Frugal rambling thoughts.

I am amazed 2 months till my contract is up and NOW T-mobile is willing to help me out. They will let me change phones (since mine is in very bad shape) at the low price and not make me renew my contract. I have not made a decision on if I am going to keep my phone on contract. I did not buy a phone. I was just window shopping. My son wanted to borrow money for a new hat. I told him wait till you have money in hand since you have a hard time paying me back. So I came out of the mall only 14.00 poorer (paid the cable bill while I was there). My son was going to get some new t-shirts that he needed, but decided to get disrespectful to me in the store so I left.

Although I have a small problem. I lost roughly $50.00. The good news it is not lost where I won't get it back. I just have to remember where I hid it. I have a habit of doing that. Hiding money and finding it later. Not that I need it right now but I would like to know where I put it. So I will be searching for that money soon.

June Goals

Okay I can't believe June is almost here. Which means I have to set up some goals for June.

So I sat down and thought of what I do I want to accomplish this coming month. If I put the plan on paper then I am much better at getting them done.

So for June the goals are:

1. Sell as many things as I can on Milwaukee Sales Barter. All money goes to the high interest credit card. Hope to make at least 100.00 to send to the card.

2. Look for a job

3. Get working on finding Temp work.

So there it is! I will get these done.

I spent Memorial Day with my Dad

After work I went to my Dad's house. He had picked up my son at 5:15 am this morning to BBQ. Yeah it is early and that is just how it is done in my family (well when Dad cooks) My Dad called me at 5:15 am to ask me if I wanted a New York Times ... Me uh no I don't live in New York then he asks Do I want a Chicago Tribuine? Uh no...I don't live in Chicago. At this point I want to go back to sleep lol. I swear sometimes he just wants to talk to me. My son is already in the car and they have driven away. I swear he still thinks if he is up then us girls should be up. Something my sister and I still don't get and she is worse than I am in the morning.

I have to say that I was lucky my Dad came home from the war. How many people are out there that did not get to know their Mom, Dad, Sister or Brother because of the scarafice they made to serve our country? Some by choice and others because of the Draft during Vietnam. I was born on October 20, 1967 and my Dad went to Vietnam in Nov. of 1967. There is a picture of my Dad outside his jeep and over the headlight in white stencil paint is my name. It is a picture I cherish and need to frame and put up in my house. I can't imagine having to leave my child so soon after birth and not know if I will ever see him or her again.

As you may have realized our service members are very dear to me. I so appreciate all the support and sacrfice they give to this country and I sure would like to see them treated much better than they are.

Memorial Day Thank you!

This morning before the busy day of life takes over. I want to take a few moments to say Thank you. To honor all those men and women who have given their lives to make my life better. They paid such a high price to keep America free and I don't think people realize what life in America could be like if we did not have our freedom. These men and women believed in this country and made a choice to protect the people and the land. Families have given up loves one to serve in our Arm Services without a choice. I thank them also, it is a hard choice and don't know if I could make that one. Every person past and present has my upmost respect and support for the job they have done or are currently doing. I pray for the families that are going through the pain and greif of losing someone who has died in the line of duty. Please know they did not die in vain.

Clearance section - Got some good stuff

Well at work today they put a ton of stuff in the clearance section. Juices for 10 cents and candy for 5 cents. I did not buy any candy. They also put out some strawberry jam for 50 cents. My receipt said I saved $33.95. I guess that tells you how over priced things are.

Here is every thing that I bought for $1.86 after my discount. The cranberry juice will be going to my mom's house. I will keep the OJ and Jam. We don't drink a ton of juice but these would be nice for a grab and go type of thing.

My Apartment Garden

Here are a few pictures of my apartment garden. I decided the other morning when I got up to do something for ME! I have been stressed and frustrated with a few things. So I needed some kind of relaxation.

Some of the items I had and a few I had to buy (like the dirt). I am wondering when the growing season is over if I can save the dirt for next year. I guess I will have to find out and if anyone here knows....please fill me in.

I have planted in the small containers Tomato plants. I already have 4 flowers that should become tomatos if the birds stay away. I also have green and yellow peppers, cucumbers, brussel sprouts and banana peppers.

In the small black containers I have some onion seeds. If they sprout I have some containers for them too.

The pin wheels are for my enjoyment and I actually have them turned so I can see them out my kitchen window. Now I need to learn to take better pictures.

I am looking forward to seeing if I can get them to produce. The gray containers are plastic ice buckets ...that I made drain holes in the bottom. So now just sun - water and no critters and I should be good. I will take more pictures as they grow.

Cell Phone Advice wanted!

