Somewhere recently I came across a quote that went something like this:

Never sacrifice what you want most for what you want right now.

This really resonated with me, as I think it can be applied to just about anything in life… money, exercise, diet, personal relationships, jobs, etc.  We all have things that are on our list of what we want most.  But we often let what we want now get in the way.  For myself, my own list of what I want most looks something like this (in no particular order):

• To always have a strong relationship with my husband and son and with our extended family and friends
• To still be active and healthy when I’m 100
• To own our home free and clear as soon as possible
• To be able to weather whatever financial storms life might send our way

Since these are my priorities, I try to make them a part of my life every day.  I spend time with my husband and son, and make sure that I keep in close contact with the rest of my family and friends.  I exercise every day, and make sure that pretty much every bite of food that passes my lips is increasing my chances of reaching that 100 year mark.  We put extra money towards our mortgage every month.  We set aside a good chunk of our income each month into various savings accounts, continuing to keep our lifestyle pretty much the way it was when we were earning very little money.  By doing these things, we’re keeping our focus on what we want most, rather than on what we might want at the moment.

Over the years, I’ve found that focusing on what we want most has become a habit.  So much so that what we want right now and what we want most are almost always the same thing.  I derive much more satisfaction from sending extra money towards our mortgage than I would from spending that money on a pair of shoes, for example.  And I much prefer an apple to a piece of cake – seriously! (that took a while… I used to have a raging sweet tooth)

The thing I love most about the little piece of wisdom at the top of the post is how it applies to anyone, no matter how different our goals might be.  One person’s strongest wish might be to become president of her company, while another person’s greatest desire might be to climb Mount Everest.  It doesn’t matter what we want… what matters is that we each know what we want, and focus on it, without letting day to day distractions and fleeting desires get in the way.

I found this quote inspiring, and I hope some of you do too.  If it inspires you to write down the things that you want most, and figure out strategies for getting them, even better!

The first year my husband and I were together, I remember going shopping for Christmas presents for just about everybody we knew.  Family, friends, coworkers… we did some serious shopping.  We did most of it at outlet stores and off-retail places, but we did a lot of shopping.  A few years later we hosted my husband’s parents for Christmas, and we had just bought our first home earlier that year.  So we put up a tree and strung lights all over our house, and bought lots of presents.  My husband told me later that he nearly fell off the two-story roof onto the picket fence below, so the next year we just put lights on our porch railing.  We’ve gradually been scaling down Christmas around here for the last several years, and it just keeps getting better and better.

This year, I made ornaments for our nieces (something I do every year, and our nieces really like their homemade ornaments).  I also made some blocks for a friend’s daughter, and a small scrapbook for my mother in law.  The week before Christmas we went to visit an elderly friend who is in a rehab facility following a broken hip.  We spend some time just sitting and talking with him, and it seemed to bring him a lot of happiness.  We put together a basket of food for him, including some homemade soup that we took to his house and stashed in the freezer so it would be there when he got out of the rehab facility.  On Christmas day, we went to my parents’ house for dinner with the whole family, and took along some homemade treats.

That’s all that we did for Christmas, and it was wonderful.  No decorations, no shopping, no hoping that UPS would get a last-minute gift somewhere on time.  No holiday craziness at all.  We opened our gifts from my husband’s parents on December 23rd (my brother and sister visited on the 24th, and we were at my parents’ on the 25th, so the 23rd made sense).  In true toddler fashion, our son enjoyed the wrapping paper most of all, and a pair of dad-sized gloves.

I know a lot of people get a bit bummed after Christmas is over.  It makes sense if you think about it… there’s so much build up and anticipation surrounding the holiday.  People shop for weeks (and months!), make all sorts of plans, wrap presents, count down the days of December… and then it’s over.  Advent calendars always seem a bit odd to me – aren’t the first 24 days of December just as good as the 25th?  Why would we want to bypass them and count them down?  It’s like wishing your life away with a fancy, decorated calendar.  And of course there’s the financial stress that so often comes after Christmas is over, when all the credit card bills roll in.

