$1K in 30 days?

This article we received here in today’s mail says that we can save $1000 in 30 days if we start doing the following things…

Wash our dog at home – save $200.  Okay, first we don’t spend $200 a MONTH to have the dog groomed.  I don’t think I spend that much per year to have her groomed because we do groom her at home sometimes but I do take her to the groomer and spend $35-45 each time…maybe 3 times per year.

Skip the car wash - $20.  Who goes to the carwash that many times per month???  I guess if you’re getting the ultra wash…but I don’t.  I get the cheapest wash they have but I don’t even go every month.

Brown-Bag Lunches - $180.  Well the kid & I are usually home for lunch anyway.  Hubby reports that he can eat for $2 a day… um not so fast hubby…one lunch that you get is $3.25.  Still we aren’t spending that much on lunches.

Home-Brewed Coffee - $75.  I get a coffee out once in a blue moon and it isn’t the $5 coffees.  Hubby doesn’t drink coffee…perhaps I should suggest that he give up his Pepsi.  Of course that isn’t a $75 per month habit either.

Ditch Bottled Water - $135.  Again, already not spending that much and usually drink tap.

Get Rid of Home Phone - $50.  I believe that this is for folks who have and use their cell phones as their main form of communication.  We don’t and we also don’t pay $50 per month for the land line.  I think the land line AND my cell phone cost us just $50 per month.  Hubby's phone is paid for by his employer (course he only uses it for business purposes.)  Darly does not have a phone...she uses a computer to keep in touch with her friends...much bigger keyboard. ;o)

Switch to Online News - $15.  I guess that means give up a newspaper.  Already did that…years ago.  But not for the money savings.  That was for my sanity!  Hubby wants to get his money's worth and read the entire newspaper...but it takes him forever to do it.  So now he can read the news on the computer.

DIY Mani-Pedis - $50.  Okay I would NOT pay that much to get my nails done, even if I COULD stand to have someone else do them.

Mow My Own Lawn - $75.  Already do this and SERIOUSLY?  It cost that much???  WOW

Cancel Satellite Radio - $30.  Don’t have or use it anyway.

Basic Cable Package - $85.  Never got an expanded package…but very tempted to cancel the cable anyway…that would only save me $20 though.

Skip the Dry Cleaners - $20.  We don’t use the dry cleaners.  If I can’t wash it in the machine…I don’t own it.

Limit Dining Out - $65.  We already do that.  When we do go out (which isn’t much because we can’t find a restaurant that we like) we don’t spend a lot.

So basically I’m already saving this $1000.  Now I need ways to cut back to save an additional $1K.

Laundry Day...FINALLY!

Darly has been doing her own laundry for a while now...sometimes I have her do all the laundry.  But normally she just does her own.
The reason for this is because she never has her laundry ready for when I want to do laundry.  I'll sit around all day waiting for her laundry and finally I was running out of clothes because she kept putting off getting her things ready to be washed.
So now she does her own...and today she FINALLY did her laundry because she is totally out of clean clothes to wear.  Yesterday she wore some capri pants because all of her pants were in the hamper.  Well at least it is now getting done.  Today she asked if she really needed to wash her blue sheet separate from the white sheet.  Seeing as the sheet is fairly old and we wash all the clothes in cold water, I told her it would be okay.  I doubt that the blue is going to bleed on anything.

Ah, at least she's learned that life skill!  Now to convince her to come learn how to cook with me.

Spitting MAD!

Poor Darly!  Today they cast the rolls for the next play in her theater group.  Darly got a great part and is totally happy with it, but she wasn't happy about who was cast in the main rolls of the show. 

Darly was so mad about this that she wanted to quit the show (which of course wouldn't change a thing).  So instead she did the only thing she could think of...she posted how mad she was about it on her Facebook...guess who Darly is friends with on Facebook.  Luckily she isn't friends with the director (that isn't allowed).

But she is friends with the daughters of the Area Coordinator and the person above her.  SIGH! 
Both of these girls have probably told their moms about the post ...seeing as the only other girl to comment on the post, told her mom who felt it necessary to let me know what my child had posted.

I'm not upset with how my child feels about this...she is entitled to her feelings.  Her friends have told her how while she may not like it the casting is the director's job.  So I didn't feel the need to say anything on Facebook.  Instead we talked about how she needs to figure out a different place to vent her feelings.  I also didn't feel it necessary for her to delete the post seeing as the daughters I mentioned above had already seen and commented on it...the damage has already been done.

I hope that this doesn't hurt Darly's chances for a good roll in the next show, but I fear it will. 

Where did the time go?

Wasn't it just yesterday that we had our baby baptized?  Now we're looking at her Confirmation.  Sigh!

Of course she has been working toward this since 5th grade (3 years ago).  Darly's faith is amazing, she has grown into such a godly young woman (ACK!  Did I just call her a woman???)  sigh!  alas she is.

