A lot of people are getting stuck on my “hourly wage,” so let me break down 2 hours of my morning into micro actions to show you how I actually operate.
I drove 24 miles round trip, about 40 minutes total, and spent roughly 1 hour and 30 minutes at the flea market.
I also account for my qualifying business mileage. At the 2026 standard mileage rate of 72.5¢ per mile, 24 miles works out to $17.40 of mileage expense for accounting purposes.
Here’s what happened during that workflow:
I bought 5 pairs of North Face and Sorel boots for $25 total. Conservatively, I’m estimating about $100 potential profit.
I bought a Geoffrey Beene 2-piece suit for $1. Conservatively, another $50 potential profit.
I bought 10 pairs of jeans for $10. Depending on where I sell them, I’m estimating another $50-$100 potential profit.
So there’s already roughly $200-$250 in conservative potential resale profit sourced.
But none of it has paid me yet.
I also sourced more clothing for Plato’s Closet. Payout TBD.
I picked up clothing vendors were throwing away for FREE, and bought a few $10 bags of clothing that I haven’t even sorted yet.
I also got the phone numbers of 2 more vendors who do house cleanouts. Those relationships haven’t paid me anything yet either, but they could create future sourcing opportunities.
Then I did my grocery shopping.
I’m getting blueberries, strawberries and blackberries for around $1 per container.
Even using a conservative $4 Aldi comparison, four containers saves me about $12. Comparable larger containers at BJ’s can be around $6.99, so the savings could be considerably higher.
And this is another reason I document what I’m doing.
I like creating value for other people.
I’m hoping some people who live locally see this post and realize they can come here and save themselves a bunch of money on fresh produce too.
You don’t have to be a reseller to be thrifty.
Money you don’t have to spend is money you get to keep.
So here’s another question for everyone calculating my hourly wage:
Should I add the money I saved on groceries into my hourly wage too?
Or was I supposed to clock out while I bought the blueberries?
I didn’t make a separate trip to grocery shop. I stacked it onto the same trip.
So does the money I saved buying groceries during those same 2 hours get added to my “hourly wage” too?
How exactly are we calculating this?
Then I found 50 POUNDS OF CARROTS FOR $5!
Those aren’t even for my reselling business.
They’re being sourced for another business my fiancée is building from the ground up, Healing Horses Healing People.
Now I’m sourcing for multiple businesses during the same trip.
Do I clock out of one business and clock into the other while I buy the carrots?
This is what I mean by stacking workflows and habit stacking.
During the same trip I sourced for multiple businesses, grocery shopped, saved money, acquired free inventory, developed new vendor relationships and documented what I was doing.
That content creates engagement, grows my audience, hopefully creates value for the people reading it and generates monetization.
That monetization hasn’t paid me yet either.
I even called ahead to Kate & Al’s so my pizza was ready on the way through.
All of this happened in roughly 2 hours.
So what was my hourly wage?
I don’t know yet.
The boots haven’t sold.
The suit hasn’t sold.
The jeans haven’t sold.
Plato’s hasn’t paid me.
The bags aren’t sorted.
The content monetization hasn’t paid me.
And those new business relationships haven’t produced anything yet.
The clock stopped on the trip. The workflow didn’t.
That’s how I answer the “hourly wage” question.
I can tell you what I spent, how far I drove and how much time it took.
But when I stack multiple businesses, grocery shopping, savings, sourcing, relationships and content creation into the same block of time, isolating one transaction doesn’t show the whole picture.
The math might be right. The equation is wrong if you’re only looking at one piece of it.
Some of the value created during those 2 hours could still be paying me weeks or months from now.
So now that you can see the whole workflow instead of just one transaction…
Were those 2 hours worth it to you? And what would YOU say my hourly wage was?
I drove 24 miles round trip, about 40 minutes total, and spent roughly 1 hour and 30 minutes at the flea market.
I also account for my qualifying business mileage. At the 2026 standard mileage rate of 72.5¢ per mile, 24 miles works out to $17.40 of mileage expense for accounting purposes.
Here’s what happened during that workflow:
I bought 5 pairs of North Face and Sorel boots for $25 total. Conservatively, I’m estimating about $100 potential profit.
I bought a Geoffrey Beene 2-piece suit for $1. Conservatively, another $50 potential profit.
I bought 10 pairs of jeans for $10. Depending on where I sell them, I’m estimating another $50-$100 potential profit.
So there’s already roughly $200-$250 in conservative potential resale profit sourced.
But none of it has paid me yet.
I also sourced more clothing for Plato’s Closet. Payout TBD.
I picked up clothing vendors were throwing away for FREE, and bought a few $10 bags of clothing that I haven’t even sorted yet.
I also got the phone numbers of 2 more vendors who do house cleanouts. Those relationships haven’t paid me anything yet either, but they could create future sourcing opportunities.
Then I did my grocery shopping.
I’m getting blueberries, strawberries and blackberries for around $1 per container.
Even using a conservative $4 Aldi comparison, four containers saves me about $12. Comparable larger containers at BJ’s can be around $6.99, so the savings could be considerably higher.
And this is another reason I document what I’m doing.
I like creating value for other people.
I’m hoping some people who live locally see this post and realize they can come here and save themselves a bunch of money on fresh produce too.
You don’t have to be a reseller to be thrifty.
Money you don’t have to spend is money you get to keep.
So here’s another question for everyone calculating my hourly wage:
Should I add the money I saved on groceries into my hourly wage too?
Or was I supposed to clock out while I bought the blueberries?
I didn’t make a separate trip to grocery shop. I stacked it onto the same trip.
So does the money I saved buying groceries during those same 2 hours get added to my “hourly wage” too?
How exactly are we calculating this?
Then I found 50 POUNDS OF CARROTS FOR $5!
Those aren’t even for my reselling business.
They’re being sourced for another business my fiancée is building from the ground up, Healing Horses Healing People.
Now I’m sourcing for multiple businesses during the same trip.
Do I clock out of one business and clock into the other while I buy the carrots?
This is what I mean by stacking workflows and habit stacking.
During the same trip I sourced for multiple businesses, grocery shopped, saved money, acquired free inventory, developed new vendor relationships and documented what I was doing.
That content creates engagement, grows my audience, hopefully creates value for the people reading it and generates monetization.
That monetization hasn’t paid me yet either.
I even called ahead to Kate & Al’s so my pizza was ready on the way through.
All of this happened in roughly 2 hours.
So what was my hourly wage?
I don’t know yet.
The boots haven’t sold.
The suit hasn’t sold.
The jeans haven’t sold.
Plato’s hasn’t paid me.
The bags aren’t sorted.
The content monetization hasn’t paid me.
And those new business relationships haven’t produced anything yet.
The clock stopped on the trip. The workflow didn’t.
That’s how I answer the “hourly wage” question.
I can tell you what I spent, how far I drove and how much time it took.
But when I stack multiple businesses, grocery shopping, savings, sourcing, relationships and content creation into the same block of time, isolating one transaction doesn’t show the whole picture.
The math might be right. The equation is wrong if you’re only looking at one piece of it.
Some of the value created during those 2 hours could still be paying me weeks or months from now.
So now that you can see the whole workflow instead of just one transaction…
Were those 2 hours worth it to you? And what would YOU say my hourly wage was?