Monday, June 30, 2008

Murphy's Law - Always Me

You know that saying about Murphy's law, "whatever can go wrong, will go wrong"? Yeah, you know it. Well guess what? That totally and completely is me. *Sigh* Yup. And if you know me, you are probably laughing, rolling your eyes, and wondering "what happened now?!?!?!"

Sunday started off great. But not really. Because my coffee was cold every time I went to get it, despite the fact that I took forever to take that first sip. The kids and I had decided to head to WalMart to pick up the fixings for S'Mores. Then we went to Costco for bread and milk, and decided to get gas as well. Which, by the way, I had gone and parked on the wrong side of the pump so I had to stretch the hose all the way across the car. (Warning Sign!!). Then we came home and decided to go swimming. By now it's just barely hitting noon. In 100 degree weather.

So the kids and I are out swimming, DD is doing great and has her confidence back up enough to float on out to the deep end, DS just wants me to "bounce" him across from shelf to shelf. We play and splash and sing and splash until 2:30ish (according to my iPod), wherein we decide it's time to go in and make S'Mores. So, we sit on our chairs and dry off for a few, telling stories and enjoying the day. DD gets up to go inside, slams the sliding door all the way open, glances at me, and then slams it shut. The next second ticked by like an hour: you could hear the wooden dowel that I leave in the window rail slide down the glass and fit perfectly into the little spot it was cut for.

All the windows and doors have similar dowels cut to fit in their tracks...making it hard for someone to just pull the screens off and come in.

"No problem" I think. I walk to the front of the house, in my bathing suit, and punch in the numbers on the garage door keypad, all the while thinking "I will be in the house in no time". WRONG. The batteries are out in the keypad!!! No luck there. And I can't call anyone because guess what?!?! My cellphone is in my purse, with my keys, probably on the kitchen table!! And the spare key? In the garage, which I can't get into. Lovely.

I walk back into the yard and advise the kids: "looks like we will be outside for awhile". Instead of cheers or excitement, both kids look broken and depressed. They haven't eaten a good lunch yet, it's over 100 degrees, and no nap.

I turn to face my new challenge. "I can do this" I think to myself. I begin to try to move the sliding door off the rails. I am able to rock it back and forth, even getting it up to about a 15 degree angle, but nothing more. Okay...now what?

DH always leaves tools laying around. Maybe something will work. So around the house I walk again. I find two long flat head screwdrivers, something that looks like a long metal nail file, and a hammer. Thank Goodness that DH never listens. I sit on the ground and contemplate my newly found tools: BREAK THE GLASS!!

No. Not yet. Too expensive!! Do I really want to waste my emergency fund on something like this? No, not yet.

DS has to go potty. He's crying. He really has to go RIGHT NOW. So I take him to a corner, pull down his swim trunks, and let him go. He cries for awhile, apparently I made him pee outside like a dog. Great.

Again I post my butt in front of the locked slider. What to do, what to do? By now DD is whining, she's hungry. GREAT!! And DS, DS has decided that Mama is just like Handy Manny and has Turner, Phillipe and Pat - aren't I cool?!?!?!!?

I decide to fit the flat head between the sliding door and the glass to see if I can somehow manage to wedge the dowel out of the track. Nope. Window is too thick. Then I rock the door back and forth. And I decide to take the metal nail file thingy and shove it between the slider and it's track while it's cockeyed. Good job. Now that thing is stuck.

I try to stick the screwdriver in the space available. Nope, way too thick. I walk around the yard again, there has to be something I can use!!!

Now both DD and DS are whining: who can blame them? They are hot and tired and hungry and perfect bliss is visible right there through the locked glass.

I find these thin metal stakes DH and I had used when we had put the sod down. Who left these out here? Hmmm...could these be what ruined the blades on our lawnmower? I take a couple of them and straighten them out as best as I can. Will it fit? Please let it work. I push one through the little gap that I have made. It fits!! I wiggle it through and can actually rotate the dowel!!

I continue to wiggle the stake pulling it out and pushing it back through, trying to push the dowel up and out of the track. Wiggle, wiggle. Spin, spin. Clunk. Clunk. In some instances the dowel even lifts, but sadly rotates towards the glass, and back into the track.

Finally, in another one of those forever seconds, the dowel lifts up and rotates backwards. OUT OF THE TRACK!!!

I reach up and push the door open. The kids run in and jump on the couches. I pick up the tools, put them back on the various ledges I had found them in the backyard, and go inside. As I go into the kitchen to prepare lemonade and S'Mores for everyone, I glance at the clock on the cable box. 5:47 p.m.

