blackcauldron85 wrote:I hate being irresponsible with money...With my spending money, my "play" money, it's always been something that I think about every so often.
I hate being irresponsible with my play money as well. A few years ago, before I started my summer job, the only money I made throughout the whole year was from my birthday and Christmas. My parents used to pay for things for me. If I was going out (bowling, movies, whatever), they would offer me some money so I wasn't broke, and it was nice. But every summer I am a camp counselor and I make a decent amount of money, and my parents told me I should start paying for myself, which is why I blow through lots of my money fast. But hey, I guess it's all part of being 17!
blackcauldron85 wrote:Today I was scrounging around my house for CD jewel cases- I was going to sell some CDs that I don't listen to, or that I have doubles of, to CD Warehouse- I figure that I could use some extra spending money and if I haven't listened to the CD in a while, I probably don't need it. It's hard. Take No Doubt's "Tragic Kingdom" album. It's a good album, but I barely ever listen to it. Will I miss it when I sell it?
I go to FYE very often, but every few months I go through all my CDs and DVDs and figure out what I'm going to trade in. Back in January I got $68! Anyways, whenever I go through CDs and DVDs I have the same problem. It's hard knowing if you'll miss the CD or DVD when you sell it, which is why I don't really sell a lot. If there are a few of songs you really love on the album, but not too many (like 3 or 4, not like 10 or 11), I would sell it and buy the songs you like on iTunes. This saves shelf space and you can get the songs you really love.
blackcauldron85 wrote:I've been thinking about getting rid of excess- I sold some clothes on eBay (but with clothes, I've been starting to buy medium shirts, since smalls shrink, and I'm now thinking more long-term about my clothes, like how they fit and what's on them (as much as I like Elmo, I'm almost 24 1/2, and just the other day I've decided this about my clothes), and those clothes didn't sell for much, and the others didn't sell at all. Oh, well.
As for clothes, I would definitely think about how they fit and what's on them. If you're trying to cut back and save money, clothes would be first on my list of things to modify. When you buy clothes, try them on when you get home, but leave the tag on. If the shirt or whatever article of clothing fits nicely, hang on to it. If you find a shirt you like and it shrinks in the wash, buy a size up. Don't worry about how much you make when you sell it on eBay, if you're anything like me and you really are money-conscious, every penny is a great help.
blackcauldron85 wrote:Oh, I got sidetracked- the CD Warehouse near me was closed! As in, for good. I could drive to the other CD Warehouse sometime, or try selling on eBay or Half.com.
I've never been to a CD Warehouse! Oh well. Anyways, try trading in your CDs and DVDs at FYE, they give really good prices. Keep in mind they're not going to give you
tons of money, but they ask you if at the end you would like your money in cash or credit. If you have other CDs and DVDs you would like to buy or you know are coming out, take the store credit, because they give you 25% more of what they would pay you if you take your money in cash. If it's a CD or DVD that's much older, you're not gonna get much no matter where you sell it.
blackcauldron85 wrote:Should I not sell these CDs, because then I'll miss some of the songs, or should I sell them, since I don't really ever listen to them? I'm not 100% sure yet. And with my non-Disney DVDs (and TV DVDs, including Disney), I don't have the cases anymore, since I keep them in a CD wallet. I would probably post some DVD lots in the Trade section here first, and sell some for cheap.
Keep in mind what I said before about buying the certain songs on iTunes and stuff.
blackcauldron85 wrote:With music, I decided a couple hours ago that maybe I should just focus on/spend my money on my favorite artists, because I know that I'll enjoy their music. There are some albums that are scratched that I've been using backup CDs, and part of me feels like I should rebuy the albums when I have money to rebuy the album, so I'll be using all original albums, and not some CD-Rs. But it's just a thought and it'll take a while to accumlate all those again.
