http://luckyrobin.savingadvice.com Getting Rid of Massive Debt webmaster@savingadvice.com Lucky Robin en-us http://luckyrobin.savingadvice.com/2008/10/15/major-household-purchases-and-homeschool_44160/ I think I am starting to get back into the swing of blogging again. I'm by no means back to the daily thing, but I'm moving along at a few entries a week, and today, well, this'll be my second entry.<br /> <br /> In the last seven days we have made some major purchases for the house, the most... Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:54:41 PST lckrobin@yahoo.com (Lucky Robin) http://luckyrobin.savingadvice.com/2008/10/15/trying-to-beat-the-cold_44154/ My room gets colder than the rest of the house for some reason during the winter. It also gets hotter than the rest of the house in the summer. The second part makes sense because the sun sets on my end of the house in the evenings and it's over there a good portion of the day, from... Wed, 15 Oct 2008 14:54:35 PST lckrobin@yahoo.com (Lucky Robin) http://luckyrobin.savingadvice.com/2008/10/14/yet-another-coin-jar-update-and-bills_44121/ I added $1.33 to the change jar today. This was change from some gift certificates to McD's that we used as it was drive DH to the airport day. So no out of pocket money spent and change recieved.<br /> <br /> $24.80 starting balance<br /> +01.33 amount added<br /> -------<br /> $26.13 ending balance<br /> <br /> I... Tue, 14 Oct 2008 21:49:05 PST lckrobin@yahoo.com (Lucky Robin) http://luckyrobin.savingadvice.com/2008/10/14/yucki-had-to-buy-a-new-purse-today_44086/ I hate shopping for purses. It sucks. I am not a twenty purse kind of girl. I am a one purse kind of girl. Give me a good, solid purse with lots of slots for cards and photos so I can avoid carrying a wallet, and a nice old shoulder strap so it can go around my neck and across... Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:14:16 PST lckrobin@yahoo.com (Lucky Robin) http://luckyrobin.savingadvice.com/2008/10/12/lots-of-rambling-thoughts_44037/ Yesterday we filled up our gas tank at $2.89 a gallon at Costco. I really hope it keeps dropping like this. It's freeing up about $50 a month in the gas budget at the moment. It's only been a few months since I was paying nearly $4 per gallon. If this keeps up I'll be adding the... Sun, 12 Oct 2008 12:29:31 PST lckrobin@yahoo.com (Lucky Robin) http://luckyrobin.savingadvice.com/2008/10/09/economical-recipe_43977/ Since I've mostly been posting boring things like coin jar updates lately, I thought I'd pass along one of my favorite meals. It's pretty fast and easy to make, despite the fact that you have to assemble a dough for it and there's a short rising time, and it's delicious and tastes... Thu, 09 Oct 2008 22:39:52 PST lckrobin@yahoo.com (Lucky Robin) http://luckyrobin.savingadvice.com/2008/10/09/coin-jar-update_43976/ Cleaned out my purse and DH cleaned out his wallet of coins and added to the coin jar today.<br /> <br /> $18.26 beginning balance<br /> $02.36 added<br /> -------<br /> $20.62 ending balance Thu, 09 Oct 2008 22:30:08 PST lckrobin@yahoo.com (Lucky Robin) http://luckyrobin.savingadvice.com/2008/10/07/another-storm-another-power-failure-and-_43896/ We lost power again last night again during a windstorm. Fortunately it was only for a couple of hours in the middle of the night, it didn't really affect us and we didn't lose any food because of it.<br /> <br /> We've started using the wood stove for heat now anyway and will be for the rest... Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:46:53 PST lckrobin@yahoo.com (Lucky Robin) http://luckyrobin.savingadvice.com/2008/10/05/big-storm-and-power-failure_43821/ Well, I say big storm. Not exactly a hurricane or the like, but relatively big for our area. It was enough to knock power out through much of NW Washingtion, us included. It went out at about five, just when I was in the middle of cooking a lasagna. It went into the fridge with... Sun, 05 Oct 2008 10:56:03 PST lckrobin@yahoo.com (Lucky Robin) http://luckyrobin.savingadvice.com/2008/10/01/emergency-fund-goal_43688/ So we are slowly building our emergency fund back up. I met my primary goal of getting back up to $1000 last month. Now I'm setting a goal for $2000. I no longer do the $10 a week deposit, instead I now do $150 every four weeks and then if there is any little bits of extra money... Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:13:15 PST lckrobin@yahoo.com (Lucky Robin) http://luckyrobin.savingadvice.com/2008/10/01/coin-jar-goal_43687/ Well, it's been a long time since I've done one of these, but I thought it'd be nice to get back to it again. All coin jar money will go for vacation savings. I will save all coin and throw in one dollar bills, too. When I was doing this before I was averaging about $30 to $40 a... Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:01:48 PST lckrobin@yahoo.com (Lucky Robin) http://luckyrobin.savingadvice.com/2008/09/30/not-as-expensive-as-i-thought_43669/ I've been doing some serious research into homeschooling and the money outlay I'd have to put out and I've discovered that my state has two tuition free online schools that are work at your own pace and have access to many, many courses that I would be at a loss to try to teach myself.... Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:45:33 PST lckrobin@yahoo.com (Lucky Robin) http://luckyrobin.savingadvice.com/2008/09/26/medical-spending_43564/ Well, techinically it's on Vision, but that falls in the medical category to me.<br /> <br /> I took the kids to the eye doctor and they both got glasses, the younger one for the first time, so anyway...the costs of that were:<br /> <br /> $204.97 glasses and frames for kid 1<br /> $279.97 glasses and frames... Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:45:01 PST lckrobin@yahoo.com (Lucky Robin) http://luckyrobin.savingadvice.com/2008/09/25/its-been-six-months_43529/ It's hard to believe but it's been six months since my last entry. We're doing well here financially now and it's harder to blog when you have enough money it seems, than when you don't.<br /> <br /> In the past year my husband's income has almost doubled. It made things get easy, but it also... Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:39:00 PST lckrobin@yahoo.com (Lucky Robin) http://luckyrobin.savingadvice.com/2008/04/10/blogoversary-and-savings-update_37660/ Well, yesterday was my blogoversary. It's been two years since I started this blog here at SavingAdvice. I'm not going to write some epic about how coming to this community and starting this blog saved my life. Though I suppose it did. Financially anyway. But for any of you who... Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:21:13 PST lckrobin@yahoo.com (Lucky Robin) http://luckyrobin.savingadvice.com/2008/04/08/savings-update_37603/ Okay, so we pretty much wiped out our savings account making essential car repairs last month and the month before that. I'm pretty much starting over from scratch. My goal is to get it back up to a level that I'm comfortable with, so here we go.<br /> <br /> $ 97.41 starting balance<br /> $ 70.00... Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:05:36 PST lckrobin@yahoo.com (Lucky Robin) http://luckyrobin.savingadvice.com/2008/04/08/doctors-visit_37600/ I went to the Doctor today for a follow up visit on my sinus infection. I'm still infected so he gave me a sample pack of a different medication and a perscription for a second course of it if I need it, which he thinks I will. He also gave me a $25 refund coupon for it as well.... Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:20:34 PST lckrobin@yahoo.com (Lucky Robin) http://luckyrobin.savingadvice.com/2008/04/08/bought-a-new-car_37577/ We've had a crazy busy last couple of days but the upshot of it all is we did a bunch of car shopping and we are now the owners of a much better vehicle. We didn't end up going with a hybrid, but we did get a car with very good gas mileage and a high resale value. Because of the... Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:25:53 PST lckrobin@yahoo.com (Lucky Robin) http://luckyrobin.savingadvice.com/2008/04/04/car-shopping-begins-and-spending_37417/ My mother has decided that we can use her car until we buy a new one so we're going to take a bit more time now and see if we can't find some other Hybrid Escapes in a wider area around us. Next week is spring break so we actually will have quite a bit of free time to look.<br /> <br /> It... Fri, 04 Apr 2008 16:03:07 PST lckrobin@yahoo.com (Lucky Robin) http://luckyrobin.savingadvice.com/2008/04/03/spent-some-at-the-grocer_37338/ Today I felt good enough to drive Tobias to soccer practice so I stopped by the grocery store afterwards. They were having a sale on frozen food. I don't normally buy frozen food but I've been so sick that cooking has gone right out the window this week.<br /> <br /> My kids love the Michaelina's... Thu, 03 Apr 2008 00:29:41 PST lckrobin@yahoo.com (Lucky Robin)