TWO WEEKS!Two weeks since my last post! I can't believe it... but as I mentally review recent events I'm surprised I am posting today.
The big chaos event that occurred (and really seemed to start the karmic chain of events) was that a "situation" happened with my husband who is temporarily overseas in a very sandy and not fun place. He is okay, but the ensuing stress was enough to knock me out of my "pennypinscher" groove. I fell off the bandwagon and into the waiting arms of Ronald McDonald.
Another chaotic event that was much more positive was two of my kids getting accepted into two different talents shows. I was suddenly tossed into whirlwind preparations with costumes, music CDs, rehearsals and filling out paperwork.
Besides the above happenings, we've been maintaining baseball schedules, homework, Scout-o-rama, emergency babysitting, had a prowler, daughter's iPod was stolen from our car, planted sweet potatoes, helped out at school, took on extra work, de-ratted the chicken house, watched my sis-in-law do a bellydancing show and taught a friend to CVS. Whew!
The dust is settling again, thank goodness, and I am back to posting. Thanks to our tax refund, I managed to add to our Emergency Fund and pay off half our credit card debt. Another few months and I should be able to get the rest knocked out. Then I can start on the Home Equity Loan. Here's what I'm doing to scrape up the extra money for payments:
- Conserving funds - hanging my laundry, turning off electricity when not in use, walking instead of driving, no eating out (except for my recent exploits), buying nothing but the bare necessities
- Taking on extra work - house cleaning, substituting for other positions at work, doing surveys for Pinecone in my spare time, working with Adsense and Associated Content
- Trying to maximize my opportunities - I signed up with Revolution Money Exchange to get my $25 and am trying to pay attention to referrals when I can.
- Selling off all the extras-Everything we don't need must go. In return we're getting a little cash, the space and less to keep track of.
That's my update at the moment. I've found some really good articles lately, like this one that talks about why we pay sales tax on coupons. I never thought about that.
Another one I liked was Secrets of SuperStar Grocery Shoppers. A lot of common sense info that most of us are already doing, but it never hurts to go back to the basics.
And finally, I got a real kick out of reading about how a dollar saved is really $2 earned. I know I've sent this out to friends and family, but this is some good info that always makes me feel like my frugality is really making a difference.
1 comment:
I just found your blog thanks to the Dollar Stretcher article. I wanted to read your CVS-101 article but the link failed. Could you put that back out there for those of us who are just learning to take advantage of all the wonderful savings that are available to us? Thanks!!
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