Minimilist?

 This year I took on a HUGE endeavor, purging our house.  It took this long because I have touched every item we have, including all of the holiday boxes that are packed up.
As I touched each item, I asked myself if the item serves a purpose, or brings me joy.  If the answer to these questions was yes, it stayed, and if not, away it went. No item was safe. This is a great documentary I recommend if you are needing a little motivation. http://www.theminimalists.com/netflix/  
For those that have been following my blog for a while I sell a lot of items online. You can re-visit this here:
http://guesswhoscheap.blogspot.ca/2016/08/yard-sale-part-two.html
I posted a lot of my items on Facebook Buy and Sell Groups to sell.  It takes effort to take and post the picture, put on Facebook and answer questions but it helps out financially. It was a nice perk to earn some money as I was attempting to travel the road to being a minimalist. I have a goal to sell or save $5 a day.  By selling the items it helped a lot with making extra payments on our home mortgage.  Win Win.
I hate to admit this, but I have packed and priced up 21 boxes for a Yard Sale that I will be having this Spring.  Sadly, this doesn't include what I sold online. It has been a very lofty goal for me to be a minimalist and if you visit my house you may not notice that I have tried. But I see a difference and hey it is all about our own personal path.
I list things online to sell that is over $2 if I have similar items. Then if it doesn't sell it goes in a yard sale box, then lastly I take it to Value Village.  My girls are involved in Girl Guides, if they have their yard sale again this year all the unsold items will go there.
Good Luck to you if you choose this path, and if you have achieved this already I bow down in awe.   And the extra money, BONUS!
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You Tube

Saturday night, as I was living the dream doing a few loads of laundry suddenly our washing machine stopped working. The machine wouldn't drain any of the water. We tried trouble shooting, and did an extra spin and drain cycle and nothing.  We had a problem 2 years ago and we were told the mother board is going on the machine, so we just assumed that it was broken.  To everyone a washing machine breaking is a big deal and causes some problems.  My husband is a massage therapist, he needs to use the machine for work also, above and beyond our household laundry. I spent Saturday night googling and researching prices for  anew machine, sure that this one was dead. I texted my mom who said her boyfriend would come look at it in the morning. This lead to my husband deciding he would search You Tube for how to fix videos. I figured, hey what is there to lose as I had already mentally prepared the machine was dead.  Well, I was pleasantly surprised Sunday morning when my husband said he fixed it!  There was a sock, a rag, a bobby pin, and a quarter stuck in a hole (my technical jargon) blocking the machine from draining.  Yippee You Tube saved us $700 plus tax!!!! 
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Cell Plans

If you are like me, you are addicted to your cell phone. Oh Gosh, I rarely use it to talk on the phone, but I do use it a lot to text, and to surf the net. I use a lot of Data. But not as much as I thought.
When I got my cell phone plan, I got one with a lot of Data and lots of day time air time minutes.  Recently my husband and I have been talking about how we can make our bills cheaper.  The closer we are getting to being Debt Free, the more we are trying to tighten things up.
We logged into our cell plan and were able to view back the past few bills.  We examined the trends  in my cell phone bill with minutes and Data.  We noticed that I was paying for more than I was actually using.  Today we logged online and changed the cell phone plan and are now saving a little over $15 a month!  I am with Koodo but I am sure other cell phone plans have tiered packages also.  For the minimal time it took to investigate the trends, it was well worth the $15 saved per month, that's $180 over the year. I'll take that any day.
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Recharge

Every now and then I need a recharge.  Ideally I would love a spa day. Seriously who wouldn't?  Today I just needed an hour to myself and relax.  And I wanted it to be cheap. I came upon the idea of a nice long bubble bath.  I had bought two large bubble baths from Avon last year for $10, and the scents are amazing.  I use one cap full and the bottles seem to last forever. I lite a nice candle, the smell of the Caribbean (this will have to do until I have saved up for a vacation) and went to my oasis.  I also brought in a novel, you know, the smutty ones you read that you don't tell anyone about? I buy books at yard sales on the cheap, usually a quarter a piece.   They resell for that when I have yard sales, so almost free!
There are many ways to recharge, some have a price tag, some are minimal in cost, but none the less do the trick.
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Menu Planning

