God is doing some great work in me these last few weeks. A week ago the week started out dim and seemed to get worse but I kept the faith and got over myself and it has been a blessing. Hope everyone had a wonderful easter with their families.
We sold a washing machine this week and also a computer which enabled us to upgrade to a laptop. I am super excited about it. Its going to make things much easier for us than our old desktop. So happy we were able to sell some things quickly. I found some great coupons on Retailmenot/ for our new Dell laptop that I was able to combine for a sweet $450 dollar discount!! Very exciting!
Praying that the new job I applied for comes through and I can get out of this one asap.
Happy Monday everyone
xoxo
Monday, April 25, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
A lesson in patience.
So this week has been, sort of a mess lol. Working late nights this week. So is Jay and our dryer decided to break. Luckily we were able to get a new one. We have stuff we are trying to sell but it has been hard to get rid of stuff this week. We are selling stuff because, well we don't need it anymore and we would rather put the money into savings. We are however starting our Debt snowball!!! So that is super exciting. Baby step 2 commence! All in all it feels like it should definitely be Friday already but it isn't lol.
God is good and this week I feel I have really had a lesson in patience from him. I saw how impatient I can be when things don't go as I had planned but I am realizing this week that his plan is always better and always right. He shows me everytime that if I just relax and trust him and gain a little patience I will see what he is doing. This was a tough one for me this week but one I so desperately needed!
"Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake. " ~ Victor Hugo
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
School Lunches
I may not be the most qualified to have opinions on this subject since I currently do not have children. However I do remember what it was like to be in school and to eat school lunches. Today as I was browsing the internet I came across an article at The Chicago Tribune about a school in Chicago banning kids from bringing their lunch from home.
Principal Elsa Carmona said her intention is to protect students from their own unhealthful food choices. "Nutrition wise, it is better for the children to eat at the school," Carmona said. "It's about the nutrition and the excellent quality food that they are able to serve (in the lunchroom). It's milk versus a Coke.
This comment I found to be slightly odd. Especially the implication that a student would bring a soda from home but at school they will be drinking milk. I never brought soda from home when I took my lunch to school. I also know a lot of parents and read a lot of mothers blogs who also would not be packing soda or other unhealthy foods in their kids lunches. Also I feel that just because the milk is at the school for lunch doesn't mean the kids are drinking it.
Another part of the article lists the price for lunches if the child does not qualify for reduced or free lunches and it was a little over $2.00 a lunch. I feel like that is a little unfair because there are also a lot of parents I know who can send their kids to school with a lunch valued below $2.00 a meal. Why pay more for the same quality of food I could send from home? I am not against some regulations on what children can bring to school but at some point I still feel like it is a parents choice to send their child to school with a lunch you know they will eat and that you made for them. If you want to pay the school for your kids food that should also be your choice.
Principal Elsa Carmona said her intention is to protect students from their own unhealthful food choices. "Nutrition wise, it is better for the children to eat at the school," Carmona said. "It's about the nutrition and the excellent quality food that they are able to serve (in the lunchroom). It's milk versus a Coke.
This comment I found to be slightly odd. Especially the implication that a student would bring a soda from home but at school they will be drinking milk. I never brought soda from home when I took my lunch to school. I also know a lot of parents and read a lot of mothers blogs who also would not be packing soda or other unhealthy foods in their kids lunches. Also I feel that just because the milk is at the school for lunch doesn't mean the kids are drinking it.
Another part of the article lists the price for lunches if the child does not qualify for reduced or free lunches and it was a little over $2.00 a lunch. I feel like that is a little unfair because there are also a lot of parents I know who can send their kids to school with a lunch valued below $2.00 a meal. Why pay more for the same quality of food I could send from home? I am not against some regulations on what children can bring to school but at some point I still feel like it is a parents choice to send their child to school with a lunch you know they will eat and that you made for them. If you want to pay the school for your kids food that should also be your choice.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
“Believe passionately in what you do, and never knowingly compromise your standards and values. Act like a true professional, aiming for true excellence, and the money will follow.”
Source
- David Maister (1947- ), business management consultant. The Advice Business: Essential Tools and Models for Management Consulting, Chapter 23. (via geosak)
Source
- David Maister (1947- ), business management consultant. The Advice Business: Essential Tools and Models for Management Consulting, Chapter 23. (via geosak)
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
How we saved money this week.
