After reading about all the library dontaions others have been making lately, I hopped online to my local library branch and renewed a book on tape that I have out. It wasn't due until tomorrow, but I figured if I didn't renew it today, I might be joining you all in the land of ovedue fines. Although, technically we have a week long grace period, since this book on tape was loaned out from storage, which means it is attatched to the city library system and loaned into the county system, I might have to abide by the city grace period (1 day) and the city fines (10 cents instead of 5 per day after grace is over).

Anyway, I have it checked for another two weeks, which is good, because this is an unabrideged dual recorded set of tapes, and is about 16 hours long. While I was doing that I checked my holds list and a book I put on hold about a month ago just came in. It was the Not Buying It that was recommended by someone on this site.

So I will pick that up tomorrow when I go get my children on Friday. They are spending two nights at grandma's along with 3 of their cousins. Nice break for me and I am being utterly lazy. Okay, not really, I am doing dishes and washing and hanging laundry and cleaning the pool, and probably mowing the lawn. But I have aleady managed to watch two movies from Netflix last night (Iron Will and Just Like Heaven) while I did click thrus on the computer. I just noticed that I can't actually be lazy even when I'm being lazy, LOL.

And I finally finished the book The Mom's Guide to Earning and Saving Thousands on the Internet. Interesting read and I did sign up for a few things I hadn't heard of already on my own. We'll see how that pans out. Hopefully it will add one or two more income sources.

Oh, I was offered anther $2 survey today and I didn't qualify yet again. I have migraines, but I don't have them often enough for the dumb survey. Sigh. I can't help it if I avoid all the food triggers and only seem to get triggered these days by lack of sleep or extreme barometric pressure changes, like the onset of a huge storm. Sigh. Oh, well. Again.

I'm kind of frustrated today. I got two invitations for $3 surveys from differnt companies and I did not qualify for either of them! Very annoyed. The first one I jumped on instantly but out of all the frozen food I've bought in the last 6 months, pancakes and waffles aren't some of them. Because they are so easy to make, I don't get the frozen kind. Argh!

The other one, I didn't get to immediately. It was from a company that has never sent a paid invite before, just entries to drawings. So I saw the addy but didn't bother to look at the subject line. It was only 3 hours later that I got to it. I just hate it when I miss out. I've got to remember to check the subject line in future.

Oh, well. It's just luck of the draw mostly.

The Click Thru I cashed out on last week came through to my bank account from paypal today, bringing my long-term savings account up by $3 to $447.34. I am waiting on another one to show up at paypal. That one is $10, and I cashed out on Monday so it should show up tomorrow. Would have been today if it hadn't been for the holiday.

I have figured out a way to do click thrus without having to devote all of my online time to it. I open one and get it searching and then I read a blog, then while I am waiting for the next blog to load, I set another click thru in motion. Well, that and I also do then while watching TV. I'm kind of binging on TV right now since cable gets shut off on the 7th. I never watched this much when it was available to me. Oh, well. It's gone soon and then it won't be an issue.

I hit the payout amount for one of my click thrus and requested payment. It should be deposited by next week. This is one I haven't been paid by before, so hopefully all goes well and I will have 2 that I know are legitimate. I sure hope this one is because it will be $10. I should hit totals on most of my click thrus this month. That will be nice because I don't think I will get any other payments in July unless I get a small payout survey at some point.

That will put my July earnings at $13. I lost the rebate slip for my pop rebate so I have to go pick one up next time I go to town. This is annoying because I got one and DH got one and neither of us can find it. At least we have the receipt and UPCs if those are needed. I don't know, since I never read the rebate slip. But its a ten dollar rebate so I'm not going to let it go.

I received notification of a $3 payment from one of the better click-thrus today, went to paypal and sure enough there it was. This is the first time I've redeemed from a click-thru company, because this was the first one I've hit the minimum payment on. I'm close on a couple of other ones. This one I will keep, after I hit the limit on a couple of the other ones I won't keep doing them. I have learned to recognize the ones that aren't worth doing, but not before I'd invested too much time in them to not hit the limit.

