Well, yesterday was pretty worthless. I didn't do much.

Exhausted from Saturday I guess.

I went to a MLM sales party. I went because it was my friend. & it was food. I didn't even take my checkbook. I thought if she was short of some sales goal I might spend $20.

LOL.

Oh boy. The whole thing bugged me on some level. On many levels. But I was a sucker. I spent $70. !!!!!!!!!

To be fair, about $20 of it was Father's Day gifts. Some of it I had in mind for the kids' birthday party.

I don't really have any inkling if the stuff was worth it. It's rather vague how much you get for the prices (no doubt intentional). So we'll see.

I generally as a rule don't do sales parties. BEcause they bug me. & it's usually crap I would never buy anyway. I mean seriously, I probably get invited to one every weekend. I have blogged much before that in the mommy crowd you start to feel like people only look at you as a $$$$$$$. So many just trying to make a side income and just want to sell crap to you. I'd rather have friends that invited me to a non-sales party once in a while. Yikes!

So I guess my new rule is no more food sales parties. Even if it is a really good friend who sees me more than as $$$$$$$$$$. I didn't exhibit near the self control I would have liked. The whole time I was grumbling to myself, "what am I doing?"

Without common sense I could have easily spent hundreds.

Most of it was rather, eh. Just add water and you have gourmet food? It's all natural. (It reminded me of fast food in the sense you just add water and go. Add this and go. Blech). IT wasn't terribly appealing because my dh is my personal chef. So a lot of their products were to replace cooking and fresh fruits and veggies, etc. Wasn't seeing the health benefit, or the convenience factor since I have my chef. So a large chunk wasn't appealing at all.

But they get me on the drinks, breads, dips, etc. Oh - the sauces were DIVINE. Since we don't really BBQ I found it easy to pass though.

Anyway, I learned that going to a sales party because the product didn't sound so bad, was a TERRIBLE idea.

When I get the stuff I will carefully consider if it is worth it. The price per serving and other comparable options. But since it is MLM I have the feeling it is all pretty much a rip off. I have plenty of time to find replacement products though, or homemade recipes. Thank you internet! I doubt I would ever reorder any of the stuff.

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Well, yesterday I did gather up how much of my old MLM stuff I want to auction off. I came up with about $700 retail. Dh was appalled. I assured him I had paid little for all of it. We get 50% profit and in general I applied my profits to personal purchases (which we got at 50% off). I couldn't really justify the expense otherwise. So I really and truly had little cash flow going out in this particular MLM. I figure I will probably get $100 easy on ebay - if I just do one lot to be rid of it. Dh was arguing I should break it up into smaller lots. HE maybe has a point, but I just don't care. I want to be RID of the stuff. All at once, preferred. If I am lucky I will get upwards of $100.

With the cable change we will probably sell our TIVO as well. We have a transferable lifetime subscription so we may be able to sell for $150.

Dh went on a garage sale kick this weekend. & bought a couple of things off Craigslist. He thinks he can make $100 off his finds this weekend.

We'll see. He really wants a Wii. He bought one this weekend to sell. He has been seeing a lot in the $200 range (steals). So figured if he buys and sells enough (just a couple at that price) he can raise $200 to buy his own.

Oh boy. I honestly just really wish he had that commitment to our retirement fund. & I think we need to have a talk about it.

For now he is getting a Wii. I am just sitting back and seeing how much effort it takes.

We were to buy a GPS this year, so I think I will encourage him to fund it this way - with ebay sales and such.

From there I think we need to have a talk. I think at least a percentage of his sales should go to retirement. Even is just 10% or something.

Then again, this is probably the biggest thing we quibble about. So if he can make the money he can buy whatever his heart desires. I'd be kind of glad not to worry about how to figure out how to fit in his big purchases in our little budget.

I think he has enough common sense we can strike some deal, that a portion must go to savings. Or that when he doesn't want to buy something, I appreciate the extra income, anyway. Hint hint. We just need to sit down and talk. For now I guess I am sitting back and seeing if he makes as much as he thinks he will.

Truth be told there is a business to be had there. HE loves buying and selling old game systems and games, etc. So this might be an interesting side line for him.

Problem is it makes it way easier to justify buying more stuff, when he makes money off of it. It just feeds his hobby more.

The downside is that there will be considerable tax ramifications here. & complicated record keeping. He needs to start logging his miles to pick up the stuff, etc. Because lord know if we are reporting that income, we need to offset the revenues with all this gas/driving.

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Anyway, he took the kids garage sale-ing yesterday and was going to allow the kids to buy some stuff from their piggy bank cash.

They spent $1 and found $1 on the floor later. Their piggy banks remain intact.

I would love to follow that lesson through and take the kids to the store and have a lesson on finances. Tell them, you could buy this for $20 here. Or for $1 at a garage sale. What do you think we should do?

These lessons should start young.

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On our cable switch (forced since out cable company got bought out) I think we have settled on a package that is $15 more for month. We justified it was okay because with one out of preschool I am saving $300 of that per month, and I have $15 left over. The timing is really perfect.

BUT I had decided to put that $15 to the mortgage, and was bummed on that.

I am paying $13/month for my ID theft monitoring right now. It has been almost a year (maybe 9 months) since my ID theft and it is all cleaned up. I am thinking of dropping that and applying it to my mortgage.

I still haven't decided if I should get a credit freeze or not. *sigh* I kind of would like to freeze it if I can't monitor it daily. & I am still a bit paranoid. But for now, it seems to be under control. The $13/month was priceless in the beginning as we cleared things up. But further out, it is turning out to be less needed. Phew!!!!!!!!!

I am pleased I found a way to afford the cable and the mortgage payment bump, with no change to our monthly budget. Woohoo!