You may have money you didn't know you had

First things first.  I don’t have a new item to sell or trade but I did find some money that I did not know was there.  And the cool thing is you may have some money you don’t know about as well.  A friend showed me a government web site that has unclaimed property being held by the state.  I figured, I’ll waste 10 minutes, go on it and find nothing.  Well, low and behold when I entered my information into the site, the state of Tennessee was holding $39 for me from some unknown source.  I quickly filled out the on-line claim form and the money is on its way to my mail box as I type.  While I was there, I also checked for my brother’s name and he had $250 from an old bank account for which he should pay me a finder’s fee for telling him about it… can you say half… (I’m not holding my breath) but I digress.

 Let me try to explain where the money comes from.  If a vender, utility company, insurance provider, or any number of other places owes you money i.e.:   an old utility deposit, possibly  you overpaid a bill or an old inactive bank account and they cannot track you down (or are too lazy to track you down) then they are required to send the money to the state.  The state then holds it in their unclaimed property account until you check out the site and claim it. 

I am all about folks getting their hard earned money back from the government so I went through my Facebook friends list and found hundreds if not thousands of dollars for my friends and family in five different states.  You can also enter business names to see if the state is holding anything for your business.  For example, I am friends with “The Dave Ramsey Show” on Facebook .  For those of you who don’t know who he is, he is a very well-known financial advisor on Radio and T.V.  Anyway, as I was going through my Facebook friends list, finding money, I came across him.  I thought it would be so hilarious if he had unclaimed money he did not know about.  Well, I searched his name, his wife’s name, his kid’s names…Nothing.  Then I entered his company name….and………wait for it……...bingo $150 of unclaimed cash for the King of cash (he hates credit)…Dave Ramsey.  I posted it on his FB and because he just so happens to live in the same town as I do, I may even drop by his broadcast studio to make sure he knows. 

Where do I go to find my unclaimed cash?  Glad you asked.  Here is what you do.  Just Google your state, department of treasury unclaimed property. Click on the site and it will have a place for you to enter your name.  The search engine will search the data base and voila,  bada bing- bada boom you may have money you didn’t know you had.  Fill out a claim form and wait by the mail box. 

Then, if your just so.. grateful that someone told you about this previously unknown windfall, feel free to donate a “portion” to  ‘’The Sky’s The Limit” My American Dream.  In the mean time I’ll be by my mail box holding my breath.
 Please comment below and let me know how much, if any, you find. 
Also I wanted to let the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assoc. know that they have unclaimed property on the Maryland dept of state treasury unclaimed property site.  Just search AOPA,   http://comptroller.marylandtaxes.com/Public_Services/Unclaimed_Property/Find_Your_Property/ 

Now We're Cookin' With Gas

This post is short but oh so sweet.  Someone in my neighborhood had a old gas grill they wanted to give away and posted a curb alert on our neighborhood web site.  I thought I could really use an extra propane tank for my grill so I went and picked it up.  It was really in pretty good shape.  It just needed cleaning up.  I removed the tank (half full of propane by the way).  The next day I saw another post on the hood web site..."need a grill for our college age son to take to school".  You guessed it, One quick call led to a sale.  That's what I'm talkin' about!  Now we're cookin' with gas! And a quick $20 closer to my dream airplane.

A light shining in the darkness

I work as a RN first assistant in Surgery and in that job I have seen the importance of a bright light in caring for Patients while performing surgery.  This brings me to my latest free item.  When the surgery center where I work upgraded their fiber optic headlights I asked if I could have one of the old ones.  When I was looking for someone to sell my new treasure to, I offered it to several of my Surgeon friends for use in their offices.

 For sale one fiber optic surgical head light $200. 

 

This world can be a very dark place at times.  When things get their darkest, we need a light to help us see our way and make things a little less scary.  This is a story of one of the brightest lights I have ever seen in surgery.  I am not speaking of the fiber optic variety but rather the doctor that bought my item.  Dr. Kristina O’Shaughnessy is that light.  She is a very talented young plastic surgeon who uses her skills and training to make women’s bodies whole following mastectomies.  There are a lot of skilled surgeons that do great work but what makes Dr. O’Shaughnessy stand out is her light. It shines from somewhere deep inside and lights the way for her patients that are lost in the dark world of Cancer.  She is extremely compassionate, empathetic, sensitive and always bending over backwards to help her patients.  She is always very encouraging, polite and attentive to the needs of her patients and appreciative of those that work with and for her.  I have almost never seen her without a smile on her face and a kind word on her lips.  I am so happy that I was able to add a small amount of light to the life of one who has added so much light to so many other lives. 

 Sold one fiber optic surgical head light $300.  Thank you Dr O’.  Shine on!

I have come up with another self imposed rule for my grand experiment.  For all deals in which I sell an Item for cash,  I will be paying it forward by tithing.  I will give 10% of all cash made through my deals to charity.  It could be to an individual in need, or an organization that is doing Gods work.  I hope to share with y'all where I give so everyone can share in the blessings.  So by way of updating my progress, I have $90 to deal with an $10 to give.

Scootin' Right Along...

Jackpot!!!  I not only found a free item to get the ball rolling on my quest for an airplane, I found two.  Like I have done many times in the past, I kept my eyes peeled during my weekly trip to the dump.  Apparently a guy was cleaning out his garage when he decided his kid’s two gas powered scooters were taking up too much room and he was ready to purge them from his life.  He left them sitting next to the dumpster for who ever wanted them.  Well…duh…I wanted them.  They were in pretty decent shape although they had a thick layer of dust that had accumulated on them from years of neglect and had obviously been through a spill or two in their time.  When I got home, I decided I needed to clean out my garage in order to make room to work on these “bad boys”.  That’s when the story gets even more exciting.  Not the cleaning part but what happened while we were emptying out the garage.  A couple of 12 year old boys rode up on their bikes and inquired about the scooters.  I told them that they would be for sale and just off the cuff I threw out a price of 50 bucks each.  They said they were interested.  I said if they could get their parents to call me and give their permission we would have a deal.  I figured that would be the last I would see of them and kept cleaning.  The next afternoon my doorbell rang and it was one of the boys.  He had fifty dollars cash wadded up in his hand and without saying much he handed me his cell phone. Although I detected some degree of reluctance in his voice The boy’s dad said it was ok for him to buy one.  Within 30 or 40 minutes the second boy and his dad arrived on my porch ready to purchase the second scooter.  With a handshake, he passed me a $50 check and took off.   Wow can you believe it?  One hundred dollars from what was “trash” just a little while earlier.  Only in America.   Well, I better scoot Off to find my next deal.

“If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done.”
― Thomas Jefferson

Not Too Proud to Dumpster Dive

I am keeping my eyes peeled for an item to launch my quest for the skies.  Remember it must be free.  I guess I will look in the dumpsters next time I take the trash to the convenience center (better known as the dump).  I have found some good stuff there in the past.  One time I found an oddly shaped guitar at the bottom of one of the dumpsters.  I quickly fished it out and threw it in the truck.  I figured I could always bring it back if it wasn’t worth anything.  Well, turns out it was a vintage Fender lap steel guitar from 1950’s. A lap steel guitar is the instrument that is used in traditional Hawaiian music.  Alas, it was not in working order.  However after researching it on the internet I found that many of it’s parts were in demand for guys that are restoring old Telecaster guitars from the same era. I listed it on eBay and sold it for $200.  Not bad for something I pulled out of the trash. Hold onto my feet.  I’m going in.