I transferred the money in paypal to my CU that has long term savings in it. Once it hits my checking account, I will transfer it to the savings there. That will bring long term savings to $447.34. I hope it hits on Monday, before the holiday slows everything down. Since yesterday was quarter's end, I should be getting a small amount of interest deposited into all my savings accounts, which I will add to my totals, also.

I cashed the $4 survey check I got Saturday into my long term savings account, bringing the total in there to $434.34. DH asked today how much was in there. He couldn't believe it when I told him.

The cable company will finally disconnect us on July 7, but we will drop the box off before then. They wanted to come "some time" between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m., and I'm sorry but I will not wait around that long and ruin a whole day. So they have a drop off point in Bellingham we will take the box, to. Then they just have to shut it off at the pole, which we don't have to be around for. And they owe us money. We will get $8 back. Not much but its another $8 for the savings account.

Found 2 pennies today so I'm adding that to my People just giving me money/finding money total, now $1.54.

Today I got a survey check for $4. I took the survey about 2 weeks ago and they said it would come in 4 weeks, so I wasn't expecting it until July. So that was a nice surprise. It will go into long term savings the next time we go to town.

I also recieved my free sample of the healing garden reNourish(TM) moisture lotion and it came with a coupon for $1.00 off any the healing garden skin organics product.

My first CD from SimplyAudiobooks came. I am on a free 15 day trial. I got Dragon's Kin by Anne and Todd McCaffrey. Looking forward to listening to it.

I found the check that I misplaced, so now I can deposit it into my savings account tomorrow. Well, today actually since its after midnight. I have to go to town for a chiropractic appointment anyway, and I had to go this CU anyway also, so the finding of it was convenient. Now if I can just find out what happened to the check that disappeared in February from the orthodontist reimbursement for overpayment, I'll be really happy.

Didn't do much today, er...yesterday. Spent $15 for lunch for myself and the kids at McDonalds, this included desserts, too or it would have been closer to $10. We stayed for a couple of hours so they could play and I could have a little time to myself (sort of). Then we went to MIL's house to give FIL his Father's Day card. We did my Dad's card yesterday.

DH won't get his until he's back in the state. He's at a safety conference in Anchorage right now, he has per diem for meals and usually ends up ahead on that. It's $30 a day but they provide lunch and snacks, so its not hard for him to have some leftover. It won't be any huge amount or anything, but he'll probably end up with at least $40 to put in the long term savings.

I did a product evaluation this morning, well it is in two parts, I did the first part, and have to wait for the product to arrive before I can do the second part. It pays $23 but part of that covers S and H, so really it is a net of $13.50. It's already in my account. I have had a lot of luck with product evaluations, more so than with trial offers. This one is for something that if it works I would actually buy it.

I also found $2.19 when I cleaned off my computer desk. Courtesy of DH, who likes to plop his change in various nooks and crannies around the house, even though he knows full well where the change jar is located. Sigh. Oh, well, it makes for nice little surprises from time to time. Better a surprise like that then the ones my kids like to leave me (half eaten hot dog behind the couch that has mummified, for example).

I had my massage therapy appointment this morning and feel so much better. I have one more on Friday and then I think I can put this muscle strain behind me. I can walk without pain and I can sit without pain, but the getting up from lying down and the getting up from sitting and the trying to bend down still is painful, though not the excruciating pain of when I first did this. So the total hit of all four appointments is $200. Insurance will reimburse half if they decide it was justified. I'm not holding my breath.

I was able to hang laundry. Yesterday it hurt a little to do it, today it wasn't that bad. I did five loads, as that is all my clothesline will hold. We are still behind badly from all the rain. It's a good thing we have so many clothes, although it takes forever to get them all clean and then I feel like we have too many. Admittedly, I'm also washing all the spare bed linen as I just put fresh on everyone's beds and washing the winter blankets so I can put them away until October.

Put $20 worth of gas in the car when I was in town. I went to the Arco closest to where my appointment was, which was $3.15 a gallon. The cheapest Arco is $3.13 a gallon, but since I was only getting $20, I would have spent more than the amount I saved, driving the five extra miles. At least its not $3.29 like the vast majority of stations around here, though the Citgo is at $3.21.

