to test my speakers, I rely on interested persons who are willed to bring an Amp to my house to check them. An alternative would be to find a friend who has the devices to test my speakers, but I am not sure yet who to ask for this.

Conclusion :   I´ll set up a new ad  after testing my speakers (or getting it tested by a possible buyer).

Day 80: 1000 Recycled Cans/Bottles!

 Income: 47.27 $
Today I returned 144 cans and bottles and none of them was "nonrefundable"! Usually there are at least 10 to 20 cans that make problems...   Overall ,It took 80 days and a lot of time, but 1000 bottles/cans have finally been recycled. Not much time to write today, but I realized that to reach my goal of 1000$ with my current speed I would have to continue returning bottles for another 4 to 5 years... Great!


     

Review: August 2011

After some less productive weeks in July, I was spending much more time this month with different activities to earn some cents/dollars here and there. So what did I do during the past weeks and how much did I earn with which activity?


1. Cans and Bottles
My "real" income was mostly generated by returning bottles and cans. In August, I returned more cans and bottles, as I did in June and July together. They and a dozen of pennies which I found on the street were worth 19,76$. I can expect around 20$ per month, if I return cans and bottles that I receive from the coffee house and collect around 100 cans/bottles from streets/trash/bushes.




 2. Google Adsense
I am using adsense to generate some additional income by the advertisements you can see on my blog. If a reader is interested in one of the advertised products and clicks on the banner to get more information, adsense will automatically pay some cents to the blogowner. Even though my revenue shrank over the past weeks, it is still a nice pocket money. It is forbidden to show statistics about adsense performances, but at least allowed to show the monthly reports. They are in German.. (sorry ?!) :

I haven´t disclosed my revenue from the prior months, so I think it´d be fair to do so now. During the first weeks of my blog, I had a daily average of  >250 visitors, which apparently were very interested in the advertisements on my blog. This resulted in many clicks and over 30$ during the first two weeks. However, there was no way for me to maintain >250 viewers per day which resulted in the downwards trend I am currently facing. In August, I was able to gain 12,78$ in revenue. I am not counting the 50,18$ I have earned via adsense towars my overall income yet, as I cannot withdraw them before I have 100$. It will thus still take a while until I can invest them.

3. Loudspeakers
I am still not sure about what to expect for them. I hope to receive between 20 - 70$, as this is the price for them on ebay. However, I am not sure when I will find a buyer.




Prospect for September
But what now?  I am currently not able to increase my revenue. I have a steady income of about 20$ a month by returning cans, which is great! But my adsense revenue decreased, which is a problem, as it is definetily an easy way to earn some extra dollars.
As soon as I have sold my speakers, I want to invest in something more valueable, which I can then resell for more. I am also very interested to buy something that can be cleaned/repaired/refurbished. I hope this will be possible in September and keep checking garage sales.

Day 76: A Dollar Saved Is A Dollar Earned

As you might have recognized I was forming letters out my cans. I had so many of them last week, that I really wanted to do something with them. I decided to write my slogan (and blog title) with cans on grass and it worked out pretty well, except that I forgot the V ... . What a desaster.

Enjoy the picture, I guess you have to click on the picture to see that the letters are really cans...










Besides forming letters out of cans, I had the luck to be forced to take 27 cans/bottles to my place.  My girlfriend and me attended the graduate student orientation as every semester, which offered many snacks and drinks.  In the end there were still many cookies, brownies and drinks and the professors urged us to take them... . What a success!  I won´t be able to instantly return all of them, but over the coming weeks I can return a few every now and then and receive some extra cents :).

Here a picture of what we were forced to take home: YUMMIE!

Day 75: Demand determines the price!

After inspecting the speakers a little closer, I am quite happy with my investment... Actually it is not really an investment as I got them for free! I found an advertisement for a garage sale that was scheduled during Hurricane Irene.er gave eve Apparently many things were left (...) and at the morning after Irene, the same garage sale was on craigslist again and the owner gave everything away for free.  So I drove and found the two speakers.
 
I was thinking a lot about how much to expect for them.  I thought about 40$, but actually there is no hurry and you never know whether there is someone desperately looking for big, heavy, loud, old, vintage speakers.
I decided that 240$ is the perfect amount for them. You probably think that this is waaaayy to high, but wait, here is why:

1. The semester started yesterday and there will be many parties around Albany during the coming weekends. Parties = loud music -> loud music = Need for my speakers!
2. The speakerboxes are huge and in really good shape. The speakers themselves are not of bad quality! They are old, but were worth a lot and are being sold on ebay for 50-200$.  
3. I have time!  I dont really need to sell them. I am asking people for offers and even though I expect many to think my price is too high, I hope that their offers are still higher than as if I would have started with a low price. If nobody responds, I am going to lower the price step by step. I advertise them at craigslist, which is completely free and quite common in the US for buying and selling all kinds of stuff.

