The Past Week or So in Frugality and Minimalism, Bullet Point Edition

• Sent my saxophone and music to my brother via my mom, who was on her way to see him. He's started trying to play it, and if he gets good enough will offer saxophone lessons (one of his major sources of income is teaching voice, piano, and guitar). I feel good about the decision to give it to him--the saxophone was definitely something that he can use more than me.
  
• Deposited a $360 check from freelancing
• Wrote an email to boyfriend explaining why he should open a Roth IRA (that is, so that we can tax shelter more money).
• Cooked several things with boyfriend: potato salad, quasi-fries, fried chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, and banana bread. Fridge is now full of delicious homemade food. Boyfriend, who grew up on pizza, McDonald's, and Stouffer's, is growing by leaps and bounds in his cooking skills.
  
• Sent two paperbackswap books, one more ready to go.
• Got rid of the books I own that are in the public domain--finally realized that there's no real reason to keep a tattered copy of A Little Princess when I can read it online anytime I want.
  
• Listed my large Baby-sitters Club collection on ebay (this is the most embarrassing collection ever, but on the off chance that anyone reading remembers these books nostalgically, I'm putting in the link). I assembled this collection in 2006-2007, and I would have said back then I would keep it basically forever. I used to read books from this series all the time--sort of a comfort thing--but now I haven't touched one in almost a year. I think the real excitement with this collection came from finding the books (in thrift stores, on trading communities) and reading the ones I hadn't ever read. Many of the books I know I won't read again, and if I want to, I can always do the whole business over again. I probably won't get as much from selling it as I spent on assembling it, but it'll go to someone who will appreciate it and I won't have to lug it to the next 16 homes I live in.

What's Next?

• Investing the money that's been sitting in my Fidelity money market account for Way Too Long
  
• Figuring out something to do with the $24,000 that just rolled over from a CD into my savings
• Canceling Netflix
• Continuing to roll in the Swagbucks. Boyfriend has totally drunk the Kool-Aid and now we're getting an average of $10 at Amazon every two weeks.
  
• More possible discards: Sex and the City DVDs, bicycle, dead Grandma's silverware, lots and lots of papers (I stacked up all my files yesterday and I have 41 inches of papers).