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Home > Archive: January, 2014

Archive for January, 2014

Consignment Books and Coupons

February 1st, 2014 at 01:13 am

I was planning on staying home today. I have laundry to do, some work for the week to finish up, and I want to list some things on Craigslist. I thought if I did go out, it would be to the used bookstore to drop off some books for store credit. But Dads called so I went out with him, and grabbed a $20 on my way out the door. I'm not letting myself use my debit card for "fun" money anymore.

Afterward Dads and I had lunch, I stopped by a consignment shop and dropped off a painting. The man who owns the shop agreed to take it for me and priced it at $30, of which if it sells I'll get $20 back. Yay! I also bought two books there; one for myself and another one that is a rare one I can resell online for anywhere from $20 - $50. Total for the 2 books: $5

All was going good, until I stopped to put gas in the car and put more air in my always-low tired. I get my check next week, and I need an oil change, so I was planning in getting the tired checked then. But when I put air in it, the valve started to snap off in my hand. So I detoured back to the mechanic to have him replace the valve. Usually they're only a couple bucks. But my car has the fancy one's with the sensor's on them and it cost me $154.87! Ugh! After it was fixed, I found out I don't HAVE to have the ones with the sensors installed. Next time I'll just go with the cheap $5 one instead.

Earlier in the day, I had decided that since I was going out, I'm stop at Walgreen's. I needed to pick up moisturizer for my skin, and I had a coupon for one that is also a concealer. The coupon expired in two days, and Walgreen's was having a sale, so it was good timing. I stopped there on the way home, and picked that up, along with some snacks for the house (bad, bad decision). Good news was that I also had enough points on my Walgreen's card to get a $5 coupon off my purchase. I spent $13.45 at Walgreen's.
The $1.55 I have left over will go into my savings jar Smile

So even though I had to spend $155 on my car, I was able to keep my "fun" money to under $20. Yay!


2014 Car Costs: $154.87

Sorting Clothes

January 31st, 2014 at 12:59 am

In the last almost 2 years I've lost about 100 pounds, so I've gone through a lot of clothes. It's been a while since I've sorted through some of them to see what fits and what I've grown (shrunk?) out of. I tackled some of them today (though not as much as I would have liked), and ended up with about 10 pairs of jeans. Some are in like new condition (I only wore some of them a few times, *sigh* the waste!) so I'm going to list those on craigslist tomorrow. Others are a little more worn; I tend to buy jeans that are too long for my short little legs and wear them long so the bottoms get frayed. Going to drop those off at Saver's this week.

I also have a couple of skirts, a dress, and a nice suit jacket with matching purse that are in good condition. The dresses even has the tags still on it. So they will go on craigslist, too. I have to fix some hems on the skirts first - they are coming undone form general wear, but it shouldn't be too hard.

Of course, this is the plan for tomorrow. I have severe depression, in addition to SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) so all my well intentioned plans could be railroaded like they were today. I'm hoping putting my intentions out here will help keep me motivated and accountable. Smile

My Theme of 2014: Downsizing

January 28th, 2014 at 06:40 pm

I don't make resolutions. A friend of mine came up with the idea years ago instead of creating a theme for each year. My 2014 Theme is Downsizing. I'm focusing on downsizing my spending, and downsizing my weight. A post I just read on 's blog got me thinking. Why not downsize my possessions and clutter, too? If I can buy only what I need (with a little splurge now and then) why can't I own only what I need (with a little splurge now and then)?

As I said in the comments: Last year I moved from a three bedroom, double living room, dining room, and storage room apartment to a one bedroom, one living room, no dining room apt. I got rid of A LOT of things, but I STILL have way too much for my space space. I've been slowly (too slowly, lol) working my way through boxes and piled of things in an attempt to have only what I need, use, and what fits in my house. Do I need four sets of bed sheets? No, I live alone and 2 is plenty - one to use and another to use when the first set in in the wash. Have I gotten rid of the extra sets yet? Nope.

Thing is, I really need to focus on getting rid of all these extras, especially since I don't use or need them, and all they do is take up valuable space in my home. It makes my place messy and cluttered and feel very unwelcome to guests. I think this may be part of my theme of 2014 of Downsizing.

Thanks Toilet-Paper-Tracker for the post

Text is How Much Stuff Should You Own and Link is http://toiletpapertracker.savingadvice.com/2014/01/01/how-much-stuff-should-you-own_106439/#comments
How Much Stuff Should You Own.

52 Week Money Saving Challenge

January 28th, 2014 at 06:11 pm

I found this on Pinterest, and I love the idea of it. I don't think I'll be able to keep up with it, since the later in the year it gets to be, the larger amount you end up having to save each month, and I'm stretched pretty think already. But I can started it and I wanted to share it. I may just repeat month one over and over again, which works out to $10 a month. We'll see.



Since I started it the first week of January, I've already completed weeks 1-4. Which means I've got $10 added into my Savings.

Old Savings Balance: $21
Added: $10
New Savings Balance: $31

Spare Change

January 28th, 2014 at 06:02 pm

At the beginning of the year (and any other time I think I have enough to do so) I love rolling up my spare change and cashing it in at the bank. I'm not an organized or neat person, but something about the sorting of pennies, dimes, nickles, and quarters, then counting them out and rolling them up relaxes me. maybe it's because I know I'm getting "real" money back when I'm done.

At any rate, I just finished rolling up all the change in my piggy bank that I had thrown in there last year. I came out with $15 in quarters (they were nice enough at the bank to let me give them $5 in loose quarters), $5 in dimes and $1 in pennies. I was short 3 nickles, damn it, lol

But that still gave me a nice start to my savings: $21

Old Saving Balance: $0
Added: $21
New Saving Balance: $21