Confessions and Update of a Sweater Hoarder : I did it!

The snowy view from our living room window - good weather for sweaters!  

Well, just a quick entry today.  For those of who following my previous posts know that I publicly shamed myself and posted that I owned 63 sweaters!! My goal was to get rid of enough to take that number down to 50.  I am happy to report, that I now only own 49 sweaters. (yes, I know, this is still shocking, but I'm aiming for improvement here)  

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been able to part with 14 sweaters and donated them all to a local community center for those who actually NEED a sweater.  I'm also excited that all my sweaters comfortably fit in either my closet or the trunk at the foot of the bed and that I have kept only sweaters that I actually wear - what a novel concept!    

So I will see how life with 49 sweaters is for a while and then maybe I will try to part with a few more and see how life is with 45 sweaters!    

Sharing Beans

The Bean Trio, complete with stuffed squirrel to guard them :-)

So I don't know why the obsession with beans, it just seems to work well - after our church service this morning I was inspired to add another bean jar to my collection called "Sharing Beans".  The lesson was based on Luke 3:11 which states

"The person who has two coats must share with the one who doesn't have any, and the person who has food must do the same."


So off I went to root through my mother-in-law's cupboard of spare glass jars and my new "Sharing Beans" jar was born.  It holds beans that are spent on gifts to friends and family for birthdays, Christmas or simply random acts of kindness, but most importantly, this jar also holds beans spent on gifts/donations for those in need.

So I am challenging myself and also any of you reading this - I have decided each time a make trip to buy groceries, I will purchase at least one item for our local food pantry.  No matter how strict our budget is at the moment, I know we can afford one additional canned good each week, at the very least.  Just think of the impact this could make if we all did this every time we went grocery shopping - after all, if we are grocery shopping, then we have at least some food on our tables, while others may have none.  So if you like this idea, I challenge all of you to do the same - then at the end of the month, donate the collected goods to your local food pantry.

Budget Beans Update

Our cats Emma and Scooter curled up under our tree

How nice that December 1st came on morning I didn't have anything scheduled - so I took some time to add up our expenditures for the month of November using my new budget file and bean method (see previous posts for explanations if you are just following now).

We almost ended the month with 66 beans left, but then discovered we needed to buy dog and cat food, since we love our pets, we decided feeding them was important enough to spend all but two of our remaining beans.  :-)

So on November 28, we were left with only 2 beans, but we managed not to spend beyond those two remaining beans on the two remaining days of November - it was tough, as we started to run out of some food essentials, but we managed, just for the exercise of it all!  We did not go hungry, we just had to eat what was already in the cupboards - I'm sure there are some in other parts of the world that would appreciate such a luxury, the thought of this kept me focused.

One of the big rewards received for following through with this entire process?  We spent $304 LESS than we did in October - YAY!!!  So my ideas of intentional spending, but writing everything down and a handy visual with the beans, seemed to have worked - we came in $2 under budget and I'm pretty pleased, because it was quite the shoe-string budget.  Now to duplicate this again for December.

There were actually more rewards and lessons learned during the process, but I will save that for my upcoming post - I will leave you all in suspense!

What is Enough?

Aaron and I, Thanksgiving 2010

I have been meaning to post for a while - I have lots of ideas buzzing around in my head, but can't seem to find the time to sit down and organize them in writing.  I had a post regarding gratitude that seemed most appropriate for the Thanksgiving season, however, I came across a passage in a new book I'm reading (checked out from the library!) that I felt compelled to share it here.....especially on today, Black Friday.

The book is entitled "Your Money or Your Life" by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez - it was recommended by a fellow church member.  The book contains many important points, but one of the key elements is defining the meaning of "enough" and perhaps, the idea of "enough" has been lost in our society of shopping and consumerism - perhaps this is a perfect post for Black Friday.  My mom informed me that the police were called to a local shopping establishment due to unruly shoppers - I'm astounded that some people put this much emphasis on acquiring "stuff".

So here is the passage:

"So what's all that stuff beyond enough - beyond the peak, where the Fulfillment Curve* begins to go down?  Clutter, that's what!  Clutter is anything that is excess - for you.  It's whatever you have that doesn't serve you, yet takes up space in your world.  To let go of clutter, then, is not deprivation; it's lightening up and opening up space for something new to happen.  As self-evident as these ideas may be, many people experience a subtle (or not so subtle) resistance to letting them in.  This is why downscaling, frugality and thrift sound like deprivation, lack and need.  On the contrary!  Enough is a wide and stable plateau.  It is a place of alertness, creativity and freedom.  From this place, being suffocated under a mountain of clutter that must be stored, cleaned, moved, gotten rid of and paid for on time is a fate worse than dearth." (p. 24-25)

