New Magazine Subscription

This is my first issue of my new Macleans subscription!! I recently decided to subscribe to it and its pretty expensive at the store, about $5.95 I believe. I got 22 issues ( I think, or maybe it was 24) for $20. SO MUCH LESS MONEY!!!

I first fell in love with this magazine about 6 years ago when the guy I worked for had it delivered to the office. I used to read it on my lunch breaks all the time. What I like about it is the variety of articles. Some are entertainment based (about celebs), there is some about the economy, some about business, world issues etc. I like to know what's going on in the world and as I get older I am starting to get sick of the Cosmo's and Glamours that basically talk about the same stuff over and over: How to Get a Guy to Like You, How to Lose 10 lbs in a week, etc etc. I want to read about real issues!

Now I have a weekly surprise to look forward to in the mail! :)

Do you guys subscribe to any magazines??

More Goodwill Finds

Last Friday it was half price day again so I went to the local Goodwill after work. I noticed they had a sign that it was on clothing and textiles ONLY...I am hoping that is not permanent as I do love my half price books. Anyways these pictures are acually from two separate trips, one last fri and one the weekend before I think..


Books:
The Magician's Assistant
Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously
The Scent of Sake


Mexx Skirt Regular $4.99 got for $2.49

Aeropostale tshirt regular $7.99 got for $3.99

I find it a little odd that an aeropostale t-shirt was more than a skirt from Mexx...but either way its a great price regardless. I think I will go again this Friday!

Finally More Books :)

In keeping with my new years resolution to not pay full price for a single book, I went over to the used bookstore today. I didn't take note of how many books I brought with me but I think I brought about 8-10 books. They didn't accept two because they already had too many copies or too many by the author. I ended up with $20.50 credit ( $1 of which I had already). I got two books which came to $17.50 so I have $3 to spend still. The books I ended up taking are: Love in the Time of Cholera (Oprah's Book Club) and The Reader. The first is on my list of books to read, so that's another I can scratch off when finished. :)

Then I popped over to Costco which is always risky because the deals can be so enticing. I mainly went to get these grilled chicken strips which I really like. They are pre-cooked and you can keep them in the freezer and microwave them when you are ready to eat. I like to use them for salad, or wraps. I also ending up getting the new Special K Satisfaction cereal because they had a jumbo sized box for $4.99 and it looked really good. Verdict: It IS good. Especially with bananas. I also got bagels because I've never tried their bagels and I got a pack of two Maidenform bras for $22. The clothing deals were awesome as always and I really wanted to buy more. They had really nice yoga type pants from Mexx, Nike, and Adidas, and Calvin Klein and Tommy jeans, all around 20-something bucks. In the end I just got the bras, because I actually did need more seeing as I only have like 2 good ones and the box had a hole in it so you could feel them, and they are really soft :)

Oh, and what did I do with my $94 GST deposit? Put it towards my credit card, which I racked up a bit from Christmas. What did you guys do with yours?

Christmas and Spending Confessions...

Well Christmas is over, and I hope that you all had a great one! For me, my Christmas this year was a little bit different. My family is really not in great shape financially and I honestly thought I was not getting any presents this year. I'm an adult, so it's not hugely devastating or anything, just different. But as it turned out, I did get a few things. Among those, the new John Mayer cd, which I was hoping for. It's really good...I've been playing it in my car whenever I go out.

Even though Christmas is over, I've still been spending money! On boxing day, I went over to Michaels, around 6pm. I waited until later in the evening because I figured it would not be as crowded then, plus it was open until 9. Well, I was right about the crowds. It was the quietest I have ever seen this place. It was like, shopping heaven. I went because a few bead collections were half price. I spent about $40 which is great for the amount I got. I also went to Walmart but didn't get anything. They did have a lot of dvd's on sale, but none that I absolutely had to have. I was secretly hoping for some CD's to possible be on sale, but no such luck.

Then today I went to Chapters. I ended up spending a bit more than I was hoping to. Here is what I got:

• Eat Pray Love - X-mas present for my friend. I didn't think it was on sale, but when I checked my receipt it was 30% off so it only cost $14.80. ONE OF MY FAVOURITE BOOKS :)
  
• Celebutantes - on clearance for $6.99
• Agenda -$16.07 (30% off $22.95) its leather so it's soft and has space to write something for each day. I have to have that. I don't like the ones that are just calendars.
  
• New Moon movie companion - definitely didn't need this but I bought it to indulge in my new found obsession with the Twilight saga. I've already read the whole thing. $22.99

So I spent $65.18 at Chapters. :( More than I wanted to spend but I like to justify it by telling myself that books are never a waste of money, I mean, reading is good for you, and I love to read. But this gave me an idea for a goal for next which I will tell you about later.

Random Updates

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't blogged in over a week! Sometimes I just don't know what to write about. I've decided to just write some updates about what's going on in my life.

1. I had signed up for a beginners Tennis course about a month ago. It was in this booklet that comes around from the city that has various courses offered at the community centers and such. It's at this indoor tennis place that does lessons and stuff. Anyways it was only $150 for 8 weeks which is a great price. But it got cancelled!! :( I am actually quite sad that it is cancelled because I was really looking forward to it, because it's something I always thought would be fun to learn. But, on the bright side, I am now $150 richer again.

2. I made an extra $17 on Sunday from selling some various un-loved makeup items through live-journal and ecrater. If you guys wanna sell any old makeup/clothes/books etc this can be a great place, and its so much easier/cheaper than Ebay as there are no fees.

