Saturday, October 25, 2008

Saturday

Time has been flying by so quickly...I guess it's just that kind of school year. It's already the end of first quarter next week. Go figure.

Okay - money-wise. We've been doing pretty well in the budgeting category. We have not been overspending, which is nice. Dh did get a new watch (desperately needed - his was falling off his wrist as well as dying every few days even when we bought a new battery...twice...), and I got a second pair of work shoes so I don't have to wear the same ones every day, or, even worse, wear the ones that hurt my feet so badly. We haven't been going out to eat a lot. We've been behaving.

What's going on? ...someone might ask. Well, we've been lucky enough to have the desires to go buy on opposite days - when I'm being naughty, he's being strong, and vice versa. I say "lucky" because we haven't both been weak on the same day yet. :) :)

Last week I bought two extra cases of canned goods from Aldi for us to stock up, as well as three cases of canned goods + 2 packages of ramen to donate to the food pantry. Food pantries are in trouble around here - donations are down, and wants are up. Dh will hopefully take it over this week (they're only open on Wed afternoons).

This weekend I plan to work on organizing in the basement somewhat -- and getting back into ebay mode for this month before Christmas gets too weird.

We did get the $1000 award, and I got $625 for the work I did out in New Jersey last month, so I need to go do the bills for this month and see what we are able to send off to the bed. We owe just a little under $1000 on it, and I would dearly love to get it paid off. Soon. We need to put some of that money aside for Christmas (spent that money in the ickies of Sept), and for a doctor bill that insurance isn't paying. But hopefully we can send a chunk so we can get things moving.

We're planning to go visit a salvage foods store in Beloit today, too. It will get us out of the house, and I can see how much we could possibly save on stuff there. I love salvage foods places, and in the 10 years we've lived in WI, we have never been able to find one. There's a big one in KY where we go visit his family, and I'll usually pack the car up as much as I can with stuff from it, usually for about $20, we'll fill up the trunk. I'm so excited.

Yes, I'm weird...

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

A few good things...

One main good thing that's happened here with the markets being so crazy weird is that we've really cut back a lot. I'm sure the government wouldn't exactly be happy with that, but it has helped the stress level.

We've been out to eat once in the last two weeks, and that was because of an award I received with $1000 cash. We went out to celebrate with breakfast last Saturday. Otherwise, we've been really good about staying at home. This is BIG for us.

I'm also working on a stockup plan. I don't know what's going to happen, but I don't feel good about it. I honestly don't think we're going into Great Depression-like times, but I think it will be rougher than I've seen it as an adult. So dh and I talked it over, and we're going to get a few extra cases of veggies on Aldi trips, and I'm going to start going into the couponing sites a little more to see if anything catches my interest.

I do have some coupons on the way for: b1g1 free Neutra-air spray (dh loves this stuff, and it's double packaged at Walgreens for $2.50 this week, so I'd get 4 cans for the price of 1), skippy peanut butter $1/2 (also on sale at Walgreens this week with a 5 RR w/$15 purchase, assuming I can find that much peanut butter...but if not, P&S has them for a similar deal), and Gilette men's shampoo, $2 off any, and Walmart has the smaller size for $2 each, so FREE. 20 of each coupon, and I paid only $4 altogether. And I used ebay money that's still in paypal to pay for them. I like that.

I've also been drooling over organization systems: http://www.shelfreliance.com . What a cool site! I soooo want one of these systems!

I know, we can't afford it until we pay a lot more off, but wouldn't that be the coolest?



Okay. I'm weird. I know it.

I'm off to make dinner (homemade chili!) and watch Cavuto on Fox Business to see what he has to say about Dow drops today...again. Minus 700-some odd points, bay-bee...what's going on with that?

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Grateful

Dh and I were talking last night about the economy (it's a major topic in our household lately...comes from a politic-minded dh and an economics-minded me...). You know, we were one of them that shouldn't have gotten a mortgage. We had 0% down, and we had declared BK about 4 years earlier. There's no way we should have received a mortgage.

We did, thanks to VA loans and a mortgage broker who really wanted a sale. We looked very closely at interest rates and knew we'd pay more than the average bear, but worked to keep the payment where we could afford, even though it really limited us on what we looked at. We ended up getting a decent deal on our home with a payment that was about 30% of our takehome at the time (takehome pay has since risen, it's about 25% of pay now).