What I would really like to see is a 2 for that first number. Wildest fantasy would have a 1. My parents talk about when candy bars were a nickel or a dime and buying their two story house and 1/2 acre property for $23,000. I wonder if I'll be telling my grandchildren (not yet born, oldest is only 9) someday about when you could use a 20 dollar bill to fill an 18 gallon tank and get change back and when a starter home could still be bought for under $100,000.

Okay, that got tangential (and that probably isn't actually a word).

I did four surveys today. Only one of them paid in money, the other 3 were all points, though one was a lot of points. I got my first survey invitation from ACOP today, that was the one that paid $4. Not bad for 15 minutes of pointing and clicking and about 50 words typed in.

Now that I have been paid by both the trial offer/survey places that I had made it to the cash in amount on and know that it is legitimate, I will go ahead and do some more offers.

I have to call two places tomorrow to cancel trial offers on their face creams. One made my skin red. The other was nice, but at $89 for a one month supply, I'm not switching to that after the trial is up.

I also need to cancel a couple of other autoships that I never got to when I first started blogging almost two months ago and went through my big cancellation frenzy, Feature Films for Families and Lifescript personalized vitamins.

Both kids are in school tomorrow so I can spend some uninterupted time on the phone.

My other plans for tomorrow are to do a ton of laundry if it is sunny (it cleared up this afternoon and was really nice for Rose's soccer clinic). It is supposed to be nice tomorrow, but I'll believe it when I see it. And maybe get some weeding done in the garden if my back will put up with it.

I got my first check from Send Earnings in the mail today. $49.82. This is so cool. So far this month I have been paid $99.82. For surveys and trial offers. Who knew? I will deposit the money in long term savings on Wednesday when I go in for my next massage therapy appointment. I had one today, too and am feeling a lot better so hopefully the next one will have me back to moving normally again.

The sun is finally out today so I can hang laundry again. We actually had to dry a load in the dryer last night. But now I can hang some out today. Last month we had to dry clothes in the dryer four times, so my goal for this month is four times or less. It should be less. It is June. June should not be as rainy as May, but the PNW never goes in much for what the weather "should" do. If I can keep cutting back on dryer useage, I should really start seeing it on the electric bill. I am also limiting how long the kids can stay in the shower, so that should help, too.

I got my first payment from Vindale for their market research surveys! $50. Whoopee. We had to open another checking/debit account so we could transfer it from my new paypal account, since DH already has our regular checking account hooked up to his paypal account. I was planning on it anyway, as this new one is hooked to the savings account our long-term savings is in. When the checks come in I can write my first check to open my new online account with the good interest rate. So it will be a week before the routing information comes through so I can actually move it from paypal to my checking, and then to my savings until I set up the online one.

But when it does come through it means my long-term savings will be at $310.52. Not bad.

I also deposited the $17.11 into my freezer money account bringing it up to $181.19.

I have also been issued a check from another company that should arrive in the mail sometime in the next week. It is just under $50, that will be added to long-term savings.

In my quest to find extra income sources, I am currently reading the book, "The Mom's Guide to Earning and Saving Thousands on the Internet." It is interesting. I found out about 3/4 of this information on my own or through others from this site, but it gave me 1/4 of the book more information to investigate further that I had not discovered on my own. I am not quite finished with it, but I am done with the earning part, now its going into the shopping, rebates, and couponing part.

Yesterday when I had to drive down to the school during the day, I noticed a lot of aluminum cans on the side of the road. On the way back I saw a lot on the other side of the road. There were at least 30 beer and pop cans. The next time the weather is nice and the kids are in school, I think I'll take the one mile walk down and back with a plastic bag and collect those cans and add them to what I will take in to the recycling place.

If I had one of those sticks for picking up litter, I'd do that, too as it looks pretty awful and the adopt a highway people only come out once a month to clean the area. But I don't want to just stick my hand in something that might be ooky.

Maybe if I pick up cans once a week it'll eventually be a nice little (very little, I think it is at 35 cents a pound now) profit to go in savings. Plus the exercise never hurt anyone.

