My April Scrapbooking Expenses

Each Friday, I write a post about Minimalist Scrapbooking.

A few weeks ago, I introduced the idea of Minimalist Scrapbooking. For me, the goal is to use the supplies I already have instead of buying a new supplies. A month later, I have not bought any new scrapbook supplies. I have, however, gone on a bit of online scrapbooking class binge.

Here’s what my scrapbooking expenses have been for the previous month:
$20 Pro Press Releases from Big Picture Classes
$15 Blogging for Scrapbookers from Shimelle Laine
$15 Beyond Blogging for Scrapbookers from Shimelle Laine
$32 Spring Training from Ella Publishing
$14 Scrapbook On the Road from Ali Edwards

I also purchased Lightroom to manage my photos on my computer. I had been using Memory Manager 3.0 from Creative Memories and have been very happy with this program, but it was not meeting my needs anymore. The biggest change was that I bought an Eye-Fi SD card a few months ago and you can connect the card with Lightroom so that my photos will go straight into Lightroom eliminating a step in my process. Lightroom can then be connected to Flickr, too. So, I eliminate two steps using Lightroom over Memory Manager. Lightroom expense:
$94.56 (I got the student/teacher edition because I am a college instructor in real life.)

The only other purchase I made was book binding rings ($4.50) to complete my Scrapbook On the Road project. The book binding rings was an unexpected purchase. I already had book binding rings, but only had two in the size I needed, so I had to purchase more so that my book won’t fall apart.

April’s expenses: $195.06

So, was April a successful month in scrapbooking minimalism? I’d say somewhat. Three of the courses ($50 worth) were business expenses. I already reviewed Scrapbook On the Road and plan to review Spring Training, too. Therefore, all of the courses are currently or could become business expenses.

I would also say that the purchase of Lightroom, though expensive, is one of those purchases that will simplify the process of managing my photos. Moreover, this is a one and done purchase (until they upgrade it). It was a big expense, but I won’t have an expense like that in the future.

What about you? Have you considered how much money you spend on scrapbook-related purchases? I don’t want anyone to feel guilty over how much they are spending or envious over how much other people are spending. If you want to spend $5 a month or $500 a month on your supplies, that’s your business. My point of this minimalist scrapbooking exercise is to focus on making purchases that are really necessary versus making purchases just because. My other point is to get me to use what I already have. This works for me because I have plenty of supplies to choose from. I realize this doesn’t work for everyone

My goal for May is to spend less on scrapbooking than I did in April. Do you think I can do it?

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