savings

In my continued efforts to save money and to reduce my consumerism - I claimed 3 suits, a shirt, a skirt, and a scarf from a person in my neighborhood who offered them up on our neighborhood yahoo group. Three of the suit jackets, and the shirt I can wear right now. Two skirts and a pair of pants are too tight, but I will hold onto through the summer to see if I lose the size I want too. One pair of pants are too big and I will try to ebay.

I also am feeding mac's Pokemon obessession with an ebay purchase of cards. More cards, less money than a store - PLUS recycling products rather than buying new.

I'd like to go the rest of the year with buying as little as possible new of what we need or want (and buying as little as possible for our wants). I plan to amp up my use of freecycle as well as looking for creative solutions to any needs that come up.

On that front, I am looking at tailoring a bunch of clothes that are a bit too big, I cleaned out one area and am starting on a second to increase space for mac's things. A little longer term, I am looking at reconfiguring one closet so I can convert a second closet into a sewing space. Longer longer term, if I can continue apace with the de-cluttering/simplification I hope I can get rid of my storage space in a year or so.

update on previous donation request

From my adoption agency:

"A very huge THANK YOU from AAI for the incredible response to our desire to help the [name of orphanage] in Ghana! You will all be happy to know that, because of your generosity, we have raised enough money to provide a borehole/water filters for the orphanage as well as continuing food aid for at least the next nine months. It's nice to know that all the children there will be healthier and happier because of our efforts. For now we are all set with donations and deeply grateful.

One amazing thing about this fundraiser is that we received donations from
people we had never heard of."

SO THANK YOU LISAH and anyone else that donated. That is made of AWESOME!