Definitely don't re-buy the album if you have a backup and have previously purchased the CD. That can waste money fast, and you're right, it will take a while to accumulate again.
blackcauldron85 wrote:So maybe next time I should listen on YouTube before I buy and not rush to Target right when it opens, and see if it's worth spending my hard-earned money on.
If you want all these albums and can wait a few weeks to a month after it gets released, go to FYE and buy the album used. Newer albums usually are sold used for $8.99 - $9.99, and usually some sort of promotion on used items (buy 3 get the 4th free, buy 3 get the 4th 50% off). They have a 100% Guarantee, which is you can return the used product if you're not satisfied, and they clean / resurface the discs before they put them on sale. I've only had 1 or 2 problems in the 5 years I've been buying used from them, and they're very good about it. If you have a defective used product and it was the last copy used, they give you the option of either a store credit for the amount you paid or they give you the option of buying it new and just paying the difference between the used price and the new price. They don't ask questions and they're very good at handling it.
blackcauldron85 wrote:I was also thinking about trying to sell some work clothes that I have- I bought them for my internship a couple years ago because I needed businessy clothes (a few pieces I bought in 2004 for a job I had, too) at a cheap price, but some of them just aren't my style at all. If I can sell them on eBay, I could find a few new pieces that are more me, more classic worky versus flowy blouse crap.
Again, definitely sell the clothes on eBay. You never know who will be online shopping for that flowy blouse crap
blackcauldron85 wrote:I also need to start telling people that for Christmas, really only get me things I ask for, because otherwise I have things that I don't really want.
If I were you, I would put some CDs and DVDs on that Christmas list, that way you're set for a while and you have backup "play" money.
blackcauldron85 wrote:I won a $20 Borders gift card in the "Let's Make a Deal" or whatever game we were playing. I don't shop at Borders; it's far away and everything costs a lot of money. I had been saving up for buying Pete's Dragon and Hannah Montana: The Movie, and then when I got the gift card, I figured that I'd use it to subsidize the cost a bit. Well, I saw that Pete's Dragon was listed at $31.99 for pre-order on Borders.com.
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Always check the actual store when you're about to buy a CD or DVD, because there's a 90% chance that the prices aren't going to be the same online as in-store.
The only store I know that has consistent online and in-store pricing is Best Buy. Even if you search for something on their website and it's on sale for a certain price, and you walk into the store and there's no sign indicating it's on sale, trust me, it will ring up as being on sale. This has happened many times to me before with that store, and that's why that's the only website I look on when I want a CD or DVD because they don't advertise
all their sales in the weekly ad.
blackcauldron85 wrote:I had bought a bunch of TV-on-DVD titles, and ended up selling them...as for hour long dramas that I hadn't seen too much of before, it was just too time consuming to get into them. And for comedies, I just wasn't watching them. Even the TV-on-DVD I bought after I sold those I just haven't watched. But I feel like I should get "Degrassi" on DVD, since I love watching the marathons of that. As much as I love Disney Channel and watch/watched the shows when they're on, I haven't touched my "Hannah Montana", "Lizzie McGuire", or "Life with Derek" season sets, not to mention my "Malcolm in the Middle". I don't have the cases (although I have the HM slipcover), but should I sell them? Or will I eventually watch them? I just don't know. Ugh. It's hard to know what I should keep and what I should try to sell.
I never sell my TV DVDs. They're great to have, and they actually aren't as time consuming as you think. For one thing, there's no commercials! I also love having them because I love watching a show commercial-free, and on my own schedule. Your life's very busy, so maybe TV-DVDs would be the best route for you, that way you don't have to worry about when your favorite show is on, and what time and all that crap. I never regretted buying a TV DVD (well, except the season sets of
SNL, but that's a story in itself).
blackcauldron85 wrote:Wow, this is long. Wow, if you read all that, wow. Thanks. I've been blabbing in my emails lately, just thinking out loud. Yay for my friends, huh.

I just want to make wise decisions with my money, and I'm still young and make mistakes...*sigh*
No problem, Amy! It only took me 43 minutes to respond to this!