As much as I would love to just get rid of my cell phone it is not possible. For one I really do not like being gone and not be able to reach my son or him reach me. We have had a few emergency situtations that the cell phone saved us. Nothing where it was life threatening but enough for me not to want to go through that again.

Now here is what I have now....1000 min, free nights and weekends Family Plan. Only thing is B no longer has a phone that goes with my plan. He was running up the bills and I took the phone. I can not get off the family plan till July without a 200.00 penalty. So I have to finish out my contract.

I do not want another contract. I am going prepaid and will cut down my usage. I use it so much now to use up what I am paying for.

I am looking at Cingular for a prepaid. Do you have a prepaid? Who do you use and are you happy with it.

Good thing I don't have to decided till July this takes time to figure out.

Day 1 of the two week project.

So many people including myself start off big and have these huge ideas. Only to get 2 or 3 days into it and quit. I will not quit and I will post the honest truth to what I do and spend.

This morning I ran to work to get clothespins and a sprite. I think I now have enough clothespins I think to fill both my racks. The sprite was a complete need. My stomach has been upset all morning. Finally I gave in and tried to settle it with the Sprite. The only time I ever drink white soda is when I am sick. I don't like white soda but know it works.

3 loads of wash done and hanging to dry. Saved money there. Although it is easy to save when you run out of quarters. There is no way I can put anything in the dryer since I have no money to run the dryer with. Granted I could go get quarters but not needed.

Working on a AOL journal just to post pictures of things I have for sale. We have a local sales and barter group and this will make it easier for people to see what I have for sale. I can add the link to my post and they can view the pictures. I plan on selling my son's Columbia jacket on there since he won't fit into it next year.

I have to work tonight. So I will bring something to drink and come home on my break to eat dinner with my son. These are extra hours since someone asked me to work for them tonight. BONUS! Plus I picked up an extra 30 min. yesterday. I love that they call me first to work any extra hours.

Total spent today: $13.57 ( $10.00 on a medical bill) (clothes pins and Sprite)
Total saved: $8.00

1. $3.00 hanging wash
2. $5.00 eating at home and bringing drinks to work.
   

While I was at Walgreens I started to pick up few candles. Then said to myself do you need this. No I have candles and it went right back on the shelf. No extra spending.

A two week project May 24 - June 6

Today is payday. So I thought for the next two weeks. I would do a mini seris how I live life in the most frugal way possible (I call this Guerilla Frugality) and how I spend the money we have. Yep that means daily or every other day posts. Some days I get to busy to post.

Thoughts behind this project:
1. http://frugalhomemakerplus.blogspot.com/ (Frugal Homemaker entry about her sister not having time to be frugal) That touched me because I hear this all the time from my mother. She tells me when I am working full time that I won't cook, hang laundry, worry about keeping bills down etc. Now mind you I might not be making what I was at my old job but Walgreens keeps me in full time hours. This week I am working 35 hours so far. That is pretty darn close to full time for me.

2. There is a lot of small frugal things people can do in order to save money. You don't have to plant a large garden, do canning and bake everything to be frugal. Small things add up too.

3. I want to find the places I need to cut back even more. I know they are there and I think I need to take some time and look at my every day life and spending to find them.

Rules are simple:
Think before spending a dime.

1. Do I need it?
2. How is this helping me live more simple and save money?
3. Can we do without or make due in another way?
4. No eating out (see exception below) not that we do this a lot anyways.
5. Blog my way through the next 2 weeks on how we are doing.

The only time we will spend money on eating out is my son asked 2 weeks ago to go to the Chinese buffet with friends on Friday. They have a 1/2 day of school. Since I already said yes I will not take this away. He does not go out with friends often to spend money. He is usually at the basketball court or at Jose house.

Summer Cooking (keeping the house cool)

Okay well summer is about to arrive here in Wisconsin. I swear we have two seasons Summer and Winter. Even though this year we did have a semi decent spring. It did not snow in April (well at least not enough for me to remember) and April was warmer than normal.

I so do not like to be hot when I sleep. I can't sleep if I am hot. Now my son on the other hand will gladly be hot. I don't know how he does it.

I have been thinking of ways to keep this house cooler without having to run the air conditioner a lot. We have one room air conditioner that goes in the living room. It does a decent job of cooling the house. Plus I run a ran to push that air into our bedrooms (well at least into mine)

One thing that will heat this house up fast is if I use the oven. Which I try hard not to in the summer. Why add heat?

