This weekend...

Goodness I was a bad, bad girl this weekend. I was sick and so I stayed inside and did some shopping. Bad news. I am learning a slightly expensive lesson from ebay this week which goes a little something like "don't bid on more than one of the same item unless you want to win them both." Best senario is you won't win either but my luck says I win both and that's just redundant.
So yes, I "won" 2 sx-70s. Both with the white frame, not even different styles. One has really (and I mean REALLY) beat up leather on the case and the other has some scratch marks.

 

I'm crossing my fingers that the first one is a fixer upper, and that there is a way to get the old, cracked, completely damaged leather off so I can put some new stuff on there. Without having it my hands however I'm not sure. It might be a fun restoration project. We shall see...

Lastly (as far as ebay goes) I won a different kind of polaroid, complete with flash, case and a pack of film. That was a STEAL for about $10.00 (plus crazy shipping).

As if that all wasn't enough (I am so sorry my sweet little bank account) I found more things that I apparently just couldn't live without while I was searching for inspiration for an art project I've had in mind for a while.
Here is the next purchase: a coin purse I could not say no to. I have a weakness for Virgin Mary (especially La Virgen de Guadalupe) things.

I'm in love with how awesome and perfect it is. Anyone who knows me really well knows I have an obsession/weakness for small coin/makeup bags. I use them as wallets or hold my small stuff in them so it doesn't get tossed around in my purse. I'm so excited about this one! It's perfect.

Believe it or not that was all Saturday goodness. Didn't go to work, instead shopped from home. Backwards! Backwards I tell you!

So today I TRIED to mellow out a bit and was for the most part successful. I've started a new crocheting project inspired by a pretty blanket in the Red Velvet window display.

always inspired by elsie and the red velvet crew

My pattern is totally different but I've been wanting to do a granny square blanket that is a collection of several little ones instead of just making the blanket one big granny square AND I wanted a black border. It's going to be cute, cute, cute, I'm excited for it to come along.

Other interesting things from the weekend:
- my grands (g-ma mostly) have a slight problem with keeping everything but I decided to see if this would work to my (and my camera collection's) advantage and so I asked g-ma if she happened to have any old cameras... dear readers I'm not going to go into detail but it seems like they are sitting on a treasure box full of wonderful things. I hope one day they will let me play with them!
- my G-pa's 81st birthday was today. We went out to their favorite restaurant to gorge ourselves while children at the table over made it hard for the g-parents to hear anything the rest of us said. I gave dear g-pa a card talking about one of my favorite memories with him (there are several, but this one I hadn't mentioned before) this one being of us playing cards (a good game of gin/gin rummy not sure which but it was fun) together. He smiled really big when he read the message so I think I succeeded.
- Next Sunday is Dad's birthday, he's not too stoked but it is what it is. Cmom (stepmom, her name starts with C... it's a new thing I'm doing) says no presents just heartfelt messages of how he's enriched my life. Can do I say.

Welp, that's it for now. My throat is still being a menace and I doubt I'm going to be able to go to work tomorrow. At least I have an excuse this time.

xoxo

#9

Found Here

Tonight I started (and somewhat surprisingly finished) On My Own Two Feet (25 before 25 #9, 1 of 2), a personal finance book written specifically for women. It maybe took me 2 hours tops while also chatting on fb chat and looking up different things and making personal calculations.

The book was fast and effective definitely. I still have a lot of questions about what I should do with my money (once I have it considering I have VERY little at the moment) but I'm tired of living paycheck to paycheck and I've been avoiding these kinds of things for YEARS and now I want to be responsible enough to blow my money on bigger life experiences like Argentina or moving to Nashville, not paying off my credit card with a bounty of interest or my car that was way to expensive for the income I had when I bought it. Life lessons indeed.

After reading the book I figured out what my minimum monthly expense is (I factored in rent though I don't pay that quite yet) and then figured out what my emergency fund should be. I should start by saving $2,000 and then build it up to about $7,000.

I feel like that's a lot of money right now. I feel like anything is a lot of money right now. I'm not sure how people seriously get paid over $50,000 for work they do unless they are a programmer or a doctor/dentist or anything. I am PISSED that pro football/basketball etc get SO MUCH FREEKIN MONEY. I will never understand that. Ever. I don't care if they may get hurt doing what they do, they took that chance. I don't care that so many people watch these games, SERIOUSLY, half their income and put it towards the poor in each state... or, if you don't like that kind of charity put it toward the schools in that state. Sorry, end small rant.

Point being, the book is a great first step toward figuring out what to do with my money. It's not something I love to think about because usually it just stresses me out but it's necessary and if I start figuring everything out now as best I can then I will be a lot better off in the future. Or so they say. :)

I am 100% a shopaholic. Horrible, really quite horrible but I loooove cameras and I really wanted a SX-70 and this one is all pretty and white with a rainbow ribbon...

I'm in love.

I can't wait for it to arrive in the mail!

I just hope that by the time I get it and have more money there will still be some of the TZ film left in the IMPOSSIBLE PROJECT store.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE plastic cameras. I'm getting to the point of problems for sure.

<3

Must. not. open. wallet.

Why is it soooo hard to stop buying things? Where is my frugal mindset. Why haven't I convinced myself of the need to stop quite yet?

Goodness.

And then I saw this on Modcloth...

Gorgeous.

$$$

aweee

I think I need to ban myself from looking at a lot of blogs in the next few months/possibly year. If it shows cute things to buy I am going to have to quickly scroll down or just stop looking all together. I'm coming to realize that I have a very serious shopaholic issue. I think I must give my credit card to my dad so I do not EVER put anything else on it. I should also become accountable to him for a while on what I do buy. The idea makes me cringe because I love being able to make my own choices but I'm not showing myself that I can handle it very well.

It's a good time in my life to start making these changes, start creating better habits so that in the future I will have a good retirement fund and if I have children (or just one), money for his/her college education. Even before that thought, money to buy a house (if that's what I want to do) or money to safely change careers if the next one I chose doesn't work out.

Point is, I have a money problem, always have, and I need to change it. I'm not in overwhelming debt, I'm not as bad off as a lot of people my age but the point is I could be doing a whole lot better and then I would be stressing a lot less.

So here's to #12 on 25 before 25!

Found on We Heart It

Turns out I'm a nutter.
The boy I was so sad over isn't ignoring me or disappearing from my life early.
Miscommunication and awful timing.

I feel a lot better today. For so many reasons, the main one being getting in contact with someone I thought I wasn't going to get to talk to again.
Also, almost got in an accident but DIDN'T! Thank goodness. Slammed on my breaks which normally makes my car do this skipping thing but they changed the brake hose so it was better... THEN sped by a motorcycle cop who miraculously didn't chase after me and THEN sped (though not quite as high over the speed limit) past another motorcycle cop. I'm pretty sure they were teaming up for a win or two but somehow I came out without a ticket.

Phew.

I canNOT afford a ticket right now. I mean, I can't ever but really just can't at all right now.

Lastly, I have a semi new obsession with toy cameras. LOVE THEM, next acquisition will be a white Holga I think. Maybe a black one but I already have a black camera. :)

<3