It's actually after midnight but I figure "Midnight musings" sounds better than "12:34 AM thoughts"...

Anyway, I'm listening to archived Dave Ramsey shows, reading news stories about the President's proposed stimulus package, and eating a bean burrito. I need to get to bed soon but can't sleep. Fortunately I don't have to be at work until 4 PM so I should be able to sneak in a nap or two.

After hearing the commercials on Dave's show, I checked out e-Mealz. It seems like a pretty good deal at $1.25 a week so I looked at some of the sample menus. I was particularly interested in the low carb menus but was disappointed that they featured quite a few items we don't eat and they don't seem to have a menu plan for kosher diets. We don't eat rabinically kosher but it's very close to our diet. Not that I am seriously considering signing up for e-Mealz but I know a few people who might really benefit from it. I already do what e-Mealz says they do but I don't spend hours on it like the commercial mentions. It takes me 10 to 20 minutes to create a frugal but healthy menu plan for two weeks and I think we do pretty well feeding two adults for $30 to $45 a week with some weeks coming in well under the $30.

Speaking of frugal food, it's the time of year when we normally begin garden planning but we haven't considered it yet because we don't know where we'll be when it's time to plant. We might be in an apartment and only have a few pots in which to plant but it's possible we'll find an affordable lot somewhere and be able to put in a full sized garden. I'm praying for the latter.

Tomorrow before I go to work I'm cooking a whole chicken. It will feed us dinner tomorrow night and several meals through the week, including my lunches at work. Yaaay for stretching chickens! We'll also eat some meatless meals which means more money will be added to the challenge!

Okay, I'm off to bed now. I'm finally tired and it's about 1 AM.

I didn't spend $2.75 of the money I took to the laundrymat today so that goes in the challenge. So do the eighteen cents I found in a washer and the seven cents I found yesterday on the ground. In addition, I'm adding $3 for the three times we were out and about and I didn't get a snack or drink and $2 for two meatless meals the last day or so.

The new total is $60.83. Go me! I look forward to seeing what it is at the end of January!

Although I'd planned to, for two reasons I didn't get cash from the bank today to equal my challenge amount. One, I can't get money from the account until Tuesday and two, I think I'll spend it if it's lying around here.

I've thought about this quite a bit and have decided to open a savings account next week with the minimum deposit of $100. Whenever my challenge balance equals $100 I'll withdraw that from checking and put it in savings. I know I can do that. If I have cash in my pocket I want to spend it and if I have a debit card I want to use it. But when the money is in an account and I can look at the register and see the amount written there, I don't want to spend it. Why is that? I haven't a clue but that's how I am. And if the money in savings, that's a very strong signal to me that it isn't for playing.

On a related note, when we opened the new account this morning DH asked for a debit card for himself. I turned mine down and the banker lady looked at me like I had two heads. I don't want it, thank you! I think we'll have trouble if we both have debit cards. If he has one and gives me a cash allowance every week we'll be okay. I think. I just have to make sure to not take all my allowance with me when I go out...

So DH & I went this morning and opened a checking account at a local bank. The other account is in another town and just isn't convenient or inexpensive with gas as high as it is. This one is kind of, sort of on my way to work...well, not really but it's just a bit out of the way from my job so I can make the deposits on the way to or from work. Rather than go with the Chase account, I'll just set the Direct Deposit up with this account. It's a free checking account and one of the few requirements is at least one DD every cycle. It also gives the highest interest of anything at the bank, 5.01% APY, if the requirements are met. So this will work out well, I think.

When I went in to the store to get my check I looked at the schedule for two weeks out. I'm on it for one day the week after next. That's it, one day, 5.5 hours. Umm, that won't work well for me. There might be a shift or two come open that I can snag but even at that, that's less than 20 hours for the week.

So, it looks as though I might need to find another part time job or perhaps a full time job elsewhere. I emailed HR to find out if this is a temporary issue or something long term. We'll see what they say.

Ugh, just when things were finally improving...

So it isn't much at all - just some flurries coming down. It won't stick but it's nice to see, even if for just a couple of hours.

And to make this finance related, I'm off to pick up my paycheck, set up my Direct Deposit and do laundry.

