5 Steps to Getting Rid of All of Your Worldly Posessions

Our house is so bare! Our final garage sale will be tomorrow and after that we will be ready to move out. Here's how we have been able to get rid of nearly everything we own:

1. CraigsList is awesome! We used postings on CraigsList to get rid of most of the "big stuff" like furniture, appliances, and most other things of value. Best of all, the ads are free and there is no limit to the number of ads you can post.


2. Garage sales. Tomorrow will be our third garage sale in three weeks. We have had a really good turn out of people even though it is mid winter. Again, a posting on CraigsList and a few signs posted around the neighborhood as well as a notice sent out to my FaceBook friends has brought in lots of people to buy our stuff.


3. Hubby has been pretty creative with making sales to his friends. He knows quite a few people at our local casino so he packed up his van with lots of stuff he wanted to sell (clothes, etc) and basically tells everyone he has stuff to sell and they come out to the van to take a look (see picture above) and to buy!


4. Giving stuff away. After our final garage sale tomorrow, we will invite friends and family to come over and take anything they want at no charge. I have also put stuff aside for people who I know want certain things and will distribute these bags next week.


5. Donating stuff. The final thing we will do before we move out will be to box up any leftovers and donate the items to our local thrift store. I will donate any leftover food to a meal program that feeds the homeless, and we will also bring some things (leftover paper towels, toiletries, some food stuff) with us to the cousins house we will be staying at for a few days.

And "wa la" everything is gone!

More Money Links

Here's some more interesting/useful money-related links:

• 7 Monthly Bills People Have and 7 Ways to Reduce Them
• How Moving to a Developing Nation Improved Our Financial Situation
• The No-Refrigerator Challenge
• 10 Rules of Life from Tolstoy
• Earn a Living Installing Productive Home Food Gardens

Goal 24: Go to Bastyr Event Completed

Even though I kind of swore off New Year's resolutions, I still have a goal list that I posted way back in April for my birthday. The list included 43 things I wanted to complete during my 43rd year of life. I have been so busy lately that I kind of put these goals on the back burner but today everything worked out and I got to complete one of my goals!

I had to run to the east side today and decided to browse the website of one of the universities in Seattle (Bastyr, my favorite) and saw that they had a public lecture today so I went. I love this university. It's focus is on naturapathic health, the campus is beautiful and relaxing, the students are wonderful to listen to, and they tend to have a lot of classes and events that the general public can attend. Today I learned about nutrition and it was really interesting. Best of all, it was free. So here's yet another way to enjoy free entertainment in your city--just check the websites of local universities and see what's scheduled. It's a great way to get some free, educational entertainment.

p.s. Tom Ballard, ND was the guest speaker. He was talking about his latest book, Nutrition 1, 2, 3. Here's his blog.

p.s.s. After the lecture I went around to the back of the school, took off my shoes and sox, and walked the rock path (see picture above). It hurts your feet but it's supposed to be great for your health. Hmmm

Super Cheap Meals

With about a week and a half before we move out, we have been working diligently on "eating down" our food supply so we can both save some money and limit the amount of stuff we have to give away before we move. Needless to say, the meals are getting a bit boring but I have also noticed that eating this kind of simple, cheap food, we can basically eat for less than a dollar per meal. Here's what we have been eating lately:

Breakfast:
--two eggs (hard boiled or fried), two pieces of toast, an apple or banana (about 70 cents total!)
--breakfast burrito (tortilla, refried beans, scrambled egg, tomato, onion) (about 60 cents total!)
--2 pancakes, 2 eggs (about 40 cents total!)
--oatmeal with milk and cinnamon, apple or banana (about 70 cents total!)

Lunch:
--tuna sandwich, carrot sticks, oatmeal cookies (about $1)
--grilled cheese sandwich, tomato soup, pear (about $1)
--homemade vegetable soup, salad (about $1)
--homemade chili, rice, raw vegies (about $1)

Dinner:
--salmon, cous cous, salad
--baked chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, frozen vegies
--sweet and sour meatballs, rice, tomato and cucumber salad
--spaghetti, salad, garlic bread

Most of the stuff we have been eating is from the freezer and pantry augmented with fresh eggs, fruit, and vegetables. This has been a great way to save money since we aren't running to the grocery store and making a haul each week and we have been able to eat quite a few things that had been previously pushed to the back of the pantry.

p.s. Here is a great link if you find yourself low on funds but have a family to feed: $45 Emergency Menu for Four to Six People

Bummer Day

I am generally about 98% positive but some days I wish I had just stayed in bed. It hasn't been a very good day and a half:

