I sold a couple more toys on E-Bay, and made $33.95 profit to add to the $20 challenge. I also sold the following books;

Siamese Cats - $10.60 profit
The Cocktail Party - $3.35 profit
Teenagers book - $1.55 profit
The Ending of Time - $6.11 profit
The Undertaking - $4.28 profit

Not bad this week so far. Total net is $59.84! My total for the $20 challenge is now $267 exactly.

2 new freebies at Walmart - Swiffer Dusters & Hallmark card

How many times have we heard this? When I was shopping yesterday I got to thinking about how much kids really do cost. We live in a family-friendly neighborhood in a good school district because of the kids. We drive 4-door cars because there are four of us. The food bill- one kid is 16 and one is 11. They are like locusts right now!

Clothing - DS doesn't care what he wears so I don't have to worry about name brands. I do indulge DD, but she is expected to find a job soon and pay for her own leisure activities and clothing. That will be nice. I don't plan to work at a job and then give her the money for movie tickets and dinner any more. She is old enough now to work. She will be 17 soon.

We do have pets. If we didn't have kids, I don't know if we would. Watching the kids with the dogs is great - especially DS. The puppy loves the kids!

Don't get me started on college expenses.

Would I do it again? You bet! I couldn't imagine not having children. Is it expensive? You bet!

With the books that I sold recently, my $20 challenge fund is up to $207.16. I have some auction items that end tomorrow and they seem to be doing pretty well. Payday is today, and I bought some extras. I get paid every other week and splurge a bit each time. We have financial goals, but it's also important to me to enjoy my life and treat myself. I bought;

Four t-shirts for DH, and some socks that were on clearance. Boring, I know. What can I say? He was happy.

I found a beautiful necklace for DD's Easter basket. It was $14.99, on clearance for $3.39. This week some of the Easter candy was on sale, so I picked that up also. A $10 gift card for DS for his Easter basket. I'll get another one two weeks from now when I get paid again, and their baskets will be done. I have a few toys and beauty supplies hidden away for the kids' baskets, so I'm set. I spend much less money when I take the time to think things through instead of shopping at the last minute.

For me? A towel bar for the bathroom I'm working on and a pair of socks. WooHoo! I'm going to get into the habit of recording the extra things I buy. That will be boring for anyone but me, but it will help when I look back over this Blog in the future. I can see what is useful, and what ends up being dumb purchases.

Today I have the day off from work, so it will be a good time to catch up on laundry, grocery shopping, and so on.

I woke up at 7:45 and got DS up and headed in the general direction of the front door - he was tired and tried to tell me that he has a fever. Out! He sighs, gives up, and is soon out the door.

I take the dog and the puppy outside. The dog pees. The puppy runs like mad and chases birds. Breakfast time! I settle on yogurt and granola while the dog/puppy both eat. I have to put their bowls at opposite ends of the hallway because the puppy wants both bowls at once and so does the dog. {sigh}

Time to go outside again. The dog performs. The puppy eats a twig.

We come in the house, and I give the girls each a bone. The dog wants both at the same time, and the puppy wants whatever the dog has. Barking, snarling, and whining ensue. The dogs are pretty loud, too.

I decide to take the puppy out again, as she has done nothing so far. She finds a bottle cap near the street and I have to fish it out of her mouth. Ew!

We get back in the house. The dog has both bones. The puppy barks - very high pitched, and I put her in the kitchen behind the gate. The formerly snarling, territorial dog misses the puppy and cries at the gate for her. I sigh, put both bones on the stairs (Ew, slimy) and bring them both back into the family room.

I wash my hands. When I come back, the puppy has pooped on the carpet.

It's 9 am. What are you doing?

“Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.”

I've been working steadily the last few days, so that's good. Sometimes when I feel discouraged about the bills we are dealing with right now, I think about people who are sick and can't work, or those that can't find a job. We have insurance through my husbands' job. Some of the people I work with are uninsured and can't afford medication they need. We all have to be employed 1,000 hours before benefits kick in.

I see people evey day that come in and apply for work. I enjoy what I do and feel lucky. You never know what will happen tomorrow, but so far I like my co-workers and am content.