*The book defines the Fulfillment Curve as follows:

"At the peak of the Fulfillment Curve we have enough.  Enough for our survival.  Enough comforts.  And even enough little "luxuries".  We have everything we need; there's nothing extra to weigh us down, distract or distress us, nothing we've bought on time, have never used and are slaving to pay off.  Enough is a fearless place.  A trusting place.  An honest and self-observant place.  It's appreciating and fully enjoying what money brings into your life and yet never purchasing anything that isn't needed and wanted." (p. 23)

So, I decided this year on Black Friday, for the first year, not to shop - not for anything, not in stores, not on-line, just to see if I could do it and also to see if I could live to tell about it - ha ha!  Now that it's the end of the day, do I fill deprived?  Not a chance, I don't feel as though I missed out on anything, I am perfectly happy here with "enough" to survive, enough to be comfortable and enough little luxuries.

So off I head to part with more "stuff" - for those of you following earlier posts, the giant sweater pile has diminished by 8 - and will continue to diminish through the season - we have parted with many books and I continue to let things go, leaving more time for family, less time spent on worrying how to pay for things and more time focusing on the things that have no price tag and really, aren't those the most important things of all?

A Tribute to Libraries and Confessions of a Book Addict

My husband, Aaron and I on our 6th anniversary - shortly after our move to Indy.  

Lately I have developed a great appreciation for public libraries.  I certainly have never been "anti-library", but its only since I met my husband, an avid reader and library user, that I have fully appreciated their importance and all they have to offer.

It began with books on CD, specifically Harry Potter, since the unabridged versions were much to costly to purchase - upwards of $50 a book.  My husband, then boyfriend, and I would listen to them on long car trips or I would listen to them on my commute from Eau Claire to St Paul, where he lived and where I taught 2 days a week.  We would both get this little twinge of excitement when we heard the Harry Potter CD music play at the start of each new book.  Of course we ventured out to other fiction - suspense and mystery novels were some of our favorites.  We continued our love of books on CDs during our two years living in Chicago, listening to them on road trips to visit family in Indy and Eau Claire.

Once we moved to Iowa City, the library there was so easily accessible, unlike those in Chicago, so we started using it more for books, even DVDs sometimes, but with all the great thrift stores in Iowa City, we still loaded up our home with purchased copies of books, most at bargain prices, but still, our basement kind of became the library annex, with more books yet unread, than read.  And we probably bought a good share new from Amazon or used from Half.com, its so easy to click and buy anytime of day, isn't it??    

When we moved to Indianapolis, the idea of carrying loads of heavy books out of the basement was just slightly unappealing!  Aaron and I both did our best to part with as many books as possible - we donated many to Goodwill, but still brought quite a load to Indy.  Once we knew we would be in a smaller space here in Indy, we sorted through all the books again.......but STILL the other day, once I thought we had unpacked all the books, my husband unearthed yet a couple more boxes of books - so, the journey of sorting through books begins yet again!

The good news - the Indianapolis has a wonderful public library system.  In our current situation of living in a smaller space and living on a strict budget, the library has been an incredible resource for us.  We have checked out piano music, DVDs of movies and TV series, tons of books.  I can't imagine how many hundreds of dollars this would have set us back if we had to by them all, not mention the space it would take to store them all.  And of course, all the hours of enjoyment reading or watching movies we would have missed without access to all this FREE stuff via our local public library.  

So, it just got me to thinking how truly lucky we are to have libraries.  As I was heading to the library last week, it occurred to me, that without libraries, all these wonderful things would be inaccessible to those without the funds to purchase everything - and what a tragedy that would be.  Libraries make these things accessible to everyone, regardless of income or financial resources - libraries are knowledge, as they say and I feel so fortunate that we have an Indy library branch just down the street from us*.

Now, when Aaron or I want to read a book or see a movie, we head to the library first - its saves us space, it saves us money and supports one of the greatest public services our country has to offer - so, if you haven't already, get out there and support your local public library - it would be a shame to ever see this invaluable resource die!

So off I go to sort through our books to what we can part with.......perhaps I will report back with my progress.

* This post has also been inspired by the budget cuts happening here in Indy - first, they were discussing closing libraries - so tragic, but now have closed libraries either on a Friday or Saturday each week - this prevented anyone from losing a library and from staff losing their jobs

 

Budget Beans

So I happened across an article about practice ideas for my students and decided to modify one of them to use as a budget helper.......and "Budget Beans" was born!

I made one jar for "Budget Beans" and one jar for "Spent Beans".  Each bean represents $1.00.  So I filled the "Budget Bean" jar with the number of beans to correspond with the amount we have to spend on "flexible expenses" - meaning the money we have left over after all the "fixed" expenses are paid, like rent, utilities, insurance, savings, etc.

