Battle of the lack of wallet bulge.

I buy used-there I said it. I'm to poor to buy new on everything I need. Baby stuff, maternity clothing, heck my clothing in general. I even buy my girls cloths used-not all of them. I figure kids this age, (4 years, and 6 months) grow so fast most cloths don't have an time to wear out. So I hunt for deals, specials and in general the extras that I want but can't afford. I scour on-line local sites, thrift stores big and small, garage sales, Kijiji. Also my favorite the Facebook pages dedicated to city specific sales of items. Ranging from baby socks to couches and anything in between. Now I believe in negotiating-the old fashioned haggle, I start lower than I'll actually pay and by the time I hit the price I think is fair most people think they've won. I'm horrible but I'm good at it. Its how I bought a barely used king size bed WITH bedding for 175.00. I find though its not the big ticket items that are hard to find the good deal on. Its the kids toys, cloths and every now and then linens.

Nothing drives me more nuts that people who think they're doing you a favor by charging you $4.00 for a rattle that went through all three of thier kids. Its okay to charge that because they paid $6.99 at BabiesRUs six years ago. I see it with those exersaucers-a very brand specific item. They range in price from 39.99 on sale to 75.99 and beyond. Seeing someone charge 50.00 FIRM on the same one I bought USED 30.o0 FIVE YEARS AGO makes me angry for the poor person they're going to take for that ride. I can't even look at those sites for the most part any more because I look at it and just get mad that these women-yes women trying to appease thier angry husbands about thier spending habits. I don't even bother asking for a lower price because time and time again I get some snarky reply about how "I GUESS I can do it but I'd rather not". All I can think is "lady its not my fault you feel guilty for paying full price on a baby einstien item. I don't have to come take essentially your garbage off your hands". My favorite is when months later I hear people complain about how those sites don't actually work. Pfft yeah right, lower your prices and see who comes out of the wood work.

My personal favorite is "the brand name drop" on clothing. Now I've recently-by recentley its been two years-had a VERY large mall open within 10 minuets of driving distance from my front door to the parking lot. This mall has a number of high end brand name stores, and these stores are CONSTANTLY clearing out inventory at 5.99 and under. I was able to out fit both kids for the fall/early winter for just under $300.00. this includes coats, pants, shoes, tops, hoodies, hats, mits, and jammies. I came online to check some stuff out and there it was. Most of the stuff I'd just bought brand new for 3.99 and under an item and the line under the pictures said *Paid 29.99 an item GREAT DEAL $10.00 tops $15.00 pants. Childrens Place Worn once.* The audacity of some people! Thank you I'd rather be taken for a ride at the stampede.

I believe in paying it forward. There are alot of people out there who can't afford a Bumbo Chair, much less a safe car seat. By paying it forward I mean GIFTING some cloths my girls aren't going to wear any more, DONATING my toys to the local Best Beginnings. (A GREAT organization helping set up mothers on low incomes to take care of thier babies with blankets, cloths, food, coupons, toys, anything you can imagine). Buying, selling, gifting used has many great points-you're not contributing to the landfill crisis, you pay less than retail, and if you're selling you get a couple bucks, a good feeling and your basement it cleared out. Now with that being said I'm not adverse to a good old fasioned yard sale-we have way too many kids book that are acceptable to donate, an extra couch, extra dishes. and basically items I thought were a good idea at a time. To be honest I dont' want this crap in my house its been priced to sell-yes that coffee table is only 5 bucks. Pay it forward, good people who need good items sometimes can't afford it need all the help they can get. Go into it with the mind set of "if I was in a situation where I just CAN'T afford new what would my budget be?" I wish every one a happy buying/selling expierence. PS Don't be an asshole the web remembers all!

Men With Brooms

My husband and I sat down the other night and watched "Men With Brooms" (2002) Starring Paul Gross-a very good looking Canadian man, which in my mind makes him instantly attainable. Neil had purchased it standing in line at a drug store with our three year old screaming for attention from a chocolate bar that was clearly giving her a bad look-her solution had been to ask us to buy it for her to "bite its head off".

Back to the film at hand though, we had to watch it through claims of insatiable thurst and an excessivley small bladder so its a little skewed. It takes place in a Canadian town, smallish-I wasn't paying close enough attention. Basically a curling coach dies leaving behind an outlandish request or two reguarding his old "rink" requiring them to get back together and form an unstoppable force of CURLING POWER. Well not really, they have to win a local championship of some sort. Its cute and funny with a love triangle-and Leslie Neilson provides the vast majority of the comedic propulsion in the film. With a not so veiled refrence to old man drug addiction-which is always hilarious when hes growing his own surplus of "Medicinal Shrooms".

This was a good non-thinking film, and it had me cheering for the guys in the right times, and laughing at points that seemed to hold the humour. The only relatable part to this movie is my family has a strong curling history thats still strong and prominent in family outing occasionally.

This was not really worth more than the $4.99 we paid for it. I remember hints of seeing it in a theater, but to be honest I believe I was engaging in teenage activities that weren't appropriate for ANYTHING. Which translates to a hazy memory of seeing sound and the munchies.

My Introduction

Hello there,

My name is Courtney Smith, I am a 24 year married mom with a beautiful girl. I reside in Alberta, Canada and am a rather joyfully pleasent person. With a habit. An expensive habit, one that can-will get me into trouble one day.

Movies, buying, renting, going to see, talking about glorious, awe inspiring, laughter inducing, MOVIES. Bad movies, cheesey movies, oscar winning movies, silent movies, even one or two "adult genre" movies. I have them all-in a large wooden cabinet purchased for three dollars at a yard sale still in the box. The cabinet cost less than the average DVD. I even have a job at a Music/Movie store to get the discount.

One day I had made my husband go through boxes and boxes of my seritonin inducing product to sort into genre and then alphabetically. and I realized I hadn't watched a number of them in years and years. This realization was easy to come by as I dont sit on the floor, lift boxes, or sort-so I had lots of time to think about this. Did I mention I also made him hold up the covers for me to contemplate? So as a challenge to each other, and a way to save money we are going to watch them all. Every single title. All 518 movies, and I'm going to tell you about them...all of them. Not in a review way-more as a whats drawn me to it, and why I keep watching someo of them over and over. Or why I had to wipe dust off of the movies.

I sincerely hope you enjoy this as much as I do.