Got my cardswap gift card in the mail

Despite my concern that my gift card getting lost in the mail, it arrived safe and sound today.  Paranoid me had to check right away that there was indeed a $100 on the card and sure enough there was.  $4 saved which is not much but is a free starbucks drink to me.

There was also a $10 coupon if you sell a gift card of >$125 which I don't think I'll be able to take advantage of.

Now that I know this is legit, I am going to try check it every once in a while in hopes their grow their assortment of cards.  i.e. petro canada gift cards, I am looking for you.

The weather outside

is frightful awesome!  I can't think of the last time I saw positive numbers in February in Toronto, let alone almost double digits!  I went to the gym and walked back to my car in my short shorts without layering up and I wasn't cold.  I could get used to this!

I wish I wasn't working right now and was outside enjoying the weather.

Motivation

I used to look at pics of skinny people to motivate myself to get to the gym. That doesn't cut it anymore...if anything, it motivates me to starve myself and that's not what I am going for.  Quotes like below get my ass into gear.

From the reddit fitness board:  You may not have a loving relationship, a family or even monetary success, but you will always have your body.  Treat it with respect and take care of it, it will always be there for you.

Starting a strength training routine

I've been doing Body Pump on a regular basis but I think I want to take it to the next level and start doing a strength training routine on my own as well outside of the class atmosphere.  Body Pump is great but because of the high reps, you don't really ever lift heavy and I think a lifting routine will be interesting and help me get toned and look more tight.  From my googling and quick reading, most people recommend Starting Strength or The New Rules of Lifting for Women for newbies.  I am going to try getting them for my ipad and giving it a go.  Wish me luck...

CardSwap.ca

I got a few gift cards over the Christmas break that I don't necessarily see myself using so I was looking at how to monetize it.  I found cardswap and remember them on Dragons Den.  I think the Boston Pizza dude ended up partnering with them which would explain why there are so many boston pizza gift cards on there. 

The idea is they buy your gift cards from you for a fraction of the price and sell it for a slightly higher rate than they bought it at and that's where they make the money.  The money you get and can pay for a gift card depends on its popularity.  As an example a $25 starbucks gift card sells for $25 or (4% off) which isn't an amazing deal but that's almost a free drink for every $100.  You can find less popular gift cards for more of a discount --> LifeExperiences gift card are almost 30% off.  In terms of selling, I got a good rate for an HBC gift card ~90% while a not so great rate for Spring Shoes ~75%.

I bought a starbucks gift card because I figured I was getting 4% off plus another 1% of from using my credit card to pay for it and that's 5 more % off than I had before.  I also wanted to try it out and see how it goes.  The concern I can see is things getting lost in the mail.  I wonder how that is handled.

Shoemint is apparently in Canada

and I am really tempted to sign up but then I tell myself $80 for a pair of shoes is money I could spend elsewhere and I come back down to reality.  For anybody that uses this in Canada, tell me how you like it.

Thinking about dyeing my shirt

I have this gorgeous white cream shirt that got a stain and I was lazy in washing it immediately and now it just won't go away :(  The thing is, I love this shirt so I googled for options and am thinking about buying some Rit dye and trying to dye it to see if I can bring it back to life.  It was originally white and over multiple washes sometimes not with other whites, it's changed into this creamy color which sounds gross but still looks good.  But this stain is a nono.  I am a little scared the shirt won't dye evenly and it will look a hot mess.  I am going to try stopping by Fabric Land one of these days and seeing if I can find some of this Rit dye that is all over the interwebs.