On the Can (Part Deux)

Saturday afternoon was spent in my garage sorting bottles and then with Pablo at the recycling place (a big semi-truck in a parking lot in the ghetto, really).   My garage was completely over-run by green trash bags.  So much so that you really couldn’t walk in there once you opened the door.  It sort of looked like a scene from that awesome train-wreck of a show “Hoarders.”  Only this stuff was actually worth something.  Not much, but something.

I decided I was going to finally return them because I haven’t blogged in awhile and I needed something to say.  Telling you how much I made from recyclables is news, right?  In my world it is.  ‘Cause there’s not much going on around here.

As I started the sorting process, I realized I really should have gotten myself some plastic gloves.  If you trash dive for bottles at your job and then put them in bags and forget about them in the garage A) critters eat through the bags looking for the sweet sticky remnants of soda and B) that soda is sticky as hell and sometimes moldy.

One thing I will NEVER do again is dump the recycling bin from outside of work into a bag and take it home.  It’s supposed to be for bottles and cans, but people throw their empty starbucks Frappuccinos in there along with their sandwich containers and half-full Naked juice with no lid.  The stench is strong enough to travel back through time and punch that guy who made fun of you in high school.  I mean, really eye-watering, I just-found-this-dead-raccoon-in-my-garage-and-it’s-been-there-for-weeks  kind of bad.   I considered just taking it to the side of the road and leaving it there for an ambitious homeless person but after I had already touched the slime, I figured it was too late now.

 

Sweeney came out, baby on hip, to see how I was fairing and I waved him away.  “I don’t want her to see my like this. You guys get back in the house!” By “like this,” of course, I meant surrounded by other people’s trash and covered in black mold.  If I’d ever been embarrassed in front of my husband…well…at that moment, I came pretty close.  As he walked away he mumbled, “I’d like to think this isn’t going to happen again…but…”

The truth is, it probably will happen again.  It’s  bit like giving birth:  You curse and swear at the flies circling your head and the mold spores threatening to permeate your perfectly good lungs, but when you get that cash in your hand and walk away from Pablo, the elation takes over and the pain is forgotten.  Until six months later when you’re kneeling in the garage again, feeling like a junkie looking for a hit.

 

(Not actual car.)
I was guessing I had $32.00 in recycling.  Pablo gave me $40.35.

If you just found forty bucks on the street, wouldn’t you be excited about that?  And yes, it was four months of mostly digging bottles out of the trash at work, but only two people saw me.  So it’s almost like it never happened…and I’m forty bucks the richer.

Tags: Bottles, children, Cockroaches, Frugal, money, parenting, recycling, saving

Money is Everywhere!!!!!

This is going to be my new mantra.  Mostly because I don’t feel it’s anywhere.  I’m having a hard time saving any these days and currently, if you’re out there keeping track, I have $202.77.   My monthly $25 seems all that’s going in there and it’s disheartening.  As stated before, my Starbucks “problem” doesn’t help me any and my debt, let’s face it, doesn’t either.

I watched a video on Yahoo about a single Mom who told her kids “money is everywhere” and they seem to find change everyday.  And there’s a tip for you:  Don’t feel like you’re too good to reach down and pick up that penny, folks.  It tells the Universe you don’t give a crap about cash.  Respect the monies and they will respect you.

I know I keep talking about the damn bottles in the garage, but seriously, there are a butt-ton of damn bottles in the garage.  It’s starting to smell in there.  There’s a cardboard recycle bin outside of work that no one is in charge of emptying…so the other day, after everyone left, I emptied it into a giant green trash bag.  Imagine the smell of death…now throw rotten fish on top of that.  That’s kind of what this bucket smelled like.  But I got a giant green trash bag full of (dirty) bottles and cans.  On the drive home, I just prayed silently that no Cockroaches leaped out of the bag into my car.

It’s safe to say I’ve gone to the next level.

I also have a pile of stuff to list on Ebay, but Jeez…who has the time?  Back before I had a kid, I found the time…and now…it seems it’s just not there.  But the money is plenty appealing and I’m sort of in love with the virtual yard sale thing. 

Do you know I’ve actually had people steal from yard sales I’ve held?  What’s WRONG with people????

Anyway, time has also been taken up writing articles for www.theconversation.tv so feel free to go check those out when you get a moment.   It’s been a fun ride and it’s inspiring me to figure out how the heck I can turn that little hobby into a career.  I mean, Kim Kardashian did that, right?  Only with being stupid on t.v?  So how hard could it be, really.

Let me know if you find money everywhere once you put that “money is everywhere” mantra into your head.  Even if it’s change.  And swiping a cup from a bum doesn’t count.  You have to find it sans person attached…

Tags: Change, Cockroaches, Homeless, Kim Kardashian, money, parenting, recycling

I should be committed.

This had little to nothing to do with my journey to save money. However, I would like to turn my writing into a paid career….so maybe it’s more connected than I think. I’ve become a contributing writer to the new companion website to the Lifetime tv show, “The Conversation.” Read if you’re up to it! And in case you’re wondering, yes, yes my garage is STILL collecting bottles and cans. A whole bunch of them…

On Being a Good Partner.