Oh yeah, and I took a spare key from the garage, put it in a ziplock container and buried it in the front yard. Never again will I beg for MacGyver's genious to fall upon me.

No. I think it is better to be safe than sorry. Prepare for the worse and hope for the best. I know, it seems a little pessimistic, but come on. What would you do to not be locked out of your house for over three hours with two little kids?

Friday, June 27, 2008

Love Your Coupons - And Use Them!!

Being on a budget can suck. Not having money for something that you want, not being able to pick up that movie you've been wanting to watch for months, the dusty wardrobe. Yeah, sometimes it is no fun at all. But, I'm trying to be optimistic. And I've learned that a smart person on a budget can completely KICK BUTT!!!

I've learned a lot in the last couple of months. Specifically: ALWAYS LOOK FOR A BETTER DEAL. So, I always check and compare prices online before I go out.

I also scan all my coupons and check to see if something I want has a coupon available or a rebate.

For example: last weekend, I saved over $30.00 in coupons and rebates!! It was great. Most of my savings was at Walgreens, which I am starting to get the hang of, the next good savings was Target (I used coupons on items which also provided me with a $5.00 gift card), and the rest was on groceries. I couldn't believe it after I got home and did the math. And DH - he just sat there and stared at the receipts for like ten minutes.

I used to think that couponing was too time consuming, hard, and a waste of money. But guess what?!?!?! I was completely wrong. Being on a budget has all of a sudden opened up a lot of time for me to search, cut, compare and print. You can find coupons in your paper, in other people's papers, in coupon bins and through trains (groups that forward coupons), and even online. They are everywhere. You can even get them mailed to you directly from the manufacturer.

This evening I was looking for a specific coupon and decided to Google the item...and I found this website: http://www.powerofresolve.com/

It's pretty neat. I registered for the connecting website (http://www.homesolutionsnews.com/) and was able to print out coupons for $2.00 off any Veet product, $1.00 off 12 oz or larger of Lysol spray, $0.75 off jet dry dishwasher cleaner/rinse agent and a $4.00 off any Air Wick Freshmatic Mini Automatic Spray Starter Kit.

Last night, I was looking for some toiletries for DD (she's going away for the first time to her Nana's!!) and I found this: http://www.listerinekids.com/smart-rinse.jsp It's a link to a $1.00 off the Listerine Smart Rinse. Yay!!!

DH thinks I'm totally losing my mind because I get excited when I find coupons for something I like. Really, I think he should just hush...it's absolutely ridiculous that I do get excited about this stuff, but he should thank his lucky stars that I'm like this and not out running the credit cards into the ground.

Ahh...a few dollars saved, a few extra dollars for my debt snowball. It's a nice feeling knowing that I saved money. I hope you enjoy the feeling, too.

Have fun couponing!!

Gift Cards

Since I've been working with the Total Money Makeover and trying to abide by Dave, I no longer carry any credit cards. I actually feel a little sad about this, because before I used to have a HUGE card organizer that held all my credit cards. I always thought I was impressing others with my huge collection. It took a horribly long time to realize I was just ruining my life with those little "money suckers". So now I'm addicted to gift cards. I try to "earn" them as often as I can.

Like Sunday, Target had in the circular that if you bought two specific paper items, you could get a gift card for $5.00. So I went and bought one of each of the advertised paper items, used a $0.35 coupon for one and a $0.75 coupon for the other and I STILL got my gift card. And considering that every other store was advertising similar paper products at the same price (with no gift card) I figure I got a GREAT deal. And seriously, a Target gift card ALWAYS comes in handy.

And just a side note: Walgreens does this rebate program, which I will explain more about later, that gives you your rebate back by gift cards or check. But, if you request the gift card, they automatically add an additional 10% of your rebate onto your card. Cool, huh?

I also earn gift cards through a website called MyPoints. It's pretty neat because they send you an e-mail or two just about every day. Almost every e-mail is worth 5 points. Plus, their surveys they send are worth at least 10 points and if you a qualify and finish them, it's 50 points. (These are actual surveys, they only want your opinion.) You can also earn points by shopping online. Just browse through their links and click on through. It depends on each store how many points you earn per dollar, but the least amount you can earn is 2 points per dollar, some have deals where you earn 10 points per dollar. And the stores aren't some crazy place you never heard of; nope. Gap, Joanne's, Target, Payless, eBay, some good places. You can also earn points by playing games, doing searches, and printing and using their coupons. It's really great. I almost always have enough points every month to cash in for at least a Starbucks gift card. The places you can redeem your points for are great, too. I've gotten gift cards to Circuit City, Target, Walgreens, Starbucks, Subway, Barnes & Noble and Gap. They also offer gift cards to restaurants and charities, it all depends on you.

