Link Roundup--Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day! Here's some random links from the web...

• 28 of the Worst Money Saving Ideas Ever
• 30 Ways to Live a Life of Excellence
• 11 Natural Remedies for Treating Mosquito Bites
• Backyard Gardens Become Income Generators in Lean Times
• Find Your Spot (Best Place to Live)
• Wolfram Alpha Computational Knowledge Engine
• 100+ Websites to Download All Sorts of Things
• Awesome Senior Class Post-it Prank
• 27 Reasons Why You Should Never Have a Job
• Bizarre Websites on Which You Can Kill Time With Style

Chicago Challenge: Part 2

Here's a run down on the rest of our trip to Chicago...and a picture of a bear at the Lincoln Park Zoo.

Day 4 (Thursday): $29.46 spent

• I did have to do some work during the trip, so most of today was spent in conference sessions. Generally at these events, they load us up with food. Breakfast was free!


• A plate lunch was offered which would have been free but I wanted to eat lunch with hubby so we went across the river from our hotel to what looked like a hole in the wall restaurant and found what was actually a huge food court. I had some luscious Mediterranean food at the Olive Mediterranean Grill and hubby had Popeye's chicken. Cost for both of us was $11.45.


• I grabbed a bag of donut holes at Dunkin Donuts on the way back to the conference at a cost of $1.10 (the guy at the counter remembered me and he actually gave me double the amount that I was supposed to receive!).


• Our CTA pass was going to expire this afternoon so we hopped on the L and took a run over to the Chicago Public Library. This is a beautiful, huge library with interesting architecture and, of course, lots to read at a cost of FREE.


• Dinner was some amazingly heart-attack-on-a-plate delicious soul food at Ronny's Original Chicago Steak House which was a few blocks from our hotel. I had kind of given up getting any sort of soul food because I thought we would have to go to the South side of Chicago and we just didn't have time. Fortunately we looked into this cafeteria-style restaurant, saw that it was packed with people, and, following our cardinal rule of restaurant finding, decided to go in. The food was great! Cost for two was a mere $10.24 (including a T bone steak dinner for hubby!).


• After a very big meal, we decided to get some exercise by walking around the downtown area. They have just about every type of store you could ever want to find here! We did a lot of window shopping and I had to gush over the Jimmy Choo shoes and some beautiful Louboutin heels (Nordstrons has the most AMAZING shoe section) but at nearly $900 per pair...well I didn't actually buy anything because paying off our debt is way more important than a pair of shoes (the opposite of what I would have though just a few short years ago).


• We picked up some more steamed buns at WowBao for a late night snack for $6.67.

Day 5 (Friday): $38.20 spent

• On our final day in Chicago I had breakfast free at the conference then cut out early to make our flight back home.


• We picked up a six-pack of WowBaos to take with us to eat on the plane later at a cost of $9.65.


• Since our metro pass was expired, we paid the one way fare to O'Hare which cost $4.50 for both of us. We got to the airport and found that not only was the flight later than I thought (um, remind me to actually check the tickets instead of trying to remember a reservation I made months ago), and that the flight was out of a DIFFERENT AIRPORT! As panic set in I considered our options...changing our tickets to fly out of O'Hare instead of Midway would cost $500(!)...um, no. A taxi would cost about $45. We decided to race across town...well race as fast as the "L" would go...in order to get to the Midway Airport.


• So we paid another fare of $5 for both of us to ride the "L" back into the city then transfer to another train to take us Midway. Fortunately we arrived with time to spare.


• Our plane was delayed for over an hour and a half so we missed our connecting flight. Fortunately we were able to catch a flight that left a couple hours later.


• Hubby had a hot dog at the airport for $5...which seems like a lot for a hot dog. Which is why we almost always pack food with us when we travel on airplanes. But we didn't plan to be traveling for nearly 10 hours.

We made it back home and I am happy to report that the total we spent for the entire five day trip was $195.84!! Over one hundred dollars less than we planned to spend!!