For us, Christmas was just like any other day, except we got to go have dinner with my parents and siblings.  We didn’t spend any more money in December than we do in any other month, and we didn’t have any holiday stress.  If you truly love the commercial celebration of Christmas, then by all means, have at it.  But so often I hear people talking about how much they hate the commercialization and stress that go along with Christmas.  If that’s the case, you don’t have to keep doing it the same way you’ve done it in the past.  Make the holidays a time to relax and enjoy your friends and family instead of a time to spend money and stress yourself out.  It can be done, and my own experience is that it’s a whole lot better this way.

I hope you’re all having a great holiday season, and that the things you do to celebrate truly bring you peace and joy.

The last time I bought glasses – in 2001 – I think it cost me about $200 for the eye exam and the glasses. I only wear them when I drive or watch a movie, so they don’t get a lot of wear and tear.  But I could tell that the prescription wasn’t quite right anymore, so I spent $59 on an updated eye exam a few weeks ago.  Then I ordered my glasses online, and spent $28 for a sweet new pair of glasses with anti reflective coating and super stylish frames.  Twenty eight dollars.

I bought my glasses from Zenni Optical (and no, they aren’t paying me to write this).  My mother had tried them earlier this fall, and was very pleased with the results.  She wears bifocals, and got a new pair for $32 (compared with about $200 if she had bought them at her eye doctor’s office).  She was so happy with that pair that she decided to order another pair just for reading.  They arrived this week, but had been caught in a post office machine and smashed.  When my mother called Zenni Optical to see about a replacement pair, they offered to start making a new pair immediately, and within 24 hours she had received three emails from the company, detailing the status of her replacement order (and there is no charge for the new glasses).  So not only do they provide good glasses for rock bottom prices (as low as eight dollars a pair), but they also have great customer service.

My new glasses arrived today (not smashed!) and I love them.  At my current every-eight-years rate of replacement, the $200 that I would have spent on an exam and glasses will last me until I need bifocals of my own.

One thing to note, you’ll need to know the distance between your pupils in order to place an order online for glasses.  Eye doctors measure this distance, but often don’t write it on the prescription.  I didn’t find this out until after I had my exam, and sure enough, that space on my prescription form (listed as PD) was blank.  My husband measured it for me (the website gives detailed instructions for how to do this if you need to), and it worked out just fine.  But if you want to get an eye exam and then order your glasses online, it’s probably easiest to just ask the doctor to make sure that space is filled in on the prescription.

I have loved clothes for as long as I can remember.  I’ve always purchased them second-hand (even as a child, since my family only shopped at yard sales and thrift stores), but it always gave me a thrill to get new clothes.  Not so long ago, I would relish a quiet afternoon in one of the thrift stores by our house, perusing the clothing racks with an eagle eye.  I can’t point to any specific thing that has changed, but I find that I’m no longer interested in shopping for clothes.  Or shopping for anything really, except food.  I love spending time in the local health food store, but buying “stuff” that isn’t consumable really doesn’t do much for me anymore.

We have a 1300 square food house (plus a basement) that is filled with stuff.  We have everything we need.  Obviously our son will continue to outgrow his clothes for a while, but my husband and I are the same size  we’ve been since high school.  Our closet is full of clothes.  If I had to guess, I’d say we each have more than 30 or 40 shirts and 20 pairs of pants/shorts.  Sure, it was all purchased for probably about three bucks per item, but does anyone really need that much clothing?

Since we moved to our new house, going to the thrift stores is no longer something I can do on a whim.  The stores are in another town, about ten miles away.  When we go into town, we try to be as efficient as possible, fitting as many errands into the trip as we can.  We usually don’t have time to go to the thrift stores, and that’s been fine with us.

