Coping with $ by the Wicked Witch

Just got a check from thriftyfun.com because I had won a tip contest for my submission on the Free Museum Day last weekend!  Ironically, my hubby & I were under the weather & stayed home...

One of the frugal blogs I had subscribed to has gone out of business and the author said that there just weren't that many things to talk about and she felt she was repeating herself after 4 years.  Well - you know, I ALWAYS have new freebie/frugal stuff to talk about.  It's a continuous treasure hunt for me. 

Wearing a new black t-shirt I got from my freebie foraging....and in the last week I have game winnings from World Winner which I switched to my PayPal account (altho it hasn't shown up yet) - and a $5 Amazon gift certificate I won from Winster.com - I have been filling out surveys for dollarsurveys.net and should be getting some PayPal income there, too.  And I wrote an associated content article, also going to PayPal.  Did some mturk work - describing handbags, of all things, on Sunday - and that's another couple of bucks.  And waiting on my $10 Shell gas card from MyPoints. It's almost $90 extra dollars altogether. And that certainly can be put to good use.

I find that when I feel pressed financially, I always am making little lists of all my freebies, bennies, bits of cash, etc.  Perhaps I find reciting my savings reassuring.  It is nice to be wearing my free tshirt! And using my free lotion samples - and reading my free magazines.  I have enough stocked up for a while now. So I can stay away from stores!

Usually I have started Xmas shopping by now - but I think I am going to retire from most of it this year, and it was a decision I made before this crash.  My nieces and nephews are grown up - and do you know that I have NEVER received any thank you notes from them, ever?  I used to struggle to get NINE people Xmas presents - because I used to meet my parents up at my brother's for the holidays. NINE.  Which I managed somehow  (and then there were birthdays, too) - But the struggle was never recognized - I suppose it wasn't meant to be - but I quit! I mean, only the computerized emails from companies remember my birthday anymore!  (not my hubby or dearest friends - just the rest...)

Just have to think of my hubby.  Don't want his Xmas stocking to be totally empty.  We are on a money diet til the next paycheck, which I actually think will be good for us.  I am used to it - but my hubby is not - and necessity is the mother of thrift, no?

Have a project to enter my better books online to sell at www.cash4books.net to see if I can get any $ for them.  The used books stores around here are full to bursting, if they are still here at all. Going to write more articles, too.  Really should get back to the book.  Folks are going to need my years of experience living on little or nothing more than ever!

Also continuing with the freebies, the contests, the paid surveys, even the free games! Got an email about a live focus group I should be right for - $100 - that would be nice. All this is almost a job.  As I used to say in the old days, one of my jobs was living on my income! That's why I am still in my rent-controlled apartment and have used cars!  If things keep on going this way we are all going to have to pay for everything with CASH. 

I have done that for years -  but again most folks aren't used to it.  I am the one who bought the used frig and had the vintage 50's stove renovated.  We are the ones with the thriftshop dishwasher (new portable ones are $400+).  Paid with cash, all of it - and at considerable savings, too.

My hubby was talking about getting another, newer car - but the ones we have are running OK and we frankly can't afford it! The truck is the iffiest - and we don't use that as much...but it's great for hauling and luckily there is a lot of street parking around here.

It's going to be a LOT of "we can't afford it" in the near future. I hate playing Wicked Witch of the North - but the credit card stops here.

How are you putting on the brakes?  We don't have a mortgage - just rent  (I crunched numbers and decided we couldn't afford that either, even in the glory days, not in L.A.) - how are you guys coping?

1 Comments | Post Feedback

The Wicked $ Witch is Here!

The Wicked Witch is very good at saying we can't afford it!

Pam, I really enjoy reading your posts! Your lifestyle is different than mine, but we have the same goals, and we are both readers. I want to share that I got my best freebie ever, two weeks ago. A magazine I write for and the company they publish for teamed up to give me $800 for tuition and expenses to a writer's workshop. For about another $100 I was able to bring my husband along! We found someone to take care of the cows and birds, and drove from our Idaho farm down to Seaside, OR. It was so pretty! The beach is pristine, the touristy things so pretty, and there is even an indoor carousel in mint condition. We weren't tempted to spend on souvenirs, but we did go to the aquarium. Sometimes I got to play the wicked witch, saying we didn't need it, but I don't think he minded.
But something bad happened when we came back home. We went shopping at the D.I. and my wallet fell out of my purse and into the cart, and I didn't see it. I got the wallet back about an hour later, but the $120 was gone. There's good and there's bad.
My most interesting interview is coming up November 18th, though. I have a phone interview with Gary Puckett for Ruralite Magazine. After all these years, that guy is still working steadily, 51 weeks out of the year. I've always been a fan. Hope I don't sound like a groupie when I talk to him!
Thanks for putting such a positive spin on things. Don't know about you, but I'm starting to become a snob toward people who pay full price for anything. Aargh!

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