Beauty

[just bee]

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@Oshare-girl wrote:

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@just bee wrote:

A GENTLE REMINDER...

Not only is it a new month, but it's also a new quarter.  Today is the day to toss and replace.

It's been three months, so last night I was ready to toss my tube of mascara.  When I went into the stash to grab a new tube I discovered that I don't have one.

I always have a backup!  Well, not this time.

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Gasp!  No mascara backup?!  I can't imagine a world without backup mascara.  Things are really starting to change.

Hm, you ask some hard questions JB.  I need to think about what I want to be accountable for.  Nothing.  I'll be back with something.

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@Oshare-girl

I know!  I've been on autopilot for decades.  It's the first day of the new quarter, I toss the old tube and grab a new one.  Don't even think about it.  I went to where I keep my mascara and it wasn't there.  You know that scene in Days of Wine and Roses when Jack Lemmon can't find the bottles he hid in Lee's Remick's father's greenhouse and he tears the place apart?

It wasn't quite that bad, but I did catch a glimpse of myself in the bathroon mirror and I had confused rodent face.  Like, how can I not have a tube of mascara in the house?

Well, I thought that you were all set for October with your mission to keep things going out instead of coming in.  Are you saying there's something else that needs your attention?

[jackthebear]

re the old TVs

Does your town or county have a collection day for old electronics/hazardous stuff?

that you could take advantage of 

[jackthebear]

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@just bee wrote:

Wow.  I have to admit that was money well spent.  I didn't want certain things pulled out, but Better-half made a good case.  There were plants that were growing in areas where they weren't meant to grow.  Transplanting at this point was not really an option.

This crew did in three hours what would have taken us three months.  They even got up on the retaining walls.

I can live with this.

Tomorrow Better-half is interviewing roofers.  Again, the "compromise" is that I have to stop feeding the birds.

More on this at a later date. 

Keyword: Overdue.

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I stopped feeding the birds when it was clear that the only ones being fed were the squirrels, the birds will survive, a roof over your head is more important to your survival 

[jackthebear]

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@Oshare-girl wrote:

Tonight I finished a serum and an oil that I received in the last Beauty Heroes box before I cancelled my subscription.  It was the final products that made me realize that even though Beauty Heroes has an awesome motto "Use less, love more", it was still making me buy things that I didn't need, even if I was only one product a month.  Would I have bought these things if I didn't get it automatically each month?  Was it something that I would repurchase?  No and no.  While I intended to restart my subscription at some point, I don't think I will.  I want to spend my money on things that I want, not what someone else wants me to buy.  I've finally found my stride and know what I like and need.  

I'm going to tackle my receipts this month.  I have an overflowing box.  I keep all my receipts.  Some I need and the majority I don't.  Does anyone have a good system for receipt organization?  And what I should be keeping and tossing? 

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 i keep my receipts for a month, toss the grocery stores at end of month once they have been added to budget/tracker. 

the other credit card receipts I keep for anything I might need to return for 2 months. 

I scan my CC statement when I get it to be sure everything is kosher before paying, I used to check everything against every receipt but no longer do that.

I use a big envelope that my bank statement comes in to keep them and write the month on it, after 3 or 4 months they get

I use a big envelope that my bank statement comes in to keep them and write the month on it, after 3 or 4 months they get shredded. 

end of year I toss my credit card statements I only use 1 CCard 

does that help?

RX and Dr receipts get saved for taxes etc 

[just bee]

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@jackthebear wrote:

re the old TVs

Does your town or county have a collection day for old electronics/hazardous stuff?

that you could take advantage of 

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@jackthebear

Yes, vee haf vays of making zee TVs go avay.

But Better-half is setting up every exit like it's Sophie's Choice.  I even thought about making a deal: There are two art objects he wants out.  Technically, they were a gift to both of us.  Should I be logical and tell him I will keep one and say goodbye to the other?

Like the TVs.  Keep the newer one -- my mother's -- and dispose of the one that actually belongs to you.  It's his, after all, so he can blow it up in the backyard if he wants to.

[just bee]

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@jackthebear wrote:

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@just bee wrote:

Wow.  I have to admit that was money well spent.  I didn't want certain things pulled out, but Better-half made a good case.  There were plants that were growing in areas where they weren't meant to grow.  Transplanting at this point was not really an option.

This crew did in three hours what would have taken us three months.  They even got up on the retaining walls.

I can live with this.

