No kidding. But I am learning moderation and trade-offs (with a lot of practice!).

Black Friday:

It is remarkable that I could look through the “Black Friday” ads and think, “Hey, I don’t really need ANY of this!”

Before I went out, however, I researched & researched & researched . . . I checked on-line Black Friday sales (most everything already said “sold out”). And the two little things I wanted – a $7.50 pair of earrings like my treasured pair that I’d lost one of, and the piece of exercise equipment that I was planning to buy ANYWAY, but was half price at Sears – those were nowhere on-line.

And old habits die hard & I have always loved to be in a freezing cold and dark parking lot somewhere at the stroke of 4 a.m. – mostly so I don’t feel like I “missed” anything.

I am thrilled to report that I got both of my treasured items, and I kept my other purchases to “wow” deals on necessary clothing items & shoes that the children needed & I would have had to purchase anyway. I got a handful of “splurges” like $5 items for the kids’ gifts (and a few of these that the kids could give to friends & relatives), but overall, what I bought was common-sense stuff . . . and as one of the articles that claimed to decode “myths” about this sale date claimed, these deals really ARE the best price of the year on many items.

Off the Gift Wagon:

I have also been interested in hoping off the “gift wagon” and making charitable donations instead . . . and I was able to buy some very warm coats originally priced at $45 for $15 and I intend to donate these to a local coat drive. Each year I hope that I can decrease the “me” holiday budget and shift more to the “donate” category in December. This is hard though. I did not have much of an example of charitable giving growing up, and I think it is hard for MANY people to give if they never have before – and if they have worried about having “enough” themselves.

Cooper Watch:

I sold the Cooper on eBay . . .to Haroon Rasheed in Afghanistan, zip code 12345. I’m a tad put off of the eBay system, but I have it listed again – I’ve had a FANTASTIC mechanic look at it & ok it – and I’m selling it for a song to cover some of my upcoming trip expenses. I have listed also on Auto Trader, and so I have high hopes that this next week some lucky, lucky person will be SUPER COOL in the sporty, red, and gas-sipping Cool Machine!

Homework:

I may have mentioned that I’d been sold a pick-up truck (by a friend I’d trusted) for approximately 3 times what it was worth, and this has been a bitter pill to swallow in this point in the challenge when I’d been hoping to avoid making costly mistakes. I will sustain a *significant* loss on this transaction (and I’ve been avoiding the blog because I’d been so freaked out about how to fix this), but I avoid crying about it by reminding myself that we must do our homework in ALL things that cost money, even when we’d prefer to trust someone else to act in our best interest.

I’m trying to outfit the lot of us for our travel to a coooooooold climate, and this is taking a toll on my credit cards, but as my mother is able to repay the little loan I made her, I’m hoping to get balances back to zero.

And I am undertaking the task of learning how to communicate openly with a partner about finances. Since money is the number one stress on marriages, I thought I should come to terms with old, bad patterns of the past, and learn new ones before I try to merge finances with anyone else. I am listening to an audio book called First Comes Love, Then Comes Money and I have thus far established that my “money type” is “spender” (my friends are now rolling on the floor with gales of laughter saying “you needed a BOOK to tell you that?”) but there are other nuances of how we view money that are important to consider when another person. This is HARD stuff! And, because I now realize that money will never be “easy” for me, I’m taking baby steps, and forgiving my imperfections along the way.