Penny Pinching Mom

Weight Loss

I promised myself that I was going to lose weight by my next birthday. I didn’t make any promises as to how much, but it would be great if I could drop about 50 pounds. But there are only about 7 1/2 months until my birthday, and so far I have made no progress.

I’ve been doing some comparison shopping on diet supplements, but I’ve come to the conclusion that none of them are cheap. So I guess my best bet is to study their effectiveness so I at least get the most bang for my buck. I’ve heard good things about the Phentermine patches, and they’re not any more expensive than the other stuff. I’m going to keep looking, but I’m keeping them in mind.

Of course exercising can be done for free, and I really need to do some of that. Finding the time and energy to do it is my biggest problem. So a little boost to get me started would be a big help.

Thank God for the Internet

I’ve acquired another freelance writing gig that could very well be an ongoing thing. Woo-hoo!

If it weren’t for the Internet, I doubt that I would be writing. Finding jobs is a challenge, but the Internet makes listings so much more accessible. You can type up your work on the computer, and send the finished file to the recipient.

I wasn’t a writer back in the “old days” so to speak, but I know it had to be much more difficult then. Unless you had good connections, finding jobs would surely have been much more difficult. And then there was the typing and printing of your work, and if the recipient was too far off to hand-deliver it you would have to pay shipping to get it there.

And let’s not forget the days before computers. I’m not too young to remember when almost no one had a computer at home. As a matter of fact, even when I was in high school, typing was taught on gargantuan typewriters. (We had computers at school, but I guess they wanted to get the maximum usage out of those typewriters before replacing them.) I can’t imagine having to type everything out on a typewriter. I make too many boo-boos. I would need massive quantities of bic pens to make all of my corrections with before retyping.

So I guess I’m pretty lucky to be writing at this point in time. Not only are things easier, but doing almost everything electronically is more economical and environmentally friendly.

Energy Costs Are Killing Me

We just got our electric bill, and I was happy to see that for the first time in many months it was under $100. Still, our usage this month last year was higher than this year, yet our bill was lower last year.

Energy costs are becoming outrageous. First gas, now electricity. I’m looking for ways to cut back. So far I’ve decided to put up a clothesline, something I’ve wanted to do for some time but haven’t gotten around to doing.

I’ve also considered doing the budget billing thing with the electric company. You know, where they average your usage for the past year and charge you the same amount each month. It would make the winter months a little less of a strain on the budget.

As far as gas goes, I already do as little traveling as possible. I don’t live close enough to town to walk or bike anywhere, but if I could find a cheap scooter I would consider buying it. Too bad you can’t ride a four-wheeler on the road- if you could I would take Hubby’s to work. LOL

One Bad Thing About Self-Employment

One of the bad things about being self-employed is not being able to get group insurance rates. I’ve thought about switching jobs so I could get insurance through work, but I am so close to being able to work exclusively for myself that I just can’t convince myself to go job hunting.

I’ve looked into health insurance, and the lowest plan I’ve come up with is almost $80 a month. That would be a good price if it covered a lot, but it was a very bare-bones emergency-oriented plan. And I need something that will cover routine doctor visits. Right now it seems that we would be just as well off to pay full price for doctor visits, because what we pay out in medical bills averages out to be less than what we would pay for insurance.

At least funeral insurance isn’t that expensive. It can be had for just a few dollars a month. Hubby just recently got it on himself through his work, but I need to get some on myself. It’s on my to-do list.

An Idea

Sometimes I wonder if I would be better off not knowing how much money I actually have. That’s really almost the case right now. I have money in the bank, but couldn’t say for sure exactly how much. I also have some money locked up in a very safe place, but again am not sure how much is in there. All I can say for sure is how much cash is in my purse right now, and that is $1.

Now, I do check on the bank account periodically. I know when it is getting low enough to worry about, and always check before paying bills or making a major purchase. But when I’m not really sure how much money I have, I tend to spend much more conservatively. And that’s a good thing.

