Money, Spending and Budgets = Yay, Hooray, and BOO!

This weekend started bright and early on Saturday morning with some garage sale shopping and let me tell you, it was WORTH IT! Kelly and I got up waaay too early for a weekend and drove out to the St. Charles Family Arena where a few hundred people had brought car loads of their crap to sell at rock bottom prices... it was a sight. Kelly and I got lucky and found some great stuff (we know it was great because about 15 people stopped us to tell us how much they liked the items we were carrying around.... especially Kelly who had bought a lamp shaped like the Eiffel Tower. The people were amazed)! There was so much to look at that we spent about an hour and a half there and oh my was there some funny stuff that people were trying to unload. The girl who sold Kelly the Eiffel Tower lamp also had 2 life sized cardboard cutouts that I was sooo tempted by... one was Legolas and the other was Will Turner from the Pirates of the Caribbean. Now in case you don't get the connection... they're both my lovely pretend boyfriend Orlando Bloom. Ooh, how tempted I was! I immediately felt a bond with the girl selling the items and told her that I think we would get along just fine. She laughed but was then disappointed when I didn't buy her stuff... I don't think she wanted to be friends anymore. The other item that I was super tempted by was this marionette doll of JC from N'Sync http://www.amazon.com/NSync-Collectible-Marionette-JC-Chasez/dp/B000O1EWJK ! It even came with it's own stand to store the doll when you're not making it dance along to "Bye Bye Bye". It was only $4 and I'm sure I could have gotten it for less... well, Kelly could have gotten it for less. I'm no good at bargaining. I feel bad about haggling over $2 and she's much tougher than me! I am having some buyers remorse on that one, it would have made a lovely gift for any number of my friends. Anyway, I got some good stuff for my new condo and I think I may be a reformed shopper. Now I kind of feel like I've been missing out on these great deals all along, so I may have a reason to get up at the crack of dawn on Saturdays... cheap crap!

So about that new condo... I am starting to freak out a little. I have looked at my budget over and over again and honestly... I HATE having a budget! I've been fortunate enough that I haven't had to keep a close eye on my spending because I've always been pretty reasonable with my money. Let me tell you, nothing is worse that sitting down and figuring out what you spend your money on every month! It was the worst! I apparently spend a lot of money on stuff that I really don't need and even though it sounds like it would be easy to cut that stuff out, I am used to being able to buy that stupid stuff when I want it! Ugh... I hate feeling like an adult. Why doesn't money grow on trees? That would make me oh so happy! I would grow a whole grove of money trees and spend my days spending the fruits of my harvest on important things.... like shirts. And Subway. Ooh, and pants. Until my money tree arrives I guess I'll have to just suck it up and follow a budget even though the idea makes me want to cry a little. Especially when I factor in all of the things that the new condo needs, like new upstairs carpet, a little paint, a flat screen TV (for reals, it's the only way that a TV will fit in my living room!), Oh, and some decorations. These things are not included in the numbers that I keep crunching, so that is a whole other ball of fun for me to worry about. So basically, what I'm trying to say is... Home Ownership! I could be more excited.