I sold a couple of books for the $20 challenge;

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain - $8.52 profit

A Redbird Christmas - $5.32 profit

Against Deconstruction - $2.23 profit

I've been reading a couple of books about setting goals. Sometimes in my pursuit of books to sell, I find a few titles that I want to read and pick them up. Even if they're not worth selling, I enjoy reading them and just re-donate when I'm done.

Anyhow, I've been thinking about my financial goals a lot lately. I'm earning OK money right now, and since starting this blog feel more motivated to change things than I have in a long time. I picked up a book today about setting and meeting goals in general, not just financial. It's pretty basic advice, but reading it does motivate me.

One of the main questions in the chapter I read today was about what we do to sabotage ourselves. In the morning I'm often running around at the last minute, making my lunch, ironing a shirt, and so on. Today I washed all of the laundry I need for this week, ironed it, and am ready to go. That may not be a big deal to you, but I'm such a procrastinator! It feels good to have everything ready. My lunch is packed, and I'm ready to go.

I've been putting off painting the bathroom for months. Today I did the ceiling. It needs to dry completely, then I can tackle the walls and be done with it. It was really not very time-consuming at all. Sometimes I build things up in my mind bigger than they really are.

DH has been going over our bills and expenses and we're in the process of making a budget. This is MAJOR for him to take an initiative and sit down to do this with me. Hopefully I'll be able to say that we've come up with a plan within the next week or so to save more money, and also reduce debt.

I've listed a couple of items on E-Bay, and plan to do a few more tonight.

What I've been doing to figure out the $20 challenge money, is to only add the books and items I've sold since I started the challenge. I've been selling books for a few years now, on a casual basis. When I decided to do the $20 challenge I really stepped up my efforts to find good items to sell. It's fun to see the amount of money grow as I work towards my goal.

Today three books sold, but one counts towards the challenge.

Creator, Protector, Destroyer $4.48 profit

I'm going to get on E-Bay in a little while and list some more items.

$20 challenge total - $191.09

I picked up some more books to sell this past Wednesday. I spent $13 at the library and $9.36 at the Salvation Army. Some of them are for the kids and me to read, but most will be just to sell. I have a bookcase in the family room chock full of items to sell. I put them in alphabetical order for quick and easy access. Some weeks are better than others, but I usually sell several a week. Sometimes I go to the post office if I have errands in that direction, and sometimes I weigh the packages and print my own postage. If I send at least one item Priority mail, the items go on the front porch and the mail-lady picks them up for no additional charge. Earlier this week, I put 11 packages on the porch and they were picked up. Very nice when the weather's not nice, I don't have errands near the post office, or if I'm mailing a lot of items.

I use Endicia as my online postage service. It's easy to use, and the fee is $9.95 a month. Between E-Bay and the amount of books I sell, it saves that much (and more) in gasoline alone, not to mention the convenience.

$20 challenge total - $186.61

I have two banks that I use to collect change in; one is upstairs and one is downstairs. After you put a quarter in, the bank locks and you can't open it until the total reaches $10.00. It's called the Uncle Sam register bank. I love my banks because no husband or kid can raid them once they lock. They are made of metal and are very sturdy.

My husband used to take whatever change I had tried to save in the past to use at the vending machines at his work. That made me mad. We share everything but I never liked it when he kept taking my little savings! That vending machine food is bad for you.

Now that I go to TCF bank, I can deposit my change easily. They have a change machine in the lobby that is free to all customers. You dump your change in and get a receipt that the teller will deposit into your account, or they will pay you. I'm going to start a savings account and put my change into it.

I sold a book for the $20 challenge;

Flags of Our Fathers - $5.85 profit

New $20.00 total amount is $208.97.

Sometimes I like to toast a bagel and spread peanut butter on it while it's still warm. I had this snack just a little while ago with a tall glass of orange juice - now I'm feeling energetic! Anyhow, the peanut butter is pretty much gone. I know a frugal method of using up the last scrapings is to use a small spatula to get every bit out, but I do something a little different.

