Hello all,

We had a meeting at work today. After the meeting, when I was passing out the extra food back to the employees that brought it, one of them said, "Oh just throw it away". I said, "There are six burritos left." She then told me if I wanted them, that I could have them. So dinner tonight was on the her. It is always very difficult for me to believe that people do things like this. If it was me, at the very least, I would have frozen the burritos to eat later.

I just can't believe that people are so wasteful.

I remember saving for my first house. I saved bread ties, plastic baggies for reuse (only if they didn't have meat in them). I remember that if I spent more than $5 on dinner I thought I was wasting money. I remember budgeting beans at least twice a week. Some of it was to save money, some of it was because I didn't have a choice. I managed to save enough money that when I got divorced I managed to buy a house with a conventional loan.

Looking back, I think I can manage somehow, to have another $125 in my budget for my daughter's braces. I don't think I'd give up internet or cable TV, but somewhere there is something that I can cut back.

Lately, I've been taking salad and tuna for lunch or I take a TV dinner. I think I could be just as happy making my salad instead of buying it in a bag. I don't need to buy the TV dinners.

Also, I've been checking appliances at night to make sure they are turned off. I never did before. Maybe that is why my electric bill is so out of control.

Heres the quote for the day.

"Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship."
~Benjamin Franklin

Hello fellow blogsters,

Interesting story here

It rained out here the other day and every time it rains we have a good 10-15 toads out on my grass and because we're kind of close to a stream, sometimes we get a frog or two. Anyway. It was kind of dusky and suddenly the frogs and toads started talking outside my bedroom window. Now I always wondered where the toads come from. It gets quite hot here some times. Well anyway, I went out and looked and guess what? They are coming up from the ground! Fighting their way out of the mud. Here I was blaming mice and yelling at my cats and it was the toads. How funny! They must stay underground when it's hot.

I kind of watched for a while and I thought, "I wonder how I'd feel if I had to fight my way out of the mud?" I actually could totally relate it to my life. Topside being the good times and underground being the tough times. You better believe that I fought my way out each time. I bet we all have a story to tell about those hard times.

Back to reality:

My oldest daughter is sick with a kidney infection. She has kidney reflux. So she is not working again, until at least next week Friday.

My boys are gone for the weekend, so just the girls are home. I probably won't cook all weekend except to make a sandwich or salad.

I bought gas today and lent the oldest one money for medicine. She was at the hospital. I guess they'll send a bill for her co-pay.

My neck and back gets better then it gets bad again. I've started taking the motrin again.

Life is still pretty tight for money. I still have faith that I will raise the money for the braces for my daughter.

Well I'll leave you with another of my favorite biblical sayings.

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Hebrews 11-1

their lived a happy family. A mom, a dad and their four very happy children. One day the dad decided that what was important to him had very little to do with what was important to a family. Mom and dad went their separate ways. Mom got everything in the divorce. The four kids, the dogs and all the bills.

Today I chose to be angry.

My ex-husband does not call. He does not pay child support. When we divorced, he might as well have just died.

Today I chose not to feel sorry for myself and instead count my blessings.

1) My children are happy and alive.
2) My parents are alive.
3) My siblings are alive
4) I am buying the house I live in.
5) I have paid all the bills for this month.
6) I live in an area with a good school district.
7) I have reasonably inexpensive health insurance for my kids.
8) I have a job
9) We will not go hungry.
10)My car gets me back and forth to work and anyplace else I want to go.
11)My little girl likes her smile.
12)My kids like each other and choose to be with each other.
13)My family all live within driving distance.
14)I work eight miles from where I live.
15)I found this forum.
16)This can go on and on....

Today I chose to be happy.

""What we do in life echoes in eternity-Maximus"

Hello everyone,

I am doing one .75 survey each day. In a regular 30 day month that is 22.50. I'm trying to earn that much per weekend. You can only do one .75 per day. Sometimes that's all you get to do. I get denied for more surveys then I get approved for.

