Why you shouldn't compare your "Amount Saved" with someone else's

I often hear people bragging about how much they saved on something.  While it's true that they got a discount, but you have to wonder how much they spent, and if they purchased something they didn't need.

I donate items, sell on eBay, as well as buy items for my household.  Last month, I posted a photo of a receipt on social media where it said, "Today you saved $1200.00".  Many people commented on it.  But how I did it was Christmas items were 90% off and I bought tons of stuff to sell on eBay.  I was asked how I did it, but honestly, all it took was putting items in my cart.

As an eBay seller, I got a great deal.  I spent a little over $200 that day and made it back in a couple weeks with the stuff I purchased and still have stuff I can sell for quite some time.  However, as an individual, there was little that I wanted or need.

My 5 Favorite Chapter Books When I was a Child

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Even when I was a child, for me to declare a book a favorite was a huge honor.  I was a voracious reader and even skipped the library's reading club party to try and finish more books than another girl.  (I lost by one book.)  I would sometimes do nothing but sit and read all day in the summers.   I didn't realize what a luxury that was, but now I long for those times.  I can, however, revisit childhood favorite books.

Here are my five favorites in no particular order:


Katie Kittenheart by Mariam Mason.  This is the sweet story about a girl who wants to be a teacher someday.  That someday comes sooner than she expects as she has to watch over the lower class at school during a flood.  Obviously, this would never happen today, but as a child of the 1980s, I felt it could have happened during the time period in which it was set.

Five Tips to Save Money on Gasoline

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Even with gas prices dropping, I am sure everyone still wishes there was a way to get gasoline even cheaper.  Well, there is!  Here are a few things I do.  Each station is different, and promotions may vary, but here are some ideas for you to see if they will work for you.

*The GasBuddy App.  I think most people have heard of this.  You can look up to see what stations near you have the cheaper gas.  I've seen it vary as much as ten cents a gallon with stations on different sides of the road.

Debt Free For Seven Years. . . Now Paying Off Credit Cards

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I was debt free for seven years until the day I got married.  No, I didn't marry a man with debt, but most of it was because I got sick on my wedding night.  I
didn't have insurance, and my husband's insurance didn't kick in for another week.

I had done everything right.  I had saved a $10,000 emergency fund like Dave Ramsey suggests in The Total Money Makeover.  That went out the window when we were doing what we thought was a small update to my house, and discovered an electrical problem.  It was something we didn't feel safe putting off until we had saved up the money, so the emergency fund was depleted.

Seven Tips to Write a Killer eBay Title that will Help Your Item Sell

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Writing a title for an eBay item is MUCH simpler than many people make it.  In the beginning it takes a little thought but soon it will become second nature.  I have actually seen titles that said "A++++ Very Good Condition"  But how could anyone know from that what item was being sold?  How would anyone find it?

Here are a few things I have learned after eighteen years of selling on eBay.

*Give basic information.  Look at your widget.  What color is it?  Size?  Year made?  Is there a model number? These are often called "key words".

Book Review: And It Was Beautiful by Kara Tippetts

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I'd heard of Kara Tippetts when I picked up And It Was Beautiful: Celebrating Life in the Midst of the Long Good-Bye.  I knew Kara Tippetts had passed away.  I knew she had blogged through her illness with breast cancer.  That was about the extent of my knowledge about her.  I hadn't read any of her books, even when my friends were raving about them.   I had lost my mother the year her book The Hardest Peace was released.  There was just no way I could read about someone dying when I had just lived through that with my mother, no matter how amazing the book was.  Ever feel like you're on the outside looking in?  I felt like I was the only one of my friends who hadn't read her book.

Late February Adoption Update

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Not much has happened in the month since I gave my last adoption update -- unless you count what feels like a step or two backwards.

Winter Storm Jonas hit our area hard.  My husband was stuck at work for a couple days (thankfully he was provided with a free hotel room from the place he works, although he did expect to have to share it with another employee who worked another shift.)  I sent him out of the house that morning with extra clothing, snacks, and made sure he had things like his phone charger.  It seems like much of his free time for the next week was spent shoveling.

Book Review: Hard Core Poor

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Here at Books, Bargains, Blessings, I haven't been reviewing all the books I read, but possibly I should change that?  I saw the Kindle edition of Hard Core Poor on sale and decided I was going to see if it was any good -- or a disappointment after years of thrifty living like most books on frugality tend to be for me.

I was very surprised at how much new knowledge was presented in this book.  Of course, I've never researched how to get the best deal on diapers, and there was a pretty lengthy section dedicated to the frugality of diapering on a dime, but there were a lot of other things I didn't know included as well.  Such as the best way to air dry clothing when you have hand washed it.

I'm the one who used to keep little bits of deodorant and when I had enough melt them down to form a new stick.  I was once that poor.  I was surprised this wasn't mentioned in the frugal hygiene section in this book, but the rest of the tips made up for it.

U.S. Cellular, The Fairfax Stone, and National Engineers Week

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U.S. Cellular offers a FREE PRINTABLE Parent Child agreement to help you discuss safety of the Internet, cell phone usage, limits, and courtesy with your teen or tween.  You don't even need to be a U.S. Cellular customer to access this, although I have been for 10 years and highly recommend them. 

Did you know that National Engineers Week is this month?   Neither did I.  (My apologies go out to every in-law of mine as my husband is the only non-engineer in the family.)  Did you know that National Engineers weeks takes place during the week of George Washington's birthday?  This makes perfect sense to me because I always knew before he was president, he was a surveyor.  In fact, the smallest state park in West Virginia is less than an hour from my home, and it boasts the headwaters of the Potomac River, a boundary line that George Washington once surveyed.  The original stone he erected for Lord Fairfax is no longer there, but there is another to commemorate the boundary laid by (future) President Washington.

My Five Favorite Items For Organizing My Life

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It's Five Favorites link up with Ashley at The Big White FarmHouse so check her site to find out what others are "favoriting" today.

It seems like I am always busy.  I sell on eBay,  I blog, I enter contests and sweepstakes, we are trying to get the house up to code so we can foster and adopt, I sell Paparazzi $5 Jewelry in direct sales, I am a member of the PTO even though I don't have children, and I'm a newlywed.  How do I do it all?  Sometimes it's just collapsing in bed for a day or two to recover from my life.  But here are my favorite ways to keep everything organized.