I love saving money. Absolutely LOVE it. It's almost a game for me-- A game in which every single tiny penny counts. And the prize for winning the game? More money in our savings (aka: travel) account!
Just last month, I finally used up an AT&T gift card I'd been hanging onto... It literally had $.25 on it. But there was NO WAY I was throwing it away without cashing in its full value. We have this little basket on our kitchen counter, and it mostly collects coins and wine corks and half-used gift cards... After a card is semi-used, I grab a sharpie and write the remaining amount on it. (An excellent technique I picked up from my parents.) And Leo made fun of me on more than one occasion when he would come across that boldly-written $.25. But eventually, I successfully lowered our phone bill by a whole quarter! I win.
And last week, when we bought our beautiful new Ninja blender, we paid less than half price for the little bundle of joy! See, last year when we got our fancy new pots and pans, we got a $50 Bed Bath & Beyond gift card to sweeten the deal. It has ridden around in my wallet for a YEAR waiting for the perfect (necessary) item to pop up. Enter Ninja. Along with a 20% off in-store coupon, the Ninja was that much more fun to bring home. I win again.
My two rules: 1) never make a big purchase without getting an amazing deal. And 2) don't buy crap you don't need. Our old blender had been around for about 7 years, and had actually started bleeding oil every time we fired it up. We mopped up the oil and tried to nurse it back to health for many, many months before finally throwing in the towel and going shopping for the Ninja.
I got a random email the other day from Dave Ramsey's people. Not sure how I got on that list, but I think I may have found a new friend... I don't appreciate how he seems to charge for all of his advice, but from what I can tell: the man knows what he's talking about. I don't think I'm willing to pay for advice on how to save money at this point, but we'll see. I sometimes conduct spontaneous google searches on the subject and get all kinds of fun new pieces of advice for free.
Please don't judge me.
I'm also thinking about beginning to dabble in the world of coupons? But I'm torn. Coupons require using paper and printing paper and wasting paper. Saving money while filling up landfills... Still pondering the pros and cons of that one.
Just last month, I finally used up an AT&T gift card I'd been hanging onto... It literally had $.25 on it. But there was NO WAY I was throwing it away without cashing in its full value. We have this little basket on our kitchen counter, and it mostly collects coins and wine corks and half-used gift cards... After a card is semi-used, I grab a sharpie and write the remaining amount on it. (An excellent technique I picked up from my parents.) And Leo made fun of me on more than one occasion when he would come across that boldly-written $.25. But eventually, I successfully lowered our phone bill by a whole quarter! I win.
And last week, when we bought our beautiful new Ninja blender, we paid less than half price for the little bundle of joy! See, last year when we got our fancy new pots and pans, we got a $50 Bed Bath & Beyond gift card to sweeten the deal. It has ridden around in my wallet for a YEAR waiting for the perfect (necessary) item to pop up. Enter Ninja. Along with a 20% off in-store coupon, the Ninja was that much more fun to bring home. I win again.
My two rules: 1) never make a big purchase without getting an amazing deal. And 2) don't buy crap you don't need. Our old blender had been around for about 7 years, and had actually started bleeding oil every time we fired it up. We mopped up the oil and tried to nurse it back to health for many, many months before finally throwing in the towel and going shopping for the Ninja.
I got a random email the other day from Dave Ramsey's people. Not sure how I got on that list, but I think I may have found a new friend... I don't appreciate how he seems to charge for all of his advice, but from what I can tell: the man knows what he's talking about. I don't think I'm willing to pay for advice on how to save money at this point, but we'll see. I sometimes conduct spontaneous google searches on the subject and get all kinds of fun new pieces of advice for free.
Please don't judge me.
I'm also thinking about beginning to dabble in the world of coupons? But I'm torn. Coupons require using paper and printing paper and wasting paper. Saving money while filling up landfills... Still pondering the pros and cons of that one.