Here is the link to my offer at craigslist:

http://albany.craigslist.org/ele/2573501684.html


At the end I´d also like to ask you to be a follower of my blog. I´d really appreciate it :)

Day 74: How much are they worth?

Today I did it!  I went to a garage sale and found something valueable!   I am a little in a hurry right now and would be happy for some comments:

How much would you have paid for these speakers?
How much are they worth?
For how much should I sell them!

I will tell later today or tomorrow how much I had to invest to get them.  They are damn heavy and big. I would say 80 cm x 50cm x 35 cm. I opened them to see what kind of speakers they have, but don´t know the brand... so any information would be helpful (i ll google it later too)



Here are some pics:

Day 73: No Cans, but Hurricane Irene Day

Naaah, I´m not going out today do I?   Alright, I did the minimum and collected a bag with maybe 40 cans from the Hudson River Coffeehouse. As it is everywhere in the news, I made some videos of Hurricane Irene while driving Downtown. I uploaded two of them. They are not overwhelming, but I guess that is better for me than flying trees and houses. It is raining heavily since 4am and quite windy, but not much more.  Further downtown I saw a lot of stuff on the streets and fences and smaller trees that did not stand the wind, but that´s all.
  Anyway here they are:

Day 72: Cans Cans Cans!

Income: 40.07 $

During the last two weeks I was not only able to collect cans from my favourite coffehouse, but also during my visit to Grafton Lakes State Park. I also received a bag with cans and bottles from a friend of mine and was prepared to spend a long time at the bottle returning machine.

The trunk full of cans was in the end worth 10,30$ and equals to 237 cans and bottles (206 were refundable). It took me forever to return all of them.

The coming days won´t be too lucrative, as Hurricane Irene is on the way and will reach NY on Sunday. Even though I am located in the north of New York (where heavy storms are rather uncommen), the weather won´t be too pleasant. I´m planning to use this time for some investments. Maybe I´ll find something free on craigslist or, if time, tomorrow at one of the garage sales that are currently everywhere. Sadly, I missed the chance to get 6 boxes full of toys for free at craigslist. They were gone only one hour after the owner offered them.

I´d also be happy to have some more followers, so please press "join this site" on the right, if you are regularly checking my blog. Thanks to Member No.6  and thanks to all the other readers.

Day 70: What to do with so many cans?

As I haven´t returned any cans for about two weeks, the trunk of my car is now filled with empty bottles and cans. As some of you might have recognized, I am still not fully satisfied with the Design of my blog and was changing it several times. Currently, I m a little bored by the header " A Dollar Saved is A Dollar Earned" and was thinking about a not too ordinary way to make it more interesting. The cans must be good for something more than just 5c deposit refund.

I was thus spending some hours on an empty parking lot (or rather the meadow next to it) and arranged cans back and forth. I´m quite satisfied with my results and will update the complete results on the blog as soon as possible. 

Tomorrow morning I will return all my cans, you can see many of them on the photo, I guess I have far more 150 cans and bottles and am looking forward to receive some dollars for them. 
I´d also be happy about some more followers,  so if you are not, this is your chance! Just click "join this site" on the right :)

Day 67: Grafton Lakes State Park

Income: 29.77 $

Yesterday, my girlfriend and I spent a day at Grafton Lakes State Park.  The lake has a public beach and a nice trail around it. While the beach is quite clean, you can see some trash lying around on the trails along the lake and many people don´t throw their cans into the forest, but put them next to benches or small grill areas.

I took the chance and collected the cans along the trail. I filled up a whole bag and will return all the cans during the coming days. We only walked a third of the whole trail, I guess next time I´ll bring bigger bags. From now on I´ll put some  in my car, yesterday I had to borrow my girlfriends shoe bag which she generously donated (thank you).

Anyway, the park is a little cleaner, and I am a little closer to the 20000 cans that I need to win the challenge  :`( .

Afterwards we stopped at a café to drink some coffee and get some food and baaam, I´ve found 52 cents on a couch.  All in all a very successful day!  I´d be glad to have a few more followers, so if you read my blog every now and then, become a follower :)

Day 64

Income: 29.25 $
Currently it is quite rainy in Albany and I am slightly demotivated to invest much time into collecting cans and bottles. However, on the spacy parking lot in front of my apartment, I am very successful in finding pennies and sometimes nickels or dimes. I don´t assume to see all of them, as I am not paying too much attention, but so far I was able to find at least 3 coins every week.

