May 6, 2008
Since LnT has officially declared bankruptcy, and I’ve been dragging my feet about spending my $50 gift card from American Express, I’m making a list of things I could get tonight. I definitely want a vegetable peeler. Call me insufferably Asian, but in our household, not only do we not use the dishwasher to wash dishes, we use knives to peel our vegetables. Well, guess what. My arthritic hands have had enough of that. I’m splurging on a veggie peeler.
But what else? I know I’m going to need household items when I move out, but I don’t want to buy a bunch of stuff now when I don’t know when and where I’m moving. After all, I’m also smack dab in the middle of decluttering.
I could get a duck down comforter for $50, with a 20% off coupon.
I could get a Brita water jug and additional filters for $32 (or $22 for the Atlantis version) plus the cost of filters.
I could get a 17 piece cooking set for $50, including:
- 2 Quart Covered Saucepan
- 3 Quart Covered Casserole
- 6 Quart Covered Dutch Oven
- 8″ Saute Pan
- 10″ Deep Fryer with Assist Handle
- Ceramic crock with 7 nylon tools
- Dishwasher safe
I could get a whole lot of towels or a sheet set. The towels make more sense because they’re not size dependent, and there’s a part of me that thinks I might finally upgrade from my twin size bed someday.
Oh, and the reason I’m not using this for a vacuum like I’d planned? Visiting BF meant that they had the opportunity to give me their extra vacuum! Yay! Free vacuum!
So far, towels, and the Brita water filtration system seem the most sensible. Or … the comforter….I’ve never had a nice down comforter before. But what’s up with the duck thing? Is that normal?
What would you suggest?
March 27, 2008
Celebrations:
C1 has a birthday today, and she’s invited the ‘mates to a karaoke bar for the evening. She has Friday off, however, and we don’t, so that could be a touch dodgy for us toilers. Or painful. Transportation’s always iffy when it comes to weeknight partying as well. The car’s still in the shop, and I hate to drive the gas guzzlers more than 10 miles, given the hundreds I’m already shelling out for gas. Still and all. It’s her birthday. As she’s reminded us every day: she’s “getting old.” Maybe I’ll gift her some Centrum Silver and wish her well on the kar-a-o-k-e-ing. 🙂 Lord knows I just want to giggle at the drunken karaokiers, singing in public’s a no-go for me. I know it’s “just one night” but that’s one night after a few outings this month. The car shop said they’d call me if the car was ready earlier than Friday. Must … decide ….
Free Stuff:
Boy Coworker normally picks up my train pass for me as the transit lady knows us, and will send our ticket with whomever to save me a trip. Sweet, but it also gets me out of a walk, so I told him not to ask for it, but take it if she offered. No need to be rude, after all. He turned it down when she offered anyway, because they’re doing a giveaway for people who fill out their survey and buy a transit pass for the month of April, but that means you have to go over to her office. Whee! I grabbed pouting C1 (“but, what about me? I buy a yearly!”) immediately and we trotted on over to get our free $15 Starbucks gift cards. We both got our $15 gift cards with nary a problem, and now I have a Starbucks cushion for when coffee drinkers or friends want to meet for coffee. As I don’t love Starbucks and don’t love coffee, I always grimace at the idea of giving them my own, real money.
I didn’t bring lunch yesterday, but we had leftovers from ordering in last week, and I’d still a bit from the weekend. Today, we’ll be having birthday lunch so I didn’t have to pack anything last night, and Friday’ll be leftovers again. I love having free lunches that I don’t have to think about.
Frugal Eats:
Oh! And my grocery shopping last weekend saved dinner last night. I’d picked up a few packets of Indian food from Trader Joe’s, but left it in the cupboard since we still had fresh groceries. Since I walked home from the station, PaDucky didn’t come home to make dinner until after I’d already cooked a new pot of rice. He walked in, stumped about what to cook, whereupon I produced the two packets of yellowfin tuna curry and a potato and vegetable mixture, the name of which escapes me, and voila! Dinner! Dinner for about $5 and in about twenty minutes, all told. PaDucky usually doesn’t like what I pick for dinner, preferring to cook some sort of Chinese or Vietnamese food, but he actually seemed amenable to my selections this time.
The night might have been marred by the discussion with my brother but rescuing dinner, as I so rarely do, redeemed it. It’s really the little things in life, folks.
February 25, 2008
In an attempt to divert my attention from the budget that’s bleeding red, I went through my wallet and pared out items that didn’t have to be in there anymore.
I also made a list of the gift cards I have, and the amounts left on them, so I’d have a better idea of what cards I should redeem rewards points for and where I’ll be allowed to spend money. As a bonus, cataloging the money I DO have helps make me feel less financially restricted.
Ann Taylor (Loft)
Banana Republic
Borders
Linens ‘n’ Things — hoarding for my new vacuum, or magazine racks
Macy’s
Starbucks
Victoria’s Secret
It might be a tad bit neurotic, but I feel the need to carry all the cards with me, all the time, because I might happen upon a good sale at a store on my Yes, You May Shop Here list. Since I didn’t carry my wallet during the Vegas trip, I passed up visits to Ann Taylor, Victoria’s Secret and Banana Republic.
My hot gift card management tip of the day:
If you’re not going to use up an entire gift card right away, or hoard them as I do, stick a post-it on the back of it to keep track of the dates and amounts left so that you don’t have to keep the receipts with the card. Voila! Less paper in your wallet! I keep the receipt if there’s a survey attached that gives me a discount.
Going through receipts, I realized that I never submitted the phone surveys at the end of a couple of Victoria’s Secret receipts so I dug through my receipt envelope to find and give them a go. Not only were the surveys still valid, the coupon is good for three months from the date of the survey submission, not from the date of purchase. Now I have two $10 off $50 purchase coupons, valid until 5/24/08.
If it’s not blindingly obvious, I’m still addicted to my cash-maximization habits left over from my college days. If there are any stores that I like for personal shopping, I look for gift cards, coupons/discounts to combine with sales. I’ll do whatever advance planning it takes to avoid using my own money out of pocket:) This is a great way to avoid crippling the budget and saves my cash for non-gift-cardable expenses like the rent.
Now, if I could redeem for gas gift cards, I’d be in great shape. This past month, Ma/PaDucky spent over $300 on gas because she’s been seeing a new medical practitioner out in the boonies. *sigh*