Fridge Pen Holder
I keep a grocery list on my fridge so that the minute I run out of something, I can just write it down. I have a goldfish brain, so if I don’t write it down I forget immediately. Spending too much time hunting for a pen has the same effect; by the time I’ve found the pen, I’ve forgotten why I needed it, and then I see something shiny and get distracted.
In order to accomodate my growing senility, I wanted to have a pen on the fridge. There are probably simpler ways to do this, but who cares? My way is cooler. This project requires a small container, such as the tic tac box pictured below, a magnet strong enough to hold up said container, glue (I should probably switch to some kind of non-toxic, this maybe the key to my loss in brain function. Oooh! KEYS! So pretty!), and some kind of magazine or other decorative paper.
First, I ate all the tic tacs, then removed the paper label, and the plastic top. At this stage, make sure a pen will actually fit into your container. I pre-measured my paper (you can see the green piece below, already folded to fit the plastic), then slathered glue on the plastic, and stuck the paper to it.
I used more of the same glue to attach the magnet to the back.
Last thing, I glued on this lovely portrait of H.P. Lovecraft. Let me tell you, MANY people are jealous when they see this on my fridge. Pair it up with those 2 cool magnets I made at the same time (that’s David Bowie on the right), and you can bet people are trying to pocket this stuff when I’m not looking. Just because I can’t remember things for more than ten seconds doesn’t mean I won’t notice.
I seem to have a fixation with decorating my fridge. Or with finding excuses to use lots of glue…
Use it up: Shampoo
It’s happened to all of us (I presume): you either buy a brand new shampoo, and you hate it, or you get down to the last inch of shampoo that refuses to come out of the bottle. Now, I may be ridiculous when it comes to saving money, but I’m not one of those “Extreme Couponers” or “Hoarders”, so let’s keep this all in perspective. I paid for an entire bottle of shampoo, and, so help me, I am going to use that entire bottle of shampoo.
Everyone at some point thinks “Hey, this new brand looks like it will help solve all my problems!”, or “They’re out of my regular shampoo! I guess I’ll grab this”, or “It’s on clearance!! And there are EIGHT BOTTLES for a DOLLAR!!” (ahem; I’m sure everyone has done this, or else just me and my dad have). Inevtiably, the shampoo will be terrible. It leaves your hair flat, frizzy, or smelling like bacon, but not in a good way.
As I’m typing this, I’m really rationalizing to myself that everyone has these issues, and is concerned about them. Right? It’s not just me???
Anyway, neurosis aside, there are lots of uses for shampoo. If you have a whole bottle, you can use it instead of laundry detergent. 1/4 cup or less per load should work great. This is also helpful if you run out of laundry detergent, but can’t go to the store immediately for whatever reason. I know I can’t be the only one who has started a load of laundry late at night, or when visiting friends or family and put all my clothes into the washer and started it before checking to make sure there was detergent, and I am NOT going out in public in my Batman pajamas, because I will end up on People of Wal-Mart for sure.
You can also use shampoo to wash your pets. I like to that the shampoo bottles that are almost out, add some water, and shake it up. This makes it easier to get the shampoo spread over the wriggling, screeching pet so the bath can end more quickly. I like the way human shampoo smells better than the pet kind anyway.
You can actually use shampoo in the dishwasher also, if you run out of dish soap. Don’t try to use Dawn, because that will cause an epic bubble flood, but that is actually an easy way to mop the floor, if you’re prepared for it. If you’re not in the mood for epic bubble floods, use shampoo instead.
You can use it as body wash, to wash your car, or lots of other stuff. Shampoo is just soap, so if you have a brand you hate for some reason, just use it anywhere you would use liquid soap.
I think my goal when I write posts like this is to spread my fixation with getting my money’s worth out of everything I buy. That way I won’t seem like such a nutcase.
