Round eleven took only took a month! However, you will notice a HUGE gap before we completed twelve. The reason for the long pause was TOTALLY WORTH IT! (That’s a hint to keep reading!)
During round eleven we had friends jump in; they had items for us to purchase (and give us!) and offered to let us keep the net as a way to support our project. Oh, how we love our friends! We incorporated yard sales, pawn shops, Craig’s List, flea markets, and mobile apps such as Offer Up and Let Go into our plan.
And then, we took some time off from TDP because Jamie had a brilliant idea! Let me backtrack a bit . . .
Along the way, our children learned they could make money to purchase the things they wanted by investing their OWN money. They bought small items, mostly at yard sales, and flipped them for a higher price. They learned what would sell and what wouldn’t. They learned to save, work hard, and give to others. It was great . . . until Jamie and I foresaw an issue. What in the world could our kiddos possibly want for Christmas? So, Jamie had an idea. Let’s take them to DISNEY! But, there was one, ginormous, huge, problem. We did not have the money. Enter Jamie’s even better idea: Let’s invest what little we have in our SIDE ACCOUNT to pay for our trip! Thankfully, Disney allows its patrons to make payments. We finished round eleven, put TDP on hold, paid the deposit, determined how much we would need for the trip, and dove head into a NEW adventure.
We kept the trip a secret, and since we are often out of state anyway for Christmas, we put a bunch of realistic, but totally made up events on our December calendar to fool our super smart kiddos into thinking we were leaving uncharacteristically early to see family in Ohio. For seven months, using the side account accumulated from our original dollar ($457. 89 at this point), we doubled our money to pay for Disney! We spent lots of time scouring and bidding at online auctions sites, spending our weekends picking up, photographing, and pricing. This was all totally normal to our kiddos, especially since they thought it was for TDP! LOL
Once Disney was paid off, we decided to go for the big win. With Christmas quickly approaching, as 
well as an impending trip to Ohio and then Kentucky, the idea of driving twelve hours to Orlando did not sound so lovely. We looked up airline tickets, and what do you know? We found a fabulous deal not out of our Doubling budget.
We informed our kiddos that Christmas would be exceptionally light this year as they really didn’t ask for much. We purchased a few fun things to go under the tree and celebrated our family Christmas day on December 13th since we were supposedly heading out of town early to begin Christmas with the extended families. Our kiddos woke early, we exchanged gifts (our kiddos used their own Doubling money to buy our gifts–melt my heart!) and then for the big reveal! There were tears, looks of disbelief and then shouts of excitement! We packed our bags, called an Uber, and boarded a plane bound for Orlando. NOTE: To any mommas following, please know that I had made sure all the laundry was done, house straight, and necessary items within reach.
Our children informed us that the experience was far better than a bunch of toys and knick-knacks. We loved our time together (and made it back to be with our families for Christmas!) and plan on doing it again and again, especially since we now know . . . I won’t say easily because we worked very hard . . . that $1 took a family of four to Disney.
For more information (and the BIG REVEAL video) please stayed posted . . . more details coming on our blog in May!
Here is the rundown of a few of our big Round Eleven wins:
Exercise Bike -$100 into $200 (From a friend!)
Grill – $40 into $93 (Purchased on Craig’s List)
Earth Quake Valve – $0.01 into $40 (Purchased at an online auction)
Thule Bike Rack – $15 into $140 (Purchased at an online auction)
Go Rhino Winch Tray – $18 into $200 (Purchased at an online auction)
Nintendo DS Lite – $10 into $45
Garmen GPS 12 – $15 into $80
Pentair Pool Filter – $90 into $500 ($200 to ship!) $250 net
**LESSONS FROM TDP – Determine whether or not your net will be profitable after shipping!
Husky Liners Aluminum Tail Gate – $45 into $300 (Online Auction)
Circo Rack – $30 into $200 (Online Auction)
Custom Made Vintage Conn Trombone* – $100 into $400 *Sold to a collector in France. *NOTE: We meet so many interesting people along the way; one of which was the former owner of the trombone. Most of the time, there is a bit of haggling involved to get a good price, but not always. Such is the case with Sonny Helmer. (Click HERE to read his story) We met Sonny at The Nashville Flea Market–one of our favorite end of the month hangouts. He sang songs to our kiddos, shared his stories, and said he was trying to get rid of a few things that had been hanging around. We don’t take advantage of people and have been known to occasionally make sellers aware of the real value of their underpriced item–most of the time, people just want to get rid of their stuff and don’t want to take the time to list and ship! With Sonny’s trombone, it was a shot in the dark . . . we could very well have gone in the red, but we were not going to ask him for less than he was offering. Jamie learned early on that music is money, so we took the risk–to help Sonny and maybe even ourselves. We were thrilled to learn its real value and even more excited that someone who had an appreciation for Sonny and his artform wanted to purchase his instrument. We have gone back to see Sonny on several occasions, but each time, his booth has been occupied by another. We hope to one day give back to Sonny and let him know his music has crossed the sea.
Until we complete another adventure . . .