I have a puppy named Honey. She is full of mischief, as all puppies are, and is always ready to play. I give her the mostly used up container of peanut butter & let her at it. She's going crazy trying to get every bit of the p.b. out of that darn jar. She bats it around with her paws, chases it, and so on. It's good for at least an hour of puppy entertainment. When she licks everything out that she can reach, I carefully cut the container in half so she can "clean out" the bottom easily. After a drink of water and a trip outside, she's ready for a well-earned nap.

Best dog toy in the world. I'm in the room with her so she can't peel the label off and eat it.

Walmart is very reliable about sending these free samples to you. Here's a nice freebie for your dog, and some other great offers that you might like.

This is one of my favorite web sites. If you go to "videos" and "most viewed - all time" there are a ton of hilarious videos.

I did well on E-Bay this past weekend. Here are the totals;

Toy - $19.24 profit
Toy - $20.82 profit
Toy - $17.34 profit (set)
Starbucks card - $ 3.71 profit
Game - $65.70 profit

The Starbucks card sold for $4.98, and has a $5.00 value - go figure! By the time I pay the listing fee, final value fee, Paypal fee, and a stamp it goes down to $3.71. Those darn fees add up fast. This week's total for E-Bay came to $126.81.

I have $203.12 for the $20.00 challenge right now. Tomorrow I'll go out and see what books I can find to sell online.

Work has been busy and challenging the past few days as I learn more about how to do things. I like it a lot, and hopefully I'll continue to like it. We have bills to catch up on now and need more of an emergency fund. I keep trying to decide what to do with the $20 challenge money. Do I pay down debt? Establish a savings account?

Today I played the Coca Cola Olympics game that I posted about a few entries back, and won once today. I didn't have time to play yesterday, and won't tonight either. So far I have been lucky enough to win 7 times, for a total of 35 2-liter bottles of Coke products. Sweet! This promotion ends soon, but I'm hoping for the best. This is definitely not a necessary item but DH has to have his pop. A savings of about $35 is great!

Today I'm volunteering for a charity event before work. Free food for all who participate, and it should be fun.

One toy has sold on E-Bay for $20.00 which surprised me. There must have been a battle at the end. It only cost me about $3.50 - awesome! The rest of my auctions end tomorrow and then I'll put up some more items. Auctions that end on Sundays seem to do fairly well for me.

I've been put on 40 hours at work, finally. That should result in some pretty good paychecks and allow us to start catching up on the bills.

I'll update the $20.00 challenge amount Monday after I ship a bunch of items out. I need to figure out shipping costs. I'm not doing nearly as well as some, but pretty well for me. That's what counts in the end, right?

Yesterday I did indeed get paid. I took $39.40 from my check, and here's where it went;

$20.00 for gas. That should hopefully get me through until my next payday in two weeks. I mostly go back and forth to work, to the local grocery store, etc, and I still had a few gallons left from last time. Not bad.

$14.00 for dinner. I had a night out with "the girls" (and one guy) and got a burger and fries, plus a rare drink. It was delicious. After that four of us went to a comedy club, where I opted for water. The tickets were free, as my friend won a contest and snagged four tickets. The comedy show was great and we had a good time.

So, I have $5.40 left. Wahoo! That should be just fine, actually. I don't spend money at work and don't need anything right now. It will be kind of fun to see if I can hang on to it.

I opened a new checking account at TCF Bank, and they have two offers going on. You get $50.00 for signing up for direct deposit and $25.00 for signing up for automatic bill pay. I'll do both of those and add the funds to the challenge money when it comes in. I like this bank a lot, and it sure is convenient - next door to work. You can purchase gift cards there for all kinds of places, and they have a free coin machine. You bring your change in, drop it into the machine, and it gives you a voucher to take to a teller for the money. I like that a lot, as I do save change. It will be very easy to take that change and deposit it. I think I'll open a savings account when I have the time and put my $20.00 challenge money there.

Not much else going on. I did spend money last night on myself, but it was well worth it.