I spent a little bit today, $5.05. I had to pick up milk @ $2.39 for the gallon (not as good as the gas station but they were out of skim), a head of lettuce (so I can have the rest of the taco meat as a salad tomorrow) @ $1.19 and the rest for a corndog for my son. That last one was not necessary, other than to save my sanity and not have to listen to him have a snit all the way home from Rose's soccer practice. He's going through a phase, I was just glad to get some protein into the kid, if you can call it that from a corndog.

I had thawed out a potroast for dinner and stuck it in the oven just before we left for soccer. It was done when we got home and perfect. Nuked a can of green beans to go with, leftover from the case sale last December. I'm just about out but the next case sale will be in June if they go by their usual pattern. It was nice to walk into the house and have dinner ready.

Didn't really do much today besides click-thrus while watching tv, but I did do a product evaluation that will net me $17.05. And folded and sorted and hung up laundry.

I signed up for the six paid to read email sites that comparerewards listed in her blog and have already started making money. Sure, its peanuts, or pennies, but its still something. It definitely falls under the something for nothing category, although technically, its something for almost nothing.

In my pursuit of the penny, with the subject of people keep giving me money heading, I was given yet another cent extra in change because the store did not want to give me four pennies. They gave me a nickle instead. This brings my total of free money up to $0.94. When I reach one dollar I'll have to go back and see what day I began tracking on. I think its only been about 2 weeks.

I signed up for 2 more things tonight, 1 a trail offer for a product evaluation worth $18, but had to pay S&H of $6.95, which will be reimbursed if I choose not to keep it, which I will choose, even though I plan on evalutating the software properly. I had this offer available through 3 different companies and went with the one with the biggest payoff.

Then I signed up for Eversave for $1.50 signup. I could have signed up for it with MyPoints but the points offered were so piddly, I'd rather have the cash, even though it will be July for this current batch of signups to pay up.

I also signed up for 2 freebies, after not having any I thought I'd use since the 29th.

I did a long survey today, they said 20 minutes but it was closer to 30, that I got 100 points for at NFO. Their surveys are usually only 10 points. I'm not sure how many points it takes to get anything from them, things are starting to get blurry, though I do have it all written down in my notebook. Can't be disorganized on this stuff.

Gas prices were at $3.27 on the border town near us. It's still less at the Arco, but I don't know for how much longer. We have to fill up on Friday and I am not looking forward to that.

Deposited $11 worth of rolled coin to my freezer money account. Of course, I forgot the envelope with the bills in it at home. I took it out of my purse so I wasn't carrying it around and then forgot I didn't have it. Oh, well, it will keep until Friday when more banking stuff needs to be done.

I still need to take the aluminum cans in, but can do that Friday when I make my next trip to town. I just need to remember to do it.

Signed up for 3 trial offers today:
Great Fun for $1 for 30 days, $8 signup payment with a $20 gas card.
Buyer's Edge, free 30 days, $4 signup.
And Red Blossom, free 2 weeks, $17 signup.
Total $29.

I haven't had a chance to look through the freebies for yesterday or today yet. I have laundry hanging on the clothesline.

I took a good look at my dishwasher and it has 3 settings, heavy duty wash, normal wash, and short wash. Since I pre-rinse everything there is not reason for me to be doing the first two, so I am trying it on short wash. The dishes looked clean. I also have never used heat dry, and when it finishes the wash cycle I am turning it off. It would go for another ten minutes or so if I didn't and it basically does nothing since heat dry isn't on.

I don't know how much more we can decrease our electric bill, but I'd like to find out! Once I get that expense cut down as low as possible, than I'll pick a new thing to cut down on and see where that goes.

I didn't go through yesterday's mail until I got offline last night. I got 2 Bed Bath and Beyond gift cards from Every Day Values, total of $20! Yippee! $1 out and $19 in. Not bad for a few minutes of filling in forms. Now I just have to remember to cancel it before the 30 days are up.

DH has been wanting to get a digital food scale to help him on his diet, so I'll have to go see what they have there and how much it costs.

