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Archive for December, 2009

Amazon tips and tricks

December 15th, 2009 at 11:40 pm



Being 8.5 months pregnant, I'm doing most of my Xmas shopping online this year. I'm too tired to scour the sales and and paranoid of sick people.

I'm usually thrifstoring gifts, but this year I also wanted some new things and had great luck with Amazon daily deals.

I bought hubby two magazine subscriptions that normally go for $25 only $5 each.

The board games I bought as gifts were all 1/2 of the price than Target or Walmart wanted for them, with free shipping.

Getting a trial Amazon Prime subscription and canceling within 30 days will let you get free shipping on everything for the month.

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Filler Item Finder and Link is http://www.filleritem.com/"

Filler Item Finder
is great for when you're really, really close to $25 on your order total and want to get that free shipping.

There are also tons of sites like spendfish.com that list all the most marked down items on amazon that day.

Luckily I have a clear idea of what I want to get beforehand, because if you end up buying a bunch of stuff just cause it's on sale, obviously that defeats the purpose.


Craiglist sales update

December 10th, 2009 at 11:35 pm

I've been nesting and cleaning out things out of the basement and the guest room which we're turning into a nursery.

I've got a huge pile of stuff to give my parents, a big pile of stuff for Goodwill and a large bag of clothes for consignment which I need to drop off next week.

Craigslist This week

Dresser - Sold $35
Metal Bed Frame - Sold $30
Laundry Hamper / Sorter - Asking $10
Coffee Table - Asking $30

I usually just save all the cash in an envelope and take out of it before heading to the thrift store looking for baby bargains. This makes me feel a whole lot better about shopping even if it is for second hand goods.

In baby news - one of the few things we're going to be buying new is a carseat. And the best rated one goes for $160, eeek! But the basic ones get horrible reviews so I think we will have to pay for some good quality on this purchase. So that will be going on the Amazon Christmas wishlist that I'm going to send to the in-laws and hope for the best. Smile

Back from a long hybernation

December 1st, 2009 at 06:59 pm



Well I'm back to perusing the PF blogs after a long hiatus. We've been so busy with home remodeling, getting new jobs and getting ready for a baby that I've just left all the finances on autopilot.

Well after some long and hard consideration, and realizing that daycare in Denver costs $1500-2000 for an infant, we've decided that I will be staying home after the baby is born. Right now we're thinking it will be a temporary 1-2 yr situation, but considering we want more kids it might hopefully turn into something closer to 5 with me freelancing on the side.

This will cut our income in half, and really test all the budgeting and thrifting habits that I've been trying to learn and follow. But I can't think of a more worthwhile reason - family - to do this for.

So far so good. No going out to eat in ages, I've been inviting all my friends over for lunches and making them myself. No extraneous spending, almost everything baby is coming second hand or through thrift stores and I've been selling anything and everything on craiglist and have an Ebay list too.

Now I have to catch up on everyone's posts for the past few months!