FREE Gift Cards - My Points

If you haven't already joined, check out www.mypoints.com! I don't get any credit when you do as I'm not linking my e-mail in here. However, I can verify this site DOES give what it says it will. Earn points for e-mails read and earn free gift cards in return. Each e-mail read is usually worth 5 points. Gift cards start at around 1500 points. It may sound like a lot, but it isn't hard or time consuming. I've earned many gift cards over the past few years and am ready for another year of using their program to stretch my budget! Of course, the e-mails have offers - from taking a survey to getting a free quote to shopping for extra points. You do not have to take any of the offers! It is definitely worth checking out.

Mindful Living Update

Well, here we are a few days into the tracking of my new adventure. I have much left to work on, but I get side-tracked easily. As I started packing up my Christmas decorations, I realized I had a LOT of gift items on hand...and not all in one place, of course! So I pulled out a tote and decided it would become the "gift holder". I also realized I had had some of the items for a long time and had forgetten about them! That lead to me starting a list of what I had on hand. I am hopeful I won't have to buy much in the way of gifts for a while.

Here's my challenge to you: take a look around your house and see what you have on hand that can be used for gift giving. These may be new items you had picked up and forgot about, books you've never read (and likely won't) or books you have read that are in near perfect shape, bath sets that still have a piece you won't use, odd mugs, etc. As you find these, put them on a list and then tuck them all away in one place. You'd be amazed at what you really have on hand!

Free (or nearly there) Gift Idea - Tasty Tea Time

Tasty Tea Time (for the tea lover - as cheap as FREE!)

At its cheapest version: Use one of your mismatched coffee mugs. Grab a half dozen or so tea bags (assorted if you have them) and place them inside the mug. Wrap in a variety of ways with what you have on hand - lace, ribbon, cloth napkin, etc.

If you have it around the house: Team it up with a small vase, a votive candle, magazine or book to enhance their tea time experience.

For a small amount of money: Pick up a more vintage tea cup/saucer set (or make it two) for them to have a matching pair to share tea time.

I've put this together for my mother. She likes tea, but cannot have the caffeine that comes in most. Being on a fixed income keeps her from splurging on herself. I grabbed a cute coffee cup from the cabinet and a few packs of many different flavors of caffeine free tea (I had these on hand as I have cut caffeine out of my diet). This was wrapped with pretty fabric and ribbon with a few magazines that needed to move on. Cost - a few minutes of my time!

Free (or nearly there) Gift Idea - Happy Memories Collection

Part of my quest is to better use what I have at hand. Gift giving is an an area that can really zap our wallets, especially when that ‘lost’ birthday invite is unearthed from its ‘hiding’ place or Aunt Sue decided to drop in for the holidays…unexpectedly! As I get a chance, I'll post some of the items I have done (or am currently working on) to get your creative juices flowing. I'd love to hear your comments or ideas in this area!

Happy Memories Collection (any age – as cheap as FREE!)

At its cheapest version: Grab a handful of your extra photos that include the recipient. On the back of each one, write a comment about the event. Tie a pretty piece of ribbon around them and you are done!

If you have it around the house: Place them in a storage box of appropriate size or even a photo album (be sure the notes can be seen or write the notes to the side of each picture).

For a small amount of money: Wrap the pictures in an inexpensive hanky or pretty piece of fabric.

Mindful Living - And So It Begins!

I've been working on simplifying things for a few years now - a little here and a little there. Some things are now part of my routine; others have fallen by the way side. One big thing was accomplished: I am now debt free (except for my mortgage)!

That being said, I have decided I am now ready to step it up and start practicing a more mindful way of living on an ongoing basis. Of course, all of you who know me know I have the urge to jump in and do everything at once. Guess what? I just may do that ~ kind of. There's no harm in trying to tweak things in multiple areas at once, right?

There is only one thing I have done to 'prepare' for this quest - my step one: a yearly spending plan on paper. This will hopefully be adjusted to the better over the coming months. I am now working backwards to 4 week spending periods (since I get paid bi-weekly). This will be part of my map.

