What have you gotten rid of this week?

Okay, well maybe this week you didn't get around to ditching any items, BUT, did you at least give it some thought?

I am preparing for a LARGE yard sale and cannot wait!!! It's about getting rid of things, and freeing up that space-time-and money!

A few ideas for the best ways to get rid of things:

1. yard sales. always good.
2. swap party. host a swap party and have each person bring 3 or 4 items (clothing, decorations, home accents, jewelry, cookware, etc) and swap them.
3. Sell things at a consignment shop.
4. Craigslist. It CAN work. I just sold a car this week on Craiglist and made a VERY nice profit! i have friends that bought I-Phones off Craigslist this week. It's a great place to sell!
5. Ebay. Don't forget about good ol' Ebay!
6. List it in the paper!
7. Post it on facebook!
8. Donate it and GET A TAX RECIEPT!
9. Give it to someone in need.
10. THROW IT AWAY

Just some thoughts! Let's de-clutter our lives, folks!

What to get rid of and what to keep?

It's so hard to decide what to get rid of and what to keep, isn't it? There are so many things that you would LOVE to get rid of, but when it comes down to it you just can't seem to toss it. Or, at least that's how I am. I get on these great kicks where I am going to get rid of all the "Extra" stuff in my life and then at the very last moment i have a hard time tossing it.

How do you decide what to keep and what to toss?

Here are some questions to ask yourself...

1. When was the LAST time I used this? (wore it, drove it, etc)
That black shirt that you haven't worn in two years? That old car that you were going to fix up but never did, that toaster that only works HALF the time... when did you use these last?
2. Would I realize if it was missing?
This is a tricky one... and it's not very easy to ask yourself, but TRY. If you had never found those black sandles would have looked aimlessly for them? Would you have turned your closet into a diaster to find them? If the answer is no, then you can probably live without them.
3. Does this item hold more than one purpose?
Another hard one to answer... but if you are staring at a purse that you can only carry with ONE outfit, it's probably not worth keeping. If you are holding a skillet that is only used once a year, then it's probably not worth keeping.

These are hard questions to answer. I struggle with this too. I recently switched out my closets and searched through everything to see what I could sell at consignment. the funny thing was that there wasn't many things that I just REALLY wanted to see go. There was nothing that I was tired of, nothing that I could yell "good riddance" at. Ya know what I mean? I don't feel like less of a minimalist for feeling this way. I look at like this...

If it's an article of clothing that it is NOT taking up much space and I WILL wear it, then it doesn't matter if I have another one similar to it. The problem would come in if I just kept it to have it. But if it WILL serve a purpose for me then I am NOT ditching it.

Make sense?

Each person has to figure out what is NOT worth getting rid of. It's all about the mindset. It's all about your reasons for keeping it. If it's to appear that you have more STUFF, then that's probably not a good enough reason.

What are your thoughts on getting rid of items? How do you decide what to keep?


**Last month at the consignment shop I made $63.00 on items that I did NOT want. How great is that???? That is motivation to get rid of MORE!**

That REALLY pushes my buttons....

I'm reading a terrific book currently. "The Happiness Project". This book is all about Gretchen's journey through a year of getting to that "happy" place and eliminating things in her life that bogged her down and stressed her out. I HIGHLY reccomend it.

This book is so encouraging to me. It's nice to know that I am not the only person out there that thinks about things like this. I'm not the only person out there that WANTS to eliminate daily stressers that make us all on edge.

PICK UP A COPY TODAY!

Okay, so reading this book has really opened my eyes to just HOW much stuff we have in our lives that make us antsy, edgy, moody, broke, and frustrated. I have ranted about this before, but I am going to ONCE AGAIN make a list of "Stressers" in my life that keep me from being happy and free.

**NOTE TO SELF AND EVERYONE ELSE... daily stressers will happen. You WILL  have stressful days. There is no way to completely eliminate that.**

1. Clutter. I realize that's a huge statement so let me break it down more.
-closets. things I dont wear or use need to be thrown out. every time I see them I feel overwhelmed because they are STILL THERE!
-drawers. My house has probably 5 junk drawers. I mean really?? That is insane. There are more dead batteries in these drawers. Did I ACTUALLY think they would come back to life? lol
-laundry room. This room seems to be a catch all. Don't know HOW it became that, but it seems to be the room where everything that doesn't have a home ends up.
-my car. My car constantly makes me crazy. I live out of it, seems like. i travel 3 days a week for work, I have a 6 year old, and i'm not a neat freak myself so my car is always overwhelming. ONCE AND FOR ALL--I WILL fix this.

2. LISTS. I am all about making lists. And suprisingly, Gretchen in the "Happiness Project" is as well. BUT, we have to COMPLETE those lists. So, i am actually going to SIT DOWN and make some final lists and complete them. Then I will be happier.

