Spring Purging, Organizing. . . and Spending

The past couple of weeks I have been in purge & organize mode again. It always amazes me how I ALWAYS have things to donate, freecycle, or throw away--no matter how recently I went through everything.

This past week I worked on the a few sections of the big rolltop desk--thanks to Smiley, who I allowed to climb up on the desk and sit and go through drawers. I didn't mind--until he pulled all kinds of things out of drawers and slots and made a big mess. But actually, even then I didn't mind--I have been meaning to give the whole desk a thorough going-through, and so he gave me reason to start.

And it turned out to be so productive!  He found an envelope in which I had stashed a bunch of random gift cards and merchandise credits--for safekeeping, of course. Which meant I had completely forgotten about them, of course.  I took the time to call the phone #'s on the back of each card to see if they were still any good. And they all were!  So here's what I ended up with:

$100 card to Walmart
$15 card to Safeway
$10 card to Trader Joe's
Approx $16 credit at Williams-Sonoma
Approx $12 credit at Toys R Us
$100 card to Home Depot

Whoo-hoo!

And then, because I am in Getting-It-Done-and-Out-of-My-Thoughts mode, I also made it a priority to spend them.

--I stop by Trader Joe's already about every week or so, so that baby was easy to spend.

--I got an email from Swagbucks offering 2 Swagbucks for every dollar spent online at Walmart. Perfect!  So I went and found the exact size of storage containers I was already planning on buying from Target (12 bins total), and a galvanized metal bin I am hoping can hold boots in the kids' closest.  Free shipping on the whole order. With tax, I paid $18.00.  I will end up getting about 200 Swagbucks for the entire order, which will bring my Swagbucks total up high enough to get $5 free on amazon.com. 

--Williams-Sonoma sent, with perfect timing, an email offer for free shipping on any size order. So I ordered these gorgeous glass food storage containers, and a stainless steel kitchen funnel, both on sale. With the gift card, I paid $8 total.

Those last two really made me feel thrifty! I was purchasing things I already needed and planned on buying, but I got them almost completely free, and saved myself the driving to boot. : )  The last couple of cards I will spend ASAP.  Safeway is actually the closest store to our house, I just don't go there as often because they don't have the best prices or selection on the things I routinely buy. But I will make a point of stopping by this week. The Toys R Us one will be a little trickier--but I have a friend I will offer it to for diapers, and if she does not need that, I guess I will go look for little things on sale for Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. : )

The Home Depot card I will give to DH to spend, next time he goes there. He does so frequently when working on projects, so that should be very quickly used!

I also made myself make some returns this past week, which also ended up "saving" me money and getting things out of my house--win-win!  The jeans I ordered (again, free shipping & on sale) from Old Navy for Sunny which didn't fit her (I ordered several and we kept the two that fit best)--$40.  Craft supplies we didn't end up needing for a project, which I could have saved to maybe use someday, but which I was much happier taking back--$13.  A Trader Joe's reusable cloth bag which had come completely unstitched after only a few uses, and which I took in to exchange, which they did. (Not getting rid of clutter there, but eliminating an annoyance, for free. : )

Finally, while Smiley was up there ransacking the desk, he pulled out our store of savings bonds. Looking at those brought back so many fond memories, as many of them were bought for me by my grandmother, who is now deceased,  to celebrate birthdays, graduations, marriage.  I took the time to look up all those bonds online, and write lightly in pencil what they are worth at this point in time.  While doing so I learned that some of the bonds have not only doubled or tripled their value (or more!) but some are also mature, so will not be earning any more interest. Time to take them to the bank!  I think the total of the mature bonds was about $2000.  I know Grandma would be so pleased at how her wise and loving investment is going to bless us now.

And it really is perfect timing, since we really don't have a lot extra every month, and we have some expensive things needs at the moment--vehicle & house repairs, dental work, etc.

Re-discovering, investigating, and scurrying around town and on the web making the most of these gifts made me feel like such a good little hausfrau and steward.  So satisfying!  I know those amounts of money might seem small to some people, but they made me happy, as did spending them as carefully as I could.

What's a little bit of happiness/satisfaction from your week?  I would love to hear it. : )