We don't have any current debt right now - no house payments (lost the house in foreclosure recently) no car payments, and no credit cards. However, DH and I both have some old debt on our credit reports, totaling something near $15,000. Of course, our credit absolutely stinks. I'd like to improve it but honestly, that isn't the biggest concern in my life right now.

This summer I'll have a few thousand dollars that I could put toward those debts but I don't know the best way to handle it. The money won't be enough to pay ALL the old stuff but it's going to be enough to pay some of the debts in full. But we also need to save some of the money. Keep in mind that we only have about $1100 saved right now, DH owns a 6 month old business with a wildly varying income, and I work retail for slightly above minimum wage, with hours being cut. And soon we'll have to find another place to live.

One of the things that stumps me is that I've read that once I pay one or two of the creditors I'll be contacted by the others wanting their money, too. But I simply can't pay them all at one time, not even if they were willing to take payments.

Should I wait until I have the money then contact a few of the creditors and pay them in full? Should I disregard them and save the money? If I pay off some of the creditors, will the others then come after me?

What would YOU do?

In my last entry I mentioned that today had been a low spend day. I spoke too soon! DH wanted to go out to eat tonight so we went out for Chinese food and spent $20 there. Then we went to Target and spent $23.24. Not too bad considering we got a jacket for him (50% off), a pair of Mossimo knickers I'll use for sleep pants (75% off), some cat food, half and half, a loaf of bread, and 1/2 a gallon of milk.

I had to run to the bathroom, though, and gave the cashier my discount card. When I came out of the bathroom DH was standing by the front door waiting for me so we left. I just now looked at the receipt and noticed the cashier didn't take off the 10% discount! I'll take the receipt with me tomorrow and see if I can get my $2.32 back! If not, well...I'll know not to go to the bathroom next time!

So today's spending comes to $45.19. I liked $1.95 better.

I just got home a bit ago. It was a very odd day at work. Customers talked about "the recession that's coming" (those are the words most of them used) and although there were still a lot of debit and credit transactions more than usual used cash. There were still a lot of large transactions, too, so not everyone is worried about it but it seems that quite a few are.

And I missed out on a great deal! Yogurt that will expire in a week or so was clearanced for .06 each! Yes, six cents! By the time I got back there, there was none left, of course. I hate when that happens!

I bought an Americano during one of my breaks. That cost $1.95.

And I forgot my lunch but did have a can of vegetable soup in my locker so I ate that during my meal break and drank free iced water.

So my spending today was $1.95. Not too bad but not as good as a no spend day!

This entry definitely has something to do with personal finance. Admittedly its a stretch but I was driven to write about it.

My other half and I read an article this evening about ordinary folks donning costumes and bettering their corner of the world by commiting 'superhuman acts'. Some refer to themselves as "Reals" and others as "Superheroes". Yes, you read that right. In the United States alone there are 150 to 200 superheroes, according to Ward Rubrecht's CityPages article, Real Life Superheroes.

These heroes don't appear to have x-ray vision or the ability to leap tall buildings with a single bound but they do appear to have a love of comic books, compassion for their fellow man (or superhero), and a desire to help others. They also seem to have a real flair for fashion as evidenced by hero-gear.net.

Michael Brinatte, who pro wrestles using the name Jack T. Ripper, owns and operates the site. He spends a good deal of his time making costumes for superheroes and has built a nice business of it. I imagine it's also helped him hone his sewing skills!

So, if you have cash burning a hole in your pocket and know of a need in your community or if you just get bored with those jeans and a tee, you might want to check out Ward's article and Michael's website.

**Disclaimer** I don't know any superheroes nor do I receive monetary compensation in any way from the entities mentioned. I do, however, receive some chuckles and a few warm fuzzies from the concept!

The guy who made the signs for the shop called this afternoon and said he had them ready. He also told DH that the cost was going to be $208, $8 over the amount we were originally told. Now $8 isn't a huge difference but DH asked him why it was more. He said it's because since we're getting signs made in two batches, it means two trips for him. Ummm no. DH never asked him to deliver the second set of signs. He'd planned to pick them up and install them himself to save us $100 on the second set. DH decided not to push it, though, so the guy said he was on his way over to install them.