Actually holding to a tight budget for a vacation was something I had never really considered (we usually just spend then sort out the bills later). Thanks to the idea inspired by Young Mogul, hubby said this was one of the best vacations he had been on because we were continually challenging ourselves to find interesting free things to do, decent food at rock bottom prices, and we were more open to random inspirations (like giving our leftovers that we might otherwise have thrown away to the homeless guy that sits on the Dearborn Street bridge every morning...like following groups of school kids around the zoo and being more amused by them than the animals...like looking at contemporary art when we don't even like contemporary art but it was free entertainment). We saved lots of money (hmm...the $355 per diem check will way more than cover our expenses), spent cash only, and were entertained in ways that were heavy on the "fun and adventure" and light on the spending. Most of the people that I knew at the conference must have spent well over $2000 each...they went shopping daily, went to a game at Wrigley Field, did a dinner cruise, and and hit all of the hot bars in the city. Hubby asked if I missed that sort of thing which is something we would have joined in with a few years ago, but I really didn't. Either did he.

Chicago Travel Challenge: Part 1

I was reading the Mogul in Training blog and she had done a challenge to spend only a certain amount on her last vacation. I have never really had a budget for a vacation before so I thought I would give it a try.
This week the hubby and I are in Chicago because I am attending a conference for work. A couple of days before we left, I sold a desk which I had on CraigsList (part of my $1500 challenge) however I had already reached the $1500 so didn't need the funds for that challenge so I thought I would take the $300 and see if we could keep our spending for five days to $300 or less for both of us. A few things are working in our favor, namely the five star hotel we are staying in is paid for by a client (rant about these kinds of hotels below), airfare was also paid, we long ago got over buying souvenir trinkets, and, since we only travel with one carry on bag each, it is really hard to buy much because we would have no way to get the excess stuff back home. I did a bit of research before we left to find out what (really cheap, preferably free) things there are to do in Chicago and was able to develop quite a list. Here's how our money has been spent so far:

Day 1 (Monday): $56 spent

• Two three-day CTA (bus/subway) passes $28 for both. This is one of THE BEST investments we made for our trip. With this pass, you can use any bus or subway for an unlimited amount of trips for 72 hours. We have been literally all over Chicago using these passes so this already saved us a bunch of money (and hassle) over using a rental car.
• Dunkin Donuts, $2. This is my favorite donut place and we don't have this on the West Coast so a necessary splurge.
• $4 for a two litres of pop and bottled water for the hotel room. Using the mini-bar is insane because the prices are so high so we go to the local corner store and buy beverages for the room at a fraction of the price.
• KenKee Restaurant, $22 for both of us. We went to Chinatown and looked into the windows of restaurants until we found one packed with local Chinese people. This is a sure-fire way to find a good restaurant because if all of the locals eat there, it is pretty much guaranteed that they have good food and good prices. We weren't disappointed--the food was excellent!

Day 2 (Tuesday): $25.55 spent

• We headed to REI because they had a big sale and this could have been a budget buster but I couldn't find anything I really needed so we just looked but didn't buy. Free.
• Next we hopped on the subway to Greektown and went to Mr Greek Gyros for lunch (another place packed to the gills with people during lunch). $14 bought us a huge helping of rib tips and rice and a huge gyro and fries. Excellent food, huge portions, and great prices!
• I gave $1 to a guy who was singing and playing his guitar in the subway. A good price to pay for 10 minutes of good entertainment.
• We then hopped on the subway again and went to window shop at the Magnificent Mile--Macy's, Saks, and dozens of other stores that are incredibly expensive. Bought nothing so this cost 0.
• The Museum of Contemporary Art was right down the street from the Magnificent Mile and it was FREE today. We wandered around in a nice air conditioned gallery and checked out the (decidedly odd in my opinion) artwork.
• Across the street was the Northwestern School of Law. I wanted a sweatshirt from the school but we didn't feel like walking to the other end of the campus in the heat so this stop cost nothing.
• A Starbucks stop cost $5.35 for both of us.
• We discovered WowBao which produces great Asian buns in this same area. $3 for two buns.
• We finished up with a lite dinner at The Dog Joint in Lincoln Park (we had headed over to the zoo but it was closed), so dinner cost $5.20 for both of us (a hot dog for hubby and a hot dog with all the fixins, hold the hot dog, for me).
• Leftovers from earlier today was the perfect late night snack for hubby, cost, free.
• A beautiful fireworks show provided evening entertainment for about 30 minutes and it was right outside out hotel window in the middle of the river so we didn't even have to leave our room to watch it! Free!

