Week #17 - Time for a splurge!

If you read my little blogger profile I refer to myself as a 'hesitant hoarder'. What I mean by that is you're not going to see me on a TLC show anytime soon, BUT I do have issues getting rid of things. I call most of them collections, but in a few circumstances I know its just me being crazy. Well this past weekend was the annual collectors holiday known as 'Record Store Day'. Every year all the big record labels get together and come up with a bunch of manufactured collectible/limited edition versions of records (yes actual vinyl records that you play on a turntable) that people like me just 'NEED' to have! I've been going out and buying stuff on Record Store Day for the past 4 years and its usually a pretty expensive day out.

This year looked to be no different as I had my list put together from different internet sites telling me what bands had releases and what color vinyl they would be on and what they were limited to etc. I also got a little insider help from a friend that works in the warehouse of a certain chain store and he told me how many of each record I was looking for would be at the store I was going to first. I had planed to spend a good chunk of money on things for myself when I got a big idea. It was a scummy thing to do, but I was going to pick what I anticipated to be the biggest collectible of the day, once again based on internet research, and I was gonna buy it to resell. Well, at my first stop (yes there is more than 1 record store, I went to 3 on Saturday) I got a bunch of the stuff I actually wanted and I spent an additional $83.99 (tax included) on a limited box set of a band I don't care for. I used my handy internet ready smartphone to place a 1 day eBay auction for the records while still sitting in the parking lot of the store. We'll exactly 24 hours later my my $84 investment sold for over $300 netting me a profit of around $200 after factoring in the cost of the item and the fees for placing the auction etc.

I'm happy, but a little embarrassed to say that my $200 profit covered MOST of what I spent on records for my collection. Yes I spend a lot of money on music, but its one of my few vices so I won't beat myself up over it. I will also say that I feel a little bad that I bought something I knew I didn't want just so I could sell it to someone that couldn't find it for a hefty profit. It's no different than someone buying up all the tickets for a concert and charging a premium for actual fans to get seats. That being said... I got to the store 3 hours before they opened and waiting in line so I could be one of the first people in (I was second in line) the store to be sure I got the things I wanted.

Here's a little instragram of the stuff I added to my collection...   : )

 

Ok... so I wrote up a paragraph explaining what the 'moral of the story' was and then realized that I was encouraging you readers to go out and scalp anything you could make a buck on. I feel a little guilty for what I did, but it was the only way I was going to be able to buy the stuff I wanted to get for myself. I wouldn't do it every day, but I'm not afraid to think outside the box on an 'investment' sometimes and you shouldn't be either.

 

 

All right, now for this week in money! I got my paycheck for $630.74 ($40.23 taken out pretax for the 401K) this week and this being the last paycheck of the month its time to do some real saving! I'm going to take $25 and add it to the 'vet bill savings' and then I'm going to take the remaining $605.74 and divide it between 2 accounts putting $302.87 in my money market savings and $302.87 into my future car savings. Obviously I also did my weekly $20 vacation transfer! Not a bad week even though I did splurge on some new music!

PS. I also rolled up $18.50 in change I had around the house and deposited it in the bank account I use to buy stuff through Paypal. I'm not counting that as a 'savings' because I'll just use it to buy something I dont really need on eBay anyway!

  

 

 

Here is the week 17 wrap up:

$40.23 to my 401K

$25 to the vet bill savings

$20.00 to my vacation fund

$302.87 in the money market

$302.87 in my car repair/savings account

which makes the 2013 totals:

$523.70 in my 401K
$340.00 in the vacation fund
$30.25 in the piggy bank
$150.00 in the quarterly loan payment account
$75.00 in my vet bill savings
$562.82 in my money market
$562.81 in my car account

 

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned how because of the relationship I have with the people at my bank I was able to switch an account over from the money market I had to a newer money market that was supposed to be for 'new customers' with 'new money' that paid a much higher interest rate. Well, I finally got a full months worth of interest and the dollar amount is obviously based on the balance of the account which is more than what this blog shows I've saved, BUT what I want to tell you is that the interest I got in one month on that account was over 13 times the interest I had gotten with the old account just one month before. That means that in ONE month I got more money in interest than I got all of last year combined! Don't get me wrong, its not gonna get me to early retirement or pay off my mortgage (or even buy me a nice dinner) but its free money and I'm getting the new higher % because I pay attention to my banking and what my bank offers so please, just take a few minutes a month and make sure that you're money is working for you in the best ways it can! Even the interest on a very small savings can be drastically increased when your talking about multiplying it by 10 or more times!

I should wait till next week to share this, but its to funny to hold back. I was just balancing my checkbook in the checkbook register (yes I actually use it and write down every transaction) and I found a mistake. Since I use pen I had to find a way to correct the error so I used 'white out' tape to fix the mistake. In this photo you can see my completed checkbook registery, my 3 pens (blue, red & green), the depost slips for todays banking, the bills & other papers I carry with my check book, the correction tape and the 2 elastics that keep it all together.... I'm nuts!