<$Tuesday, February 12, 2008$>
Better than it would have been a year ago...
| 60% Blog Quizzes at StructuredSettlement-Quotes.com It's not where I want to be, but it's better than it used to be. After the quiz I got a list of standard financial advice like paying off debt and setting major financial goals--which, working on it! Maybe if it's still around next year I'll go back and take the quiz again to see if my score improves. Meanwhile, I need to tear myself away from all of the other quizzes and get back to work. Labels: fun |
<$Monday, February 4, 2008$>
1-Spot Shopping
| It's no secret that I love Target. So much so that for the most part I had to stop shopping there, because every time I went I was overcome with temptation to spend money on things I don't really need. However, on occasion, if I want to treat myself, I'll let myself go in with $10 and go crazy in the 1-Spot. If you don't know what the 1-Spot is, it's the little section at the front of the store where they sell everything for a dollar. Well, it used to be everything for a dollar. They've changed it to "nothing over $2.50." Still, you can get some pretty great stuff there. During some of my 1-Spot Sprees I've scored the following:
...and much more. Most recently, I picked up this stuffed puppy dog that made a perfect topper for the diaper cake I made for my sister's baby shower. I saw a lot of other baby items there that day, too, but as I had already blown my budget shopping elsewhere, I left them alone. :( My husband has put a moratorium on my 1-Spot shopping, especially for household items, until after we move, saying we've got enough to pack as it is. Once we do move, though, I know where I'll go first for household odds & ends and small decorating touches. I love the 1-Spot, even more than the dollar store. What about you, dear reader? What kind of 1-Spot treasures have you scored? |
10 more shopping days to prove your love...
| I can't say I was all that surprised to see Valentine's Day displays spring up the day after Christmas, seeing as how this is one of the more consumer-driven holidays in our culture; which, as usual, pretty much misses the point. That is, if the point is to celebrate love and the people in your life, and not to try to quantify how much you love someone based on how much you're willing to spend on them. I was never a huge fan of Valentine's Day. I thought this would change after I met my husband, but we're still both pretty "meh" on the whole subject. We acknowledge it, and use it as an excuse to do something romantic, but (with the exception of last year, when I bought him a wedding band to replace the wedding ring that got lost on our honeymoon, and he took me out to an overpriced pub; but it was our first V-day as married people, so we can be excused) we don't go nuts with the spending. Our favorite Valentine's Day so far is the one after we became officially engaged, when I wrote him a love poem and printed it on a homemade, computer generated card, and he gave me a really sweet love letter. Neither cost a cent (unless you tally up the cost of ink and paper), but nevertheless we were both moved to tears by the mutual gesture. That's why this year I plan to try to top that by sitting down and handwriting a love letter to my husband. If you're like me and you think putting time and energy into your Valentine means more than the money you put into it, then these links might be for you:
One thing I'd ad to that last list: make a night of snuggling on the couch and watching her favorite romantic movies. If my husband would do this instead of grumbling about having to watch chick flicks and then finding something else to go do halfway through the movie, I'd be thrilled. It's one night, guys. It won't kill you. And it's a great way to get her in a mood for romance after the movie's over (If you want to surprise her and you don't know what her favorite movie is, a good bet is anything starring Drew Barrymore that does NOT have "Charlie's" or "Angels" in the title). |
<$Wednesday, October 31, 2007$>
Happy Halloween!
| We're doing pretty well as far as having a frugal Halloween goes. With all of the health stuff going on I got distracted and totally forgot about trying to put together a costume until it was too late, so that took care of any spending in that department. We don't have to worry about any kids knocking on our door tonight, either, so the only candy we had to buy was to satisfy our own collective sweet tooth. We've got plenty of scary DVDs and popcorn on hand to get us through the night without requiring us to spend a dime. This is probably the most cost-free Halloween I've ever had, but I have no complaints. I'm looking forward to cuddling up to my sweetie on the couch while we munch popcorn and watch some spooky classics in the dark. It's a happy Halloween. I hope yours is, too. If your looking for some free, spooky entertainment to get you through the night, here's a collection of Halloween-related videos and podcasts. Settle in, turn the lights out, grab some candy and enjoy. I love Halloween. Labels: fun |
<$Friday, September 14, 2007$>
Of course, Buffy was anything BUT frugal with all those leather pants...
