Frugal Stress Relievers

I officially have 18 days of work left. I fired myself on Friday putting my employer on notice that June 1 is my last day of work. They were very surprised but supportive. The next four weeks will zip by and I am on a mission to purge at least one item a day by either selling it, giving it away or throwing it out. Yesterday I gave away an old street hockey net the kids quit using four years ago and today a small 13 inch colour tube tv. Tommorrow I am dropping off old glasses to the optometrist who gathers them up for distribution in third world countries.

This week is what you could call "a little stressful". Without getting into the dark details hubby and I have been coping in our own frugal ways and thought we would share some ideas:

1. Exercize: Take a walk, bike or use that old exercize equipment you own.

2. Read - I find I cannot think of anything else when reading a book so find this a stress relieving activity.

3. Hang out with your pets. They are soothing and although they do not understand the stress they tend to be empathetic (even our hamster soothes us) plus they are so darn cute. I am sure your dog would be more than happy to chase after the ball if you would just throw it or take him for a walk.

4. Do brainless work ie: hubby took to painting our wheelbarrow, I took to cleaning the hamster cage and finding items to purge in our downsize.

5. Get up at a normal time, do normal routine things. Sometimes when stressed it is easy to ditch your routine but routine can be comforting.

6. Poke yourself, remember all the good things in your life and consider: Any day above ground versus below ground is a good one - you woke up today, it has got to be a good day as that was a step in the right direction.

Any other ideas?

April Budgetary Results

April Food Budget $426.57 (if you are new to this blog the post in which I worked out this formula is here)
minus March overage of $30.30 = April Food Budget 396.27

Actual $396.72 - Success - only over by .45 cents!

It took me three months but I made up January's huge overage and am back on track. This method of carrying forward and reducing current month's food budget by previous months overages certainly keeps the budget on course. It also allows me to blow the budget near end of month if I happen upon a great sale, knowing that it will only reduce next months budget.

Coupons used $9.50 - one of the lowest months yet. I am almost at 95% scratch cooking so only using coupons on mostly non-food items. I found a great sale on pork loin mid month so with a little effort chopping up pork chops - the freezer is well stocked going into May.

Non-food items: all over the counter medications, soaps, razors, garbage bags etc: $72.19 of the budget. I would like to reduce this further and believe I will be able to when I can again stockpile after we move ourselves to Vancouver Island.

Meat: $99.11. I continue to buy family packs and break them down into family size meals. We had the older boys over a few times for dinner - and the younger two kids seem to have hollow legs at ages 14 and 16. I swear we went through six litres of milk the last time my 16 year old stepson was over for the weekend.

Annual Clothing Budget $200
April spent $9.99 on a shirt and a tank top at Goodwill (see previous post)
= $190.01 for rest of 2012

Annual Hair Budget $400
April spent $140.20 on a cut, professional colour (lighten not darken) and professional hair product
= $192.20 for rest of 2012

We also sold our truck $5500 which was reduced from original asking price due to a wheel bearing that was discovered during the purchasers mechanical inspection - he still bought it - thank goodness!

Also unloaded this week: sold 2 kids bikes $40, gave away a tube tv, one box and one bag to goodwill and recycled an old cell phone as part of a women's shelter drive (they recondition them and give them to women in crisis).
Total in stuff sold in downsize: $7910.

I have just over 20 days of work left and will be making the drive to move to Vancouver Island the first week of June to our new pad at Comox. Hubby will come as soon as we can unload the Alberta house - we did a further price reduction this week and are resigned to losing somewhere between $50,000 and $70,000 on this home from our purchase price. Fortunately, the home is paid for in full - and we made over $100,000 in equity on the sale of our last home so everything evens out in the end. Lesson learned is try not to tie so much of your equity up in your home. Our new home in Comox is smaller, less expensive on taxes and utilities and is 54% of the cost of our home we are trying to sell in Alberta. The difference in equity will be put to work making our life financially independent and hopefully a little less stressful.

Saturday was the 9th Anniversary of the weekend I met Hubby(married 6.5 years) - we celebrated by using a giftcard that we had received at Christmas and went to the Keg for a wonderful dinner of Steak and Seafood. It was one of the few good meals out we have had in the past year - excellent service and food. Afterwards we went for a walk around the pond and spotted:

Muskrats(look like mini-beavers) and Grebes (similar a duck)

It is baby making season on the pond so stay tuned for photos of tiny furry and feathered creatures as all seem to be pairing up!

