KarenSue's Journal

Sometimes we have what I call "scrounge night". In other words, mom and dad don't feel like cooking. Stephanie will graze, going back and forth with random things in her hand. Baby carrots. A dinner roll. Cheese and crackers. If I'm not watching carefully, pull & peel licorice. Last time, I decided on a grilled cheese sandwich for myself. Nick had one. Then another. Then a third. For a kid, he sure can pack it in.

Anyhow, DH has a tried and true quickie meal that is fast and tastes great! I buy bagels when they go on sale, and I use coupons. Same with Pizza Quick sauce and mozzerella cheese. He simply spreads the sauce on the bagel, adds mozzerella and toppings (small pieces of lunchmeat are quite good in a pinch) and bakes at 350. With some salad, it's a great meal. I'm trying very hard to resist the pull of fast food. Sometimes I'm outvoted 3 to 1 and McDonald's it is. Most of the time I can sway DH's vote and pull him from the dark side LOL. Sometimes I give in and happily munch fries. If I set a goal of no spend days that will really help. This month I'm shooting for 10. Yesterday was the first one - 9 to go! This should be interesting.

Time to quit stalling and go work out.

If anyone would be willing to give me some guidelines I would really appreciate it. How do you define a no-spend day? I'm very interested in giving this a try!

Thanks!

Nick loves tricks and practical jokes of any kind. I can't tell you how many times the fake doggie doo has tricked me! He got me with his hand buzzer last week too. I'm not sure why, but he has his heart set on a rubber chicken. I called Gags & Gifts and it costs $7.99. Not very much, right? In the past we would have gone to pick up the rubber chicken, but now I hesitate. It's not the big expenses that zap us, but all of the little ones. Stephanie has been after me for new jeans and shoes as well. She has quite the wardrobe, but runs the dryer too long and has shrunk her jeans. Her shoes are dirty.

I'm usually the pushover, but am slowly realizing that the kids will survive without these things. I remember something I read in the Tightwad Gazette. Amy said that having extra "space" around possesions makes them more special.

Stephanie will have to wait until April (her birthday) for new things.

Nick gets his next allowance Friday. He'll have enough money saved up to get his rubber chicken.

I have such a hard time saying no! I try to remember how hard my DH works to earn money. Sometimes I pull money out of the toy store for extra expenses. I spent way too much this past Christmas, and have promised myself not to do any more "owner draws" until April.

I'm coming up on 3 years of owning the store, and have just started to pay myself recently. I pull out $100 a week for groceries, gas and allowance for the kids. DH pays the bills, still. Hopefully as time goes by I'll be able to contribute more. It's been a challenge to keep up with the bills on his salary alone. We have credit card debt that we never did before!

OK... rambling again. What is the biggest "hole" in your budget? For me it is the credit card debt and spending too much on the kids.

With the money I made on E-Bay, I have purchased two things for myself. One is a tooth-whitening kit from CVS. I signed up for UPromise and the CVS care card while I was at it. I've been meaning to do that for months... but I digress. Today is the third day of using the tooth whitening strips. I see a slight difference; we'll see how I look at the end of the week. I got a cute new haircut today. What a difference!

Now, I know that this month's goal has nothing to do with saving money (althought the change DOES go into my bank, if that counts.) I put my appearance on the low end of my priorities, and that's not a good habit. I interact with customers and sales reps every day, and it's not a good feeling to be embarassed about my hair or smile. An added benefit is that healthful eating is cheaper!


Here is another way I have decided to take care of myself; I'm asking Nick to take more responsibility for himself. He's my youngest, but just turned 10. I usually pack his lunch every morning and get his morning snack and water bottle ready as well (his school has healthy snack time every day). Starting last week, he does this himself the night before and puts it in the fridge. I'm not a morning person and it's wonderful to not have to deal with this! He's doing homework more independently, and ran his bath, washed body and hair, drained the tub, cleaned up and got ready for bed. Nick does just fine on his own. It was ME that was doing the hovering and helping. I need to realize that he's just not a little kid anymore {sigh} but can handle this easily on his own.

Hmm... what else can I find to sell? What should I do next to help my appearance? Stay tuned!

It's amazing how the little things add up! I have sold a few things on E-Bay this past week and made about $50. I sold a Bionicle toy, two Christmas ornaments, a PartyLite candle, and a small train. These things were sitting on the floor near the computer, and it's nice to get them out of the house.

