iNSD Part 1 - The Shopping Budget

I think I need to split my posts about iNSD (International Scrapbooking Day) because there are just too many things to share! 

Did you participate in any activities? Did you have fun? Needless to say, I DID :)

I learned about iNSD from several forums I frequent. I even sponsored a small contest over at Berry Sweet Scraps. I know about all the blog hops, freebies, and sales. But to be honest, I didn't really think much about it. Because for one, I have a no-Internet-during-weekends policy at home My weekends are exclusively for my little girl. And most of the iNSD events were happening on Saturday.

Come Saturday afternoon... we just came home from the mall, the nanny and the little girl are both taking naps, the husband is attending a meeting until evening... which left me alone with nothing to do. So I decided to whip out my laptop and just take a teeny peek at all the iNSD happenings. 

My teeny peek took 4 hours. I was that hooked. 

I wanted to go through ALL events and I wanted to shop. I knew I was in danger of overspending, and I had just paid my daughter's tuition for one full year, so I needed to work on a budget. I gave myself $20 (which I believe I deserve, since I so rarely buy anything for me... no seriously, I don't!).

My technique was to start with one store/forum. Go through everything they have to offer... get all freebies first... bookmark all sales... move on to the next store/forum... repeat process... and so on and so forth... go back to all bookmarks... compare prices... BUY!

Ok here's when it got really fun... I still have a $5 gift certificate from Coolscrapsdigital for winning their Color Challenge for March. When I logged in last Saturday, I found out that I won another $5 for the Scrap for a Freebie Challenge for April with my Lazy Friday layout. 

I heard the sound of "ka-ching! ka-ching!" in my head. I haveWith all the sales, I knew there was already a lot I can buy with it. $10!!  On top of this, I also have a $1.50 gift certificate for Scrapper's Delights store as my prize for reaching 100 posts on the forums.  Be still my heart...

I knew I have a few other GC's from other forums from all the contests I joined. So I started checking. 

Another surprise... I won a $10 gift certificate for Feli Designs store on the Studio for winning the Word Challenge for April with my Smiles All Around layout! I love Feli Designs and have one of her kits at my wish list. $10 will get me that and a few of her other kits since her store was also having a sale last weekend.

 iNSD was getting better and BETTER!

Over at Berry Sweet Scraps, I saw a message telling me I have a $2 gift certificate for guest designer Ann-Ominous' store for participating in her April Animal Challenge with my Pygmy Hippo layout. The entire Berry Sweet Scraps shop is on sale at 60% until May 8 so I know I can get a kit for free with the $2.

Ok... so budget tally:

$20.00 - personal budget

$11.50 - Coolscrapsdigital

$10.00 - Feli Designs at the Studio

$  2.00 - Ann-Ominous Designs at Berry Sweet Scraps

$43.50!!!

At this point, I knew I need not spend the amount I allotted from my personal budget anymore (or at least, not all of it). Happy happy HAPPY iNSD! :)

Coming soon: iNSD Part 2 - The freebies!