Now that you have all of these cards, you need to check out one more place every gift card holder should have: leveragecard.com. On this website, after joining for free, you register your gift cards. All you need is the card number and it usually does the rest, so you don't have to scratch off the little PIN ID or anything like that. I did notice, however, with my Victoria Secret card, that I had to type in all the info, including the balance. Apparently the site is still new and they are trying to get more merchandisers to allow leverage access to gift cards. What I like about leverage is that they give you interest for the cards that they can verify. I haven't even been with them a month and I've already earned $0.04 cents for the few cards I have. You can also buy more gift cards and even trade your cards using this site.

Check out the sites. I by no means promise miracles by joining up with each site, I personally enjoy them. I love going somewhere and using a gift card that I earned. I love the fact that just by doing what I would normally do, someone sends me little plastic cards with money on them...which I can spend however I want. No budget attached.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

We Almost Made It

Okay, so our Two Week Grocery Experiment almost worked. Almost. It was Thursday when we had to buy more milk. Only because DH kept giving DS full cups of milk before bed, not understanding the concept that DS only drinks half a cup. So by morning, there always was a half cup of curdled milk left over. (*GROSS*) And DD did not help. She poured a full bowl of milk into her cereal almost every day, she doesn't even like milk. So, it almost worked.

I tried again on Sunday. Went through the pantry and the coupons, spent $130.00 at Costco, mostly on meat and a few things for DD's lunch since she is going to the art program and then daycare, totally missing the lunch hour (and free lunch). But, DH, who is so resistant to the couponing and budgeting, bought groceries on Thursday. And he filled the gas tank. Which was nice. So, I guess it doesn't really count. Will have to see how it goes. But, we are already done with 3/4 of one loaf of bread, which he insisted buying at Albertson's. And it's barely Tuesday.

Obviously I have some bugs to work out. I have to figure out how to get this to work for my family. I know I will have to buy at least another gallon of milk, possibly even two. And the Costco bread lasts longer, but three loaves would be great rather than just two. And fruit, fruit and veggies are a little bit harder to work with, considering they go bad quickly. My DM did send us those Green Bags, which do seem to work and make our stuff last way longer than before. But still. I don't know if the stuff will last two weeks. A little apprehensive to try.

Ah, well, it can't hurt to try again. That's why it's an experiment, right?

Sunday, June 15, 2008

The Two-Week Grocery Experiment.

Okay. So you see that little link to the side labeled Money Saving Mom? That is a great site that I've been searching for a lot of ideas on how to save money. I've been following the tips posted there, and I am actually surprised about the outcomes that are produced.

Anyway. The recent post was about how the author did on her experiment: Buying groceries only once during a two-week period. She was hoping to make her dollar stretch, to save some time not having to go through her menu planning and grocery shopping strategies every week. I think it is a great idea, and I have just started my adventures into the money saving world.

So, last week I took some of the tips offered on the website, I made menu plans for a whole week. We are pretty boring, I discovered. But, it's not too hard with two kids and a picky DH. Everyone else is SUPER PICKY. Just not me.

I had my DD help me. We made a chart of every day, with categories for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, and even made special categories for Snack and Dessert. Then we had to plan what we will eat.

I tried to plan around what we already have in our pantry. Which, sadly, was not a lot. But we got it done. Then, we went through our coupons to see if anything in our menus were in there. Not much. Then, we made our grocery list. I gathered up the kids and finally headed out the door, sometime after 2:00.

We did our shopping, somehow managing to stay under $150, most of the items were purchased at Costco, a few things were purchased at Albertsons.

That was last Sunday. Here it has already been a week and I have yet to go to the grocery store. I did go to Walgreens on Saturday morning to purchase some drinks for our trip to the zoo. I don't know if that really counts, but I'm not going to count it just because it's not really groceries, more just last minute Dollar Stealers. We still have some meat left, and I think we are on the last gallon of milk. The milk may be a deal breaker for us. DS drinks at least three glasses a day, I have a little in my cereal in the morning...I think that's about it. I will try to sneak lemonade into DS' cup afterschool, hopefully that will keep him satisfied. We will see. But, I am interested in seeing how this works out. I am eager to try out my Walgreens deals so I may make some Personal Rules on groceries...we will see.

Like I said...I'm really new to this whole thing. I'm learning new things every week and I can't wait to put them all into action. Like the Walgreens Rebates...I even have some coupons on items that are Rebate-able. So that will be cool. Whenever I get to it. Saturday. I hope.

So, I wonder if you would be willing to try out the experiment. If you do, let me know how it works for you!

The Death and Resurrection of My Laptop.

I finally got my laptop back on Friday. After having it dead/gone for almost four weeks. Granted, I've been using DH's laptop but it just hasn't been the same. My links aren't there, my pictures, my music, my stuff. I am so glad to have it back, however, I now have to reload it with my life up to a month ago.

I use my laptop on a daily basis. I do my little surveys for extra cash, I print my pictures, I listen to music, I print my coupons, everything. So when it started acting funny, I got really nervous. I cleaned out the drive, cleared out the memory, you know, the standard stuff any basic computer user knows to do.

And then, on a Thursday evening, IT DIED!! Just like that, it wouldn't turn on and cooperate with me. So typical. Because I was supposed to post some of my stuff for sale on eBay. And two items that I was selling at the time were ending soon and I needed to print out the postage for them. Plus, (Freak Out Moment!!) I couldn't remember if the laptop was covered under warranty.

So on Friday I spent all of my free time on the phone. After trying a few different phone numbers, a lot of "For Help, please press __" (way too many in my opinion), I finally got to a human who advised that I had Full Coverage (in other words: In Case Kid Gets It) until 2011. YES!!! Finally, my excessive worrying has paid off. But, the warranty guy said I needed to back up my stuff before sending it off, they can't guarantee that they can save my data. FREAK OUT!! Once again, I scramble through the phone book, make a few more calls (mind you, I'm supposed to be WORKING) and find a local place that will back up my hard drive and diagnose my broken friend.

On my lunch hour, I drive like a maniac to the location and drop off my laptop. Tuesday they call and tell me $120.00 for 9 DVDs of information ("ma'am, you have a lot of pictures and music" - REALLY?!?!?!) and the only thing that they can find that's wrong is the MOTHERBOARD. I go pick up my laptop with DH, who feels the need to lecture me on the fact that I need to back up my data on a regular basis, I should probably buy one of those external hard drives. "I SHOULD PROBABLY PULL OVER AND LET YOU OUT" was all that was going through my head. We have been discussing purchasing an external hard drive for MONTHS. Since Christmas. I even sent him to Best Buy two months ago with the understanding that he would purchase the hard drive with a few dollars from my savings...instead he came back with a new game and the "necessary accessories" for the Wii. Obviously, we never purchased one.

The warranty place sent me a box to send off my laptop and I carefully laid my broken laptop inside. Sadly. The warranty guy said it would take ten business days to get it back. Ten business days. That's Monday through Friday only. Oh wait, one of those weekdays turned out to be a holiday. SAD FACE!!

Finally, this past Wednesday, I received a notice on the door that DHL had stopped by and would not leave the package without a signature. I promptly called the 888 number on the tag to discover that I had to call during "business hours". Thursday morning, while taking DD to art class, I called DHL again, advised the customer service person WHO OBVIOUSLY HAD BETTER THINGS TO DO of my work address and confirmed that my laptop would be delivered that same day. I waited all day, as patiently as possible. I even stayed late. But nothing. No laptop. I had to go home empty handed.

By the time I got home, there was a message from DHL Customer Service letting me know that they had attempted delivery, however, no suite number was given and they could not deliver. Funny, I remember telling them the floor number, however, CUSTOMER SERVICE LADY WITH BETTER THINGS TO DO apparently FORGOT to add that on my change of address request.

On Friday morning, again while traveling with DD to art class, I called DHL again and advised them of the floor number.

I had my laptop before noon.

So, here I am, Sunday morning. Nine DVDs in front of me, including the Sunday paper and my second (no, wait, third??) cup of coffee, loading my life back on to my friend. It is taking a little longer than it should, I keep running into pictures of the kids from when they were smaller...you know, the Mama Memories are coming out in a huge explosion rather than the typical trickle. The cute pictures. The one of DS when he was sitting in the bath tub with the bubble mohawk. The one of DD showing me that yes, she could put her foot in her mouth. The one where DH and I are laughing so hard our eyes are shut tight and you can probably see our tonsils.

Today will be for reflection and thanks. I will go and buy an external hard drive on Saturday. I have been putting aside money since this whole fiasco to do it. I am thankful that I have the means to do so. And I am thankful that my pictures are all safe. I will look at my children today, with dirt all over their clothes from helping Daddy in the yard, and remember that each moment with them is Precious. And I will have my camera, taking pictures to save to the new external hard drive. And of course, I am thankful to the little voice in my head that said to buy the Full Coverage Warranty. I have my friend back, good as new.