Some of the things I am planning:
1. Use the crockpot for meals.
2. I have a large toaster oven. You can bake a 3 pound chicken in it.
3. If I use the oven cook as much as possible. Freeze meals for later. (Cook early in the day and put a fan in the window to pull out that hot air -- with the air conditioner off)
4. Use the microwave to heat up some of those freezer meals.
5. Cook outside. Yes the good old BBQ grill. We do use that a lot. I already have a bag and 1/2
of charcoal and a ton of lighter fluid. We make alot on the grill.
6. Eat cold foods or foods easy to cook on the stove top. (BLT's just came to mind)

Note I never mentioned eating out. Watch in your area when the temp goes up all the food places in town get packed. I use to work in fast food and we would be swamped when it was hot out. Who wanted to cook. So a little planning and I will not be spending money at my Qdoba (Frugal Homemaker Plus - this is my favorite too)

Frugal Dinner

Here is an easy and frugal recipe. We had this for dinner tonight. I usually double or triple it and freeze the leftovers. This morning I pulled out a pack of the beans. All I had to do was make the rice and some cornbread. Dinner was done! Clean up was a breeze and I could go on to other things.

This is the ultimate in thriftiness and convenience - beans in a slowcooker. The long, slow cooking time coaxes all the flavor from the sausage into thebeans for a mild yet full-flavored dish. You can also cook in on low heatfor 8 hours.

3 cups water
1 cup dried red kidney beans
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
3/4 cup chopped celery
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon paprika
3/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 (14-ounce) package turkey, pork, and beef smoked sausage, thinly sliced(such as Healthy Choice)
1 bay leaf
5 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups hot cooked long-grain rice
1/4 cup chopped green onions
Combine first 12 ingredients in an electric slow cooker. Cover with lid;
cook on high heat for 5 hours.
Discard bay leaf; stir in salt.
Serve over rice;sprinkle servings evenly with green onions.
Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 cup bean mixture, 3/4 cup rice, and 1tablespoon green onions)

Review of the Amazing Drying Rack

This is a little late. Finding charged batteries in this house can be quite problematic when you have a teen who owns way to many devices that need batteries. Also when he uses the camera and loses the cord to download to the computer.

I read about this rack on frugalliving.com and it looked like something that might work for our family. I asked question on another site www.frugal-families.com (which is a great site -- totally worth the $10.00 a year membership)

Here is the rack that I ordered. This is the Eagle. These are very popular in Europe where many people do not own dryers, since it is so expensive to use. Also from what I read a lot of hotels in Europe have them in there rooms.

This rack is suppose to hold 3 loads of laundry. I can not get 3 loads on it....but 2 fit . I am thinking that 3 loads of smaller clothes might fit. My son is 6 foot 3 so his clothes are big and LONG! I put this on the back deck when I can or in my dining room. It is great fits in a tight space without being in our way. We are able to walk into the kitchen without having to move the rack out of the way.

What I liked:

1. Very solid structure. I see it lasting a long time.
2. Light weight and folds up nice to fit in a closet or even under a bed.
3. Clothes do dry faster than the traditional racks
4. Easy to hang up clothes.
5. Safe latch so it does not fold up while you are doing laundry.

The only dislike is the price. They are and investment. I figured for me it took 2.5 months of hanging clothes to pay for the Eagle. Which is about $42.50 in price. I do think it is worth it though and would purchase it again if I needed too. I just checked the price and they are now selling for 49.95 and 9.75 shipping. Holy cow! I can say I would not be buying one at that price now.

This is the 33 foot dryer rack. I use this one for shirts and underwear and socks. My son would kill me if he knew this was up but hey .... not like you are going to knock on my door and say " B I saw your boxers" LOL I have also hung up towels. Everything has dried well and in a fair amount time. Again much faster than the other racks. This one I can put in the bathtub and pull the curtain. So if someone stops over they do not see my unmentionables drying. I can also put this in my small kitchen and it is not in our way. This would not work well for jeans or pants in my opinion unless they are for smaller kids.

Price for this one is still at 19.95. I got mine free and did not pay shipping either.

The company was fantastic. I ordered on Monday and they arrived on Wednesday. When I called and asked questions I feel I got honest answers. They were not in hurry to get my order or get me off the phone. I know a few other people ordered them too.

Here is where you can find out more info about the racks:

The company must no longer sell them online. As of May 2007 the link is dead. Sorry maybe try Ebay. I do still love mine though.

June Budget Done

I sat down last night and did the June budget;

Rent - $575
Gas/Electric - $82 (goes down to $56.00 a month in July)
Phone - 45
Cell - 88 (oh I can't wait only one more month)
Internet - 20
Cable - 14
CC #1 - 20
CC #2 - 10
Bus Pass - $56
Laundry - $20
CD deposit - $10

No food included since I use food stamps. Also not extra spending since bills first then we have spending money.

Saturday Spending!

The morning was pretty quiet. My friend and I got coffee at Starbucks. Which she so nicely paid for. Thanks to her neighbors who pissed her off by slamming doors at 7 am. I got to spend some time with my friend and got coffee. She then went home and packed (she is moving next week).

I did work on the kitchen. The cleaner and more organized my kitchen the more willing I am to cook at home.

Went to Sam's club with my list and budget! $5.00 and only getting yeast. It is so much cheaper for me to buy 2 pounds of yeast than those little jars at the store. My parents have a membership so I don't have to pay for it. I was pretty happy the yeast was only $3.05.

Then on my way home I saw the plant guy was open. I have boughten his plants in the past and they grow nice and are reasonable in price. To start I got one tomato plant and one pepper plant. I will probably go back and get another pepper plant or 2. One tomato plant is enough for us because my son does not eat them.

Recap:
$2.44 smokes
$3.05 Sam's
$3.50 for plants -- I owe my Dad since I had no cash.

Thoughts on tracking spending.

Since I am getting really accountable with my spending. I am going to be posting my spending either on a daily or weekly basis. Going to plug any holes that we have. I am sure there are some....we all have some.

Some of the holes that are already plugged:
1. Magazine buying -- I have not bought one all month.
2. Eating out - we only have eaten out 1 time and that was take out to the tune of $17.00. An we got 5 meals out of it. Basically breaks down to $3.40 a meal. Not cheap but better than $8.50 for one meal each.
3. Stupid junk that I don't need. Like pens ( I love pens), trinkets, candles that type of stuff. I have not been to the mall in weeks. Although my son wants to go for some new t-shirts. Which we will after June's bills are paid.

Working on:
Not buying snacks and drinks at work on my break and lunch. Also buying the sale stuff because it is on sale. We do not need anything....so I am not buying. Today I left my purse at home and did not spend money. Since I live about 1/2 block from work it is not a huge issue. This is something I am going to continue to do. I bring a drink from home and have some snacks in my locker that I have already paid for.

Quitting smoking....I know that I will save a ton of money when I do that. It is a slow process but getting there. I hope to be done by June 30.

I find that I am nickeling and diming myself to death. So that has to stop. Right now I have a little over $50.00 in my bank account till payday. I also have a check coming for about 45.00 and hope it is here by Saturday. The only thing I have to buy is my son's bus pass and can't do that till Saturday. That is $14.00 that I must spend. I am going to try and keep most of the money in my account.

Also I need to make a budget for June. Also I plan to have started working for temp services till I find my full-time job. That should keep us floating for a bit. Although right now we are afloat but we need are down to know to only the basics. Not that I mind giving up some things.

Organizing my financial accounts.

I have been thinking a lot about what if something happens to me. Not that I am planning on going anywhere soon. I think one of the reason I am thinking of this is that I have a friend whose parents are going downhill fast. Since she is the only one in town with them everything is falling on her. Her other sibilings are in Texas and Florida. She has one here but he is a drunk and has no contact with the family.

My son is not old enough to quite understand why it is important that he knows this info. Plus do I want to freak out my teenager with the words in case I die. So I have put all my financial accounts and where they are held on paper. I now put them in my lock box. So if anything happens everything is in one place. My son knows where the key to the box is. I have also told my parents that the papers are in the box. This way they know where to look for them.

Credit Cards

Yes I carry some credit card debt. A very small amount compared to most people that I hear and read about. My total credit card debt is about 600.00. On my one card I have the credit card protection so the time I was unemployed they made the minimum payments for me. The other card I managed to keep in good standing. Never late and no over the limit fees. I hope that is going to be a good enough reason to get my yearly fee wavied. I have such bad credit that I end up paying those fees.

Right now the cards are not being used for anything. I am paying the monthly payment and no more. I do plan to pay them off ASAP once I am making full time wages again. Which I hope is sooner rather than later.

I am amazed though at people who have thousands of dollars in cc debt. I wonder how they got that high and why didn't panic set in. I don't like the 600 that I owe now and feel very confinded knowing that I owe that much. I also know if I had a full time job along with my part time job I could probably knock all that off in 2-3 months. Which is the first thing I will be doing. One needs to be paid first since the interest rate is so high almost 23% --Yes that is how bad my credit is. I really can not close either one of my cards since they are all I have for credit and to slowly rebuild my credit.

For now I am not sure how often I will use them once they are paid off. I know they are important to have for making travel reservations ,buying things online and renting a car. But other than that really not so important. I also have no desire to get anymore. I would only trade them in for a Disney Visa earn rewards for a trip.