Day 3 (Wednesday): $46.63 spent

• We hit the subway early this morning so we could be at the Lincoln Park Zoo when it opened. Apparently every other school kid in Chicago did the same--I have never seen so many kids in one place at one time! The zoo was great--clean and lots of animals to look at and photograph. Best of all, this attraction was FREE!
• Lunch was in Chinatown where we broke our cardinal rule of restaurant finding and went to a restaurant that had no people in it. The food wasn't all that great unfortunately. $15 for two lunches that were only so-so.
• $1 went to a lady who was singing in the subway--she had a beautiful voice! Here name is Miss Flow she has a website.
• $4 for a Starbucks during a break at the conference I was attending (bad habit, I know).
• After looking over the entirety of Greektown for a place for dinner, the only restaurant that was packed was Mr Greek's so we went here again--a spanokopita dinner complete with rice, salad, and bread and a pork chop dinner for hubby cost $15.10 for both of us.
• $1.10 for Dunkin Donuts (again) to bring back to the room for dessert.
• $10.43 for a six pack of bao from WowBao which will be a late night snack.

And a short rant: I pretty much detest 5-star hotels, even when someone else is paying for it. Give me a nice Comfort Inn type hotel any day. At least with a mid-range hotels like a Comfort Inn or Quality Inn, they include free wi-fi, free exercise room, free parking, free pool, and even free breakfast! Most 5-star hotels, like the one we are staying in, nickel and dime you to death! Room, $250+, parking $15, internet $10 (per computer per day!!), health club $15, breakfast $10+. Ayayay...

Link Round-Up: Money Links and More

I'm cleaning out my favorites folder today...

• How Predatory Lending Works
• Plan B--Skip College
• 10 Sites Where You Can Earn Some Extra Money
• 50 Things Every 18 Year Old Should Know
• 40 More Things Every 18 Year Old Should Know
• The Throw Out 50 Things Challenge

The Financial Ramifications of Divorce

Two of my good friends are getting divorced. One just finished the process, however the financial disaster that was her marriage is now following her into her newly divorced life, and another just began the process--her husband filed for divorce nearly out of the blue (he gave her a couple weeks notice that he had found a new girlfriend) and now she is in panic mode because for the entirety of her 20+ year marriage she has not had to work. Here's some things I have learned about divorce by following along with my friends as they have gone through this gut-wrenching process:

• During your divorce, the judge can award the debts to your spouse but that is no guarantee that your ex will pay the debts, and, since your name was probably on the debts as well, the debt collectors can come after YOU to collect. From what I understand, if this should happen you can take the ex back to court because they are in contempt of the judge's order but that will take (a lot) of time AND your credit will already be ruined due to late payments/no payments of the debts. My friend can't even qualify for a store credit card with a $100 limit because her ex decided to stop paying the debts and has told her he has no intention of paying them even if it is killing both of their credit scores. What we can learn from this: ALWAYS be debt free in your marriage, this way there will be no debts to argue over in the divorce.
• If one spouse is awarded the house in the divorce, do not quit claim the house over to the ex until they refinance it. There are have been quite a few instances where one spouse agrees that the other can have the house in the divorce so they just sign a quit claim deed and think they are done with the house. Not true. As long as both names are on the mortgage, both people will be responsible for the loan no matter who officially owns the house. What we can learn from this: there are two ways to handle the house in a divorce, sell it and split the profit or have one person refinance the loan into their name.
• My friend has never had to work. Her husband always had a very high paying job and they both agreed that she would stay home with the kids. While she has done amazing things as a volunteer with community organizations, she has never earned money herself. While she has always had a wallet full of credit cards at her disposal, she has never had to pay any bills as her husband always handled this. Hopefully she will get a reasonable financial settlement (no guarantee of this in our state), but she is literally starting from square one when it comes to her financial life. What we can learn from this: money is everyone's business in a marriage, the earning of it, the budgeting of it, and the spending of it.
• I can think of few things more terrifying then getting a sudden, "I'm out of here" from the spouse. Obviously there is the emotional trauma from the sudden screeching halt to your marriage, but the other part of the equation, as happened to one of the friends I mentioned above, is that the husband walked out and she didn't even have enough money in her bank account to buy diapers for her baby. What we can learn from this: EVERYONE needs their own emergency fund. It is a simple process to open a bank account in your own name, put money into it little by little, and eventually build up a substantial amount of savings that would come in mighty handy in an emergency like a spouse leaving (or a killer vacation to celebrate your 50th wedding anniversary!).
• There are a whole bunch of details that need to be dealt with when a marriage ends, some of which can have drastic consequences on one or both parties. Both friends lost their health insurance because their husband's policies provided their coverage. One friend had to move to a tiny apartment because that is all she could afford, another divorced friend not mentioned above is struggling with paying for her kids soccer/braces/prom dresses/etc because her ex sends exactly the court ordered amount of child support and no more, and yet another friend divorced less than six months got involved with a new guy who basically took her for thousands of dollars (he was handsome, charming, manipulative, and chronically broke). What we can learn from this: your lifestyle may take a nosedive so be prepared for that, take advantage of any community/social service that you qualify for based on your new financial status, plan ahead for future costs such as your kids braces and get this in the divorce agreement, and stay away from anyone who wants to part you from your money, you need it more than they do!
• Get everything in writing. Both friends were promised many things from their (lying, cheating, guilt-ridden-at-the-time) husbands. Unfortunately, as soon as they left and got with other women, both were suddenly overcome with amnesia to the point where neither remembered the promises they had made. What we can learn from this: if there are agreements made verbally, they need to be written down and included in the divorce agreement. Spoken agreements are basically worthless and a guilty person may promise a whole lot of things that they won't follow through with.

