We've been able to have our air conditioning off for the last 5 days! Today's high is expected to only be 73 degrees. Wow, that is amazing for July. I expect that we'll be able to have it off tomorrow and some portions of the following days to come.

This sure helps our electric bill this month. We were away for about 10 days in July, but kept the air on at a steady temp for the pets. I'm sure the usuage was less than if we had been here, since I also unplugged all unnecessary items.

I'm having computer problems. I thought I'd let you know, in case it seems I go missing.

I may still be able to post some things before we get the problems fixed, but just keep this in mind, if I'm suddenly not around.

I'm stressed out from all this Disney preparation. The saving, the spending and the planning is just getting to me.

Right now there are so many things I still need to buy. Unfortunately, they are not just quick trips to the store. We're on the hunt for hats right now. I've purchased three and at least two, if not all three, need to be returned to the store. They just didn't fit right.

Today, we'll return them and look around a little more. I was going to make them, but after buying fabric and bringing them home. I felt even more stressed! Let me just say it is hard to concentrate on sewing pattern directions when you kids are bouncing around the house. Ugh.

Luckily, I didn't cut the $12 pattern. I will return that as well. Great. One more thing to do. Ugh.

I wish I could just relax.

I hope you didn't get stressed out reading this!

T mobile says 8 of ten people pay too much for their cell phone service. We saw this on a commercial tonight.

DH says, "Why don't they just say 4 out of 5?"

Well, because four out of five dentist suggest Trident!!

Just saying!!

Homemade Iced Coffee.

I pour cold coffee over ice. Then I add in skim milk and a little sugar.

Mmmm...yummy and refreshing.

Healthy? Probably not. It does seem to keep me from drinking as much diet soda. So that is good.

The water/trash bill came today. I set aside $51/month to cover it. This month's bill was $45.59!

Turns out next month the trash portion is increasing by $2/month. Darn.

I think I will keep my budget at $51 for now. I will revise, as needed.

Oh, I'm so glad I found this on You Tube. It is one my favorite commercials. And yes, it is financial in nature!

Click

Can we discuss our stats? I've noticed that the number of people reading my blog has increased quite a bit lately. I am writing nearly everyday, so that does keep people's interest.

Yesterday, nearly 155 people read my blog. That's quite a few. I can only imagine what size room I would need to fit you all in!! Thank you to those of you who do read my blog. It's nice to have you here.

So, how many people read your blog yesterday? No judgement...just curious!

Today, I started thinking of some of you lurkers out there. I don't know who you are, or what your situation is. I'm guessing you are here for some reason. If you are struggling and looking for answers this is a great site, with plenty of opinions and advice.

I have to tell you that starting an emergency fund was one of our first steps as a married couple. We had our $1000 in gifts from our wedding. Sure we could have spent it, but we saved it. I guess after getting so many gifts, it didn't seem that we needed to buy anything!!

We weren't big credit card users, since my husband had just ended a business started on credit cards. We had plenty to pay off let alone adding money to it! And, boy did I want to get that debt paid off as quick as possible!! It wasn't even mine...well, until the 'I do's', but I wanted it gone.

So, if you are struggling where to start here's my simple advice since it worked for us.

1)Establish a small emergency fund.
2)Stop using credit cards.
3)Pay off debt

Okay, there are some things you need to do to be able to even make those three things work. It's really important to save small amounts of money. Did you get $20 from your mom as a gift? Save it. Did you get a tax refund? Save it. Did you get rebate in the mail? Save it. Get the point?

You also need to go through your spending. Everything you spend money on. Magazines. Caller id. Newspapers. Coffee. Insurance deductibles. Beer. Wine. Cable TV. Do you buy your clothes at the mall? Stop. And stop going to the mall for entertainment. Look at EVERYTHING! Maybe there's an alternative. Maybe you stop an expense for a period of time, until you reach a financial goal. Maybe you need to call your credit card, phone or insuance company for a new rate? Maybe. You won't know unless you call. Lower your spending and save it.

So, you went through your expenses. You have made some changes. Great!! But now, do it again. Really. Keep looking at what you can change. You can change more than you think you can. Think outside the box.
But, remember, SAVE the money from these changes. This money is your safety net in hard times. You have to have it.

Once this money is saved up from your emergency fund you can start applying this new found money towards debt. Yes, even that birthday money...the credit card company gets that too.

Start saving, make a plan, and tweak it. You can do this. You can save money for an emergency fund. You can pay off debt. The feeling of paying off debt is freeing. Really freeing. Just how bad do you want it?

Good luck!! I'm rooting for you.