For now those cards stay unused and are slowly getting paid off.

Do you track your spending?

Yes I realize how important it is to track your spending. Most financial websites tell you to track. It is the only way to really know where your money is going.

I have tried and failed many times. It seems I am only good for a day or two and then I fall off the wagon. So I started thinking why do I fall off the wagon. There are two reasons: 1. Time - I do not take the time to do it and 2. I don't have a system that works for me.

So I am now working on this in baby steps. As time goes on I will add more to it to have a huge overview of things.

Here is the plan:
1. Carry little cash on me. Use the checkcard. Now most people freak at this. For every transaction I get a reciept that goes in my wallet. When I come home I take those and put them in my checkbook. With a explanation of what I spent.

2. The receipt goes in a plastic pocket in my planner which happens to be right next to the check register I am using.

3. If I think I am spending money that day. Look at the bank online and see if we are on the same page.

I am not currently tracking groceries on paper. Since I get 278.00 a month in food stamps. That is all we have for food. So when that is gone we do not spend any more money on food.

My issue with bouncing checks is over. Yes it was a bad issue for awhile. But since October I have not bounced a check.

I think now with a plan I can stop nickeling and diming myself into the poor house.

My bank is doing great things to keep its customers!

The newest thing is "Saving for the Future CD" So I am officially a CD owner. Now with out this saving for the future cd. I am not sure if I would have ever been able to get a CD started. With my income, being a single parent in debt where was I getting a $1,000 to start one.

So with the new program my bank has:
1. You can start with 1 cent! A thousand dollars starts with 1 cent.
2. Minimum auto-transfer from your checking account. It can be as little as $10.00
3. Earn a higher interest rate - right now that 4.380%
4. Get a $25.00 auto transfer in your checking after 12 months.

So the plan is to keep the one I have for my son. I am going to keep putting money in it and after his first year of college give it to him.

I also want to open another one for a vacation for us. I figure it will take at least a year or two for me to pay for it and figure out where we want to go.

Thoughts for May

This month I am going to work on really using up what we have here in the freezer and pantry. My goal is going to be just to stockpile meat and staples. I want to make a shelf in the freezer for the new stockpile. I figure I have $125.00 for just stockpiling.

I have sworn off the clearance asile at Walgreens. Although I have gotten some great deals. Today I got 4 toothbrushes for $1.71. We have everything else in the HBA area so I really do not need anything else.

Plan on going through my room tomorrow and selling some things and giving away some other stuff on freecycle. All the money I make goes to my son's glasses fund. Since he managed to loose his. And he just got those so I am not happy about that one bit.

Redid my checkbook keeping system. I am using some pages from Franklin Covey in my planner and I put in a plastic sleeve to put reciepts in there. I will be tracking my spending this way. I think this will help to keep me more organized.

My old computer died and my resume was on there. So I need to redo that. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. Since one of my goals is to still find a full time job. I enjoy working at Walgreens. How sweet is it to be off of work at 5pm and be home by 5:05 pm starting dinner. I will miss that.

I did manage to get most of bills paid this month. I need to mail the rent (am going to get a money order from the bank) I might spend the extra dollar a month since my landlord takes forever to cash my checks. I do need to still pay the gas bill. The plan is to pay that one tomorrow. Just waiting till my check hits the bank.

Bills paid:
Landline
cable - changed service so this is now cheaper
Credit Card

Still need to pay:
gas bill
cell phone - can not wait to get rid of that. I am thinking of going to prepaid once my contract is up in July. I am going to a cheaper plan or prepaid.

Doing well with:
Using food here
hanging wash
Turning off lights

Need to work on:
Not spending money at work - for drinks, food or anything else. I can spend 5.00 a day there and there is no reason for that. I need to eat before I leave and take drinks and a light snack with me. I come home for my 30 min. break so I can eat then.

What has been going on here?

Last week Saturday my computer power cord died. So I had no way to get online. Wow it was an intersting week. I did learn that I spend way to much time on line. Without the computer I was getting a lot more done before work.

My friend Lisa was kind enough to let me use her laptop till I can get us a new one. So I am back online.

I have been working a ton of hours at Walgreens. I get called in for any extra hours and when people call in sick. Which is great for me. I am guessing my next check has about 5 overtime hours on it.

I love the new drying racks. Which I have to take pictures of and get my review done. They were so worth the money.

Great news too: I got my bonus check for working the Chiropractic show. It was an extra 100.00 which is so needed. So that will go towards paying bills this coming week.

Also on the agenda is finding full time work that pays well. Walgreens just does not pay enough. But I do like working there.