I have not spent months stocking up on everything imaginable, though I do have certain things on hand as I always do (an extra package of TP, shampoo, toothpaste, etc. and a few extra boxes of mac/cheese and such). I'm not going on a crazed crash diet of the house or necessarily even of spending...just looking at things in a slightly different light.

My official start date? Christmas day. I know, it sounds kind of odd for a start date. However, that is a pay day for me - the last one of the year, but it also falls into the first part of January and will be what covers a good portion of January's expenses. Had I finished the first step (for me) sooner this year, I would have started sooner, but it is what it is and that's the date I've picked. This isn't a New Year's Resolution (those are mostly evil and typically fail by February), it's a quest for a better life (in my opinion, of course). One that will encourage me to be a better stewart of my blessings and a better manager of my resources.

Like I said, this isn't a diet, but a quest. Let the adventure begin!

Quilt Holes

Special thanks to my grandmother for sharing this:


"The Quilt Holes'

As I faced my Maker at the last judgment, I knelt before the Lord along with all the other souls.
Before each of us laid our lives like the squares of a quilt in many piles; an angel sat before each of us sewing our quilt squares together into a tapestry that is our life.
But as my angel took each piece of cloth off the pile, I noticed how ragged and empty each of my squares was. They were filled with giant holes. Each square was labeled with a part of my life that had been difficult, the challenges and temptations I was faced with in every day life. I saw hardships that I endured, which were the largest holes of all.I glanced around me. Nobody else had such squares. Other than a tiny hole here and there, the other tapestries were filled with rich color and the bright hues of worldly fortune. I gazed upon my own life and was disheartened.My angel was sewing the ragged pieces of cloth together, threadbare and empty, like binding air.Finally the time came when each life was to be displayed, held up to the light, the scrutiny of truth. The others rose; each in turn, holding up their tapestries. So filled their lives had been. My angel looked upon me and nodded for me to rise.My gaze dropped to the ground in shame. I hadn't had all the earthly fortunes. I had love in my life and laughter. But there had also been trials of illness and wealth, and false accusations that took from me my world, as I knew it. I had to start over many times. I often struggled with the temptation to quit, only to somehow muster the strength to pick up and begin again. I spent many nights on my knees in prayer, asking for help and guidance in my l ife. I had often been held up to ridicule, which I endured painfully, each time offering it up to the Father in hopes that I would not melt within my skin beneath the judgmental gaze of those who unfairly judged me.And now, I had to face the truth. My life was what it was, and I had to accept it for what it was.I rose and slowly lifted the combined squares of my life to the light.An awe-filled gasp filled the air. I gazed around at the others who stared at me with wide eyes..Then, I looked upon the tapestry before me. Light flooded the many holes, creating an image, the face of Christ.. Then our Lord stood before me, with warmth and love in His eyes. He said, 'Every time you gave over your life to Me, it became My life, My hardships, and My struggles.Each point of light in your life is when you stepped aside and let Me shine through, until there was more of Me than there was of you.'May all our quilts be threadbare and worn, allowing Christ to shine through!

God determines who walks into your life...it's up to you to decide who you let walk away, who you let stay and who you refuse to let go.

Milk Jugs

We've found additional uses for styrofoam and plastic bread bags, so how about the plastic gallon milk jugs? Of course, these are recyclable, but why not get additional usage out of them before sending them on their way? The obvious reuse for them is to store water or mix juices or kool aid in them. Here are some additional ideas for use (some from the very helpful friends and family on FB!):

1. cut diagonally and use for a scoop - dog food, cat food, cat litter, clean the ashes from a fireplace, etc.

2. small garden tool

3. bird feeder

4. cut off the top and use instead of a cup when bathing young children

5. funnel for adding oil to the car

6. for the crafty - make musical instruments for children

Of course, we should try to reuse all of it, so how about the plastic cap?

1. everyone agreed they would use them for game pieces

2. use them for crafts - use for small amounts of glue or paint, or mix paint in them

3. a little craftier - glue pictures on them and punch a hole/string them for ornaments

4. cat toys

5. paste numbers/letters on them and make a learning game for young kids (those old enough to not try to swallow them!)

