RueLaLa! Vera Bradley $5

This could be a great solution for someone on your gift giving list this year.  Head over to RueLaLa, a flash sale site, and purchase a Vera Bradley bag at a great price.  Hurry, they are selling quickly!  If you have the $20 credit that RueLaLa gives for joining, you could get a Vera Bradley Little Betsy bag for only $5 plus shipping.  The sales at RueLaLa only last for a couple of days with limited quantities and this is a hot one, so hurry over to RueLaLa and check it out. 

Today is Mega Swagbucks Day!

Fridays are Mega Swagbucks days!  If you are not using Swagbucks, you should be.  It is a great way to earn points (which can be converted to gift certificates to places such as Amazon and Starbucks) for simple internet searches.  Sign up for a free account here and start earning.  Since the beginning of this year I have earned $45 in Amazon money just for using this search engine.  On Fridays the points given out for searches are more frequent and may be higher quantities.  Happy Mega Swagbucks Day!

Clean Out Your Bookshelves

Recently I cleaned out our bookshelves and got rid of books that I no longer felt the need to keep.  My house looked neater in the process and I made some extra money that I will be depositing in my envelope to buy a new bed frame.  There are several websites that will buy books from you that are in good condition.  The process is so easy and I received my check within a week of sending the books.  You just need to type in the ISBN number from the back of the book and it will tell you how much they will pay you for the book.  When you are ready to send the books in, you print off the shipping label and mail them in using a prepaid shipping label and you receive a check or you can have money deposited directly in to a PayPal account. The site I used is Cash4Books.  Happy cleaning!

Sleeping on the Floor

Several years ago, we purchased a beautiful four poster bed; it is very nice dark wood with intricate details.  No matter what we do or how often we tighten it the bed is squeaky though.  And so we have regrettably come to the conclusion (maybe not that regrettably for my husband, he doesn't seem to care) that function must take precedence over beauty.  We are going to sell the bed frame and until we have saved enough money to buy a new bed frame outright, we will just sleep with our mattress and box spring on the floor. 


Our goal is to use credit cards as little as possible and not to make large purchases unless we have the money to pay for them.  And so I am starting an envelope for a bed frame, over the next few months as we come across extra money, we will deposit the money in the envelope until we can buy our new frame.  So far I have two checks in the envelope, one is a rebate check that I received and the other is for some books that I sold, see my next post for more details.  I am thinking a sleigh bed would be nice. 

I Used to Be Rich...

My husband and I have often reminisced on our life when we were "wealthy".  We both had full-time jobs with decent incomes, a modest mortgage on our first home, and very little debt otherwise.  We were able to go out to fancy restaurants, wear the latest styles, and could meet most of our indulgent wants. Fast forward to life today, I work from home and raise our two children and my husband runs his own company.  The company is in its third year and has been successful, but we have been forced to live a much different more frugal lifestyle to stay afloat. Those champagne tastes I developed are hard to leave behind though, so I have learned to change my spending habits while still enjoying the finer things in life (just not as often.)

This blog will be devoted to spending money wisely, saving money for goals, and sharing great deals.  I hope you enjoy!