I signed up for the Bronze member program in Shadow shopper. It looks pretty interesting. I wish I knew someone else that tried them to see what they can tell me. I really don't want to spend the sign up money if I don't have to.

My son asked me to make macaroni with cheese and hamburger for dinner today. I found out that I didn't have any hamburger. I didn't realize that I was completely out. I did get a few more groceries (after the shopping spree) but the hamburger was all over $2 per pound. I just can't afford to pay that. I'll have to keep an eye out for the sales. I have only about $60 left in the food budget until March 14. My next check on 2/28 goes to the mortgage and car insurance.

We had left over soup from yesterday instead. If I still have soup left after today, I'll freeze it for another time.

I think tomorrow we'll have grilled cheese with turkey slices for dinner.

Worries:

It's gone down to the 40's at night for the last couple of nights and my heater has kicked on. I'm worried about the propane. I haven't checked the tank in a while.

I have until April 26th when DD has her ortho appointment to come up with at least $250 to start her braces, than make the payment of $130 a month.

My oldest daughter just told me she is thinking about joining the army again. She has wanted to do this since she graduated from high school. She will be 23 this year.

Even though I worry, somehow I know in my heart that everything will be okay.

I leave you with one of my favorite bible quotes.

"And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest is love."
I Corninthians 13:13

Hello Everyone,

I made $7.50 on the internet. It really can be done! I'm so happy. I have $11.00 in pending approval transfers to me and I am going to do at least one more thing which will bring me up to close to $35.00. This is just over the weekend. $35 per weekend is all I need to get my daughter in braces and make the payment. Plus I signed up for about 15 survey places. I hope some of them pick me for paid surveys. I am also looking at Shadow Shopper. I haven't started that because I don't have any money to pay the enrollment fee. Has anyone tried that? A girl at works husband did it for almost two years and loved the freedom of it.

I'm making beef vegetable soup for dinner. I make it in the crock pot. Yum!

I went to the chiroprator this morning. He adjusted my neck. I can turn it now and don't feel like it is such an effort to hold my head up. It has an ice pad on it. The doctor said I won't have to go back unless it starts to hurt again. This is the first time I've been to the chiroprator since 4/06. Not too bad.

I feel so much better today. Not so worried.

I hope you all have a lovely president's day. It is raining off and on out in So CA.

I'll part with one of the most misquoted quotes I've ever heard.

"The love of money is the root of all evil." not "Money is the root of all evil."

Dear Fellow Blogsters,

Well other than the real pain in my neck. I just got a cut off notice for my internet service.

I called and told them I'd been paying them. Well what apparently happened is that when I changed phone services to another company, I deleted the internet account and not the phone account. So I've been paying the wrong bill for two months.

Now can they credit my account? No. They will credit it back to my checking account in ... get this....4 to six weeks. I had to pay at least half to keep my internet service connected.

I understand that it was all my doing and I told them that...BUT....now that the problem has been found WHY can't they credit the internet account that is about to be disconnected and WHY did they continue to accept my payment each month when I didn't have an account with them?

It seems totally ridiculous to me. It just makes me wonder if I ever overpaid anyone else and they kept the overpayment?

I'm going to be much more careful from now on. Do you know that they wouldn't even credit my account the $1.99 for two months late charges? I suppose you can guess why I don't have them for my phone or cable television anymore.

Well other than this small mishap, it was a beautiful 75 degree day out here in So Ca. I woke up and thought my neck was actually better. It is just now barely starting to hurt, so I took a motrin. The chiroprator appointment is Monday.

Both my sons are gone for the weekend. One went to the motocross in San Diego with my oldest daughter and the other is with my sister. It is a much needed break all the way around. I just have my little girl home with me.

Well I'm going back to the couch. It is somehow more comfortable for me there.

I hope all of you have a wonderful, peaceful weekend.

I'll leave you with something I overheard a customer of mine say one day.

"I can do anything I set my mind to. I know this because I have done it before."