Talk about some creative reasoning! I would say there is pratically nothing that can't be reused at least once in some way or another. Start looking at things from an 'out of the box' perspective and bring more creativity into your lives while saving money!

What's in your trash can?

It seems I need to re-introduce my son to the compost bin. I went in to the kitchen this morning and noticed a banana peel and egg shells sitting in the trash can. After removing those to their proper place and taking out a piece of styrofoam packaging to re-use and I still have an extremely small amount of trash in the trash can. It's been almost a full week and I still don't have a full trash bag to take out for the weekly pick up on Tuesday.

What's in my trash can?

~the empty packets of EmergenC

~some used packing tape from a purchase last week

~wrappings from our Whataburger burgers earlier in the week
~some torn up pieces of plastic from that same purchase last week

What I noticed already today:

I was sweeping the kitchen floor and went to toss the sweepings into the trash. I realized that was kind of silly since it was primarily dirt from the dogs being in overnight - rerouted to the back yard where it came from!

Reuse ideas for plastic bread bags and styrofoam

Well, I thought of an idea for reusing the plastic bread bags, but my big discovery of the day was uses for styrofoam cups...thanks to my wonderful family and friends via Facebook.

First, plastic bread bags can be washed out and reused at the grocery store for fruit and veggies instead of grabbing a new bag each time.

Now on to the styrofoam - I am trying to cut out the use of these products since they aren't recyclable. I had made a :( post because I remembered Chick-fil-a used styrofoam cups for their milkshakes and I really wanted a milkshake! Thanks to Katie, Stefanie and Stephanie, I can now have a milkshake from time to time and reuse the cups as follows:

It can start out as a change collector. Once it has served its use there, it can be turned into a plant starter. It can then be turned upside down and decorated as a Christmas tree with an angel of some sort placed on top. Once it has gone through all of these transformations, it can be torn to pieces and used for packing material.

Way to go girls!!

Plastic Bread Bags - What can you do with them?

11 Dec 09 Plastic Bread Bags – What can you do with them?

I saw one tossed in the trash can this morning. My kid managed to consume 2 loaves of bread on his own this week! At least it was wheat bread. It made me wonder, though…what can be done with the bread bags? As far as I know, they aren’t recyclable (though I could be wrong), so that leaves reusable or trash. I guess I could get really energetic and bake bread – eliminating the continuous flow of bags all together, but let’s be a little realistic…I’m not a Mrs. Baird’s! I do have a bread maker and use it on occasion, but haven’t found a recipe I absolutely love yet. I would consider baking it from scratch if someone could give me a somewhat easy and really YUMMY recipe for healthy bread – wheat or otherwise.

Here’s where YOU come in on my journey! Give me your ideas for reusing these bags OR a yummy recipe to try!!

Got My New SMALLER Trash Can!

The city delivered my new smaller trash container today. I am trying really hard to take a closer look at everything I would have thrown into the trash before to see if it can be recycled instead. I tripped across some packaging material that is actually able to go into the compost pile. Not much else was accomplished today, but tomorrow brings a host of new opportunities!

City Sewer Charges: Reduce Charges and Conserve Water!

The City of Plano calculates sewer charges based on a Winter Quarter Averaging Program - http://plano.gov/Departments/CUS/General_Information/Pages/sewer_rate_ed.aspx .
According to this program, my sewer rates over the following 12 months can be reduced by me conserving water during the months of Nov – March. Since this is sewer fees, it only applies to the amount of water that GOES DOWN THE DRAIN, not the amount of water that comes out of the faucets. Cool – to lower this cost, simply don’t let as much water escape through the drains and the toilets.

I don’t have a dishwasher (gasp!), so I wash dishes by hand anyway. All I have to do to reduce the sewer cost (AND recycle water) in that area is to go back to container washing (water stays in a dish bucket instead of the sink – it can then be used to water outdoor plants instead of rushing down the drain).

