books

Feeling deprived? Try cleaning out your basement!

17. July 2012 · 9 comments · Categories: Cleaning · Tags: books, cleaning up the basement, DVDs, going through you stuff you already own

Last weekend Mr. Canuck Buck and I did a task that we’ve been putting off forever – we started going through our stuff in the basement. We have several bookshelves that started off relatively tidy and organized, but slowly started getting disorganized with things just thrown here and there. We took everything off the shelves, and divided it up into piles as follows:

1. Stuff we want to keep – favourite books, movies, etc.

2. Stuff we don’t want to keep, and will try to sell and make a few bucks off.

3. Stuff we don’t want to keep, but someone else may enjoy – we’ll donate.

4. Stuff that is just junk – such as old VCR tapes we recorded stuff, but will never use again.

Going through all this stuff made us realize – we own a lot of DVDs! I think it’s important to take stock every now and then of what you own – it makes you more aware and appreciative, and hopefully will curb the urge to purchase anything new (at least for a bit).

The other thing we did was go through photo albums – labeling, putting things back in where they were originally, and figuring out what we need to make prints of (we haven’t printed anything since 2009!). I’ve been feeling a bit sorry for myself as I don’t think we’ll be taking any big trips this year - but looking through all my old albums made me realize just how much traveling I’ve already done in my life.

So, now everything is tidily organized and looks much nicer. We have some empty shelves we’ll try to *leave* empty, and we now have a nice pile of movies we’d forgotten about that will keep us busy over the summer.

Are you good about going through all the stuff you own every now and then? Does it help you reign in the urge to buy more stuff?

How “free” can really add up – but sometimes it’s worth it

19. April 2012 · 2 comments · Categories: Entertainment, Extra costs · Tags: book signing, books, Christopher Moore, events, Toronto

Mr. Canuck Buck and I are big fans of an author called Christopher Moore, and he just came to Toronto to do a book signing. There’s no actual charge for the book signing itself, but that certainly didn’t mean it was a free day. We actually spent a fair chunk of change.

1. Train fare. About 30 dollars to get in and out for the 2 of us. Driving and parking might have been cheaper, but with 2 other events going on that day, there was no guarantee of it, and taking the train is more relaxing then driving.

2. Buying the book itself. I don’t tend to buy a lot of books, and I almost never buy them in hard cover. So – another 30 dollars on buying the new book, “Sacre Bleu”.

3. One very large Starbucks hot chocolate to keep me going while I stood in line for several hours. 5 bucks. That being said – I rarely buy Starbucks, but I love their hot chocolate. It’s amazing and I call it “Heaven in a cup”.

I did bring a bottle of water and couple of snacks.

So – the “free” book signing cost almost 70 dollars. I’m not sorry I put out the money though. Mr. Moore was a great speaker, and I even got a chance to ask him a question, which was nice. I did some thinking and realized that being frugal doesn’t mean you don’t ever do anything or spend money – it just means accounting for costs, making sure you can afford them, and that they are worth it.

I had a great day out, and I’m looking forward to reading the book. It was worth every penny!

On a side note – if I lived in town, and didn’t want to get my book signed , I could have heard him speak for free. Something to keep in mind if you’re broke, but want to attend a book signing anyway.

What “free” event have you attended that ended up costing you money? Was it worth it?