Penny Pinching Mom

It’s Up to Me

I’ve got a lot riding on today. I’ve got to get enough work done on a certain project to be able to pay our car insurance before it is canceled and buy enough groceries and gas to get us through until Hubby gets paid. It’s do or die, and I’m feeling the pressure.

It’s really not a lot of work that I need to get done. But as you may have gathered, I don’t do very well under pressure lately. All I can do is suck it up and give it my best shot, but what if my best shot doesn’t cut it? Yes, I know I’m overanalyzing things and should just get down to business so I’ll have a fighting chance. But that’s not easy for me to do lately.

It’s too bad I can’t just make a trip to the nearest college bookstore and sell textbooks to make some extra cash. I could certainly handle that. But all of my college textbooks are long gone, and I’m sure they would bring little to nothing today even if I did have them. So I suppose I had better buckle down and get some work done.

New-Fangled Games

My brother-in-law has been staying with us for the past few nights, and he is a major video game addict. He brought his Playstation 2, which is newer than any of the game systems we own, and he and Hubby have been playing it every night. He has several wrestling games, and those are the ones they’ve been playing the most.

I can’t deny that I’m impressed with the graphics on them. They’re much better than those on the old Playstation 1 WWE game we have. And I even tried playing it once. Not bad, but I just couldn’t get into it. I mean, pro wrestling is one of my guilty pleasures and all, but for some reason a video game featuring all those guys who are on serious hgh pills (or something like that) just isn’t my cup of tea. I’m more into the old Atari-type games.

BIL also brought one of those little plug and play games with a bunch of those types of games on it, and I kind of like it. I sat and played this pyramid game for nearly two hours the other day. But I even got burned out on that for some reason. Not a bad thing by any means, because playing video games isn’t exactly productive or educational.

He’s got a ton more PS2 games, so I’ll probably run across something I like eventually if he’s here for long. But I’m not going to actively seek something to play.

Pepper Jack Rocks

I still haven’t had much of a sweet tooth, but I guess I’ve been making up for it with other fattening things. On a recent trip to the grocery store, I bought some crackers and a block of pepper jack cheese. I love me some pepper jack! But I guess I loved it a little too much, because it was gone in two days. And nobody here will eat it but me, so I can’t exactly shift the blame.

I knew I was doing a bad thing when I bought it. But it kept calling my name, saying, “Kriiiiiistyyy… take me home!” And I did.

Oh well. I don’t guess it’s such a bad thing to have a little treat every now and then. It’s not like I do it often, and I’m not so obsessed with my weight that I chase the cheese with a handful of the best fat burning supplement money can buy. (Still, it probably wouldn’t hurt to try such a supplement. Maybe someday.)

Other than my little cheese splurge, I’ve been eating reasonably well lately. Now if I could just make myself exercise, maybe I could get in better shape.

Headaches

Between being constantly stressed out and having troubles with my sinuses, I’ve had almost a constant headache for the past few weeks. I ran out of my favorite OTC pain med (Aleve) and have been taking acetaminophen (generic Tylenol) for the past couple of days, and now I’m out of that too. I went digging through the medicine cabinet and found some stuff for joint pain relief, but I doubt that will help. So I guess it’s time to break down and go to the store and get something.

I need to buy some more acetaminophen, but with the big Tylenol recall that’s going on, I’m almost afraid to. I almost always buy the store brand, but I’m not sure if those are part of the recall or not. I guess I’ll have to pour through the website and see before I go to the store.

Personally, I prefer Aleve, but Hubby can’t take it. So when money is tight like it is right now, I usually buy acetaminophen. If anybody has any advice regarding saving money on pain relievers, feel free to share in the comments.

Spinning My Wheels

When I first started this blog, I had grand visions for it. I planned on turning it into an entire website, with lots of cool features and advice for moms like me who needed to get the most out of their money. I figured I would employ lots of SEO, promote the heck out of it, maybe even hire one of those directory submission services to get more traffic.