• We had a shooting at a Walmart a few towns over yesterday. Two deputies were shot, fortunately they weren't killed. A deputy shot and killed the man who had started the whole incident, and a 13 year old girl who was with the guy was killed in the cross fire. This was a pretty rural Walmart where people never think about having to dodge bullets. I guess these things can happen anywhere. Sad.
• Jack LaLanne died yesterday which is also sad. I am happy that he had a long, healthy, happy life but it seems like the end of an era with his passing.
• (TMI) I had an appointment for a pelvic exam this morning and apparently I didn't pay attention when I was making the appointment because I have my period today so I had to cancel my appointment at the last minute. I'm sure my doctor isn't happy.
• I did my taxes today and was stunned to find out that I owe about double what I expected to owe for my 2010 taxes. Even with hubby not working last year, somehow I earned a lot more money last year than I thought I had. It didn't help that my deductions went way down too (since we refinanced our house to a 15 year term a few years ago and a low 4.3% interest rate, we simply don't have the big mortgage interest rate deduction that we used to). Bummer.
• Our house is so empty and depressing. I am still happy that we are leaving it's just that looking at the few remnants of our life that are left, it kind of feels like we have sold off many of our memories.
• I'm still stressing over where we will go first after our house closes. It will either be Japan, Philippines, Connecticut, Atlanta in the first few months or Atlanta, Connecticut, Japan, Philippines. The only stressful parts are our free flights with the military to Asia. With no guarantee that we will get on any particular flight, it makes it hard to buy tickets to the other locations and I really don't want to be stranded in Japan waiting for flights because it is super expensive there.
• My computer is acting up and I want to throw it out the window. It keeps freezing up. I think it is something with the IE browser but even changing it to Firefox doesn't help. So I have had to do the system restore thing...about three times. Ugh. But I don't want to buy a new computer now because I am waiting for the Sandy Bridge processor from Intel but have no idea when it will be out. And I don't know if I should buy a new computer because I have a boatload of taxes to pay...
• I log into FaceBook and see one friend who said she is having a lousy birthday, a niece who said it has been the worst day ever, and news from another niece that her baby is at the ER with a severe headache. Ayayay

I'll quit whining now and hope that the planets align better tomorrow...

Want to Achieve Your Goals? Write Them Down

As part of clearing out nearly everything we own from our house before the sale is final and we head out to travel the world, I came across several boxes of papers that I had stored away over the years. Since I am a paper aficionado--I can't pass up cute stationary or notebooks--and since I have had a habit of writing down "to do" lists and goals since way before GTD was popular in productivity circles, you can imagine how much paper I had to wade through.
Fortunately most of the paper is now filling up the recycle bin instead of being dragged along with us but the most interesting thing I noticed about many of the pages of notes and goals I had written was that most of what I wrote has actually come true!
There were pages of notes on how I would start a business and even a note from my mother with a clipping from a letter to the editor of New Woman magazine that I had written years ago about being inspired to start a business because of a contest they had run (I didn't win the contest). Everything I had written in the contest entry about the business I wanted to start actually happened. The odd part was after I entered the contest I tossed the application in a file and never looked at it again until more than a decade later yet my business turned out almost exactly like I had imagined it.
Then there were notebooks filled with my dreams of selling everything and traveling the world. Of course at the time there was no freaking way that would be possible. On my "to do" lists for this goal, which I had written maybe five to six years ago, was pay off debts--followed by a very LONG list of creditors and debts--and convince hubby to go with me. Also listed was "quit job", "have the biggest garage sale our neighborhood has ever seen", and "sell house for a profit to fund our travel." At the time I wrote this it seemed like an amazing dream, something I really wanted to do but never really thought would happen because of a thousand other things that were standing in my way including a great business that would be hard to leave, a hubby that likes stability, more debts than most people ever have to deal with, and just the overall difficulty that anyone would have with totally changing their life.
Until now. When I read those pages I nearly fell out of my chair! Again, almost everything that I had imagined and written down has come true. By hammering away at our debts we were able to pay them off. The universe brought me the difficulty of a sudden end-point to my business that I now think was a blessing in disguise. With my lack of income and the current economy hubby started listening to my idea to sell everything and travel which will actually save us money when compared to the amount of money we need for our current lifestyle (big house payments, the yard guy since hubby hates yard work, increasing taxes and utilities, etc). There were other goals that I wrote down that have come true as well.
I don't think all of this was coincidence. I think that by writing down my goals, it somehow gets the universe into alignment (and/or makes me more aware of certain things that correlate to what I want) which actually moves me towards achieving my goals. For example, I wrote down "get out of debt". Now anyone can write down such a thing but by focusing my attention on getting out of debt, Dave Ramsey was brought to my attention. By following Dave Ramsey's plan, I was able to get out of debt. I think if this wouldn't have been one of my goals and I had just given up and decided that I would always be in debt, I would have been less likely to pay attention when I heard about Dave Ramsey. I wouldn't have tuned into his show each night on Fox Business and listened to him hammering away on the travesties of debt for hours and hours each week, and then I wouldn't have followed his plan.
The moral of this story is WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS! Even if it is something small, like "get a tattoo", write it down. If there is something you have always wanted no matter how far-fetched, no matter how crazy, no matter how impossible, write it down. Meditate on it. Envision it. Write down a step-by-step plan on how to reach your goal (even if that plan sounds crazy as well), then take action!
Everything may not go exactly as you hope (when I wrote down "quit job" I certainly didn't envision the office I work for totally imploding, a federal investigation, and an overthrow of the Board!). Everything may not happen quickly (when I wrote those goals down I wanted them to happen IMMEDIATELY...it actually took years). And, your goals may change. You may find that your youthful desire to jump out of an airplane with a package of nylon strapped to your back gives way to, um, the realization that you hate heights and you hate being terrified.
No matter. With a list of written goals, you will be well on your way to achieving them.

