Frugal finds

This is the time for spring consignment sales. This year we are lucky and don't need much for our daughter, but I like to check them out none the less. Here most of the consignment sales have half price Saturday. All the consignors tag items differently that they want to be tagged as half off and I have found some pretty tremendous deals. My general rule is that I will not spend more than $1 on a piece of clothing for everyday wear, and no more than $3 on something for church wear for my daughter, and often I can find things less than that. These are not cheap articles of clothing either, they are name brands that hold up well. In our house I have found that Gymboree, Children's Place and Okie Dokie hold up the best for the kind of abuse my child gives to them and they fit the longest. (I have no connection to those companies, that is just my opinion.) They also are stitched well so the seams hold up well, as I find it annoying to spend even a little on clothing that falls apart when I wash it for the first or second time. 

The toys and books, I set a limit before I walk in the door for what she can have, either by price or by number of items and price. Here are two of the deals that we got at 1/2 price day at one of the local consignment shops.  

The cloth book has sounds on each page so she can "read" it by herself, and is washable it was 75 cents.

The Elmo basket she loves to carry around the living room with her toys in it and I think we may use it for the egg hunt on Easter, it was 50 cents. 

Next a local library has their Friends of the library sale and I went last weekend. They sell discards from the library and donations from local people. The children's books were 50 cents for the board books, $1 for the paper backs and $1.50 for the hard backs. All other books were $1.50 for the paperback and $3.00 for the hard backs. They had the entire basement of the building categorized and nicely laid out. 

The Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales is an older edition with 20's style cover art, and will go nicely with my homeschooling. It was $1.50 as it is a children's book, the only damage it had was a small rip in the book jacket at the top on the spine. 

The next find I was SUPER excited about. (I am sorry for the blurriness, our camera decided it did not want to focus)  If you have not read these books you should. This is the compilation of newsletters written in the 90s about frugality in all forms. The newsletter was called the Tightwad Gazette. These two books were private donations to the sale, and looked like they had never been opened. They cost me $3 each. 

Lastly, there are some beautiful forsythia bushes in bloom in our neighborhood and I was able to get some blossoms for out table for free! It is always nice to bring some of the springtime inside. 

Goals for 2010

I hate the idea of resolutions. For some reason when I call them that they never happen. I get to the middle of January and I did not do a workout or whatever and they fall by the wayside. So a few years ago I decided to outline goals instead. In the last weeks of the year I try to take an inventory of what I am doing right or wrong and come up with ideas to make my life and my family's lives better.
This year has been very tough on us financially, so some of the goals are financial to help ease some of that burden in case we go through extended periods of unemployment again.
1- Create an emergency savings of $1000 as soon as possible. This is also one of the first steps suggested by the Dave Ramsay method. I have wanted to take his classes but I can't justify a couple hundred dollars to learn to manage money right now. $1000 may not be enough to solve whatever problem it is but at least I will feel better knowing there is that much toward the solution .
2-Have one spend free week per month. This is one the husband and I are going to try, but I have no idea if we can due to gas for the car. I think in order for him to get to work at some point mid week the car will need more gas. We may have to make the exception of a certain amount of gas money, as riding the bus or carpooling are not options. But even with a mid week gas run, the week would still save money if that was all that was spent.
3-Lose 10% of my body weight to become healthier. This is a beginning goal and one that should help to start the ball rolling.
4-Declutter the house. Once a week I want to go through and determine 30 things to sell, give away or discard, until we are to a more manageable level.