Then for each dollar spent, I put a bean into the "Spent Beans" jar - it's a little tedious, but kind of a fun experiment.  First, it gives me an immediate visual of how much of our budget we have spent at any given time and second, I'm wondering if that visual will remind me again, that I may not "need" something I think I need.  My goal is to always have some beans left at the end of each month and to add this to our savings account.

So far, I can tell we are doing pretty well this month, we are about half way through the month and are a little less than half way through our beans, so this will help me gauge how much to spend or not to spend for the rest of the month.

This might be a fun way for anyone to "see" their budget, but it might be a fun way to teach kids about the value of money or one could even use it to show kids how to save - by adding a bean to a jar for each dollar saved.......the more full the jar becomes, the more money they have saved.  I'm sure there are endless possibilities.....who says beans are just for eating??

Closet Update: Sweaters

So, the closet reorganizing, prioritizing and purging has been going well.  I found yet another "new" outfit that I didn't know existed in the depths of my closet - its like going shopping in my own home!  So this evening I knew I needed to take on my weakness......sweaters.  Just ask my husband, he has made a rule (which I don't always follow), that when I purchase a new sweater, I must get rid of an old one.  

I'm not sure where my obsession with sweaters originated, perhaps it's all those years growing up in those cold and bitter northern Wisconsin winters.  It's really the only good excuse I can come up with - that and the great deals I find on sweaters at local thrift shops.

To my credit, I did part with many sweaters before our move here to Indy......and even a few since we have been here, but today I took the brave step of unloading all of my sweaters onto our bed and counting them.....any guesses.............I'm ashamed to say, I own 63 sweaters!!  The good news most of these were bought second hand, so even with this many, it didn't set me back more than $250 over the years........and those of you who know me well, know that I spent this much on ONE dress when I was in my 20's and so foolish!      

So, one would think I really don't NEED 63 sweaters.  So now comes the task of sorting through them.  I wear many of them, actually, but I would like to only keep 50 (which I realize is still too many) We'll see if I make it......I will report back when I have worked my way to the bottom of the pile.

Taking on the Closets

My Bedroom Closet - the upper doors are for other storage

So, I have added organization to my list of goals, after all, an organized life has always brought a sense of peace and calm.  And, if I can't be out shopping due to my budget, I might as well be home organizing, right?

Since birth probably, I have owned too many clothes!  No matter how hard a try, there is never enough closet space, clothes get stuffed and crammed everywhere and there is no system for actually finding what I need.  I have come to the conclusion it has little to do with organization or lack of closet space, but more to do with having TOO MANY clothes.  Upon our move to Indianapolis from Iowa City, I got rid of many clothes, but alas, there are still too many pants, shirts, shoes and sweaters to fit comfortably into the space I have.  Fortunately, I do almost all of my clothes shopping at thrift stores or consignment shops, so I don't need to feel guilt at getting rid of something.  Also, since I will continue to shop at these stores, I can technically buy something new (if needed) at little cost.  Lastly, I know there are people in need of my superfluous clothing more than I!  So, I have been gradually getting rid of things and donating to local charities.

 

Our "overflow" closets in the spare bedroom, one is an "overflow" coat closet and storage and one is to be for "off-season" clothes, hopefully for both me and my husband, although I am hogging all of it right now!

Here are my rules:

1.  Take everything out of drawers, armoires, the closets and trunks......yes, I have clothes in ALL of these things!  You see what I mean about having too many?

2.  Immediately toss anything that I don't like or haven't worn in 1-2 years.

3.  Keep any known "favorites".

4. Toss all clothes that don't fit (I must confess I kept 3 pairs of pants that are REALLY close to fitting that I REALLY like, nobody's perfect, right?)  If I don't fit into these by the end of the winter, they will go.

5.  Clothes that fit, but I just don't seem to wear (probably because I couldn't find them in the back of the closet) I put in front where I can see them.  As soon as possible, put these clothes on my mental "to wear" list for the week.  For example today I'm wearing a pair of pants about three years ago, that just were stuck in the back of the closet.  From these clothes, I keep only things I absolutely love and enjoy wearing.  If its not a favorite, I will always pick a favorite over the non-favorite, so why keep it??

6.  Repeat this process every season.  I never get rid of clothes off-season, unless I know I really dislike something.

The final goal is to get all of my clothes for the season in the drawers, trunk, armoire and closet in the bedroom and put off season clothes in the spare bedroom closet and trunk - if I can't do that, then I have to sort again.  In the end, I may well still have too many clothes, but I will be better off than when I started this process - and progress is the key I always say.  Wish me luck!

