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Rob Scores and his wife, Julianne, had long had Puerto Rico on their dream vacation list. So when an opportunity to go there with their friends came up in February, they jumped at the chance.
However, because the trip was an impulse, they had to get creative to be able to cover the $5,000 it would cost. Although Scores says they would have taken the trip regardless, they wanted extra cash on hand to be able to get the most out of their trip — and avoid going into debt.
Their solution: Sell items they no longer needed.
“There were some things we had to do to come up with the money for it and part of it was selling some jewelry [Julianne] found when she was going through a jewelry box,” Scores tells CNBC Make It.
Here’s how they were able to make their dream vacation a reality.
Finding hidden treasure right in their home
The Austin, Texas-based couple lives well on a joint six-figure income. Julianne lost her full-time tech job in 2023, which made money a bit tighter, but they still feel comfortable managing their typical expenses, including some credit card debt and payments on a truck, Scores says. Julianne has been taking on freelance gigs while looking for full-time work.
Julianne also sold a house she owned in New York last year. She previously rented the home to a friend, Scores says. When the friend wanted to move out, Julianne decided she didn’t want to be a long-distance landlord and selling the home would be the best move.
The profit helped bolster the couple’s savings, allowed them to complete a bathroom renovation on their home in Austin and even let them consider going on vacation. They were able to save by splitting the cost of their Airbnb and rental car with their friends, but because Julianne works from home and Scores mainly travels within the contiguous U.S. for work, the couple wanted to experience the best of this new destination.
The contents of an old jewelry box helped ensure the trip wouldn’t break the bank.
“[Julianne] doesn’t tell me the budget, she tells me to start looking at stuff and she’ll let me know if it’s a go or no-go,” Scores says. “She says she found some jewelry that didn’t mean much to her or was from an ex and she was like, ‘I don’t know what to do with it.'”
The couple decided to try to sell the jewelry — some necklaces and earrings — Julianne has had since she was a teen, Scores says. After perusing reviews on Google, they decided to try their luck with TheAlloyMarket.com. To their surprise, the jewelry scored the couple $729 they could put toward their Puerto Rico trip.
‘You want to do something, you figure it out’
When it came to selling the jewelry, the couple had “no hesitation whatsoever,” Scores says.
“She was like, ‘I’m not gonna do anything with this … whatever we can get for it,’ and then we were surprised with what we got for it — I mean, the cost of gold isn’t exactly low right now.”
It’s true — the price of gold is up more than 12% year over year as of April. The couple’s profit didn’t cover their whole trip, but it did put a dent in the $5,000 total cost. Julianne handles the couple’s budget planning, Scores says, and knew they could comfortably manage the trip given their overall financial situation.
“Being an adult is the ultimate game of maneuvering money,” he says. “You want to do something, you figure it out and you put the plan in place to get there.”
The couple has a general savings fund, but Scores says they didn’t want to dip into it too much to pay for their trip. Selling the jewelry allowed them to meet that goal while still doing excursions in Puerto Rico such as snorkeling and off-roading.
The trip was well worth selling the jewelry, Scores says, and the buyer kept the process simple for them.
“It was super easy, and for stuff that was just laying around the house,” Scores says. “It helped supplement [and] make sure we could go on a vacation.”
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