Another One Bites the Dust!

Woohoo! I paid off another credit card today!!

My disability payment finally cleared this morning, and I went right onto my bill pay, checked the credit card balance, and paid that thing off! I have really tried since the first of the year to re-evaluate my budget and financial goals. These past few months I tightened my belt a little more and really thought about where every dollar went. While it is hard to reign myself in, I know that life will be so much better when I don't have to worry about my debts. So, four more to go! I know that these next ones will be a lot harder and take a little longer to pay off, however, I have a bigger "snowball" to put towards them. I also need to start putting money away for the summer - DD wants to go to an art class and then of course we have daycare for two - an extra $500 a month. Will have to wait and see...

The Cupcake Challenge

Don't know if you remember, but last month I wrote about how my mom is keeping my interest in crafting by doing monthly craft challenges. The first month, January, we challenged eachother to the Origami Box. This month, we challenged eachother to a cupcake theme. Here are the results:


This one is my mom's. She did three circle cards and sent them in an altered CD tin. Very cute.

This one is mine. I made four cards, all using a stamp set from Hero Arts. I also altered a large paper clip...I hope she enjoys it.

Next month, March, we are doing a flower challenge, and my mom has invited a friend of hers to participate. I am excited to share my projects and get some new ideas. Welcome Bonnie!

Commission Day

Today was the first day that DD and DS got paid their commissions. Fortunately for me, I included it in my budget so I did not go broke. DD collected $3.90 for the week (she had a potential of $5.00.) DS got paid $.40 - he claims that doing his "jobs" cause his bones to break. He had a potential of $3.00.

I don't give them a lot of tasks to complete; making their beds everyday, putting their laundry (dirty and clean) in the appropriate places, cleaning their rooms and keeping them clean, DD has to feed the dogs and she has to clean the hall bathroom once a week. Not bad. Plus, they get "bonuses" for doing anything extra: vaccuuming, dusting, sweeping, helping eachother study...DD tested DS on his Kindergarten Sheet, he's improving daily.

DD has already cleaned her room - good luck maintaining. She cleaned the bathroom, too. I am quite impressed with her. Now, if I can just get DS to do something...

YouData.com

I know times are tough for many people right now. I consider myself blessed that I have been able to maintain employment. DH has been teetering on the edge of employment and being laid off...pretty scary since even though I work full-time, my income is chump change.

I work hard on the side, and I'm working on getting some side jobs and I'm doing a lot of little things on the internet to get in some extra cash. Right now, every single penny counts.

So, this is why I must tell you about YouData.com. There are no referral bonuses, you simply get paid for checking out websites that the site directs you to. And, you get paid fairly well. I don't know very much about it, other than that they pay Friday afternoons to your PayPal account. Since I was home for part of this week, I decided to try my luck. I registered my cell phone number and my e-mail, completed the questionaire, and clicked away. And...

Business Contact Information
Amount received: $4.29 USD
Fee: $0.00 USD
Total: $4.29 USD
Date: Feb. 20, 2009
Time: 23:53:12 PST
Status: Completed
Subject:
YouData, Inc. has just sent you $4.29 USD with PayPal

I already got paid!

Check it out!

Wipies!

Wal-Mart is offering a free sample pack of Huggies Gentle Care wipies - go here.

$2.00 Gift Card to Subway (CA residents only!)

Well, obviously I'm putting my new friend to good use...Subway is giving away $2.00 gift cards! Go here and register! Hope you get one!

Got a New Laptop and Have Been Updating!

I just got my new laptop - I ordered it last week while it was on sale through Office Max. Since it was such a good deal, I had to get a rain check. It came in yesterday...so DH picked it up while I was having another procedure. I have it all loaded up now, still need to get a program for my iPod, but that can wait. Thought I would post pictures of some of the cards that I have been working on.

This one was done for Christmas with the hostess stamp set that I just had to have...Window Dressing.


This one was done for the New Year (duh...). The background stamp is from Stampendous! and the sentiment is from Stampin' Up's Holidays & Wishes...another set that I had to have.

