Frugality for the Future Requires Faith

A couple of days ago, I reached the end of my rope.

We have been fighting like mad trying to get out of debt, and pull ourselves into a situation where we can start saving for our own house. While coupons and other saving strategies have helped to put us right on track to be debt free by the middle of next year, (current debt only, barring any unforeseen obstacles we have yet to meet) we keep running into the problem that the middle of next year may not be soon enough.

In my Coupon Classes that I teach, I frequently say that we have no control over the price stores charge you for the items you buy... but we can take control of what we pay for those items. A few years ago if you had told me that my family and I were going to debt free by the middle of 2012, I would have laughed in your face and called you crazy. But now, thanks to a lot of hard work and sacrifice, we are almost there.

But, our situation has changed, and waiting till the middle of next year to be debt free could be detrimental. And, just like grocery store prices - change and time are some things I have absolutely no control over.

So, a couple days ago, I reached the end of my rope! I fell apart and had no idea what we were going to do. There was absolutely no way we could cut more from our budget in order to pay off debt. Something had to happen because we were doing everything w could already think of. Realizing that I couldn't control time, or our situation I asked myself,

"What do I have control over?"

The answer came to me as a small thought, every bit as annoyingly as it did when my mom would say it to me when I was growing up. The only thing you ever really have control over is yourself.

After I thought about it and heaved a sigh of frustration, I knew that was true. I can only control myself. So, what about me could I control that could possibly help this mess we were in? Three things came to mind:

Attitude
Patience
Faith

I could choose to continue falling apart and throw a temper tantrum if I wanted to. It was my choice to make after all, but would that help or solve anything? Sadly, no. So the alternative was to keep a positive attitude and even though, my attitude wouldn't solve anything either, it would at least help my husband stay calm, and we could work through it together... Somehow.

Patience is a virtue and telling someone that when they are stuck between a rock and a hard place is like tempting a rabid wolf by stand two inches from it's face... Daring it not to bite you. But never the less, exercising patience was one thing I knew I had to do. If I wasn't patient, then my attitude would only get worse and all my efforts in having a positive attitude would be for nothing.

Lastly, but most importantly FAITH! I had to have faith that as long as my husband and I were doing everything we could do, that something would come along to help us out. God truly does help those who help themselves, but not unless you ask for that help. He loves us and is waiting to send us blessings, we just have to do all we can and ask for help making up the rest that we can't manage on our own.

Now, I don't care if you are Catholic, Presbyterian, Buddhist, Jewish, Mormon, Atheist or have any other belief system. A quote from the movie Serenity comes to mind. Shepherd Book is talking to Mal, and in exasperation he tells him, "I don't care what you believe in, just believe in it."

Those words are so true! (even though they did come from a movie)  If we allow ourselves to wonder aimlessly through life, without any hope or belief, there would be no reason to do anything at all.

Things happen for a reason, whether we choose to see reason in the things that happen is entirely up to us.

I'm still at the end of my rope right now, but I'm still hanging on. Somehow, my efforts combined with the efforts of my husband will eventually combine grace and mercy, and we just might meet in the middle.

Happy savings, and keep hoping and keep close to your faith... Whatever your current circumstances might be!

The Difference Between Sacrifice, Saving Money and Stupidity

The quest for frugality and the road to financial freedom naturally come with sacrifice. If you have debt to overcome, the sacrifice may be greater than for someone who doesn't have much debt )or any at all for that matter). You go without to get ahead. You might give up cable TV in order to put that money to better use in savings for a new house. That Expensive car you may put on hold, settling for a cheaper, lower class used model that will do OK for now, because of one reason or another. Sometimes, people even have to sacrifice an amazing private school for a charter or public school for their children because it just isn't a smart idea to go into debt when they can still get a good education somewhere else.

Since the beginning of time, people have given up what they wanted right now in order to save for what they really wanted down the road. Getting to a point where you can see the big picture can take a lot of hard work and practice, and yes, sometimes a lot of heart ache before you can even get a glimpse of it. But once you do, once you get to the point where you realize you don't want to be a slave to debt. You want your money to work for you instead, you also realize that you are going to have to make those sacrifices to achieve that freedom that comes from being financially sound.

Once you start looking at your money and actually start paying attention to where it is going, you may realize that there is a lot of excess "fat" that can be easily trimmed from your budget... Maybe eating out only once a month instead of twice a week. that will save a LOT of money!

Perhaps your families particular needs include cable TC, so that's out of the question of cutting from your monthly budget, but hey... You also realize that you don't need 3 cell phones and a land line, the land line can go and you will gt along just fine.

Now you've categorized every single penny you spend each month and you notice how much you spend on a stupid thing like Dr. visits. Well, there has to be a way to cut that down, right?

No parent will ever sacrifice the health and well-being of their children in the name of saving money. (Let's not get into the debate about the national health care system, that's not what my point is at all...) But what we do tend to do, and I personally know a lot of people who have done this; we sacrifice our own health in the name of saving money.

Even when you have insurance, health care can get pricey!

Growing up, my family was always blessed to have health insurance and with 9 kids, I'm sure my mother gave thanks to God daily for it. But with co-pays for annual check-ups alone, the total cost was close to $200.00 each year. (assuming a $20 co-pay.) Now, I remember my brothers frequently needing to go to the emergency room as well; stitches were commonplace at our house - with 5 boys, there's now wonder. Not to mention broken bones. To top it all off, 7 out of 9 of us ended up having to have our tonsils out. Then there were ear-infections too. Not to mention the shear cost of the labor/delivery for 9 separate births!

Looking at that, it's easy to see why my mom never wanted to spend money on herself... even if it was medical.

My mother always had back problems for as long as I can remember. After carrying and giving birth to 9 babies... I can't imagine why. But she never took care of it. Now she's in her fifties, and while she is still very spry and young at heart, and really doesn't look 50, she feels it every time she sleeps wrong and can't get up in the morning without severe pain just to stand.

We've all been there: Your child has a high fever and is acting lethargic. You rush them to the emergency room to make sure everything is OK. They send you away with no medicine and only the council that it is a just a really bad cold. Get them plenty of fluids and rest.

If your child is sick, you'd sell the house if you had to just to make sure they got the help they needed. But what do you do when you get sick?


Now be honest...

Most of the time, we brush it off as not that big of a deal.

Nothing really bad will happen to me.

It'll pass on it's own.

Well what if it doesn't?

Sometimes we need to sit back and really think if we should suck it up and pay that co-pay to go to the Dr. for ourselves and just make sure everything is OK. Yeah, if it's just a cold, you'll probably know that and you won't need to take yourself in for that, but if it is worse and you brush it off now, will get better on it's own or will it cause even bigger problems down the road?

picture credit

When I got pregnant with my second child, I started having serious back problem, worse than my mother did with her pregnancies. I was even in a wheel chair for a few days because I couldn't even walk. After the baby was born, I still had problem but they got a little better than they had been. When I got pregnant with my third baby, I had more back pain and more frequently, but I never had to be in  a wheel chair, so I just brushed it off. Well, my baby just turned a year old and I'm still having back problems. Bad ones! So bad that sometimes I can't even stand up at all. I kept brushing it off as, "it's something I have to live with, thank goodness it's not life threatening."
Which really translated to, "It's something I'm making myself live with, because I don't want to pay to fix it!"

I start therapy tomorrow.

It's good to save money! It's good to be frugal! It's even good and smart to not run to the Dr. for every little thing, but it's just sheer stupidity to not go in when there could potentially be something really wrong that could be fixed if you catch it early on. Yes it might cost a large co-pay now... but that's better than the arm and leg you'll have to pay down the road because it got worse.

Look at it this way, what good does saving money do, when I'm not there to enjoy the financial freedom I've helped to build?

Even if you don't have insurance, look for other ways to pay for it. Saving your life or even just preventing future costs is well worth it! Think of it as an investment in yourself.

Happy savings, and good health!

Home-Made Facial Peel (or - Attack of the Fashoomass monster)

Oh my... My internet went down for a few days, and once we got it fixed I didn't have a second to blog. So sad!

But, I'm back now... again... and hopefully I'll be able to stay back this time!

While my internet was gone, I firstly realized how dependent on the internet my family and I have become. Pretty sure that's not a good thing. So in the future, I think we will try to become less and less dependent on it. My husband and I are going to sit down and figure a few things out that I think will help. I will also blog about that sometime down the road.

During those few days that we were virtually cut off from the rest of the world, we had a few other things go badly all at the same time. When it rains it pours, and when it pours... you need a spa day!!!

Well, being frugal and all, I can't afford that. So, I did the next best thing. I came across a recipe for a face peel to do at home, and thought I'd give it a try.


You will need:

 
1 Large tomato (I only had roma tomatoes, so that's what I used)
1 Packet unflavored Gelatine
1Tbls. Lemon Juice

The recipe also called for ylang ylang essential oil, about 2 drops... but I didn't have that so I just omitted it from my recipe. Ylang ylang helps to balance PH levels in your skin. So if you have it, use it, it's great! But don't go out and buy it just for this.

First, I found from this little experiment that the bigger and juicier the tomato, the better, so if you can, get a large steak tomato, stay away from the roma. Romas just don't have quite enough juice to do the job right. I had to add a little bit of water to mine because it was just too thick.

Take your tomato, and blend it up in a blender till it is a fine pulp. Pour your tomato into a microwave safe bowl.

Stir in the lemon juice and gelatine until blended well:

Microwave on high for about 30 seconds, then stir. Return to the microwave and heat on high for another 15-20 seconds and stir. Repeat heating the mixture at 15-20 second intervals (always stirring well in between) until it looks something like this:

Let it sit to cool until on your counter until it cool enough to touch without burning yourself, you still want it nice and warm though.

While your mask mix is cooling, wash your face clean, then soak a clean wash cloth in hot water and ring it out, then drape it over your face for until it cools (about 2-4 minutes). You'll want to repeat this step at least 6 times. This will open your pores nice and wide to really allow the mask to work the best.