I go through cycles where I plan the meals for the week, and I love it when I do.  I find this is a habit I need to work hard to stick to, it isn't natural to me. I HATE COOKING.
The door to our pantry is painted in chalkboard paint. I use this spot as the place where I record our weekly meals. 
There is a lot of food in our house. I spent five minutes and did a little inventory of the meals we have in the freezer, and food on hand.
Romaine lettuce is a staple here for salads, remember you have to eat this quickly before it goes bad.
I bought supplies to make an Epicure Thai meal for dinner with a friend on Saturday night. I will make a different Thai dish for dinner using up the fresh supplies. 
I cut the ends off of it and stick it in water for longer shelf life in the fridge. 
I recently bought a second deep freezer to store prepared frozen meals.  There are half a dozen turkey soups, pink sticker pizzas, and prepared Chinese Food kits that were on sale a few weeks ago and bonus Airmiles. 
This week we are eating out on Friday. A friend gave us 2 free large pizzas at a restaurant in town in exchange for a coupon session.  To upgrade to garlic fingers is $8.05 after taxes so I recorded that amount to come out of our budget. I will use the entertainment budget vs the food budget, the choice is up to you.
On the weekend we are going to the city for the day. We are going in just before lunch. We will bring snacks and a sandwich on the drive in, and for supper we will go to Superstore Grocery Store.

Happy meal planning

** We ordered Hamburger from a local farmer. It is a bit more per pound but delicious! I suggest looking for a deal like this in your area. 

Check Out 51

There is a Cash Back App that I use weekly, Check Out 51.  You can download the app on your phone, or Ipad.  And you can have more than one account per household, which helps for the really good deals! There are limits on how many offers you can claim. Multiple accounts allow you to benefit multiple times.
The concept is simple.  Once a week (Thursday morning) you will get an update of new fresh offers. Scroll it and make notes on the offers. There are offers for things from toiletries to produce, to cleaning supplies.  The best part of it is, they send you a cheque once you have hit a credit of $20.  Now, some people like to save it and cash out when the number is high, and a certain time of year.  I am a natural born pessimist, always believing when things are too good to be true, they may not be real or last.  THIS IS REAL, but cash out every $20 credit. They mail you a cheque and deposit into your bank account, and voila, that simple. 
Once you check your offers on Thursday, make your list, and go shopping as per usual.  (Check and see if you have coupons or Coupgon that match up to your offers).
When you go home, go onto your Checkout 51 App.  
Some offers are really good, and I upload the receipt when I get to the car as offers are limited in quantity.
At the bottom you will see a green camera and it says Upload Receipt.  Click. 
From here step by step directions how to line up the camera to your receipt and claim your offers.
That is it!
This is a great app for those that don't like to use coupons, or ways to make extra cash.
Happy Shopping!

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Groupon

My family is on a plan to be Mortgage Free by June 2018.  This has us on a budget, and being extremely frugal. The best part of a budget, is that there is money for fun, it just has to be planned.  Our favorite restaurant Cafe Chianti in Halifax offers a Groupon on twice a year for an appie for 2, 2 main meals, and 2 desserts for $65.  I am all over this, for a night out after Valentine's Day. 
Subscribe to Groupon Emails for your area.  When you register you get a code to use for money off of your first purchase (sadly, not applicable for this deal) and also you receive discount codes from time to time.
Groupon is already a great deal, but there is MORE!!!!!
When you receive your code, and email offer that you like, log in to airmilesshops.ca  and search Groupon.
Now you will receive AIRMILES and the amazing deal.
Happy Date Night :)