Liquidating Our Life

With a week and a half to go before we move out and our second of three garage sales wrapped up today, almost everything we own has been liquidated. It's kind of sad, seeing things we have had for decades being sold for pennies. Also, it's kind of telling that Americans spend so much of their money on crap that has very little actual value (and worse, like me, many buy this stuff of little actual value on credit so technically they are working for months and months to pay off stuff that loses about 90% of it's value as soon as you take it out of the store!).
On a happy note, I am really glad I don't have to pack up and move all of this stuff! My years of hauling boxes and furniture are over! On an even better note, I just realized that when we pay off the house and hubby's credit card we will have a higher net worth than we have ever had in our life! I would often drive by homeless people when I was buried under credit card and tax debt and think, that guy may have nothing but he has a higher net worth than I did since my net worth was in the minus six figures. I expect the relief from paying off these final debts will be quite liberating.
So far, even though we are still living in our house, being nearly house-less has the following advantages:

• No bills! We will have a few final bills for our house but when we leave we will have a total of one bill, for our cell phones.
• No shopping! Since all we are taking with us is what we can carry in our backpacks, we can't shop which saves a ton of money.
• We actually have money! When you don't shop and you are super busy getting ready to move, selling stuff like a maniac on CraigsList, and packing up the few things you will keep in storage, you don't spend money, and it just keeps adding up. This is something that has actually never happened to me before because I used to spend every dime I had, and then some, because my daily "entertainment" was shopping. These days it always surprises me that when I check my bank accounts, not only is there money in there but there is more money in the accounts than I had the last time I checked. Amazing how that works!
• Packing up our meager belongings, we realize how much stuff we actually NEED to survive. And it isn't that much. Some clothes, some toiletries, a laptop, a cell phones. That's it. Sometimes I think I just woke up from a dream. In my dream I am working furiously to acquire all of these consumer things that I thought I MUST HAVE in order to have a happy life but I wake up and after the fog has cleared, I realize that all that I need I already have (and it all fits in one backpack). Wow.

And when I start to freak out about this whole 'sell everything and travel the world with only what you can carry' thing, I look back on a bunch of Betsy's blog posts (her and her husband did a similar thing last year) here (mostly the posts from August and September 2010 before they left). Apparently a bit of panic before you chuck everything you have ever known and head out into the unknown is quite common...

Link Round-Up: Money Links Edition

Here's some links you might find interesting...

• Redditors Helping Redditors
• Can You Wear 6 Items or Less
• 10 Steps to Get Out of Debt in 2011
• 50 Healthy Foods for Under $1 Per Pound
• Eating Well on $1 a Day

Stuff to Do After Your Divorce

My friend's divorce is winding down to a close (kind of, this is the longest divorce proceedings I have ever seen!). We were talking about all of the things she would need to do after her divorce and we came up with the following list:

• Update her Will and Power of Attorney
• Update her insurance beneficiaries
• Close their joint bank accounts and open a bank account in her own name
• Change her name (she is going to go back to her maiden name) on her: driver's license, passport, social security card, etc.
• Change her tax deduction information (ie: switch from married to single)
• Decide on tax things with the ex (she was going to ask her attorney if this was part of the divorce decree) such as who will claim the kids, who will claim the tax deduction on the house, etc.
• Arrange for health insurance (she is currently covered by her husband's insurance but as soon as they get divorced this will cease)
• Find out about what military benefits she is entitled to (her husband is retired military and there are a bunch of rules depending on length of marriage and time in service to figure out what the ex spouse gets)
• Find out what will happen with her husband's retirement pensions (he has two, one military and once civil service). She is going to ask her attorney about this as we think she will get part of these pensions and that it will be spelled out in the final settlement decree.
• Change her online passwords (her ex-husband knows some of her passwords)
• Get her own safe deposit box since she used to use her husband's box
• Apply for her own credit cards. Even though I am pretty anti-credit card she wants her own cards as she has always been an authorized user on her husband's cards
• Re-key the locks in her home (her ex still has keys to the house)
• Update information at her kid's schools (dad's new address, etc)
• Get her own cell plan (her husband has been paying for her cell on his plan)
• Separate her other accounts (airline mile accounts, Costco membership, etc)

That's all we could think of. Neither one of us has been divorced before but the number of things you need to do to re-orient your life after a divorce is huge!