The guy got here and although the art work looked nice the background of the sign wasn't yellow as DH had requested but orange! The guy took the signs and left and just called and started arguing with DH that the color is "Safety Yellow". Well, call it monkey yellow if you want but it's orange and that isn't what we want. Finally the guy told DH he isn't going to re-make the signs and that maybe they should just forget it. DH agreed.

So now he's on the phone trying to find another sign company. We need signs and soon! People have a hard time finding us!

Anyway, I'm not impressed with their customer service. Not at all.

I got email from Jeffrey a bit ago congratulating me on winning 3rd place in the the December blog contest and asking for my paypal address so he could send my prize to me. I didn't even know there was a prize! Yeeehaw! I entered the contest for fun and am now $10 richer for it. Gotta love that, folks!

That $10 is going into my challenge money and the new total is.....

$52.83!

Go Denise, go Denise!

Thanks to anyone who voted for me.

Since my youngest son and I talked about the concept of abolishing the IRS and instituting a national sales tax last night it's been on my mind. I emailed my oldest son to get his opinion and boy, did he give it to me!

I knew what he would say because somehow his very conservative father and I managed to raise a, gulp, socialist! He isn't impressed with the thought of abolishing the IRS and having a national tax on consumption and let me know just why. Ouch, my head almost hurt by the time I finished reading his email. But I thought about this at work quite a bit and asked a few people about it.

Most of them were against it but their reasoning seemed faulty to me. They weren't upset about the thought of paying a consumption tax so much as the thought of not getting their "refund" each year. When I asked a couple of them why they loan money to Uncle Sam interest free they didn't understand the question. They don't see it that way. They see the refund as their "savings account" and most of them put it to me just that way. Ummm, okay...

So all you savvy financial sorts, what do you think of the idea of having a percentage tax on retail goods that applies to us all? Would a flat rate tax of something around 23% be fair? Unfair? Is it actually doable?

Expound if you like. Inquiring minds want to know!

It was a good day at work. It wasn't quite as busy as I like but it wasn't horribly slow, either. During my lunch break I ate my turkey pastrami sandwich and a few of my chips and drank iced water. Spending today? Nothing, zip, nada, zero!

I got home a bit ago and decided to sit for a few minutes before making dinner. It won't be anything fancy, trust me. DH is having chili dogs and I'm having chicken tamales topped with chili. Later I might have a chili dog but right now that doesn't appeal to me.

In the past, he'd suggest that we go grab something and I'd heartily agree. But tonight he didn't suggest and I didn't bring it up or even consider it. Rather, I asked him to give me a few minutes to rest before making us something to eat. He agreed and we'll soon eat our frugal but tasty dinner.

While at work I priced the store brand nicotine patches. 14 of them cost $24.99 plus tax and that box will last us one week. So, even while we're using them we'll be spending less than we spend on cigarettes. Gotta love that!

I just talked to my other half about our spending habits and the ways we waste money. He agreed with me immediately that we need to stop the waste and also agreed to some tactics I have in mind to help. One is that we stop smoking. The other is that we limit eating out to once a week. So, this Friday when I get paid I'll buy nicotine patches. The last time we used them I only needed them for 5 days and he needed them for about 3 weeks. If it goes that way this time we should have the $40 a week we normally spend on cigarettes freed up by the middle of February. And if we only eat out once a week, we'll see the savings there immediately!

**Quickie update** I was feeling a little hungry and thought about making some scrambled eggs and beef sausage. But I remembered some of the spicy chicken I used to make quesadillas was still in the fridge so I made myself a spicy chicken and cheese quesadilla and microwaved it. It was better than the skillet ones a few nights ago and I used up most of the chicken. There's still a little left, just enough for a quesadilla for DH for lunch. I asked him to please eat that up when he gets hungry. He kind of halfheartedly nodded but just now made himself a beef sausage sandwich. This isn't going to be easy!

So, wish us luck!

