Things to buy

If I could buy anything today I would probably make a Shutterfly album for myself.
Pretty small purchase but it would be nice to have. Too bad I have to spend all the time searching through the pictures to make it happen.

Items that can be sold or donated prior or after a Yard Sale

Books
-Donate to a library or sell to a used book store

Children's Clothes and Toys
-Donate or sell to a kid's store

Kitchen and Household items
-Donate (any other sale methods) -ebay

Yard Sale

Things to do before a Yard Sale

Any suggestions?

Decide on staging
Get or make signs
Have change
Don't bring unsold items back home

Memories of my Life

Through the looking glass...

2000's

Riding in my car, looking ahead, realizing that we are following the hearse that my beautiful infant son is in. It just seemed so wrong. I have always heard that burying a child is the hardest thing for a parent to do.

Looking out the windows of a fabulous boat on the Seine River seeing the magnificent Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris as the narrator sang Ava Maria in English and French.

Looking out the airport window at my friends as they boarded a plane to celebrate their wonderful honeymoon in Italy.

Looking up at Pope John Paul II at his window as he blesses the crowd gathered in St. Peter's Square.

1990's

Looking down at myself as if I was in a dream during my marriage proposal.

1980's

Riding in a limo after my father's funeral looking out and seeing a house that I always have loved. Telling my brother, who is an architect, about the house. My brother offering to design a house for me someday.

1970's
Looking out the window of my front door and seeing my good friend, Amy, getting on a bus that is taking her to Montessori school.

Thank you to KT for pointing out this wonderful post from Jen called seven windows of my soul.

"Credit Withdrawal"

There is a blog called www.creditwithdrawal.com.Just the name gives me an idea for a post. How much did we charge in 2007 on our credit card? 18% of our take home pay. And how about on our "2nd credit card"? 7% of our take home pay. A total of 25% of our take home pay went to our credit card companies. We really should be doing a better job on not relying on credit. The host of this week's Carnival of Debt Reduction,No Debt Plan, has a good approach for using last month's paychecks to pay for this month's expenses.
No Debt Plan's Life Changing Concept.

Car Shopping = More Debt!

Car shopping (see Car Woes post) has been on my mind for awhile. I decided to listen to some of the call-ins on Dave Ramsey's show regarding cars. I thought this call was pretty appropriate. Call into Dave Ramsey's show "Wanna get back into debt". Actual call.
Currently I have no car debt. Why get back into car debt? There was another call regarding paying a large amount of cash for a truck and draining savings.
Call into Dave Ramsey's show "Trashing the truck".
So why do so many people buy new cars? Status, keeping up with the Jones. What is the motivation? I have leased two cars, bought/ financed two cars and paid cash for one car. All of these were new cars. I wonder what the total $ outlay would be on all these cars?

Advice from Edmunds

Here is some advice from Edmunds regarding calculating lease payments.