As part of our new plan to really save money and move our financial future forward this year we have been looking at different things in our lives that we can cut back on or cut out to save us money. One of the obvious is our grocery bill. Which I am currently in the process of tackling still. Its kind of a monster lol. Since its just the two of us for now. We dont have any kids yet. Its a great time for us to learn to be more responsible with money. However, because we only have the two of us it was also very easy to learn how to spend more than we needed to. We have always eaten out whenever we want and done other things with our free time that we probably would not have done if we had kids.
So while still in the process of cutting back on what we spend on household items and groceries we looked into other things in our life we could save on. We were both playing an online game for our sort of "hobby" we did it just in our free time on weekends and stuff like that. But it was costing us $30 dollars a month to play and we were paying more for our higher internet speed because it was an online game.
This week we cancelled the game subscription so that is an automatic thirty dollars back in our pocket we also switched away from cable internet to another provider which slashed our bill by $20 a month. We then traded in about $100 worth of games and movies and bought a Ps3. Some people probably think that was a waste of money but for us it wasn't its what we do in our down time when we want to. We dont pay for cable TV so this is a one time fee for us to buy the console and we only buy used games and then we trade in when we want a different one. For us it was worth spending the money once versus the $50 a month we were spending on something that we weren't really even using anymore.
We could even pick up netflix streaming for $8 every month and still come out ahead of where we were. With no concern of late fees or anything like that. I am so excited about this decision, ready to be rid of some excess spending and ready to start tackling more things :))
So while still in the process of cutting back on what we spend on household items and groceries we looked into other things in our life we could save on. We were both playing an online game for our sort of "hobby" we did it just in our free time on weekends and stuff like that. But it was costing us $30 dollars a month to play and we were paying more for our higher internet speed because it was an online game.
This week we cancelled the game subscription so that is an automatic thirty dollars back in our pocket we also switched away from cable internet to another provider which slashed our bill by $20 a month. We then traded in about $100 worth of games and movies and bought a Ps3. Some people probably think that was a waste of money but for us it wasn't its what we do in our down time when we want to. We dont pay for cable TV so this is a one time fee for us to buy the console and we only buy used games and then we trade in when we want a different one. For us it was worth spending the money once versus the $50 a month we were spending on something that we weren't really even using anymore.
We could even pick up netflix streaming for $8 every month and still come out ahead of where we were. With no concern of late fees or anything like that. I am so excited about this decision, ready to be rid of some excess spending and ready to start tackling more things :))
Monday, March 28, 2011
Psalm 6:6
I am worn out from sobbing. All night I flood my bed with weeping, drenching it with my tears.
Refocused and staying.
I am realizing today and this week how very hard it can be for people to stay dedicated to things. My fiance (Jay) and I were so ready to get on track with saving money and we still are but we let ourselves get too comfortable sometimes.
Life gets busy and we find excuses to break our pact about not eating out. So we eat out and then the next night the pact has already been broken so what does it matter at that point? Well it does matter because even if life gets in the way one night and you spend money you weren't going to spend or you eat something that isn't on your diet or fall into any old habit that you are trying to break it doesn't mean that you have ruined it for the whole month. Slipping up one day on a monthly/weekly plan does not excuse you making the same mistake tomorrow or the next day. I realized how I am so guilty of doing this.
Last week I didnt do any of the stuff I should have. I did not blog. I did not do any extra money saving or earning that I had planned. I didn't pick up any extra hours at my job. So this week I am starting over I almost let myself out of it this week too but I am not going to. Its not only my fiances responsibilty to work extra hours. If I want to secure our future then I need to take an active role in doing so.
Life gets busy and we find excuses to break our pact about not eating out. So we eat out and then the next night the pact has already been broken so what does it matter at that point? Well it does matter because even if life gets in the way one night and you spend money you weren't going to spend or you eat something that isn't on your diet or fall into any old habit that you are trying to break it doesn't mean that you have ruined it for the whole month. Slipping up one day on a monthly/weekly plan does not excuse you making the same mistake tomorrow or the next day. I realized how I am so guilty of doing this.
Last week I didnt do any of the stuff I should have. I did not blog. I did not do any extra money saving or earning that I had planned. I didn't pick up any extra hours at my job. So this week I am starting over I almost let myself out of it this week too but I am not going to. Its not only my fiances responsibilty to work extra hours. If I want to secure our future then I need to take an active role in doing so.
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