The Big Garage Sale

We are in the home stretch of clearing out our house before we move. With only a couple of weeks to go, we still have a ton of stuff to get rid of so we decided to have a garage sale today. We've never had a garage sale in the dead of winter since most people equate going to garage sales with spreading your stuff out across your drive way on a sunny day but with no time to spare we decided to give it a shot anyway. Here's what happened:

• We usually have our garage sales run from 7am to 3pm. It's a good thing we decided to start at 8am this morning because at 7am it was still pitch dark outside, something we hadn't even considered!
• The only advertisement we did for the sale was on CraigsList and that one small, free, advertisement brought in a whole lot of people.
• There was a swarm of "professional" garage salers who showed up bright and early and seem to know each other by name. While they were looking at our stuff I overheard them talking about other sales they were going to and about their resale businesses.
• One guy told me that he used to sell boat parts as a full time business but since the economy tanked, he decided to resell household items which is a good business to be in during a down market.
• It's a bit sad to see all of our stuff which we spent our hard-earned money on be sold for pennies on the dollar. That's a lesson for my shopping future as now when I buy something, I also consider what I can resell it for (usually about 10% of retail).
• We did sell quite a bit of stuff (earning about $1,500.00 but that included a couple of big items). But we still need to have a sale next Saturday and probably the Saturday after that (we told each customer that came today to come back next Saturday to check out the stuff we didn't have room to put out today).
• We find that one-day garage sales work best. If we have a Saturday and Sunday sale, Sunday is usually pretty dead (not many customers) and we are usually tired from all of the work on Saturday.
• It was a bit difficult inviting friends to our sale. They wanted a super low price on stuff and we felt like we had to give them the price they asked for but if we would have sold some of these things to strangers we would have got a little higher price (ie: yes we want to get rid of everything but we still want to make money on it otherwise we would have just carted it to the thrift store!).
• We also live in a very multi-cultural area and you can tell the people who are from countries where bargaining over every little thing is the rule instead of the exception. They drive pretty hard bargains. I let hubby deal with them.
• It is much better to do these sales in the summer because it is SO COLD in our garage (where we held the sale).
• Unlike past garage sales where we either spent the money we earned from the sale by running to the mall right after we closed up shop or spent the money on paying off a bill (final debts will be paid when our house closes) we decided to put the proceeds from our sale into our emergency fund and not spend any of it.
• Overall, when you need to liquidate your stuff quickly, having a garage sale (as well as selling stuff on CraigsList) is the fastest way to make it happen.

National Parks and National Monuments are Free This Weekend!

This is the first holiday weekend of 2011 in which all National Parks and National Monuments are offering free entry! What a great way to spend time with the family and enjoy a free activity at the same time! Read more here.

A Quick Update...in 20 Sentences

Another update...here goes...

1. Just got a call from our realtor, our house is closing two weeks early which means around February 1st. I need to get busy selling everything!
2. I suck at New Years Resolutions. The only things I wanted to do were exercise daily and avoid Starbucks. I failed at both by day 10. :(
3. I have been officially unemployed for 13 days and I am bored silly. I'm already trolling for a new business to start.
4. We will get to Asia sooner than expected. We hope to be in Japan the first week of February.
5. February 1st will be the first month I don't have a big paycheck coming in. I am getting a bit worried since I have been earning a paycheck non-stop for nearly 30 years. Eekk.
6. I like updating my Tumblr blog because it is so easy and I don't have to actually write bog posts. Pictures and links suffice.
7. I'm getting bored with our food. We are trying to eat everything in the pantry and not eat out at all/buy more food. Blah.
8. I am a huge fan of Reddit and AskMetaFilter and have been spending way too much time on both sites.
9. Now that we are getting closer to being houseless (homeless?) hubby and I are both in an Oh-My-God-What-Are-We-Doing panic.
10. We had snow yesterday but it all melted by today (unlike the family in New England that are still wading through more than a foot of snow. Even family in Atlanta got more snow than we did!).
11. I will miss my friends when I am gone. It was nice getting together with a couple of friends today who are both amazing people.
12. I need to force myself to exercise everyday. The way I have decided to do this is to ride my bike from Canada to Mexico in June. I figure that will be 30 straight days of six to eight hours of exercise every day. Perfect. Hubby doesn't know yet.
13. My favorite ice cream is now Umpqua Espresso Madness. I'd never heard of the brand before but hubby brought some home and it was amazing.
14. We got a bill for our house insurance and it increased by 105%. Just because I called about making a claim. We didn't even make a claim and the company didn't even pay any money out but still the price shot up. I don't really care because we are moving but thought I would warn others about such a thing because it was a total surprise to me.
15. I want a Mac Book Pro. I don't need one but I want one. I don't even know if I really want one but every person I see with one looks so happy when they are using it. Oh the power of suggestion.
16. The shooting in Arizona was totally sad. It wasn't a gun control issue, it was a "we have a really lousy mental illness safety net system" issue.
17. I need to eat healthier or I'm going to die. Seriously. I eat well for a few days then fall into my eat something quick no matter how unhealthy it is habit.
18. As soon as we get the check from our house sale, we will pay off the mortgage and hubby's credit card and be completely debt free. I. Can't. Wait.
19. I am proof reading the book that I wrote during the summer. I hope to shop it to a publisher in the spring.
20. I appreciate all of the comments on this blog. It is nice to know there are people out there that think like me!