I think in Feburary the thing that I will work on is me. I focus on the kids' wants and needs, especially my 15 y.o. She has a great wardrobe, but mine is sadly lacking. Whatever I sell on E-Bay for the month of February will go towards me! This will be a new experience; something I'm not used to! I've decided to be my own Valentine...


Looking back over the month of January, for the most part I'm pleased with my progress. I've eaten out a few times at work, I think 4 or 5. We have sometimes cranked the heat up. For the most part though, I've diligently packed a lunch and kept the temperature down.

I pay for the groceries and gas in cash, now. It's much more obvious how much I spend when I don't use the debit card. Of course, all change goes into the money jar.

My daughter just came downstairs and told me that something is moving around in her wall. "Go to BED" I said impatiently. I've already worked, cooked dinner, helped with homework, supervised Nick's bath, and so on. It's supposed to be Mom time now. "SERIOUSLY Mom!" She did look pretty freaked out, so I went up to investigate.

There is something scrabbling around in her wall! Ew Ew Ew... It sounds like some kind of rodent had babies and they are all making noise and scritch-scratching around. Sigh.

My list for today is things that are TOO frugal;


Sleep three in a bed to share warmth LOL

The heck with doing laundry! Wear the same socks all week until your mother notices; put them back on after your bath. (DS is 10, need I say more?)

Tell your parents that you're not hungry. Go to visit Grandma & Papa. Eat everything in sight. Grandma wonders why we aren't feeding her grandchildren.

Who needs dog food when your two little doxie dogs can just sneak next door and eat the bread and rolls that the neighbors throw out for the birds and squirrels? We don't have fences in this subdivision, and the back yards are all woods.


Anyhow, time to get serious here. My goal is to do something each day to be frugal, and so far it's going well. I did install the thermostat with the timer, and that will save quite a bit on heating costs. I'll be able to compare the bills over the next couple of months to see what the savings are.

I own a toy store, and yesterday I talked to the phone company about reducing costs. I have three phone lines - one for the telephone, one for the credit card machine, and a third for the fax machine. Did you know that you can get junk mail through a fax machine? I'm not sure how, but I get advertisements and sales pitches that are faxed to me fairly often. When I meet with a sales rep and place an order, they write it out on an order form. When they get back to their office, they enter the order into their computer, place the order, and then fax me a copy for my records. I have asked that they put these in the mail from now on. The cost savings is $34 per month for the extra phone line I got rid of, plus the cost of fax film, paper, and so on.

I went over my monthly bills and noticed a $3.50 charge from my credit card machine company for "equipment warranty". They removed it when I requested. They didn't sell me my machine, why the heck would they warranty it? Savings monthly at work - about $37.50 per month.

I have stopped eating out for lunch. There are many restaurants within walking distance, and it's too easy to spend a few dollars each day. I've been packing a lunch for the last 12 days. At $3 - $4 dollars a day, that helps a lot. In fact, today the owner of the deli next door came in and asked if they had done anything to upset me, because I suddenly stopped dropping by! Sheesh.

I called Kohl's today, because we had been assesed a $25 late fee. I had overlooked a balance of $1.34. So, this month's bill was for $26.34. They were very nice and dropped the fee. Did you know that most times if you ask, credit card companies and stores will drop late fees? Trust me, I know from personal experience. Don't be shy about calling and asking. Hopefully as time goes by, I won't need to do that anymore, because I won't HAVE credit card bills. I also cancelled my Kohl's charge account. Who needs a bunch of cards anyhow? Less temptation.

I seem to be writing a novel tonight. Even if no one else is interested, it helps to keep me on track. Each small accomplishment is a good feeling, like the feeling you get when you do something nice for someone else. We are doing something nice for ourselves, and it feels good, doesn't it?

Like everyone else, I've made a resolution to get in good financial shape this year. Hopefully next December I'll look over my entries and see how much I've accomplished! With that in mind, my goals are to step things up month by month. In January I'm doing something money-saving every day, no matter how small. These little things add up, as you know, and it will get me in the right frame of mind. February I'll continue with that and add something else as well.

Today I have lowered the heat way down because it's a sunny day. We have a thermostat timer that has been sitting around in the box for ages. My goal for today is to install it. This should be interesting. Whenever I install or put together something I'm one that does things backwards/wrong etc. More on this next time!

Well, I smell something suspicious in the hallway and Shadow (dachshund dog) is now dragging her butt across the carpet. I just let her out, too. Good thing I love her.

Back to my glamorous life.