Final Days of Work Countdown

I am giving notice at work next week, my last day of work will be June 1. 27 work days left! I like most of the people I work with but not the job. Insurance, well insurance is an unhappy business. It has no heart. Time for a change.

After that who knows, some time off, a part-time job, or self-employment. The house still is not sold but we have shown it seven times in April and interest is still very good. We declined a low ball offer ($59,000 off our asking price) but told the guy if it was still for sale in a few months we may give him a call. If still not sold by the end of April we may do a small price reduction.

We sold some more crap this week, a fifteen year old patio set on its last legs for $80. The photo makes it look too good - much worse in real life. Total crap tally $2370. The truck was sold with a deposit and then the people changed their mind right before we were supposed to take it to the mechanics for inspection - being the good people we are we returned their deposit. Kind of a big waste of our time though - it happens (with a big S). Then the scam artist in the last post.

Hubby got a bit down about that but is showing the truck to a guy tonight. Other than the house, the truck is the last large asset we need to sell. The remaining furniture will be sold when the house sells. No one said this was going to be easy but we are both trying to remember the vision of Vancouver Island and taking walks on the ocean any old time we feel like it. Our empty house in Comox is being checked by our realtor and we have hired someone to take care of the grass until we get there.

I finally managed to give away an old hamstercage that was well loved but still useable. I originally purchased this at a garage sale for $3. I tried to give it away twice on Freecycle and no luck but was able to give it away on Kijiji.ca today.

Please send positive vibes our way - we need them. Life is still good, we are happy, can afford to carry two homes for the time being, the kids are alive and healthy, even my ancient hamster looks like he will make the trek to the island with us - I just want to GET ON WITH OUR NEW LIFE! I really should not be feeling sorry for myself.

How Did We Accumulate So Much Crap? Update on Downsize

It is really mind boggling that we have already sold $1475 worth of household crap since Fall, and you can't even really tell. The house is still fully furnished as we are carefully downsizing but need the house to show with furniture.

Sold this week on Kijiji.ca (stools and cabinet pictured here):

Spare double bed including boxspring and metal frame $175 (we delivered-we have a truck and they didn't - beds sell much easier this way)
Two Wooden Stools $20
Metal File cabinet $15 (we got this item free a few years ago when we bought hubby's office set used)
Desk $40

We only have two items that we listed that have not yet sold and two of the above items were relisted so that they would show up on the first page as were buried on page 6 after just a few days. We dropped their price by $5 each and they went. The most amazing is that everyone who said they were coming to buy showed up! Not a single no show.

Fate is also making a play in this downsize: shattered a pot lid by dropping it(metal with glass - not replacing) and killed the 4 piece toaster (ok, it just died) so we had to buy a new one but downsized just to a 2 piece. I even let hubby take it apart (for show) to try and fix it before it went to the appliance guy in the sky.

I also dropped off 40 wire hangers at our drycleaners rather than take them to the landfill.

You would think it would be easier to have a garage sale, and we likely will if still here in Alberta when the weather permits (earliest garage sales are May here) but prices sell for much lower and I hate to leave everything to the last minute.

Now we look around and say "What else can we get rid of?" It begs the question, how much stuff does it take for you to have a happy life? A lot less I would say.

Post Christmas Recovery

My Christmas guest has just departed, all the gifts have been given and I am having a pj afternoon - no more cooking or entertaining to be done.

December is a strange time. All year I carefully keep to my grocery budget and use coupons and plan meals. December I blew the grocery budget (but will be held accountable by taking my December overage off January grocery budget) and have to shop up a storm to complete all the gift giving lists. I really feel like I have a post Christmas spending hangover. Fortunately we have no credit card hangovers - we charge everthing to the credit cards (for the points) but immediately pay them off so there is no debt. I am just a little sick of shopping, eating and cooking at the moment. Do you ever feel that way?

My mind is on packing and purging for the upcoming move. The weekend before Christmas hubby managed to sell the final piece of workout equipment we had up for sale on Kijiji $275.

It was purchased used for more ($500) but hubby got three solid years of use (and yes, he actually did use it as well as his son who recently got into working out). It is a bit of a boat anchor as weighted about 500 lbs so there was no way we were taking it in our move (nor do we have the room for it). We have worked it into our budget to both join a gym which will be easier to keep up a regular workout routine as it is too easy to do other things when you work out at home.

Over the New Years weekend I will carefully pack away all the Christmas decorations that will be mover ready. I did downsize some Christmas decorations this year, but realized some of the decorations meant more to us than we realized. I will purge other items that have no meaning to make up for it. It is difficult downsizing to a home half your current size - but also liberating.

