daughter turns one on tuesday!

Our daughter turns one year old on tuesday...tomorrow! She can begin normal milk...already eating almost normal food. Will be walking better and better. Going to a forward facing seat! All this adds up to savings financially and mentally. Love having a little one though!

Have a great day and enjoy the little ones as much as possible! :-) it goes too fast!

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Finances are still tight!

Finished with taxes. These will be used this year to pay off two large credit card bills. I'd like to say for a fence, but to be smart...we will tackle credit cards...as this gives us money in our pockets in the long run.

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Money is so tight right now!

We are basically just getting by and praying for the best at tax time. I have been told by my Mom who watches a lot of news...that i should wait to file mid-February. It is almost here...thank goodness. We will use the money to pay off two credit cards and I am so hoping for extra to put away. Reason: our state is talking about cutting teacher pay..so we have to do something...scary times. Will keep you posted.

Take care!

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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!

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!

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!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I can't believe tomorrow is Thanksgiving!  Wow!  Time has really flown since our baby was born back in March.  She is now 8 months old.  I can't believe it!

Finances continue to be tough but I feel we are starting to dig out of it all.  The medical bills will be paid off real soon!  That is exciting.  Christmas gift giving is going to be slim this year.  Going to have to rely on our creativity with that one.

We have started receiving quite a bit of sales through, etsy, facebook and craft shows (post orders).  So this is all helping up dig out of our financial mess.  Praying it continues to work in our favor and we really get out of it and can be comfortable for a little while.

Happy Thanksgiving once again!
-Melanie

Tip: Open all mail as soon as you get it!

Lesson Learned:  don't let mail sit around unopened.  I almost let my children's insurance lapse due to this.  I had no idea I was suppose to send documents in to verify they were my dependants and was about to be dropped and by questioning folks that I work with on Facebook...they explained what my phone calls was about...and by the Grace of God...I got my stuff faxed before they started dropping people!

Talk about scary and an easy  money saver...uhhhh....need to have insurance!!!!  Don't ignore mail.  I had it under a pile of what I thought was junk...embarrassingly enough for months!!!!  I got lucky!  Don't make the same mistake...may not be as lucky with this wild economy. 

Just thought I should report that simple tip that I will start following from now on myself.

Have a great day!
MELANIE (SORRY MY COMPUTER GETS STUCK IN CAPS SOMETIMES)>ANNOYING! 

Money is so tight right now...

I'll  be honest...I haven't been updating as much as I used to because I feel like I do not know what to do about our finances right now.   I have always been good with money and saving, etc... For some reason...we have gotten into a rut and can't seem to climb our way out.   We are trying a few things however...continue reading onward...

What we are doing about our situation (our "plan")
(this is a slow process, but hoping for the best in the long run):
*We are going to have a Yard Sale this weekend to get some money and clean out the house.   (All money will go towards: BILLS).
*We (hubby and I) are going to do two Arts and Crafts Vendor Shopping Shows (don't know the official terms so I use them all, LOL):  One in November and another in December.  (We hope to make back money spent towards getting ready for the shows and then make money on the second one...again all money going to bills).
*I'm working on selling fabric on Ebay again.  I had taken a long break because we didn't need to...but now with the Ebay Selling fees for Auction Style listing being free and paying nothing unless your item sells...well...now I am.  Can't report much on that yet...but have sold a couple pieces and helped with purchasing art and craft supplies for our shows.  I hope to report more sales soon. 
*We are always selling on Etsy, but if you sell on there, you know sales can be slow and sometimes none.  I average about 2 sales a week, which I am happy with..but the past week...no sales, but it is due to me listing more on ebay than on etsy.  You really have to list regularly on etsy (well I do) for it to work.  I love both sites and do decent!  Just seems like everything is hard right now.
*Meanwhile, we are just trying not to spend money (but still having to pull from credit card...which you KNOW I do NOT agree with and from the kids' accounts...AWFUL I know. We are just trying to keep our head above water until the above items work out.)

It is a tough time right now for us, but at least we have ideas to help us out and I pray they work.  If nothing else...tax time is getting closer and closer as time moves forward and hopefully we'll get back a little then to help us out.

I'll update when I see a change in our situation and let you know what worked and what didn't...hopefully only what worked.  :-)  I'm hopeful!