curbing spending and junk

I am determined to get a handle on extra spending. I feel guilty because I bought too much scrapbooking stuff this weekend. In the grand scheme it was not a lot of money, but more than I needed to spend. On stuff I really didn't need. I watch women in these stores with arms full of stuff when there is a sale. I'm not like that. I look at my little, carefully price chosen pile and wish I could just indiscriminately take things off the shelf and pile them in my basket. I don't. But I still spend more than I should.

I just sat and reworked my budget I figured out last October. Adjusted some expenses that have changed, increased how much I will put in savings and toward a credit card balance. Now I know what I have leftover. Besides Target and scrapping stuff I have trouble sticking to a grocery budget. I love going grocery shopping, cooking and having food in the cabinets. Much like the scrapbook store, I only buy things on sale, bring coupons and write a list before going, etc. But I still spend too much and things go to waste. In honor of my word SIMPLIFY I am going to streamline spending on groceries and extras. Am in search of some good websites for printable grocery coupons too.

Yesterday I had so much fun helping my LSS with inventory. It was a lot of work. I was there for over 5 hours and some were still there when I left! I don't know yet how much store credit I earned but will this week. I got a close-up view of such cool product! Every sheet of paper, every button, every ribbon, every mini-book was counted. Good Lord! There were about 30 0f us. I guess for previous years it has always just been the 5 people who work in the store counting everything! Anyhow...it was fun, I met some ladies and had an awesome lunch.

I mentioned this weekend that I reorganized my desk a little. This actually helped in seeing all the cool stuff I already have that really needs to get used! Here is one of the extras {guilt} I got this weekend to store little embellishments...I think it is Melissa Frances...

It's a great little box with three layers of compartments! I put all my brads in the top, some photo corners and metal pieces in the center and some ghost peices and extras in the bottom compartments. This freed up a lot of space in my drawer unit to spread my stamps into two drawers (instead of one). Now I can see them all more clearly and get more use out of them. It also saves me from spending. I was going to get another 3-drawer cube for stamps but now I have room! It also freed up my desk top organizer (it is a candle holder from Nate Berkus) that I love! Now I can put new little embellishments there along with my rhinestones which I use all the time on cards. I also put some other peices in the jars I have on my desk so I'll use them. For me "out of sight is out of mind." In all this organizing I streamlined and through out a lot of junk that is taking up space that I haven't used in years. Some will be donated - some was tossed.

I'll try and take some more photos of my scrap area later today and post them.

Saturday I backed up all my photos onto disks too. My computer is getting full. I'm so afraid to delete them though! I double checked the disks. The photos are on them. But I'm afraid to delete off the hard drive. A few years ago I saved photos from a trip to California on disks. Fast forward to my new computer and when I insert the disk...nothing. The pictures don't show. I don't know why. I'm not good with this stuff...I just know I don't want to lose more photos! But in the interest of SIMPLFYING there is no point of having them in three places: on the computer, disk and in albums/prints. SIMPLIFY!

It feels good to have all this organizing of stuff and money done for the new year. Now I need to stick with it. And I need to have fun and play with my scrapping stuff today! I started a layout last night but haven't finished. I've been feeling a little "blocked" since Christmas. Looked up some sketches for ideas. Might go through my old magazines and add to my Inspiration binder today for ideas.

Well....I'm off! Have a Happy Monday everyone...