Even if you are not moving consider a post-Christmas purge! Give away at least 10% more than entered your house in the month of December. Sell it on ebay, hold a garage sale, list it on Craigs List or Kijiji or Freecycle or give it to friends or Goodwill. I guarantee it will make you feel better about your space.

Sally Ann Giveth and Taketh - Thrift Store Finds

Trying to ignore the bitter cold (minus 21 degrees celcius) I packed up four boxes of old pots and pans, and Christmas items from our downsize to take to the Salvation Army today. It sure is easier to downsize when you can imagine exactly the amount of space you have and where everything will go. I still have to do some Christmas purging as we decorate the house this holiday season but this is round two. And yes, I am giving away my Lagostina cookware as the handles are starting to degrade on my gas stove. I would have to say I would never buy Lagostina again as had hoped this set would have lasted many more years. Earlier this year I bought a Cuisinart set of pans and love them(purchased at 60% off of course).

Hubby saw me taking the things out to my car and vetoed giving away Screwy Reindeer with the wobbly legs and googly eyes(second picture above). He is now gracing our fireplace. Oh well, at least I know know what Christmas items hubby holds dear.

While at Sally Ann I thought I would look for spun-head vintage Christmas decorations. They certainly did have a wide selection of decorations but not what I was looking for. I would only break the "no more Christmas Crap Vow" for a spun-head. Fortunately I did come away with a great Eddie Bauer sweater $6.99 and these black leather Cleo boots for $6.99. I had passed up another pair of boots last month on my Thrift shore shopping trip as was trying to find the right pair. These are very classy and exactly what I was looking for. The photo shows them "farm fresh" (I was trying for some natural daylight in the photos) but they have already been disinfected and are awaiting hubbys talent at shoe polishing (he has a thing about shoes and vehicles).

Don't you just love thrift shopping?

We Bought A Piece of Paradise!

On Wednesday Evening we flew back from four days of house hunting on Vancouver Island. We viewed 15 homes with a budget of $400,000 to $500,000. We are not seniors downsizing out of necessity, we are a mid age couple(42 and 49) downsizing by choice. Requirements were just enough space to live and do the things we want to do with zero wasted space: 3-4 bedrooms for master bedroom, home office and music room with spare bedroom for kids and family to visit, 2 bath, double garage, nice backyard for outside living. Our style is modern contemporary with a touch of eclectic thrown in (items from our travels and my odd antique piece fit in). We currently live in a two story walkout with 3794 sq foot of finished living space on all three levels(keep in mind we are a family of six so this home suited us at the time we bought it when the kids were much smaller and lived with us part-time - plus we live in Northern Alberta where you are stuck indoors most of the year).

We just purchased a four year old 1723 sq foot one story on crawlspace with a great private back yard perfect for a small hot tub, some flowers and veggies and room for our future pooch to hang out in. Hubby had to have a decent home office as will be working from home when he gets his consulting business off the ground. He has a love of music and part of the move to Vancouver Island includes more time to enjoy his accoustic guitar, electric guitar and drum kit. In addition to being a music room the third bedroom will have a dual purpose: spare bedroom. We are buying a murphy bed which initial outlay is expensive but savings on smaller home are huge. The room is large and when family visits we can move the instruments out of the way, thereby allowing us to buy a smaller home. There is a three foot dry crawlspace under the entire home accessible by the garage which will act as a storage space.

The bones of the home are exactly what we wanted. The second we get rid of the sheers, repaint the pink bedrooms to cream and add some hardwood floors in dining room and living room the home will be exactly what we were looking for. Due to the fact that all of the furniture we intend to keep is dark wood we likely will be staining the cabinets a darker colour at some point and adding a backsplash. White appliances are not really my thing, we may also choose at somepoint to change them out to stainless steel. The gas fireplace would be much nicer with the addition of stone or tile as the room is a great room with really high ceiling and we would use it as a focal point. All of the above changes would be $10,000 to $20,000 but we would then have our dream home. We thought our big expensive current home was our dream home, but it really is not. We are at a different place in our lives and want a simpler way of living. Although I am frugal I still want a pretty home so by spending a little to put the upgrades in that we will be happier with our choice of downsizing plus we will do them as we wish, none of the upgrades are required if we change our mind as the home as it currently stands is spotless and in excellent condition. Hubby is already figuring out ways to negotiate deals on wood flooring while I have been checking out all the lovely decorating on a dime blogs there are in blog land (I will feature some of those at a later date - some great ones out there - who needs HGTV).

