I've been told that I'm an oddity when it comes to receiving gifts, in that I absolutely adore every single gift I get, from the blingy watch my husband bought for me a few birthdays back to the scribble drawing my three-year-old nephew created for me this birthday. I don't care what it is, as long as I get something. 
I recently read on 
When I was a school/college kid, saving money on school supplies meant covering my books with paper bags. Real talk. It meant ripping the pages out of barely-used notebooks from last year and reusing them. Oh yeah, and it meant no Trapper Keeper, the holy grail of school supplies (and the most expensive item on the supplies list). A new back-to-school wardrobe? Fuggetaboutit. If it fit from last year, I was good. 
I tried making soap a few years ago. The idea itself was solid–I’d create pine scented, antibacterial soap for hands that I’d wrap up pretty and dole out as holiday gifts. The end product was a disaster. It wound up smelling like toilet bowl cleaner. Ack! And that, ladies and gentlemen, is when my soap-making days ended.
Ritz crackers are good, but they just don’t compare to those gourmet crackers (ever-so-slightly seasoned with pepper and sesame seeds) that are laid out with fine cheeses at weddings and other fancy functions. If I could afford to snack on those crackers regularly, I would. Same applies with everything else in the gourmet aisle at the supermarket. Ever tried Das Caramelini Salted Caramels? Oh. My. Goodness.
My dad has always had the worst – and I mean the WORST – seasonal allergies. I remember being a little girl and laughing at him (out of love, of course) whenever he made that funny noise to scratch the back of his itchy throat, or when he wore sunglasses at the dinner table to disguise his puffy, watery eyes.
Unbeknownst to me, I would grow up to develop the exact same allergies!Meet our Guest Discount Diva of the Day:
Margaret Bristol (Quick and Simple's contests and
giveaways editor) saves money on everyday items to supplement her
vacation fund, and is currently saving for a trip to Greece. Her
money-saving mantra? "Wait in the longest line possible at checkout! I
can't begin to tell you how many impulse purchases I've avoided by
doing this."
It happens every year around this time. The weather gets nice and I
start stocking up (er, stock piling!) on books. For me, there’s no
better time to read than on a warm, sandy beach in the summer.
As you can imagine, I’ve built quite the library; one that has extended from the bookcase to the window sill to my bedroom floor. And, while I could never part with my hand-me-down copy of Jane Eyre from my sis, other paperbacks are simply ghosts of summers past doing nothing but collecting dust on the shrinking shelf space.
I need to purge. I need to de-clutter. I need to let go.
Cue Swaptree.com, a nifty media trading website that I stumbled upon while searching for titles to add to this summer’s annual "Margaret-Must-Read" list. After a simple registration process (membership is free!), I tell the site what trade-ready items I have (The DaVinci Code can go. I've read The Devil Wears Prada 100 times.) and what I want to acquire (I've been dying to read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert).
In seconds, the search shows me what I can score by swapping with someone else. With a few clicks I accept trades with other users and print the shipping label straight from the site. Then, I drop the packages in the mailbox. Your vice/virtue isn't books? On Swaptree.com you can trade CDs, DVDs, and videos, too!
Do you know of any other great ways to swap old stuff?