Yes, tomorrow is indeed payday. I get paid every other week, which keeps me honest, I guess. I mostly use my car to go back and forth to work, so I can get away with filling up the gas tank when I get paid. I do take out some "mad money", but that usually goes to the kids for allowances, DD's school lunches and movies, and things like that. I spend money at the Salvation Army and library, purchasing things to re-sell online.

Yup, I'm wild and crazy LOL.

No books have sold recently, but E-Bay is going OK. The auctions are at $28.00 right now but hopefully will go up more - they end Sunday. I have three toys at auction and the Starbucks gift card. I decided I want the money more that I want a Frappa-Chappa-Chino (or whatever).

Does anyone know if TCF Bank has any deals when you open an account? I'm thinking about going with them, and some extra $$$ to add to the challenge money would be nice.

I was in a hurry this morning, so the lunch that I threw together wasn't great. A sandwich and an apple. Uh-oh. I knew from the start I would probably break down and buy something at work. Then, someone kindly offered me a bagel, and it was just the thing to tide me over. No spending today! I'm trying hard not to spend money on extras. I'm a girl with goals (and credit card debt).

Today I saved $7.89 by using a coupon plus my discount for groceries. Almost everything I have listed on E-Bay is selling, and another book sold online. I'll figure that out when I ship it. So far I'm inching along. I think it's time to look in the chip bag for one that looks like Elvis or Jay Leno.

$20 Challenge total - $76.31

I sold a couple of books yesterday, and went to the post office today.

The Human Side of Cancer - $3.04 profit
Surviving Grief - $4.65 profit

Today I had errands to run and the post office is right on the way.

I'm trying to decide what to do with the $20 challenge money. We have credit card debt, and it makes the most sense to start paying down the highest interest card first. It does feels better to take care of the debt that has the lowest balance, just to get it out of the way. What do you think?

$20 challenge total - $68.42

Woot! Today I got credit in my Paypal account for taking part in some online surveys. One was for $5.00 and another was $2.00.

My E-Bay auctions ended last night, and here are the totals;

As I See It book - $2.25 profit
Nancy Drew book - $3.43 profit
toy - $11.71 profit
toy - $11.76 profit

That includes my listing fees, shipping, and so on. I went shopping and found some more things to list. The total cost was $15.60 - I hope they do well!

My new total for the $20.00 challenge is now $60.73

Wow! DD went to the mailbox, and came back with yesterday's mail. Here's what I got this time;

A $5.00 Starbucks gift card for filling out a survey. This is a nice find, as there is a Starbucks at work. I might sell it on E-Bay and get the $$ for it. What to do?

A free sample of Dove deodorant. I figure it's about .50 worth, and it smells really nice. Yay!

A free sample of "Move Free" for joint pain. I originally intended this for my dad, but my fingers have been stiff lately on my left hand. I'm going to give it a try and see how things go.

So, with the deodorant and the dishwasher samples, I can add .70 to my $20.00 challenge money. Not sure what to do with the Starbucks card yet, and I don't know how much "Move Free" costs.

I'm eating a late lunch, and added the dinner rolls from last night's dinner to my plate. Amount saved - about .20 not thrown away. Hey, every little bit helps.

New total - $29.68

EDITED TO ADD - Flash just mentioned to me that an 80 count package of Move Free was $30.00 on sale, so I'm going to add the extra amount to my total. This free sample has 28 tablets, so the extra $10.50 is a nice savings. I hope I notice a difference in my fingers.

New total, again - $40.18

Thank you Flash.

I read with great interest Flash's blog about how much food the average person wastes in a year. I'm going to try and be more vigilant about using up food items before they go to waste. I'm guilty of throwing leftovers out pretty often.

This morning I noticed that the milk is about to expire, so I'll make it my goal to use it up. DS is making french toast (with my help, he is 11) and I'll use the ends of the loaf of bread instead of letting them get stale and then throwing them away.

Sunday is a good day to go through the fridge and see what can be salvaged from the leftovers.

I've been sending for free samples lately, and some of them are starting to come in the mail. Good times. It really is fun to check the mail and see what has come. I got some free dishwasher detergent, and we used it yesterday. Good stuff, and you can't beat the price! I figure it saved us about .20 for both of them. I've found that we really need to use very little in the dishwasher. I used to fill the cup, just because it seemed like the thing to do. Now I use a couple of teaspoonsfull, at the most.