My kids thought I was scary with the cloth on my face, so a "roared" and chased them out of the room :) I don't recommend running at all with the cloth on your face though, as I stubbed a toe doing that... but the laughs from my children almost made it worth it anyway.

Once your face is nice and warm and your mix is cool enough, apply the mask (leaning over a sink) with your fingers nice and thick. Let it sit for at least 30 minutes or until dry.

Once my kids saw this, they didn't think the wash cloth was that scary any more. They asked what was on my face, I said, "It's a facial mask" My two year old then laughed, and screamed, "AAAAAHHH!!! It's da fashoomass monster! Run! Run away!"

TIP: Don't get too close to your lips or eye-brows... unless your goal is PAIN!!!

Once it dries, you can peel it starting at the chin.

My face felt great afterwards, and it cost nothing to do! So if you have kids, and need to pamper yourself, give it a try... or if you just want a great half hour of chasing your kids around as a "fashoomass monster," That's a great time too! :)

Happy pampering!

Labor Day

City Deals is Coming Back!

In regards to City Deals, I had an on-line acquaintance that told me that City Deals IS going through a buy-out. From what I could gather (and this is JUST me, no official report or anything,) there was going to be a buy out, that fell through, but then another deal cam around. It is apparent that they are really making an effort to make everything right and to fix any problems that are currently in effect. I'm glad to say that it appears everyone should come out of this with no losses and little stress. Thank you CityDeals!

If you go to CityDeals.com they have the following on their site:

Teriyaki Broccoli Chicken

As every parent knows, some days are easier than others when it comes to deciding what to make for dinner. Even if you have a meal plan, there are nights when that is the last thing you want to stick to! OR maybe, you have great meal plans and stick to it regularly, but forgot to take into account leftovers.

Every now and then, I will take the different left overs in my fridge and combine a few of them to make a whole brand-new dish. This happened a few weeks ago, and Oh My Gosh! I keep making it over and over again because it was so flippin' good!

So I thought I'd share.

The best thing about this recipe is that there are not any measured out portions; you use what you have. If you have more chicken than broccoli, you'll have more chicken than broccoli. If you have a lot of broccoli and only and ounce or two of chicken, no worries, it's great both ways!

So, without further ado, here it is!

Teriyaki Broccoli Chicken

Leftover Chicken, Shredded

Broccoli (Left over or fresh, cooked to the desired tenderness, raw works well too if you like it that way)

Olive or Canola Oil

Teriyaki Sauce or Marinade

Onion Powder

Garlic Powder

Ground Ginger

Salt Pepper

In a frying pan or skillet, pour enough oil to coat the bottom. Turn unit on medium.

Place desired amount of chicken in skillet, and sprinkle even amounts of Garlic Powder, Onion Powder and Ground Ginger over the top. Stir chicken and seasonings a few times.

Add in the amount of Broccoli you wish to use, covering the chicken. Sprinkle the Broccoli with Salt and Pepper to taste. Stir Broccoli and Chicken together until mixed.

Add Teriyaki Sauce to taste (I usually use about 1 ½ tsp. for every 2 cups of Broccoli, but you can use more or less depending on what you like)

Heat through stirring frequently, then serve.

City Deals Goes Under

Yesterday, Wednesday August 31st, City Deals went under after a deal to buy them out, fell through. Since then they have just been refusing to talk to the general public. Theories are abounding, but one thing is for sure... this is pretty much leaving everyone screwed over!

Merchants, at least most of them, haven't been paid. Customers aren't getting refunded. And No-One is accepting City Deal vouchers now.

My brother and sister-in-law recently purchased a new home, and through City Deals acquired vouchers that would make going through their brand new home and having all the carpets cleaned affordable! However, when they saw the news that City Deals went under they immediately called the Cleaning company and asked if they would take the voucher still.

The man was very nice and basically stated that because they hadn't been paid by City deals, they couldn't just accept the voucher, BUT if she could provide proof of purchase (the receipt from City Deals) and the voucher itself, that he would honor the value of they would pay him the amount they paid to City Deals.

My sister-in-law is going to talk to her bank about the transaction to City Deals and see if there is any way that she can dispute the charge or have it reversed. If so, both she and the Carpet Cleaners will be able to come out of this with little to no loss. If the bank can't do anything about it, then she still has the option of paying only a little to the cleaners to have them honor the full amount of the voucher.

If you have a City Deals Voucher that you have yet to redeem, I'd suggest calling the merchant that the voucher is for, and seeing if there is anything you can work out.

Most of all, remember that when talking to a merchant, it is not their fault and they have lost money on this as well. Some merchants will literally hundreds of dollars (some close to thousands) if they honored all the vouchers. So be curious, and soft spoken. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar after all. - You could even ask them how much they were supposed to get from City Deals for that voucher and see if they would take that much for it?

If anyone has other tips or ideas for fellow users of City Deals that they would like to share, please post your comments here.


Thanks to: http://www.sltrib.com and http://consumerist.com for the info that I gathered from them.