And again, 2 days ago I found a nickel and 2 pennies, just lying around between the other cars. If only more people would lose some coins on my parking lot!
Anyway, on Sunday I am going to return cans and bottles I have collected during the last 2 weeks.  I expect even more cans and bottles than on day 55 (192 cans and bottles).  See you on Sunday :-)

Tribe meets white man for the first time

Yesterday, I watched the video below, showing a tribe in Papua New Guinea who meets a white man (Jean-Pierre Dutilleux) for the first time. Dutilleux travelled through North and South America and according to his biography, Sting (the musician) had also joined him to one of his visits to the Amazon. I haven´t seen this video earlier, even though it is from 1976.

Isn´t it interesting to see how the tribe reacts to things that are normal to us? How they carefully look at the colored dishes and cups and how they react when eating rice with salt (or sugar?). I would have imagined they think he is some kind of devil, but instead they are careful, but peaceful and very curious about everything. I really enjoy watching it. I am currently thinking whether I should order one of Dutilleux´s documentaries, just too curious about his other travels.

Have a look at his biography if you like to find out more about his travels and the survival of the remaining Indians of the Amazon Rainforest.

Day 55: Short Update, Big Payout

Income: 29.18 $
After gathering bottles and cans in my trunk for two weeks, I returned a shopping cart full of cans. The 2 bags were worth 8,85$ and countained 192 cans (177 for 5c). I also found two more Pennies on my parking lot.  However, I am currently quite busy with life and can´t find the time to post too much. So just to keep everybody uptodate:

Before:

After:

Day 36: 101 Cans Recycled!

Income: 20.31 $
I had been absent from my blog for some days, but continued the recycling efforts. I am currently working 3 days a week and might start a second job next week. Thus I have a little less time to collect bottles and blog about my progress. However, I will try to blog at least twice a week, if possible more often.

Back to the topic: I received another generous present (plastic bag full of cans) from my favourite coffee house and was able to collect a few more cans and bottles. I also found 2 pennies on the parking lot in front of my apartment. Apparently there are a lot of pennies lying around on parking lots around here, I already found other pennies at the same spot before.
However in my new neighborhood it is definetily too clean to gather empty bottles and cans efficiently . I am thus still looking for some kind of investment to start with, but am not yet happy with what I found on ebay and garage sales.

Overall, I received 5,65$ for the cans of the past week. I returned 12 bottles and 101 cans!  It took quite a while to return them, but I am getting faster and faster :).

Day 26: The Piggy Bank Grows!

Income: 14.64 $

The right answer was 87 bottles and cans for 4,20$  (Asahi beer and two juice cans did not work out)! I am not sure whether it was a good idea to take all cans out of the trashbags yesterday just to make a picture of them in the trunk of my car. It still smells so strong, as many bottles were not completely empty.  I better get a huge plastic box for next week.

This week, I received most cans from the Hudson River Coffee House and only contributed 8 to 10 of the bottles I collected on my own. Thanks Anton and Phil for gathering them. Anyway, all the small bottle deposits I received over the past weeks finally add up. My piggy bank from Day 5 is not so empty anymore and keeps motivating me.

Every Friday my girlfriend and me are visiting the indian restaurant Aashiana in downtown. This time I was lucky and spot a Nickel! However, during the other days of the past week I was not able to find any treasures, coins or bottles. We bought a table for our new apartment and as soon as it is assembled I might have a cardboard to write on the prices for the tremendous compliments I am going to sell. I wish I had some colorful cardboard, but apparently I will have to start with a normal greyish one.

Day 25: Who Knows The Answer ? Win a Penny!

Income: 10.39 $
The trunk of my car is filled with cans and bottles again. I will bring them to the closest supermarket in about an hour and update tonight or tomorrow morning.
To shorten the waiting time everybody has the chance to WIN ONE PENNY via postcard. All you need to do is: Write a comment on my blog and guess how many dollars I will receive for the cans and bottles in the picture.  

Good Luck everybody!   PS: My guess is 3,25$

Day 21: Homeless pennies

Income: 10.39 $

There are no parks close to my new apartment, which forces me to change my focus. Apparently there are less botlles and cans lying around. I was only able to find 5 bottles so far. Nice to know that people here seem to recycle more often. However, I was able to find three pennies and a dime on my parking lot! One of the pennies must have been there for years. I made a picture of it. Quite ugly and flat...

I am still trying to find a suitable cardboard for my compliment prices (in a nice color), as I do not want to invest in some colored cardboard. During the coming days I will finally finish moving into the new apartment and I hope to have internet not later than coming Monday.

Day 18: Back in the Game

Income: 10.26 $

Moving 2 miles closer to campus takes quite a lot of time and I havent been able to collect a lot of bottles recently. However, the new apartment will be much larger and  very close to campus, as well as to my internship location. When I cleaned my old room I found 3 pennies and a dime. I will list them here, as I would have never ever found them otherwise.  I will continue collecting bottles and cans soon and look out for garage sales after coming Tuesday (Monday -> 4th of July, holiday in US, I take a day off to :) ).