Day one garage sale results: $166.00

I'm very pleased. I almost wrote last night that I hoped to clear $100, but I just wasn't sure about my stuff. But, as it turns out, I did clear that and then some!!

Guess what we have one more day tomorrow, too!! Three of us neighbors are doing this together. This is actually our forth sale together in the last two years. We have quite a good system down and we love to chat while we work. The three of us pulled in $575 in one day...WOW!!

Tune in tomorrow evening for the final installment of creditcardfree's garage sale report!

Tomorrow is the first day of our sale. Everything is set out in my garage, marked and organized. Signs are up, and ads are placed.

May the garage sale fairies shine down on us, with excellent sales and great weather!! It's been raining on and off all week.

One neighbor has been ill, so her stuff will arrive when and if she feels better. Sometimes one just has to go with the flow, right!

I'll let you know how much I net after its over.

Our mortgage is now with Bank of America. No, we didn't refinance. But our mortgage is held with Countrywide Financial who was bought by BoA awhile bank.

Two days ago I received our welcome letter in the mail. Wow! I'm so excited.

Not really. I could care less who holds my mortgage as long as they provide me the customer service I need in an accurate and timely manner. Our payment is automatic, so all should continue normally.

Here's fingers crossed that they don't mess anything up!!

The blogs, I mean. It just doesn't seem that too many of us are around. It's probably the wonderful weather we are starting to have because of spring.

I've started working on a project that I started in the fall. I'm refinishing a small dresser. The fall work consisted of stripping the stain off. Recently, I added wood putty to some areas, sanded and primed.

Today, I started painting the drawers a nice black!! I hope to complete this project by the end of the week. I'll post some pictures then.

I've had to buy two cans of stripper, a stripping brush, wood putty, sandpaper and the black paint. I had the primer and brushes! It's not exactly a inexpensive project, but it feels like it when done over time.

Did you know today is Earth Day?

Have you noticed how much plastic there is in the world? Have you seen it lying on the roadside? I have and it disturbs me!

Plastic takes years...many many years to break down. Paper, cardboard and even metal break down faster than plastic! It's the disposable platic that bothers me the most. Use it one time and toss it in the trash where it goes away. Goes away to where? Where is away?

For a couple of months, I have been attempting to eliminate the amount of plastic I buy. My family is on board, but they don't like me to talk about it too much.

Here's what has changed:

1)Elminated most plastic garbage bags that come home. We still bring home 6-7 a month.

2)Buy honey in a glass jar.

3)Stopped buying pizza dough mix in a plastic pouch. I make my own...I use the dough setting on a bread maker.

4)Stopped buying plastic straws.

5)Switched to waxed paper bags for girls sandwhiches.

6)Refused the sandwich bag at Subway.

7)Stopped using lid and straw on take away drinks.

8) I only buy bar soap, particulary the bars not wrapped in any plastic.

I know there are a few more, but I can't think of them right now. I do have more work to do. I'd love to eliminate the bread bags, but I'm still working on my bread making techniques.

If you want to feel inspired to eliminate plastic or excess waste check out The Fake Plastic Fish blog

Just for fun Sunday while we were out running errands, the girls and I dropped three pennies and two dimes on the ground! Different places.

We know one penny was picked up because it was dropped near our van and was gone when we came back. We also saw a woman pick up a dime we dropped near the entrance to another store. She picked it up as we were coming out.

It was fun to think we made someone's day!
And, of course, a small lesson in giving. Oldest daughter was a bit inclined to keep her dime. I let her decide. In the end she dropped it!

Why $0.23? It's what I had in my purse.

We moved to our current home in October 2006 at the height of the market. We paid $173,000. The home is a 1540 sq ft split level with 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms and a two car garage.

I had our realtor do a market analysis and it arrived in the mail yesterday. This is mostly just for fun and information since we don't currently have plans to move. However, one never knows when our next move will be!! Oh, the joys of military life!

She gave our house value a range of $177,000 to $192,000! Wow, that is a difference of $15,000 between the high and low. Zillow currently has our zestimate at $191,500. I'm pretty sure that we could sell it somewhere in the middle...$184,500.

Currently we owe $142,257 which includes our home equity loan. Of course that balance will keep going lower as I attack that crazy 7.25% loan. Yippee to that!

Right now, we think we'll be here another two years, so that will give us time to pay the loan down a little more, as well as, see a little more price appreciation. It would be great to walk away with at least $50K in equity to put on the next home.

Only time will tell!

It's been a year! It's been so fun to share my thoughts and financial successes with all of you.