Last night when I couldn't sleep I perused some blogs. Ima Saver had a brief entry in hers about using the envelope method. I like her way of doing it so I figured out how much we would need to put back per week if we did it the way she does it rather than how we do it now. In reality, there isn't much difference but my mind was reeling last night so I was up late playing with numbers. What was left came to about $200. The shop income varies but that's a rough guess. Huh? $200 a week after we pay bills? We never have that much! So, where is it going?

Let's figure this out. From the $200 let's subtract $40 for cigarettes. Yes, I know we need to quit but honesty is vital here so I'm stating for the record that that is an expense. Okay, we have $160 left per week. Now let's subtract $50 a week for gas, understanding some weeks it might be more and others it might be less. We now have $110 left each week. Most weeks we spend about $45 at the grocery store. Again, this varies but that's a fairly accurate figure. We're down to $65. Throw in the $8 or so a week for laundry, the $20 or so DH gives me throughout the week for whatever I might need and we're down to $37. From that subtract the drinks and snacks he likes to get when out and about and whatever little incidentals might come up. Uh huh, that's where it goes! But wait, somewhere in there we eat out and we do it too often! Hmmm, no wonder we're always short on bill paying money!

So now I know why we never have $200 after putting money in the envelopes. The question is: what can we do about it?

Well, the first and most obvious thing we can do is quit smoking. That frees up about $40 a week, though not immediately as we'll use the nicotine patch which is expensive. It's cheaper than cigarettes, though, and once we're finished with them the money spent for them will be available. We're already pretty frugal with groceries and because of dietary restrictions we can't get much lower than $45 a week so that will need to stay about the same. However, we can reduce the food we waste and further reduce eating out which will help a lot.

So if we just quit smoking and cut back on eating out, $70 or so a week will be freed up. Hmmm, in theory, anyway. This all looks fine on virtual paper but how realistic is it? That's what I don't know.

Something else for me to ponder today while at work....

I went to bed but couldn't sleep. I have a knot on my gum that is causing me some discomfort. I got up to take some aspirin and drink something hot but that hasn't helped much yet. So here I am again, reading and thinking, thinking and reading.

Here are more of my musings on creating some kind of financial plan for this year. It's hard! But putting my thoughts in a blog entry and getting feedback seems to help the process. So does reading the blogs of others. I've gotten some excellent ideas and am very thankful for that. On the other hand, I read the blogs of some members (like Ima Saver and Lux Living) and feel like such a spendthrift at times! But that's not necessarily a bad thing. If reading their blogs inspires me to do more to cut back here and trim there and save this way or that way, this is a very good thing! Again, I'm thankful.

I've thought a lot about waste the last couple of weeks. I'm not sure why but it's been on my mind. Perhaps the recent political issues in the news got it started. Then I talked to my youngest son tonight. He's an OTR driver and called me from Indiana and we got into a discussion of government waste and the national sales tax concept. Regardless, waste of this sort and that sort has really been in my thoughts lately.

DH and I are wasteful. Compared to many we aren't but compared to many others, we are. I think we're too wasteful and want to work on reducing waste.

We throw soft drink cans in the trash. That's wasteful when we can sell them for a little bit and that could be added to the challenge money or put in savings.

We smoke still. Yes, we quit for almost a year but started again. We smoke less than half of what we used to smoke but it's still costly in many ways and wasteful. We need to quit. Period.

We try very hard not to waste food and for the most part we're good about that but we do it at times. We need to put an end to it and eat or freeze leftovers before cooking something else.

We waste time. Oh, do we! We're at the shop more than anywhere else and unless we're open we're wasting time. There's no television at the shop but we stay online when not busy. There are other things we could be doing - reading books about personal finance, discussing strategies to save and the need for a plan for 2008, continuing to work out goals for our marriage, etc. Surely there are more constructive ways to spend spare time.

Those are just four ways in which we're wasteful. The first three directly impact our finances and eliminating or greatly reducing them could save us a bundle. Quitting smoking alone would save us about $35 a week. The last one indirectly affects our finances but I'm not sure what the solution to it is or if that solution would save us money.

Okay, now I'm all verklempt. Give me a moment..feel free to discuss amongst yourselves. Opinions, suggestions, accolades and spare change welcome!

I mean physically, where is it? Do you keep it in a jar, in a savings account, somewhere else? Just curious as I haven't figured out just where to put mine yet and am looking for ideas.

