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Showing posts from February, 2014

De-Clutter and Profit!

We finally got around to going through our CDs and DVDs and took them to the pawn shop for fun and profit. Partner made $240 and I made $60. He had a lot more than I did, since I de-cluttered in 2005 before heading to Thailand, in 2008 when my basement was leaking and no good for storage, and again in 2011 when I was readying to house-sit for the summer. As well, as I joked with the store people, most of my CDs were second-hand to begin with, and I was selling them back third-hand. Partner had a few video games and Blu-Rays, things I never bothered to purchase in the first place. Bean and I were still watching hand-me-down videotapes when we met Partner in 2011! Now we live in a house with a Playstation (which plays Blu-Rays), a new Smart TV, three laptops, several tablets, a DVD player, a VCR, and my old combo DVD/VCR player. Partner insisted on subscribing to a television service, and the compromise was satellite, but after about six months I managed to convince him that we were pa

House Rules

Each year I come up with a personal spending rule for myself, and my partner and I come up with a house rule. Last year my personal rule was to buy no new clothes. I am permitted new underwear and footwear (hopefully only on a replacement basis: one-in, one-out rule), but shirts, sweaters, skirts, dresses, pants, jeans, coats and jackets, are purchased second-hand only. I can't recall if I followed my personal rule perfectly in 2013, but I might have come very close, especially since a co-worker went on a few closet purges of her own and I became the lucky recipient! Prior personal rules were to cut out daily take-out coffee and limit take-out lunches. I did succeed with those, and now find the same $20 bill in my wallet for weeks. I now bring snacks and leftovers from home and use the department coffee maker each morning when I get in to the office. Our house rule for the first year of co-habitation was "no more Wal-mart." This rule became especially important to u

Saving and Spending

So far in 2014 I have saved $1000. Go me! I have spent a little bit too: - a trip to Build-A-Bear with Bean (I gave him $40 in gift cards for xmas, and I had around $40 left over from January budgeting, so I let him pick a few extra things for his cute cute rainbow bear); - a trip to Sephora for me ($55 on a new foundation, plus another $60 on an exfoliant, from which I will use house-funds, and share the tube with my partner - see what I did there?); - and a trip to the Shoe Company for a pair of Pods (fake Bogs) which were 30% off and another $10 off when I used up my points with them (total was about $55 - but I used a credit card where the payment will not be due till end of Feb, thus using March funds - see what I did there?). I'm not paid to endorse any of the above shops. I have doubled my student loan payments in the hopes of having the bulk of them paid off in five years. I am still saving for a mortgage down payment, but I am getting discouraged by what is on t