Mi Madre is a constant reader of my blog (one of the two I have), and when she and I were on the phone yesterday she told me something awesome. She said that when my sister and I were teens, she despaired of us ever cleaning a thing voluntarily. After reading the Deep Clean Week posts, she said it should reassure parents everywhere that kids do develop the ability to clean, and in fact I probably clean more thoroughly than she does. She really did say that! In fairness, she lives on a farm, and has greater concerns than sweeping the floor thoroughly. Our conversation ended yesterday when she had to go herd cows out of the vegetable garden. No joke.
Bottom line, I hope all you people enjoy my practicality as much as I do. If not, here’s a kitten for some entertainment value!
Batch Cooking Recipes
I baked tons of veggies and meat all at once the other day, and made some beans in the crock pot. This fed me and Hubby for the week, and here are some of the recipes I made with all that.
I started by making a cup of instant rice, mixed in a cup of my beans noir, 1/2 a can of Rotel tomatoes, 3 slices of American cheese, and about a 1/3 of a can of refried beans. I also mixed in some garlic salt, chili powder and cumin.
Add a pile of veggies and some sliced tomatoes, and it was awesome. Healthy, fast, and delicious!
We simply microwaved and ate a bunch of the batch cooking for lunches and dinners for the week. I also shredded a bunch of chicken and made chicken salad, a pot of Mexican chicken soup, and a whole pan of chicken enchiladas.
When we got to the point when there were a couple tupperware of veggies left, I made a big casserole. It was like a broccoli rice casserole, but all kinds of veggies.
This is what you’ll need: 2 cups of instant rice, 1 can of cream of chicken, 1 can of broccoli cheese soup, and about 2 cups of shredded cheese, along with all the veggies.
Mix all that stuff together, but save at least one cup of cheese. Spread the mix into the casserole dish, and spread the last cup of cheese over the top.
And it was delicious! Cheese makes sure everything gets eaten!
Batch Cooking
I read lots of articles on how to save money. I get sick of reading “stop going out to eat!” Uh, no crap. Maybe you could tell me something useful? Apparently common sense isn’t as common as we’d all hope, because lots of things I’d consider basic ways to save money (“Paint your own nails instead of getting manicures!”) make up entire articles on other sites. Not this site! I believe you all have brains of your own, and don’t need me to spell every little thing out for you. You’re welcome.
One idea I have read many places, whether it’s saving money or eating healthier, is batch cooking. Most articles referring to this suggest that you, for example, make two casseroles, eat one and freeze one. I think this idea is on the right track, but with a couple flaws. 1) I only have the freezer space available in my side-by-side. I don’t believe that buying a whole other freezer is worth the tiny amount I’d save by buying and freezing my own vegetables while they’re in season, not to mention the extra electricity it would take up. Plus think of the clutter! Uck! And what if the power went out and all that food got ruined? Forget it. It’s sounds like one more hassle I don’t need. 2) If I made 2 casseroles, don’t I now need 2 casserole dishes? At least? If I was doing that habitually I should either buy stock in Pyrex, or get a ton of those aluminum catering dish things. It sounds pretty wasteful and cluttery, again.
Obviously I wouldn’t be writing a blog post just to complain. Well, I would, but I’m not at the moment. I put all the clever little gears in my brain to work on the best way to do batch baking, and have I got a bitchin’ idea for all of you! (That’s your reward for fighting your way past my ranting. Give yourself a pat on the back!) Why should you cook just the same thing when batch cooking? My plan is to bake lots of basic elements that can be made into tons of meals. So we start off with veggies.
During this time of year, lots of veggies are in season, and therefore super cheap. I hate cutting vegetables, so I bought probably about 20 pounds of broccoli, zucchini (or courgettes, if you’re feeling fancy), cauliflower and other veggies that were around $0.88 per pound. I busted out my food processor, and let it chop them all to bits for me! Usually, I wouldn’t get it dirty just for that, but I was also baking my Tomato Glut Sauce the same night, and I knew it would be getting dirty regardless.