10 Things I Like to Splurge On

While I am usually pretty careful with how I spend my money, I occasionally like to splurge. Here are ten things I don't mind paying more for:

1. Real maple syrup.
2. Purses (Coach and LeSportsac mostly)
3. Notebooks (I have a paper fetish and love beautiful notepads and notebooks)
4. Baskin Robbins Blast (more expensive than a comparable Starbucks drink but sooo tasty!)
5. Higher end candy (especially quality dark chocolate and imported black licorice)
6. Quality shoes (Born, Keen, Ryka, etc)
7. Pilot ink pens (the only kind of pens I use)
8. High quality sheets and comforters (I'm super picky about this and require 600 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets along with a down comforter with cotton comforter cover...no polyester!)
9. Travel (we tend to be bargain basement travelers but travel more often than most people)
10. Occasional experiences with other people (it makes more sense to take all of the kids on a cruise than give gifts they won't use/will get rid of soon, I would rather treat friends to lunch and the museum than give them a gift card...I like to give memories!)

Well that's my list of splurges. These are the things that mean the most to me. What do you splurge on?

How We're Staying Warm This Winter

It's been a pretty cold winter around here. Tonight the temps are supposed to be in the low 20s and tomorrow we may end up with five inches of snow or more. Brrrrr. Here's how we have been staying warm this winter AND saving money at the same time:

• We have an adjustable/automatic thermostat which we set at 55 degrees from 10pm to 7am (the time we are sleeping) and 65 degrees from 7am to 10pm.


• When we do leave the house during the day, we always remember to set the heat back to 60 degrees. No use keeping the house toasty warm when no one is home to enjoy it! (note: we have a note on the door that says 'TURN DOWN HEAT' so we won't forget to do this).


• We wear sweaters or sweatshirts when we are home (otherwise I would want the heat set to 70 because I am usually cold all winter). I wear heavy socks as well.


• I don't mind having the heat set so low at night because we have a couple extra blankets on the bed which keep us snugly warm.


• When we are home we usually hibernate in our bedroom. Our bedroom is fairly big so besides the bed we have a sofa as well as a TV and our computer tables in there so it is kind of like a living room anyway. The benefit to this is that we can (again) set the heat back to 60 or even 55 and use a small, $7 space heater from Walmart which heats the room up almost instantly. It's better, and cheaper, than heating the whole house when we aren't even using the rest of the house.


• We are often out during the day. This allows us to set the heat down to 60 degrees (I hate coming home to a freezing cold house which takes an hour to warm up so 60 is a good compromise temperature). We then enjoy "free" heat at whatever place we happen to be at.


• When we are home we generally hang out in the kitchen. During this time we are usually cooking a meal such as lunch or dinner and at the same time I like to use the oven to bake which also helps heat up the kitchen.

And some more things about keeping warm:

• Choose your house carefully. Our house is a big tri-level and it didn't dawn on me when we were buying the house that this design lets all of the heat immediately head up to the ceiling thus the lower areas of the house always seem cold and the heat tends to run continuously because the temperature control is on the mid level so it never senses that it is warm enough to shut off.


• I remember that when I lived in an apartment during college that I hardly ever had to turn on the heat as the heat that came from all of the units below and next to me seemed to keep my apartment warm.


• Be sure you insulate and weatherstrip! Our first house was nearly 100 years old and you could practically watch the heat head straight up the stairs and out the roof because it had literally NO insulation. Eventually we added insulation in the attic, walls, and between the floor joists which, along with installing new insulated windows made a huge difference in our heat/energy consumption.


• A small house is cheaper to heat!


• My friend has a small house with a wood stove in the middle of his home as well as a nice wood lot out back and heats his home for free each winter. Of course he has to go chop down and dry the wood himself, but his wood stove keeps the entire house cozy warm all winter.


• Never use combustion appliances to heat your home! Things like barbecue grills and other appliances that give off heat yet are designed to be used OUTSIDE should never be used inside because you can die from carbon monoxide poisoning.


• If you can't pay your heating bill, call 211 and see if there are any local agencies that can pay this bill for you. A community service agency in our area coordinates a program which pays one utility bill per year for families in need which can really come in handy during the dead of winter.


