Knockout Entrepreneur - Book Review

So I was able to finish Knockout Entrepreneur by George Foreman last week.

The book is billed as a publication where “Foreman shares his success secrets with aspiring and current entrepreneurs” (amazon.com) Foreman walks you through what he believes are the core values to being successful for example; Know Your Foe, Listen to Your Corner, Keep Answering the Bell, and Make it Good.

In each chapter he discusses the definition of each value and gives examples from his real life. I’ll be honest I didn’t not enjoy this book. Reading it felt like a huge chore I needed to check off and it took me weeks to finish it. I love motivational books, my favorite kind is one that leaves you pumped and ready to make changes in your life – unfortunately this book doesn’t. After the first chapter it becomes one big advertisement for Foreman.

Now I know he has done amazing things with great success but it felt like every page was a big Foreman commercial. For example did you know George was, in , thought about being involved in, beef manufacturing, restaurant chains and green cleaning products? Yeah either did I but after reading about it so much I’ll never forget it that’s for sure.

The underlying advice is pretty good, but you have to wade through everything else to get to it.

Books Read in 2009: 27
Books to Read in 2009: 23

Quick Update

I’m sorry my posting lately has been erratic at best, I’m trying out the posting every other day model which was going well until this weekend. Within the last week I’ve been exposed to strep throat, bronchitis, influenza A and mersa. By Friday I was feeling fine and thought I had made it through without catching anything – then I woke up Saturday. I wasn’t feeling good but not horrible either, fast forward to Sunday when I spent all day with body aches, scratchy throat, a headache and runny nose.

I think I’m starting to feel better but I’m still exhausted and my nose isn’t fairing well. I took the weekend off from working on our new house and won’t be over there tonight either. Here’s hoping I’m back in shape by Thursday so I can finish up some stuff. We are so close to moving in, just need to sand the floors and I can’t wait to share pictures with you.

Good Reads 10/16/09

Check out this great tutorial on how to make Large vintage looking dominoes from Shanty 2 Chic - They look great. I can so see a set of these hanging in our new basement game room.

Michigan Saving Mama has the information on gift packs at local fast food places. These would make a great treat for Halloween night.

Frugal in Virginia has the scoop on how to get some FREE neosporin lip health from CVS

Stop by Wise Bread and read up on 28 ways to have cheap Halloween fun

Craftzine has a great post on How to make an acorn bird feeder (so cute). You can also read up on how to make a Halloween candy bar wrapper (In the shape of bats and mummies)

Coupon Cravings has a post on the new reusable bag program at CVS. Use a reusable bag 4 times and get a $1 ecb. Read the full scoop here I love all these rewards for using reusable bag now.

Linaloo has a tutorial on how to make a patchwork start

Some Cheap goodies at Menards

Menards has a couple of good Freebies this week but I wanted to highlight the two I took advantage of.

This week you can get an eight pack of batteries for $1.99 with a $1 rebate making them only $.99 - that's a great deal especially with Christmas right around the corner. There is a limit of four per offer though.

And they have most of their Glade candles on sale for $1.97. My Target has marked their candles back up, but I have a ton of the $1.50 off coupons left. If you're like me and need to get rid of a few these candles come out to $.47 a piece - not as great as $.16 but still a good price. They have the tins like Target, refill packets, as well as these cute glass holders which I purchased. They are really cute holiday holders.

An Ideal Husband - Oscar Wilde

I actually read An Ideal Husband, a play by Oscar Wilde last month but am just now getting around to reviewing it.

This play contains politics, love, and black mail what more could you want? Turmoil revolves around the main character’s ability to handle a threat to reveal a dark secret from his past and possibly jeopardize his marriage. You’ll read how each person responds to this information and some great interactions with one another. The deep story line discusses human morals, remorse and the question of if a loved one can accept faults.

I really enjoyed this play. It was a quick read with a story that still works today, a truly timeless piece. If you are looking for a fun steady tale that will make you smile this is the play to pick up.


Books Read in 2009: 26
Books to Read in 2009: 24

Febreze Home Collection Review

I’ve had this amazing Febreze gift pack in my home for about two weeks now and can’t even express how much I love everything.

I was graciously given the gift basket by myblogspark.com and Febreze. There was a flameless candle, reed defuser, jar candle, and room spray all in the Green Tea Citrus scent. Also included were extra shades for the flame less candle in each scent.

Reed diffusers are not something we use that often in our home. Normally one of the cats ends up knocking the bottle over - I think they want to play with the sticks or something - and sure enough this one lasted about a week before Matt found it sans liquid. I do love the look of diffusers, they just don't work well in our living environment. And best of all I've recently seen these on clearance at Target and Wal-Mart so you should be able to pick them up pretty cheaply. ($7 - $9 I believe)

The flame less candle is really neat, the shade is always releasing a scent and the base flickers to look like a real candle when turned on. It is great to use when my sister is visiting - all the look of a regular candle but non of the wax or smoke. These have also been spotted on clearance at Target.

We were also able to try one of the new Febreze candles and you've got to try one for yourself to see how great they are. Honestly I' normally a Yankee Candle girl all the way when it comes to candles but I'll be adding Febreze products to my stack more and more. We used this one in our dinning room and you could smell it throughout the whole first floor. I love when you don't have to be within two feet or strain your nose to smell a good candle. These are just amazing.

Right now Wal-Mart has a ton of their Febreze candles marked down to $5 - with coupons that have been circulating you can get them for $2 to $5 - totally worth it.

Have you tried any of the new Febreze fragrance collection, what did you think?

September Financial Update

I haven't done a budget update since July but here is one for September.


As of October 1st our savings stand as follows:

Car: $4,701.95 Down from July $16 which isn't too bad considering we did an oil change, brake repair and purchased four tires during the last two months.

Emergency: $5,164.42 Fully funded an up $55 from July - not a lot but we're only putting 5% of the extra into this account at this point

Dream (early retirement): $1,348 Down a lot ($857.75) from July but as I stated back then we've been buying all the new things for our home from this account since that's what it was intended for. $500 for just paint, electrical supplies and various other odds and ends were all purchased with that money.

Total: $11,215.32 down ($810) - not how I would like the numbers to look but with the circumstances being as they are I can handle it.

I really hope we can stock a lot of money away during the last few months, but we also have more money to put into our new home before we can move in (refinishing the floors, etc) so we'll see how it ends.