Freebies, Grades, Textbooks, and Things to Sell

Today was a day of more stuff in the mailbox.  Both were for my husband though.  

First was a gift card I ordered for him through MyPoints.  I use it almost exclusively to help pay for his work lunches.  He really enjoys going to Subway so I got him a $10 gift card.  I have enough to order another one, but I have to wait for the pending points to go through first.

The second was the Gillette Shampoo for Men sample from Walmart.  And they even enclosed a $1.00 off coupon, too.  I more than likely will never use it.  If anyone wants it, just let me know (use the e-mail in the sidebar, leave me where to send it, and I'll mail it to you).  It says it's for "$1.00 off on any one (1) Gillette Shampoo or Conditioner (Excludes Trial Size)."  It expires on 10/31/2008.

I finally received my final grades in for the summer term, which ended August 1st.  For those of you who are new here, I went back to college a couple of years ago to finish up my degrees.  I completed my A.A. in Social and Behavioral Sciences in December 2007.  I'm now working on my B.S. in Criminal Justice with a minor in Psychology (I keep on meaning to add a second minor in Sociology) and 3 certificates: Behavioral Forensics, Criminal Profiling, and Victim Advocacy.  My plan is to finish up by the end of December 2010.  To do this I need to take some classes during the summer, though not as many as during the spring and fall terms because I have the boys home with me, too.  I just finished 6 credit hours--Basic Learning Processes and Personality Theories--and I got A's in both classes!  So far all my grades since transferring to the University have been A's, including the classes they transferred to completed my B.S.  It's a lot of hard work, but it'll be worth it.  Now let's see if I can keep up with it!  The fall term starts in 2 weeks and I'll be taking 13 credit hours:

• Statistical Methods in Psychology--4 cr.
• Police and Society--3 cr.
• Cultural Diversity in Criminal Justice--3 cr.
• Prosecution and Adjudication--3 cr.

The textbooks for these classes as usual were outrageous!  Unfortunately, buying them from the school book store was easier for me this term instead of searching out for the better price.  Two were in bundles and another was a new edition (so no used available).  I was able to get the last two books as used, but couldn't find the right editions elsewhere.  So needless to say I ended up paying $506.79 in total.  I am unable to drive to the campus bookstore to pick up my books so I had to have them shipped, which added $14.75, plus $33.19 for tax, and $458.85 for the books.  The federal loans along with the grants will help reimburse me for now--at least until I have to start paying them back.

On another note, I'm starting to get some furniture ready to be put on Craigslist.  I have a nice mirror on a stand, two computer desks, and a bunch of other stuff that I really would love to get rid of now instead of waiting until I get up off my butt and have a yard sale.  My garage and living room are getting a little crowded.  I'm also thinking about putting some more books and stuff on Half.com.  I've sold on there before and feel kind of comfortable with them.  I would love to get rid of the rest on eBay, but I'm not sure if I'm comfortable enough yet or not.  I've heard of so many seller problems and I just don't know if I want the hassle.  Maybe I'll check out the eBay store.  I won't make as much, but I also won't have to wonder how much to charge, handle the shipping, etc.  I'll have to look into that.  The important thing right now is to try to make something off of my old useless stuff and get rid of it.

Paperless Office

Danny over at Daily Danny mentions how he has a paperless office.  I'm jealous!  I have so much paper that it's ridiculous!  I know I need to do better, but sometimes it's hard. 

Every week I print out pages and pages of lectures from my college classes.  While I also have them saved on my computer, it's hard for me to read them or refer back to them when I need them most--away from my computer.  I am thinking about "recycling" the papers by giving them to the boys to draw on or cut them into pieces for scrap paper.  But I know the best thing to do is find a way to NOT print them all out unless absolutely necessary.  Not only would we save money on printer paper, but ink, too.

The other papers I have a lot of are "important" papers.  Some actual and I'm sure there are some that are imagined important.  Danny talks about how he put them on CD.  And I'm thinking that's a great idea.  The only problem is that I'm still stuck about actually getting rid of some of the really important papers like tax returns.  I guess it's just some sort of stigma on my part that has been pounded into me--"KEEP YOUR TAX RETURNS!"  So when was the last time I needed them in an emergency?  That's right!  Never!  *sigh*  Maybe I can at least start with the less important papers and work my way up to the more important ones.

I really like his idea of returning junk mail to the sender.  Ha-ha!  I used to take everything and put it into their prepaid envelopes and send them back, but it took too much time.  It seems he just puts "Return to Sender" and throws it back into the mailbox.  Much easier and less time consuming!  Maybe eventually they'll get the hint!

Then there are the interesting things I've cut out of magazines over the years.  Such good ideas or articles I just cannot bear to give up.  All wasting space and cluttering my office with more paper!  It looks like I'll need to spend some time scanning all these to CD.

So it seems that I have another project to complete!  But this one will really clear up my paper clutter!  I might as well add scanning all my photos, too!  

Decluttering: Part I

I'm starting to declutter my home little by little. I already have a bunch of stuff in my garage waiting to be gone through and cleaned/priced for a yard sale, but I still have so much to go through in my house to add to the yard sale pile! I hope to make enough money selling our old unwanted stuff to be able to get what really is needed and/or pay down debt.

Yesterday I was in the decluttering mood. I started with a bookshelf that is in my office closet because I took down the closet doors to replace them with a curtain (and use them for desks later) and it so needs to be neatened (is that a word?) up.

I have a small pile of books. I found a lot of stuff from when the boys were little including pics from daycare, baby books, baby footprints, etc. There's a whole expandable folder with important military/VA paperwork (the government sure does LOVE paperwork) and 3 files with my husband's old immigration paperwork (again the government LOVES paperwork). I gave the boys a bunch of bubble wrap to keep them occupied at least for a little while.

Lastly I found my old baseball card collection. I used to be a huge baseball fan when I was little. I played on a team for 3 years and I watched the MLB constantly. Anyway, the strike totally turned me off baseball for a long time. Now I only watch a game every now and then. So I decided to sell them. Almost all of them are from the 1980s. I do have one 1958 and a couple 1969. Most are not worth much, but I have a couple so far that could bring in a bit. I still need to go through them.

I'm hoping to go through the rest of the closet and move on from there whenever I get a chance, though I have to go through my youngest's room before he gets out of school on Thursday or he'll never let me get rid of all the papers!