• If you have no heat in your home at all (ie: the gas has been shut off, etc) consider going to a warming shelter when it is bitterly cold. Our city opens shelters for the homeless and anyone else who doesn't have/can't afford heat in their home. People can stay over night and even get a free meal at these places (call 211 for shelters in your area).

Stay safe and keep warm!

And Another Contest...

FYI...Here's another contest entitled "The Dangers of Being in Debt" Click here for details.

Updates and a Contest

Here's some updates and info you might find interesting:

• Our house is on the way to being sold and should close in about a month. Yay!
• I had previously directed you to my travel/personal blog at Blogger but I recently moved it to Tumblr (I have a love/hate relationship with Tumblr but that's another blog post...). You can find it here.
• There's an interesting contest going on over at Shred Your Credit Card. Seems you shred your credit card, make a video of it, then have your friends/the public up vote it, and you can win some money. Check it out here.

10 Ways to Spend Absolutely No Money

I have been unemployed for a little over a week so far and my main emphasis has been to hold on to my money as long as possible which basically means spending nothing at all if I can help it. Here are ten things I have done to do just that:

1. Stay home. Inevitably if I go out--shopping, mall walking, to visit friends--I end up spending money. On the days that I stay home I don't spend any money. Simple!


2. Kill your habits. My habit is (was) a daily Starbucks Green Tea Frapuccino. Since the first of the year I have not bought a single frapuccino and I figure I have saved around $40 so far. Obviously if my habit was smoking or drinking I would have saved considerably more money by not indulging these habits.


3. Hang out in free places. My usual MO was to go to a coffee shop nearly every day either to meet friends or break out the netbook and get some work done. I know from #2 above, that if I go into a coffee shop, I'm going to buy something which I don't want to do. So now in the mornings I go with hubby to the local casino where he plays his morning poker game, I set up my netbook in their coffee shop, and enjoy the free beverages they offer (coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and pop is offered self-serve for free there). The library is another good option.


4. Appreciate what you have. I have been drooling over a new MacBook Pro, however my laptop and netbook work fine. Ditto with clothes, shoes, jewelry, etc. Whenever I think I want to go out and buy something new I remind myself that I have plenty of things that, while not new, are just perfect for me so I don't need to go out and buy anything new.


5. Make substitutions. I had a giant bag of oats and wanted to make a big pan of granola cereal for breakfast however I was out of maple syrup which I always use in my granola recipe. When we went to the store hubby saw that syrup cost $8 for a small bottle and said "geez that's a lot, why don't you just use the jar of honey we have at home to make granola." Duh, what a good idea! So I did use the honey and the cereal came out great!


6. Eat at home. One of the simplest temptations for many people is to go out to eat. There are so many restaurants, the food seems to taste "better" there, it is quicker, you may be out of ingredients you need to cook at home, etc. Eating at home, however, will cost you zero dollars, and when you are trying to save every penny, this is an obvious option. We are also trying to "eat down" our stock of food before we move so eating at home is even more of a necessity. We have come up with some pretty interesting recipes trying to mix and match all of the food that has been stuffed in the back of the cupboards for years and turn it into edible meals.


7. Enjoy freebies. I am always on the look out for freebies. This week I have enjoyed food samples at Costco for free, had a free sample of red velvet cake at another store, learned how to put ads on my Tumblr page just by Googling, got a free pen from a friend's office, and had a free dinner compliments of another friend. I like free stuff!


8. Do your own work instead of paying others to do it. When out house inspection came back with a few things that needed to be done prior to the appraisal including cleaning the gutters and replacing some plastic in the crawl space, we decided to do these jobs ourselves instead of hiring others to do it for us. Money spent on these jobs: $0 (we happened to have a roll of 6 mil plastic in the garden shed).


9. Utilize free services. I could have put a (paid for) ad in our local newspaper to sell some of the stuff in our house that we need to get rid of before we move but I decided to put free ads on CraigsList instead. There was also a free vaccination clinic at our local health department recently that, should I have needed vaccines, would have been happy to participate in and get a valuable service for free.


10. Make it yourself. When I was mall walking, I was tempted by the cookie store, Cinnabon, and a place that makes great smoothies. Instead of spending money, I went home and made cookies and a smoothie at home. I'm considering making cinnamon rolls at home today. I have also made handbags, quilts, and a garden shed at home instead of buying these things already made.

We live in one of the richest countries on the planet and Americans typically have more "stuff" than just about anyone else on the planet so there are more than enough ways to get by with spending very little, if any, money on many of the things we want.

I May Never Shop Retail Again!

I started out with the idea of going to the Goodwill, putting an outfit together, then writing a blog post about it. I should also tell you I wasn't very thrilled about the idea because while I have shopped at thrift stores a couple of times, usually for books and plant stands, I have never bought clothes there before. I would look at the racks and racks of used clothes and think "ick". Maybe it was because the only clothes I had to wear as a kid was hand-me-downs or maybe it is just the thought of wearing clothes that a stranger had worn, either way, the though of buying clothes to actually wear from a thrift shop kind of gave me the heebie jeebies. Can you tell I'm a clothes snob?