This is my oven with pans of veggies and sweet potatoes in it cooking. At the same time, I had the crock pot going with beans, and a pot of soup for dinner.
I’m calling these “beans noir” because they looked pure black and white in real life. This was a mix of black beans, northern beans, and black eyed peas.
All those little bitty chopped bits that always occur when you chop vegetables? Where can they go?
That’s right! In the soup! This is the chick that pioneered the almost free soup. Of course it’s going into soup! Plus, little bits of green stuff in soup make it look more appetizing, and like you did lots of work to make it. It’s all psychological, people.
I baked an oven full of veggies, an oven full of meat (mostly chicken), made a pot of soup, and a pot of beans in one night. The rest of the week, all I had to do was basically microwave food, and then eat it. The whole idea here is to minimize the amount of time I have to spend in the kitchen, and to heat up the kitchen only one day a week. I’ll post what I made with the batch cooking later this week. Noms!
Why I Hate Grass
Lately I find myself having to explain things that I feel are pretty obvious. Yesterday it was cars, today it’s grass. I don’t water my yard. I don’t fertilize, seed, aerate, mulch, re-sod, or any of that crap. My philosophy is if it can’t survive on its own, it wasn’t meant to. These are PLANTS. They evolved outside and in certain regions of the country. I’m not going to work my ass off so some Yankee grass can sit there doing nothing. I don’t hire yard guys, chemical spreading dudes, or anything like that.
What is the purpose of a yard? To be a big patch of plain green. Why does it matter what particular plant makes up the green? I keep my weeds mowed down, and it looks just like grass to me. I can’t believe that some people even pull out perfectly good grass because it’s the “wrong” species. It was growing there, right? And it’s obviously better suited to the area than that wuss grass you want. So why not let the stuff that will thrive, thrive?
I think this issue comes more to the forefront here in Texas, and especially the hill country, where I live. We don’t have as much rain as East Texas, but this is not the desert, like West Texas. People still expect you to have a lawn. Don’t get me wrong, my yard is not some kind of blight on the neighborhood. I just let nature have its way out there. Plus I manage to kill all the plants I actual try to grow, so the yard is probably better off without my “delicate” touch.
Much of the year, we are under water restrictions. I’m not going to water my yard when I watch Lake Travis get visibly lower each day. I think it’s completely unethical that people pour drinkable water into the dirt, and it’s beyond selfish.
One thing I do is use soaker hoses around the base of the foundation. You know, those black hoses with holes all over that drip water. We use those (in theory) every evening (but I forget a lot), in order to keep the ground around the foundation moist. This prevents too much shrinkage in the soil, which can cause the foundation to crack. This uses much less water than watering a whole yard, and will (hopefully) prevent major costly repairs in the future.
Save your money and let the yard do what it wants. We use a mulching mower, without a bag, so the grass clippings mulch the yard naturally. My goal is to plant some kind of ground cover that will do well in heavy shade with zero attention, but we just haven’t gotten as far as working on the front yard yet. Give me another couple years, maybe I’ll get to it.
Why I Love Crappy Cars
Some people believe what you drive shows what kind of person you are. I totally agree. Mine shows that I’m thrifty, and creative. I drive a 10 year old Honda with almost 200,000 miles on it. The interior is clean and I do all the regular maintenance on it (not myself, I mean I have it done when I’m supposed to). What does it say if you drive a brand new car every two years? To me it says you won’t be retiring as early as you could.
There are lots of reasons to drive an old-ish car, and I’m organizing them all together right here. In the future, when I get into a discussion about this topic (AGAIN) I can defend myself by saying “Just read my blog”, instead of having to rant at them in public. I hate having to berate people loudly and publicly, but someone has to stop stupidity from spreading!
1. No car payment. That’s right, the only debt I have is my house. I don’t want any more debt. Some people argue that with an older car you end up with periodic payments anyway, in the form of repairs, but that’s why I have a savings account. When you go to buy the car, do your research first. I always check Consumer Reports to get a good quality used car, to cut down on maintenance. I would use this when buying a new car as well, because there is no guarantee that just because it’s new, it won’t have issues.