I’ve been reading a book called Clutter Busting – the author’s blog is here – and finding myself inspired to get rid of stuff.  We’ve all heard the advice that we shouldn’t love anything that can’t love us back, but most of us don’t really put that into practice.  I sometimes find myself feeling very attached to things – things that obviously can’t love me back.  Things that are part of my past, or things that I think I might need in the future.  I felt inspired the whole time I was reading the book.  It reminded me that clutter (both “stuff” and mental clutter) only slows us down and impedes our ability to enjoy life.  I’ve taken a car load of stuff to the thrift store, and have my car nearly full for a second trip.  I didn’t even go in the store when I dropped off the last load.  There just isn’t anything I need.

Our son will need new clothes routinely, but I’m keeping it in perspective.  He doesn’t need 30 outfits.  A few shirts, a few pairs of pants, a jacket, a pair of shoes, and some socks.  A couple drawers in a dresser would suffice.  I imagine that $20 or so in the thrift store every six months should do it.

I like when our house feels open and airy, and that’s not possible when we cram stuff into every nook and cranny.  So I’m getting rid of things that don’t actively contribute to our life right now.  And not buying more stuff.  It’s the ultimate frugal tactic – just making do with what we have, and realizing that we don’t really need most of what we already have, say nothing of things we haven’t purchased yet.  It’s better for our budget and for the earth, and honestly it makes me happier to not go shopping.  I’d rather hang out here and work on our little farm, or spend time with my husband and son.  I’m glad we’ve moved away from the thrift stores.  Funny, because that was something I thought I was going to miss.

Once we finally got our stuff moved out of our old house and into storage, we slept for a couple hours and then got up at 5am so that we could get our UHaul returned by 7am (again, thanks for nothing UHaul).  We had forgotten our cat’s food at our old house, so we took her with us that day, since we were going back to the house to gather up the remaining stuff and clean.  But we left our dog with my brother, who lives in a town near our new house.

We spent the day cleaning and tying up loose ends.  We cleaned out the fridge and filled three coolers with food.  We stopped to say goodbye to some neighbors, and finally headed back to my brother’s house at about 6pm.  We were looking forward to going to bed early, since the two hours of sleep from the night before was catching up with us.  But when we arrived, we found my sister in tears and my brother looking like he had just run a marathon.  Our dog had escaped from his backyard 45 minutes before we got there, and although my brother had spotted her several times, he wasn’t able to catch her.

In an instant, I realized how unimportant everything was that I had been concerned about the day before.  Rental trucks, stuff in boxes, money… none of it mattered.  We searched for our dog on foot until dark.  Then we headed out in the car, driving slowly and calling to her until midnight.  Neither of us slept much at all that night, even though we were exhausted.  We think of our dog as a member of the family, and knowing she was outside, sleeping alone somewhere, made it tough to get comfortable.

We searched all day on Sunday.  We posted an ad on Craigs List, had 100 color fliers made and plastered them all over town, talked with the police and animal control, and went to the humane society to fill out a report in person.  It was a long, sad day, followed by another long, sad night.

We closed on our new house the next morning.  We went out to do a final walk through before closing, but we did it with heavy hearts.  The house had lost its luster for me.  I walked through it, and saw all the same things I had seen when we first saw it, but none of them seemed as good anymore.  The fridge was missing, and our realtor discovered that it hadn’t been listed as an inclusion or an exclusion on the contract (we had seen that the washer and dryer were excluded, but since the fridge wasn’t listed as an exclusion we had assumed it went with the house).  Normally, that might be something that would have upset me, but it didn’t matter at all that day.  Our dog was missing – who cares about a fridge?

We went to closing, and I sat down, determined to hold myself together and get through it.  We made small talk with the sellers and the various people in the room, and completed our paperwork.  The excitement we had felt about the house was gone, but we knew that we still needed a place to live.  Just as we were finishing with the closing, our cell phone rang.  My husband answered it, and I heard him say “you’ve got her?!  Where are you?”  and I just lost it.  He took off at a sprint, headed for the car, as I explained through my tears what had happened.  Before long our realtor and our lender were wiping away tears too.