Tags: commitment, family, marriage, Relationships

Starbucks adds an addictive chemical to their coffee that makes you crave it fortnightly, smartass.

I haven’t been writing as much as I’d like because I’ll admit:  I’m not doing as well at this frugal deal as I’d like. 

I blame Starbucks.

My favorite movie in college was “So I Married an Axe Murderer.”  There’s a line where Mike Meyers (playing his own Scottish Dad) is talking about KFC and states they put an addictive chemical in their chicken that makes you crave it fortnightly…smartass.  And that’s about how I feel about Starbucks.  I’m sure you could argue that the chemical is caffeine.  But then, that’s not conspiracy enough for me.

                                               

I got another couple of $3 checks in the mail for filling out online surveys. And I honestly have a garage full of bottles waiting to be returned.  I have no idea how much that will be.  $23?  $30?  Not more than 30, I’m sure.  I’ll bring them to the recycling center when my Mom is in town in two weeks.  I’m not bringing the baby to a recycling center.  And I can’t fit her AND the bottles in my car. 
Not been doing so hot at not spending money eating out to lunch, either.  Is it laziness?  Probably.  Laziness and a heaping side order of forgetfulness.  I leave my lunch at home a lot. 

I haven’t touched the money I HAVE saved and that’s a pretty big deal for me.  I’ve gotten to this place before and then have had to take the money out to pay for….something.  Whatever.  Groceries, a bill…a new sweater.   So I’m budgeting a bit better than I was.

I need to celebrate the little victories.

High five.  (That’s Addie’s new trick of the week.)

 

Tags: family, frugal li, frugal living, parenting, recycling, savings, Starbucks

$170.30

I’m still not bragging, I swear, but I have $170.30. I know you’re wondering how I contain myself with all of this cash lying around. And I should probably be more secretive about the enormous sum, lest someone try to take it from me. I appreciate your concern and have decided to take my chances.

Here are some things I could buy with $170.30:

A fake Fendi bag.
My very own postage meter. (For all of those mailings I may decide to do.)
A seafoam green Saree. (I thought it was Sari? What do I know.)

A box of cigars. (May or may not be good, I don’t smoke, so have no idea what the going rate is for a good box of cigars.)
One tire.
A nice looking oil-rubbed bronze shower head.
Two liters of Purell brand hand sanitizer. (This seems like an excessive amount to pay for hand sanitizer, even on a corporate level. Just sayin’.)

A cute children’s table and chair set.
Nikon Action Binoculars.
A boat trailer.
One ticket to see Barry Manilow in NYC at Radio City Music Hall.

But really, I will buy none of these things because that money is sitting in my SAVINGS account. And spending it would defeat the purpose of the savings.
I threw $50 in there after receiving this check from * www.inboxdollars.com:

And the other $10 came from the savings I felt when I got three tubes of natural toothpaste for free from Vitacost.com (I signed up for emails from www.101couponing.com and they tell me about good deals and free stuff!):

Figured I may as well put that money in the account. And also have toothpaste for the next year. (By the way, it’s amazing toothpaste. My mouth feels extraordinarily fresh and clean when I use it.)
The other $25 addition came from the recurring transfer I have set up every month from my checking account. So now, no matter what, there’s at least $25 going in that sucker.

Also, I have FINALLY signed up for the 401k at work. I feel more grown up than I did when I had my baby. Who, by the way, looks super cute in rabbit ears.

Anyway, I know it’s going to be hard to not hate on me for the wealth I have accumulated, but try. I still do my own laundry.

*It took me almost 3 years to accumulate $39.60 at Inbox Dollars. Mostly, 2 cents at a time clicking on emails they sent. It is the slowest, most painful way to “earn” money. And yet….there I was. Clicking away. There are still about 10 bags of bottles waiting for redemption in my garage, speaking of slow and painful ways to make money…

**Also, correction: I have $177.01, for those of you playing along and saving at home. I miscalculated by 5 bucks and have earned about $1.33 in interest. But I’m not changing the whole blog. Who has the time????

Tags: Can collecting, couponing, fendi, frugal living, investing, parenting, savings account

Area woman not bragging; just “sayin’.”

I’m sort of into The Law of Attraction. And by “sort of” I mean, “obsessed.” I think about it a lot, read books and listen to the cds in the car. I watched The Secret, but don’t love The Secret. They don’t really tell you HOW to attract things, except to tell you to imagine you have stuff already. I wish I could find the spoof a friend sent me years ago…and if I do, I’ll post it. You’ll get a kick out of it. But moving on…

I find, at least some, comfort in thinking that I have, at least some, control over my life. Good, bad, whatever–I’ve created it in some way. A few years ago, I got some free stuff. I worked for a woman who was pretty plugged into Hollywood and got a lot of free clothes. She passed them onto me and I started chanting in my head, “people love to give me free stuff.” It seems the more I remember this, the more free stuff I get.

Sometimes the free stuff is coffee. Sometimes it’s a trip to St. Croix. And sometimes, it’s cashmere sweaters.

