Crafty spending

I'm getting ready to buy my first house soon.  While I'm a thrifty shopper, I'm a shopper.  I enjoy hunting out good bargains but that also means I spend money on non-essentials on a pretty regular basis.  A few dollars here and a few dollars there will add up over the course of the year.  I decided to start being very, very mindful about my spending in the months leading up to my purchase since I know expenses will come (literally?) out of the woodwork when I'm a homeowner. 

I didn't call it a New Year's Resolution, but I suppose that's what it was- I decided not to spend money on craft supplies in 2014 unless I was replenishing a staple.  To me, staples are white card stock, envelopes, dimensional tape, and ATG tape.  I would also consider specialty adhesives like a glue pen if the need arose.  I have enough of the other stuff (stamps, papers, stickers, punches, and dies) to keep me crafting for years and years.  So far, I've bought $11.90 worth of foam tape and white card stock, using a Kmart rewards points coupon to get the foam tape for about half price. 

My plan was somewhat foiled when I won the ODBD challenge last month.  The prize is a super-generous $25 gift certificate to the store. (Thanks ODBD!)  They have great stamps and it would be a shame to let that gift certificate expire (if such a date exists).  So, I read that they were having their anniversary sale this week and I waited to see what it would be.  It's 20% off if you buy 4 or more stamps or stamp sets.  Of course, that also makes shipping a bit more expensive (though still very reasonable at $5.50) and would have created more expense for me.  Well, I didn't need 4 stamps, so I found 3 totaling $26 and used the $3 shipping option then subtracted the gift certificate and the $0.75 in rewards points that I'd accrued.  Grand total for 3 stamps: $3.25.  I can absolutely be OK with that!  In case you're wondering, I bought Blessed Virgin Mary (I'm Catholic and a friend is soon to become a nun, so this set was a must-have so I can make her a card), Moose Single (I wanted the Father's Day set that it's part of, but I restrained myself because I know I already have a good collection of sentiments I can use with the image), and Ship Single.  The latter two stamps will be great for masculine cards and I can use them to practice coloring or stamp them as is due to their great detail.  Yay!  I can't wait to get some new purple rubber in the mail in a few days! 

Grand total for the year thus far: $15.15.  If I continue along doing this well, I will have spent well under $100 this year for my hobby.  In the past, I never specifically counted, but I would estimate $500 per year would not have been out of the ordinary. 
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Cards shipped to OWH in 2014: 21
Cards shipped to OWH in 2013: 829 blank and 301 AnyHero
Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 1284 blank and 218 AnyHero
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Check out OWH at www.operationwritehome.org to learn more about its mission and how to get involved.