3. My paying bills method. i pay my bills on time, but unfortunately I do not have a designated place to do this. Sometimes it's at work if I have a spare moment, sometimes in the car while I am stopped at a red light, sometimes on the kitchen counter. NO WAY! I am done with this. That is NOT good and it keeps me stressed.

4. I will cancel DVR from recording EVERYTHING! Y'all, for real. I click on my list of shows taped and it makes me nuts. I feel overwhelmed at the list of the tv shows I need to watch. REALLY? I have GOT to get a grip.

5. I will not stop until everything has a home. EVERYTHING should have a place.

6. I will do all of this in a timely manner so it won't drag out and stress me out.

7. I will complete this and then I will breathe a HUGE sigh of relief.

8. Recycle. I will pick ONE day a month to recycle instead of making a few trips a week. Saving trees is important but it's causing me to stress. I will find something to put all of the items in so that when i make my monthly trips i will have ONE bin to pick up and be done with it.

9. I will figure out how in the world to make my bathroom countertops not look like a Mary Kay party just took place. i will do better.

Let's get happy, folks. Get rid of it! and BREATHE!

What does it mean to YOU?

What does living on less mean to YOU? What would it mean for your family? If you decided today to get rid of the clutter in your life what would that do for you?

1. You would have a LOT less to clean. You could clean your house in half the time if you didn't have SO much furniture to dust, so many nick nacks to move around and clean off, and so much stuff on the floors!

2. You would have less piles of "give aways" and "garage sale items" laying around. You wouldn't constantly be creating stacks of items to take to the good will. You wouldn't have excess things.

3. You would have more money. If you chose to live on less then you WOULD save money. Think about it... you'd have less dishes to wash, less clothes to wash, less cleaning products to buy, less gas to put in your car which saves money, less electricity to pump through your house... you WOULD save money.

4. Your debt would go down. You would save money and prevent the spending of money if you chose to live on less. You wouldn't have to go buy the newest and latest gadgets. You would relieve the pressure "keeping up with the Jones" and you could rid your life of "stuffitis."

5. You WOULD be happier. You would be happier because you would be more content. You wouldn't feel this CONSTANT pressure to have more. You would sleep better, live longer, and have more time to focus on your family.

These aren't necessarily life altering changes, but they would alter your life to some degree. Think about how NICE it would be if you chose to give it up! To give up the pressure, to embrace contentment, and to watch your financial world change.

How NICE would that be?

Preparing for the worst

I hate to even write this because I look like Debbie Downer. And I have NEVER been a fan of hers. But, some topics aren't easy to talk about but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't...

Sometimes you MUST prepare for the worst.

What if you lost your job tomorrow? Or, your spouse did? what would happen? Would you go into panic mode? Into a major stress/anxiety attack? Would you begin fearing that you would lose your house, or car, or that you would go without food?

If you answered yes to ANY of those, then you need to STOP THE MADNESS NOW!! I understand that NO one wants to purposely stress out by just thinking about what would happen if your family lost one (or maybe the ONLY) source of income. But you NEED to.

Without even realizing it (or maybe you do) you have an escape plan in mind if your house were to catch fire. you know where you would go if a bad storm was headed your way. You probably even run by the grocery store to grab bread and milk if you hear it MAY snow. So why not be thinking ahead on what would happen if suddenly your household income plumeted.

Here's a few steps that I came up with to help prepare for the "worst case scenario."

1. START SAVING TODAY! There is never a better time to start saving. It's NOT going to get easier tomorrow. Do it today.

2. This would be a GREAT time to learn how to coupon.

3. Do your homework. While you can AFFORD to burn the gas running from store to store, do an inventory of the items you buy most frequently and go to each store so that you know where the deals are.

4. invest in a deep freeze. If you do this then you are ready to stock up when you find a great deal on meat or veggies.

5. Take a look around--what can you sell? I'm not saying you need to sell it TODAY, but have a list of things you already know that you would be willing to part with in the "Worst case scenarios" of life.

6. Take a look at your bills. Cell phone, cable, internet... what changes are you willing to make to get those bills down?

7. Might not be a good idea to look up unemployment rates in your area. Arkansas has a site that allows you to calculate your approximate amount of unemployment. That would be a handy thing to know.

8. Stay in the network! Just because you landed a great job does NOT mean that you need to severe ties with former bosses, or other business people. You MAY need them one day to help you GET a job.

9. Start now living on less. Start getting in the habit of NOT running to the mall to kill time (aka blow money). Start making your coffee at home. If you lose an income in your household, those Starbucks trips will HAVE to end. Get in the habit NOW of living on less.

10. Pay off what you can. Obviously I believe a savings is MORE important, but having debt won't help. Get diligent NOW!

Make the changes today to prepare for the worst.