My friend Lorraine just gave me an enormous bag of free stuff last week. Here is a picture of a few items:

That is a cashmere cardigan hugging an honest-to-God Louis Vuitton purse. Now, I’m not a chaser of high end name brands, or name brands at all for that matter; BUT…if someone is going to give me a free LV purse, I’m not going to throw it back in their face. Granted, the strap on it is being held together with a safety pin at the moment, but if I wanted to invest ten whole dollars, I could get that fixed. I probably won’t. I don’t care about stuff like that. It’s “quirky” to have a purse held together with a safety pin. Or something.

Also, there’s that book, “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind” by T. Harv Eker. It’s interesting. Given to me not by Lorraine, but my friend Paul at work. It talks about money “blueprints” and how we all have them from growing up around people with their own ideas about money. I believe that. And we need to change the blueprint to serve us better. Hard to do, but working on it.

So those are my free things at the moment. My husband and I went on The Newlywed Game in 2010 and won ourselves a honeymoon to St. Croix. This is by far the greatest free thing given us by the Universe. We had to pay taxes on it, but still. It was a good deal of free.

We got a baby out of that, too and although she’s nowhere near free, here’s a gratuitous picture of the baby:

Said woman plugged into Hollywood handed down to us a crib, valued at about $1600. We would never in our lives have even considered dropping that kind of cash on a crib and, up until she gave it to us, the crib I wanted I found on Craigslist for $80. But then she gave us one like this:

So we didn’t have to buy one at all.

I’m not bragging up in here, just sayin’. If you throw it out there that you expect some free crap, you just might get it. I mean, we have to pay for our fair share of stuff (like the new used fridge we bought to replace the one that pooped out on us last week) but still…People love to give me free stuff! And I’m pretty grateful for that.

Tags: Free stuff, Frugal, frugal living, money, saving

Why my Lamephone is cooler than your iPhone.

This is my Lamephone.

It is a Motorola Razr from 2008. It is a flip phone. It is purple. It is “vintage.” I do not get emails on my phone and cannot watch t.v while on the bus. I do not take the bus. People eyeball me when I flip it open as if I am not as cool as you with your smartphone, but I assure you, I am.

Mostly because I am not paying the $60 a month extra I would have to pay for a “data plan” were I to buy a smartphone. And until phones can fold laundry for me…how “smart” are they, really?

I simultaneously feel embarrassed and good about having a shitty, older phone. I like that I’m not constantly plugged into the media. I feel like I waste enough time as it is on Facebook and Postsecret and reading blogs just when I’m home and Addie is occupied (she’s very BUSY.) I certainly don’t need to know whose status update is doing what when I’m in line at Ralph’s buying toilet paper. If I were looking at your status update, how the Hell would I ever get to read US Weekly for free?

I often DO feel myself caving in when people talk about “Apps.” I feel old. I don’t even totally know what the term “App” means. And then I think…”do I need to? Would the quality of my life be better? Would my checkbook be more balanced?” Ah, probably. Maybe it’s frugality, maybe it’s laziness, or maybe it’s the sheer terror I feel when thinking about new technology. It’s 2012. Aren’t we all supposed to have our own personal robot to order around? Why do we need to figure out “Apps” on our own? Who’s got the time?

And to completely change the subject all together….

It’s February, which means my Starbucks tumbler is now void of free coffee. Are you curious how much free coffee I consumed? No? Well guess who’s about to tell you anyway?!

$60.45 worth!!!!

I went in every single day at least once. So that sum reflects that. I WILL admit, on occasion, I purchased a donut. Or a sandwich. But never those exorbitantly priced cheese platters (though I was tempted.) I spent $16.90 in all of January. In December, in Starbucks, I spent $38.20. I’m getting into the territory of TOO MUCH MATH and so I’m going to stop and simply say I got my cup’s worth. And hey, I still have a travel mug out of it! It felt pretty good to go in every day and walk out with a cup of Joe free and clear. There was something rockstar about it. And then I’d pull out my flip phone…

So, I’m going to throw $25 bucks into the savings account just to celebrate the January of free coffee. What the heck.

And if you weren’t wondering about this, either, I have a whole garage full of bottles. I think I’ll redeem them and see what January’s take is. My co-workers seem to be adjusting to me running around snapping bottles out of the trash. None of them have made jokes about shopping carts yet, so I guess I’m ahead there.

Oh, and my last bargain talking point today will be on Addie’s new fancy stroller! Our friends gave us a Bugaboo Frog stroller that had been through two families and around five kids. These strollers retail for about $700 new. It was faded and slightly rusted, so I bought a new cover for it for $59.99 on Ebay. Voila! Fancy and new! It rides a little better than the free stroller from the hospital we were using (yes, the hospital we gave birth at gave us a free stroller! Unless you want to also call it a $700 stroller because that’s what our deductible was. But whatever. Free stroller!) The wheels are big and we don’t get so stuck going over the grass on our front lawn. I promise not to give you attitude and run you over in it at the mall. Unless you’re in my way. I don’t really go to the mall.

Tags: Babies, Bugaboo stroller, Frugal, frugal living, humor, iphone, life, money, saving, savings account, Starbucks, twenty dollars