3. Not sure if I mentioned this but awhile ago I cashed out some points from Lightspeed Panel for $15 cash through paypal. I also just cashed in some points from another survey site, Harris Poll Online, for a $10 check so that will be coming in the mail sometime hopefully soon!

4. Just finished reading The Lovely Bones It's been on my list of books to read for quite some time now, and I found it at the used book store that I frequent. Its about a teenage girl who is murdered and she is up in heaven telling her story of her murder and how her family copes afterwards. Really great book!! I also just found out this is being made into a movie!

Does anyone use MyPoints?? I signed up for this site, a LONG long time ago. I pretty much ignored their emails for awhile and started getting back into it again within the last year. It's really annoying me though, because they claim that anyone can join, yet when I go to look at the various gift cards I want they all say they can only be used in the U.S. Sometimes it really annoys me because it seems like EVERYTHING is either cheaper for the U.S. or for them only. :(

More Thrifting

Yesterday it was half price day at Goodwill. I went over in search of books, because I currently don't have anything to read and am trying not to buy brand new books anymore. I also looked at clothes, but those are harder to find, because it's hard to find something you really like, thats in great condition, AND in your size! It's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Anyways I did manage to find 2 books I wanted:

Summer Sisters by Judy Blume


The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom (I have heard so many great things about this book, and it's been on my list of books to read for awhile!)

So I spent $2.49 total for both books, not bad!

Oh How I Love Reading...

I've decided to share my latest additions to my "Books to Read" list:

Summer at Tiffany


What Would Audrey Do?
Gone With the Wind
How to Make Love like a Pornstar

I've included Amazon links in case you guys want to read the descriptions.

Some other books I recently finished include:
The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner
How To Teach Filthy Rich Girls by Zoey Dean
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult

Currently reading:
The Wealthy Barber by David Chilton

and next on the list:
Money Can Buy Happiness by MP Dunleavey

Book Review: Eat, Pray, Love

When I went to the library a few weeks ago, I checked out the book called Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Since this book came out it has been on pretty much all the bestseller lists, and has been on my list of books to read.

It is about a woman in her early thirties who seems to have the life anyone would want, a husband, successful career, nice house, etc but even though she has all these things she is not happy and fulfilled. She ends up divorcing her husband and spiraling into a depression. After this she decides to travel, examining 3 aspects of life in 3 different countries: pleasure in Italy, devotion in India, and in Indonesia (well..the island of Bali) a healthy balance of both.

I thought I would type out my favourite little part of the book, its about happiness. Here it is:

"I keep remembering one of my Guru's teachings about happiness. She says that people universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you're fortunate enough. But that's not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. If you don't, you will leak away your innate contentment. It's easy enough to pray when you're in distress, but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments. "

I totally love this paragraph from the book, I think its really true and something we should all think about. Anyways, basically I loved this book, and I highly recommend it.

Going to start learning portuguese!

I bought a Portuguese Phrasebook today! It's the Lonely Planet Portuguese Phrasebook, and I'm really excited to start learning. I got a $20 gift card to Chapters for Christmas from a friend and I thought I would put it to good use.
I eventually want to buy some sort of cd-rom for more in-depth learning of the language but this will do for now. It's basically got a bunch of sections to do with travelling, as well as a menu reader and a two-way dictionary.
It looks really cool and I can't wait to start reading it!

I love the used book store!

YesterdayI went to this used book store that a co-worker told me about. I had only been there once before, it's on the other side of town and I don't really venture out that way very often. I brought in about 8-10 books I wanted to get rid of and got $19 store credit. I picked up 2 books, "Snow Falling on Cedars" by David Guterson and "Nights in Rodanthe" by Nicholas Sparks which is now a movie! The books were $17 total so I still have $2 credit left.

I really like this idea because you can go in there and come out without having spent any money. It's also a great way to get rid of books that are just clutter around your house, without creating waste.

So do you guys shop at used book stores at all or do you prefer to buy brand new?

Back from vacation!

Well after my little hiatus there, I am back and ready to blog once again. I went on vacation and that is why I haven't written for awhile. I took a week off work and went to visit a friend from college. Boy did this trip cost me! Here is what I spent:

Rental car: $277.00
Spending money for trip: $360.00
Gas money spent: 113.00

Luckily i had saved about $740.00 so it didn't set me back a huge amount. The money spent while on vacation was for various things such as going to the bar, eating out, shopping, admissions to various attractions + parking costs etc. While I was there I spent about $120.00 on clothes and a new bag that came out of my bank account and not out of the money I had previously saved. So basically I spent A LOT! Not to mention I also went to Ikea the other day and spent $390. This went on my visa. I am not proud of it, but I don't have the opportunity to go to Ikea every day, and I bought some organizational stuff for my bedroom. My room looks great and is a lot more organized now. Hopefully it will stay this way.

After this trip I was ready to get back into money saving mode. But not until I did a little book shopping, oops. A co-worker told me about a used book store in town, and I decided to check it out. The prices were not as great as I had hoped, but still better than Chapters! Here's what I purchased:

Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult: regular $21 got it for $10.50
No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies: regular 22.95 got it for $10
..so basically half price.

I wanted to get a personal finance book but they didn't really have much at the used book store so I went to chapters and bought Personal Finance for Canadians for Dummies. At $29.99 it was a little much I thought, but after beginning to read I know its going to be a great book for me.

I also plan to sell some of my old books to the store. You dont get cash back, but a store credit you can use toward purchases. I've collected 8 books I no longer want, so I will be taking those there plus when I'm done with the ones I bought there, I can take them back as well.

So what do you guys think? Have you ever been to a used book store? Or do you prefer the library?