Bargain Brags and Lesson 2 - Liberate Yourself, Limit Your Expenditures

I saved $45 at Bath and Body Works on Black Friday!

BargainBrags(.blogspot.com) is a blog my sister-in-law, Tiff, maintains. This little vignette belongs on her blog, but I wanted to share it here. It was KC’s birthday on Black Friday. Actually, she was born on Black Friday, but I had no idea that it even held that title until this year. Anyway, we got back from our trip late Friday evening, but not too late to hit the mall for my promised gift to KC. She got her ears pierced and it was a great adventure. She is such a cool girl, she was hardly even nervous. After we chose her first pair of earrings and they were forced through her little lobes, we decided to hike upstairs to Bath and Body Works. There they had several lovely items on sale; items I’ve had my eye on for a while and have waited for a sale on.

Wallflowers are little plug-in scented oil diffusers wit h delightful fragrances to choose from. They were on sale for $5.

After some deliberating, I chose 3 Wallflower starter sets and 3 refill packs at. Not too bad, $30. I made my selections, and went to stand in line. While I was there, I found the softest socks in the world. They were made with aloe and only cost $5, the same price of every other item in my stack of stuff, I wanted to give them as gifts and chose 3 from the shelf. While I waited in that tedious line (beginning to understand the term Black Friday) I began to consider each item in my arms. As I thought about the things I thought I wanted so much, I remembered the dozen or so scented candles waiting to be burned at home. Additionally, I have a closet full of essential oils waiting to be used in creative new ways to fill the same purpose the Wallflowers would. I thought about our financial goals, and while every item I held only cost $5, all together they added up to $45 and that was a modest sum. So, guess how I saved $45 dollars at Bath & Body Works. I left all of my stuff on the table next to me in line. That was it. So, there's your lesson #2:

Liberate yourself by limiting your expenditures.

This morning I went through my closet and found that I have the makings of some great gifts. My husband has been wanting a bamboo reed scented oil diffuser for his office. I could make several from what I have here at home. We are trying to make, or recycle, at least one gift for each member of our family. This can be my home made gift to him. More on that later. Now to the moral of the story.

The gift I'm giving my husband for his office. It will only cost me a couple of bucks to make it.

Sometimes all we need to do is hold the things we think we need and then consider the things we already have that could work just as well. Sometimes we need to think about the time and energy the purchase of that item will cost you in the end, how many hours would you or your spouse have to work to come up with that sum. Even if it’s only one hour, what you do with one free hour? Just a thought. I have done this exercise a few times. Never deliberately, but it always teaches me something.

So, that’s to do with holiday gifts or sale items. What about your grocery shopping list? What about all the parties and errands and people to see to this season? Is there a way to limit your expenditures in time and money to make room for the things that really fill you? What would you do with a liberated hour purchased by your ability to limit your list of stuff to do and things to buy?