Our beautiful dog was at a rest stop near the interstate, about six miles from my brother’s house.  She was headed in the direction of our old house, but still had about 45 miles to go.  It would have taken quite a while!  She had crossed several major roads, including one that has six lanes.  She was so exhausted that she could barely walk, but she wagged her little butt when my husband got to her.  She was a bit beat up, with several cuts and a limp when we got her back.  She recovered within a few days, and on Monday I took her for a run for the first time since we moved.  She’s back to her old self, but with a few extra scars.

So June 29th was a darn good day around here.  We got our new house, and we got our dog back.  When we got back out to the house after closing, it had all of its original charm back, and then some.  We got a new fridge, got our internet hooked up, and started doing battle with the weeds in the backyard.  We’ve been moving our stuff in slowly, and setting up our life in our new town.

Whenever some little thing goes wrong these days, one of us will point out “but we’ve got our dog.”  And all is good.

In 2002, when my husband and I went house shopping the first time around, we used a Realtor who was recommended by the mortgage broker we were using.  He had impressive credentials.  He had been in the business since 1986, was Realtor of the year in this area at least once, was in the ‘hall of fame’ and ‘platinum club’ for ReMax, and obviously sells a lot of property.

Since then, he’s called us several times a year – birthdays, anniversary, house anniversary.  He sends us all sorts of marketing stuff, and it made sense that when we were ready to put this house on the market, we called him earlier this week.  He came out to meet with us last night.  When he walked in the door, we were 100% sure that we would be listing our house with him.  We weren’t interviewing him or considering other options – he was our choice.  The deal was his to lose, and he did so in grand style.

First of all, he started telling us about another business that he’s running, and how he’s got a big presentation for it next week.  He was obviously excited about it, and more power to him.  But when you’re meeting with a client, it’s probably best to make sure that you focus completely on what you’re supposed to be doing for the client.  It’s not a good idea to create doubts in a potential client’s mind about your focus and dedication to the task at hand.  That was mistake number one.

Then he sat down with a huge sheaf of papers and started talking about the statistics of the local real estate market over the last few years.  This went on for about half an hour.  Frankly, we didn’t give a damn.  We’re selling our house.  We know the market isn’t as good as it has been in recent years, but we’ve made our decision and we’re moving forward with it.  We’re not on the fence and needing to be convinced to put our house out there on the market.  It struck me as odd that he would spend so much time on something that didn’t really apply in our situation.  He didn’t ask if we wanted to discuss any of that stuff, he just did it.  That was mistake number two:  when you’re in sales, you should keep your mouth shut as much as possible, ask open-ended questions, and let the clients lead the conversation.  Once you know where they are and what they want, you can much better address their actual needs.

After 30 minutes of telling us about the real estate market, he started bringing up the politics behind the economic situation.  He said that the mortgage crisis happened because congress forced banks to write 55% of their loans for people who “couldn’t afford loans”.  Hmmm.  Congress forcing anything requires legislation, which has to be written down somewhere.  When my husband called him on this, he said that you won’t find this little gem written anywhere.  So I guess it’s imaginary legislation.  But anyway, we moved on.

I went upstairs to change a diaper, and as I was coming back down I heard him telling my husband that he and his family went to a Tea Party last month.  Oh. My. Goodness.  Did you seriously just come into our home for the purpose of doing business with us, and then bring up such a politically charged topic without knowing where we stand on the issue?  Aren’t you a marketing professional?  Are you going to do this with potential buyers who might otherwise be interested in our house?  It’s one thing to bring up politics with friends or family, where business deals aren’t on the line.  Or when business deals are on the line and you’re sure that the clients are of the same mindset you are.  But telling potential clients that you want to a Tea Party without knowing their political views strikes me as particularly un-savvy.

