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Archive for March, 2008
An Easter Reminder
March 31st, 2008 | 
Author: I finally figured out how to share videos, not like it was complicated but apparently for my brain it was! 
This song, Via Dolorosa, is a song I could listen to over and over again. The melody is soothing, but the message in the words is overwhelming.
I realize the Easter season is “forgotten” until next year, but the true meaning of Easter should never be forgotten in our hearts. He died, that I might have life.
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A Laugh Courtesy of Google
I had to laugh a few minutes ago and wanted to share my find with you. Every so many days I check my Sitemeter report (read more about Sitemeter) to see how much traffic my blog has as well as where traffic is coming from. I try to use keywords effectively and I like seeing how I’m doing.
Well, today’s visit to Sitemeter showed quite a few referrals from Money Saving Mom’s site as well as a few others I expected because of Mr. Linky. Then there were a handful of Google searches. This is where I had my laugh. Someone from Germany was referred through a Google search for “bible illustration bleach water.” Hmmmm… Definitely worth checking out since I didn’t remember writing anything about a Bible illustration with bleach and water.
One click on the Google search and I discovered that I was search result #4. Turns out Google picked up on my “Books I Plan To Read” post (specifically the “Write His Answer: A Bible Study”) and also on some of the posts that mention what I use to clean – bleach/water mix. LOL! Guess that wasn’t exactly what the person was looking for. But I’ll take a new visitor anyway! Sigh. The things that we find humor in…
What I Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
March 30 is the official one year anniversary of my last day in the “real” workforce. Woo-hoo! “Real” meaning the daily stressful 8 to 5 grind of working outside my house. To some, that is the only respectable workforce, and if you are one of those “some,” I’m sorry.
After one year of working from home, I wouldn’t trade my life for a million dollars. Seriously! No amount of money could convince me to return to the “real” workforce. If you are considering becoming a stay-at-home wife or stay-at-home mother, make the plunge and do it. You won’t regret it! Initially, you will probably miss the daily socialization with others and the routine of your job, but over time the value of being at home far exceeds those things.
I am a stay-at-home wife (meaning no children) in my early 30s and am perfectly content with what I have. In fact, I’m enjoying life in ways that some women have to wait until they are in their 60s and retired to do. I don’t make as much money now as I did in the “real” workforce, but I save money in other ways making us have more money now than before. Does that make sense? Let me explain.
In the “real” workforce, I made about $1300 a month before taxes, give or take depending on the workload. I worked an 8 to 5 (sometimes later) job, drove about 35-45 minutes to work (getting home anywhere from 6-7 p.m.), made unhealthy meals for dinner because speed was a priority, shopped exclusively at Wal-Mart buying generic products because I didn’t know that deals and coupons made the brand names much cheaper. And so much more. (Now, it is possible to work an 8 to 5 job and shop elsewhere and clip coupons and all that stuff, but those things never occurred to me because I didn’t have time to think of them!) Most months it seemed like we barely had two pennies to scrape together by the end of the month.
Until recently, my work-at-home income averaged about $700 a month before taxes. We lived off of that income and less for almost a whole year! Did we lack anything? Initially, yes, until I started researching how to stretch our money. I learned how to shop at CVS, how to clip coupons, how to find the good deals, how to stock up on sale items and more. Once we started being frugal with our money, we were able to get the things we needed when we needed them. In fact, my kitchen cupboards are overflowing. We also completely paid for our Christmas shopping (about $300) with cash, no debt whatsoever. In the past year, we’ve also taken at least 3 trips out-of-state (two to visit family and one for business). Lest you think we were rolling in money, last summer we did have to borrow about $500 to replace a car windshield and purchase tires so the car would pass inspection. We paid that back within the following months.
Is it possible to live off of one income? Most definitely! Does that income have to be extravagant? Not at all. Realize it’s only 2 of us in our home, and if we had kids, we would need a slightly higher income, but for the particular season in our lives, we did what we had to. The sacrifices we made were well worth the blessings we gained.
I mentioned to my DH that it had been one year since I left the newspaper and started staying at home. I asked if he wanted me to go back to work. He very adamantly said, “Absolutely not.” He also expressed how much better our relationship is now (not that it was awful or anything before). His comments made me think of the Proverbs 31 lady and how she took care of her home, causing her husband to call her blessed. I don’t even begin to compare to the Proverbs 31 lady, but in little ways, I’m able to spend the time now to implement the things she did to make my home what it needs to be. Would I go back to the “real” workforce now? Absolutely not, unless a dire emergency required me to.
