Eats, Shoots & Leaves

I finally finished Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. I say finally because I started the book back in November, put it in a craft tote and lost it for a few months. I found it again last week and finished it On Wednesday night.

The book was funny, but it is just too much to take in. Unless you love punctuation already you'll probably only walk away from this book feeling slightly less smart. I could have read the back cover, laughed at the story and finished feeling slightly amused. Instead I'm now self conscious about all my commas and the fact I only know the form of its and it's = it is. The other 200 uses are a complete mud puddle to me.

I did learn/realize a few things about my writing style though. I totally over use the - and ... marks. Yet, guest what? I like them and plan to keep over using them so you should get used to it now.

At least I didn't pay for the book since I requested it from paperbackswap.com and have since sent it to someone else, re-earning my credit. (On a side note I've saved almost $100 by using paperbackswap since I signed up)

10 ways to save on having a baby

Just wanted to pass along these great suggestions on 10 ways to save on having a baby over at Homemaker Barbi.

Very realistic unlike some list out there.

Anyone else have another way you saved on baby related cost? I'd love to hear them.

Star Dishcloths

I was a little productive this weekend and also found a few projects I've worked on recently.



I originally whipped up these dish cloths for a member of the family which is why I used blue, but in the end they turned out a little too girly to go to the intended recipient. I'll probably use them myself or give them to a different family member. They are cute though and would make a great gift with a small price tag.

I'm not sure if this is the exact Star dishcloth pattern that I used but it is pretty close.

My Confession

Remember how I said people can justify anything including myself? Well here is my confession. Matt and I have made a few big purchases lately and spent a lot of money, but we did it frugally. :) If spending can ever be frugal. (see my rationalizations)
So what did we buy...

Well lets see, it all started last month when we bought not one but TWO lazy boy chairs. In our defense both chairs were more than 50% off meaning we purchased both for the cost of what one would have. And we didn't buy until we absolutely had to. The seat of our old chair had completely broken so we resorted to shoving pillows in the hole to try and even it out. When someone came over to visit we made sure they didn't end up in that chair. I don't think anyone can say we didn't use it until it's last dying day.

Our other purchase which we really didn't need was a 60" TV. But hear me out on this one, our current TV was over twelve years old and we realized last year that we'd have to buy a new one soon. When Circuit City closed we purchased it on one of their last days for less than the old one cost twelve years ago. Plus it was a price we were ok with - actually we had planned to spend more so we ended up with a deal, just a deal sooner than we had planned on.

There I've confessed and I feel a little better about it. Now on to another topic to make you forget about my financial irresponsibility.

As many of you probably know Obama is scheduled to sign the stimulus package tomorrow. The feelings about the package seem to vary widely. Some seem to believe it's amazing and others think it will only increase the recession.

So my question is... how do you feel about the stimulus package? Do you think it will help our economy or cause more damage? And what do you plan to do with the few extra dollars in your check each week?

Ours will go towards our 12K year end goal which probably isn't helping to stimulate the economy much but it is stimulating our savings account.

5 Things the Marshmallow Test Can Teach you About Money

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines day with someone special. Matt and I don't normally celebrate Valentines Day since both of our birthdays are so close. We spent a nice and quiet day at home basically not speaking to each other... only because at this point my voice is almost completely gone. I'm hoping another day will help me even more and I can get back to my interviews next week.

Until then I wanted to leave you with a blog posting from Millionaire Mommy Next Door about 5 things the Marshmallow test can teach you about money management. I think everyone should take the few minutes needed to read this article. I found it so interesting I'm still thinking about it months later, especially in light of some recent events and conversations with co-workers. Let's just say people can justify anything, myself included.

There are five practical tips provided on how you can manage your money.

Blog Button

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Look to the left to grab the code and add it to your site

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I don't know about you but I love the new blog design and the adorable pig. I'm also so excited to have a blog button (I've been working on one for a while). I've spent the last few days working on a few other blog features I hope to have up and running this weekend.

So far this week I haven't done any shopping or any de-cluttering, although I did make a fairly large purchase (more details to come). It's hiring season for my company which means those of us in HR are working long days and meeting lots of people. And of course it wouldn't be a good time to get sick, in fact it might be the worse time all year to for me to get sick. So yes, that means I have been sick all this week and am officially starting to lose my voice. I only have about 20 interviews to go until the next round, maybe I'll start using flash cards to ask questions.

Online stuff reduction

In an effort to reduce my commitments I’ve limited the number of websites I update for certain events. For example when I used to read a book I would update, goodreads.com , OnOurWay, a personal spread sheet, and 43things.com. I’m getting rid of 43things.com. and goodreads.com , thus reducing my commitments by 50%. Now when I finish a book I’m going to update OnOurWay and my personal record.

I have also taken all the blogs I read and added them to my google reader for easier checking. I was really hesitant to start using the google reader to keep me updated on my blogs but it has saved me so much time, I’ll never go back. I implore you to ask yourself “how much time do you spend each day updating certain sites?” I know I was spending way too much time of my day doing just that. Of course you want to get your name out there as much as possible, but at some point we just have to say enough.

Here are the sites I’m now using for my various updates.

Exercise/Nutritional: Sparkpeople.com
Web searches: Swagbucks.com
Books: OnOurWay & personal spreadsheet
Goals: 43things.com
Blogs: Google reader

Take the 2009 reduction challenge and get rid of just one website you frequently update but don’t enjoy doing so. Can you do it? If so which site will/would it be?