Entry 601: Ebay (August 7th)

Well it has been a little bit of a slow week for us on Ebay.  Our goal is to make $100 a week and we were just short on that this week.  We ended up selling only 6 items and unfortunately most of them were lower priced items.  Some of the interesting things we sold this week were a 1999 Creed concert shirt that we sold for $22.50 and a Harley Davidson leather hat that we sold for $25.

Some of the interesting things we found this week were a pair of Adidas baseball cleats that had never been worn.  They were a great find at $9.99.  I also found a Chicago Bulls hat that says Best Record Ever from their 1996-1997 season.  It was a really interesting hat that we bought for $1 at a yard sale.  Last, but certainly not least, we found a 1950's liquor bottle with cork stopper all in great condition.  We ended up buying it for only $1.

Entry 600: It's Been Awhile

We were looking back at our blog and noticed that it had been forever since we lasted posted.  Trust us when we say it hasn't been because we've been lazy, but we have been extremely busy.  We hereby give you the Huebner promise that this won't happen again and let us fill you in on a few things that have been happening since our last post in March.

• We have had a wedding in the family.  Julie's mom, Nancy, tied the knot with a very nice man that she met named Fred.  It was an amazing wedding and we are happy to have Fred be a part of the family.
• Last August Julie became a college student again.  Julie has had a hankering for awhile to get back into the classroom and Missouri State gave her a chance to get her degree in working with students who have visual impairments.  The best part is that the classes were all online and free through a state grant.  That's right Julie is getting her teaching degree for free!!!  The classes haven't been that bad, but the Braille writing and reading were a little difficult.  You are about to notice that a few things begin to happen because of Julie taking college classes.
• Lance started a store on Ebay.  Since Julie was going to have to student teach in August of 2017 she was going to have to quit her job and we would be a one income family.  Lance took it upon himself to make some extra money on Ebay to make it a smooth transition into a one income family.  Lance had been doing Ebay for awhile, but he hadn't put a lot of effort into it.  Now, however, it is like a second job to him but it is something that he actually really enjoys.  He makes a pretty good second income off of this every month and he plans on using this blog every Sunday to post what he has sold and also some interesting things that he has found recently.  Those that are interested in that keep checking back on Sunday, but if it is not your cup of tea just scroll past it every week.
• We took a 10 day trip to Ireland.  We had been planning this for sometime and it did not disappoint us at all.  We could tell you all about it here, but it would be easier for you just to check out our Ireland blog.  Click here for the Ireland blog.
• Julie got a new job.  Julie is now working for the North Kansas City School District as a teacher of the visually impaired.  Julie had always said that there were two school districts that she wanted to work for and one of them was NKC.  They had an opening in June and Julie went ahead an applied and literally less than 10 hours before we got on a plane to fly to Ireland she got a phone call offering her the job.  Now it was difficult doing all of the paperwork while in Ireland, but she got it done and started her new teacher training on Friday.  We like to joke that she was only unemployed for less than a week.
• We have had other things going on, but these are just some of the highlights.

Now the plan right now is to do most of our blog updating on Sunday's, so that is by far the best day to check back in and see what we have been up to for the week.  If you are one of those impatient people though keep checking back in all week because maybe we had some free time and will do some posting.

Entry 599: Breakup Letter

This is for all of you people who keep asking us if we are going to Opening Night and if we might have extra tickets.

Dear Kansas City Royals,
     This is tough for me to write because I am usually the one reading this letter and not the one writing it.  Normally this is the time where the person says it's not you, it's me; but lets be real because we both know it's you.
     Our love affair began back in 2010 when for Christmas we decided to purchase a 10 game package.  Even though the team was terrible back then, we loved every minute of it. Throughout the years we have had a half season package, a full season package, traveled to Minnesota and Pittsburgh to see you play, and have been to Surprise, Arizona to spend an entire week at spring training.  You reciprocated this love by allowing us to meet all the players that we have ever wanted (Hosmer, Cain, Perez, Moustakus, etc...), giving us free tickets to games, putting us on the big screen far more times than I can remember, letting Lance win a free cell phone during a game once, seeing not only an All Star Game but also all the activities that go with it, and allowing Julie to meet Danny Duffey to start a friendship with him.
     Everything was great until 2014 when you started changing.  The previous two years we bought the buy 2 tickets, get 2 tickets free plan with some friends.  We would split the tickets with them and see nearly every game, but for some reason you did away with this and then lied to us by saying that you had informed us of this ahead of time when you hadn't.  We forgave you for this, but then we began to notice other changes.  The free tickets for being loyal season ticket holders disappeared, the ticket prices became higher, food prices were raised, opening day tickets had to be purchased separately because they were no longer a part of the 21 game package, and a lot of the perks season ticket holders received were taken away.
      The final straw was when we were told that with our 21 game package that we no longer would get post season ticket priority and would still have to buy Opening Night tickets because our ticket package wasn't high enough.  We discussed this and finally decided that we had enough and were going to discontinue our season tickets.  We had seen the Royals play in playoff games and go from a lousy team to winning the World Series, all along the way making some great friends.
     Now we know you have been calling us begging for us to take you back.  We have heard your pleas, but I am going to be the bad guy here and say it just isn't going to happen.  Will we still see you?  Probably, but not nearly as much.  Just know that we will always treasure the memories, but we have to go our separate ways.  Thanks for everything.