We may complain about our debt, but we are so lucky. Thank God, we can:
  • make our house payment without fear of losing our home every month...
  • keep food on the table - we're in no danger of starving...
  • pay our utilities...the electric is not in danger of being shut off...
  • buy reasonable clothing and keep ourselves covered, decent, and warm.

We can pay all our bills. We are not about to be thrown into the street. I am under contract and my pay will not change until Sept of '09, if then. I am not in danger of being laid off - if teachers start losing their jobs, the country is in worse shape than we've ever seen. We have a budget, even if we blow it more than I'd like to see.

We are blessed.

Even in these weird economic times, keeping things in perspective helps. Yes, I dearly wish our debt load was smaller, but we can pay the min's and work on paying them down. I plan to get working on the ebay stuff again soon, just to get more out of the house, although I'm not sure how great sales are right now with such weirdness going on. We'll see.

Kmart Super Double Coupons!

It was an exciting trip. I got 2 bags worth of stuff for $4 with the double coupons. All of it is downstairs in the "to be sorted" for the stockpile pile, but here's what I can remember:

  • One Dove conditioner
  • One hair gel that I use and really love
  • One package of pantiliners
  • One Febreze-type spray from Glade (I think they're called Fabric Refreshers - they work really well on pet smells...)
  • One hairspray
  • umm...

Okay. I give up. I guess I'll have to edit this when I go down to look in the bags. It felt great, because I haven't felt like there have been any really worth-my-time deals lately, and it was really FUN! lol

This week: hamburger for $1.89 a pound, apples 3# bag for $1.89, ice cream carton $1.89 at Piggly Wiggly.

~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~

Okay - I grabbed the bags. Here's what I got, for $4.36 (found the receipt, too!):

  • 12 oz Dove Extra Volume Conditioner
  • Suave 18 oz Fresh Berry Smoothie body wash
  • Suave 12 oz Cucumber Melon body wash
  • 12 oz Sunsilk Anti-flat conditioner
  • 7 oz Sunsilk plumping creme
  • 13.5 oz Pert Plus shampoo
  • 10 oz Endust
  • 2.6 oz Suave deod
  • 5.8 oz Colgate Total Advanced Clean toothpaste
  • 22 oz Glad Fabric and Air Pet odor eliminator
  • 18 count Kotex lightdays liners
  • 10 pack Schick disposable razors (2 of 'em)
  • Jergens Natural Glow face moisturizer, on clearance for $1.50 (bummer, no coupon...)

Not bad, hey? It felt GREAT! I hope they continue the double coupon days. That was cool...

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Financial Stuff

It's been a busy couple of weeks - lots of work and I took a business trip out to New Jersey which was awesome. I've just been too tired to hop on the Internet!

I am absolutely furious and flabbergasted that the bailout bill passed Congress. The government took advantage of people's fears to push through a law that will do nothing. In fact, already this morning there was news that the banks are saying the $800 billion was not enough money and they want more. They'll be like baby birds now - they'll want more and more and more. Not to mention, where is the line drawn? When GM starts to go under, will the government step in to save them?

They use the "falling market" to scare people. All the stock market shows is consumer confidence, nothing more. People who learned (incorrectly) in high school that the stock market drop caused the Great Depression are scared crapless that when the Dow keeps dropping that it will kick us into a depression. In fact, economists have been saying for years that the late 1990's and early 2000's reflect the 1920's quite a bit - overuse and overextension of credit, huge decrease in savings, etc. They have been saying for quite awhile that unless the credit was brought under control, we were facing another depression. Welcome to the future.

The gov buying a trillion dollars worth of bad debt is not going to stop that from happening. The bailout bill (I refuse to call it any type of law that will help me, because it will NOT) helps big bankers who made loans to people who should not have gotten loans...and the banks knew it. Not to mention that the banks knew this was coming. It was not a surprise.

We are so screwed.

We are in for scary economic times, and I really hate the fact that we're going into them with so much debt. Our own fault, of course. I just wish we'd focused more. I will probably start to focus on Ebay a little more again. As tiring as it will be, we need to get stuff out, and the money will help.

(I really do hope I'm wrong...but I don't think I am. I'm just really glad that my job (teacher) is pretty recession-proof.)



On brighter notes, I am going to hit Kmart tomorrow for super double couponing. I'm very excited - I need to see what coupons I have available. I am giving myself $12 out of pocket from the grocery envelope. How much do you think I can get? :)