31 Days of Tracking Spending--Day 8

A break the budget day.
I forgot to mention yesterday that we re-paid the money to the electric company that the bank had returned.

When Steve got off work he went on the Wal Mart and picked up the cell phone for Jasmine's birthday.  He didn't get the most expensive phone so spent around $25 less than we had anticipated.  He also paid for and activated the monthly card.  We are using Straight Talk.  And, he paid for the extra coverage to replace the phone as well.  Add in a birthday gift bag to put it in as well.  This is far more than we have ever spent on a birthday gift!

He put gas in the truck too.  I assume filled the tank.  Funny how I never get to fill the gas tank in my car.  I put in $10 at a time and most of the time my mom pays for that for me running her around.

He bought us all soda.  Enough to last for a few day...then himself a smaller soda for right away and a pack of cigarettes.   Gggrrrr to smoking.  It's a bad habit, it's bad for our health, and it's bad for the pocketbook.  I also smoke but have rolled my own for over 10 years now.  My nasty habit costs $25 a month--his cost over that each week.  How about a prayer that we both are able to quit.

Check out the linky with over 700 others who are also doing the 31 Days Challenge HERE 

Spoooky Celebration Has Come to an End--Shop Hop 10/8/11

The Spoooky Celebration online parties with the Online Craft Mall has come to an end.
I ended up being drawn for a prize twice.  Once for a button ad on the website, and then where I got to choose my prize.  I chose 2 vendor spots for the next show.

Yep, that's right, we are planning on getting back on schedule with parties.  The next one up is the Christmas Celebration and will be help Nov. 28, Nov. 30, and Dec. 2.  I will be posting more on that soon.

I know there are tons of you out there that sell online.   I hope you will consider becoming a vendor.  If not a vendor, come in to the parties as a guest.

Guests were in poor supply  :(  If  you any idea of how to get guests to come to the parties, please tell me.  I posted about it here on my blog several times.  I wrote about it in my daily posts at both gather and sidetick.  I also posted specifically about the parties on gather and sidetick.   I posted it to facebook.  I even offered up a giveaway here on my blog offering a prize of me paying for a vendor spot.  I only had 2 entries, and neither of them even sell online.

Since I've been out of the "online party scene" for 2+ years now I'm not even sure if the parties are near as popular as they once were.  They are, however, loads of fun. Chat is always good, deals are good....and there are prizes too!

I was disappointed Friday afternoon when it was my time to present my "businesses" and there were no guests for me to present to. However, I did get 2 orders during the shows.  One I knew I was getting and I asked her to please come in to the party and put in her order.  Doing so put her in the prize drawing...and hey!  she won a nice little prize too.

So.....I didn't get anything new made to post this week.  I've been working on all these dish scrubbie orders.  I've also worked out a deal with a gal that makes soap to sell her washcloths.
I didn't even get any of my other items moved to my zibbet store.  I will still be working on orders this next week.  I also have sewing club.  I do hope to get my sewing machine out after Tuesday and get some things made.  I need, however, to start working on Christmas gifts for my own family.

Ok...enough of me rattling on this week.   I am linking up with Ruthi at abitosunshine:
 

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31 Day of Tracking Spending--Day 7

Day 7 and let's just say this was a bad day.
First of all my husband came home with 2 bags of groceries.  This is never good.  It means that he was hungry and picked up whatever he was hungry for at the store.
Yep...just over $18 of food for just one meal.  Mind you, we fed 9 people so if you break it down per person that price doesn't seem bad.  But....did he have to get 2 different kinds of sliced cheese?  Did he have to buy the most expensive rolls of 1 lb. ground beef?  Was the parmesan cheese a must?  (It didn't even go with the meal).  sigh.....

Then he proceeds to tell me that we aren't getting my daughter the cell phone for her birthday after we've promised her we were.  She would be crushed, whether we can afford it or not.  She's already been asking for one of her own for the past 2 birthdays.  We got in to a huge argument over it, not good.  Especially since we've only been officially man and wife for just over 2 months.

I got paid $20 today from gather and a big .11 cents from matesgate in to my paypal.  I restrained myself from buying something in the online party today.  I know we need the money, maybe towards the cell phone, or for groceries.

I really must figure out how to have the time I need to dedicate to my earning sites online and to making my crafts to sell and start bringing in more money on my own than what I am.

