Tinka and Boosha (that’s what their grandbabies call them) are second market shopping specialists. (For a definition of second market shopping, see the tab to your left). They each have decades of experience buying and selling on the second market, from baby clothes to office wear, from furniture to glass ware, antique books and collectibles, and many other necessary and luxury items.
Tinka: I had three children in one year — a little boy and twins in the same year, which is very rare, in itself. I raised them since they were 18 months old. I never went on welfare; I never accepted money from the government. My children always ate, and they always had decent clothes. I am not saying they had the best, but they always had clean clothes, that looked good on them. You can accomplish this too.
I used to go behind the grocery store in the dumpster and dig out stuff that went out of code. The produce manager saw me doing this and said, “What are you doing?” I said, “This is how I feed my children.” He said to me, “But you don’t have to dig in the dumpster!” and I said, “Yes I do, if I want them to have milk and vegetables, I have to dig in the dumpster.” He says, “No you don’t,” he said, “I will put it in a box and leave it by the back door if you tell me what time you’re coming.” And I used to pick it up. Everyday I would go by and pick up the groceries and the milk, and take it home to my children.
I have seen hard times. I know what hard times are, and I am very very blessed right now that I don’t have that. I just re-married to a wonderful man and my life is very very easy now. But if you’re just starting out, I know how difficult it is for anyone today who is trying to create something out of nothing, especially if you have small children. This is why we decided to make a video, because anybody can do this. You don’t need a college education; you don’t even need a high school education. You just have to have a little common sense.
Boosha: I also had three children, only I didn’t have them all in the same year, mine were spaced about a year, a year and a half apart. And I became divorced after the last one was born, and had to support and raise these children on my own.
I had to re-do clothes for the children — started out with a pair of blue jeans that the oldest child wore. When the knees wore out of it and the last child finally got them, my youngest one who is the third child, I had already patched the knees and done a decorative stitching on it and everyone that saw the pants thought that I had bought them at a cute little shop somewhere and had paid a lot of money for them. They didn’t realize I had patched them and made them look really cute.
I was fortunate enough to be living in an area where there were a lot of farmers. So, I would have people call me and they would say “there are cucumbers that are going to rot on the vine, you need to come get them.” And I would put up bottles, and jars, and cans of cucumbers; I would make pickles. And people would call me and say “come and get tomatoes, they are falling off and rotting on the ground.” And I would go pick tomatoes. And when strawberries came in I would pick strawberries. And I bought a large freezer, a chest-type freezer, and my children always had frozen strawberries, canned peaches, I would can green beans, tomatoes, and a very good friend of mine every year, they would slaughter a cow, and they would put the cow in their freezer, and the cow they had left over from the year before, they would graciously give it to me and I would put it in my freezer.
So I always had meat, because of the kindness of someone else giving it to me, because I was on welfare and food stamps until I went back to school and got a college education with a government-funded grant. That was how I raised my children, by being able to go back to school.
In the last 5 years I have again been on my own, and my best buddy in the whole world is my standard poodle, Mojo. He sleeps on the floor right next to my bed. He is a big wuss, but he is a nice big dog, and he usually likes to be a camera hog so you will see him running in and out of shots in the video. He’s not very photogenic, but very lovable and very very loyal.
Vivienne: Join us as Tinka and Boosha share their vast experience and common sense, their grandmotherly wisdom and their sense of humor, all to help you save as much money as possible in these difficult economic times. They will even give you tips on how you can MAKE money re-selling treasures you find! Travel along with Tinka and Boosha, and find out not just how to survive, but how to thrive on the tightest of budgets.
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