Only Buy Things I Need or Love

I’ve decided to start rewarding myself for every week I successfully count my calories.

Week 1(last Monday) some books from Amazon, including two new Wodehouse novels.

Week 2 (today) a couple more enells for riding days.

I snagged two Cashmere Sweaters and a new polo shirt for my beloved husband. They were half off and in his tough to find tall size. He’s happy and actually asked for them. It’s amazing to me how infrequently my husband needs new clothes.

I bought a massive amount of winter clothes, including a new pair of waterproof riding boots, and fleece blanket liners and coolers for the girls. Plus an expensive saddle dolly for my 4x/week lessons at my trainers. I’m still waiting for an order from Scheiders, but I do hope I’m done blowing cash for awhile. My credit card bills are going to be big, but this month I’m going to go into frugal mode to recover from the impact.

I do have about $7 worth of eBay bucks to spend. My last purchase, a horse blanket liner that was sold out at the manufacturer’s, came with cheapo leg straps which didn’t restore my faith in eBay. Not quite sure what I’m going to do that credit…

2/17/12 I ended up using my $7-8 eBay credit on a pretty good deal on two new Oster grooming brushes for the horses. I’m still visiting eBay too often, but their crashy iPad Ap is discouraging me from spending too much time there.

I left a neutral review for a seller whose “new” item arrived covered in white pet hair and smelling pretty nasty. eBay thoughtfully sent me a message informing me that they had sent them my home phone number and full name, as the seller had requested it.

Now, I’m getting calls at home. Oh joy. I’ve saved a lot of money on eBay over the years, though I’ve spent way too much time searching their site to do it. This is the third difficult seller I’ve dealt with in the past three months. Weird, as I’ve only ever left one piece of negative feed back in over 300 purchases over the last nine years.

I think it’s time to give up eBay for good.

I ordered a bunch of skin care, make up, and perfume online. I also picked up more makeup at the mall the other day. It’s all painfully pricey, but it’s all stuff I use and like.

My husband also bought me a new, larger 2TB time capsule bad up from Apple, plus another Airport for himself. My new horse video hobby has been eating up my hard drive space.

Along with the $900 I just spent on maintenance/repairs for my truck and the big hay order I need to make next week, I’m going to have another massive credit card bill next month!

1. Bought a narrower pair of Der Dau field boots on clearance from Dover for $499. They’re still too loose on the top, but my cobbler says he can take them in for $85. That’s a lot of money, but still better than the $1K plus for semi customs.

2. Bought a second pair of Passier leathers for half off on eBay. About $50 including shipping.

3. Ferra has already out grown her size 80” sheets. I used my $30 of eBay bucks and bought a new industrial strength Pessoa Summit sheet for $150 with free shipping on eBay. It seems to fit, but now she’ll need a new blanket too. That’s going to be a good $200!

4. I splurged and ordered another pair of those Bow Balance stirrups from Adams horse supply. even with a 10% off coupon and free shipping they sent me back $200. Still, I’ve only dropped a stirrup once since I bought the other pair and they’re super easy to pick back up. Safety first!

Maybe I’ll sell some of those size 80” sheets I bought for Ferra last year to cover the new blanket costs. The baby is still in a 78” so she can’t se them. Plus now I have an extra pair of stirrups to sell.

Update: 11/1/11 I’m sending those boots back. They’re lovely, but I think for what it will cost me to ship them back and forth to my cobbler, plus alterations, and the original cost of the boots, I might as well buy another pair of semi-customs. The Passier leathers, the new stirrups, and the sheet have all arrived and they’re perfect.

I scored a Passier optimum with Freedom Panels off of eBay for $1335 including shipping. That’s almost $2K less than new. Aside from a bit of scuffing on the edge of the cantle, it’s in excellent condition. The billets are barely marked.

I found another pair of the Woof oxy open front boots for almost 1/2 off at Dover. I talked my local tack shop into the matching fetlock boots for about 1/2 of the list price. They’ve been sitting on the shelf forever.

I also picked up some wellie socks for me and a couple of pairs of Der Dau field boots to try. The Der Daus are probably going back, however. I think I’ll have to go with semi customs if I want a decent fit. The stock pairs are over 40% off, but that only counts if the boots fit well enough for me to actually wear. They don’t.

A new pair of the discontinued endurance paddock boots came up on eBay. admittedly, they’re not the color I wanted (Cinnamon instead of taupe), but the mesh uppers should help me beat the crazy heat. Wish Ariat hadn’t discontinued these. $59 including shipping

I’ve been eyeing the Herm Sprenger Bow Balance stirrups for awhile. So, when a pair in my size came up for just $113 including insured priority mail, I snagged it. Buying used online is always a gamble, hopefully it will pay off.

Update: I absolutely love these! So easy to pick up a dropped stirrup, though it’s pretty easy to avoid losing them in the first place. I am seriously considering selling my older stirrups and replacing them with these.

Two new gate panels to replace the broken ones, about 60 bales of Rye grass, bedding for my stall bound girls, and a barrel of Equine Senoir from Lee’s $1600

Still waiting for 10 packages of bedding. They were out and will deliver when they’ve restocked.

I love my horses, but they’ve been a money pit this year.