It's late and I need to get on to some other things before heading to bed yet, so this is my report for today.

Check out the linky with over 700 others who are also doing the 31 Days Challenge HERE 

Frugal Friday Linky--6 Uses for Bread

Good Friday to all.  I hope you have found yourself having a frugal week.

I started doing a 31 Days challenge with The Nesting Place blog.  I chose 31 Days of Tracking Spending as my topic for the month.  I must concentrate on where the money is going to and then to know how much we are spending in each category.   I'm linking up to one of the days in the linky below.

I've announced the winner of the Darius Lux CD.  Don't forget that I also have two other giveaways still live==Sir Castanon CD and Pink Together Prize pack.  You can click the reviews/giveaways link in the index to find those.  Both have low entries.

Now, on to those 6 uses for bread.  These are taking from the 99 Cent Solutions book.

Uses for bread beyond sandwiches:
1.  Sweeten the scent of cabbage.  When cooking cabbage, cauliflower and other cruciferous vegetables, lay a slice or 2 of bread on top of the cooking vegetables.  The scent will stay in the bread, not in the air.

2.  Keep cookies fresh.   Put a couple slices of bread into the tin or jar where you store the cookies, laying the bread right on top of the cookies.  The bread will keep that just-out-of-the-oven flavor and texture intact for up to a week.

3.  Prevent broiler flare-ups.  Put a slice or two of stale bread in the bottom of the broiler pan.  It will absorb the grease as it runs off, stopping flare-ups and easing cleanup by preventing pan juices from getting stuck to the pan.

4.  Butter corn on the cob.   Spread a slice of bread thickly with softened butter and cup the bread in your palm---butter side up.  Turn the corn in the buttery slice for perfect coverage.

5.  Clean smudges off suede.  Clean fresh smudges off of suede jackets, shoes and handbags before they set to stains by running the suede gently with a piece of fresh white  bread.  Use a small, circular motion.  You may need to use a second slice to get the spot clean.

6.  Take scuffs off wallpaper and flat paint.  Try a fresh slice of plain white bread with the crusts cut off so no color can transfer.  Rub gently over the mark, using a fresh slice of bread if needed, until it gently rubs off.  It will leave the surface intact, unharmed, and clean.

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Have you shared any posts this past week on saving money or time?  Have you shared a simple or money saving recipe?  Have you shared a good shopping trip of savings?  Have your shared freebies?  Anything?  If so, please link up!

31 Days of Tracking Spending--Day 6

Today I chose a picture of a bank.....and not for a good reason.
Remember a few days ago I talked about how we had paid the cell phone bill, electric bill, gas bill, and cable bill?
Well..........I have a husband who is one that does not keep track of a check register.  He relies on what the ATM tells him that his balance is.  Yep, we all know this is NOT a smart idea.  I can't get him to keep track though. :(    So, the deal is that he told me what the balance showed...which was 2 days previous.  I had a feeling I should send him to balance check again but he assured me that he had not taken any more money out of the bank.

However, what he (actually, we since I didn't pay attention to the calendar) didn't think of was that he got that balance on payday...which was also half mortgage day.  (we pay half the mortgage every other Friday, which then has us paying an extra month each year, which is supposed to pay it off 7 to 8 years early).

Yep...one spending today was the $30 overdraft charge at the bank.  Really sad is that they returned the check (or denied it I guess since it was electronic) to the electric company so we will have to pay it out of tomorrow's check.  This really bothers me because my daughter's birthday is Sunday and she really wants a cell phone.  We need $150 to buy the phone and start the plan.

Ok...other spending today was the usual soda's.  This was our monthly family fun night at church where we play bingo.  I didn't spend as much as I usually do since I didn't have as much to spend.  That was a good thing for me, not a good thing for the church since the money goes to re-furbishing the stained glass windows.

I only spent .51 at the grocery store, which was the sales tax on the 4 packages of Crave cat treats that I used free coupons for.

What will tomorrow bring with payday?  Stay tuned to find out.

Check out the linky with over 700 others who are also doing the 31 Days Challenge HERE 

Squidoo Hopping (linky)--Where else do you post your links?

That is today's question.  Where else do you list your squidoo lens links?

This was brought to my mind when I happened over to redgage.  I hadn't been there for quite some time.  At one point I started linking up my lenses there.  I linked up a few more while I was there, and plan to try to get in each day and at least link up one (as well as add a photo or something else too while I'm there.)

