Hubby and I have been trying to sell some of our unwanted stuff for a while now. We hadn’t had much luck with our local trading post paper in the past, so we didn’t bother with it. We put it on the radio and on Craigslist, hoping to get a better response.

Neither of those worked out well at all. We got one legitimate response from Craigslist, and that guy expected us to meet him halfway with the tires he wanted or knock $20 off the price. We were actually going to meet him, but when I told him where we lived and asked where a good meeting place would be he never wrote back. I guess we lived further away than he was willing to drive halfway to.

The radio responses were no better. We got more of them, but they were all people who just heard “tires” and called because they missed the size. We also got one call about the air hockey table from a woman who said she would come look at it the next day but never showed.

So I finally broke down and put the tires and the air hockey table in the paper. And we sold them both this weekend! Now I’m thinking about putting some more stuff in there. We’ve got a little bit of everything laying around in the garage, with the possible exception of iphone accessories (and I don’t think many people around here would have use for those anyway, seeing how none of the local cellular companies offer service for them). I still haven’t made heads or tails out of the car parts, but there are lots of other things that might sell. I’ll have to find a few to put in the paper before the deadline this week.

How rude of me. I mentioned that I was having an Oscar Mayer House Party, and then I didn’t tell how it went.

In case you were wondering, it went great. We had a blast, and everyone loved the hot dogs, even picky old Hubby. Since we don’t have satellite radios and no regular radio stations pick up very well here, I burned a CD for the party. We listened to music, ate lots of food, and had a massive water fight. It rained off and on for the first hour, and by the time we got to hook up the water slide, most of the kids were gone. But they still had a blast playing outside between showers and watching a movie when it was raining.

I hope I get to have another House Party one day. It went over very well, and everyone had lots of fun.

I hate to say it, but most men are clueless about buying jewelry for their significant other. Yes, I know, it’s a generalization, but it’s true. Some just don’t know how to choose the right piece. Others get the timing all wrong (like the guy who bought me a diamond ring after our first date). It’s not their fault, really. Jewelry just doesn’t seem to speak to them like it does to women.

The fine folks at Bella True know this. And they have taken it upon themselves to do something about it. They’ve dedicated a portion of their site (ten pages to be exact) to educating men about the intricacies of selecting jewelry for their wives and girlfriends. I know, they’re selling jewelry, but it almost seems like a public service.

This isn’t just a tutorial about choosing the best engagement rings, although they cover that very well. It goes into detail about choosing the right piece of jewelry for every occasion, and when to give jewelry “just because”. It tells how to determine a woman’s favorite gemstones and metals, and which pieces are best for which holidays. It’s like the gift-giving bible for men.

I think my dear husband should take a look at it. If he read it carefully, maybe he would know that I would love to have something like that beautiful ring pictured above. And maybe, when the time was right, he would buy it for me. A girl can dream, can’t she?

On Saturday, I’ll be having my first House Party. More specifically, it’s an Oscar Mayer Top Tasting Dog House Party. I’m a little nervous about it, worrying about whether or not anyone will show up and if everyone shows up whether I’ll have enough food. But it should be lots of fun.

I’ve got to do my shopping tomorrow. They sent me coupons for the hot dogs and some of the toppings, as well as paper plates, napkins and party favors (coupons and wiener whistles), but I’ll have to provide the buns and side dishes. I’ll have to get some charcoal and drinks, too. I had planned on asking each guest to bring something, but I can’t get a firm commitment out of anyone, so I guess I’ll just be getting everything myself as cheaply as possible.

As of right now, I’m planning on having the hot dogs, finger sandwiches, pasta salad and baked beans. I’ll have to buy chili, cole slaw, onions, mustard and maybe a couple of other toppings. I’m just hoping that it doesn’t get too terribly expensive.

I’ll let you know how it goes. If things go well, maybe I’ll apply for some more house parties. I love getting free stuff and sharing it with others. But if no one shows up, I guess it will be my last one, because I hate going to a lot of trouble and expense for nothing.

A guy that Hubby works with raises chickens. He has given us eggs off and on for some time now. And up until today, with the exception of having to clean them myself, all has gone well.

He gave us five dozen yesterday, so I thought we would be set for a while. Hubby said he wanted some scrambled eggs for supper this evening, so I got out a bowl and some eggs and got to work. The first egg I broke had a busted yolk, but I assumed that I had done it and broke another one in the bowl. And then the scent hit my nose, and my stomach turned. I’m not sure about the second one, but the first was rotten.

I ran out the door and poured the contents of the bowl out. Then I came back in, gave myself a minute to recover, and washed the bowl. Figuring it was a fluke, I picked up another of the eggs I had washed and broke it into the bowl. And that one came extremely close to making me vomit. It looked bloody and smelled absolutely disgusting.

Once again, I ran out the door and poured it out. And then I asked Hubby if there was something else he could eat. He decided on a hot dog, so I fixed him one and sat down for a while. I was starving before I started cracking eggs, but the sights and smells curbed my appetite better than the world’s greatest diet pill.

I’ll probably throw all of those eggs out. I hate to do it on the chance that some of them might be good, but I just don’t think I can handle going through that again. I’d rather pay a dollar and change a carton at the grocery store.

I’m not a hardcore gamer by any means. In fact, I just can’t get into most of the newer games. But I love, love, love some of the older ones. There’s just something about those ancient Atari games that takes me back to my childhood. And besides that, they actually make a reasonable amount of sense to me.