After he left, my husband and I decided that we didn’t want to work with him.  He may be a great Realtor, but there were just too many red flags, and we were left with a very uncomfortable feeling about the whole thing.  My husband started researching online, and found another Realtor who sounded quite impressive.  He called to leave a message (it was 10:30pm) and she answered the phone.

The first Realtor spent so much time talking politics and economics that he never really got around to discussing what he would do to actually sell our house.  The lady we spoke with last night got right down to business.  She will come to meet with us on Monday morning, to look at our house.  Then she will take us with her to go look at several houses in our neighborhood that are for sale, to get a good idea of what else is available, how they compare to our house, and how they’re priced.  Then she will have a professional stager come in to consult with us and give us ideas (yay! – we’ve been doing it on our own, and some professional tips would be great!).  Then she will send in a professional photographer to take pictures of the house (there’s no additional fee for these services – they’re included in her fee).  Already, in a 15 minute phone call, she had gotten far more into what we were actually interested in – the business of selling our home – than the other guy did in an hour and a half.

And she charges 5%.

We are thrilled to be working with her.  My husband called the other guy this morning and let him know that we were using a different Realtor, and explained why.  The guy tried to defend his arguments, which just seems silly.  This is business, not a dinner party (or a tea party!)  By not asking questions, by sticking to a tired routine, by going on about another business venture, and by bringing up politics, the first Realtor lost himself a commission that would likely have been around $12,000.

I got my hair cut yesterday.  This would not normally be a newsworthy event, but in my case it had been 14 months since I had a hair cut.  Last time, I went to what I consider to be a pricey salon (I think I paid about $50), and got a really great hair cut.  I’ve noticed that when I go to really cheap salons, my hair starts to look funky after just a few months.  But the hair cut I got last winter actually still looked pretty good, even yesterday.  I had noticed that my ends were getting a bit dead-looking, and decided that 14 months was long enough.  I waited so long for several reasons:  Obviously money is always a factor.  Then there’s time, which is usually scarce.  And the fact that my hair was still looking pretty good meant that I wasn’t all that motivated to get it cut.

I decided to go back to the same salon, in hopes that I could get another great cut that would last another year.   I got a less-expensive stylist this time (luck of the draw – she was available when I had time), and the cut was $35 (plus a $10 tip).  She did a fantastic job, and I think I’m good for the rest of the year.  I know that $45 for a year of hair care is pretty darn cheap, but when I went to pay for my cut, the lady in front of me was paying $295 for a cut, color, some hair products, and tip.  And they booked her another appointment for six weeks out (her cut was really short and edgy – probably wouldn’t look so good after 14 months).  When I heard her price, I promptly forgot all about thinking my own cut was expensive, and happily paid my $45.

The stylist mentioned that she was only taking off about 1/2 inch of hair to get rid of the dead ends when she cut my hair.  This reaffirmed my belief that less is more when it comes to hair styling.  I never use heat or styling products on my hair (my blow dryer is in our son’s room – we use it to dry his diaper area before we put a fresh diaper on him, and it’s great for preventing diaper rash).  I wash my hair every two or three days, either using baking soda or Dr. Bronner’s liquid soap.  I use vinegar as a conditioner.  And that’s it.  By skipping heat and chemicals, my hair doesn’t get damaged, and it can actually make it 14 months between cuts without turning into something that scares small children.  Baking soda and vinegar are very inexpensive, and the $13 bottle of Dr. Bronners that I bought last August is still half full, even though we use it for our son’s baths, to wash our faces, and as shampoo.  So all in all, my hair expenses are minimal, even though I went to a fancy salon.

Back in January, when I wrote about paying six bucks to get my credit score, I got a comment from Kacie about how I could try Credit Karma next time if I wanted to get a credit score for free.  Checking this out was on my to-do list ever since, but I never quite seem to get to the end of that list.  I finally sat down to check out Credit Karma a few days ago, and I’m so glad I did.