Sometimes I will do a post over on gather.com and put in a link to one or more of my lenses.  Actually, I joined a group that's purpose was to share our links to other things we do online for pay.  I linked up several of my lenses and my post was flagged by someone!  I've been on the scared side about trying to do that again.  I just sneak them in every once in awhile now.

Of course I'm getting links to my lenses here in my blog, particularly in these posts each week.

This past week I updated my All About Marsha lens.  Silly  me...I was going paragraph by paragraph to update then when I got to the end I seen that I had updated it all at the bottom  LOL  I just deleted that update and left the new ones.  I put in a wedding video too.

I also updated my Gather--The BEST in Social Networking lens.  I added more redemption's rec'd. I also added a featured lenses module highlighting the other gather lenses that I found.

I did update a couple of other lenses this past week, but since I didn't make a note, well......I just don't remember what they were!  (This happens to your brain when you are trying to do way more things than you should be!)

Here's hoping to see lots of you link up this week---



 

31 Days of Tracking Spending--Day 5

My spending today was pretty much dedicated to our pets.  I was out of cat litter so picked up some on sale with coupons at Walgreen's.  Over at Wal Mart I picked up a 4 pack of canned cat food.  My daughter's favorite goldfish was on the floor dead this morning.  She was crying over it.  I let her buy 4 more at Wal Mart as well as we bought another container of food.

I did buy a few grocery items too while at Wal Mart.

And, I did it again.  I forgot to ask my husband about his spending today.  All that I know of are the 2 items that he bought for me.  Oh wait, he did come home with soda too.

I found my figures from August and will start adding each category up.  I will give some reports on those throughout the month with a comparison of spending in each at the end of this month.

Check out the linky with over 700 others who are also doing the 31 Days Challenge HERE 

WIP Wednesday 10/5/11

I've stayed busy with my crafts this past week.  I finished up the table runner and the lap quilt.  Both are now listed in my etsy shop.

I finished the top of the jellyroll type quilt for sewing club at church.  I've taken it in.  We will have sewing club next Tuesday.  The other gals finish up the quilts.

I am currently working on an order for 24 dish scrubbies.  They are purple but for some reason they always show up as blue in photos.  Since taking this picture I have cut my black netting for an order for 12 of those.

 And, I've started on another toothbrush rug.  Who would have figured that it's been so long since I made one that I forgot how to start the first stitch??  I had to take it to church and have the lady who taught us how to make them tell me what I was doing wrong.  All I was doing wrong was holding it backwards.  I was trying to start it the same direction that I crochet, but the rugs work the opposite direction.  This one is made with flannel strips I had left over from other projects.  What is in the box is all I have, so I'm not sure just how large it will end up.  It may have to be put aside until I get more materials if it comes out too small.

 I have some washcloths to work on for an order.  As much as I would love to make, make, and make more items to put up for sale with the Christmas holiday quickly approaching, I also need to start getting my handmade gifts made too.  I need to get cracking!

I am linking up with each of the blogs below:

31 Days of Tracking Spending--Day 4

Here were are to day 4.  So far so good on keeping track.

I did ask hubby about his spending yesterday.  He claims all he bought was the 2-2 ltrs of soda.  hhhmmm

This is Tuesday which means bowling league.  This is something that no, we really can't afford, but at the same time, something we've enjoyed together for a few years.  Not something we want to give up.  Something we both enjoy and can do together.

Otherwise, not much spending.  He bought 2 more bottles of soda.  I bought my daughter a fountain drink.  And, he bought a pack of cigarettes.
Cigarettes.....one expense we both need to get rid of!

I'm also keeping up with my earnings paperwork so far this month too.

Check out the linky with over 700 others who are also doing the 31 Days Challenge HERE 

Opening of the Time Capsule--Homeschool week of Sept. 26

I'm pleased with the school work that was accomplished this last week.   We actually did get to sit and work most days of the week.

One highlight of the week was Monday, September 26 when we went downtown to the Memorial Hall for the reenactment ceremony of President Taft placing the time capsule in the cornerstone of the building 100 years ago.  After the reenactment we went inside and watched as they opened the time capsule and showed us the contents.   I love history, especially local history.  This was about a 3 hour event with lots of history.   The first photo is "President Taft" delivering his speech.  The second photo is just some of the items out of the time capsule.