I also like some of the games from the Nintendo/Sega Genesis era. Pumpkin has a Super Nintendo, and we were all major Donkey Kong Country addicts for a long time, until we finally beat the final level. And yesterday, my brother-in-law let us borrow my favorite game of all time: Zombies Ate My Neighbors.

My cousin bought me that game for my birthday when I was a teenager, and we would spend hours on end playing it. It didn’t have the most cutting-edge graphics for the time or anything, I just loved the whole concept of it. Each level was like one of those cheezy old horror movies. Sometimes there were guys with chainsaws after you, sometimes it was giant bugs, and sometimes it was clones of your character. Awesome stuff.

We brought it home and played it for a while last night. Even Pumpkin loved it, which surprised me seeing how even little things like the noise that hand dryers make scare her. One of the books she had to read for school gave her nightmares, but that game does not bother her in the least. Go figure.

If you need a video game fix on a budget, classic games are definitely the way to go. You can find old systems in good condition at yard sales or on eBay for next to nothing, and the games to go with them are even less expensive. You can also find some of the older games on those joysticks that plug right into your TV. Happy gaming!

I’ve been using credit and debit cards for some time now. I got my first credit card when I was 18. I was quite responsible with it, and ended up with two more by the time I was in my early 20s. But then I started getting carried away with them, and then I lost my job, and things just went downhill from there.

Today, I only have two debit cards in my name. After I told Hubby my story, he wasn’t interested in getting any credit cards for himself. But last year I talked him into getting one for emergencies. Now we owe more on it than we should due to the past year or so being a pretty much constant emergency, but we’ve always made the payment on time so far and are paying extra on it as much as possible.

Having a credit card can be good for other reasons, too. One of the most compelling advantages it has over a debit card is fraud protection. If your credit card or credit card number is stolen or misused, you can’t legally be held liable for more than $50 in charges. With debit cards, that number is much higher. And with a credit card, if you buy something that is defective or doesn’t do what the manufacturer claims, you can go through the credit card company to get your money back if necessary.

Still, I’m a little leery of using a debit or credit card in some instances. I’ve heard the horror stories of people who’ve ordered things like weight loss supplements and books on a subscription-type plan where you were supposed to be able to cancel at any time. Sometimes the companies would charge their cards even after they canceled, and they had trouble getting their money back. That’s not to say that all such companies are unscrupulous. I know they’re not, because I ordered such a trial on diet pills many years ago and didn’t have any problems canceling. But it’s hard to trust companies that you know little or nothing about because of the few that do rip people off.

I would imagine that it would be easier to get a refund through a credit card company than the bank through which you have your debit card. I’ve never had that experience myself, though. I’ve considered ordering a book club membership for Pumpkin that only costs $5 for the first month and you can cancel at any time, but we can’t afford to be ripped off right now, so I keep putting it off. Am I being overly paranoid?

Have you gotten a chance to check out my blogging at Coupon Trunk yet? If so, how am I doing? If not, why not???

Even if you’re not interested in reading my posts, I urge you to take a look at their deals and coupon codes. They can help you save on everything from acne treatments to zip drives, and I’m not just saying that because I’m blogging for them. They really have coupon codes for just about anything you can think of.

If you do happen to be interested in what I have to say, here’s a good post to start with. It’s about an online store that I find quite intriguing.

Maybe you’ve noticed that I haven’t posted much this month. Or maybe you haven’t. But if you have, it’s been because that streak of bad luck that started out at the beginning of the month has just dragged on and on and on, and I’ve been running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get everything back in order.

To make a very long story short, we had three different plumbing problems, a failed water heater, and two basement floods. We went without cold water off and on for a couple of weeks, and completely without hot water for three weeks. In the meantime, we had to buy several different things to fix everything, plus had to eat out more frequently than usual, and had to travel to take showers. Not to mention the fact that Hubby has lost about a week of work due to rain. And that has left us in dire straits.

At least things are looking a little better now. I’m not getting my hopes up because I can’t stand to have them dashed to pieces again, but we’ve gone a couple of days without a major incident. Now it’s time to pick up the pieces and try to get our finances out of the red.

I would consider starting a donation drive, but we can’t afford the envelopes, postage and rubber stamps. Okay, I don’t suppose I’d do that anyway, but it’s a thought. What I am doing is trying to sell some of that stuff that’s sitting in the garage. We took inventory of it the other day, and there are a few things that should bring a decent price. If we could sell a couple of them by early next week, we might be able to pay the electric bill without asking for an extension (which I wouldn’t mind doing if it didn’t cost 20 bucks extra).

I’m also hoping to be able to do some extra work. I’ve had trouble keeping up with my regular work due to all the activity and stress, but I finally got caught up last night. If things will just remain somewhat normal now, maybe I can get stuff done.

In short, times are tough. But it’s not the first time they’ve been that way. We’ll make it through, somehow.

I appreciate good food storage. Really, I do. Unfortunately, I’m terrible about losing or damaging my containers. I think I have about two or three of them now, and they’re the Gladware type things that you get when you buy sandwich meat. I don’t think I even have the lids to all of those.

So when I saw Kat’s Rubbermaid giveaway, I entered on the spot. Now, I could keep this to myself to increase my chances of winning, but I’m not like that. (Besides, I get an extra entry for blogging about it. ) The contest is only open to bloggers in the U.S. (excluding Alaska and Hawaii), so if you fit into that category, head on over and get your name in!