Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Economic measures

Gather 'round everybody, I've got big news! Our economy sucks!

That's right, I'm finally feeling the pinch. High unemployment, rising costs of fuel, and for Christ's sake the price of a chocolate chip cookie at the bakery went up 33% last week! What the hell is happening? What's worse is that for some reason all I want to do is spend money. All the time. Go out to lunch? Sure! Grab a drink at happy hour? Why not?! Buy fifty dollars worth of small art on Etsy and bid on a couple of Ebay auctions? Let's do it! ...I mean those are just examples of things that I might have done recently. You know... hypotheticals. Right.

So I'm trying to curb all that excess spending by remembering this clever rhyme: "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."

I read it somewhere in a craftster string about recycling materials and despite my swiss cheese brain, it's managed to stick. So here are a few of the things I'm doing to cut costs lately:

  • Not buy any more art paper and only use what I already have in new projects
  • Finally send in the mac rebate from Mr.Mr.'s Christmas present
  • Completely use up the samples I got at Sephora of the new Stila concealer ($22) and foundation ($32) I'm lusting after... any maybe go back for some more before buying
  • Find recipes that use the stock items we already have in our cupboards
  • Watch only Netflix videos and stop impulse-renting from Hollywood Video when I 'm impatient
  • Consider repricing some of my artwork to sell faster on Etsy
  • Bring some clothes to the secondhand stores to try and sell some items
What measures are you taking to ease the squeeze?

No comments: