spoiled chinese girl

January 2010
January 3, 2010 – New Desktop computer (link)

February 2010
February 1, 2010 – Signed up for a second gym membership with Camera Guy (link)

March 2010
March 31, 2010 – Travelling to Dallas Suscon (Day 1)

April 2010
April 1-6, 2010 – Dallas Suscon (Day 2 / Day 3 / Day 4 / Day 5 / Day 6 / Day 7)
April 25, 2010 – My first Photography Meet up – Colour Challenge (link)

May 2010
May 29, 2010 – 3rd Annual McKyd Pig Roast (link)
May 31, 2010 – Dumped. (link)

June 2010
June 26-27, 2010 – Helped with Sudbury Suscon (link)

July 2010
July 17, 2010 – First date with Contractor guy who ends up becoming my cuddley-boo.
July 21, 2010 – Cut my hair for donation. (link)
July 28, 2010 – Shot real bullets out of real guns. At paper targets.(link)

August 2010
August 1, 2010 – Officially started dating my cuddley-boo (link)
August 22, 2010 – CNE end of summer. (link)

September 2010
September 13, 2010 – Sold all my BME shirts to San (link)
September 13, 2010 – Magnet Implant by Efix Roy (link)

October 2010
October 2, 2010 – Nuit Blanche with cuddley-boo (yay drinking in public!) (link)
October 27, 2010 – Bought tickets for Take That concert next year. (link)

November 2010
November 6, 2010 – Photoshoot/Videoshoot for Wayne Manor Music Video (I play photographer) (link)
November 7, 2010 – Fetish/Bondage photoshoot (I play submissive/model) (link)
November 15, 2010 – Cutting by Efix Roy (link)

December 2010
December 24, 2010 – Meeting cuddley-boo’s parents (dinner at their house)
December 25, 2010 – Meeting cuddley-boo’s extended family (lunch at Manderin)
December 31, 2010 – New years downtown Toronto (not being at Badur’s)

In addition to my 365 days of declutter challenge, I’ve decided to embark on another challenge of a similar nature.

The “Use it up Challenge” (http://frugalliving.about.com/) for my online group-buying coupons.

No more purchasing of any online coupons until my current ones have been all used up.

I found out about websites that offer group-buying discounts in the summer of 2010, and purchased my first in July for a service I would never pay full price for (manicure/pedicure) but thought it was an awesome deal and I wanted to try it and indulge a little.

It was a snowball effect from there.  I ended up checking more companies and buying from a variety of them.  Even set up myself a spread sheet to see just how “well” I was doing.  Until I realized… while yes, I’m saving a lot on services that are normally marked at a much higher price, many of these are services I normally just wouldn’t spend money on.

Here are the current stats (18 coupons purchased between July 2010 and December 2010):

• Total Value    $2,348.00
• Total Savings    $1,667.00
• Total Costs    $681.00

I mean… it’s awesome I’ve apparently saved $1,667.00 on services, but I spent $681.00 doing so. And not all of these are services I would have on a normal day spent the cash looking for anyways.

What I found to be a really big help so far to resist temptation is to unsubscribe from the daily email offerings from all the different organizations (and believe me, there are MANY.)  I still receive one email that consolidates all the current deals together (can’t seem to give it up!) but I’ve been doing well on skimming, and deleting immediately so the temptation is once again gone.  It also goes with my online declutter goal of keeping my inbox e-mail free except for items I actually have to deal with.

I will be keeping track of this challenge here: http://spoiledchinesegirl.com/use-it-up-2011/

• BLARG! Trying to negotiate new cell phone plan. Problem 1. Never had one before. Problem 2. Don't know what phones are good! <3 Razr 4+ yrs! #
• @partnersinrum Zomg # of people today who called saying "If I order in the next 5 minutes can you ship it out so I get it before 24th?"! GRR in reply to partnersinrum #
• @partnersinrum That's not a bad turnaround. What is it you're getting printed anyways? Most of our stuff is 48-72 hrs so by Tuesday it's SOL in reply to partnersinrum #
• I finally showed 2 of my coworkers my little party trick. Was bored, I grabbed a 3" screw & stuck it to my finger "Wanna see a magic trick?" #
• GAH! What phone should I pick?! Motorola Quench? Sony Ericsson x10 Mini? LG Loop? Top 3 picks but can't decide! OH NOES! HALP ME PLZ JEEBUS! #
• Whoo-hoo! Seems my credit is good enough I don't need to put a deposit down for my new cell and could have up to 5 phone lines at once! WTF? #
• BigRockFinish.com: Señor Kasio at Velvet Underground http://www.bigrockfinish.com/2010/12/21/senor-kasio-at-velvet-underground/ #
• The only place I truly feel like a minimalist. My shower. Curtain, showerhead, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, scrubby sponge thing. Bliss. #
• Someone EPIC failed negotiations class. Throwing insults & rude & passive/aggressive comments at a seller is not going to yield better price #
• BigRockFinish.com: Señor Kasio at Velvet Underground http://www.bigrockfinish.com/2010/12/22/senor-kasio-at-velvet-underground-2/ #
• Mom gave me my xmas gift-bag early. Other than $$ & chocolate…I think I got dish towels. Is she hinting I should do the dishes more often? #
• @simonsouth There's also the girl who was named "Talula does the Hula from Hawaii" She became a ward of the state to legally change her name in reply to simonsouth #
• @mollydeelala I'm going to be (re)gifting a box of booze-filled chocolates! My mom set up our dining table as the table of gifts to re-gift! in reply to mollydeelala #
• I'm on twitter and i'm sitting on the toilet! whoo-hoo! Yay to new phones that go on the interwebs! do i have a twoosh yet? #