I spent $6 on a dozen homemade chicken tamales this morning. The maker of the tamales does a very good job and delivers them hot and fresh. I don't get them weekly but talked to her about giving me a discounted price if I buy 6 dozen or more. She agreed so I might do that soon. It's nice to have them in the freezer for nights when I work late or we're simply in the mood for them. They're great with a little chili on top, reheated for lunch at work. Yum!

Later we went to Wal-mart for a few groceries and spent $34.75. We used $8.80 in coupons for free stuff so that was a nice savings and that $8.80 goes in to my challenge money. The new total for the challenge is $42.83.

I have my lunch and snacks packed for work tomorrow;a turkey pastrami on whole wheat sandwich, a few potato chips, a tin of kippers (I run everyone from the break room with those!) and an apple. I have no drinks to take but I can get free ice water from the grill so I'll do that.

This week we'll have two of the four needed signs installed for the shop. It will cost $200 for the two big ones to go by the road. Next week we'll have the two smaller ones brought in and install them ourselves. Those signs will cost about $100 but we'll save $100 by installing them ourselves rather than have the sign company do it. The signs are vital, though. We're on the major drag in this town but the little office complex we're in is easy to miss. Signs will help increase the business and make us easier to find for the ones sent here by the local optical shops. A well written map doesn't seem to do the trick!

I also need to get my car registered so I can drive it instead of the truck. That will cost about $60 plus gas for the 50 mile trip to get it registered. And I need to pay my car insurance, about $55.

Wow, this is going to be an expensive week so I really need to make sure to take my lunches and snacks to work and not buy a thing that isn't necessary. Fortunately, the shop gives us some daily cash flow but today was slow as was the last part of last week. I get paid Friday, though. Half of that goes to savings and the other half to bills if we need it. If not, it will sit in savings. Hopefully the rest of this week will be good for the shop and we can save more than half of my pay.

Hey, a girl can dream!

I absolutely must have a financial plan of some sort for 2008. I tried talking to my other half about it a couple of days ago but he was distracted at the time and we haven't resumed the conversation. I don't want him to see me as nagging so I'm going to concentrate on things I can do without his help or approval for awhile and talk to him about it at a better time. Some of these actions are small and some aren't so small but here are my current ideas.

1. Since he's already stated that he wants to attempt to pay all the bills with the shop income and save at least half of mine, that's one step of the plan already going. My income varies depending on what position I work and how many hours I get so although I can say we want to save half of my income, I can't get a handle on just how much that will be. I'm going to set up Direct Deposit at work with the hope that doing that and having half of my check automatically go to savings will make the saving part easier. A lot of people claim it does and I think it's worth a try.

To go along with paying the bills with shop income, I've been thinking of ways to reduce those bills to make it easier for DH and to help us save.

I really want to unplug appliances when not in use but my love dislikes when I do that so for now that's out. I'm faithful about turning off lights we aren't using and go behind him doing the same when needed. But I can be more faithful about that. The phone and internet bills are basically set amounts so there are no reductions to be found there. That goes for the rent, also.

2. Vehicles and the gas for them are issues. Right now I take his truck to work, which is only about 3 miles from us. I need to get my car registered so we have another vehicle to drive so he can do some minor stuff to his truck to prepare it for inspection. We should have the money to register my car by the end of the week. The truck is a gas hog and the car is only a little better but once it's legal again we can drive it rather than the truck. We already try to combine trips to minimize driving but we can do more of that. We can also have at least two non-driving days a week, perhaps, if we prepare for them.

3. Food is definitely one area we can cut back. We eat out too much and though we're better about it than in the very recent past we can improve. I just need to plan better since I'm often at work when it's meal time. I need to make sure there's food ready at the office for DH and I need to take my lunches, snacks and drinks with me to work. I know how to meal plan so this isn't difficult - I just have to make myself do it.

If we do those three things - save half of what I earn, reduce driving, and spend less on eating out, we should save a lot.

Okay, so this isn't really a plan yet. Right now it's more me writing out my thoughts. But to formulate a plan I have to think things through and get a handle on them and I'm doing that slowly but surely.