But things just didn’t work out that way. In fact, it seems that I’ve lost my focus altogether and this has become a rather general blog instead of what it was intended to be. I guess it’s because I ended up being less inclined to be a webmaster and more oriented toward being a writer over time. I like creating websites and all, but it’s turned out to be more of an occasional hobby than a passion for me.

Sometimes I feel like I’m spinning my wheels here. I guess I should probably try to create more content that relates to the site’s intended purpose, at the very least. Then again, it’s my blog with which to do what I see fit. So if I want to write about nothing but rubber chickens, I can.

I guess what I’m having here is sort of a blog midlife crisis. Just overlook me. I’ll get everything figured out in time.

I Lost My Sweet Tooth

There was a time when I had a major sweet tooth. But for the past few months, I just haven’t craved much of anything sweet. I’ve been much more likely to pick up some chips or crackers than cake or candy.

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve found myself almost repulsed by the though of sweets. Last week I went to the grocery store and saw that Hershey’s with Almonds, one of my favorite types of candy bar, were on sale. I picked up a few of them and brought them home. Pumpkin asked for one, and I gave it to her. She ate half of it, and then said she didn’t want the rest. Normally, I would have been happy to finish it, but this time I turned it down. I never imagined that even the world’s best diet supplement could make me do that.

The only thing I can think of that might be causing this complete aversion to sweets is my new medication. I seem to have less of an appetite overall since I’ve been on it, and maybe that’s also contributing to it. It’s not a bad thing at all, just weird.

Not Sure About This Medication

I mentioned in a post a couple of weeks ago that the doctor put me on Prozac. I had high hopes for it. But so far it doesn’t appear to be helping much, and it’s producing a highly undesirable side effect: I’m staying sleepy all the time.

She said it would take a couple of weeks to start working. Well, it’s been a couple of weeks, and I don’t really feel any better. I’ve read online that it can take up to six weeks to reach its full effect, but it would be nice if it would start doing something soon. Other than making me feel constantly exhausted.

But I’m going to hang in there until I go back to the doctor at the end of the month. I’ll just have to fight the urge to sleep all the time as best I can until then. Too bad I don’t have some exercise equipment to jump on and start working out when I feel myself fading. Guess I could try cleaning house when I need a boost. That’s something that I need to do anyway.

Why I’ve Never Been a Flosser

Flossing is one of those things that we all know we should do, but relatively few of us do it regularly. I’m a prime example. I’ve flossed on occasion, but it’s never been one of my favorite activities. And there’s a very simple reason why: because it’s always been a pain for me to do.

And I’m not just talking about it feeling like a chore. After all, brushing your teeth isn’t exactly my idea of fun, but I manage to make myself do it at least twice a day because I want to keep my teeth healthy. But flossing has always been a painful prospect for me. You see, my teeth are very close together, and it’s quite difficult for me to maneuver a strand of floss between them. Just about every time I’ve done it, I’ve ended up hurting my gums because I had to use so much force. Not fun. Plus, by the time I was done, the piece of floss I was using would always be all shredded, leaving pieces between my teeth and not doing its job very well any more.

Then I got the chance to try Dentek Complete Clean Floss. It’s touted as an “easy sliding floss,” and that sounded like it would be right up my alley. So I gave it a whirl.

Once I had the product in hand, the first thing I noticed was its cute little blue and white stripes. But they’re not just for decoration. The floss is actually made from two thin strands of floss that are twisted together, making it easier for it to grip the particles between the teeth. It also means that there are no sharp edges to worry about cutting your gums with. Very nice!

Still a little skeptical, I pulled out a strand and gave it a try. And lo and behold, it did not massacre my gums! I can honestly say that it was the easiest floss to get between my crowded teeth that I’ve ever used. Here’s a video review I did for it:

This awesome product hasn’t yet made flossing a habit for me. That’s something I’ll have to work on after so many years of not doing it very often. But now I don’t dread it. And that’s certainly a step in the right direction.