After one year of working from home, I wouldn’t trade my life for a million dollars. Seriously! No amount of money could convince me to return to the “real” workforce. If you are considering becoming a stay-at-home wife or stay-at-home mother, make the plunge and do it. You won’t regret it! Initially, you will probably miss the daily socialization with others and the routine of your job, but over time the value of being at home far exceeds those things.
I am a stay-at-home wife (meaning no children) in my early 30s and am perfectly content with what I have. In fact, I’m enjoying life in ways that some women have to wait until they are in their 60s and retired to do. I don’t make as much money now as I did in the “real” workforce, but I save money in other ways making us have more money now than before. Does that make sense? Let me explain.
In the “real” workforce, I made about $1300 a month before taxes, give or take depending on the workload. I worked an 8 to 5 (sometimes later) job, drove about 35-45 minutes to work (getting home anywhere from 6-7 p.m.), made unhealthy meals for dinner because speed was a priority, shopped exclusively at Wal-Mart buying generic products because I didn’t know that deals and coupons made the brand names much cheaper. And so much more. (Now, it is possible to work an 8 to 5 job and shop elsewhere and clip coupons and all that stuff, but those things never occurred to me because I didn’t have time to think of them!) Most months it seemed like we barely had two pennies to scrape together by the end of the month.
Until recently, my work-at-home income averaged about $700 a month before taxes. We lived off of that income and less for almost a whole year! Did we lack anything? Initially, yes, until I started researching how to stretch our money. I learned how to shop at CVS, how to clip coupons, how to find the good deals, how to stock up on sale items and more. Once we started being frugal with our money, we were able to get the things we needed when we needed them. In fact, my kitchen cupboards are overflowing. We also completely paid for our Christmas shopping (about $300) with cash, no debt whatsoever. In the past year, we’ve also taken at least 3 trips out-of-state (two to visit family and one for business). Lest you think we were rolling in money, last summer we did have to borrow about $500 to replace a car windshield and purchase tires so the car would pass inspection. We paid that back within the following months.
Is it possible to live off of one income? Most definitely! Does that income have to be extravagant? Not at all. Realize it’s only 2 of us in our home, and if we had kids, we would need a slightly higher income, but for the particular season in our lives, we did what we had to. The sacrifices we made were well worth the blessings we gained.
I mentioned to my DH that it had been one year since I left the newspaper and started staying at home. I asked if he wanted me to go back to work. He very adamantly said, “Absolutely not.” He also expressed how much better our relationship is now (not that it was awful or anything before). His comments made me think of the Proverbs 31 lady and how she took care of her home, causing her husband to call her blessed. I don’t even begin to compare to the Proverbs 31 lady, but in little ways, I’m able to spend the time now to implement the things she did to make my home what it needs to be. Would I go back to the “real” workforce now? Absolutely not, unless a dire emergency required me to.
Super Savings: CVS, Kroger, Wal-Mart
I had a delightful surprise in my mailbox on Thursday! Apparently, without my knowledge, I did a CVS Hershey’s deal that earned me a $5 CVS gift card! I have no idea when the deal was from or what I even bought to make the deal, but I’m still delighted with my $5 gift card!
Also at CVS this week, I took advantage of the great price and the ECBs on the Clear Care contact solution. I love this stuff and it is hardly ever on sale anywhere. I did, however, mess up on my transaction. The Clear Care was $7.99 and earned $3 ECB. I paid with $5 ECB and $3 cash. I should have used a $2 ECB and earned a dollar rather than lose $2 by using the $5 ECB. Oh well. I’m wiser for next time. Later in the week I went back and used my mother-in-law’s card to buy another Clear Care since it was limit 1 per card. For the 2nd transaction I told my husband he could get whatever (e.g. candy) since nothing great was on sale and I wanted to use the $3 ECB right away since the ECBs wouldn’t work later with my card. Wouldn’t you know that he picked up a Dove candy bar that gave a $1 ECB? Three transactions later, we were done. The store we were in is notorious for never marking the deals on the shelves. (I have a strong suspicion that this was the store that I did the Hershey deal at and didn’t know it.)
My mother, who lives in Pennsylvania, also uses Clear Care and happened to need some this week, so I sent her a detailed e-mail on how to use her ECBs to buy another bottle. She has a CVS card but didn’t understand the ECB concept. She proudly emailed me back to tell me that she spent $12.99 for 2 bottles and successfully used her $3 ECB to help pay for the 2nd bottle. Go Mom!!!