Now, what do I do with these ideas? How do I make an actual plan? I guess the answer is to just do them. Right?

I'm considering going with Direct Deposit at work but have very little experience with it. If you have experience with it, good or bad, would you please share that with me?

Chase Bank is offering a $100 bonus for new accounts with DD and I'd like to know your thoughts on that, also. I read the fine print on the mail I got about it but haven't made a decision yet. But between Chase's offer and a few people I know encouraging me to go with DD, I need to decide. It seems that having it deposited and having half of it go straight to savings might be beneficial. That out of sight, out of mind thing!

It's so wonderful to have all you knowledgeable folks on hand.

Thanks for your help!

Recent entries and mention of giving and setting up budgets for giving have me wondering to whom others give.

We don't have a church home and I don't give to churches or TV evangelists. I do give to a local mission, a food pantry, and a couple of organizations in Israel. I also have this thing I do which involves giving directly to particular families I come across during the year.

So, out of curiosity, do you give and if so, to whom? You needn't name names - I'm just curious about giving in general.

In response to an entry posted on Somer's blog at

http://somer.savingadvice.com/ I mentioned something my mother used to say to me, generally after a discussion of wants vs. needs. After she'd coached me about knowing the difference between a want and a need, complete with examples from her own life, she'd pause then say, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without!"

Oh, how I detested that momism! It was something I absolutely dreaded hearing and each time she said it, I'd roll my eyes (inwardly of course, I didn't dare roll them visibly!) and sigh a little. After all, I knew that as a single parent receiving a small amount of child support she provided most of my support. I knew that although she had a good paying job, it couldn't be easy raising a girl or two or three. She made sure we had a nice and safe place to live, electricity, water, and food, bought us good quality clothes, and gave us allowance. And she always had a good car to drive, carried nice purses, wore nice clothes, and seemed to have money for extras, too. Another momism she would pitch at us was "Quality over quantity!". But we weren't rolling in the lap of luxury, by any means. We wore our clothes until they were outgrown or not good for much but the rag bag. We ate well but we didn't eat expensive foods. Our houses were safe and in good parts of town but they weren't large or new. Most of our furniture was in great condition and was treated well so that it could be sold later at a garage sale.

It wasn't until years later that I learned that although we got brand new clothes, her own clothes often came from thrift shops. And that most of the nice purses she had were given to her by friends. And that a lot of our furniture and household goods that were sold at garage sales came from garage sales. Or that she wore her nice looking thrift store shoes until they had no support left, at which time she'd throw them out and get another pair. I suddenly understood why she used foil and plastic wrap several times if she could, why she saved the brown paper bags from the grocery store, and why she insisted that although we could have two servings of the main course at dinner, we couldn't pig out on it. She apparently took "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without" seriously.

As the years passed and I married then became a stay at home mother of three kids of my own, living on the small income from my husband's job, I greatly appreciated the momism I'd detested so much in my youth. I found myself remembering it when I was tempted to buy something we didn't need. I even said it to my own children a few times, though not many. I did try to teach them that when they wanted to buy something, it was good to not buy on impulse and to just wait awhile before purchasing it. I also taught them to consider if they already had something that would do the job of the thing they wanted to buy.

Now that my kids are grown and it's just me and my husband trying to pay bills and save for the retirement we always thought we'd have time to save for later (see my previous entry entitled "The best ways to ensure you'll be and stay broke") I think of those words my mom practically drowned me with as a kid and I'm thankful. I'm very thankful.

I think of them every time I wipe clean a piece of foil, dry it, and save it to use later. And I think of them every time I buy clothes at a thrift shop. Each time I add a few more cents to my challenge money, I hear those words and appreciate them again.

So here's to moms and dads and other folks who irritated us with their sayings and adages about money and thrift. May we irritate our own kids...and theirs..and theirs....

I was perusing the web for creative ways to save money and found some sites that have helpful information. To a lot of us, the suggestions given at these sites aren't news but here they are, in no particular order:

10 Easy ways to stash away thousands -

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/SaveMoney...

20 small ways to save big -
http://www.kiplinger.com/features/archives/2007/02/savebig.h...

20 ways to save on a shoestring -
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Savinganddebt/Savemoney/...

101 Creative ways to save energy - http://www.powerhousetv.com/stellent2/groups/public/document...

Save big on a tiny income -
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/SaveMoney...

Spend wisely to save money -
http://www.earticlesubmit.com/64652_62_Spend+Wisely+to+Save+...

Creatively frugal ways to save -
http://www.countingthecost.com/cf/cf125.htm

Maybe the ideas you read at these sites will spark something in you to save even more! But even if you learn just one new trick and it saves you a few cents here and a few dollars there, add it to your challenge money or save it for a rainy day. Every little bit helps.

Well, I ran off to work without my lunch bag so when my lunch period arrived I spent $2.75 for a Margerita Pizza from our grill at work. It was pretty good and meatless so there's another dollar to add to the challenge money. My new total is $34.03.

I'm off tomorrow and don't need to do laundry but I do need to get cat food and a few other things so tomorrow won't be a no spend day, either.

Tonight's dinner was Contessa Cashew Chicken that I picked up at work recently on sale. For less than $3 we got three servings of pretty good Cashew Chicken over rice.

Tomorrow I'll put a beef roast in the slow cooker and we'll have that with vegetables and maybe a salad. Yum!

I have to admit I'm somewhat discumbobulated over the Cowboys losing tonight. Grrrrr!

1. At a tender age, get the thought in your head that saving money isn't important.

2. Once you have #1 down pat, add the belief that you're invincible and there's always time for saving later. Bonus points are yours if you can throw in the thought that you're going to have a very successful career in (insert career choice here) and you'll make so much money and will start saving at that point.

3. Once you've achieved #1 and #2, marry someone who believes the same things. Better yet, marry someone whose beliefs are the opposite of yours. That will set you up for years of tension, arguments, and possibly even high cost attorney's fees.

4. Live beyond your means. It's best if you can live way beyond your means, continuing to believe that there's time to save later. Buy a house you can't afford, get many credit cards and run them all to the max paying the minimum payments or not paying them at all, even buy brand new gas hogging cars, preferably more than one. Just make sure they're very expensive cars and the payments are the kind that will keep you up nights. If you can throw in some trips to exotic places, all paid for with the above mentioned credit cards, of course, kudos to you!

5. Be late on your payments for the things you've purchased on credit, making it certain that you'll have high and unnecessary fees to pay.

6. Flaunt your lavish lifestyle and be the one with the deepest pockets. Treat all your co-workers and distant relatives to lunch at the fanciest places in town. Pay the bills of friends and family members who blow their money irresponsibly. Join the most exlusive and most expensive country club in town. Don't worry if you don't play golf. Get a great set of costly clubs to go in the trunk of that car you can't afford and fake it. Or get really creative and take on a very costly addiction or hobby. Use your imagination here!

7. Make sure your kids think you're rich and that they're rich, too. Buy them the most expensive clothes and send them to the most expensive schools, even if the education isn't worth the price you pay for it. And don't forget to hand them unearned allowance every week and then generously buy what they want after they've spent the allowance. In being faithful about this one you're making sure the future of your kids is about as good as yours.

There are a lot of other things you can do to ensure that you're broke and stay that way but I've given you seven of the best ways I know. The rest is up to you.

I finally got to the laundrymat! Six wash loads and $12 later, the clothes are washed, dried, and put away. I have to come up with a wash schedule I can live with so I don't fall behind and get overwhelmed like I did this week. I think if I wash clothes twice a week that will be sufficient.

It's just the two of us and I generally wear my work pants at least twice before washing them. So, maybe washing clothes on Monday and Thursday will work. It should, anyway, as long as I keep to the schedule.

I work tomorrow from 10 AM to 5 PM. I'll take something to snack on during my 15 minute break, a couple of drinks, and a lunch. Hopefully it will be a no spend day for me.

And I found 18 cents in the truck while I was looking for the ignition key I dropped. That 18 cents goes toward the challenge so now my challenge money is $33.03.

Today's lunch will be the leftover creamed chicken from last night over toast. That should finish off the creamed chicken.