Here are a few birthday cards that I've made for co-workers and friends. I need to get my stash back up, hopefully now that I have a camera and a laptop, I will be more willing to craft and share. I used a my Cuttlebog embossing folders, my Cricut, and my nestabilities.


This is a card I made for my mom's husband, my step-dad. I've had this stamp set from Stampendous for a few months, just never had the inspiration to use it until I found the Shadow Box Card Tutorial, which was a little confusing but a lot of fun. I laugh now that I look at the picture, can you see that I took this picture at work? My keyboard, headphones, and date stamp are hiding in the background! Well, at least I got to look at something fun that day!










Also, since my Stampin' Up group is ending this month and I am really working on my debt, I've kind of lost interest, maybe crafting steam. In an attempt to keep my creative juices flowing, my mom and I have been doing monthly challenges. Last month, I challenged her to the Origami Box from Splitcoaststampers - you can go here for the instructions. You can see my box in the two top pictures. Of course, after receiving my mom's box is the obvious winner...I love the way she puts things together. I think if I would have taken more time to really think about the task, I could have done better. And of course, she shared some goodies with me, some foil confetti and brads. This month, her challenge to me was cupcakes.

I think I'm going to go and try to find some supplies to use to make mine the winner, she already sent me hers, won't post until I get mine out to her.

I'm glad I'm back, hopefully all has been well with you, you are prospering with the use of your coupons, and are making progress in life, love, and your wallets.

InBox Dollars Pays!

So, it took almost two months to come in, but I finally got my check from Inbox Dollars for $27.07! I was so excited to see it come in because two months is almost long enough to forget about it! But, it finally came!

DH is still not so interested, he saw the check and said "oooh...$27.00...big spender!!" Yeah, you know what? $27.00 is a lot now that I know how to make my money work for me. It went straight into my checking which I went home and transferred to my current "snow ball" project...now I have just $799.11 remaining on this CC and it will be knocked out!!! So excited!

While I've Been Away

Don't think that my laptop and camera being stolen have kept me too down. It's just a lot harder to get online and post my thoughts...especially with DD's computer...which is TEN YEARS OLD. Can't even install my software for the El Cheapo Camera. Horrible. We will be submitting our "package" of boxes and books and receipts to the insurance this coming week and hopefully will get something back to buy our life back into normal. It's a little difficult to not go and grab a credit card and just go buy new stuff, especially with the prices of things plummeting all around us. But, I'm sticking to my "Dave Says..." phrases and am trying to save up enough cash for what is important. And yes, I'm trying to figure out how to designate which things that were stolen as important. We will just have to wait and see.

I was going to try to post some of the cards that I made but apparently DD's computer is not ready for that. SAD FACE!!! I will definitely have to get something fixed in the computer area...

One More Day until Vacation

So, it's Friday night and I'm typing this from DD's computer, which is about ten years old and SUPER SLOW. It seems to take forever for anything to appear on the monitor...what's the point of typing if the letters take about a second each to appear? But, the point is that I do have internet access, which, at this time, is a blessing.

I have decided to take next week off work. Quite excited. DH is taking the week off as well and it is the first vacation we have taken together in YEARS. Sad, but true. Not sure what we will be doing or where we are going since we are stuck due to weather to the south of us and to the north of us. But, we will be together. And that is what is most important.

This week at work I hosted a Cookie Exchange. Not too many people participated, but it still turned out. I copied all of the recipes and will be making little books for the participants. I think those of us who did participate enjoyed it. Hopefully next year we will have a bigger turn out.

This week was also the last week of official school until the new year. DS and I made goodie bags out the larger cellophane bags from Stampin' Up. Then we stamped some images and he punched them out with the 1 3/4 inch punch and the scallop circle punch. He loves the punches. DD and I worked off of an idea from Chic'N'Scratch and made Snowman Soup for her morning class and chocolate chip cookies. Of course, I stayed up until 11:30 doing all of this but it was well worth seeing all of the kids' eyes light up when they saw their goodies.

Will post pictures later...still trying to find all of the connectors to what remains of the belongings that didn't get stolen...which is still an ordea.