So April is over and I finally feel like I am one step beyond chaos. I started this blog on April 9th with $105 in my long term savings account, and today there is $185 in it. My only goal was to add $10 a week to it, but somewhere along the way I put in $50 that I didn't need. Maybe that won't happen every month, but I at least know that its a possibility. It all seems very strange.

I feel like the dream of finacial stability is reachable. Seems odd with such a small amount in savings, but it will get better and I will get better at putting money in. I don't feel helpless. I know its still a pretty steep hill I'm climbing, but at least I'm climbing.

I had to talk to my daughter tonight about using electricity. She had got it into her head that she couldn't turn the lights on at all, so she and her brother were sitting in the dark playing games from the light of the tv. I told her that we were trying to turn lights off in rooms we weren't using, not the ones we were in and that they didn't have to sit in the dark. I think she understands now. At least she turned on the light.

Maybe I've been a little overzealous about saving money, but I don't think I ever said she coudn't turn the lights on in a room she was in. Well, we'll see how it goes now that she understands the difference between wasting electricity and using electricity.

Frugal things I did today:
Hung 2 loads of laundry on the clothesline.
Baked a loaf of bread while the potroast was in the oven.
Cooked from my pantry and freezer.
Earned $8 for signing up for a free trial with gamefly, and 50 cents for signing up for another survey company, this one supposedly pays a minimum of $4 per survey, but we will see.

I did turn down one survey invitation today. It was paying $34.95 to evaluate and survey a dating site. Now I filled out a big profile on this survey site and one of the things it asks is marital status, so I don't know why the heck they are sending that offer to a married woman. I talked to DH about it and he said sign up for it, you don't have to do anything about it, but I just don't think it is ethical to do that. So I didn't. Sure wish I could have done it if I'd been single, though.

I've been thinking about what kind of goals I should have for May. Not quite sure exactly, but I probably should try to keep a complete accounting of all spending for a month. I have a pretty good idea of where we waste money, but I'm sure there are things that just slip by, as well. So I'll keep a little notebook in my purse and jot down everything I spend and for what and see where I might improve things.

Tomorrow I will have to buy some pole bean seeds. I don't know where they got to, and I know I had 2 packages of them but they aren't with my other seeds, so bummer. I did manage to weed the strawberry bed and cut down and weed half the herb bed. Managed to dig up a few starts of oregano, it likes to make babies in the walkways so I always dig them out and offer them on freecycle. We are going to have a garage sale this summer though, so maybe I'll sell them for a quarter each. Way cheaper than at a nursery, and not too expensive for garage sale pricing.

Today I paid the mortgage my parents took out on their house to pay my medical bills. It is $935 a month and I paid $1000. Then I went to the courthouse and paid the property tax, $364.69. I'm just glad I don't have to pay my parents property tax. Even with their senior exemption, its a few thousand dollars, ouch. One of the benefits of living in the boonies on a 1/3 of an acre piece of land.

I went to the grocery store and bought milk, tomato plants and tidal wave and easy wave petunias, a planned purchase. I didn't make it over to the credit union to deposit the freezer money, but I've put it in a sealed envelope so I have to tear it open to spend it. The extra step will make it easier to not just blindly grab it, I think. Also, I forgot to grab the aluminum cans this morning so didn't do that either. Well, maybe on Monday.

Filled up the car, at $3.05 per gallon, coming to $43, in an 18 gallon tank that had 3 to start with. Still an ouch. I've set aside an extra $10 to put into long-term savings, also.

I cashed out my first survey check, so that will be issued June 1 and will be $49.84. So cool, for just a few hours work. It's all good. Now I best get those tomato plants into the ground and hang some more laundry. It is 75 degrees right now and I can probably dry another load by tonight, maybe two.

I forgot to mention I also did an evaluation survey this morning and earned $15.

Or more accurately had her finger broken by a boy at school. Not on purpose or anything, just horseplay at recess. We were able to get a late night appointment at the after hours pediatric clinic her pediatrician's group has, and the x-rays confirm it is broken. She has to keep a splint on it for two weeks and can't play soccer during those two weeks, and then has to have it checked and if it has healed well can play in the last game. And no P.E., either so she is really bummed.