  

Creating a "Creative" Budget

I realized quickly it was very easy for us to spend more than we should, even when we were doing our best to keep things in check.  We tried the "envelope system" that I found on the Dave Ramsey website.  In this method, you create envelopes for each category of spending and the put the allotted cash in each - when its gone its gone, until the next month.  This method worked OK for me, but my husband didn't like it as well - sometimes he would make a quick stop for groceries on the way home from work, but wouldn't have the envelopes or vice versa - then it would be a waste of gas and time to come all the way home and then head back out with the envelopes......

Then there are always the usual computerized budget systems, wish I'm sure works fine for many, but I needed something that let me express some creativity and find some sort of joy in the whole budgeting process - computerized graphs just seemed boring and impersonal......and emphasized how annoying budgeting can be!

So, I invented a new method, its nothing fancy, but it was kind of fun and I had almost all the materials on hand - saving even more money.  I always chuckle when you have to spend money to buy a book or course on how to save money.......I knew I had to figure this out for free!  Below are pictures of my index card budgeting system.....

The only thing I bought was the 4X6 card box, which cost about $4 at Office Depot - I'm sure there might be more cost-effective ones out there, but Office Depot was on my way home from teaching and then I wasn't spending extra money on gas to drive elsewhere searching.

I love color, so I just wrote "Budget" on a sticky label and put it on the box - then we keep the box right in the kitchen where its handy to use.

Then I grabbed some index dividers I already had on hand and labeled each with the month......again, notice my obsession with color, I just can't help myself, really........

Then I used some index cards I had on hand and labeled each with an expense category.  I had some fancy, colorful cards leftover from another project, so now I have each month in a different color, but eventually I will just go to whatever I have on hand.    You can use whatever categories are needed....here is some of what I have

Input Card - this lists how much income we bring in each month, it varies because I teach private lessons and am always adding new students, so this allows for that flexibility.

Regular Expenses - On this card I list all our regular expense, like rent/mortgage, utilities, health ins, car ins, etc - things that aren't changing much each month.  I also put the date due next to each, so I never forget to pay a bill and then give it a "check" once its paid for the month.

Flexible Expenses - all the other cards are categories that we regularly spend on, but they may vary each month and I consider these areas in which we can "control" spending.  For example, groceries, health/beauty, household, pet supplies, etc - the one I have shown is our "household" for October, notice all the Drano!  We had trouble with the drains that month and tried all sorts of things from soda and vinegar all the way to some heavy-duty thing from the plumbing aisle at the hardware store - this did the trick several $'s later!  Still less expensive than a plumber, though.

For each entry on the category card I list:

1. Date
2. Store where purchase was made
3. Summary of items purchased
4.  If there is more than one category on a specific receipt, I highlight it in yellow and calculate how much was spent where and list the items and amount on each category card.....its a little tedious, but its the best way for me to know what we are spending where.

My goal is to keep tabs on these throughout the month to prevent overspending - at the end of the month I add up each category, so I can see where we are spending the most and how we can save more the next month.  For me, having to write down the purchase, makes me think twice before buying something, unless its really a NEED over a WANT.

Lastly, there is plenty of space in the box, so I have been putting all the receipts in the front of the box - this way if my husband is out and purchases something, he can just throw the receipt in there, then I can record it.

So far this system seems to be working well and the fact that the box is colorful and handwritten, that somehow appeals to my creativity and seems more "fun" to me......we'll see what I have to report at the end of November.

A Rockin' New Coat Rack

We have no coat closet in our home, so it was time to find another solution.  The hallway was too narrow for a coat tree and of course those cost money - so we scrounged around and found a piece of spare, rustic-looking wood and had some spare hooks that we purchased at a thrift store for a couple dollars and with a little handiwork by my husband - Viola!   So for $2 and a little bit of effort, we now have practical and attractive coat storage - I might even be glad we don't have a closet now.

A Place For All Things Creative

I have learned that to survive challenging times, I must find the silver lining.  Due to circumstances beyond our control, my husband and I are learning to live on the strictest of budgets.  It is a challenge most days to leave things on the store shelves that we would have once been able to purchase, however, I have a competitive streak that I will now put to use to see just how little money we can spend and how far we can distance ourselves from the overwhelming materialism that seems to plague so much of our society.  If we are successful, I'm sure this will be an entirely new way of life, one we will continue to pursue, even as financial hardship passes.  

So this blog is my attempt at finding the silver lining -  a place to share and learn about creative and thrifty ideas and thoughts for  for recycling, crafting, budgeting, cooking and anything else that comes to mind.  Here's to a simpler life!