Another highlight of the week was volunteering out time to help  with the German fundraising dinner at our church.  Jasmine did many things, although her main job was to serve drinks.  We love to do our part to help out.  We got to listen to German music played on the accordian and try many new foods.  Jasmine says she did a lot of socializing with people as they came to get drinks.   She also says "idea development" as she had to think of what order she wanted to fix drinks and such.

I think that's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed the post!    I am linking up with the Hip Homeschool Hop.

31 Days of Tracking Spending--Day 3

Ooops....I forgot to ask hubby about his spending today before he went to bed!

I know today I shopped at Walgreen's.  Nothing too exciting this week on sale so I used my $2 register rewards towards Halloween pencils and activity books.  Not too much spent.

I am in the Spooky Celebration today and bought some sachets on special from one gal for a total of $5.  I plan on purchasing from another gal this evening.  So yeah, pretty much needless spending, but I do like to support other work at home persons when I can.   I'm up to present at 8 pm CST if you see this and would like to stop in.  I also present again on Friday at 3 pm CST.  Just click the button to check it all out.  Loads of fun! 
 

I will have to remember to ask about today and tomorrow when he gets off work tomorrow.  Want to bet he tells me he can't remember??

Click over to see the whole linky with over 700 31 Dayers here!!!!

Mailbox Monday 10/3/11

The mailbox itself wasn't very full this week but I got some nice things.

Magazines:  Time, Sports Illustrated, People, Entertainment Weekly, Forbes and Business Week
a few other pieces of hausernet mail
local coupon packet
5-$5 DelMonte Fresh fruits and veggies certificates won from Frugality is Free
20 Free Crave coupons and $2 off Whiskas coupons sent to me by a friend.
Myblogspark Pink Together package--I will be giving a package just like it away on my blog.  Awesome package!  Giveaway is up!!!
250 "Nightclub Flyers" from UPrinting that I won in a blog giveaway. ---I was expecting paper so I am so pleased that they are of postcard quality and I love the design I put on them for my blog.
In my email:  $25 paypal from sidetick and $30 total paypal from gather.

 



I invite you to join us at the Spooooky Celebration which starts today!  I present this evening.


I am linking up with afrugalfriend:

31 Days of Tracking Spending Day 2

Sunday's are pretty good for not spending a lot of money.
Spending wise we bought a Sunday paper, put money in the offering plate at church and hubby bought a pack of cigarettes.

However, once home from church we sat down and he got online and we got several bills paid.  We paid the cell phone bill, electric bill, cable bill and gas bill.

The gas bill has been low over the summer months....the electric bill has been high.  The cell phone bill is something we argue over as that bill is in his mother's name with her, a family friend, and the 3 of us on the plan.  He pays the part of his mom and the family friend.  Originally this was due to him not being able to get a plan in his own name.  I'm sure after 3 years this is different and we need to pare the plan down to just those of us in this house.

I got myself a button created for this challenge.  It's not fancy but serves my purpose.
If you want to know more about the challenge click over to The Nesting Place.

2011 Pink Together Campaign Information and Giveaway

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This year, for the first time in its five-year history, at PinkTogether.com consumers can choose how $1 million of this donation will be shared between two important Komen programs: the Treatment and Assistance Program, which assists women in securing care they otherwise may not be able to afford, and Prevention Research, which helps unlock the keys to preventing breast cancer. Visit PinkTogether.com from September 19, 2011 through April 14, 2012 to make your choice. Results will be announced on Mother’s Day 2012 – Sunday, May 13.

Meet the 2011 Pink Together Survivor Ambassadors, and hear their amazing stories of courage and survival on PinkTogether.com and the Pink Together YouTube Channel.


General Mills will also be turning the packaging of participating products pink in recognition of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month this October. 

General Mills has put together and awesome prize pack through myblogspark that one of my lucky readers will win.  Prize pack includes:

• A 16 oz. box of Total cereal
• VIP coupons valid for one box of Cheerios and Multigrain Cheerios cereal and one cup of Yoplait yogurt
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• Water bottle and removable silicone awareness bracelet
• Drawstring sport backpack
• Rhinestone ear buds

Enter below!

Disclaimer:  The Pink Together prize pack, information and coupons have been provided free of charge by General Mills through MyBlogSpark.