I got a free "Chew-Lotta" dog bone yesterday in the mail. The dog is happily munching on that. I'm not going to count the cost of that in with the challenge, because I wouldn't have normally bought it.

I'm off to find out what coupons I can dig up to use at the grocery store. Not something I would normally do lately, but the $20 challenge has inspired me to add to the total.

I was just looking over my last entry in this blog, and thinking about what to do next. After my E-Bay auctions end tomorrow and I deposit that money, I'll have over $50.00 in the $20.00 fund.

Not bad, but now what?

If I was the risk-taker type, I would blow it all on lottery tickets.

If I was the Tightwad Gazette lady, I would invest it in a sewing machine or a rototiller or something and make my fortune. The problem is, I would probably sew my thumb to my first project, so that's not good. Also, it's winter, and I don't know how to run a rototiller.

So, now what? Shifty pyramid scheme? No, that's not legal. Tupperware? Forget it!

I guess for now, I'll stick to selling toys and books. When I come up with a brilliant $50.00 idea, you'll be the first to know.

Today I was able to work a little longer than expected. I'm going to add that amount to the challenge money. I wouldn't have ordinarily volunteered to stay past my scheduled shift, but I thought about the $20 challenge and it motivated me to add that extra money to my fund.

I found three pennies in the cafeteria LOL.

So... about $10.50 extra for staying, minus .80 for a snack to keep me going, plus .03 (LOL) comes out to $9.73 to add to the unlucky $13.13 - that makes $22.86.

I sold one more book;

Bird By Bird for $5.92 profit

Drumroll please

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...
...
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$28.78!

That actually seems kind of pitiful, now that I look at it. My auctions end tomorrow and the total is just under $30.00, so that should give me a pretty good boost.

I just stumbled across this contest that Coca Cola is doing now through March 15th. A friend mentioned this site, so I thought I would check it out. I have won twice! Each win is worth five free two liter bottles of any Coke product! Here is the link to the web site;

http://www.olympics.coke.com

You don't need to buy the products - they will e-mail you free codes with which to play with. You can enter three times each day. The first day I tried I didn't win, but last night I won twice in a row! The participating products are all kinds of Coke, Dasani, Minute Maid Refreshment, Minute Maid Lite, and Nestea Cool.

Here's how to do it. Go to the Coke website and click on the Enter Codes link. You'll need to register on the site, but you only have to do that once. Then look for a graphic at the bottom of the page that says "Where's my code?" Click on that link and after entering a security code, you will be emailed a free code. If you copy and paste the code from the e-mail to the contest site, you need to remove the two spaces in the code and add the last two code numbers. Any problems or questions, I'll be happy to help.

Good luck!


I'm going to send for as many free samples as possible. The things that we make use of, I will record the money that wasn't spent towards the $20 challenge. When I actually receive these free coupons I'll record the savings for pop. My husband can't do without his soda, and it will be nice to get this freebie for him.

I just took a look at my auctions on E-Bay, and they're going pretty well!

toy - $14.00
toy - $ 3.75
book- $ 4.25
book- no bids
toy - no bids

These end Sunday, and I'll list some more items I have that are ready to go. I have my eye on some more toys that seem to be doing well - I think I should go and buy them so I have them on hand.

One thing I've noticed about this whole $20 challenge thing so far is that my way of thinking is starting to change. Instead of feeling envious when I see others in the cafeteria eating lunches they have bought while I munch on my leftovers from home, I feel good about my choices. I've started to calculate how long I would have to work to pay for that salad, pizza, and soda (or whatever) and it just doesn't make good financial sense to purchase overpriced food to eat at work, then have to work longer to pay for it.

I intend to use some of my challenge money to purchase insulating foam for the pipes in the basement. Shame on me for not doing this sooner! But I didn't, and that is one of my small goals for next week. I'll compare last year's bills with this year's to try and see how much this saves each month.

More later when I have time...