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October 1, 2003 It all started with a $5 bill I’d forgotten I had, a door prize from a craft sale last fall. I found it in a drawer this spring when I started getting things organized for the summer craft sales. Not having extreme need of it at the moment—after all, I’d forgotten about it for months!—I left it in its envelope and decided it would be “seed money” for something I really wanted. As it turned out, what I really wanted more than just about anything was a medium- to high-end 5 megapixel digital camera, but they were all way out of my budget. Then I found one that was actually cheap enough that I thought I could realistically save up for it. My craft sale money has always ended up trickling away on various expenses, even though I have always wanted to do something special with it. So, this year, I decided I would try to make enough money with my crafts to buy, if not my dream camera, at least one that would be acceptable to my rather high standards. This past weekend I reached my goal. But I worked hard for it. I loaded and unloaded the car more times than I care to think about, hauling tables and boxes of books and crafts till my arms ached. I got the worst sunburn of my life and a bit of heatstroke. I froze so bad it took days to thaw out. I did hours and hours and hours of crafts till my hands ached. But I made enough to get my camera. And then I threw in several years’ worth of loose change to add enough to the kitty to get some extras for it. And then I went to the discount website that has been my summer-long wishbook. When I started the summer, there was one camera within my self-appointed budget. Halfway through the summer, there was a better one that was twice as expensive, but still reasonable enough for me to consider. Today there were half a dozen cameras within my budget—which ended up being more than I expected—plus the price had dropped considerably on the one I was most interested in! Thursday I will present myself at the bank with a stack of bills and a margarine dish full of change. Then I will go home and order myself a digital camera—guilt-free—paying directly from my checking account, without touching a credit card. And I still have one craft sale to do this year. Looks like I need to start working towards a new goal already! Hmm… I wonder if I could sell enough by next fall to buy a laptop? |