I read everything I could find on the site, and I am truly convinced that there are no strings attached.  I didn’t have to enroll in an sort of credit protection service, and I didn’t have to pay for my score.  It took about three minutes to create an account and get my credit score.  Instead of the weird VantageScore 501 – 990 system that Experian used when I paid for my score from them, the Credit Karma score used the traditional 300 – 850 scoring system.

My husband and I both created accounts.  My credit score was a 768, and his was a 780.  Anything over a 750 is considered excellent, so I’m quite happy with my 768.  Last month I had wondered if we should someday finance a car in order to raise my credit score, and now I’m no longer concerned about it.  Purchasing another house once we sell our current one should be a relatively smooth process if we have at least a 20% down payment and those credit scores.  So all is good.

I wish that I had known about Credit Karma a few months ago, before I paid for our credit scores.  But I’m glad that Kacie mentioned it in her comment, and glad that I finally got around to checking out the site.  Better late than never!

An open letter to Wells Fargo and anyone else who cares:

Dear Wells Fargo,

I have been banking with you for six years.  My husband has been with you since the mid-90s.  When we bought our house and consolidated our finances, we decided to merge my bank accounts with his and move everything to your bank (in hindsight, I wish we had moved him to my bank instead, but you know what they say about hindsight).  We added my name to his checking account, and opened a joint credit card through Wells Fargo.  Our Heloc is also through your bank, and has been ever since we bought our house.  Three years ago, we incorporated our business and opened a business checking account, along with a corporate credit card for each of us.  Last month we opened a corporate money market savings account.

Our high-yield savings account is not with Wells Fargo, because as far as I know you do not offer one.  And our HSA and IRAs are with investment brokerage firms.  But all of our other banking is done with your bank, and has been for a long time.  We have a perfect record with you and with every other bank/lender/financial institution we’ve ever done business with.

Last Sunday, we got an email from a vendor we use for our business, letting us know that an automatic payment had been declined.   I called the 24 hour number on the back of my corporate credit card to find out what was up.  I was informed by a very nice employee that our credit cards had been closed as of January 20th.  Well that’s lovely – any particular reason why?  The gentleman told me that they were closed because of a report from Experian.  But I would have to call back the next morning to talk to someone during normal business hours to get more information.   That doesn’t make for a particularly good evening.

We called the next morning and talked to another rep who told us that the reason the cards were closed was because of low usage on the accounts.  To back up a bit, when we opened the credit cards, we told the business banking rep at our local Wells Fargo that we would only be spending about $300 – $500/month on our cards.  But we were given accounts with $10,000 credit limits.  True to our word, we’ve put approximately $400/month on the cards over the last three years.  We always pay the balance in full, and have never paid any fees or interest on our corporate credit cards.  But the cards are essential to our business.  All of the charges are automatic, recurring bills from vendors for services that we cannot operate without.

So on Monday morning we were told that our cards were closed because of low usage.  We asked to speak to a supervisor and were told that one would call us back.  But that never happened.  The next day, I called back to try to get a supervisor on the phone.  The person I spoke with on Tuesday told me that our cards were closed because of BOTH low usage and a report from Experian that indicated (according to Wells Fargo) that the balances on our personal credit cards were too high and that the amount of time our credit had been active was too short.

I spent 45 minutes on the phone with two people on Tuesday morning trying to figure out what was going on.  Conveniently enough, I had copies of our credit reports and credit scores from Experian and TransUnion from the same week that Wells Fargo had apparently gotten their report from Experian.  According to the credit scores I paid for when I got our credit reports, my husband’s credit is better than 93% of Americans, and mine is better than 78%.  So it would seem that you must be closing an awful lot of accounts. There’s not much we can do about the length of time our credit has been active (we haven’t closed any accounts recently), and it’s been active now for three years longer than it had been when you gave us $20,000 in credit (even though we told you we only needed about $500).  I discussed with the rep the fact that we don’t carry balances on any credit cards (confirmed by the credit reports), and that we charge a small fraction of the limit on our personal Wells Fargo card and AmEx each month, and pay off the balances in full.  She didn’t know what to say other than that she was sorry.  As for the low usage factor, no one at Wells Fargo was able to tell me what your requirement is for usage.  That sure does make it hard to adhere to, now doesn’t it?

