About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
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April 23, 2008
Closet, Part Deux
The lower shelves of the closet were my next job. This is populated by my jewelry boxes, and hatboxes with smaller clothing items and undergarments. I love the use of hatboxes for undergarments, by the way. They’ll be easily portable, and the boxes are attractive. I don’t have an abundance of any clothing in these categories, so I just sorted through to make sure nothing needed washing, and refolded or rolled each piece so it was neatly organized.
The jewelry box was a huge mess. As I sorted, I realized that I was slowly forgetting the stories of some of the necklaces. I like knowing where each and every piece was acquired, or who it was a gift from, so I know I’ve got too much when I can’t recall where a particular sparkly came from. This reinforces my conviction that I was right to ask BoyDucky to stop giving me jewelry. The necklace and earrings he gave me will always have a special place in my heart, and they won’t get crowded out by others.
There were some junk pieces I’d hoarded since junior high: stud earrings missing backings, earrings missing mates, etc. Those all went out. The rest were reorganized by category: precious metals, precious stones (uh, the one pair of earrings), sparkly but not actual gemstones, and just sparkly or casual pieces.
April 22, 2008
I know I haven’t said much about the impending move since my final decision earlier this month. Rest assured, I have not changed my mind. It’s simply been a very busy time getting used to the idea, dealing with work drama, not so incidentally trying to figure out if I’m going to have a job for much longer, etc. Lots of things going on all at once, lots to think about. But, I have not forgotten, nor changed my mind. More than ever, I understand the need to move out is valid, and my real problem is restraining myself from going buck-wild quitting my job, packing up the car and moving cross country in the middle of the night so no one can find me again. Yeah. Once you open the spigot, watch out!!
Anyway, I know that I need to save up money for first/last months’ rent, the security deposit, start up costs for utilities, and miscellaneous moving costs. The one thing I absolutely do not want to do is have to pay for storage because I have too much crap. Between that, and my need not to kill myself moving too much crap, I’ve begun taking one small area of my room a day, one day a week, and clearing it all out. Junk goes into the garbage, salvageable things that I don’t need or use regularly get donated. Items in really good or new shape (haven’t run into much of that yet) will either be eBayed or Craigslisted. That’s the plan, Stan.
My first step was the closet: the shelves, not the clothes on the bar. The upper shelves are set up with cubes for easier storage. And, of course, more convenient stashing of clutter. I worked my way through the excess Comfortable Clothing up there, jammies, sweats, old ratty jersey sweaters. How many sets of pajamas does one person need? Even better, I don’t even wear pajama sets anymore, a loose-fitting t-shirt and pajama pants or shorts are as fancy as I get. The cubes are still a little full because I was just getting started and haven’t gotten really ruthless yet, but I’ll come back to it again later.
April 21, 2008
After all that research and ordering a $100 Bed, Bath and Beyond gift card, I came back this weekend to the announcement that PaDucky had happened upon a yard sale where our neighbor was selling a brand new microwave for $30. It had never been used, and looked perfect, so he bought it.
It was a great deal, and I’m glad I don’t have to spend $120 on a microwave, but now … what do I do with a $100 BBB gift card? I never shop there! Drat. I shouldn’t have been so efficient in burning another 10,000 Thank You points.
Oh no, not me, and not today. My coworker! For the past few days in a row, C2’s been wearing some really cute sweaters, and I finally caught on that I don’t ever remember seeing them before. When I asked if she went shopping, she stopped dead with the guiltiest look I’ve ever seen: “Yee…eeess….. I couldn’t resist! All my clothes were in boxes and I couldn’t find anything! …. I shopped online ….. and I like everything I got!”
I swear, that girl is the funniest thing. She acted SO guilty! I’m not the budget police! Oh wait, I kind of am. But I don’t care if she goes shopping, that’s just more clothes I can borrow later 😉
So another dangerous way to fall prey to the shopping bug, and spend too much money, is to pack away your clothes in boxes for a few days. Who knew?
April 19, 2008
It might only be twice over, actually. I was geeking it up gamer style on the train the other day, as my friend and I were giggling over this Photoshopped but oh so appropriate image from Joystiq:
SO TRUE.
And since I’ve been in the mood for the stocks and bonds side of PF geekery, it occurred to me that it’d be awesome to own some Nintendo stock. I discovered that Nintendo (NTDOY.pk) isn’t even on the NYSE! They’re traded on the Pink Sheets, which I’d never even heard of. So now I’m trying to figure out just how difficult it is to get on the Pink Sheets just so I can own a few shares of NTDOY. 😀 I think they’re trading at approximately $68/share, unless I totally misread the Sheets. Can anyone understand why the company that put out the DS and the million iterations of it isn’t even on the NYSE? Is it just because they’re foreign, or just because they don’t want to make their budgets/accounting public? Hmmm….
I’ve applied for my Treasury Direct account, and encountered my first problem. They couldn’t verify my identity. It was all correctly filled out, so I don’t know what the problem really was, but luckily, we have a credit union on my work site, and I was able to walk over there and get a signature guarantee form filled out yesterday. That’s pretty awesome, considering I’m never home during business hours so couldn’t have gotten the bank to do it. And free! I love free help.
The signature guarantee’s on its way, via postal mail, which is a bit aggravating because I don’t know that they’ll send me whatever paperwork I need in time to buy my I bonds.
And now I keep staring at my email, peeking in the window, hoping that the nice folks over there send me an Access key to my brand spankin’ new Treasury Direct account right quick.
April 18, 2008
Oy, it’s gorg-eous outside and I’m sleepy!
I’d like to thank the top five blogs for linking to or sending the most traffic my way over the past month:
1. Sense to Dollars This lucky gal’s on her way to New Zealand!
2. Wanda from Well-Heeled, with a Mission And THIS lucky gal’s planning a trip to Hawaii!
3. Saving Diva from Saving For a Home of My Own This lady’s well on her way to buying her own home ….
4. ntbeachnc from Beachgirl’s Budget Blog While this chica’s fast becoming as financially stable as she possibly can before a move.
5. Ms. M&P from My Money and Politics Ms. M&P’s been MIA for a little while now, and I miss her!
These don’t include the last two days, I’m pretty new to Google Analytics and I think I did something bad to it. Whoops!