Savings Account Reopened.....

and already having to make withdrawals. I opened the account with the minimum and turned around to withdraw all but $10 so it stays open. I had to have the account but I also had to have money to make it through the rest of the month so that's how it had to work.

I've managed to put some change aside and it seems that for a while change will be all that I manage to put aside. I managed to get Theresa's OT changed so that it's at the same place as the rest of her therapy so that saves a little bit of gas each week. The problem? There are no spots open close to the appointments we already have so we have a bit of a longer stay in town than I would like at times. I can handle that, but the waits that are more than an hour or two we drive across the street and go walk around stores which opens the door to temptation. I did good today, the only thing that I bought was lunch stuff at the grocery store.

We looked around the clothing store, I realized that it's time to start saving some money for next years school clothes and I need shoes. Provided I can ever find the time I'll have a few vegetables planted. I just need Theresa to cooperate to help take care of them. I think watering them could be good for her. Picking vegetables would be good for her too, sort of if she follows directions. That would cut down on my grocery bill, I just don't want to try to dig up the yard because I don't have a tiller. I'm still waiting for fruit trees I may just scrap up some money and buy one or two this year. I like fruit and I need shade. I just won't put them where the house'll be if we ever come up with the money to replace this place.

I have a plan to get it but I don't know how I'm going to. I do have some repairs to do here before we can take care of that plan though. I managed to get enough work done so far that I'm satisfied with my next payout but it's time to begin thinking about the summer and the fact that we'll be missing one income. I have to make up the difference and I haven't been motivated since school started. I still need $100 to cover a test for Theresa. I've almost figured it out.

Reopened Savings Account

Well, I finally managed to reopen my savings account. The problem now is that I really need the money that is in it. I am trying to earn enough right now to make up for that $50 initial deposit that I can not access until the paper work gets here and gets send back in to them. I have to stop and buy pull-ups and baby wipes tomorrow afternoon because Theresa uses pull-ups at night. She isn't to the point she sleeps in a regular bed yet so getting up to take herself potty in the middle of the night is kind of out of the question.

I have to buy multivitamins for her too. As soon as I get the money I'll be buying her the chew-ables. I have $15 in gift cards at Amazon, now if I can just get enough to get the washable overnight underwear for Theresa I'll save a small fortune on pull-ups. I need to buy at least three pair since from the reviews I've read that while they work well they take a long time to dry. I'm hoping that I can hang them on the line to dry and cut down on the drying time. 

I'll be glad when I can keep the laundry under control so I can wash it by hand. I'm thinking of getting another plunger specifically for the laundry so I can wash it in a bucket and cut down the electricity use in the house. It'll use less water too. I just have to buy a ringer to go with it, then hang them outside unless I can get enough water out to hang them in the house.

Ok that's about it for now so I'll be going.

Less in Sunday's Paper ?

I went to get a Sunday paper this morning. $1.50 because I haven't had a regular newspaper in a while and I wanted the sales ads and the inserts. Well it's nice to know the Sunday comics are still in the paper with Peanuts at the top but I could have sworn there used to be more coupon inserts. The sales papers I'm having trouble following it's been so long. There' a recipe for spring rolls which will come in handy. There were coupons for products we use that I always miss the sales for so having those means they cost me less and I can go ahead and buy them. I used to plan shopping trips, I'm attempting to get back to it. It's going a bit slowly but it's coming along.

I was going to try and shop only on a double coupon day but with that being a Saturday and gas prices back to $3.69 this morning from the $3.65 they were Friday. (Gas station closest to me) I don't see that happening because in the event of an emergency I'd like to be able to leave. That brings me to the need for a storm shelter. There were 17 people dead from the severe weather and tornadoes that traveled across the state as of yesterday morning and the storms were not through traveling to the east of the country.

I have some writing to do if I plan to meet my earnings goals for the rest of this month and I have to begin on next month as well. I'll be going for now.

What did I do today?

Well I began working on a new website today. Dazed and Confused which basically sums up my life at the moment better than any of these three do at the moment. I wrote two articles and published them, then I finished one and worked on another one. The last two need editing but I"m letting them sit for a while. I'm though editing as I write because of this article on increasing productivity by eliminating wasted steps.

I think I'm going to rearrange the living room. I never did finish cutting the grass because my other half never got the gas out of the lawnmower with the dead battery for me so I could finish. I was planning to save my Amazon gift cards back up and purchase a new battery for my laptop so that I could write two of the five days we're in therapy but it looks like I'll be saving them to help cover the costs of supplement now. They just went up and not by a little bit.

I have no idea just how much they'll be total or how often they'll need filling. I have a feeling that one of them is about to come off the list because Theresa doesn't seem to have a problem with constipation at least not for now. I may just cut down on them, I thinking of asking about only giving them every other day.

Well, I'll be going now.

Increase in Expenses

Expenses are going up suddenly. Supplement costs are going up by at least double each month. My complete powder is $60 to have it delivered to the house, not including the cost of the ice pack to have it shipped to me. Shipping is free. I'm checking the prices of the rest of the supplements but the fish oil and complete powder together come to at least $120 per month that I don't have.

So at the moment I'm planning a grocery trip around coupons from Swagbucks. I think I'll print as many as I can of the ones that have longer expiration dates so that I don't have to hunt them down twice. So far if my trip goes as planned I'll earn an additional 80 swagbucks the next time we go to the store. So far all I have are cheese, mustard, snacks and cereal for the baby on the list. $7.60 in savings so far, now for the second store b/c the first doesn't sell frozen veggies and stuff.

I have no idea where the extra money is coming from. I know I have to purchase a battery so I can write on the go, and eventually upgrade or replace my laptop. I plan to take it and have all my files transfered to the new one professionally if I ever manage to get that part done.

OK. I'm off to work. Turns out couponing is a hot topic at the moment so I'm off to see if I can turn out a few articles on it. Hope my memory is good or I'll never get done.

Standstill and Rock Bottom

I'm exhausted, this is Spring Break for Theresa but she's still got therapy four days of the week. Her daddy is supposed to take her so I can have a much needed break. I have figured out that I will be writing articles the entire week. Well when I'm not cleaning house and planning a trip to the store Friday so we get groceries. I have to make a small trip to the store before then, I miscalculated and we have a choice for the rest of the week if I don't.

We can eat eggs, popcorn, muffins, tortilla shells or dry cereal. I think we have some corn and one pack of frozen vegetables as well.

Extreme coupon-ing ? how much time would it take?

OK my expenses are starting to outrun my income so something has to be done about that. I was reading a few websites of extreme couponers and plan to watch the premiere of extreme coupon-ing on TLC I just don't remember what night it is. I was wondering just how much time and effort these people put into finding these coupons and spending pennies for hundreds of dollars in items. I know that often the generic items are cheaper than the name brand with coupons but what if I managed to catch the sales? It could be worth it. If nothing else it'd give me an article or two.

I have access to online coupons, but I no longer subscribe to the newspaper. I grew tired of only getting it occasionally for whatever reason. I also noticed that the inserts I want are usually mailed out separately. I used to match my coupons to the sales faithfully, now I wonder where I find the time to make it to the store much less organize the trip. Each store has a different policy, of course I'm not sure why some of them take specific coupons and some do not. I can access the stores papers online and plan trips around them. One store doubles coupons up to 70cents on Saturdays. The problem is that by Saturday the items that I want might be gone.

I think I'll figure out a personal challenge for my family. I know I can save the amount I want, and it may be time to get creative with it. Some of those people make a living telling people how to do these things.