Julie and Lance Huebner

Entry 598: Why We Love Our City

This story is one of the reasons that we love living in the city that we do.   Click here to see the news story.

Entry 597: Extreme Couponing (Huebner Style)

A few months ago Julie began watching the show Extreme Couponing and decided that she wanted to give it a try.  Extreme Couponing, for those who have never seen it, is a show where people cut coupons and save ridiculous amounts of money at the store (we're talking usually well over a hundred dollars).  Lance was not on board with Julie's idea at first, but he decided to go along with it to see if we could save any money doing this.

Let me explain how this works, Huebner style.  Every Sunday Lance gets up at 8:45 and goes to Dollar Tree to pick up two-three Sunday papers.  Why Dollar Tree, you ask.  Good question, Lance goes to Dollar Tree because each Sunday paper is only a dollar while everywhere else it is $2.25 (see already we're saving money).  Once home, Julie goes through the paper and takes out all the ads and coupons she wants to look at.  Then the process of cutting the coupons out and throwing away the expired coupons begins.  This is only the beginning because Lance has companies emailing him coupons all the time, so we then have to go through the emails and see what kind of deals they have for us.  The last step is to go through all of the ads and find where the good deals are and if we have any coupons for them.  This whole process takes between 2-3 hours each Sunday.

Afterwards we do our grocery shopping for the week and usually we save between $30-$40, but this weekend it seemed like everything we were looking for was on sale and we ended up saving close to $100.  This all sounds like a great deal, but there are some downfalls to it.  The biggest problem we ran in to was having so many things that we didn't have enough space for it all.  We ended up having to clean out the towel closet so we could use it to store all of the items.  Let's just say that we have enough toothpaste, deodorant, and dog treats for a couple of years.

This is a lot of work, but in the end with the money we save it is worth it.

Entry 596: Yogi Berra

Last night Lance heard that New York Yankees great Yogi Berra passed away and it reminded him of a story that his Grandmother told him about Yogi Berra.  This is by far one of our favorite Grandma Dorothy stories.

Lance's uncle, John, was a huge Yankees fan back in the day.  Lance's grandfather decided to take them to see a Yankees series (you'll have to forgive Lance because he doesn't remember where the series was at, but it was an away series) and somehow or another they were able to get a room on the same floor that the Yankees were staying.  This was great for Uncle John because he was able to collect almost all of their autographs on a ball, but the one he was missing was Yogi Berra.  Apparently Yogi stayed in his room most of the trip and when he did come out it was late at night, so getting his autograph was difficult.

One day they got lucky though because Lance's grandmother and uncle saw Yogi getting onto the elevator, so they rushed real quick and got onto the elevator with him.  Lance's uncle went up to Yogi and asked him for an autograph and he said no which devastated him.  What Yogi did next is what caused Lance's grandmother to lose it and start yelling at Yogi:  he turned to a couple of good looking women in the elevator and flirt with them and signing autographs on whatever they gave him.  Lance's grandma didn't react real well to this and proceeded to start yelling at Yogi and telling him what a bad role model he was and how he should be ashamed of himself (now remember this is what Lance's grandma told him, so the words may have been a little stronger).

When the elevator finally got to the bottom floor, Yogi stepped out and looked at Lance's grandmother and told her to give him the damn ball to sign.  They gave him the ball and afterwards he looked at Lance's grandmother and asked her if there was anything else she wanted him to sign so she would shut up.  My grandmother told him no, thanked him, and walked away.  This is by far one of our favorite grandma stories.

Now this story has never been verified by anybody, but Lance's grandmother is quite spunky so it wouldn't be surprising if it was true.

Entry 595: Now We're Smoking

Lance loves to grill and has been wanting to buy a smoker for quite some time.  Lance had been doing some research and decided that he wanted a charcoal/wood smoker because it had a better flavor.  Granted an electric smoker would be easier, but the taste just isn't the same.  Saturday as we were walking through Lowe's, there it was a smoker that met all of Lance's criteria and was on sale.  Julie allowed Lance to pull the trigger and thus we are now the proud owners of a smoker.

Naturally we had to give the smoker a trial run, so on Sunday we prepped a pork butt and proceeded to smoke it.  Three and a half hours later we were able to eat the fruits of Lance's labor and it was great.