The best news is what we got it for: $384,000. Under our lowest budget with plenty of room for all of our dream home changes! Here is a sneak peak of some before shots. We negotiated a possession date of March 29, 2012 which gives us a little breathing room to get the current house on the market as we really had not intended to buy on this trip. We did have to give a slightly larger deposit on the home in order to accomplish this long possession date.

Check out that great room ceiling! Please try and imagine it with contemporary furniture minus the sheers:

Benefits of the downsize?
1. Less room to have to keep clean
2. Lower taxes ($2,000 per year saved)
3. No wasted space and less of an earth footprint.
4. Cheaper heating, insurance, and utility costs(guestimate $2000 per year).
5. Home maintenance costs like roofing, paint and landscaping are cheaper. Less furniture is required. Upgrading a smaller home is much cheaper than the same upgrade in a larger one.
6. Only having enough "stuff" and size of house to maintain the lifestyle we want to live, not caring what the Joneses have.
7. The biggest benefit? Total financial freedom as the equity between our current home and the new home is enough to pay for a rental property that will allow us to maintain a side income without a full-time job.

I believe in smaller living spaces but this is an achievement as hubby is only newly converted (I have been working on him as he thought 2200 sq ft was the minimum required). This home may be still be considered large for most but based on where we currently live it is on the smaller side as people live 95% of their lives stuck inside due to weather. If hubby didn't work from home I am sure we could have downsized to 1200 sq foot but this home will work perfectly for us.

Did I mention it is only a five minute drive to the ocean? Also only five minutes to some of the wildlife seen this trip: sea otter, blue heron and some of the 2000 white Trumpeter swans that spend winter on Vancouver Island in the farmers fields. Sorry, no shots of those yet as our time was mainly spent traipsing through homes that were up for sale.

Even on a rainy November 8th Day the ocean is beautiful. Check out the whitecaps (this is the inside passage which cruise ships goto to Alaska on, and the day we were there there were whitecaps reflecting the terrible storm Alaska was bracing for).

Tales of a Wonderful Thrift Store Afternoon

My friend and I have a mutual love of thrifting. We met up Saturday for bargain hunting and lunch. It was a wonderful sunny fall day and we visted four different stores near where she lives (ones I normally don't go to).

My finds:
Two glass apothecary jars - that go absolutely perfect in the bathroom. Cost? $3 for both

Three Shirts:
Sweater and a tank that had never been worn and still had the $19.99 price tag on it.
Green Sweater (Reitmans) $5.99
Red Sweater(Dalia Brand) $5.99
Black tank (Northern Reflections) $3.99

My friend also had a great thrifting day: Blue navy felt coat $15.99, tablecloth that will be a gift to her sister $4.99, black leather pumps $19.99 (a bit steep but they were Guess), a brown set of pumps $4.99, handmade mittens .99. Unfortunately no pictures of her finds as did not take the camera.

In turn (as more must go out of the house as come in until we move) I gifted her three pots for her balcony. She gave me a bottle of red wine (she is unable too drink for five years as is taking medication for her post-cancer treatment that may damage her kidneys if she drinks) that she has had in her cupboard for a long time and some bacon some friends she had over recently left in her fridge as she is a vegan.

She also has agreed to take five more blue pots that we figured out she will have room for on my next visit.

Hubby sold one more item this weekend for the Vancouver Island furniture fund:

Trailer dolly $40. Total in the fund now $865.

My clothing tally for the year is now at
$152.07 for new items
$173.95 for used items
Total $325.02. I have decided to cap it at $400 for the year. It is nice to know that I can have a really nice wardrobe on very little. A lot of what I am buying now will be used for at least the next year so the first six months of no work I should be required to buy very little in clothing.


Our earliest move date would likely be March if the house sells immediately so that gives me five months to complete the downsize. It seems to be going rather well-we just have to keep the momentum going.

The Down-size Continues

Excellent luck selling things on Kijiji this week.

We sold:

Hand weights $100 (there is something wrong with the mechanism that holds the weights on the bell - the purchaser was aware of that and still bought them!) Originally hubby was going to throw these in with the sale of one of our other fitness items but someone made him an offer he couldn't refuse!

Treadmill $325

Total in Vancouver Island furniture replacement account: $825

I also managed to give away four full boxes (sorry no photos) of Halloween decorations to a friend at work who has a four year old son who can appreciate them as our kids have outgrown them.

If you have never tried buying or selling on Kijiji the basic ad is free. If you want your ad to be front and centre you can pay extra. We have bought and sold boats, vehicles, and furniture this way. I highly recommend it.