Full (ish) Disclosure

I've been showing this blog to more people than I ever did before (smart phones rock!).  Once they read it they ask nearly the same two questions (with various levels of bluntness) - "Why are you so paranoid about mentioning where you live (your name)?" and "Why (or how) do you spend so much on this?"

When I first began this blog, I had two main issues to deal with: 1) keeping it a secret from the Big Lug (whom I wanted to surprise with a fat retirement fund) and 2) working my ass off to shift, pay off, pay down just over $75K in non-mortgage debt. The first, obviously, influenced me more in the undercover department.  Now that I'm "out," I've simply been calling it "habit," or (with an arch look) "mystery," which effectively ends the conversation.  But it's more than just my Rut Girl or Mata Hari tendencies. I honestly believe that anyone - with any budget or temperament or taste, in any town or hamlet or parking lot - anyone can find beautiful, wonder-inducing, spectacular, profitable things wherever they are able and willing to hunt. Truth is, the more Anywhere I am, the fewer (I hope) excuses about bad "luck" or "horrible" locations will be made, especially since some of my better finds haven't even been in my stomping grounds, but in thrift shops and resale stores and (seriously!) antique malls in places so small they give "flea" market a whole new meaning.

As for the cash thing ... That has more to do with the other journey, the original one.  From the start, I vowed I would create and stick to an allowance - not only for treasures but for reading books, unneccessary eating out, even cool finds I give to everyone but me - and I made the Lug swear to do the same. At first that fund was small, $20 and gas, two weekends a month, mostly for yard sales.  But as we paid things off and my business increased I upped it for both of us, more than once. We're empty-nesters - my Trips are now 26, 27, and 28 - so when I paid off the last of the college loans for the kids, when they finally didn't need monthly help for rent and food, when the dust settled a bit, we each had $75 a week ... because we were actually $1400 a month ahead by then, because it was still cheaper than what we were spending when I didn't have any structure at all, because I was still sending hundreds extra to the credit cards ... okay, because we could. And it was great.

Yes, "was."  Last week, I finally admitted that the lack of business is not a fluke.  That, along with some major expenses (his eye surgery wasn't completely covered by insurance, my oven "blowed up" last Monday, and I've flown or will fly to Texas twice) made me realize we're going to have to go back to rolling with the punches. I dropped us to $50 a week (for all that isn't household, remember) with a promise of occasional bonuses when we have fiscal infusions. If it has to drop again neither of us will shed a tear, either.  The Lug reminded me we're light years ahead of where we once were financially, mostly because I worked hard to get us positioned to be okay if something like this happened.  And, though memories of the weekly scrounges in junk drawers and sofa cushions for milk money don't thrill him, we were all (whole family) so much closer in the days when things were necessarily tight.  We - both of us - want to find that again (without the thrice-weekly Meatless Mondays, of course).

Yes, I've fallen away from my roots. I've especially strayed from my stealing it, winning it, and (yes, even this) finding it basics (see Bags O' Posts). Oh, I still shop with coupons, get rebates on anything that doesn't move, use and pay off (twice a month) credit cards that send money to my mortgage or discount my gas or give me other freebies regularly.  I still buy the occasional lotto ticket or enter a really big or special contest.  And, of course, I hunt whichever store calls to me (find it).  But I actually miss some of the other things, things I used to do when I didn't have the ready cash.  I want to curbside shop again - I look but I never stop any more.  I want to do more sweepstaking (I'd given up but I live in renewed hope - thank you Twinscapes). And I really want to get out there, get dirty, and pick up/scrape up/dig up coins and rings, and earrings, in gold and silver and (gasp) platinum, with caches and troves and extravaganzas galore.

Because the whole purpose of this blog is not just to tell you there's stuff all over the place but to show you it's true.  And that no matter how or where we live, how big/small or young/old we are, how fat/skinny our budgets get/need to be, or how neurotic/screwed up/recovered/sane we are, we can all snag our chunk of it.

With raspberry syrup and  free Godiva on top, baby!