2. Cheaper repairs. If you buy a practical car, like a Honda, the replacement parts are cheaper than those for a fancier car, like a Lexus (which is made by Toyota, by the way, so I hope you feel real fancy driving around in your super expensive economy car *smirk*). There are also less fancy options and computer chips in older cars. With the new ones (at least 5 years old and newer) you have to pay at least $80 when the check engine light comes on, just to run the computer diagnostic! I had to pay that because I needed a new gas cap, which was $20. What should have been a $20 repair turned into $100. Argh. (Yes, my car has computer parts, no I’m not happy about it. When the machines take over i’ll be just as screwed as the rest of you, but Hubby will be safe in his old Ford).
3. No worries! A shopping cart hit my car in the parking lot of a grocery store. It came roaring down the hill, hit a curb, flipped over and smacked the crap out of my passenger door. I was not happy about it, but since my car was already 6 years old at the time, I didn’t have to worry about it. When I got caught in a hail storm, I was not sitting there thinking “This vehicle just lost $10,000 in value in 5 minutes!” and having a panic attack. I was more worried about getting home safe. When the insurance company gave me a check, I left the dents and pocketed the cash for our next car. We got $5,000, and got to keep both of our perfectly functional, but ugly cars. Win win as far as I’m concerned. Now in the future, when something inevitably goes wrong, I have cash available to replace my clunker, with a slightly less clunky clunker.
4. Less maintenance. I don’t wash my car. It’s a waste of time, money, and water. My paint job has held up for 10 years with dirt and poop, and who knows what on it. It’ll last until I’m done with this thing. I get the oil changed, and the tires rotated, but if something major goes wrong, I’ll just scrap it, and buy a 3 or 4 year old car, and start over again.
5. Less depreciation. Depreciation is when an investment loses money over time. Cars depreciate instantaneously when you buy them brand new. If you buy a brand new car, and try to turn around and sell it the next day, it can have lost up to a third of its value. This is because most people assume it’s a lemon, and don’t want it. The older cars get, the slower the rate of depreciation is.
Would you put $20,000 into an investment if they guaranteed you’d get only half of that back in 2 or 3 years? Hell no! So why put it into a car? You never get that money back, and you could spend $10,000 on a used car, and invest $10,000, and be WAAAY better off. Finance is all about opportunity cost. What are you giving up by buying that shiny new car? The cost of the car is not just what you pay for it (plus interest, if you get a loan for it), it is also the loss of income on that money. Say you had bought a $6,000 (which is my ideal car price). You could have invested the other $14,000 (we’ll assume you had cash, not a loan to make the math easier). Even if you put it into CDs, you could earn at least 3% on that. That means the $20K car costs you an additional $420 just in the first year.
6. More eco-friendly. I know that sounds wrong but just listen (er, read). To create a new car, metal has to be mined, then smelted, then shaped, all of which is massively detrimental to the environment. All of the materials have to be transported, which burns lots of fuel. The plastics in the interior are made from petroleum, and create all kinds of noxious by-products. The computer chips inside use lots of heavy metals which are toxic to humans and animals (which is part of the reason why you can get lead poisoning from fish now). You may end up getting a bit more fuel economy, but not enough to counter-act all the pollution created to make that car. Plus, that new car smell is actually chemicals outgassing from your car, and posssibly giving you tumors. Fun stuff, right? Scientific American did a fantastic article on this subject, so I actually have a source this time, not just my own ravings!
Just save your money, and don’t worry about flashiness. If you’re worried someone will tease you or something, just buy a nondescript car, and surely no one will notice. Although, if you’re that worried about how people will perceive your car, maybe you need therapy? If someone makes a comment just say, “I chose to get a cheap car, and donated the rest to help starving babies in Africa. What are YOU doing about starvation in Africa?” It doesn’t have to be true, it just points out what a shallow jackwaggon the other person is being. You can also use your own pet cause, it doesn’t have to be Africa. Well I hope you all learned something today. You’re welcome.
