1st Craft Show Bust

Well, it finally happened. I had my first disaster of a Craft Show this past Saturday.

I paid $45 to be in the show plus had to donate a raffle item with a retail value of $25, and the show was horrible! I stayed up until 2am on Friday night making sure I had enough stock for the show, then got up at 6am and drove for an hour to get there. Right after I set up all my stuff I made two sales to 2 of the vendors and those were my only sales of the whole day! Ugh!

And it wasn't just me. None of the vendors sold anything. It was a Family Fun Day type of event and there were a lot of people there but everyone was playing volleyball and basketball and eating their free picnic type lunch. The vendors were kind of across the field and nobody even came over to look.

Well, I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later.

So, in total I made $34 for the day, which really was a loss after you account for the fee and raffle item.

I really don't have any more shows scheduled over the summer. Partly because there aren't a lot of summer shows and partly because we have a lot of weekend plans already planned. I might participate in a 2 day show at the end of August but I haven't decided yet.

Once September comes, I have a show booked for every Saturday in Sept., Oct., Nov., and a couple in Dec. In total I think I have 15 more shows booked. So, I figure that I hope to sell at least 100 pendants per show (hopefully much more) - so I will need at least 1,500 pendants ready to sell this fall. So, I plan to spend the summer making stock so that I will have enough for all the fall shows.

Now I need to get my July budget finished!

Update

Still here plugging along.

Made $400 at the craft show this past weekend. Have another one scheduled for this Saturday.

So far this month, I have made $1,700 in jewelry sales at craft shows this month! I really can't believe it. It has kept me very busy making enough stock to bring to the shows. But boy does it feel good!

After this weekend things will slow down. I have not found many craft shows that I can participate in over the summer. I am going to try to do a 2 day show at the end of August, but that's about it.

Once September is here, I'll be doing a show basically every Saturday in September, October, and November, and maybe a couple in December.

I hope to use the summer down time to make tons of stock and spruce up my on line store.

Things are going pretty much as planned as far as the budget goes. My husband is still expecting about an $8,000 commission at the end of the month which will bring our Emergency Fund up to $25,000 - only $5,000 short of our $30,000 goal. After we get the commission I plan to open that checking account that pays 4.44% interest.

Over the summer I also plan to go through my basement and get rid of a bunch of stuff. I plan to make a section for items to sell on ebay and post some stuff every week.

So, that's what's going on with me. Sorry I haven't been posting often. I hope to keep up better. Hope you all are well!

This Week's Menu

I was inspired by Money Funk to plan out my menus for the week. Here's what I came up with (all from out of my pantry and freezer):

Sunday - Rotisserie Chicken
Monday - Chicken Fajitas
Tuesday - Chicken Noodle Soup
Wednesday - Pasta
Thursday - Shepherd's Pie
Friday - Homemade Pizzas
Saturday - Eat Out

Have you planned your meals for the week?

The Prioritizer

I learned about this great tool called "The Prioritizer" over at I've Paid For This Twice Already.

The Prioritizer is a calculator that helps you rank a series of goals or options which are most attractive to you.

Here is a list of my goals that the Prioritizer put in order for me:

1.	New Hood for Van	100
2.	New Windows	85.7
3.	New Heating System	71.4
4.	Re-do Bedroom	57.1
5.	Tie: Paint House New Deck Deck Furniture	32.1
8.	New Roof	0

I'm looking forward to using this tool. You should check it out!

Mid June Update

June is starting off well!

I had an outdoor craft show on the past two Saturdays.

The one on June 6th was the first time that I did an outdoor one all by myself - and I did great! It was in Providence, RI, and it was a really good show. And, I was able to lug all my stuff, and set up the 10' x 10' tent all by myself. It was a bit exhausting and I was definitely sore on Sunday, but I'm happy that I will be able to handle these shows by myself. At the end of the day I had made $320 in sales. Not bad.

Then this past Saturday, June 13th, I did another show in Wakefield, MA. It was great! I was busy all day and made a ton of sales. I probably would have made even more if I had had more inventory. (I completely sold out of my adult size ribbon necklaces!) I ended the day with $750 in sales! Yay! I am psyched!

So, I have already surpassed my $1,000 of extra income goal! I'm at $1,070 and the month is only almost half over!

The FFEF (fully funded emergency fund) will be filled before I know it!! :)

MAY 2009 Extra Earnings

May was my best month so far for earning extra income! My goal is to earn $1,000 of extra income each month - and in May I actually surpassed my goal by almost $300! Yeay!

I'm hoping that with all the Craft Shows I have signed up for, that this will be an ongoing trend.

May 2009 Extra Income
Jewelry Sales: $559
Blog Ads: $600
Assoc. Content: $6.42
Church Nursery: $128
Savings Interest: $5
TOTAL: $1,298.42

This brings my year to date total to $3,354. I'm feeling very good about that! :)