Sunday, June 28, 2015

Can you go for 30 days without buying anything new? and more...

 
Money Saving Mom

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Here's What's New
Can you go for 30 days without buying anything new?
5 Things I'm Loving This Week
The Top 5 Posts From This Past Week
7 Things You Might Not Know About Me {SQT}

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:: Can you go for 30 days without buying anything new?

How long could you go without buying anything new?

How long could you go without buying anything new?

Yerdle is challenging people to make a commitment to stop buying new things for 30 days (or however long you decide works for you!) by taking their Unshopping Challenge.

They want to encourage people to unclutter their lives, save money, and create less waste.

If you decide to take the Unshopping Challenge, you can make your own rules. Yerdle encourages you to still buy food (of course!) and consumable items, but what they really hope to do is to challenge people who have a shopping "addiction" or who just shop as a recreational activity, to break free from excessive shopping and spending in order to save money and simplify your lives.

Here's how they encourage you to consider setting up your Unshopping Challenge:

  • For 30 days, buy nothing new (except things you can't re-use like food and gas).

  • Sign up for a Yerdle account (it's free!), go through your stuff, and post pictures of items you no longer need, love, or use.

  • If someone is interested in your item, they can purchase it with Yerdle credit and you'll earn Yerdle credit when you ship it out.

  • You can use your Yerdle credit to "buy" items from other sellers on Yerdle. You pay shipping on the items you "purchase".

This is a great way to not only clear your home of clutter and save some money, but by taking the Unshopping Challenge, it will likely help you evaluate your spending habits in a new light. And maybe you'll end up forever changed as a result.

Sign up for the Unshopping Challenge here.

Tip: When you sign up for Yerdle, you can grab your referral link and share it with others. If others sign up through your link, you'll earn 10 free Yerdle points and they'll get 10 free Yerdle credits, too!

{This post was underwritten by Yerdle. See my disclosure policy here.}

:: 5 Things I'm Loving This Week

5 Things I'm Loving This Week

It's been a packed-to-the-brim week - with 3 trips in less than 7 days (a trip to Atlanta for the Say Goodbye to Survival Mode event, a trip to NYC for my Fox Business interview, and a trip back to Atlanta to meet up with my sister and her family for a few days of fun!) + more.

Here are 5 things I'm loving this week:

1. Great Deals at Kohl's

Kaitlynn and I went shopping for her birthday and she found some great deals at Kohl's for some adorable clothes that she's already worn multiple times this week. We found them on the clearance rack and they were just a few dollars per item!

I also bought some new shoes (a kind of rare occurrence for me!) and was excited to get a great deal on them! (See the shoes I bought in this picture here - I should have worn them for a few days before wearing them all over the streets of NYC because now I'm the proud owner of multiple blisters. It's clear I don't buy shoes often enough to know these types of things! :))

5 Things I'm Loving This Week

2. It's My Pleasure*

I got to read a pre-release copy of this book and absolutely adored it! It's short, but packed with inspiration for business owners, entrepreneurs, or anyone who would like to get a glimpse at the inner workings and core values of Chick-fil-A.

5 Things I'm Loving This Week

3. The Georgia Aquarium

When we went to Atlanta with my sister and her family, we debated whether or not to go to the aquarium. The tickets are expensive, but we are SO glad we splurged and bought them as we absolutely loved our time there.

It's hard to say what our favorite parts of the visit were as it seemed like at every turn, we were all saying "woah" and "wow!" Some of my highlights were: the beluga whales, sea horses, whale sharks, albino alligators, weedy sea dragons (these are so cool!), and the shark eggs.

I also loved the exhibits where you could touch some of the creatures - including starfish, sea urchins, sea anemone, and the sea cucumber (my favorite). If I had to pick one favorite, it would have to be the Dolphin Show. It was hands down incredible. Seriously! We were in awe… And now Kathrynne is considering changing her career ambitions to dolphin trainer.

5 Things I'm Loving This Week

4. Coffee With Friends

My friend, Jennifer, and her husband were in the Nashville area this morning and we got to meet for a quick cup of coffee. Jennifer is the author of one of my Top 10 Books from 2014 and just such a sweet, sweet woman. She's inspired me in so many ways and blessed my life.

I was also supposed to have coffee with my friend, Tam, this afternoon. But I was really tired after a long week so I texted to ask if I could have a rain check on coffee with her. Well, guess what she did, she went and got a coffee and dropped it off at my doorstep… because she's such a dear person like that!

5 Things I'm Loving This Week

5. A Day At Home

After coffee with Jennifer this morning, I promptly came home and put on my Wonder Woman tee, hoodie, and comfy pants - one of my favorite "Lazy Day" outfits. (I had taken a shower and fixed my hair/makeup, so that I wouldn't ruin my day!)

It was so nice to have a day to just rest, relax, and enjoy being with my people.

(Silas sat next to me for quite awhile today hard at work on his latest Loom Band* creation. He's kind of obsessed with these right now and does a great job making them!

However, when I took this picture, he was concerned that if I posted a picture with the Loom Bands, someone might comment that "Loom Bands are for girls!!"

I told him not to worry about what other people think. If he likes creating with Loom Bands, then he should go for it, because I love to see him learning new things and trying his hand at new skills!)

What are YOU loving this week? Tell us in the comments!