We both already take showers that last less than 5 minutes, so we are in good shape there.

Of course the other way to use less water (and now get a cheaper sewer rate) in the bathroom is to put a bottle filled with sand or a brick in the toilet tank. This allows the toilet to require less water to fill up.

Another win/win situation.

City Trash Charges: Reduce Fees - Reduce Trash!

Good use of a lunch break! I looked up the city fees for our trash/recycle carts. The city automatically provides residents with a 95 gallon container at a current fee of $15.10/month. If a resident wishes to down scale to a 68 gallon container, the fee drops to $11.25/month. While that may only be a difference of $3.85/month, it adds up to $46.20/year. That savings would cover Zack’s cell phone bill for a month! It will also encourage us to throw away less (though I can’t remember the last time I filled the larger container in a week’s time anyway).

I really don’t like having to seal the trash in a tied plastic bag, though. Wonder if there is any way around that one?!

Mindful Living

It’s December – an absolutely crazy time of the year to decide to start something, right? Well, not at my house! I already have 99.99% of my shopping done and have no desire to go shop with all of the crazies out there right now, so why not focus on something at home? I recently finished the majority of remodeling of the 3 bedrooms at my house (I’ll post pictures in a bit), so still have a good amount of paint, trimming and other stuff lying around, though it is in a confined area now. The learning experiences brought on by those projects re-sparked something long buried in my brain and has triggered the desire for more challenges – as if being a single parent, working full time, raising a kid with weird school hours while attending classes herself isn’t challenging enough.

Here are the challenges I have set for myself and my household (yep, that would be the one 15 year old boy):

• Review current expenses (utilities, insurance and the like) and adjust where necessary
• Be more mindful of the use of electricity in the home
• Start being more alert to ways of reducing the amount of trash disposed of weekly
• Start being more alert to ways of reusing/recycling items

All of these areas can be worked on by both of us, which will be some good lessons for my already smart and conscious teenager. This is just a spring board for things to come.

For the review of current expenses, I’ve decided to start with my city utility bill. For me, this covers water, sewer and trash/recycling pick up. What I know right now is the city provides a huge trash bin that is emptied weekly and a huge recycle bin that is emptied bi-weekly. I know they offer a smaller trash bin which likely costs less per month, so that is where I will begin my research for this one and see where it leads me.

Electricity usage – This is an area we’ve been fairly conscious of to begin with, but there is definitely room for improvement. I’ve already mentioned using the clothes line at times, though not all the time and my kids were always good about turning lights off when leaving a room. We do, however, tend to be bad about leaving the TV on – almost all the time! This is an area I am noticing Zack paying more attention to (some days more than others). He will realize he is reading a book and there is no need for the TV to be on if he is the only one in the room and turn it off. As a learning experience, I want to pull the last 12 months of utility bills and review the usage with him – then see if it can be reduced over the next few months.

Trash/recycle – For the most part, we fill the recycle bin way more often than we do the trash bin. However, we are extremely more wasteful than we should be. I decided the first big challenge here is to reduce or even eliminate the amount of Styrofoam purchased/used by the two of us. This is a big non-recyclable culprit at home, at the office and when eating on the run. Monday morning, I packed up a reusable water bottle to take to the office. Along with that, I grabbed a bowl (for morning cereal, yogurt or oatmeal), spoon and coffee mug (don’t drink coffee, but use it for tea, milk and juice). That means I don’t have to reach for the Styrofoam cup or bowl anymore! I also informed Zack this meant no more drinks from Whataburger – they use Styrofoam cups…maybe I need to write them and complain!

more brain dumping :)

So where does the trail to Mindful Living begin? It begins with you and right where you are at right now! It begins with the desire to wage war against all of the ‘stuff’ in life; the desire to chip away the unhealthy things, the things that are holding you back from more important things or stealing your time, energy and even your health away. I do not believe there is only one right way to ride this trail – it is a personal journey for each of us. How far we choose to go on the trail is also a personal decision. What is important is to have a reason for choosing this trail. You have to define your own goals and find ways to get there and the motivation to keep going (or to get up and going again).

