HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME (Alt. Title: How being organized saves money, time & frustration)
This post isn’t so much about my birthday (although - woohoo!!) as it is about how being organized helped me save money on my birthday gift.
Presents aren’t an important tradition in our small family. Corey and I don’t often exchange birthday, Valentine’s or even Christmas gifts each year. Instead, we are usually saving up for a larger goal (usually an upcoming trip or house project). That said, there are times when he or I have something in mind for ourselves and will just get it.. This month, I wanted to get myself a new wallet for my birthday. Now, if you follow my outfit choices closely (which I don’t think anybody does) you would notice that I use very few bags. This is more of a minimalist choice, as I really like the simplicity of having a bag ready to go as I walk out the door. Lately, I’ve been carrying a small clutch vs. a bag at events or running errands, so I knew that I wanted to get a slightly larger wristlet wallet. I’ve been thinking about this for months, so I knew I would really use it vs. a passing thought. About a month ago I finally decided to go for it, and visited my favorite site for new bags - Coach Outlet.
Now - this is where I start walking you through the steps of how being organized (with a pinch of minimalism) helped save me time, money & sanity in my birthday shopping. The first step was to take the time to think about whether or not I actually needed something new before I went out and bought it. I thought long and hard about the features of the item I wanted, so when I decided to go for it, it was easy to find the one I wanted. I found a wristlet wallet that fit my phone, enough room for the cards that I take with me every day, a zipper for coins, an area for receipts and a little room for a Chapstick (I like to have that on hand. Just like Napoleon Dynamite - “my lips hurt real bad!”).
Once I found the one I wanted, I emailed myself the link instead of buying it right away. I saw there was a sale coming up in a couple of weeks, so snoozed the email to pop up the day of the sale. (Do you use the Snooze function in Gmail? If you’re a Gmail user who hasn’t tried it - here’s a tutorial that will change your life).
The day of the sale, I checked the price of the wallet - it was about $58 (originally $198). Sweet. Next, I saw there was a promo code for the first day of the sale, which knocked the price down further. I had also scored free shipping. The last step (that made me so happy) is that I had a Coach gift card that still had a small balance on it from a couple of years ago. Here’s the clincher (and something I recommend all the time) - I keep all my gift cards in the same place. So even though I hadn’t used it in a hot minute (and had moved twice since I used it last) I knew right where the gift cards were - zero frantic searching required. I plugged in the info, and saw that my new balance was under $22, including tax.
This post is not about pretty bags. Do I love my new wristlet? Absolutely. Would I pay $198 for it? Noooo... The point of this is that my creating tiny habits like learning to use our email features efficiently, or making sure we have homes for specific things in our house, we’re making it a lot easier for ourselves in the long run. You can save time, money and added frustration, and (dare I say it) make all your birthday dreams come true - all by getting organized. What could be sweeter than that?