It is often said that divorce turns a romantic relationship into a business proposition; a business proposition between two adversaries no less. Everyone, no matter how loving and stable their relationship is, should take steps now to protect themselves financially in the event of divorce.

An Update...Or Rather Three Updates

Feeling much better and now ready to rock my financials. Here's the update:

• $1500 challenge. I made it! In addition to the $1000 I had collected in the previous update, I sold a gold bracelet that I never wore for $300 (not at a "Cash for Gold" place but to a local jeweler who pays much higher rates for salvage gold), and hubby won $200 at his weekly poker game so I did complete the challenge (and made my house payment) but I wouldn't recommend doing this with something as important as a house payment because it is TOO stressful. Fortunately I didn't have to tap into the emergency fund to make the payment! The best part is that hubby's credit card is half paid off and as soon as I get my bonus I will pay off the other half which was the whole catalyst for this challenge.
• The house sale. Not so much good new here. We have only had a few people look at the house since the end of the tax credit in April. The house may also be priced a bit high for the market so we may end up just keeping it until the market values raise around here. We aren't pressed to sell and we want to be able to make a reasonable profit so we will decide in June whether to pull it off the market for a while. Once we do decide to keep it, we will begin doing some renovations including a new kitchen floor and new appliances and counter tops in the kitchen., which should make it both nice for us to enjoy while we live here and add some value for the next time we put it on the market.
• Travel. I am heading to Chicago next week for a business trip (of course the hubby is tagging along as we always travel together). We always have a budget, sort of, in mind for our travel but it is usually pretty flexible. I read this post over at the Young Mogul blog and it gave me the idea to set a really tight budget for the trip and see if we can actually meet it. So next week's posts will revolve around how to squeeze every penny out of our travel dollars. I have already done a bit of research (Googling 'free things to do in Chicago') and found that there will be a Turkish Community Festival when we are there complete with free entertainment, a free day at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, and free entrance to the National Museum of Surgical Science which should be interesting as well.

Under the Weather...And Some Frugal Tips for When You're Sick

I've been feeling way under the weather this weekend which has both thrown off my $1500 challenge for a couple of days and relegated me to bed until I can get up without my head spinning. Fortunately by this evening the fog is starting to clear. Here's a bunch of tips I learned from my grandmother about how to take care of yourself when you are sick or have other maladies:

• If you have a cold or flu, sleep it off. Sleep in a cool, dark room with the window open to let in fresh air while you are covered by a stack of blankets. Come out when you feel better.
• For a headache, take a Tylenol or Ibuprofin.
• For diarrhea take acidophilous (it will repopulate the good bacteria in your stomach).
• For sunburn, cover the burned areas with Noxzema a couple of times a day; the burn will be gone in a couple of days.
• For cooking-type burns, run the burned area under cold water for a few minutes then break off the tip of your Aloe Vera plant and rub it on the wound.
• When you have the flu or a cold, lay off the dairy, sugar, flour, etc and eat clear soup (with vegies and a little meat).
• When you have the flu or a cold, drink lots of water and some ginger tea.
• If you feel illness coming on, double up on the Vitamin C.
• To keep mosquitoes at bay when out in the woods, take Vitamin B 12.
• If you are lacking energy, take Vitamin B complex.
• Do some kind of exercise or yard work every day to keep up your general health.