So anyway, yesterday I forced myself to go to the Goodwill. I know a girl who worked there so I was going to say "hi" to her and have her model an outfit, get the details, take a picture, and leave. It didn't quite work out that way.
I went into the store and headed for the clothing racks. I found a couple of cute shirts which pulled me in even more. Two and a half hours later, hubby called to see if I was at the mall and I told him no, I had been shopping at the Goodwill for the last two plus hours. You could have heard a pin drop. He knows I'm a clothes snob so the thought of me shopping at a thrift store was as foreign an idea to him as it was initially to me.
I found literally hundreds of pieces of clothing that I instantly loved! And they were sooo cheap!! I ended up leaving with the clothes you see in the picture above--a total of ten pieces of clothes including a pair of jeans, a jacket, a dress, and seven shirts, for a grand total of $34.10! You would have thought I hit the lottery or something I was so happy when I was shopping. Other people noticed my glee at finding Ann Taylor pants, Hollister shirts, Jones New York blouses, etc. and most commented on it. One lady said that shopping there was addicting. Another lady told me to come back Monday when all of the pink and red tagged clothes would be half off. Another lady smiled knowingly.
So now I am an official fan of the Goodwill! I don't think I will ever buy retail clothes again. Here's what I love about buying clothes at a thrift store:

• You don't have to worry about if the clothes will shrink when you get them home and wash them as they have already been washed and have shrunk all they will shrink.
• You don't have to wonder if the color will fade, because again, they have been washed multiple times.
• I like how the clothes are arranged by color. For each type of clothing (t shirts, jeans, skirts, etc) they are arranged by color instead of by designer or style like they do in department stores. This makes it much easier to skip over the colors I don't wear.
• The prices can't be beat! Like-new Ann Taylor Loft pants for $12.95!!! Hollister t shirts for $1.95! A $60 Columbia jacket for $15!! Holy Cow!
• I never wear new new clothes anyway. I always buy clothes then wash them a couple of times to get the manufacturing 'chemically' smell out of them before I wear them.
• Being unemployed and having, yikes, zero income coming in now, I need to stretch my dollars. I still want to look good however so this is an excellent way to do both.
• I thought shopping at a thrift store would be depressing because only poor, desperate people would be shopping there but I was wrong. The parking lot was full of mini vans and SUVs and the random Mercedes. The people inside the store looked like they came from all walks of life as well, from the poor, to the elderly, to teenagers who were dressed really stylishly, to business women on their lunch break who looked like they bought their clothes at Macy's (but now I know their secret!)

If you are like me and kind of squeamish at the thought of shopping at thrift stores, you definitely should give it a try. I went to the Goodwill in an upscale neighborhood simply because the one downtown always looks so dark and depressing when I drive by and at the time I was already depressed enough about the thought of shopping there. Now I am so psyched I'm going to go to ALL of the thrift stores I can find just to see what kind of treasures they hold.

Link Round Up--Money and Other Interesting Things Edition

Just cleaning out my bookmarks and though you would find these links interesting:

• A guy who hasn't used soap or shampoo for a year (money saving idea)
• Down and out on $250,000 per year (uh...yeah, right)
• This video make me say "Wow!"
• And this is how one video (above) can change a person's life
• This post made me say "aawww"

Also...

• If you want to follow me on Twitter, click here
• And if you want to check out my travel blog, click here

Read This!

I just came across a great free e-book called "In the Trenches--Financial Survival During Times of Hardship". I have read through about half of it--second half since within a month I am figuring we won't even have any bills to crunch numbers on--and it is a great read. Plus, it's FREE! Go here to download it.

Exercising...For Free

Today was day three of my resolution to exercise at least two hours every day. I mean, I am not working and have nothing else to do so I have absolutely no excuse not to make time in my un-busy schedule to do this. Here's how my exercise program has been working out so far:

• Day 1--walked three miles on our old treadmill which we have owned for ages. I then followed along with an hour long yoga class that is offered on TV through our cable company which was also free. Hubby gave me an hour long deep tissue massage on this day too which was awesome (and free!). I also did 20 push ups and 20 sit ups (free...just need floor space) and 5x10 reps with 3 pound hand weights which I have had for ages (also free but if I didn't own these I probably would have used heavy cans of food from the pantry).
• Day 2--felt HIDEOUS. I think it was from overexercising my way-out-of-shape body plus the screeching halt to sugar, wheat, other grains, chocolate, Frapuccinos, and other unhealthy food as of December 31st. With all of the exercise and the massage I think all of the toxins in my body were screaming and running for cover causing me to feel like I had been run over by a truck. Ick. I couldn't, however, give up my goal on the second day, that would be really wimpy, so I took an aspirin...or five...and exercised anyway. I walked three miles on the treadmill, 5x10 hand weights, 20 push ups, 20 sit ups, and followed along with another exercise show on TV, this time it was dancing. I'm so out of shape it is pitiful and I am so disappointed with myself because I let myself get this way. Remembering way (WAY!) back, I used to be able to work out for three or four hours at a time sometimes twice a day and could control every muscle in my body, now my muscles are screaming for mercy because they probably haven't been used for...oh...30 years. Yikes.
• Day 3--felt better but my muscles are still telling me that I am totally out of shape. I walked three miles this morning at the mall (I love mall walking!) which was free. In the afternoon I came home and did 20 push ups, 20 sit ups, 5x10 hand weights, and then followed along with two 30-minute kickboxing exercise shows. Hubby watched for a while laughing hilariously so you can count this as free entertainment for the family as well!

