Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All

This is the next step in my continued quest for less stuff and more money.

I’m getting rid of my old cds. Yay!

Yes, I have an mp3 player, but like many of you, I’ve kept my old cds—just in case.

Over the years, I’ve never had to reload my computer or my player (knock on wood). These days, back-up drives are so cheap and large, I have no trouble keeping other sets of my music files.

So finally, the cds are going out the door. Right now, I’m using two sources for buy back.

Second Spin works in much the same way as the online book buyers do. Enter the CD info into their system. They’ll tell you how much they’ll pay you for it. If you agree, package everything up and ship your collection to them. They will check everything in and send you a check or a PayPal payment. Easy.

I usually check the same cd on Amazon. Amazon makes it really easy to sell your extra books and cds these days. If you already have an account, it will take you less than a minute to list an item for sale. And their fee structure beats eBay’s by a mile.

This system has been working for me because Second Spin will often pay higher for the more popular titles while the more collectible and rare titles go for higher on Amazon. Of course, Second Spin is the immediate sale while you’ll have to wait for a buyer on Amazon.

If anyone out there has a reliable source to recommend to me, I would sure appreciate it. I still have half my collection to go.

Tags: Money by Ms. SP
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After I spent more than I had originally intended on holiday gifts last year, I decided to conscientiously use my Discover Card to rack up cash back savings to use on this year’s gifts.

Here’s how I’m doing so far.

Right now, I am a few cents shy of $40 in my Cash Back column. With it, I can get $50+ worth of gift cards from various retailers.

Since I started off with an unused balance, I really only made about $25 so far.

The Cash Back bonus amount always starts off slowly, because the 1% cash back on purchases doesn’t kick in until you are over $3000 in total charges. I anticipate this amount to grow more quickly over the rest of the year because I will hit that $3K mark and start getting a full 1% on everything.

Plus, their bonus 5% Cash Back months start in on the really helpful categories later in the year. From July through September, I’ll get 5% back on gas and bookstore purchases. Then starting in October, I’ll get 5% on groceries, restaurant bills, and movie tickets.

If I start shopping various retailers through their portal, I can also add significantly to my totals. I’m pretty excited about the addition of VistaPrint and Fandango as program participants. Although I’m not too hot on using VistaPrint for the important stuff, you can’t beat their prices on print items that do not have to be absolutely perfect. They’re going 20% cash back with Discover.

Fandango’s main sticking point has always been that $1.00 convenience charge. With Discover, they’re at 10% cash back, so it negates the $1.00 on a $10.00 ticket. Summer is about the only time that I actually go see movies regularly in the theaters. This convenience will really help.

Tags: Life, Money by Ms. SP
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Here are my favorite reads from the past week:

• Gillian Anderson on Doctor Who. Duuuuuuuuuude. Scully with the Doctor? My geek worlds are colliding. Plus, Mary Ann also passes along the news that GA’s going to do A Doll’s House with Christopher Eccleston. Man, I don’t even have words for that:
  Ibsen+stage+GA+CE=yeah!
• I’m sure you know of a boy or two who would like to have one of these cool backpacks.

Tags: Recommendations by Ms. SP
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