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From Frozen Years to Golden Years: Leaving Alaska {Part 4}
If you missed the first part of our leaving Alaska moving story, go read it here first: From Frozen Years to Golden Years: Leaving Alaska {Part 1} Leaving Alaska {Part 2} Leaving Alaska {Part 3} Frugal Flights I’m almost always frugal, even when it was time for us to move. We had originally planned to use our Alaska Airlines miles for free plane tickets and had enough for all 5 of our tickets to be completely free. That would cost 62,500 airline miles, and we had plenty – or so I thought. It turns out that when Michael had to fly to Seattle last minute for the job interview that…
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How to Save Money on Laundry by Getting 3 Times More out of Your Dryer Sheets
Saving money on laundry is one of the fastest and easiest ways to cut household spending during a frugal makeover. If you’re looking for extra ways to dig deep and slash your laundry budget, we’ve got an interesting frugal tip today. We’re talking about how to save money on dryer sheets and stretch them 3 times as far! As with most frugal tips, this one isn’t complicated and it won’t take you a lot of time. In fact, it’s so easy that your kids can even help with it! If you’re new to frugal laundry, click to learn my top 13 tips for how to save money on laundry. Then, if you’re…
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From Frozen Years to Golden Years: Leaving Alaska {Part 3}
If you missed the first part of our leaving Alaska moving story, go read it here first: From Frozen Years to Golden Years: Leaving Alaska {Part 1} and Leaving Alaska {Part 2}. The next week was a blur. The negotiating went back and forth on the house offer, but it proved that they didn’t have the cash portion they needed to buy our house. We prayed about the house sale and waited. The only way we could pay their portion of the house sale was if we were getting a tax refund. We waited on our accountant as the Tax Day deadline approached and jumped every time the phone rang,…
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From Frozen Years to Golden Years: Leaving Alaska {Part 2}
If you missed the first part of our leaving Alaska moving story, go read it here first: From Frozen Years to Golden Years: Leaving Alaska {Part 1}. From Frozen Years to Golden Years: Leaving Alaska {Part 2} We had some rough days and prayed a lot. Tensions were high. We almost got hit by two different cars in two different incidents that were way too close not to ponder. I was driving to the grocery store to pick up some extra packing tape for the boxes and I was praying the whole way. Above, a photo of a poster I had hanging in my office in Alaska. It’s a replica…
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From Frozen Years to Golden Years: Leaving Alaska {Part 1}
We’ve been gearing up for our minimalist move for months, and it’s finally complete! We’re now at home in sunny Los Angeles, California, but the move was by no means quick or easy. Luckily I’ve been taking notes and pictures throughout the whole process so I could share the story of our escape from Alaska to California! The first part of our story was the Minimalist Move, which was a transformational experience in itself. The process was so emotional that my husband asked me to write about it so that we would remember the way it felt later. If you missed any of the Minimalist Move story, start here: {Mobile…
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Minimalist Move Day 68: The Mountain of Boxes of Papers
It’s Minimalist Move day 68, and I’m on to the enormous step of digitizing paper. The one thing that lasted through all of our previous trash / give away / donate rounds during the minimalist move is the mountain of boxes of papers. Tax records, receipts, kids’ artwork, scrapbook mementos, prize ribbons from the state fair… you get the idea. I gathered up all the paper and put it in banker boxes, neatly stacked into a mountain in my office for this fine photo: It may not look like much in the photo, but keep in mind that there is over 300 pounds worth of just paper in these boxes,…
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Minimalist Move Day 66: Digging Deep For More Donations
Just when we thought there wasn’t anything left to declutter during our minimalist journey, we found we had to dig deep and pass along more stuff to our favorite charities and to the local reuse station. It’s amazing how fast one can fill up a minivan when there’s “practically nothing” left in the house! Here are some pictures of the van full before I left to donate it all. After the photos were taken, I filled up the vehicle even more!
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Minimalist Move Day 58: Is this the Final Load For Charity?
Yesterday was our end of the minimalist journey moving sale. We took all the remaining non-keeper items and filled up our living room. We posted the sale of craigslist and watched our belongings fly out the door all day. Today, we stared at the remains of the moving sale and felt strangely detached from items that were so hard to give up just a few days ago! I called my mom to come over and take whatever she wanted, which ended up only being 5 things. She, too, is paring down, and while not going minimalist herself, she definitely understands our reasons. My husband just loaded the final batch destined…
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Minimalist Move Day 52: Happy Birthday to Me!
See if you can join me on a household purge on a huge scale (going minimalist) or a small scale (decluttering a bag of items for charity) or even a tiny scale (donate 1 item).
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Minimalist Move: I'm in Agony As I Separate Myself From Stuff
Getting rid of your stuff is hard. Being free of it is liberating, but getting rid of it is so painful, confusing, time consuming, difficult, and emotional that it can reduce a grown woman to a temper tantrum of sitting on the side of the bathtub, crying and praying in desperation.