Important Notice for Non Profits

I came across this article today and nearly fell off my chair! Having run a small non profit for years, I didn't even know about the requirement to file this form which is due by Monday. Apparently if it is not filed, the small non profit will not be able to offer their donors tax deductible donations AND they will be required to pay taxes on any donation they receive this year AND they won't find about this whole tax mess until next January. Scary!

25 Free Things to Do When You are Bored

Over the past few weeks, I have been holding onto my money so tightly it is practically screaming. There have been no shopping trips to the mall, no meals out, no stops at Starbucks...basically every penny I have has a name and a purpose and frivolous spending is not happening (and won't happen until maybe sometime next month). Although I don't have much time to be bored, chopping out all spending does open up some time in my day when I would otherwise be out shopping or hanging out at the mall. Here's 25 (free) things I do when I'm bored:

1. Go for a walk around the neighborhood.
2. Go to the library.
3. Hang out at Barnes and Noble reading books and magazines.
4. Bake cookies at home.
5. Take digital pictures (flowers are my favorite photography subject).
6. Give myself a manicure, pedicure, and facial at home.
7. Write (freelance articles, blog posts, emails to friends, etc).
8. Call a friend just to chat.
9. Volunteer at a local non profit.
10. Follow along with an exercise on demand program on cable (usually yoga).
11. Post something on Craigslist to sell.
12. Surf the internet.
13. Write in my journal (usually making plans for my future).
14. Do a small project at home (wash the car, mow the yard, clean out a closet, etc).
15. Try out new web apps (I'm kind of geeky that way).
16. Attend a free community event (our local paper lists these things online each day).
17. Watch a movie at home (usually on cable or from the library).
18. Cook a gourmet dinner for my hubby.
19. Watch TV (Judge Judy and the Dave Ramsey shows are my favorites).
20. Practice Spanish (my Spanish verbs are still a jumbled mess!).
21. Sit outside and look at the clouds (daytime) or stars (night time).
22. Sing karaoke (we have a fairly comprehensive system at home).
23. Walk along the beach and collect shells.
24. Play Sudoku online.
25. Cook something special that takes a lot of time (usually tamales, sometimes lumpia).

Goal Update and Some Links

First, the good news: We sold the bed in our guest room today for $300 so we are now up to $1000, two thirds of the way to our goal! While I am sure we will reach our goal of $1500 in the next few days, I am also pretty sure I won't do this type of challenge again, it's too stressful! What if stuff doesn't sell? What if stuff will sell but not at the price we want? What if we don't make our goal and our house payment is late (of course I will dip into the emergency fund before that happens but still...)?
The not so good news: We have had lots of showings of our house but still no takers. So we are kind of living in limbo--no renovating our house because it may sell soon, no travel plans set yet because what if the house doesn't sell? We decided that if it doesn't sell by July, we will take it off the market, do some renovating (mostly new appliances and counter tops) then scale back our travel plans for this fall.
And some interesting links:

• Top 7 Legalized Ripoffs
• How to Clean Up Identity Theft
• Seven Easy Steps to Your Dream Job
• The Bare Essentials: Simplifying Your Life

Realization: Your Crap Isn't as Valuable as You Think It Is

I am almost a week into my quest to raise $1500 to pay my house payment. Today I came to the startling revelation that my crap isn't worth nearly as much as I thought it was!
To date, I have raised $560 (garage sale), $100 (sold couch on Craigslist), and $40 (sold two Sportsac purses on eBay). I have a half dozen other things on Craigslist and I may also sell one of my handguns this week too. Selling all of these things to raise money sure sure has been an enlightening experience.
I think many people over value the things that they have and assume that if they need to raise some quick cash by selling their stuff, they will be able to get around half of what they originally paid for the item. Not true. Most stuff actually ends up selling for around 10% to 20% of the item's original price. Bummer. This will certainly make me pay more attention to both the stuff that I buy from now on and the price that I pay for said items.
From now on, instead of thinking "wow, that guy is making bank from his garage sale" or "wow, that lady sells a lot of things on CraigsList", I will now think "wow...those people are losing money because when you pay $10 for something and then only recoup $1 or $2 when you go to resell the item, it's like you are throwing the other $8 or $9 out the window".
This really drives home the point that for each item you buy, you at least want to buy it on sale. Hopefully you will get the item at a clearance sale where the price is 75% off the last marked clearance price. Ideally, you will buy the item in very good condition at a garage sale or thrift store for pennies on the dollar.

