http://www.myfrugallife.com/blog_KGmom.html en-us Wed, 31 Jan 2007 18:44:55 GMT http://www.myfrugallife.com/post56947069_KGmom.html <p>I get 3 sick days and 2 personal days a year at work.&nbsp; Kennedy was sick Monday and today my babysitter had to go have a small medical procedure.&nbsp; There go to of my days and it's only January.</p> <p>At least I've got some much needed cleaning and organizing done around the house on those two days.&nbsp; I'm always embarrassed if we have company and the house is a mess, so I'm glad i got that stuff done.&nbsp; Saturday night we are having a couple over for game night.&nbsp; It's on our list of things to do for cheap entertainment instead of going out.&nbsp; Sunday we are having two couples over with kids Kennedy's age to watch the Super Bowl.&nbsp; I'm really excited about that because Kennedy rarely gets to play with other kids.&nbsp; </p> <p>I signed on as&nbsp;a Lia Sophia jewelry advisor last night.&nbsp; My friend does it and she makes some pretty good money.&nbsp; I'm willing to throw myself at it and work very hard.&nbsp; My goal is to use the extra cash to pay off some debt and build some savings and eventually be able to quit my day job.&nbsp; I will have my own business which is my lifelong dream.</p> <p>Other than that I continue to read all the newsletters that are emailed to me from this site and others.&nbsp; Every time I see something that will help our situation I copy and paste into a separate document.</p> Fri, 19 Jan 2007 15:25:27 GMT http://www.myfrugallife.com/post61647317_KGmom.html <p>Wow I can't believe how many caring people are out there.&nbsp; I thank everyone for there response to my last entry.&nbsp; I would like to add more to my ramblings to give more information.&nbsp; </p> <p>I am not a total spendthrift.&nbsp; Most of the time I try to be frugal and even a tightwad.&nbsp; I do have my days where I slip though.&nbsp; I do have a long way to go.</p> <p>First off I have the book The Complete Tightwad Gazette.&nbsp; I love it and have read it twice.&nbsp; I just need to figure out what I have time to impliment into our life.</p> <p>All of my daughters clothes (except what she has received as gifts from others) have come from yard sales, thrift stores, and consignment shops.&nbsp; I've had a hard time finding shoes in these places so those have come from Walmart.&nbsp; The same is true for her toys and books.&nbsp; We do use disposible diapers because of daycare, but I use coupons religiously for those.&nbsp; &nbsp;My husband and I really only buy clothes for ourselves when we receive gift certificates for Christmas and birthdays.</p> <p>We just bought our house and our mortgage payment is only $85 more per month than what our rent payment was.&nbsp; I have always hated paying for things that I will not own.&nbsp; We actually got a deal on the house because we bought it from an Estate.&nbsp; We paid about 75% of what it is actually worth.&nbsp; It has very good insulation and brand new Thermopane windows so we aren't losing much heat.&nbsp; A friend of ours gave us an older woodstove and a winters worth of wood, so our fuel oil is only a supplement.&nbsp; What started us on getting deeper into debt was having to buy paint for the whole house.&nbsp; The woman that had lived there was a smoker and painting was a must.</p> <p>I have slacked a little with my frugal grocery shopping.&nbsp; My biggest mistake has been letting my husband go grocery shopping.&nbsp; He will spend $70 and come home with enough food for about 2 or 3 meals and then ice cream, beer, chips etc.&nbsp; He is one of my biggest problems all around.&nbsp; He doesn't understand the concept of frugality...it makes him feel poor and deprived.&nbsp; We have a Save-A-Lot and there is an Aldi's in the city I work in.&nbsp; We don't have anything like a day old bread store though.&nbsp; I recieved a membership to Sam's club for my babyshower, but only used it once.&nbsp; The closest Sam's is 50 miles away and we didn't really benefit at all from the things they sold there.</p> <p>My husband works for the cable company so we get our cable and internet free.&nbsp; They also have a digital phone service that we would only have to pay $20 a month for but that isn't available in our area yet.</p> <p>Lets see what else have we done to be frugal.....oh yes, all of our furniture has been given to us for free.&nbsp; Some of it isn't in the best shape, but with a little one a new couch would be stained in no time.&nbsp; My dad is a contractor so he has helped with repairs and will help if anything major goes wrong in the future.&nbsp; He also does our oil changes on our cars.&nbsp; I buy gas on sale days.&nbsp; I buy all of our shampoo etc. at the dollar store.&nbsp; I'm sure there is more.</p> <p>I will post anything else I can think of and also my goals for what else we can do to be frugal.&nbsp; Any ideas are welcome.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> Thu, 18 Jan 2007 19:17:52 GMT http://www.myfrugallife.com/post92493681_KGmom.html Ok I'm burning out.&nbsp; I have a 17 month old.&nbsp; In the past year my husband and I have gotten married, bought a house, and gone to Hawaii.&nbsp; I work 37.5 hours a week with a 40 minute commute each day.&nbsp; I have no energy at night to make dinner, clean or play with my daughter.&nbsp; We are drifting deeper and deeper into debt.&nbsp; With a new home comes new expenses....paint, lawn mower, new lights for kitchen....etc.&nbsp; I very much want to be able to either work part time or not work at all.&nbsp; My problem is that I am not good at any one thing.&nbsp; I am very good at office work, typing etc.&nbsp; But there isn't really anything I could do to work from home.&nbsp; I am afraid for my sanity and my health.&nbsp; If I have to do this much longer I really think that I will go crazy.