Oops - the site ate my post!! I usually copy and paste and all that but wasn't thinking. Grrr...
I added a page to my side bar.
I don't know if I will keep up with it, but trying to remember to share all the little savings.
Surprisingly, I've been able to come up with something every day. Saved almost $100 this month, already.
Most of it is pretty usual.
Of note, I had to do some back to school type shopping for BM. The kids rarely wear pants, but I guess BM's new school campus is on the cold side. Considering it's like pulling teeth to get them to wear pants in January (when it's often 30 degrees when they walk to school), it must be really COLD!
So, usually I don't buy a whole school wardrobe, and try to hit the thrift shops or wait for a sale. But it was rather last minute and I couldn't remember the last time I bought any school clothes. So I hit Target for that yesterday.
They also had some really nice jackets at Target, but none in his size. They weren't online at all. I will be in San Jose today so crossing my fingers that the closest Target to my folks house has some jackets in his size!
While perusing online for school pants, I found some clearance items at Kohls. They might be good items for the kids to give each other for Christmas - so they might reimburse me for those. If not - presents or stocking stuffers.
Reminds me, I am not doing any Christmas preparations because I am mostly *out* of the Christmas spending. Dh's family goes big, but they also give us cash - so they just pay for their own presents and dh takes care of all that. IT's not just us - no one else we know is just into the materialism. So it's been a pretty mutual thing over the years with the rest of our friends and relatives.
Anyway, I asked dh yesterday what he was thinking about the kids for Christmas, because I was thinking the $20 I spent yesterday was probably enough. (Dh will get free books and games, and already bought them a few things throughout the year). Thankfully, he was totally on the same page. Phew! We both agreed they were WAY spoiled last year and for their birthdays, and so we look forward to an uber modest Christmas under our own roof. Dh is into having the kids buy us and each other gifts to teach them money management skills, which is fair enough, but I am not even into that so much any more. I think I am just so over the materialism of it all. I don't remember the last time dh and I regularly bought each other gifts. I have no gifts in mind for dh - he is spoiled too.
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P.S. I really like creditcardfree's snowflake posts. I suppose I wanted to share as a reminder that there are probably 1 million ways to snowflake. I know we all do it a little differently. I think my snowflakes are heavy on the credit card rewards (which have been more like giant snowballs the last couple of years - yeesh!)
All the little savings aside, last month we actually pocketed $578 cash from other income sources:
$85 focus group
$10 sold costume
$8 ATT settlement
$470 credit card rewards
$5 sold old cellphone to Sprint
I will include all this stuff in my "Little Things Add Up" page - going forward.
November 3rd, 2012 at 06:54 pm 1351968868
November 4th, 2012 at 02:42 am 1351996953
It was helpful to develop a list of when items you plan to buy go on sale.
November 5th, 2012 at 01:06 am 1352077607