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been on this trail for a while now. What started the journey? I really can’t say it was one specific thing. I was simply tired of doing things how everyone else did them or how ‘they’ thought I should do them. Those who know me well enough will tell you I kind of like making my own beat to march to. I guess I simply got tired of listening to someone else’s beat.

Where did I start? Hmm, that’s another non specific. I get a little obsessive-compulsive at times (the laughing you are now participating in is really not necessary, but I’ll let it slide since it is good for you!). I decided to try many things at once. It was a bit chaotic, but it helped me see what would ‘stick’ and become part of my new trail. What stuck was the determination to pay off my debt (except for that crazy 30 year project I bought a while back). That became my first defined goal. I wasn’t extreme on that trail, but I was pretty darned focused. While maintaining a decent comfort level in our lives, I chipped away at those pesky credit cards and car loans paying them off in about a year. Since that was a different set of blog posts, I won’t go into all of the details. I’ll simply say it still feels great!

On that leg of the journey, I tripped across (or pulled back out) several things I enjoyed doing. I put up my own ‘no tools required – female installed’ clothes line and enjoyed the therapeutic benefits of being outdoors and the fresh smell of nature dried laundry. Don’t get me wrong, I still used my dryer from time to time to soften the towels up and such. It had a pretty long life until one day it said its time had come to an end. My Uncle Jimmy came to the rescue installing a ‘tools required – male rigged to be stronger and longer lasting’ clothes line in its place.

I also started a container garden – I would have torn up the entire back yard if I’d have had a ‘tiller, but thankfully I did not! This past summer I had fresh strawberries, black berries, blueberries and yummy snap peas. I am still nurturing the berry plants and also the baby green and red grape plants I started but won’t yield any grapes for a while. In that same general area, I started up my compost bin. I will now have some great additives for my garden area this spring.

There are other things that have stuck as well, but these are the most exciting – for me anyway. It once again triggered my desire for several acres, lots of fruit trees, a big garden and a quaint little home primarily powered by solar and wind energy. Okay, so that is a dream land, but there are still many things I can work towards.

I would love to tell you this series of entries will be straight forward, only on one track and simple to read/follow. However, there is no sense in lying to you! I tend to bounce at times more often than T-I-GG-E-R at a birthday party, so don’t feel bad if you can’t make sense out of what I’m doing! All I can tell you is that I hope to chronicle my adventures as they come about – maybe you can take something from them and maybe you can add something to them. Most of all, make ways to enjoy life!

Just some thoughts...

Everyone’s heard the terms: eco-friendly, environmentally conscious, energy-efficient. There are likely more books on ‘green living’ available on today’s bookshelf than at any other time during the last 50 years. Many of these writers claim to ‘have found a new way of living’. I wonder what they think our ancestors did years ago before all of the modern ‘conveniences’ of today’s lifestyle?

Out of curiosity, I have picked up and browsed through some of these books. Most have had a common theme weaved in – take care of Mother Earth. I understand their point, but find their reference a bit lacking. After all, wasn’t it Father God who provided us with Mother Earth? Wasn’t it Father God who put man in the Garden of Eden to work it and care for it? Though man was kicked out of the Garden, doesn’t that position still apply to the rest of us and to the world God has provided us with?

Personally, I like to think of this quest more on the lines of ‘Mindful Living’ – of being more mindful of the abundance of blessings that have been bestowed upon us here in our great land of plenty and how we use them to help those around us.

A new day - a new adventure!

It’s been a while since my last entry here and I actually thought about closing the blog down entirely. However, since my finance posts helped several, I decided to leave it be and switch gears for a while. Though the next series of events will likely drive some over the proverbial edge, some will likely find them helpful – or at the least, humorous from time to time. What’s the topic? Simplifying! For those who know me well enough to know my e-mail address, you know I integrated this word, and its variations, into my lifestyle quite some time ago. While I have changed many things for the better on this trail, I still have a long way to go with many changes yet to be made. If you are brave enough, join me on this trail from time to time. You never know where you might end up!