I don't know if I would be making such a big effort to pay off our home equity loan this year if I didn't have all of you to share it with. So that's a big plus.

I need to give special thanks to Thrify Ray who motivated me to start my own blog. I was commenting in the forums, but lurking here on the blogs. I'm so glad that I came on board.

Make it a great day!!

This is where my brain is today:

One week until payday and we need groceries. Over $230 in checking account. Making a meal plan. I hope to spend less than $100 at grocery store.

Lots of bids and watchers on my ebay items that end today. I'm sure I will spend too much of today clicking refresh!!

Getting impatient about the delivery of my faux blinds I ordered last week, as well as, my $50 global test marketing check.

Need to shop for digital camera for DD birthday in two weeks. Amazon's price looks good. Money is set aside for this.

Will travel out of town next week and need to conserve some cash for that.

What's on your brain today?

That's what Dave Ramsey said on his show Thursday to a caller named Rich. The caller was worried about the FDIC going insolvent. Dave said, he didn't believe that (although he didn't explain why). The caller also wondered about buying gold, since he heard about it on the Sean Hannity show. My husband has been trying to convince me of the same.

Dave Ramsey had a great explanation. If our economy totally collapsed, we wouldn't go around trying to buying items with gold bars, but would go to a barter system. We would trade a pair of jeans for a tank of gas and so forth. He even compared it to Katrina since that is what happened there.

His theory was that eventually confidence in the government would be restored and the ability to establish a new monetary basis would be possible. This makes sense to me.

I think there is a lot of fear and worry out there. It was nice to hear someone with a calm perspective. Here's a

I've been a member of Global Test Marketing for awhile. Last night I completed a survey and finally reached the minimum 1000 points necessary to redeem for cash.

They pay 5 cents per point. That works out to $50! I hope it will arrive quickly, but the email states 4-6 weeks.

I've completed at least 500 points worth of surveys in the last two months, so things have picked up for me. I'm also making a better effort to complete them when they send them too.

I'm sure I could have had my $50 much sooner, but I did take a break from their surveys for over a year. Silly me. I could have probably earned quite a bit more had I stuck with it.

It's free to join. I would suggest getting another email account for survey requests, so they don't get in the way of more important emails (like work!).

You can sign up

I've been trying not to spend this week on extras. So far so good. Until, I get the mail and find a catalog for Smith Noble, a blind and window treatment company.

I really need...maybe want a new blind for our front window in our living room. I browse the catalog. I start searching online for better deals. I even measure my window. I can justify it as a need, because when we go to sell this house it will look sooo much better than the crazy three uneven shades that came with the house and that we still use. They filter light but do not provide any privacy in the evenings.

I still haven't purchased it yet...I'm so tempted. It is $140, which includes shipping for a 85" x 54" faux oak wood blind. I want to enjoy it, while I'm here...not just to sell the house when it comes time.

I haven't bought it yet, but I'm so tempted!!

As we put away the Christmas gifts, I have found several things to donate to charity. I have several books, a couple shirts, a pair of shoes, ornaments and lights. It sure doesn't hurt to lighten the load this time of year!

I keep track of what I donate with a list and generally take a picture. I always ask for a receipt as well. I then use a It's Deductible book to value our donations. One year my donations valued over $1500!! Saved us a few dollars in taxes. Too bad it's not dollar for dollar.

This year my donations of goods were minimal, because I have participated in two garage sales and sold plenty on ebay.

Tomorrow, I expect to make a final sweep through the house for donations and then drive the 5 blocks to drop them off!

Do you have a bag or two that you could donate in the next couple days? It's a great time to help others and also get a tax deduction.

I've been trying to do a few things here and there to help others while out shopping.

I've dropped several handfuls of coins in Salvation Army Buckets.

We gave 5 cans of food to our neighbor boy who is collecting food for charity as a class project.

Today, I bought two packages of girls underwear to donate to our local clothes closet. My youngest daughter's school is collecting these.

Here's the great deal I got on the panties. Regular price, at JC Penney's, was $7.99 for 5 pairs. I bought two packages. The second package was 50% off! I also had a $10 coupon for a purchase of $10 or more. Out of pocket, I spent $2.10 with tax.

I'm thrilled to have helped out, without too much out of my pocket!

I mailed all the cards today at the post office. Normally, I would just drop in the mailbox, but I needed to mail a package.

Now, I should have just paid online for the package postage at usps.com, but I would still have to drop it off. I don't want it sitting on my porch in the snow waiting on the mailman.