I’ve thought about opening up a savings account to take that a step further. The only savings account I have opened in my life was wiped out when I had to get my car fixed, and I just ended up closing it out because I had never put enough money in it to do any good anyway. It would be great if I could get a savings account that would automagically absorb any money that I didn’t need for bills and groceries. Then I’ll bet I could get somewhere.

Self-Control

I have cut back to four days a week at my day job. I’m ecstatic about that, and hopeful that I will be able to cut back more or even quit within a few months. My writing is going pretty well, and I’m now looking for more projects to keep me perpetually busy. I’ve had to exercise a lot of self-control not to just give my two week notice and hope for the best, but I know that I need to stay with it for at least a little longer so we can get ahead of the game.

Now that we actually have a little extra money, I’m also having to tap into my self-control to keep from spending it all. I need to sit down and make a list of what we need and what we want but can do without. For example, I’m dying for some new blinds, and we actually need a set for my office pretty badly. But I could easily go out and get a cheap $5 set to use until we get some more important things squared away and I can afford to get the nice ones I really want for the whole house.

Sometimes being practical isn’t much fun. But it pays off in the end.

Took a Chance, and It Paid Off

Pumpkin needed a brown sweatsuit for her part in her school play. It was supposed to be turned in by last Monday, but I had been unsuccessful in the hunt for one. I expected to have a hard time finding a brown one, but I had no idea that a plain old light colored sweatsuit that I could dye brown would be so hard to find in her size at a reasonable price.

I did find one on a specialty website whose name escapes me, but by the time I paid for shipping it would have been about $25, and may or may not have gotten here on time. I wasn’t about to pay that for something that was going to be used once.

Finally, last Tuesday, I found a sweat set on WalMart.com in her size. I had to get a white shirt and heather gray pants, but I figured that would be the best I could possibly do anyway and went ahead and ordered it. I almost paid extra for express shipping, but decided to take a leap of faith and have it shipped normally.

It arrived today, three days before the play. By taking a chance and not getting express shipping, I saved myself $11. I’m glad that worked out well… now I’ve just got to get the thing dyed. I’m not looking forward to that part.

In Search of Cheap Ink

I need ink for my printer. I got it for Christmas, and it came with a color cartridge but no black cartridge. I’ve been using it with only the color cartridge, and I’m running out pretty quickly.

Inkjet cartridges are just so darned expensive. I’m planning on checking out some suppliers of discount office supplies to find the best deal possible. I’ve already checked with Wal-Mart and the manufacturer, and both of them are charging more than I want to pay. So I’ve got some shopping around to do.

How Bout Those Gas Prices?

I took Pumpkin to spend the weekend with my mom in Virginia on Friday. Gas was nearly $3.00 here, so I thought I would see if it was any cheaper up there. As it turned out it was 10 cents cheaper, but I didn’t get any because I had just filled up recently and thought I would wait until going to pick her up. That way I would have more room in my tank for the cheaper gas.

That didn’t work out as planned. Hubby decided that for once he would go up there with me, and he wanted to take his truck. So guess who got the cheap gas? Bummer.

Going for It

I’m gonna do it. Tomorrow I’m going to talk to my boss about getting less hours at my job. I hope it goes well.

I started to today, but I decided to think about it a bit longer. It’s hard to fathom giving up a somewhat sure thing, even partially, for writing that may or may not continue to come in steadily. But I got more assignments this evening, adding to a backlog I already had. So I guess I need to go ahead and take the plunge.

I should still come out ahead, which would be a great thing. Hubby and I need to save up some money for various things. We want to buy some land. Hubby wants to start his own business. I need a new computer desk, and I saw a great one by Studio RTA Furniture. Okay, maybe that last one can wait if necessary. But you get the picture.

I just hope this all goes well. I’m thinking positively while trying to be realistic- and I hope it doesn’t blow up in my face.