Yesterday morning I received another bag full of cans and added the few I had collected during the past days. This added up to 53 bottles and cans and brought me 2.55$ . I finally passed the 2-digit border!

Thus, my piggy bank is now 2.68$ richer! Let´s see whether I can find a lot of bottles in the area I am going to live from now on...

Day 16: Moving and internship search..

Sorry for the current break, but I am moving closer to the campus during these days and was looking for internships at the same time.  I have an internship now (yeii) and I am moving during the coming three days.   I will give a decent update on Monday/Tuesday !

Don´t forget my blog, 3 more days to the next bottle return day!


Thank you for almost 3.000 views :)

Day 11: Another day another bottle

Income: 7.58$

It is Sunday and with another 47 bottles and cans in my trunk, I drove to Hannaford again to get some dollars.  My business relations to the Hudson River Coffee House seem to be strong enough to ensure a weekly supply of cans and bottles to significantly increase my income. Respectively, on average I collect 4 cans per day. The Coffeehouse supports me on average with 9 cans and bottles per day woohoo! Thanks for the support, I hope I can increase my daily can-collecting-rate to 5 over the next weeks. This steady bottle supply increased my income from 0.45$ to 2,35$ for today and boosts my overall income to over 7,50$! However I need to start other project to not fall behind to my Swiss and German competitors.

And then there is the voting.... I am not sure yet who to blame for making "charging for compliments" win (in around 6 hours) , but well... I will do this during the coming week and hope to earn at least 1,50$ !!!   I´ll give more details about where and when this will happen during the coming days. As the voting was very close until yesterday, I am going to do both, garage sale investments and charging strangers for friendly comments.

From now on I am looking for reasonable small investments on the local garage sales, craigslist, maybe also on ebay. I plan to repair, improve, beautify (and more) my investments and resell them again.  My goal ist to reach 50$ until August 20, which will be a lot of work and equals to 5-6$ a week...  If someone has a great deal or investment in mind, please right a comment.

Day 9: Payday with a trunk full of cans!

Income: 5.23$

It is 11 am and I already exceeded my goal to have 5$ within the coming week. During the last days I solely gathered all the bottles and cans I found in the trunk of my car. This morning I was planning to return all the bottles and cans at Hannaford and just stopped by at the Hudson River Coffee House to buy my daily "Good Morning Hazelnut + Almond Iced Coffee". I received some cans from there earlier this week and was not expecting any cans before Sunday. However, I received a bag full of cans and bottles (I guess around...35) even without asking! My trunk was then filled with 87 cans and bottles and I had to do reposition my belongings from the trunk to the backseats.

After receiving this donation I drove straight to Hannaford and spent quite a while returning cans, plastic and glass bottles and sorting out all the evil ice tea and juice cans (no refund)! Anyway, I received 3,35$ for what I gathered during the past days, which equals to 67 cans and bottles.

My plans for the coming days are: Continue collecting cans, but finding new ways to earn some cents. In 3 days I will additionally do whatever the majority of votes decides. I already thought I am on the safe side and would have to invest on the garage sales, but "charging for compliments" is catching up... scary.

Here the proof of income, my car is finally not smelling like a brewery anymore!





Day 8: Payday is coming closer!

Income: 1.88$

Short update for today:
During the last blogs I didn t change my income bar as I didn t return the bottles I collected. However, the next payday will be tomorrow or Saturday and I expect a lot: Everything over a dollar is a success, 2 dollars would be great, but lets see. In my trunk there is a garbage bag full of cans waiting to get exchanged to some dollars.
Today, despite heavy rain, I decided to have at least a short look around the block and along the campus. I was able to find some more bottles and later in the evening some soda bottles and cans (not in the picture).

As soon as I have 5 $, I will start to invest my little fortune in valuable projects to gain higher income, I hope I will achieve this during the coming week. And at the end:  A last call for my voting on the right!  It is unbelievable close! Please Vote everybody!

Day 7: Pennies everywhere!

Income: 1.88$

Yesterday night, my former housemate Anton and me cleaned our apartment a little and looked for pennies of former tenants, as they are changing quite frequently. The most promising place was under the seat cushions of our old couch, but there was nothing but dust and little baseball bat (!?).

Afterwards we checked the decorative strips (hight: ~ 6,5") in my livingroom and indeed, 3 pennies were hiding on top of it. I wonder how they got there..

Next we checked the closet and floor of an empty room in the back of the apartment, where I found 10 cent.  What a success!

Surprisingly, there was no money to find under the old heaters, but when standing next to them I found two homeless pennies on top of them and 1 penny from 2011 in the doorway next to it. The search operation was overall a great success, 21 cents more in my bank!