*This review is a result of a feedback campaign by DenTek Oral Care Inc. The recipients were asked to give their honest opinion about the product they received. Good reviews were not incentivized and poor reviews will not be censored for their opinion of the product.

Who Knew Running Water Could Be So Expensive?

Running water is one of those things most of us take for granted. I say most of us because I know some people here in the mountains who don’t have it. But it’s not something that I’m willing to live without. Last week, though, I had to do just that.

It started the first weekend of the new year with our water freezing. We got it thawed back out, but there was very little water pressure. Hubby had other matters to attend to, so we figured we would just leave it be for the time being since we at least had it running. But it froze up again the following night, even though we left it running.

We thawed it out again, but it eventually quit running altogether. Turned out that our pressure tank was shot. So we had to buy a new one and all new fittings for it. All that came up to a grand total of $200. Hubby and his brothers installed it, and all seemed to be going well until they turned the water off to tighten up one last thing. When they turned it back on, nothing happened.

Hubby asked some of his buddies what could be the problem, and they offered some suggestions. But nothing he tried worked, so he figured it must be the well pump. He and his brother went to work pulling it out of the ground, and found that whoever installed it used the wrong kind of pipe. Meanwhile, I talked him into calling his cousin, who does a lot of plumbing work. And I’m glad I did.

He came over on Sunday, and he discovered that it wasn’t the pump after all. I’m not sure what exactly the problem was, but it was something simple that didn’t cost a dime to fix. We had to replace the piping to the pump because the old stuff broke all to pieces when they were pulling it out, though, and that cost us another $200.

I’m just glad that’s all over with. I have been feeling terrible both physically and mentally since the New Year, and that wasn’t helping matters. Never mind the fact that money has been scarce and the bills just keep pouring in. It sure would be nice to open the mailbox one day and find only positive things, like free samples and baby announcements.

Here’s hoping that the rest of 2010 goes better than it has thus far. And for those of you who are already having a good year, that it continues to go well for you.

Crappy New Year

Dear readers: Please don’t read the title of this post and think that I’m wishing you a horrid 2010. I’m just making a statement about how my new year has been thus far.

Where shall I start? I guess I’ll start with New Year’s Eve. I woke up that morning with my nerves all to hell, for no particular reason. I was on the verge of a panic attack before I even got out of bed. Stuff going through my head at the speed of light, and me generally just driving myself nuts. I tried to stop it, but that never works. Hubby finally talked me into going to the doctor, even though we couldn’t afford it. So there’s some more debt on the old credit card.

I went, I talked to the doctor, I cried, and she gave me some advice and a prescription for Prozac. I was hoping for something a little faster acting, but I guess I’ll just have to hang in there for a couple of weeks and see if it’s going to work or not. At least Hubby was kind enough to take me out to eat and try to have some fun together. That kept me from going off the deep end, even though we were both rather bummed that we didn’t have any friends to spend New Year’s Eve with.

New Year’s Day was pretty uneventful. We sat around the house, played computer games, and went to the inlaws’ house to watch wrestling. But this morning we woke up to frozen water. It took Hubby about an hour to get it thawed out, and then he left to go cut some wood so we would have heat during this ice age we’re going through here in the mountains right now. Shortly after he left, it quit running again. I went to the basement, used the hair dryer to thaw it out once again, and thought all was well. But the next time I went to the basement, there was a stream of water running down from the bathroom, signifying of course a leak. So I had to turn the water off, run it out of the lines, and now all I can do is wait until Hubby gets back and see how bad the news is.

If we’re going to be stuck in this place for a while (and I’m sure we are), I think I’m going to have to look into student loans and go to school to study plumbing and contracting. Sometimes it seems like keeping everything running smoothly is a full-time job. And I really don’t need all this additional stress right now.