| If you read me over at Sparkle Motion, then you know I'm a huge Buffy fan. So when I come across an article titled 11 Things Buffy Taught Me About Frugality And Simplicity, I've got to give a shout-out, natch. |
<$Wednesday, September 5, 2007$>
Tiny Dog Threads
| So one of the secret things I've alluded to in recent weeks has achieved reality and doesn't need to be a secret anymore. I just made over my Etsy shop and added Tiny Dog Threads, hipster fashions for tiny dogs. I only have two designs up right now (pictured over in the sidebar): the Jolly Roger sweater and a Union Jack coat; but I'm working on more. These are customizable and made to order. I figure I can handle two a week at my current schedule. I don't expect them to sell like hotcakes, but I know from experience that it's hard to find sweaters for teeny, tiny dogs that fit properly and aren't too frou-frou, so I expect them to do better than my stitch markers have, at least. Proceeds, minus the cost of materials, will of course be added to the debt reduction kitty. Coming soon: jack-o-lantern purses! And possibly jack-o-lantern tiny dog sweaters, come to think of it.... Labels: extra income, fun, pets, self-promotion |
<$Monday, July 9, 2007$>
Frugal Knitting: Yarn Bargains Can Lead To Great Gifts
| First things first: my post on Financial Housecleaning made the list in this week's Carnival of Personal Finance, hosted this week by Broke-Ass Student. ~~~ Over at Get Rich Slowly, Mrs. J.D. guest-blogged about How To Escape the Gift Trap and listed several solutions for the gift-giver on a budget. This topic has a lot of relevance for me right now, because I'm working on planning out my gift list and budget for the rest of the year. Yes, I'm planning my Christmas list in July. No, I'm not really one of those people--at least, not typically. But my solution to coming up with gifts that fit my budget that my giftees actually appreciate (or at least claim to...) is to knit for them. It doesn't always save money--knitting can be a pretty expensive hobby. It does, however, allow me to enjoy one of my favorite pastimes while creating something beautiful for someone else's lasting enjoyment. Although, that doesn't mean I can't do that and save money. By shopping around, I can find bargains on yarn, tools and notions that allow me to work with quality materials on a Red Heart budget. Today, for instance, I needed to shop for materials for a sweater I'm planning to knit for my sister. If I simply bought the luxe yarn specified in the pattern, at $8.95 a ball, the sweater would end up costing me over $160! I love my sister, but, as if! Instead, I did a little shopping around and found a comparable yarn for only $2.49 per ball, which will bring the total sweater cost (minus notions) to just under $45. Still more than I would normally spend on my sister (or she on me), but like I said, it also feeds my habit, and this particular birthday gift doubles as a congratulatory new baby present as well. I still get to work with a high-quality yarn, and better still, my choice is machine washable, which I know will mean much, much more to my sister than the brand name of the yarn. What second-time-mommies have time to hand wash their delicate fabrics, anyway? Of course, considering it took me about four months to knit my husband's Christmas sweater (which I naively waited until October to begin), and considering I've still got a whole list of Christmas knitting to do once this sweater's out of the way, I'd better get started. In July. But at least I won't get caught in the middle of the Christmas rush this year. Do you have any hobbies that can double as gifting alternatives? If so, I'd love to hear about them in the comments. |
<$Monday, July 2, 2007$>
Carnival Time! Also, Eight Things.
| I love it when other people provide me with content, thus saving me from having to gear up my brain and think too hard on a Monday morning. First up, let me point you to the 107th Carnival of Personal Finance, hosted this week by Blogging Away Debt, and which includes my post from last week about pet health. It also includes much more in the way of personal finance goodness, including this highly relatable article on money anxiety at My Money and My Life. Eight Things Secondly, I've been tagged! Weirdgrrl over at Things That Make You Go Huh? has tagged me for that Eight Things meme. This one is going to actually require some brain power, which, being that it's still before noon on Monday, is going to prove a challenge; but let me give it a whirl. The Rules: "Each person posts the rules before their list, then they list 8 things about themselves. At the end of the post, that person tags and links to 8 other people and then visits those peoples' sites and comments letting them know that they have been tagged, and to come read the post, so they know what they have to do." There you have it. And here are eight things about me: 1. I have a bachelor's degree in social science, with an emphasis on psychology. I like to bring this up from time to time, since this degree has not a blessed thing to do with either my current job or with my future ambitions, and people tend to not realize that I actually got myself a colluj ejumacayshun. 2. I played the saxophone for about 15 years, starting in grade school and continuing well past high school, and by the end of that time had gotten pretty good at it. Then about ten years ago a spring on my sax broke and, not being able to afford to either repair or replace it, I put it away and haven't played since. I still hope to get it fixed and start playing again one day. 3. Meanwhile, I'm learning to play the guitar. I'm still new and not very good at it, but I can strum a pretty mean Kumbayah. 4. I originally majored in journalism. One semester in this major helped me figure out I'd rather make stuff up than report the bare facts, so I switched to English. After a couple of frustrating semesters of not being able to handle the reading lists (this was before I even knew I had ADD, let alone how to manage it), I dropped out entirely and didn't go back to school until I was twenty-eight, when I started working on that previously mentioned psych/soc degree. I still minored in English, though. 5. I married my first boyfriend. This doesn't seem all that unusual until I point out that I didn't meet him until I was thirty-one. 6. I once wrote an entire original (by which I mean not fan fiction) novel. It wasn't very good, but it was novel-length, and I finished it. This is helpful to remember when finishing my current novel begins to feel like an impossible feat. I did it once, and by God, I can do it again. 7. I once worked a temp gig as a production assistant behind the scenes at a teen beauty pageant. I will never do such a thing again, ever. 8. I spend an embarrassing amount of time secretly obsessing over whether people would still appear shocked when I reveal my age and insist that I look ten years younger if I stopped coloring my hair, or whether I could pass off all of those white hairs as highlights. And now you know my secret shame. Now it would seem I have to tag somebody. Normally, I would cop out and just say feel free to consider yourself tagged if that's your thing, but it occurs to me that this is an opportunity to spread some linky-love, so if I've linked you below, consider yourself tagged: Bad Kitty A Cowboy's Wife Broke As a Spoke C.Whyte's Blog And that's lunch. Labels: finance+blogs, fun, personal, random |