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http://365daysofdecluttering.blogspot.com/

When I first came up with the tagline for my blog “a unicycling materialistic minimalist” it was really just tongue in cheek. I noticed a trend at the time where I would both purge clutter, but accumulate it through new purchases, and I simply like both the word, and the definition of the word “oxymoron.”

My mom is probably some level of hoarder.  Her big thing is buying large volumes of products because it’s on sale. Our household (of three adults) has I’m sure over 100+ rolls of toilet paper, and probably at least 20 tubes of toothpaste, among lots of other things of a similar nature.  Also she has tons of clothing that rarely gets worn (because it can’t be found) but can’t be donated away because they’re still new.

My mom’s excuse is “It won’t go bad so it’s okay if we have lots!”

My dad is also probably some level of hoarder.  He gets angry/frustrated easily, especially if me & my mom talk about throwing away/donating/electronic recycling of old electronics.  He used to run an independent computer retail store so there are lots of electronics we still have from when he was running it.  He retired almost 10 years ago.

My dad’s excuse is “It’s not BOTHERING you when it’s sitting there!”

I probably took away qualities from both of these attitudes & mindsets.  At the same time I try to be quite a minimalistic person. The internal conflict is huge.

Without ranting and raving, I’ll just accept this challenge and make it my own.

Start date: January 1, 2011

My rules are:

• Average 1 “item” to be sold/donated/gifted away per day by the end of the year.
• Decluttered items can be “banked” since donation pick ups happen sporadically, in large volume.
• The item must leave my household/possession between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2011.
• If I go over 365 items before the end of the year, that’s no reason for me to stop!
• Do my best to get my mom in on the action with her clothing collection!
• Support Diabetes.ca Clothesline Program with the majority of donations.

I’ll periodically blog about what’s being decluttered from my living space, but will keep a detailed running total here: http://spoiledchinesegirl.com/365-days-of-decluttering-for-2011/

Let the games begin!

Post script: After going through another blog, www.365lessthings.com, I was considering setting up a tumblr account to photograph my decluttering journey as that author had done, with a photo once a day. Then I realized I would be adding to my (virtual, but still “real”) clutter and not removing it.  I’m very proud of my decision to NOT go through with that idea!

So anyone who talks to me on a half-decent regular basis would know that I often dream of being a minimalist (silly want of buying things getting in my way!) and I thought one of the easier clutter-like items I could remove from my collection would be my Simpsons DVD’s. 11 seasons is a lot of shelf space for something I’ve pretty much memorized by now, so I don’t really *NEED* to have them on the shelf.

Went onto some used CD/DVD to get a feeling for what they sell for at the current time used, checked craigslist to see what other private sales were going for, and sort of… priced accordingly.  I don’t want to go to a used cd/dvd store because I know I’ll end up regretting the sale and feel “ripped off” so a private sale or I’ll keep my “clutter.” If you’re wondering, it’s Seasons 1-11 on DVD + The Simpsons Movie, and I’m doing my best to sell it as one lot for ease of headache.

So… I feel like he’s insulting and attacking me for me wanting to sell my DVD’s. And at the same time he wants me to buy them. And he’s offering me 56% of my listed “bulk” asking price. While not quite wide awake and definitely somewhat riled up, I do my best to politely decline his offer, that while I understand budgets are a concern to many, I would only be able to accept a sale price of 80% of my asking price as a final offer. And not that it’s even any of his business, but I explained that I came to the prices based on what I’d seen similar DVD’s and DVD sets selling on Craigslist and used DVD stores.

Then I get this (and he put all the emphasis in, really.):

I really couldn’t think of anything more to say that would have been polite.

I sent a simple short email basically said “I already gave you my lowest offer. Happy holidays.”

This Jeff guy has valid points, don’t get me wrong. But he went about it totally the wrong way. The low-ball price I can understand, when buying I try to do it too (although of all the offers I’ve received, his initial offer was definitely the lowest) and I’ve had some pretty cold emails, but this was probably the first time I’ve ever had someone insult me first, then offer me a (really low) price in the next line.

And that’s why I complain about it here. Because I can.

And it makes me giggle that a few hours later someone else is offering to buy the lot for my asking price. I have to wait until January, but heck why not, it’s only like a week away!