Started taking some steps.....
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Started taking some steps.....
| Tue, 10-25-2005 - 2:05pm |
Well, I've started pretty strong this week on trying to get things stratightened out.
DH and I talked things out, and he's on board with getting things settled down and paid off.



That's great!
I started our snowflake jar last month, and turned it in on the 21st. I had 404 pennies alone! After Coinstar got their share, I had $13.96 in it. Nothing earth shattering, but it made me feel good, and had .96 to start for this month. My DH does the laundry (we're in an apt, so we have to pay!), and instead of just taking my quarters, he was actually giving me the change for it. And since our space is limited, we've never saved our soda cans, but DH ordered a recycling recepticle from bottlesandcans.com (it was free) and now we have a place to put our cans. That saved $10 for one of those large Rubbermaid trash cans. I found a recycle center behind a local grocery store (better than having to drive 15 miles to the only other one that I thought was in existence), and he gives a voucher that I just take into the market for cash.
I get all of my cleaning supplies at Target or WalMart too. Our local market sells a large bottle of Cascade for nearly $7, but I can get the same thing at Target for half the price, which is a mystery to me! I have started shopping for food at a market called WinCo, which is new in our area, and my weekly bill has dropped from around $165 to $125- $130. The market itself isn't close by (about 15-20 miles away), but I use the $$ I save to put in my gas tank. So, I am basically getting my gas without any extra $$ going out, compared to before I shopped at WinCo, which is nice.
Keep it up! It feels good, doesn't it?!
Kathy
Sounds like you're going great!
We keep our snowflake jar in the bedroom. Dh puts anything smaller than a quarter in it. It's fun - I just rolled up $10 of quarters that I'm going ot deposit tomorrow.
And we're also going strong on the eating at home thing. It's not always very convenient, but whether we eat at home or at a restaurant, we always are full afterwards.
I have a lot of trouble sticking to a list. For the first while, DH would go grocery shopping by himself, because otherwise we'd impulse buy like mad. Now, I just stop at the store on the way home every couple of days and pick up one or two things at a time.
Yes, it does feel good! I finally feel a bit more in control, which is good since I have been feeling like everything was just spinning out of control.
With Christmas coming up I am a tad worried, but I have already started here and there, and have a list started and am sticking to it. With DH's family, he has 3 siblings who each have spouses/SO's, so that's been getting expensive every year, especially now we are starting to have children; this year I presented doing a "secret santa" with the siblings (everyone would buy as they normally do for the kiddies and the parents) and setting a 40.00 limit. All of them were on board with that idea (and relieved too!) so I am happy about that as well.
For your Christmas shopping, this is a hint that helped me last year when I started trying to bring down my debt load. I went to our local Goodwill store (actually went there for some dress slacks for my son for a Christmas play he was in), and I decided to look around for fun afterwards. I wasn't planning on buying anything because I knew I had to save for holiday gifts. But as I walked around, I started spotting GREAT gifts! I found a Lands End sweater for my husband that still had the original tags on it (never worn) for only $2.00! A beautiful china tea cup and saucer in it's original box (new condition) with a Christmas pattern for my Mother-in-law who collects them ($1.50!). A nice etched glass vase still in it's sealed box, never opened, for $1.00, and some children's DVDs for .50 cents each, some with shrink-wrap still on them. I knocked out a bunch of my shopping that day and spent next to nothing. Everyone who received a gift from my Goodwill shopping trips loved them, and they never knew how little it cost me. :-D
My parents have found gift ideas at their Goodwill and Salvation Army stores. Sometimes I've been able to find great items that were probably wedding gifts that the couple didn't want, so they donated them to the stores, and they're in new condition and just great for giving away as a gift to someone else. :-D
So if you have a Goodwill or Salvation Army store near you (or anything similar), take an hour or so to go through them and see what you find. You might walk out with nothing, or you might just find the perfect gift for someone on your list. :-D
Happy Shopping :-D
Pat :-D
Thank you, Pat! I didn't even think about trying there, but I can honestly say that there have been times in the past that I myself had donated things with tags on them (pre eBay days...) that I didn't wear or they didn't fit properly, whatever. That's a great tip.
The other thing I was thinking about doing, for my co-workers and my teammates on my bowling night, is to get some really cute cellophane baggies, and bake christmas sweets this year, instead of my usual gift buying. We do a gift exchange of 20.00 for "secret santa" but that's manageable, I can just spend my allowance on that, but I do still like to give the others a little something, as they always do for me. It's the thought behind the gift, really, and that's part of how I got myself in to this too. I always wanted everyone to be awed by my gifts, how extravagant, etc. I am promising myself to be different this year and do more heartfelt, personal gifts.
The heartfelt, homemade gifts sound like just the ticket! :-D I do that with my husband's co-workers. I bake each of them some cookies and put them in little Christmas baggies or on a styrofoam plate with Christmas-print plastic wrap on them. I just make a few batches of sugar, chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin and peanut butter cookies, and his co-workers rave over them each year. When his co-workers meet me for the first time, they say, "Oh! You're the Cookie Lady!!" LOL! :-D
Pat :-D