Being Financially Smart Sometimes Requires a Backbone

I remember waking up one day when I was about 12 or 13 years old, and while I expect my parents saw it coming, I was shocked that that day we were poor.  The day before nothing was said about money but instantly, I was hearing "We can't afford it."

I will say my dad was never one to budget.  He also was self employed and since he sold tombstones, they were pricey.  He never took into account the wholesale cost of the stone, the time it would take him, or the cost of labor to hire someone when he set it in the cemetery.  For the next 10 years, my parents were in a lot of debt.  Add in that Dad was hit by a drunk driver on Dad's way to work, and all medical expenses came out of our pocket for years.  I had to drop out of college until the legal process was over because it looked like our family had more money than we did because so much was being spent on surgeons, doctor visits, and medication.

June 2016 Adoption and Goals Update

Can you believe another month has passed so quickly?  I've been super busy.  I've been finishing up the Elite Blogging Academy course, trying to get things ready for the work group who are going to help us install the windows, AND I was in the hospital overnight in May.  I had a severe dental infection, and the dentists were perplexed as to what to do, and decided to admit me for observation and to give me IV antibiotics.  Needless to say, I felt out of commission for a little over a week so not as much got done as I had hoped.

How to Win Twitter Party Sweepstakes And Giveaways

It seems that there is no lack of opinion among people who enter sweepstakes about the phenomenon known as twitter parties.  It seems they are either loved or hated.  Personally, I enjoy them although I don't win as often as I would like.  But, the one down side of them is they are live.  Sometimes I have things planned during that time, and it means I miss out on the party.

First thing you need to do is be very active on your twitter account.  You don't want to have your account restricted for tweeting too much during a party.  Believe it or not, I have actually seen that happen to a sponsor of a twitter party.  The slang for this is "twitter jail", and it basically means you can't tweet for a certain amount of time after your account has been flagged by the computer as spam.

Thoughts on One Year of Marriage (Or What NOT to say to the Happy Couple)

This week marked one year of wedded bliss for my husband and me.  We celebrated by baking a cake the same flavor as our wedding cake once the tradition of year old wedding cake was deemed "gross" with the freezer burn forming puddles of water on top of our actual wedding cake.  We also went out to eat at a restaurant where we had won a gift certificate.  There were a couple kids screaming that had they been drunk adults they would have been asked to leave.  (In fact, most drunks I have ever seen have behaved better than these kids did.)  We killed two bugs at our table, and had mediocre food.  We have decided that after our wedding night in the ER and then later a trip to a resort that looked like it could have staged a 1970s horror film or 1970s porn movie, we're not going to try to do anything special for our anniversary again.  

Making Travel Easier with Your Smart Phone

**This post was sponsored by U.S. Cellular.  I am part of their Better Moments Blogger Brigade.**

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. 

I love going on overnight  and weekend trips.  Unfortunately, my husband and I don't get a chance to do so as often as I'd like.  We live in an area that within six hours or less we can be visiting his family, travel to Canada, Washington D.C., or a number of other destinations from an area with some of the best geocaching in the United States to Amish country.

That Week of the Pantry Eating Challenge where I landed in the hospital

A month ago, my pantry eating challenge started.  The whole idea was we would eat things we had in the house and not buy groceries. Seems simple enough, right?  Especially for a couponer who has a pantry that screams that is a hobby of mine.  When our house insurance agent did a walk through, she took asked me without prompting how long I had been using coupons.  It surprises people when I say twenty five years because I just don't look old enough.  But I digress.

Using Credit Cards to Your Advantage

FTC disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links.

As much as I appreciate the financial advice contained inThe Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness by Dave Ramsey, I disagree with him on one thing:  I never pay cash when I can pay for something with a credit card.

Granted, this is only good advice for someone who has the discipline to pay off a credit card each month, but although I have heard Mr. Ramsey say that no one has ever gotten rich using a credit card, I have received some wonderful reward items including:  thousands of dollars in gift cards and cash back, an airline ticket to New York City, an airline ticket to Grand Rapids, an airline ticket to Nashville, and nearly a month's worth of hotel stays.

Week Three of the One Month Pantry Eating Challenge

This post contains affiliate links.

This week was harder with the one month pantry eating challenge than the previous two weeks.  This was because we haven't had much fresh food in a while, plus our town's water had a yellow tint to it one day, and was muddy the next.  So we had to buy some stuff to drink, and we opted to eat out as well.

How to Stock a Gift Closet On a Budget

FTC disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links.

Several years ago, I began putting things back for gift giving occasions.  I hadn't heard the term "Gift Closet" or "Prize Closet" (as those who enter sweepstakes often call it.)  But I knew the concept.  I also knew our amount of money to be spent was next to nothing.

Why I Don't Attend Church on Mother's Day.

Last year, a couple ladies I know asked me to go to church with them that next Sunday.  I said honestly, "I never go to church on Mother's Day."  Truth is, churches have turned me off to going to any service that entire weekend.

The last time I did attend one, I left in tears.  The priest kept repeating that being a mother is God's highest calling for women.  I have to disagree with that.  It is the highest calling IF you are to have children.  Do you think Mother Theresa missed God's highest calling because she wasn't a mother? I think God's highest calling for us is what He has called us to -- and that might not be motherhood.