I worked seven hours overtime today. When I got home my younger son (16) wanted to go grocery shopping "just for a couple of things" he said. Normally the kids don't go, they just unload the car. I must have been really tired and the 800 milligrams of motrin I took for my neck pain must of made me numb because I said, "okay" when he asked to go. Now I am sitting here thinking about what I just did.

I spent $200 on groceries. Mostly on frozen convenience foods. Almost nothing that me or my youngest daughter eats. My boys are in food heaven. I didn't even buy catfood.

My budget is $150 for two weeks. I overspent by $50 and on food that I consider unhealthy. I told my son it better last him the next six months because it is going to be a long long time before he sees pizza rolls and honey buns in this house again.

He than said that I should have just told him "no".

No kidding.

On the brighter side, my oldest daughter is giving me $400 on Sunday when she gets paid. I made her car payment so it would be timely. She borrowed $100 and I'll have $60 left over. I'll be able to buy catfood!

Eww! I just noticed the kid raided my change jar. My two quarters are gone. It was the kid I went shopping with.

Our conversation:

"What did you do with the money?" I asked and he said "I bought candy." He just had candy yesterday. I said (still numb from the motrin) "How much candy can you eat?" He replied "A lot!"

Then I told him not to do it again. I became very free with that change jar. Now that I'm trying to save money they had better stay out of it.

Its been a while since I've had a motrin, so I'm going to take another and lay down on the couch.

I hope you all had a wonderful money day.

"Today I am one more day closer to paying off my debt".

That sure puts everything in perspective for me. I feel better already.

Today I took my daughter for another free opinion on her braces. The estimate was higher, the message was still the same.

My daughter's teeth are dropping to fill the gaps left by adult teeth that never grew in on the bottom. She is 14. Her mouth is a train wreck. It was funny that when we asked her if she was happy with her smile, she said that she was. I guess I did raise some well adjusted kids.

I made an appointment to go back to the first orthodontist in two months. In that time, I have to save $500 for the down and figure out how I'm going to squeeze in an extra $121 per month into my already very limited budget. I don't even have anything left to sell anymore.

I bought a candy bar at work today and went out for lunch at a restaurant. It was, I think, the first time in 6 or 8 months. It was nice. I won't be doing it again for another 6 or 8 months. On the brighter side, the change went into my change jar.

I think I'm going to name my change jar "Cruise". I heard it helps to save change if you actually have a goal.

I'm working overtime tomorrow and next Saturday (whooppee!). It's easier to leave the kids at home during the day then at night. I know they are in their teens. It just seems that they need me so much more now.

I hope all of you also had a wonderful day.

Some things have changed.

I have $900 and change in a money market account. This is 1/2 my mortgage. I take it back to pay the mortgage once per month. Than for about 15 days my mm account has zero in it. I have earned .45 in interest though.

All my bills have been paid for this month.

I am trying to put away $25 each time I get paid to go on a cruise. I had to borrow it back this month. The entire $100. At least my bills are all paid.

I tell myself that I am not playing catch up. I can't go back and repay myself. I don't have the funds. I have to start fresh each day.

I now have a change jar that is hidden. I never minded in the past that the kids would help themselves to the change; but lately I have begun to mind. They get an allowance and I don't.

Life is still very hard. I feel like I will never have any money again. On the bright side. I can have up to 8 hours a week overtime. OT is hard to manage when you have kids. I wish we had more Saturdays available to work. Those are pretty rare. I am going to try to manage 5 a week for now.

My two youngest need braces and I have to do everything I can to save money. I got one estimate and for both it was close to 8,000. My son had braces when he was little and he needs to have his second phase. I told him his sister's teeth are really bad and if I have to choose, she will be the one to get the braces first. I'm taking only her for another consultation tomorrow. Hopefully it will be much more reasonable.

I am paying $316 per month now in stupid debt. I am still kicking myself. They will be paid off in 40 months. That, my dear friends, means the year 2011. I will be 44.

Happy Valentine's Day to all.