One is the fact that I signed up for the garage sale at Scrapbooks Too to be held August 5th or 6th (whatever that Saturday is).
The other is the fact that FIVE boxes of scrapbooking/stamping stuff arrived today or will arrive very soon. I have never had an issue with on-line ordering, and then a few months ago for some reason I signed up for TWO scrapbook clubs. And then I bought the Zoe QuicKutz on line. And then ordered some retiring stamps from Stampin up! And placed a Close to My Heart stamp order. They are all arriving together. Kind of made me sick to my stomach seeing those three boxes piled up today (and the new Ali Edwards book in my purse that I had purchased on the way home from work).
I have talked and talked about cutting back on spending. Now it's time to really do something about it.
I thought about giving myself a budget. $5 a week? $10 a week? Even $20 a week would be down from my recent spending pattern.
Then a more appropriate plan hit my mind. Dollars for pages!
You see, my disgust at myself is less about the dollars I spend, and more about the fact that all the product I buy is sitting on shelves. And I organize it, and fondle it and admire it, but I don't make as many pages as my spending might indicate.
So...I need to come up with a spending schedule. First I will decorate a tin. Or cigar box. Or some other cool, cute box I have saved or purchased "cause it would make a cute project". Then I get to start putting in the coins and dollars. And I can only spend out of the money box. Cash. No more online (except one of the clubs I joined that has two months left...the other is done with).
I need your thoughts on my "fee schedule".
I was thinking a flat $1 per page, but I'm thinking about adding on 50 cents (hey, where did that cents key go on the keyboard?) if I use a QuicKutz or non-Foam Stamp Set on the page. And 25 cents for each card I make using non-foam stamps. This would cover my major spending addictions. I could also add 5 cents for other embellishments (i.e. ribbon...I have tons of that, chipboard, metal, buttons and plastic). Stickers wouldn't count. Maybe another quarter if I use an idea book (luckily not a huge addiction of mine, but I do have a nice pile of these). If I were to consistantly get $10 per week on this fee schedule, that would mean I was cranking out stuff at a new high level for me! (If I went more than 4-5 weeks at that clip)
The money I make at the garage sale is going straight to the on-line out of control purchases this month. Should be more, and I'll just put it straight to the house budget, NOT into my tin can. Well...maybe I will allow myself one restock of adhesives with the garage sale money.
I need to "count the cost" on this one before a final commit. Could I really do it? And does the fact that I doubt I could do this mean I need to do it even more?
I'll leave you with a shot of my idea book pile. Ali's new book is not in the pile. Also not pictured are my collection of Creating Keepsakes and Simple Scrapbooks magazines (I have every issue of Simple Scrapbooks!)
2 comments:
Well, now you are talkin' cookie!
I say make the fee schedule easy, just pay yourself per page. There are a bunch of people doing this on two peas, look up scrap to spend over the last six months and you'll find the thread explaining it. I had talked about doing it, and maybe even posted as such. I think the average is about $2 paid to yourself per page, so that would be $4 for a two page spread.
I think Scrap to Spend is the way to go. You'll be happier I think.
That and the garage sale idea.
Well, it was such a brilliant idea...I guess I couldn't expect me to be the first one to think of it.
And that won't stop me from doing it, either.
I won't take the time to go into 2peas...I would just get lost and end up buying something (hah). Have you been into the thread lately? Is it working for some folk? It seems like it should.
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