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Monthly Archives: October 2009
Done and DONE!
It was rather anti-climatic. After an afternoon of baking and getting ready for Halloween parties, I decided to sit down at my desk and pay off my final credit card bill. I suppressed the urge to gleefully shout at the customer service representative who assisted me with my final $388.71 payment – “don’t you understand? I am DONE! Praise and hallelujah, I am DONE with credit card debt!” So I’m content to holler with joy at all of you. Does … Continue reading
Posted in Debt Reduction
9 Comments
Changes in consumption
One of my favorite “foodie” columns is Bitten by Mark Bittman which may be found in the New York Times. Mr. Bittman’s latest column is “What We’re Eating” and featured this chart from Information Resources, Inc. The data for this chart was mined between June 2008 and June 2009 and measures the Top 10 grocery items that are bought by American consumers. It is interesting to note that real “food” doesn’t make the list until slot 3 and comes in … Continue reading
Posted in Good Reading, Money Saving Strategies, Random!, Reader Input, Where My Money Goes
Tagged America, beverages, consumption, graphic
3 Comments
Scooting across the finish line
I have a hard time finishing projects – my chaotic mark can be witnessed in all sorts of places in my life – the unfinished novel (not to mention a bunch of stories that I’ve started, discarded, etc.), the recipe project I’ve been working on for about a zillion years where I’ve saved recipes from about five years worth of cooking magazines with the intent of organizing them and creating a binder of awesomeness, the quilt I started a few … Continue reading
The mystery of plumbing and why $2 is a good investment
Do you want to absolutely confound me? Talk technical to me. Our town’s municipal utility informed hubby and I the other day that we have a malfunctioning water meter and that they would drop by sometime between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Thursday to take a look at it. (I love the two-hour time frame … but God love the repair guy, he was at my house by 2:30 p.m.) While the repair guy and I have no clue what … Continue reading
Posted in Debt Reduction, Everyday Living, Money Saving Strategies, Relationships, Where My Money Goes, work
Tagged babies, cabin, insurance, money, plumbing, ultrasound
3 Comments
Ch-ch-ch-changes: The Auto Edition
I will never forget my first car – it was a 1988 two-door Pontiac Sunbird that was an electric teal shade. It had belonged to my cousin Jenny and bought for $1,200 when she decided to upgrade to a better car. The Sunbird was more than a car or a mode of transportation – it’s up there with my second-grade boyfriend – a nostalgic true love of sorts. My love for driving and road trips in general stem from that … Continue reading
Posted in Debt Reduction, Everyday Living, Random!, Relationships, Where My Money Goes
Tagged car, car seats, changes, grown up, Sable, Saturn
5 Comments
Happy birthday to the best money manager that I know
Today is my husband’s 32nd birthday. I’ve given a lot of thought over this post – I wanted to list out all of the frugal lessons that I’ve learned from him in our 10 years of friendship and now the two years that we’ve been living together. And I haven’t come up with anything. But I know that I’m a better person financially for being with my hubby and that I’ve begun to absorb some of his better traits when … Continue reading
Posted in Everyday Living, Money Saving Strategies, Random!, Relationships, Where My Money Goes
Tagged birthday, cat, cheap, family, frugal, husband, pizza
1 Comment
This weekend’s awesome article roundup
Regular readers of this blog know that I have a second job on the weekends – working a 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift at the local cab company. One of the reasons that I like this job (since I’m not entirely fond of waking up at the buttcrack of dawn) is that the eight hours I spend at my job are spent in front of a computer, answering phone calls and setting up cabs for people in my fair … Continue reading
Posted in Debt Reduction, Everyday Living, Good Reading, Money Saving Strategies, Reader Input, Where My Money Goes, work
Tagged article, frugal tips, happiness, kitchen, laziness, slacker
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Correction: Not so much “stuff”
When my cousin and I were loading my car full of totes on Friday, we were both taken aback by one particular tote that seemed to weigh about 90 pounds and took both of us to lift into my car. Now keep in mind – the tote itself wasn’t big, but I knew it had a bunch of books in it, so I chalked that as the reason for the weight. “Watch, that one was probably flooded,” my cousin said. … Continue reading
Posted in Everyday Living, Random!, Relationships
Tagged Bible, DIY, irresponsible, ruin, stuff, water damage
3 Comments
An influx of “stuff”
One of the biggest leaps of faith that I ever took was when I left journalism and started my life down here in Rochester. And even though this involved one of the most idiotic tracks of thinking I’ve ever possessed (i.e. – I moved down here and didn’t have a job set up. I was unemployed for five weeks before I secured my current job), I also tried to be “smart” about it. I had enough money in savings to … Continue reading
Posted in Debt Reduction, Everyday Living, Money Saving Strategies, Random!, Relationships, Where My Money Goes
Tagged family, grandma, hand me downs, pack rat
3 Comments
Free theater night in the Twin Cities
Sorry for all of my readers who aren’t in the metro Minnesota area, but I heard about this link today and thought it was too cool not to post for my MN friends. What is Twin Cities Free Night? This is from the web site: “This October, go to Twin Cities theater for free. For the last two weeks of October, pretty much all the theaters in the Twin Cities will make a couple thousand tickets available for free, just … Continue reading
Posted in Everyday Living, Money Saving Strategies, Random!
Tagged Free theater, plays, Twin Cities
2 Comments