My Super Cheapness: Beauty Part Duex
Ok one more post, then I’m out the door!
My philosophy on the whole beauty process is to keep it as simple as possible, meaning I spend as little time grooming myself as I can. There are several major areas in this topic, so I’ll try to cover them as simply as possible.
1) Cleanliness: I shower every other day, not every day. This saves water, time, wear and tear on the plumbing in the house, and saves shampoo and stuff. Some people may think this is gross, but they are just uptight. I do shower if I get all sweaty, or go swimming or something, just not every night. It’s also healthier for your skin and hair, because you leave the natural, nourishing oils in your hair to help strengthen it.
2) Face: I do wash my face everyday, twice. My dermatologist told me to use regular anti-bacterial soap. This removes oil, and kills the bacteria that cause acne. I don’t buy any of that super fancy face wash stuff, just regular dial soap. I also use soap in the shower, rather than body wash. I only use fancy bath stuff if people give it to me.
3) Hair: I don’t use any hair products, although that’s mostly due to ignorance. If you use products, try to substitute those that aren’t tested on animals, or too horrific for the environment. Personally, it’s not worth it to me to get up an hour before I have to to get my hair ready. I also don’t blow dry my hair. Heat and products are generally bad for your hair. You have to remember your hair is dead. There is very little that can actually be done to repair it once it is out of your scalp. A diet high in protein can help you grow stronger hair and nails. My hair is super thick and silky, so I do everything I can to avoid damaging it.
4) Hair cuts: I cut my own bangs. The rest of my hair is growing out at the moment, although I do trim the ends myself from time to time. If you have a low maintenance hair style, like your natural color and a simple cut, you can save a ton of money. I know girls that spend $100 a month getting high lights, low lights, cuts, and whatever else those people do. That’s ridiculous! I would much rather go out and DO things than have my hair some artificial color no one believes.
5) Body hair: Okay I promise to keep it clean. Tweeze everything you can. This is the cheapest method of hair removal, because tweezers cost about $2, and last forever. Plus, this will kill the hair overtime, making less plucking necessary. Wax costs money, cremes do not work, shaving is only temporary. If plucking is too painful, go for an at home waxing kit. I like the ones that are little plastic strips with the wax already on them. They cost more than the jar of wax, (per actual wax strip), but they are very cheap per box, less than $5. The mess with the big jar of wax is not worth the savings to me, but I’m also very uncoordinated.
6) Nails: I don’t get manis or pedis, unless it’s for a special day with a friend. In fact, I have had one of each in my life. If you’re going to go, pedicures are more cost effective. The polish lasts a LOT longer, and the foot massage makes it worth it. At any of these places you can be risking nail fungus, among other health issues, so keep that in mind. I generally trim and paint my own nails.
See a pattern? Anything you can do yourself instead of paying someone to do will be significantly cheaper. I bought a razor comb at Sally Beauty Supply for about $5, and I’ve trimmed my own bangs with it for years.
Take a look at any services you’re paying for, and decide if there’s something else you’d rather be doing with that money. Are you paying for a weekly lawn service, but you’d rather have date night with the spouse? Or paying for lawn service and you’d rather have a weekly pedicure? Or vice versa? Sometimes we fall into habits of spending, and it’s easier to continue the pattern rather than taking a look at what our priorities are.
Unfortunately, money is a big part of life, and it affects everything we do. Thinking about it in a logical way can help simplify our lives, and ensure that we get to enjoy the little time that we have on the planet.
Enjoy your weekend, my minions!
What, MORE chicken?
