Five Frugal Things -- I'm Now Over $900 in Oregon Food Bank Donations! -

1) I made $82.62 in August from my $100 Goodwill gift card in the month of August. That brings my total up to $908.25 and very close to my goal of $1000!

I still have around five bucks left on the gift card, but I'm saving it for something that's drastically underpriced.

I still have a couple dozen unsold item listed on eBay that'll sell in due time.

2) I sold two items from my standard eBay inventory. A book I got for free and a Star Trek movie publicity photo that was tucked in a photo album I thrifted back in April.

Neither sale will dominate the news cycle, but it's basically free income. I actually bought the photo album because it contained a handmade booklet from DeForest Kelley, famous for playing Dr McCoy on the original Star Trek series:

Currently listed on eBay for $75.

3) My husband and I finalized our estate planning and walked away with a fresh determination to not leave a burdensome amount of random stuff and tasks for our kids to inherit.

I've seen it referred to as the "Millenial inheritance," which seems to be cabinets crammed with collectibles, dishes too fancy to ever use and pretty much an emotionally devastating number of decisions to face. We're not at that level, but our seemingly uncluttered house holds a lot more than you'd think!

We now have our advanced directives and powers of attorney in place; as well as a will and trust. My husband's parents died without any of this and it was a nightmare for my husband to navigate. This is no legacy to leave for one's loved ones.

The next step is to complete the myriad of unfinished tasks in our fixer upper house, so the house can easily be made ready to sell should something catastrophic happen to us.

It's no fun to face one's mortality, but it's sadly inevitable.

4) My husband grabbed a can of clear sealant from our basement and sprayed a couple thin layers over my $3.50 garage sale bathroom light fixture. (Thank you to the reader who suggested this!) He'll install it after work tonight.

Hopefully this'll protect the metal from rust, which has been the journey of all our previous bathroom light fixtures.

I guess I can file this under "Not leaving a hundred household tasks for our kids to deal with." Maybe just 99.

5) I checked out Kathryn Stockett's The Calamity Club from the library, which is a whopping 638 pages long! The Powell's Summer Reading Challenge had me shying away from longer books, but I'm now free from reading as many books as possible and can enjoy longer books.