She's worried that she won't be able to do her school work, she's in the middle of what the kids call W-Awful testing, which is actually WASL testing, our state's No Child Left Behind thing. Next week is the third and final week, and I don't know how she is going to write properly with her hand all splinted and wrapped. I suppose I shouldn't worry too much, she's only in 4th grade.

So, anyway, had to make 2 trips to town today, once for Tobias to work with his dance instructor for his recital solo and then again to the doctor's office. Had to make a co-pay of $15 and did end up having to use my roll of quarters to put gas in the gas tank, for the unexpected trip, but I am putting ten dollars in to the freezer money account tomorrow to replace it. I think I will take my aluminum cans in tomorrow when I do my banking and shopping, so I can deposit that money, too.

Tomorrow is payday and it can't come too soon for me. Today was the electronic funds transfer of $10 into long term savings, bringing that to the $185 I mentioned last night.

I am going to be able to send for a survey check tomorrow, too as everything I've done so far has now come through and I have hit the $40 mark it requires for a check. If I read their thing right, it should come the first week of June.

Today was 60, not much wind, but I hung a load of laundry anyway and the towels that were in the rain yesterday where almost dry by night. I think they ended up wetter then when I hung them up in the first place. But tomorrow is supposed to be like today so I can hang more.

I signed up for a freebie today and that is about it on the frugal zone.

I like these no spend days. Not that I wasn't challenged to spend. The kids had early dismissal from school and of course, they wanted to go somewhere and do something. Not going to happen. I have exactly 2 gallons of gas in the car and $12 to buy gas until Friday and I have to go to town tomorrow so Tobias can meet with his dance teacher, he has a solo in the recital and she wants some extra time with him, and then soccer practice tomorrow night. I will have enough gas for the trip, the half trip and then to get to town on Friday which is payday and I can fill it up again.

I do have a roll of quarters for back up but I do not want to touch that, its supposed to go into my freezer money account on Friday. But I will have it just in case. I already owe the freezer money account the $35 I was supposed to put in and ended up using for gas money. I've tweaked my budget around again so I don't think I'll run out of gas money next time.

I have to pay property tax on Friday, yuck. It is so inconvenient right now to go to the courthouse, there is a big case and there is no parking, but at least I'll be making a town run anyway, so it won't be extra gas wasted.

Last night the weatherman claimed it would just be overcast until early afternoon and then there would be sun, so I hung laundry out this morning and of course, it rained. So I had stuff on my drying rack, stuff on hangers hanging from my shower curtain rod, stuff hanging from the treadmill, stuff on the gazelle and shirts on the backs of all the kitchen chairs. Well, it is drying. I got spoiled by 3 beautiful, sunny days. There's actually still a load of towels hanging on the clothesline but since there is nowhere to dry them, they are staying there until tomorrow and then I will spin them in the washer and hang them in the house. My goal of not using the dryer for the rest of the month has almost made it and I don't want to give in on it yet.

Tomorrow there will be an electronic funds transfer to my long-term savings account of $10, bringing my total to $185. $65 more to go and I can open an ING account and get the free $25 for doing so. I know it seems like such a small amount compared to what some people are saving, but this is still so new for me, and I am proud of myself for doing this much.

I earned $2 for a survey I took today. I am going to sign up for a couple more trial offers tonight after the kids have gone to sleep. One pays $20 and the other $10, so my nice little balance is growing and I will be able to request a check once it hits $40. Unfortunatey its a net30 payoff, so I'll have to wait a bit over a month to get it, but that's okay, it'll be coming and when it does it goes straight into short term savings, which I haven't created yet, but will.

I am actually starting to enjoy this whole saving money thing. I feel like I've gone from passive acceptance to proactive fighting to save and get out of debt.

It is so nice out today. It's not quite as hot as yesterday, but there is a bigger breeze so the laundry is drying just as fast. I am starting to think I will get through this huge backlog of laundry without having to use the dryer once, and thus cut that expense out of our electric bill altogether.