If you read my Frugal Friday post here, I mention finally finding a particular kind of dog food. For months, I’ve had a $3 coupon for Purina’s Naturally Complete dog food (in fact, the coupon expires next month). At one point, this dog food was on sale at Krogers for $3.99/bag, but none of our Krogers carried it. I also checked PetSmart thinking surely they would have it. Nope. Our local Wal-Mart didn’t carry it either. Neither did a local farm supply store that carries every type of dog food imaginable. I had pretty much given up hope of ever using the $3 coupon (much to my distress) and a different $2 coupon (gasp – $5 of coupons I couldn’t use!). By what I am sure was almost a miracle, I spotted the bag in a strange Wal-Mart this week (by strange, I mean one we have never been to before). The bags were partially tucked behind a display, but they were the right ones! Each bag was $4.19, so my $5 in coupons gave us a free bag plus 75 cents off the other bag! Woo-hoo! Gotta love free dog food. Now, if I could only find free cat food, preferably in large quantities…
Our Kroger trip wasn’t horribly interesting this week. We saved 38 percent, and I bought some items I don’t typically buy, because I couldn’t bear not using some $1 coupons that were getting ready to expire. Thankfully most of the items I had $1 coupons for were on sale. I had been holding onto a couple of coupons for Quaker Simple Harvest oatmeal and granola bars hoping they would go on sale, but after 2-3 months of waiting and with the coupons expiring in 2 weeks, I gave in and used the coupons. Now, for all of you who have also been holding your coupons, the oatmeal should be on sale next week…Murphy’s Law.
I’m hoping the sales will be better next week…
Also at CVS this week, I took advantage of the great price and the ECBs on the Clear Care contact solution. I love this stuff and it is hardly ever on sale anywhere. I did, however, mess up on my transaction. The Clear Care was $7.99 and earned $3 ECB. I paid with $5 ECB and $3 cash. I should have used a $2 ECB and earned a dollar rather than lose $2 by using the $5 ECB. Oh well. I’m wiser for next time. Later in the week I went back and used my mother-in-law’s card to buy another Clear Care since it was limit 1 per card. For the 2nd transaction I told my husband he could get whatever (e.g. candy) since nothing great was on sale and I wanted to use the $3 ECB right away since the ECBs wouldn’t work later with my card. Wouldn’t you know that he picked up a Dove candy bar that gave a $1 ECB? Three transactions later, we were done. The store we were in is notorious for never marking the deals on the shelves. (I have a strong suspicion that this was the store that I did the Hershey deal at and didn’t know it.)
My mother, who lives in Pennsylvania, also uses Clear Care and happened to need some this week, so I sent her a detailed e-mail on how to use her ECBs to buy another bottle. She has a CVS card but didn’t understand the ECB concept. She proudly emailed me back to tell me that she spent $12.99 for 2 bottles and successfully used her $3 ECB to help pay for the 2nd bottle. Go Mom!!!
If you read my Frugal Friday post here, I mention finally finding a particular kind of dog food. For months, I’ve had a $3 coupon for Purina’s Naturally Complete dog food (in fact, the coupon expires next month). At one point, this dog food was on sale at Krogers for $3.99/bag, but none of our Krogers carried it. I also checked PetSmart thinking surely they would have it. Nope. Our local Wal-Mart didn’t carry it either. Neither did a local farm supply store that carries every type of dog food imaginable. I had pretty much given up hope of ever using the $3 coupon (much to my distress) and a different $2 coupon (gasp – $5 of coupons I couldn’t use!). By what I am sure was almost a miracle, I spotted the bag in a strange Wal-Mart this week (by strange, I mean one we have never been to before). The bags were partially tucked behind a display, but they were the right ones! Each bag was $4.19, so my $5 in coupons gave us a free bag plus 75 cents off the other bag! Woo-hoo! Gotta love free dog food. Now, if I could only find free cat food, preferably in large quantities…
Our Kroger trip wasn’t horribly interesting this week. We saved 38 percent, and I bought some items I don’t typically buy, because I couldn’t bear not using some $1 coupons that were getting ready to expire. Thankfully most of the items I had $1 coupons for were on sale. I had been holding onto a couple of coupons for Quaker Simple Harvest oatmeal and granola bars hoping they would go on sale, but after 2-3 months of waiting and with the coupons expiring in 2 weeks, I gave in and used the coupons. Now, for all of you who have also been holding your coupons, the oatmeal should be on sale next week…Murphy’s Law.
I’m hoping the sales will be better next week…
I Opened My Home, But They Didn’t Come
Who didn’t come to my home? The ladybugs!!! The invitation was there in October and November, just like it is every year, but for some reason, they decided not to visit. I have put off celebrating their lack of visiting for about 4-5 months because I just wasn’t quite sure they weren’t coming. However, I think it is safe to say that 2007 was the year of no ladybugs! Yay! My vacuum cleaner is still sighing with relief.