Tonight's dinner will be chicken quesadillas with some of the leftover chicken from last week. The rest of the week we'll have, in no particular order:

Cornbread dressing and gravy made with leftover homemade turkey sausage, served with salad and green beans

Chicken salad made with what should be the last of the leftover chicken, served with fresh fruit

Slow cooker chile relleno casserole, served with spinach and tomato salad

Black eyed peas with hot water cornbread

Scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, and toast or english muffins

Super salads made with leaf lettuces, spinach, and lots of veggies

There are three meatless nights and two nights with a small amount of meat. Yaaaaay for meatless meals! They're a boon to attempts to improve the health and improve the wealth.

DH and I sat down this evening to evaluate how the envelope system is working for us. There isn't enough in any of the envelopes to pay that bill but there's money in each of them and we have two to three weeks to get the money for the current bills and that should be very doable. It's only been six days but it appears that the system is definitely working for us.

While we were discussing this, DH told me that he wants to try to pay the bills from shop income and save at least half of what I earn. Wow! If we can do that, we can have some decent savings in short order! The shop is making enough to cover all the bills but only if we stop frittering away money. We still do that and although we do less than in the recent past, cutting back on that more will ensure we can pay our expenses with the shop money and save a good portion of my income.

Frittering - it's so easy to do! We eat out too much which isn't good for the pocket book or the health. And DH likes to buy soft drinks and snacks while we're out and those are hard on the budget and health, too. I admit I do it occasionally, too. But if we just cut back on eating out, that will make a big difference.

I think if we keep track of every penny we spend for awhile it will show us again just how much money we're frittering. When we did that before, it stopped us in our tracks and caused major overnight changes. But that was a few years ago and we're complacent again, I think. Now if I can just talk him into doing that again. But that's the kicker. He knows we blow too much and he knows we need to stop so he will probably remind me that he knows those things and say there's no need to track every penny again. If he does, I won't bring it up again.

I'm grateful, though, that he's working to improve our financial situation and is aware and willing to work on it with me. Yaaaaay for husbands who man up!

This might be old news to some of you but I just discovered that ivillage offers free online courses on a variety of topics, including personal finance.

http://ilearn.ivillage.com/index.jsp

I'm considering the "Get a Grip on Your Family's Finances" course. It might be helpful!

Here are a couple other free online finance courses that seem promising:

http://www.sa.utah.edu/personalfinance/index.html

http://www.investing.rutgers.edu/

Even if a lot of the information presented is basic and stuff I already know, it can't hurt and might help to read it again!

We got some very bad news today about DH's oldest son, age 22, and in an attempt to get his mind off of it for a bit we went to see National Treasure 2. It was pretty good. We spent $14 for the tickets and he bought a box of chocolate covered nuts for $2. It didn't take his mind off the trouble but it did make him laugh a few times. I can't think of a thing that will make him feel better but at least he had a couple of hours of semi-distraction.

Oh, I found a dime on the ground there so that's added to my challenge bringing the total to $32.85.

I'm off today and tomorrow and then work Sunday (and wouldn't you know, I'm scheduled to work during the Cowboys game!) and am off again Monday. In fact, this coming week I have four days off. That's too many days off. I'll enjoy them, I'm sure, but the bank account likes to eat larger checks rather than smaller ones. Ah well, it is what it is.

My challenge money is up to $32 now thanks to change I found, some change DH gave me, and a couple of meatless meals.

Sometime today I absolutely must do laundry. I've been meaning to for several days and still it sits! But now we're down to almost no clean clothes so it really must be done today. It's going to take me quite awhile to do it so I'm procrastinating but the more I procrastinate the longer it's going to take. Bite the bullet, Denise, bite the bullet!

Tonight's dinner will be creamed chicken over toasted english muffins with salad and green beans. We have some of the chicken I cooked in the slow cooker leftover and some of that great gravy DH made so I'll thin that with a little milk, add the chicken and a few vegetables, and it will be good, I'm sure.



I was just emailed the electric bill for the little house I rent. It's almost $65! Too much considering I was there maybe three nights during that period but a neighbor was watching my cat and worried he'd get cold so she kept the heat on for him. Ehhh, $65 for a non-frozen cat is reasonable.

Okay, off to separate the clothes, again....