Tomorrow Better-half is interviewing roofers.  Again, the "compromise" is that I have to stop feeding the birds.

More on this at a later date. 

Keyword: Overdue.

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I stopped feeding the birds when it was clear that the only ones being fed were the squirrels, the birds will survive, a roof over your head is more important to your survival 

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@jackthebear

You sound like you have experience in mediation.  We have a spare room; would you be interested in living in the high desert?

See, you've pretty much summed up the bird issue.  I cannot begin to tell you how much I've spent on my backyard "bird sanctuary."  Between the feeders, seed, bird bath and other accoutrements, I probably could have put a kid through college.

And who benefits?  The pigeons who live in the apartment complex a few blocks away.  The seed is expensive and they hog it.  They tap dance on the roof.  They "litter."  The seed attracts "undesirable" entities like bugs, mice and skunks.  Haven't seen any mice yet, but we know we have skunks.

Lugging all those 40-pound bags of seed... I could save myself so many headaches if I just said no.

Why can't I say no?

[just bee]

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@jackthebear wrote:

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@Oshare-girl wrote:

Tonight I finished a serum and an oil that I received in the last Beauty Heroes box before I cancelled my subscription.  It was the final products that made me realize that even though Beauty Heroes has an awesome motto "Use less, love more", it was still making me buy things that I didn't need, even if I was only one product a month.  Would I have bought these things if I didn't get it automatically each month?  Was it something that I would repurchase?  No and no.  While I intended to restart my subscription at some point, I don't think I will.  I want to spend my money on things that I want, not what someone else wants me to buy.  I've finally found my stride and know what I like and need.  

I'm going to tackle my receipts this month.  I have an overflowing box.  I keep all my receipts.  Some I need and the majority I don't.  Does anyone have a good system for receipt organization?  And what I should be keeping and tossing? 

---

 i keep my receipts for a month, toss the grocery stores at end of month once they have been added to budget/tracker. 

the other credit card receipts I keep for anything I might need to return for 2 months. 

I scan my CC statement when I get it to be sure everything is kosher before paying, I used to check everything against every receipt but no longer do that.

I use a big envelope that my bank statement comes in to keep them and write the month on it, after 3 or 4 months they get

I use a big envelope that my bank statement comes in to keep them and write the month on it, after 3 or 4 months they get shredded. 

end of year I toss my credit card statements I only use 1 CCard 

does that help?

RX and Dr receipts get saved for taxes etc 

---

@jackthebear

Like I said.  There's a spare room.  Once I clear it out, of course.

[just bee]

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@Oshare-girl wrote:

I'm going to tackle my receipts this month.  I have an overflowing box.  I keep all my receipts.  Some I need and the majority I don't.  Does anyone have a good system for receipt organization?  And what I should be keeping and tossing? 

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@Oshare-girl

@jackthebearhas a solid system.  I used to hoard receipts and now I toss all the ones I don't need for tax purposes.  I would hang on to, as Bear pointed out, medical receipts -- and that includes dentist and eye doctor/eyeglasses.  Also any work/education receipts.

And then any "big" receipts for household items and projects.  Anything you think you may need as "proof" one day -- that's my system.  But then, I'm a paranoid freak.

[just bee]

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@dex wrote:

I am just going to start decluttering.I have been paring down beauty purchases for a couple of years and I have only two shower gels left in stash.I have a husband that doesn't like to toss or donate so most of the stuff I get rid of will have to be done covertly.

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@dex

Again, tread lightly.  I watched my mother "covertly" dispose of my stepfather's possessions and then, ironically, when she began holding on to things, I had to start getting rid of her prized possessions.  Like bulging cans of food and jars of furry preserves.

She moved into my stepfather's house and it was full of stuff.  God love him, he had lived alone for a few years after the death of his mother and he kept all her collections and had a few of his own that he tried to part with before we moved in.  But it was a tiny bungalow and my mother really wanted it purged.  I remember the tension.  She would dump things, he would retrieve them from the garbage and squirrel them away.  Ten years of marriage and his heart exploded on her birthday.

Then she did the same thing.  I couldn't throw her things away even when they became toxic.

This is why I understand and am willing to work with Better-half.  But I don't want anyone to die.

[jackthebear]

anyone who has had to clear out a dead parent's house thinks very differently about clutter and junk

I never want my kids to deal with that, do it now while you are alive, 

FWIW my Mother did'n't have a lot of stuff but it was still 30 years of things as they never moved to a smaller place