Goals

This post is also appropriate for www.thebargainhuntingmommy.blogspot.com

I try to keep my blog posts written specifically for each blog, but it doesn't always work that way.

I am currently reading the book "Does this make my assets look fat?" It's a woman's guide to financial understandings. From little things like budgets and shopping to the big topics like stocks and bonds. It's a GREAT book. i checked it out at our local library. I encourage you to do the same.

one of the things that really stuck out in my head was the whole GOALS chapter. I understand goals, but i've never sat down with a pen and paper and prayerfully considered what my short, mid and long term goals are. I mean sure, I have blogged about my financial goals for this year but I haven't looked at the BIGGEST picture. So I started doing that this weekend.

Short term goals: These are to be completed within 2 months and 1 year.

Mid goals: 2-6 years. Something you expect to happen in the "next few years."

Long term goals: these may be a lifelong process. An example would be contributing to a 401k or an IRA. this is not something that can just be completed one day soon.

It makes you think--what would you REALLY like to see happen this year? in 5 years? in 30 years?

I've started my list... not complete yet but here's what I have so far.

Short term goals:
Pay off my car (next few months)
Pay off credit cards (next 3 months max.)
Save 2 months worth of bills

Mid goals:
Pay off student loans (not much in there, but I need to do it)
Have 10,000 in savings
Contribute to IRA faithfully (max it every year-$6,000)
Pay cash for a new car in about 4 years(if mine lasts til then)

Long term goals:
Buy a house (with at least 30% down)
Have a GOOD retirement saved up!


Some of these may seem silly, or seem like they aren't "goal" worthy, but to me these are the things that keep me from spending when i want to. These goals keep me in "check". Dave Ramsey always says that you HAVE to see milestones along the way. That's why he says you pay off your smallest debt first. That way you see the progress and can get excited about it.

So there ya have it... my goals.

What are yours?

How are you gonna save up that money?

So, it's time to ask yourself the question you have been avoiding--how are you going to save up that money?

We've talked about saving money, living on less, getting rid of things that we do NOT need to survive. Getting rid of items we don't wear, use, cook with, watch,read, listen to, etc.

But how are you REALLY going to save up money?

Realisticially--Seriously--in all actuality--ultimately--however you want to word it, how are you going to get there?

I have another blog where i give lots of tips for this. Check it out HERE if you haven't already.

But let's get down to it... if you really want to save up money ($500, $1000, $1500, etc) how do you plan to do it? If you are struggling to make ends meet already, how do you SAVE up money that you do NOT have?

That's a question that financial bloggers address a LOT (keep in mind i am so NOT a financial blogger). Money shows, books, Dave Ramsey and people like him address this issue a lot. And some of what they say is very relevant to most people's lives. But some just straight over my head. For example, you will hear them say a lot "dip into your 401k," or "cash in the cd and repurchase at 1.4%"... HUH? What are you talking about, dude? I just want to know how to save up some money.

So, i had to come up with these on my own. It's not earth shattering by any means. It's simply some steps to help you save up to whatever amount it is that you are trying to reach.

1. HAVE A YARD SALE. so simple. Get rid of that crap in your house and gain some extra dough. Simple as that.Put the cash you make aside.

2. Sell the better items on ebay. Not much of a fee for listing and if they are good, vintage, type items you will get more for them online.

3. Raise deductibles on your insurance. This is so handy IF you do it for a short amount of time. Raise them up, and let's say you save $100 a month. Well your budget is already used to spending that amount so when you get paid each month, transfer $100 (the amount you saved by raising your deductibles) to savings. That alone will save you $1200 a year.

4. Change your cell phone plan. If you have a back up phone that will save you money to use (ex: it doesn't need a data plan), switch to THAT phone for a few months and put the difference in savings.

5. Clip coupons. Read more about that HERhttp://thebargainhuntingmommy.blogspot.com/E.

6. Don't go out to eat. It's so simple. I had a gift card to use this weekend but let me just give you a quick run down.
2 glasses of tea
1/2 chicken salad sandwhich
1/2 turkey sandwhich
1/2 bowl of potato soup
1/2 ceasar salad
TOTAL: $21.62

My cost if I had made this at home:
Well, I already had the potatoes, I already had bread, go buy some turkey meat for 3 bucks, chicken salad from the deli 3 bucks, caesar salad in a bag 2 bucks, tea bags already had. So it would have cost me nearly NOTHING to have this meal at home AND I would have been able to have this meal every day for a week if I bought the items to make it at home. So silly.

If you are trying to save money then do NOT go out to eat.

7. Car pool. If you can. I realize this is one of those "REALLY???" kinda statements but let me explain. If I have to be at work ALL day for meetings and i know i'm not going anywhere...why wouldn't I have my husband drop me off and pick me up?Just saying'... the savings ads up.

What about you? What are some ways that you can think of to save money?????