One of the ways I'm saving money on presents this year is by trading items on Swaptree.com. It's an awesome website where you can trade music CDs, DVDs, books and video and computer games. Once you have an account, you can enter the UPC or ISBN numbers of the items you are willing to trade. You can import lists of items that you want from your own file, web pages or by creating a "wish list" at Amazon.com.
The only costs involved are postage fees for the item that you are trading, and you can print postage-paid labels from swaptree's site, if it's not convenient to go to the post office. For this service, swaptree will bill your credit card for the postage incurred(about 50 cents more per item than the post office) plus a $1 fee at the end of the month. The postage service is worth the small extra fees to me because I live more than five miles from a post office.
I have traded about 20 items, and I've been happy with everything I've received. I've gotten 3 Nintendo DS games for my children for Christmas for a total of $10.25. They will make great stocking stuffers!
Happy swapping!
Friday, December 5, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
2008 Personal Goal Recap
What have I been doing since 9/17/2008? Nothing that should have kept me from posting for this long!
Was I successful with my 2008 personal goals? Let's see what happened. . .
1. Date night w/hubby once per week. Not even close. We did have several "dates," and we do have more time to ourselves now that the kids are older and with friends more often. We'll keep the goal on the list for 2009.
2. Lose 20 pounds. I'm halfway there with 10 pounds lost, and I still have 27 days to lose a couple more. I started the year by losing 8 pounds, but by June, I regained those plus 7 more. I rejoined Weight Watchers in October, and I've had steady losses since then. So, I'm hoping to say good-bye to the other 10 pounds by the end of February 2009.
3. Organize family photos. Again, not even close. I do have some of the photos sorted by year in boxes, but that is as far as I've gotten. On the list again!
4. Family vacation to Seattle. Finally . . . Success!! We completed this goal in October. We had a wonderful week on the Olympic Peninsula and in Seattle, with accommodations provided by hubby's aunt and uncle. We hope to return in a few years for more exploring in Olympic National Park.
5. Develop materials for a finance class. Begun, not completed. This goal will also be transferred to 2009, and I have a friend to nag me to finish it.
Although I didn't complete most of my goals, I'm happy that I made at least some progress on all of them. I'll spend the next few weeks figuring out my 2009 goals to post in January.
Was I successful with my 2008 personal goals? Let's see what happened. . .
1. Date night w/hubby once per week. Not even close. We did have several "dates," and we do have more time to ourselves now that the kids are older and with friends more often. We'll keep the goal on the list for 2009.
2. Lose 20 pounds. I'm halfway there with 10 pounds lost, and I still have 27 days to lose a couple more. I started the year by losing 8 pounds, but by June, I regained those plus 7 more. I rejoined Weight Watchers in October, and I've had steady losses since then. So, I'm hoping to say good-bye to the other 10 pounds by the end of February 2009.
3. Organize family photos. Again, not even close. I do have some of the photos sorted by year in boxes, but that is as far as I've gotten. On the list again!
4. Family vacation to Seattle. Finally . . . Success!! We completed this goal in October. We had a wonderful week on the Olympic Peninsula and in Seattle, with accommodations provided by hubby's aunt and uncle. We hope to return in a few years for more exploring in Olympic National Park.
5. Develop materials for a finance class. Begun, not completed. This goal will also be transferred to 2009, and I have a friend to nag me to finish it.
Although I didn't complete most of my goals, I'm happy that I made at least some progress on all of them. I'll spend the next few weeks figuring out my 2009 goals to post in January.
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