Yes, because there is still chicken in the fridge. This week I’m going to attempt a few new recipes, because I got a whole chicken on sale for $0.79 per pound. One of my favorite inventions is Mexican Chicken Soup. It’s great because it’s very hearty, and a great way to use white meat, which can be dry otherwise. Chicken is very unpopular in my house, so I have to dress it up various ways when I want some or need to use it up.
You will need: chicken (hopefully already cooked and shredded as per my earlier post), refried beans, corn, and Rotel or canned tomatoes, beans (pinto or black).
Optional ingredients: rice, bell peppers, other peppers, onions, jalepenos (pronounced hall-ah-PEN-yos for you Yankees), leftover salsa, cilantro and whatever else your little heart desires.
Start off with a can of refried beans and some water or chicken broth. This will be your broth, which makes the soup really thick and gives it a smoky flavor. You could even leave the chicken out of this recipe to make a great vegetarian soup, assuming you use vegetarian beans as well. Mix the water or broth and refried beans in a pot on the stove. You may need to squish the beans around a little with a spatula to help them liquefy.
Once you have your broth add your cooked chicken, beans, raw onions, rice, Rotel or canned tomatoes (don’t drain the tomatoes), corn, and whatever other ingredients you have planned to throw in. Stir everything around and let it cook together for about half an hour on medium. It doesn’t actually matter how long or what temp you cook it at, as long as you don’t burn it and everything gets hot. When you are using pre-cooked ingredients everything becomes a lot simpler.
Now spice to taste. I generally use garlic salt, chili powder, and ground cumin. You can also try paprika, dried onion, onion powder, Tony Chachere’s, garlic powder, whatever you enjoy and have laying around.
If you are working with an unfamiliar spice, taste a bit with your finger, or dish up a tiny bit of soup and mix some in, then taste it. It would suck to try and be adventurous, only to find that you hate curry, and have ruined the whole batch of soup, or whatever you’re making.
This soup can be made as spicy or mild as you prefer, and easily vegetarian or vegan. It is great with a bit of tortilla chip crumbs or sour cream on top, or with chips and guacamole. Yummers!
There will be blog
Yes, I did two posts already today, but I just thought of that post title, and couldn’t let it go to waste.
In order to avoid cleaning as much as possible, I started a blog. The other thing I do is try to prevent mess in the first place. If I lived alone, this would be a cake walk. Unfortunately, I live with my husband (love you, honey!), and 3 cats who delight in tormenting me with messiness.
To prevent messes and clutter, focus on what problems occur frequently. For example, in our house shoes are kicked off all over the living room, but they belong upstairs. I added a shoe rack near the front door in the living room, so that when shoes are taken off, they can be thrown across the room to the shoe rack. Yes, part of my cleaning solution is to chunk shoes through the air at high velocity. Who said cleaning can’t be fun, and slightly dangerous?
Clothes are also constantly dropped around the living room. I didn’t see the point of hauling them all upstairs to the dirty clothes bin, and then back down when it’s time to wash them. I added a dirty clothes bin to the laundry room, so all the socks, t-shirts and towels have a convenient home.
I was constantly leaving my keys all over the house, and running around in a panic in the mornings trying to find them. A second set of keys is not a solution for me, as I have uncopiable (I invented a word! Take that, Colbert) keys for work. I now have a tiny table near the front door so I can just drop them as I walk in. The table is too small to acquire other clutter, so keys are the only thing on it.
If there is clutter, or trash stacking up in a particular place in your home, take that as a sign that a container should be in that location. If that’s not possible, put something as near as possible.
If your fridge is jam-packed, and you can never find anything, don’t buy as much food. Wait until your fridge is almost empty, then go to the store. This also ensures that you’re eating everything, rather than letting things go to waste.
Are you running errands everyday? What the crap for? If you’re planning to make something specific for dinner, but you’re missing one ingredient, look and see what else you can make. Add the one missing thing to your grocery list, and use other things you already have on hand.
