1. Trade in your gold. While you don’t want to trade in your family heirlooms, perhaps you have a few pieces of gold in your jewelry box that you have no intentions of ever wearing again or the promise of a payout seems better than having your pieces sit around collecting dust. Take a trip to your local jeweler. Many jewelers buy gold or will accept your piece towards a trade. The current price of gold, the weight of your piece and the jeweler’s evaluation can impact the payout.
2. Sell your baby gear. Craigslist and eBay have made it super easy to sell your baby gear. Many local communities have mother’s groups on Meetup.com and Facebook.com that encourage members to list baby gear for sale. For strollers and other high-end, big ticket items, you can fetch a pretty penny as they tend to retain their value fairly well. Before placing your ad, clean up your gear, take a photo in a well-let area with a clutter free background and include a complete description with your image to increase your earning potential.
3. Get cash for your old gadgets. Have an old iPod touch lying around? Anthony Scarsella, chief gadget officer at Gazelle, a leader in consumer electronics trade-ins, accepting well over one million gadgets to date, says you can sell that puppy for up to $100 bucks. “At Gazelle, you can look up your device and get a quote with just a couple of clicks. Once you get an offer, you can add the item to your ‘box’ and complete the trade-in process. You even select your preferred payment method: check, PayPal or Amazon gift card. We’ll even send you a box and a free shipping label. Once we receive your item, you get paid within three days, sometimes even faster.” At Gazelle.com, iPads are bringing in nearly $500 and the iPhone 4s, more than $150.
4. Sell your broken electronics. While broken screen or damaged device can greatly impact the value of the gadget, says Scarsella, Apple fans can still trade their broken devices in for cash. According to Scarsella, at Gazelle, broken iPhones and iPads still have some payout; in fact, broken devises can fetch up to $100 bucks. Scarsella encourages tech savvy moms’ to protect their gear and use a sturdy case and screen protector so that they can bring in more cash when it comes time to upgrade or trade-in.
5. Create your own artistic wrapping paper. Tackle this new trend on your own by wrapping your holiday gifts in fabric. Instead of tossing old curtains, shirts and other fabric scraps, save them and use to wrap your gifts in style. In designer boutiques, wrapping fabric sells for a pretty penny. Save your money and pull of this statement with what you have on hand.
Add a little more to your holiday budget by trading in your unused, unwanted or broken items. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to turn your trash into treasure when you get a little creative!