Happy Mother's Day and Some Random Links

First of all, a Happy Mother's Day to all (this includes biological moms, foster moms, adoptive moms, aunts that fill in for mom sometimes and grandmas that do the same, step moms, single moms doing the work of two parents, and even single dads who get to be both mom and dad). I wish you all a wonderful day!

Here's some random links you may find interesting:

• Judy Judy's take on someone who paid $2500(!) for a PS3 at a rental place.
• Three Things the Amish Taught Me About Money
• Move to Any City for $125
• The 7 Decisive Elements of a Minimalist Business

1/3 of The Way to My Goal...and Some Garage Sale Tips

We had a garage sale today and raked in $560! I am one third of the way to my goal! Yeah!

Here's how we run our garage sales:

• A few years ago we made up some fairly big, neon green signs that simply say "Yard Sale' with an arrow. We put ten of these signs around our neighborhood to drive traffic from the main roads and many people who show up comment on the nice bright signs that they followed to our house.


• I put an advertisement on CraigsList yesterday evening so it would show up high enough on the list that people who are looking last night would see the ad and people who check the site in the morning will also see it.


• We start early. Our usual time to open up our sale is 7am and surprisingly there are usually people waiting earlier than that for us to set up. Amazing. We also close early (around 3pm) because we know from prior sales that traffic drops off dramatically later in the day.


• We only hold the sale on Saturday only. Again, from past experience, the biggest crowd of shoppers shows up early on Saturday morning. Sundays are usually really slow and not worth our time.


• We don't do a lot of pre-pricing but rather set up tables with signs "all items on this table $1", etc. There is nothing more tedious than pricing every little item. Of course the bigger and more expensive things get their own big tag (usually made out of neon index cards).


• We put the "big draw" items in the center of the driveway then place tables around it. This helps people who are "drive by shoppers" see things that may catch their eye and make them stop.


• We are always open to making a deal. Yes I want to make some money from our sale but the other main reason we have garage sales is to get rid of stuff. It's not a bad thing to knock off a dollar or so and/or give a discount when people buy a handful of things. We will happily haggle with buyers but draw the line at super low ball offers.


• One person is in charge of the money...it's less confusing that way.


• We try to make the things we set out for the sale look as nice as possible, even if it means just dusting the item off.


• We have a "free" box. Some stuff I just want to get rid of but don't think anyone will buy so we give some stuff away free.

Overall we had a pretty successful sale and cleared out a big part of our garage. The most surprising thing that happened was when a big bus pulled up and let off a bunch of people to shop--turns out the local senior home makes a regular Saturday "garage sale" run for its residents. Wow.

My Latest Challenge...I Need $1500

Quite a while ago I posted my list of financial goals. Seems I completed two goals then kind of slacked off (stuff like travel got in the way). So when I got hubby's latest Target bill, I was so annoyed with it (high interest plus it is a credit card and I hate credit cards), I decided to throw my entire check ($3000) and bonus check that I will be getting in a couple of weeks ($2000) at it. Which leads me to my latest challenge...I need to earn $1500 within the next two weeks to pay our house payment. I know most people would think 'pay house payment first' then pay debts but for some reason this debt has been hanging around forever and the only way I can see to kill it completely is with big chunks of money in order to pay it off all at once. If I can't make my goal of $1500 I am willing to use my emergency fund to cover the house payment (I can hear Dave Ramsey groaning now), but I have a number of ways planned that I think will help me reach my $1500 goal. These include:

• Since we are planning to downsize (unfortunately no takers on the house yet) I am selling the newish queen-sized bed from our guest room on Craigslist (our smaller place won't have room for a guest room).
• I am also selling a bunch of other stuff on Craigslist that is currently stored in the garage (mountain bike, TV, Ikea closet system, roll top desk, etc).
• I am eBaying purses like a mad woman. I have a number of designer purses (mostly Coach and Le Sportsac) which seem to eBay well.
• We will be having a garage sale this weekend.
• I will even sell more gold if I need to.
• Also, since my no spend week, I have only spent less than $25 total on groceries. No makeup (yet), no nothing else that was on my shop list. I may need to take frugal to the extreme for a month or so but paying off this debt will be so worth it!

