Freebies Rock My World

OK, I have to admit that a good portion of the reasoning behind our Get Out of Debt Plan was a fluke that had everything to do with freebies. Both of these things happened around the same time. I don't remember which one happened first. Here it goes.
I'm going to say that this happened first- I got my first taste of getting something for nothing at Walgreens. I had been suffering with cheapo shampoo and conditioner and my hair was rebelling and my scalp was crazy itchy but I was going to live with it until the next payday when I would go plunk down a fiver for a bottle of Fructis. Then I stumbled across a Walgreens circular and saw that with their coupon I could get a bottle for 99 cents. The same price as I was paying for the cheap crappy shampoo!!! Whee! I went skipping down there as soon as possible. What did I find? I found some bottles were on sale for $2.17. The coupon was for $2.50 off. Put two and two together and VOILA! A free bottle of Fructis! I was hooked. I then discovered the rebates. And the Register Rewards. And the ability to double up coupons on an item. OH JOY! I now have a nice arsenal of Fructis and Herbal Essences so my hair doesn't have a break down and it was all free. I also have a ridculously large stockpile of free toothpaste. I once know a man who lived off of a tube of toothpaste for a month while in Vietnam so I suppose it could come in handy someday... Anyway, the freebies that way have been eye-opening for me. I can't believe I've been paying for all this stuff my whole adult life! It's a travesty!
Secondly (I think), I was told about The Freebie Blogger. Handsdown the best freebies site EVER. I go there everyday without fail. The thrill of a thick envelope or little box in the mailbox gives me enough of a buzz the abstain from random shopping. It's weird but true. I got the tiniest little roll of toilet paper the other day that was so cute and unexpected I was showing it off. Crazy, huh?
Once the freebies ball got rolling, I really got into seeing how much for how little I could get at the grocery store. The stores in my area do not double coupons so it's an even bigger challenge. My best so far has been 63% off the original bill. ^_^ Yay!
When all of these came together, I realized we could live without credit cards. Some weeks it's a stretch but we've already made it over a quarter of a year and taken almost 10% off our original debt load. We probably could have done better but we're still learning.

Dejunkify Update

I forgot to mention that we also returned one eBay item and one Walmart purchase that have been sitting in our house unopened for awhile. Less stuff and money back... oh yeah! Plus, today I sold Bee's tummy time mat on craigslist making my profit for the last two days a grand total of $80. The person interested in the swing was a no show so that one's at a standstill for now. I also listed the cosleeper we didn't really use and it has potentially sold as well. Wheeeeeee for extra cash!
Now of course I have a conundrum to deal with. Do I throw this cash at debt or put it aside for the inevitable car repairs? I would love to make a chunky payment toward AmEx but I don't want to put the repairs on a credit card. I think I just answered my own question. I'll hold onto it and get the car into the shop. *sigh* Such is life.
Out of nowhere today Hubby decided he wanted to go thru the storage boxes we've had piled in the garage since we moved in and we made pretty decent progress in weeding out things to sell and trash. This worked out great since I wanted to set a personal deadline to get through it all. I'm looking at June 13 for planning a garage sale forcing us to plow through it in two months or less. Hopefully less.

Dejunkify

I'm desperately trying to dejunkify our house and in turn our lives. ^_^
In the last week I have...
Dumped a box of magazines at the library
Recycled three big bags of grocery bags
Recycled five bags of aluminum cans
Thrown away about a shoebox worth of junk from the garage
Listed three things on eBay, two of which have already sold
Listed three things on craigslist, one of which has already sold and two of which are going to be looked at tomorrow

In the mean time, I did buy one Easter chick stuffie for Baby Bee's basket which did benefit the March of Dimes... and a shirt for her to wear under her dress for my grandparents' 50th anniversary party next week. So a bunch of stuff out, one tiny stuffie and one tiny shirt in. Not too bad plus I made $70, potentially $127 if everything else sells.

WOOT!