Just a general recommendation, don't have all four family members down with food poisoning the same week or you will be doing laundry for the rest of the month. Looking on the bright side of things, if it hadn't been for the food poisoning, I never would have been laying in bed surfing the net and found this site and started getting our finances back on track, so silver lining time.

I was hoping for a no spend day today, but ended up spending $5.00, ($1.99 for milk, the rest for a fifteen pound bag of potatoes and a 62 cent bag of chic-o-stik candies, sigh). It would have been $5.02 but the girl at the convenience store didn't want to give me 98 cents in change, so she took the 2 cents out of the need a penny, leave a penny container on the counter. This brings my running total to 87 cents this week. 13 more to go and I will have a dollar I did not have to earn in any way, shape, or form. Q: What's a few pennies here and there? A: A dollar. I wonder if anyone would just hand me a dollar with the same attitude? Well, a few somebodies have almost gotten me that dollar. And as soon as it is a dollar, I will add a dollar to my change jar.

I spent an hour doing surveys this morning and earned $6 at one site and $3.50 at another. I sure had to wade through a lot of dogs to get to some decent survey companies, and of course, the balance has to be a certain amount in each account before they mail a check out, but $8.50 isn't a bad hourly wage for pointing and clicking.

I was bummed last night when I missed out on a $5 survey invitation that had filled up by the time I tried it. This kind of makes up for that.

This weekend has been very interesting in regards to people giving me money. It is tiny little amounts but over the course of 2 days I have been given inexact change 3 times. In one instance I was given a dime in change instead of the six cents I was owed because they were out of nickles and were running low on pennies. I was only owed 4 cents. Then I was given a nickle instead of 4 cents, so I was up one more penny. Then a lady asked me if I had change for a dollar. I only had 90 cents in change on me and she said that was okay and gave me a dollar for my 90 cents. So all in all I was up 17 cents and I count it as extra income that will eventually end up in my freezer money account. I know it isn't much, but its free money.

It seems so odd to me why people are not concerned with the little amounts. I always pick up a penny if I see it on the ground, but I have seen people drop quarters and not retrieve them because its "just a little" change. I pick them up because that one penny may be the difference between being able to roll up a packet of pennies this week or waiting until next week to do it. I think that kind of mentality must come into play on the bigger amounts too, if you get in the habit of throwing your money away because it isn't that much.

I feel like I've been guilty of this a little bit. I kind of had the thinking of why save $10 a week, it won't add up to much, but I'm over it. As I watch it start adding up, I get such a feeling of glee. It feels like I am accomplishing something, making steps forward to free myself from the tyranny of debt and no emergency backup savings.

Anyway, the extra money went into my coin jar, including the dollar bill I got for 90 cents. That's ten percent interest. Wow. I wonder if anyone would give me $100 in exchange for change of $90. I don't think so. I think they would think it was ridiculous. But I bet they would think the .90 cents for 1.00 was nothing.

Well, I took care of the Allstate problem and the credit union took their check and then they cashed it into my account. I was under the impression that they were just going to refund my money and keep the Allstate check. They said no, because they were at fault for letting the insurance take the automatic payment too early and since this is not the first time I've talked to the CU about it, and since it is flagged on my account to not let that happen, they were going to give me the $14 for my troubles. This is why I love this place. I wish it had been this easy for the other poster who has been trying to get their money from a bank error.

Anyway, I put the $50 from earlier in this week into long term savings at CU #2, which brings the total there up to $175. I didn't deposit the $19 into the freezer money account yet, since it was on a different side of town and I'll be over there on Monday. I am also going to take the $14 and add it, along with $2 more to deposit a total of $35 into the freezer money account at CU #3.

I did the rest of my usual payday stuff, including fill up the gas tank. I still had 4 gallons left, so filling it the remaining 14 gallons took $40. Almost all the stations are at or above $3.00 a gallon, but I checked that gas buddy website someone posted the other day and there was one just a mile from the CU I was at, that had it for $2.83 a gallon, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been but it was still completely awful.