For those of you who live anywhere else in the world besides West Virginia, you are probably thinking, “What is this crazy lady babbling about ladybugs for?” If you live in West Virginia, particularly in an area with trees, you know exactly what I’m talking about – the annual influx of Japanese (I think they are called Japanese) ladybugs. For those blessed to not have the ladybug invasion, I’ll explain.
Each year about the time that the first leaf falls off the tree, the first ladybug appears. For the next month or so, they invade any place warm, mainly the house. The window ledges get filled, the siding on the sunny side of the house goes from white to looking like it has chicken pox, and the kitchen floor under the window looks like it hasn’t been swept in months and months. My understanding is that this particular kind of ladybug (slightly different than the adorable little red ladybug with black spots) lives in the tops of the trees during the spring and summer months. Then when the days get cooler and the leaves start falling, they seek warm spots. Typically the warm spots are the tiny cracks and crevices in your home – the ones you didn’t even know existed.
The only possible way to get rid of the pesky critters is to vacuum or sweep them up. And there’s usually one or two…thousand…a day. No exaggeration! Some people do spray the outside of their homes with some type of concoction which seems to deter them a little, but they still invade – just not in high epidemic proportions. (The yearly invasion always reminds me of what the people in Egypt must have felt like during the plagues.)
Besides adding to my daily cleaning routine, the little darlings also don’t taste very well. I had the horrible experience of chewing on one a few years ago. Talk about nasty. We were eating dinner, spaghetti to be exact, and I gave myself a second helping. I took a bite and kept chewing and chewing, not remembering what I put in the spaghetti sauce that I couldn’t possibly chew. The serving dish had been uncovered just like normal people leave it while eating dinner and apparently a ladybug saw that as the perfect opportunity to dive bomb the spaghetti sauce. Yuck. Gross. It was bitter, chewy and not pleasant tasting at all.
So, yes, I do find it hard to smile and say, “how cute!” when I pass stuffed animal ladybugs or ladybug cards or ladybug toys or ladybug clothes. Personally, I want to rip their darling little bodies to pieces, but I refrain. I am, however, thoroughly delighted that we avoided a plague last year due to the extreme drought in our area. Maybe now I will consider being nice to those who market ladybug items (obviously they’ve never lived around here). In the meantime, I’ll continue to clean up the remnants of the 2006 invasion.
For those of you who live anywhere else in the world besides West Virginia, you are probably thinking, “What is this crazy lady babbling about ladybugs for?” If you live in West Virginia, particularly in an area with trees, you know exactly what I’m talking about – the annual influx of Japanese (I think they are called Japanese) ladybugs. For those blessed to not have the ladybug invasion, I’ll explain.
Each year about the time that the first leaf falls off the tree, the first ladybug appears. For the next month or so, they invade any place warm, mainly the house. The window ledges get filled, the siding on the sunny side of the house goes from white to looking like it has chicken pox, and the kitchen floor under the window looks like it hasn’t been swept in months and months. My understanding is that this particular kind of ladybug (slightly different than the adorable little red ladybug with black spots) lives in the tops of the trees during the spring and summer months. Then when the days get cooler and the leaves start falling, they seek warm spots. Typically the warm spots are the tiny cracks and crevices in your home – the ones you didn’t even know existed.
The only possible way to get rid of the pesky critters is to vacuum or sweep them up. And there’s usually one or two…thousand…a day. No exaggeration! Some people do spray the outside of their homes with some type of concoction which seems to deter them a little, but they still invade – just not in high epidemic proportions. (The yearly invasion always reminds me of what the people in Egypt must have felt like during the plagues.)
Besides adding to my daily cleaning routine, the little darlings also don’t taste very well. I had the horrible experience of chewing on one a few years ago. Talk about nasty. We were eating dinner, spaghetti to be exact, and I gave myself a second helping. I took a bite and kept chewing and chewing, not remembering what I put in the spaghetti sauce that I couldn’t possibly chew. The serving dish had been uncovered just like normal people leave it while eating dinner and apparently a ladybug saw that as the perfect opportunity to dive bomb the spaghetti sauce. Yuck. Gross. It was bitter, chewy and not pleasant tasting at all.
So, yes, I do find it hard to smile and say, “how cute!” when I pass stuffed animal ladybugs or ladybug cards or ladybug toys or ladybug clothes. Personally, I want to rip their darling little bodies to pieces, but I refrain.
I am, however, thoroughly delighted that we avoided a plague last year due to the extreme drought in our area. Maybe now I will consider being nice to those who market ladybug items (obviously they’ve never lived around here). In the meantime, I’ll continue to clean up the remnants of the 2006 invasion.