The post office was BUSY. Okay, I wasn't surprised. There were at least 14 people in line with only two employess waiting on them. At the automated postal center inside there was only one person in line...the man using it. Now he did have two packages and it seemed to take a little while, but waiting for him was much much faster than waiting behind 14 other people.

So, I didn't save any money, but I sure saved some time!!

We are in the negative temps today! The windchills are like -25 degrees. So, it seems the furnace is running non stop!

Our front door has a draft too! This fall I put more weatherstripping up, and it looked like it was going to work. However, it almost seems to have made it worse. It may even be keeping the door from closing all the way. Yikes!!

Last night we came up with a very clever way to hold the door closed tight. We used an old shower curtain tension rod between the door and a short wall across from it. Of course, we can't go in and out unless we move the rod!! I'm sure it helped some.

Today, I'm heading to the warmth of our local botanical garden!! I'll feel like I'm in the tropics. I can't wait.

My neighbor brought me Amish friendship bread. Well, the starter, anyway. It's the first time I've received any or even heard of it.

It takes 10 days to ferment the starter, so you can add more items at the end and make two loaves of bread. I'm up for trying it. I just have to watch the bag of starter to keep air out and mix it up occassionally.

I should have bread baking on 19th!! I think I'll freeze one for our Christmas morning.

Part of the deal with this bread is that you create four more starters just before you mix in the other ingredients. Those other starters are to be given to friends. Hmmm...except for my neighbors, all my friends live out of state. I hope I don't get over run by bread!!

Yes, I have finished getting my Christmas cards ready for mailing. Just so you know, I don't think everyone needs to send cards. It is optional. It can also get expensive! There have been several years where I have not sent any...just to be a bit frugal! Of course, I kind of missed doing them.

This year I decided to make the Christmas cards an art project with my daughters. I bought 50 plain cards with envelopes for $5. I also bought 6 pieces of holiday scrapbook type paper for about $1.50.

Last Friday night, we sat down to watch the Grinch and decorated each card with the paper! It took longer than I thought it would. We only made 15, but my daughter thought it was fun. We only need about 25 total and I will supplement the ones we made with leftovers from previous years.

Monday, I wrote a Christmas letter. I kept it to one page and just gave a general update of our adventures this year. It has been a few years since I've written a letter and we have moved since I last wrote one!

Now the envelopes are stuffed, addressed, and stamped for mailing!! Christmas cards, check!!

Here are a couple ideas, if you are looking for an afforable way to reach out with your holiday greetings:

1) Email on online card or a letter
2) An index card/postcard(postage is less)
3) Letter printed in red or green ink on computer paper and mail in a regular envelope!

Get creative and use what you have at home to come up with something original. If you chose to forgo the greetings...that's okay too because the season is about much more than cards and gifts!!

Looks like $1/gallon gas could be coming. I saw $1.49/gallon last night while I was out and about.

Today, I had lunch with a friend. Then did a little shopping. I came home and felt the need to unwind before the kids started arriving home.

I made myself a cup of hot cider and sat at my kitchen table in the sunlight. I had relaxing music on...what a blessing to be able to have had that experience today. For that I am thankful!!

I hope each of you have a Happy Thanksgiving and find some time to relax as well.
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My husband paid for a business expense out of his own pocket because it was the right thing to do at the time. Cost $16.50.

Today, his superior reimbursed him for the expense. We were not expecting to be compensated, so it was a nice surprise.

Guess where this money is going? Our Holiday Fund!! I'm so close, with only $16.59 to go.

Old Balance $716.51
Reimbursement $16.50
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New Balance $733.01

We spent our Saturday shopping and driving in the snow...it covered the lawns, but the sidewalks and streets are just wet...isn't that the perfect kind of snow?

We bought dress shoes and snow boots for our youngest daughter at Target. Spent $45. These were needs.

The pets are about to go hungry, so we bought cat and rodent food at Petsmart, and spent $43.00. The cat food should last 3 months and rodent food could last at least 6 months. I went to Petco originally because I had a 10% off coupon, but their regular prices were significantly higher than Petsmart...the coupon didn't even help make it even!

We also bought body butter at Bath & Body Works. DH has pretty dry skin and discovered last year that this stuff works really well for him. It lasts awhile, too. After the coupon I had we paid $22.26. Two stocking stuffers were included, too.

The want...an extra dish of ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. We never go there, but I had a coupon for a free dish for my birthday. One was free, paid $4.50 for the other. It was very good!!

Total spending for the day...$114.76. We still have $174 in the checking account until December 1st. We will need to use some money for wine, gas, and to chip in a little cash toward the dinner on my in laws side of the family. Looks like we'll be good!