I went to sprawlmart, and bought 30 strawberry plants (they were $2.42 for ten) in 3 different varieties and 2 thornless blackberry plants ($4.95 each), some more lettuce and about $30 worth of flowers (one being a dark purple rhodie that I have wanted for 3 years and had finally budgeted for a small one at $10.94. I could have gotten two smaller ones for $9, but the larger plants don't take as long to establish themselves and the spread on these things is pretty large, I'm not sure what I'd do with two.

All but one of the flowers I got are perrenials, the other one is an annual but it spreads like crazy. I will be getting wave petunias next payday. They are usually the only annuals I ever bother with, as the payoff is big. Well, and lobelia and allysum, but I plant those from seed.

Then I stopped and bought some more chenille yarn for knitting, making scarves for possible future income. I had a bit of insomnia last night so I stayed up watching court tv and knitting and I'm over halfway through with the new scarf.

It was raining all morning but the sun is out now and it is beautiful so I finally get to hang laundry outside today, instead of inside. Oh, shoot, I knew I forgot something. I was going to get another drying rack for inside. Well, maybe while Rose is at dance and Tobias is at my mother's I can zip over to Kmart and get one. Then we will stop at the grocery on the way home and get a gallon of organic milk.

The only spending I will do the rest of the weekend is a pizza after soccer since I promised the kids we would do that once a month and this is the week they have chosen. I have a coupon though and its even to the place that doesn't use stuff that Rose is allergic to, so that works out.

Two days in a row without spending anything, that is pretty good. Things I did today to be frugal:
1. Hung a load of clothes inside the house as it still is randomly sprinkling outside.
2. Finished knitting a scarf I hope to be able to sell (probably not until fall, though).
3. Sent for a freebie.
4. Decided that earning a few cents for taking a survey that never ends is not worth my time or sanity and is time better spent knitting.
5. Baked a loaf of bread and a batch of pretzels (at the same time).
6. Baked 3 meatloaves (2 for the freezer), and a crustless quiche for quick breakfasts so am not tempted to get takeout breakfast this weekend.

Baby steps.

Today was my first no spend day since joining this site. Didn't pay a bill, use a stamp, drive anywhere, or spend money in any way. That feels pretty good. Especially knowing there probably won't be another one until Sunday. But that is all right.

I did a couple of surveys today and signed up for a couple of freebies. Hung a load of laundry (inside). I am hoping that tomorrow will be sunny. It kept sprinkling off and on all day, but with gorgeous sun breaks. I can only do one load in the house, but outside I can do 3. Maybe I should get a second drying rack from Kmart.

I read somewhere on here about having the washing machine do a second spin and I cannot believe how much faster the clothes dry. This is something that simply never occurred to me before, but makes so much sense.

I have decided that any cash I have leftover in my purse on Friday (payday) will be deposited into my freezer money savings. Right now that is $19, but I may have to buy milk tomorrow. I am going to try to stretch it out. I have enough for Rose for tomorrow, but that is it. Well, I have plenty of yogurt and cheese in the fridge, so I guess the rest of us can do without until grocery shopping in two days.

I did some more knitting on my scarf. I've got an idea in my head of somewhere down the road being able to sell these. I don't know how practical it is, but it might be something to bring in a little income. Everyone who ever sees one loves it. Everyone I've given one to for Christmas said how incredibly warm they are and love the vivid colors. And they wore them all the time.

I had a lot of fun doing them, and made them his and hers, so they played off the spouse's scarf, but were not identical. I wouldn't even know where to begin though in trying to sell them. Maybe one of the seasonal craft bizarres they have in the fall.

I've been considering selling stuff on ebay. Not the scarves necessarily, although I suppose that is an option, but I have a ton of dance shoes (tap, ballet, jazz) that my kids have outgrown and most of them are in excellent shape, seeing as how fast their feet grow they aren't in them long and that dance shoes are only worn inside the studio. I've got several fancy leotards my daughter has outgrown and some really fancy recital costumes.

Those of you who sell on ebay, how do you figure out shipping costs? Do you have a postal scale in your home or do you have something worked out where you go down to the post office or shipping place, weigh it and then wait for someone to buy it before having postage put on, or what? I'm sure this is pretty silly of a question but I tend to get nervous when I start something new and don't have all the info first, so I can work out ahead of time what I will say when I get there.