The reps we spoke with earlier this week told us that notification was sent to us on January 20th, informing us about the accounts being closed.  Today is the 29th, and we haven’t received anything yet.  Did you send the letters on one of your horse-drawn wagons?  Just curious.

So, you want to know what I think?  About three weeks ago, I called to see if we could have our cards set up with automatic payment from our Wells Fargo corporate checking account.  Since we always pay the balance in full anyway, I figured it would make my life easier if I didn’t have to write checks from the account each month, and could just have the balances paid on the due dates.  Ironically, we got our credit card bills on Tuesday, and notification was included with the statements telling us that the balance would be deducted from our corporate checking account on the due date.  So now Wells Fargo is well aware that we will never be interest-paying clients.  We never have been, although I suppose the possibility was always there.  Until we set our accounts to be automatically paid in full each month.

Once you knew that we would never be interest-paying or fee-paying clients, you decided to get rid of us.  But you did it in a way that we can never fight.  Your minimum usage requirement is supposedly a corporate secret.  And while the information contained in credit reports is objective and can be contested (ours is all accurate), a company’s use of that data is subjective, and we can’t argue with how you interpret a credit report.

I truly felt sorry for the Wells Fargo reps I spoke with earlier this week.  They seemed resigned to having a pretty rough time of it right now.  I asked them if this was happening to a lot of clients, and they both said yes.  I was very upset, but I was restrained and apologized to the reps for being upset.  I’m guessing that a lot of your clients weren’t so polite.

The most frustrating part of all this is the $25 billion in tax dollars that Wells Fargo received in the banking bailout.  You’re welcome.

I remember one day in 6th grade our teacher asked us each to tell the class our favorite song, and he wrote our answers on the board.  I don’t remember what the point was – probably something about opinions and diversity.  It was 1988 – Big Hair bands were huge – but I was mostly listening to Buddy Holly, Dolly Parton, and Randy Travis.  When my turn came, I didn’t want to look like a dork, which I somehow thought I would if I mentioned one of the songs I really liked.  So instead I said “Guns N Roses.”  Yep.  That’s a great way to not look like a dork.  Of course everyone giggled, and the teacher asked me which of their songs I liked.  Oh crap – Guns N Roses is a band, not a song?

Around the same time, I loved going to yard sales with my family, and there was even a little hole in the wall thrift store where we would rummage around for treasures on weekends.  But I would never in a million years have admitted to anyone that my clothes were used.  If people asked where I got something I was wearing, I would usually say that I couldn’t remember.

Today, I was wearing an awesome pair of black capris.  Originally from Banana Republic, I found them last year at the thrift store by our house.  A friend mentioned how great they were, and I was happy to tell her where I found them.  I’m not as much of a clothes horse as I used to be, but I do still enjoy putting together great outfits, and invariably they come from one of the two thrift stores in our neighborhood.  Everyone who knows me knows where I shop.  I’m proud of my frugality, and I’m completely open about buying used stuff, driving old cars, and making do with what we have.  Even my bike that I use to get around town is old.  My parents bought it for me 20 years ago, and I think it was an antique then.

It’s a lot more fun to not care too much about what people think.  Of course that’s easier said than done when you’re in 6th grade, but at least I figured it out eventually.  I do still care somewhat – I don’t wander around town unshowered in a pair of sweatpants (well, I have a four month old, so maybe I do, but not often).  But keeping up with the Joneses isn’t even an issue for our family, because for the most part, we don’t notice what the Joneses have, and if we do, we can usually figure out a cheaper way to do it.

And just for the record, November Rain is my favorite Guns N Roses songs.