*affiliate link

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:: The Top 5 Posts From This Past Week

The Top Posts From This Past Week

No, I Don't Think Credit Cards Are Evil

The Top Posts From This Past Week

Why We're Sticking With Our Starter Home

The Top Posts From This Past Week

5 Ways to Ruin Your Day - Guaranteed

The Top Posts From This Past Week

How I Won the Cool Mom Award With a Simple Trip to Kroger

The Top 5 Posts From This Past Week

5 Lessons I Learned After Quitting Facebook

:: 7 Things You Might Not Know About Me {SQT}

7 Things You Probably Don't Know About Me

So I outlined this post yesterday and then ran out of time to finish it. So enjoy a Seven Quick Takes-inspired post on Saturday instead of Friday.

Today, I bring you 7 Things You Might Not Know About Me:

1. I can't help but be frugal - even in NYC.

Okay, so this one you might be able to guess. Because, well, you know, my blog name might give it away just a little bit. :)

Case in point: when I was in NYC last week, I couldn't bring myself to pay the hotel breakfast prices (a bottle of water was $9, so I was kind of scared to even look at what scrambled eggs and bacon might cost!). Instead I walked to a Starbucks in Times Square and bought an oatmeal and a coffee with a gift card I earned from Swagbucks.

I could have saved even more by making my own oatmeal and coffee in the room (you can make oatmeal packets using the hot water from the coffee maker), but the beautiful hotel that Fox put me up in was apparently so froo-froo that they didn't have in-room coffee-makers. I was clearly out of my league, folks.

2. I don't iron.

See that picture above? It's very important to note that I am leaning on an actual ironing board that I set up and actually USED in my hotel room to iron my dress before heading to my interview on Fox Business.

If you are a real-life friend, you know that I don't own an iron. Why? Because I don't iron… ever. So this was a momentous occasion, people. It probably won't happen again for another 13 years.

7 Quick Takes

3. I am directionally challenged.

You do not want me to drive you anywhere - especially if it's not some place that I've been at least 100 times before. Trust me on this.

I guess my brain is too full of other more important things (or so I tell myself!), and it has trouble computing left and right and the difference between the two.

(Going to the eye doctor is a very anxiety-ridden experience because they are constantly asking you to cover your left eye or close your right eye. I sit there like a crazy woman having to think long and hard before remembering which one is which. I know, I may have some slight issues.)

If you give me directions in north and south, I am toast. TOAST, people. You might as well blind fold me and spin me around and tell me to find my way to Mars.

So you can imagine my sheer panic when I discovered that I was supposed to find my way to the Fox Studios from my hotel. "It's only a few blocks," they told me.

Well, trust me, with my navigational skills, it was a whole lot more than a few blocks. I got in a full body workout, broke out into a dripping sweat, and managed to get multiple blisters on my toes.

However, by some miracle, I found the Fox Business studios and I found my way back to the hotel. I also found out a whole lot of ways not to get to either place in the process.

4. I have gotten completely addicted to podcasts.

I'm incredibly late to the podcast game, but I've fallen hard and fast in love. I listen while I'm scheduling social media posts, while I'm cleaning, while I'm driving by myself, and while I'm folding laundry.

Some of the ones I've been listening to a lot recently are: Sorta Awesome, Chalene Johnson's Build Your Tribe, Beyond Pro Podcast, The Fizzle Show, The Laura Ingraham Show, The Accidental Creative, and The Art and Business of Public Speaking.

I don't listen to every episode and find that if an episode doesn't grab me within the first few minutes, I just skip it and move to the next one. No need to waste time listening to something I'm not intensely interested in when there are so many great shows and episodes out there!

7 Things You Might Not Know About Me

5. I am almost always cold - except when walking blocks and blocks in NYC!

I posted the above picture as we were getting ready to head out the door to Atlanta on Wednesday and said, "Apparently, Kathrynne missed the memo that it was 90 degrees today! She's a girl after my own heart - I'm often sporting a hoodie in the summer when indoors anywhere because it seems like I'm almost always cold!"

Yup, it's true.

6. I still get crazy nervous about stepping outside my comfort zone.

You would think that all of my stepping out of my comfort zone things and facing my fear opportunities over the last few years would mean I never get dreadfully nervous about anything.

But nope.

I discovered last week that TV is still way outside of my comfort zone. In fact, I basically was sick to my stomach scared about it for half of the day before my interview.

I texted a few friends and asked them to please pray and I felt a lot more calm the day of my interview. And I'm grateful, because it would have been quite the eventful interview had I thrown up on set. :)

The crazy thing is, when it finally was my segment, I wasn't really nervous at all and ended up enjoying it. So maybe I could learn to like doing TV interviews??

7 Things You Didn't Know About Me

7. I'm working on living more with abandon and embracing the moments.

We had planned to check out Centennial Park when we were in Atlanta with my sister and her family this week. We ended up showing up right before the Olympic Rings Fountain show.

We didn't even know that there was a show, so we kind of felt like we'd hit the jackpot. It was a lot of fun - and FREE!

After the show, the kids had a blast playing in the fountains. I may have gotten in the fountains a little, too. I couldn't help myself.

It was roasting hot and the water looked too inviting. And I'm working on living with abandon and embracing the moments… So it was perfect.

What about you? What are 7ish things most people might not know about you?

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