Jul 20, 2011 | Flashback, Just plain good, Repurposed, Thrift store |
The first thing I do when I’m on vacation in a new city is scope out all of the local thrift stores and resale shops. It was raining yesterday, so the kids couldn’t do some of the things they had planned, so we hit the thrift stores. The first one had...
Jul 19, 2011 | Downsizing, One year of downsizing, Save $, Thrift store |
With a goal of 365 items, downsizing one item a day over a one year period, has proven to be more difficult than I imagined. With the exception of my garage, there’s just not much left to downsize in my house. When I open a cabinet or a drawer, thinking I...
Jul 16, 2011 | Abandoned places, Cultural chaos, Just plain good |
18 hours in a car? Not a problem for us! Yeah, I would love to fly and get to my destination quickly, but I’m good with a road trip. There’s more adventure in driving. (Texas to northern Colorado) I don’t have photos of all the beautiful sights...
Jul 8, 2011 | A better way, Repurposed, Thrift store
Yes, I paid full price. Two times. But it was planned. As I said early on in the no retail shopping challenge, I would love to have a pair of TOMS shoes. I love what they’re doing and if I buy a pair of shoes, a child that is in need of shoes gets a pair....
Jul 2, 2011 | Dumpster diving, One year of downsizing
[item] Serengeti sunglasses [purchase info] Found these in the trash while acquiring photo props [time in my possession] Approximately 9 months [last used] A few months ago [difficulty level in getting rid of it] Easy [destination] eBay [info] I like these, but...
Jun 11, 2011 | Am I still here?, Cultural chaos, Read the fine print |
Procrastinating is something I try not to do, but I seem to do it well. Apparently it’s one of my many gifts… Procrastinate. Watering my plants, returning the 1,000 emails in my inbox or renewing my drivers license. The plants are dead, I have a few...
May 31, 2011 | Flashback, No retail shopping, Save $
I decided not to be the ugly neighbor any longer. I didn’t do much to my yard last summer, so this year, it’s looking a little rough. Should I go shopping? This is going to be weird… I chose Home Depot because I had a store credit from a return I...
May 31, 2011 | Am I still here?, Save $
On the last day of my no retail shopping challenge, I started my day as I do everyday. I turn on my espresso machine so it will heat up to make my latte. I got one latte out of it before it started constantly running, trying desperately to fill itself up with water,...
May 24, 2011 | No retail shopping, Read the fine print |
I decided to take the day off yesterday and spend some time playing. I haven’t been to a thrift store in a while but I needed to find some flip flops for my boys and boots for all of us. Yes, I know it’s summer, but I’m tired of ruining shoes on my...
May 20, 2011 | No retail shopping, Save $
I get teased pretty often about my use of paper towels, or should I say lack of use? Over the last year I might have used almost 4 or 5 rolls and 3 of them were in the first part of the year. I don’t have any now. When people come over to eat and I did have...
May 19, 2011 | Downsizing, No retail shopping, Repurposed
One of my neighbors was talking about getting rid of some planters and clay pots that have been sitting on the side of her house for a while. She said her husband was going to throw them out if nobody wanted them. I have no idea if that meant the trash of the thrift...
May 17, 2011 | No retail shopping, Salvaged
So I did take a day off to pick up the camper and to play a little bit. I have to ‘fess up. I had to make a purchase. There was no possible way around it. I had to buy a tire and some air. Here’s the story. The camper had been sitting for 4 years,...
May 11, 2011 | No retail shopping, Save $, Sharing
I’ve done over 5,000 transactions on eBay. Not recently, and not all purchases either. I had an eBay business from the late 90’s until about 5 years ago. I still shop on eBay and so do my kids. I just had an interesting observation. Many of the items I...
May 9, 2011 | No retail shopping, Salvaged
Happy post Mother’s day! I took off of blogging yesterday to relax after work and take a nap on the trampoline. It’s covered by trees, providing a beautiful shade cover… and lots of sharp branches to hit your head on while jumping. The chainsaw is...
May 7, 2011 | No retail shopping, Save $ |
I was going to wait until the end of the chalenge to do the final financial update, but I thought it was pretty relevant today. Although the financial implications of the no shopping challenge were not a driving factor in starting the challenge, it’s been a...
May 6, 2011 | Downsizing, No retail shopping |
In efforts to continue the downsizing of my possessions, I had another opportunity yesterday to do something good with them. I gave a bunch of stuff to Jason and Carrie for a yard sale, one that will help fund their mission trip to Uganda, Africa. I really thought...
May 3, 2011 | Downsizing, One year of downsizing
[item] 6 burner Pro-series Brinkmann gas grill [purchase info] Purchased at the thrift store [time in my possession] Approximately 2 years ago [last used] 3 months ago [difficulty level in getting rid of it] Medium [destination] Craigslist [info] I bought this grill...
Apr 29, 2011 | Downsizing, Ideas, No retail shopping
They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. I’ve never actually tried to type that up to check it, but it seems accurate. What if we take that one step further… a picture is worth 1,000 things? So what do I mean by this? If you own a camera, you can snap a...
Apr 28, 2011 | No retail shopping, Save $
Tonight, we’re discussing some household budget items… electric, groceries, dining, movie rentals, cable tv and more. When I say ‘we’, I mean me and my kids. No, I’m not excluding my spouse, I don’t have one. I know my kids are...
Apr 26, 2011 | Cultural chaos, Downsizing, No retail shopping
I met Dave Bruno several weeks ago at SXSW. He’s the author of The 100 Thing Challenge: How I Got Rid of Almost Everything, Remade My Life and Regained My Soul. The basis of the book is simplicity, minimalism and living with less stuff. I finished reading his...
Apr 25, 2011 | Downsizing, No retail shopping, Thrift store
This morning, all I heard was, “Mom! Where are my Crocs? I can’t find any shoes to wear!” My kids only have 2 or 3 pairs of shoes at a time. They’re not only growing fast, but boys shoes are hard to find used and in good condition. I try to...
Apr 23, 2011 | Creative weirdness, No retail shopping, Repurposed
I used 6 boxes of Peeps to make a video. Peeps are food, however I didn’t buy them. After spending some quality time with my Peeps, I really didn’t want to get rid of the little guys. I took a bite out of one and quickly remembered why I don’t eat...
Apr 23, 2011 | No retail shopping, Recycle
Yesterday was Earth Day. I didn’t do anything different, as I try to be good to the earth everyday. Earth Day (back then, a week) was a product of the late 60’s, born in 1970, as a political movement to create awareness for environmental issues. In the...
Apr 19, 2011 | Cultural chaos, No retail shopping, Repurposed, Save $, Sharing |
I was given a challenge several weeks ago to come up with an artistic creative element to do during a church service. I remembered about two years ago, I had seen some motion sand art created on a light table with a camera mounted above it. As I started fantasizing...
Apr 18, 2011 | Downsizing, No retail shopping
I miss my grill. A lot. I’ve been researching grills. A lot. After careful research and deliberation, I narrowed it down to the modular Minden gas grill. Simple, now all I have to do is find a used one. Well, that was the plan anyway. The grill is so new...
