Adding it all up

My husband and I have been going to Debtor's Anonymous meetings to try to educate ourselves about our finances. As a result, we are keeping numbers - that it writing down how much we spend on everything. 

I did that in a different way after my last trip to the 99 Cent store.  I had gotten lots of bargains, but it was sort of squeezing the budget - so to justify it for myself, I had to add up the moisturizer with sunscreen, the hand cream, the cellulite cream, the reading glasses (with an $18 price tag), a nail cutter and a bunch of little tops (marked at $6.00) - all for 99 cents each!  My husband doesn't quite get it, but I stock up - especially on those beauty products - which regularly cost $10-$15 each for moisturizer and cream...Otherwise I go to www.buymebeauty.com for deals.  Last time I stocked up on eye cream from there.  Oh, on another visit to the 99 cent store I picked up a L'oreal lipstick, too!

I joke that my husband has a very inexpensive wife.  Men really have no idea all that goes into making oneself presentable.  There is lingerie and bras of different sorts.  Stockings when you need them.  And different sorts of shoes for various seasons...Handbags...and makeup - skin care products.  And clothes, of course.  I cut corners wherever I can.  I have bought vintage for years, even before it was fashionable, and collected old costume jewelry.  At this point, I really have 2 wardrobes - one consisting of jeans & t-shirts for sitting home and another professional one.  I had to take out my linen pants/shirt, a top and my new sandals for a professional interview....And sometimes I get even more dressed up than that.....

Oh, a big score!  I found a 19th C. lithograph of a nautical scene, framed, in a Salvation Army sale for $4.00!! A friend who knows about these things looked at it and confirmed my opinion of it by pointing out the hand coloring and other marks.  All the art work I have in the apartment comes from similar sources! 

Yet, it's still hard.  But twas ever thus, I remind myself.  I really respect those of your with families - working on keeping it together...I am a collector and I do look around at my things & think I could put it all on the auction block, if necessary. ( I did sell a lithograph I had bought as a student for $40 for $1500 years later.  ) And once I found 2 Toulouse-Lautrec lithographs for a friend for $150 when they were worth ten times as much....

Of course, the fate of a collector, is that you end up with too much.  My designer friend said that to me once that I have a lot of nice stuff, but too much of it!  It's yard sale time, if I can motivate myself. Ugh.

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