To date, all of my exercising has been free. Even if you don't have cable TV that offers free follow along exercise classes, you can always get free exercise DVDs from the library or find them online too. Here's some other free/cheap exercise options:

• Swimming (some days at our local pool swimming is $1 for the session and occasionally they have free days).
• Walking stairs either at a tall building in the city or at the stadium at our local high school is free.
• Jumping rope. We have plenty of rope in the garage.
• Walking outside (I prefer this to walking inside but it has been too icy lately to do this).
• Ice skating (one day a week out local ice rink offers "rent skates" and skate for free day).
• Roller skating (our local roller rink charges only $1 to skate on Wednesdays, however the big, fast teenagers scare me when I am skating so I usually opt to pay more and skate with the seniors on Saturday mornings--they are fast but not insane unlike the teens).
• Bowling (some of the local bowling alleys offer $1 per game, however this is usually during the summer).
• I sold my bike at our last garage sale but if I still had it, I would definitely go for a ride.
• We have access to our local military bases which offers a range of free gym services--basketball, racquetball, weights, treadclimber, tennis, stationary bike, yoga classes, kickboxing classes, etc.
• If you have the equipment (or buy it at the local thrift store or Walmart) you can borrow a community/school facility and play basketball, baseball, tennis, soccer, etc.
• Playgrounds are free so even if you are a few decades older than everyone else playing there, you can still play on the playground equipment (it helps to borrow a kid and do this so you don't look so odd!).
• On Saturdays I like to Volksmarch with our local group--they are awesome!

The bottom line is that you don't need to spend a cent to exercise. Walking is free, calisthenics are free, exercise shows on TV or video are free. There's no excuse! Get out there and get healthy!

Starting the New Year off on an Economical Foot

We skipped the New Year's parties and exciting events that were scheduled at many places around Seattle in favor of a quiet (and free) evening at home. Between New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, here's how we kicked off a wonderful, cash-free New Year:

• On New Year's Eve we stayed home and watched a free On-Demand movie through our cable provider. The movie, Caroline, which I had never heard of, turned out to be quirky, cute, and entertaining. We finished up the evening at midnight watching the fireworks in Seattle on TV then promptly went to sleep.
• Also yesterday evening, while watching the movie, one of the characters was reading Lady Chatterley's Lover, a book I hadn't read in decades. So I went online and found it for free and read a few chapters. I love free books!
• It was kind of surreal to wake up and realize I had exactly nothing to do. I am no longer working (I have worked since I was 14 so this is truly a weird feeling), I am no longer part of any community organizations. I no longer have any responsibilities. Surreal.
• This morning I started my new year off with basically the only thing I want to accomplish this year and that is to exercise daily. I have no excuse not to exercise now considering I don't have a job any more so I hopped on the treadmill for an hour (free), then followed along with an On-Demand yoga class on cable (also free). Unfortunately, I now feel like I have been run over by truck (I am soooo out of shape!).
• My "adventure" for the day, which is the second goal I have for each day this year, was to have hubby give me an awesome massage. He used to massage boxers at his dad's gym and he provides, by far, the best massages I have ever received. Best of all, the price was free!
• I did my B&O tax worksheet for the past year and found that I earned $50,000 last year which was a surprise considering I worked practically part time the whole year. Unfortunately, I can't account for hardly any of it which just goes to show that while spending cash only keeps you out of debt, there still should be some kind of accounting or else the money will vanish and you will wonder where it went. For this year I will try to tally ALL of the money I spend each day in order to better control it. Unfortunately I won't be working so I won't have much to account for :( On a happy note, they must have changed the tax laws because when I did the B&O tax worksheet I found that my small business credit was the same amount as what I owed so I ended up owing zero which was a huge surprise!
• Hubby, besides providing an awesome massage also cooked an awesome dinner which consisted of noodle soup (you need to eat noodles on New Years Day for a long life) with vegetables and shrimp. We figured the entire dinner cost about $2.50 for both of us!

Well that's how I started my new year. I am thinking this will be normal for us now that more than half of our income is gone and we will both be living on hubby's retirement and Social Security. This looks to be a challenging, yet interesting new year!