Thursday, January 27, 2011

Free Listings on Ebay for a limited time...

If you like to sell on Ebay (I do, still)...they are running Free Auction Style Listings any start price from now til February 8th!  I know, I am going to get busy this weekend and try to list as much as I can.  We need the money pretty bad right now, so I am excited about the...no pay unless you actually sell something.  Very nice.  Thank you Ebay for thinking of the little sellers!  :-)

Money has continued to be super tight for us; however, by the Grace of God...we keep moving forward.  We are cutting out trash pick up and going to take it ourselves starting in March, when our service runs out.  We are also going to cancel the pest control; except, termite yearly inspections (that is important to your home's health...keeping that).  The pest control was just something we added for peace of mind and not having to worry about doing any sprays, etc...ourselves.  We will bring it back again one day when finances aren't so tight.

For now, we enjoy each day and are praying tax time works in our favor.

Have a great day!

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Trash DIY Update: and the winner is....

After researching and asking questions....the winner is The Local Dump!  (aka: Convenience Center)

It is only $65 per Year and even covers yard waste to the local landfill for half truck load once per week.  My husband was excited about that because even paying $76 per quarter...we still had to pay to take our own yard waste to the landfill at $5.00 per trip. This adds up in the summer months when mowing is at least once per week.
Oh yeah...on the Green Side, they also recycle almost everything at no addtional charge..super awesome...so $65 per year is exactly what it means! 

We will have to purchase a new trash can $30 from Lowe's Home Improvement and Large Trash Bags ($27 and will be enough for the whole year).  The trash can is of course a "one time purchase."   The savings more than makes up for the purchases above and will pay for themselves in the first three months of savings!  Yay!

Testing my New Phone

For Christmas we switched phone companies and got newer phones! Very exciting as we have been out of date on tech for sometime! I believe the new phones will help me keep up with my blogging better in 2011!
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We decided to get new phones as our daughter whom is almost 10 months old (if you can believe it, I surely can't)... will switch to regular milk (at 12 months) and that is going to be a huge savings from buying formula. Here is the break down:  The formula is costing us nearly $40 per week.  That is approximately $160 per month on average.  We were paying $80 per month for our phones before already (and they were dinosaurs trust me and we weren't even getting text with that amount...LOL...old plan).  So with the new plan, yeah we are paying a lot more, but can do more cool stuff on the go...loving it!  Even with the higher bill, the savings on formula alone will pay the different and we will still pocket an extra $80 after everything.  Sorry, my frugal self can not type with the monthly fee for our phones will be..just do the math...I don't want to type it! LOL Just glad to see a savings of $80 per month even with switching to cool phones.  Super excited and it is the only gift hubby and I got each other!  So yay!

Happy New Year!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

First Thrifty Move of the Year: DIY Trash!

What do I mean?  Well, we are going to attempt to take our own trash and recyclables to the local "dump site."  We do love our service of having it picked up at the house and they have done nothing wrong.  I am just always looking to cut down on spending (especially bills..so we can spend in other places we would like or pay down something else with it).

What I have learned:
We pay $76 per quarter (includes recycling) with our current company.  (I think it is pretty good already)
There is another local company that is $45 per quarter (does not include recycling, but I can take it to work most of it...Art teacher here, I can reuse just about anything).  (This is really REALLY great for a pick up service)
And some friends pointed out to me that hauling your own trash and recyclables to our local convenience center is $40 per half a year...$80 per YEAR and you can take about anything there (whereas pick up services sometimes won't take certain things and you end up paying to go to the landfill anyways).
This tough to beat and at least not try. So we are up for the challenge. The closest "convenience" center to us is seriously 5 minutes or less away.  Really can't complain about gas to travel there etc...it is more like..are we willing.  We are going to take a look in the next couple days and make a final decision of "Convenience Center" or the $45 a quarter company.  I think we are definitely saving either way we go on that one!

Just thought I would share!  :-)
Happy New Year 2011!