Anyway, like I said before, hubby doesn't like change and he hates to part with ANYTHING but he has been a good sport about this because he knows that I am so focused on getting out of debt that he probably figures he better get out of my way or I will eBay him next. Actually, since I always include all of the positive things about how getting out of debt will help us (ie: we can travel more, I can work less, he can keep his entire pension and spend it however he likes instead of on bills) he has really come around. For someone who didn't want to part with the house, he is the one who "stages" it every morning before we leave just in case prospective buyers stop by. He even mowed the yard a couple of days ago and mowed a nice pattern into the lawn to catch people's eye.

I've read quite a few blogs where people have described how desperate they were to get out of debt that some even sold literally everything they had in order to become debt free. That is about the point I am at. The peace of mind that comes with being debt free is worth way more than a closet full of designer duds or the latest electronics!

No Spend Week--Day 7 Update. Challenge Completed.

Money spent today: 0
Finally! I can spend again! For some reason I have done no spend weeks before but I never felt so stressed about not spending. I think it may be because I didn't really prepare for this no spend week because the prior week was so crazy. Anyway, I am down to eating frozen fruit (because I didn't prepare ahead of time and buy enough fruit), I have one onion and one tomato left (ditto), my eye liner is a stubby stick and my face powder is scraping bottom, my hair is a frizzy mess because I put off my haircut by two weeks (too busy to get my hair cut the previous week and no money to pay for it last week), and my bus pass has $1 on it (again, I didn't recharge it prior to challenge) so I couldn't go anywhere on the bus yesterday.
The good things: I am sure I saved a lot of money this week. Today hubby and I spent an hour at Costco this afternoon eating free food samples. And, we are actually eating some of the food that has been stuffed into the back of cupboards and the fridge because we didn't go out and eat at all this week (other than food provided at work). I am also even more thankful that I actually have a job and money to spend and this challenge just reinforced how much we take for granted having the ability to run out to the store and buy anything we need (people in many poor countries don't have this luxury).
Overall the challenge went well and I may even try doing a no spend week once a month (we seriously have enough stuff to tide us over for a week of no spending, it's just that I want NEW stuff, not OLD stuff when it comes to food, clothing, etc).
p.s. Thanks to all who made comments that kept my spirits up through the challenge!!!

No Spend Week--Day 6 Update

Today I spent $0! Six days, I can't believe it!
I actually stayed home all day recuperating from my very busy week. A friend rented a huge bus to take people from our city to downtown Seattle to participate in the immigration march but I was really wiped out so I didn't go, however that would have been a free thing to do today.
What I wanted to buy: everything! I am feeling really constrained by not being able to spend. Actually I wanted to do a Volksmarch today but the cost is $3 and I am not spending today so I couldn't go. Also, I was suddenly in desperate need of new clothes but again, I didn't go to the mall so I wouldn't be tempted to spend. This evening hubby wanted "something good" for dinner but I told him I had two days left of no spending so we ended up eating leftovers. It wasn't bad (free prime rib leftover dinners from yesterday's conference) but it is hard not to treat ourselves even at the local Wendy's (dollar menu of course).

No Spend Week--Day 5 Update

Today (again, this was for yesterday because when I got home from a 12 hour work day I was exhausted) I spent $0.
This is a unique week in that almost every day I have been at day-long, work-related events including training sessions, conferences, and day long meetings. Fortunately most of these events included lots of free food so I didn't have to plan to bring food with me from home or, for that matter, cook much at home either. Today was a day long conference hosted by one of my clients which meant I got to work for about 12 hours straight. Fortunately this conference includes lots of food being served all day long so I didn't go hungry.
What I wanted to spend: not much. I was so tired that I went straight home from work and went to sleep. I was thinking, however, that it had been a long time since I bought a Frapuccino at Starbucks. It is also weird not to spend ANY MONEY for five days. Without a conscious effort, I am sure I would have found some stuff to buy or at least went to the mall or dropped by Walmart. But when I am trying not to spend money, I just naturally avoid these places so I won't be tempted to spend.