Last Wednesday our Pastor asked all the parents to come after the kids' class so we could plan the final retreat and the actual Confirmation ceremony.  In preparation for this meeting I asked my DH to get me his work schedule...and I asked the coordinator for Darly's acting group to confirm the dates for the mandatory parent meetings so I could schedule around them.  OF COURSE neither of them got back to me with my requests in time for the parent meeting.  and OF COURSE the next day DH tells me that he has to work on the date that the pastor scheduled the Confirmation ceremony.

I've talked with the Pastor about DH having to work on the date he wants to do the Confirmation ceremony.  I came up with what I thought was a good solution too.  I suggested that Darly read her witness statement on a date that DH can be there and then have her ceremony with the rest of the kids.  But pastor would like to ask the other parents about moving the confirmation ceremony.  I really don't want to do anything that makes Darly stand out from the other kids as they are all important equally.  So we'll see how that goes.  However, if we do have the ceremony on Mother's Day (one of the possibilities) it would be cool as Darly was baptized on Mother's Day.  :D

So things on my plate...

Ash Wednesday & Lent, each with a confirmation class afterward.
Darly's next show (audition, rehearsals, costuming).  She auditions this Friday.  (maybe callback?  although not likely for this show, the director knows Darly well and can cast her w/o a callback.)
Send in paperwork for Darly's homeschooling (yearly requirement)
Easter
Darly's Birthday
Darly's actual show dates
Darly's Confirmation

Darly would like to have a tea party for her birthday party...on her actual birthday.  We have the menu and invites all ready...will just need to send invites, clean house and make the food.  I should probably clean the freezer so there is room to start making some of the food before hand.

We've also started working on invitations for Darly's Confirmation ceremony.  One of her friends is a budding photographer and we're going to have her take Darly's pictures for the invites.  They'll also play around with taking some "artsy" photos just for fun.  For that Darly wants to dress "steampunk" so we're working on that costume.  Thank goodness we have most of the parts of this costume already... there are just a few things that will need to be made...like the orange skirt (???) no idea why it needs to be orange.  LOL!  This morning I found a video for dyi steampunk goggles with stuff from your house.  Which is good, because I really did NOT want to have to go out to buy any of this stuff!

Okay, that's all for now.

Oops there goes another...

$5 down the drain!  Literally! 
Tonight I had the steam valve to my fairly new rice cooker soaking in a coffee mug in the sink.  When I went to clean the valve the rubber gasket was missing.  I looked everywhere.
I think what must have happened is when I drained the noodles for dinner the water must have gone into the coffee mug pushing out the gasket and it went down the drain...into the garbage disposal.  SIGH!

Hubby looked at it and we determined that his time was worth more than the $5 for a new valve.  So a new valve is on it's way.  I'm glad that it wasn't too expensive and should be here soon.

why?

why does blogger and google reader keep ignoring my requests to stop following some blogs?  I was following my own blog???   um tell me why?  I forgot what I just wrote???

And then I went to unfollow my blog (again!) and I saw some blog I had never ever heard of on my list.  Stupid me, I clicked the link just to see what it was.  I still have no idea...it kinda looked like a Justin Beeber blog.  Horrors!  I sure hope that clicking on the link didn't doom be to forever servitude or a virus.  Sigh!

Out my window

I see the ugly remains of the snow storm we got hit with last Friday.  I don't even know what the official total for how much snow we got was...I just know that my back is still hurting from shoveling it.

Friday Darly was supposed to have a performance of Mulan Jr, but that was canceled due to the snow.  Funny, by the time we should have been at the theater, the snow had let up enough that if our town had bothered to plow the parking lot and open the theater, we could have had the show.  But alas they didn't so we couldn't.  Instead we had to transfer everyone's Friday ticket to Saturday and lost out on money. :(
The kids were really disappointed that they couldn't go on too...however, that didn't dampen their energy for Saturday and they put on TWO great shows then!  :D

Due to this silly thing called the Super Bowl we had to strike the theater (pack up and move out all our stuff) on Saturday night.  Actually that wasn't so bad as I had the kids do a bunch of the work...not too bad for them either really as all I asked of them was to put their costumes in designated sorting piles instead of back on the clothing racks.  I didn't hear any grief at all out of them.

Oh back to my window view...
My neighbor, "MrIown13carsandparkthemallinfrontofRenee'shouse" has a few of his cars blocked in by snow.  BWAHAHA!  The city decided to plow our snow...even though we didn't have enough for what they said was our usual requirement for plowing.  (normally they don't plow unless we get 2 feet...I'm pretty sure we didn't get that.)  So even though we didn't have enough snow AND we had already shoveled ourselves out of our driveways and to the main road...the plows came through and plowed us all back in. 20 minutes before we needed to leave for the theater on Saturday.  ARGH!  We still have a wall of ice chunks in the street.

My front yard looks terrible because my neighbors' dogs decided they should play in our snow.  :p

Oh and on that nice ice chunk wall sits my neighbor's trash that the trash company wouldn't take because it wasn't in a trash container.  CLASSY!