Well, I did it. I reallocated my 401k. I was really nervous about it, and I’m still a little sick to my stomach, but I know in the long run that it will be much better because now I am more diversified. What really scared me was that almost 30% of my entire 401k was in company stock and if (God forbid) the company went under, well there goes 30% of my 401k money. I’d be stupid to leave that much in there. Enron anyone? At first, I was worried about all the money that I lost by selling my company stock. After all, last year it was around $38 a share, and of course I was gifted shares and perhaps bought some too at that price. Now the stock is around $5 a share. That’s a lot of money to lose! However, I am looking at it like this: I didn’t technically pay for it, so I really haven’t lost any of my own money. Next time the company matches my 401k contribution, I’ll sell the stock they give [...]

Yesterday I wrote about my bargains I got at our local Goodwill. Today I decided that instead of holding onto junk in our basement and shed for the yard sale it looks like we’ll never have, I would take the items to Goodwill so I can get a tax write off and make a donation and hopefully help someone in need. After all, what goes around comes around. I want good karma! I have been holding onto these items and it was a hard decision to just drop them off. I keep picturing the boxes and bags with big dollar signs on them, like I just did a very unfrugal thing by donating the items instead of trying to sell them. This was my thinking: I’ve been waiting all summer to have a yard sale, I haven’t had time, the stuff is taking up space driving me crazy, and most of the items I donated ranged from 10 cents to a dollar. Am I really going to miss that? Probably not.  The money that I would have made would probably [...]

Today was a good bargain day for me! Next week we are going to be on vacation, and I decided that I needed some new clothes for my trip because I don’t have many clothes to wear while not at work.  I decided to hit up my local Goodwill to see what kinds of bargains they had.  I was hoping to find a few pairs of jeans or pants, and a few tops.  I did pretty well, scoring 6 pairs of pants and one top for $21! It amazes me how much money I save by going to the thrift store to shop.  It makes me so happy! I also found 1/2 ounce of seeds for spinach and kale for around a dollar.  I was going to buy them online because Home Depot and Meijer were both out of seeds for planting.  I was really bummed yesterday when I couldn’t find the seeds, but I figured that I could always order them online.  Mr. Money had the genius idea of going to the Seed Depot just up the road from [...]