That’s another thing: magnet some scratch paper and a pen to the fridge, so you can write down what you need as soon as it runs out. That way when the fridge is empty, all you have to do is grab the list and walk out. No wandering around the store, lost and confused, or buying an 8th can of cream of chicken soup (no, Mom, that was totally not a reference to you. Probably). Have any specific issues? Feel free to add it to the comments and I will allow some of my cleverness to wash over your problems. You’re welcome, in advance.
Slack, glorious slack
What is this slack I speak of? Slack is a philosophy of doing as little work as possible, so you can have as much fun as possible. The Church of the SubGenius is the original creator of this concept, I believe.
This is not about laziness, this is about prioritizing. Do you want to spend more time with your kids or spouse? Then don’t work 60 hours a week. If you don’t work 60 hours a week, maybe you can’t afford a Lexus or 8000 square foot house, but why do you want to own those things rather than play with your kids?
You have to look at each thing you buy, and think about it in real terms of what it cost you. The number of hours of work, as well as what economists call “Opportunity Cost”, which is the cost of the other choice you could have made. If I go out for sushi, that costs me about 2 hours of work, for less than an hour of enjoyment. With that same, lets say $30, I could have gone to the thrift store and gone hog wild (I love me a thrift store).
Like I said, Slack is about priorities. Do you want to continue to work at horrible boring jobs until you’re 67? Or would you like to retire at 55? That takes some serious thought about where your money is going, and where it could be going.
There are always little things we ignore, little nagging voices you hear in the back of your head. “The doors need weather stripping”, “The vegetables are rotting in the fridge”, “My car seems to use a lot of gas”. Often, it’s easier to turn your head, or put it off and just pay the bill rather than scrutinize how much it’s costing. I myself have done these things, and looking back now I know how much money we wasted, and what we could have done with it. It frustrates me, but I have to focus on doing right moving forward.
How to simplify?
So today I’m just sitting here thinking to myself, what should I do? I didn’t get up until noon, I’ve had lunch and played all my facebook games. The problem is there’s plenty of crap around the house to do, but it’s all laundry and other horrible boring crap no one wants to do. So instead, I’m filling my time with the meaningless “accomplishments” on facebook. I get my character to work on yoville, and plants my strawberries on farmville so I can level up, but what have I actually accomplished?
The problem with the games is the same as in real life. Purchasing things is a hollow accomplishment, and it leads us to have to work more, or retire later, because we are fixated with material things. I feel I’ve been able to divorce myself from a lot of material possessions, although I am hard pressed when it comes to the thrift store. I get frustrated because Hubby can’t seem to separate from his need to own things. He doesn’t collect a lot, but what he does builds up in storage bins and just sits there. He’ll buy a DVD and never watch it, whereas I use Netflix for everything, and don’t see the point in owning DVDs, since I can get them whenever I want. I canceled cable for the same reason.
I read this book about how to live simply, and a big part of that is not to spend money on stupid crap. We walked through the mall the other day, and I thought back to all the cheap plastic, trendy garbage I brought home from malls in my teen years. My father must have wept for the amount of my income I spent on stuff I no longer own, that I could have put toward a car, or college, or retirement.
I’m looking around my house now, and I have HUNDREDS of books. Literally. Most of them are from Half Price Books’ clearance shelves, or the thrift store. I picked them up because they were so cheap and looked good at the time, but now they look like homework. I have to read them all, because I don’t want to miss out on anything, but will I remember what I read next week?
I have started to clear out books. I have 30 or so listed on half.com, but they seem to take forever to sell. I’ve sold about 5 so far I think. It did enable me to take a stack to Half Price Books to sell though.
Why do I feel obligations to my stuff? Why do I feel like I have to hold onto it? I blame Disney. I have spent my whole life watching their anthropomorphic creations, singing and dancing, and having feelings just like people. Won’t my Rock Band drum kit miss me if I sell it (even though it’s for PS2, and I have Xbox)? Won’t it trek across the city to come back to me, like Woody and Buzz? Damn you, Disney!
