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Can anyone explain to me why the money I have in gold stocks keeps going down? Aren’t people supposed to turn to gold when the world falls to pieces? We bet on gold and oil because they seemed like safe bets… what happened?!?!?
I’m frustrated. I’ve made $1791.00 in payments on my Private Student Loan, and I’ve only reduced the payoff balance by $1321.23. The interest monster ate $469.77! All these payments were made between September 1 and October 9, so it isn’t like we are talking years here. So, it only took that little demon a little over one month to eat all this money! And this is for a 7% loan of about $25K. The interest monster is really gorging over at Sallie Mae where I have $76,617.19 in various loans ranging from 6.8% - 7.5% fixed. Over at Sallie, this little bugger has eaten $956.63 since May! Read the rest of this entry »
I wrote a post here discussing whether I should take a balance transfer or not. I ultimately did apply for a Citi Upromise Platinum Select Card and got approved for a $7000 line of credit. I requested a balance transfer check for $6850 of that which allowed DF to pay off 2 of his cards and pay the bulk of what he needed to get the tax deduction for his student loan interest (his loans are in deferment until his cards get paid off, but he needs to pay $2500 in interest annually to get the $2500 tax deduction). Read the rest of this entry »
I’m very depressed about the stock market. Our relative, who was going to give us a down payment for a house some day soon, has lost like $78,000 in the past month. I won’t get started on this. Instead, I want to offer you some of the worst possible suggestions to surviving the blood bath out there. So, here you go, the 10 Worst Ways to Survive a Down Economy: Read the rest of this entry »
I have a busy cooking day planned. I’m going to try my hand at making pie crust from scratch! And then I’m going to bake some apple pies. I’m also going to make a huge batch of Pesto to freeze with the last of our basil before winter sets in.
If my pie crusts turn out well, I’ll share the recipe here. I’m working on compiling a list of simple basic frugal recipes. My goal one day is to make everything from scratch, not only to avoid paying the premium for convenience foods but also to improve my health. There’s so much bad food and so many bad chemicals out there, I want to return to the simpler days when everything was home cooked and delicious and didn’t slowly kill you.
I’m also working on compiling a list of 101 ways to save money on groceries, hopefully it will be up by the end of next week. Stay tuned (or subscribe! please subscribe!) so you don’t miss it.
I’m excited. Every two weeks, we go to this Butcher in this little local market in the city. We’ve developed a relationship with him because I buy a lot of my puppies meat from him, and we get all our ground beef from him ($1.29/lb for the good stuff, all the time!). He called me and told me that his supplier sent him an extra box of beef rips and that he needs to get rid of them, so he’s selling them for .59 lb. Beef is the item that we have the hardest time finding for our puppies, but it is very important as a part of their diet. So, needless to say I am thrilled and planning on buying 40-60 pounds of it!
So, it pays to develop relationships with local stores, and to shop outside of your standard “Grocery Store” environment. Not only is it cheaper on a regular basis, but it also allows you great little perks that come from actually getting to know your store owner. How many people can say that Mr. Safeway has their interests at heart and would give them a call if a good deal came?? Just some food for thought…
I got together with some old school friends a week or so ago, and handed them all goody baskets filled with toiletries. They were impressed with all the stuff I had gotten for free and asked some questions. I answered, and they were interested so I told them I would send them weekly shopping lists for the national stores (Walgreen’s, CVS, Wal-Mart, Rite Aid).
Well, I got emails from two of them today when I hadn’t sent out the shopping list by this afternoon. Apparently they were looking for it… they had done the deals last week and were hooked already. I was so proud! I immediately sent out the email (which I had been working on anyway). And, one of my friends also sent as a mass email with a deal SHE had found! Talk about the student learning quickly!!!
So, there is hope… maybe not everyone will become a mad, coupon-happy, binder toting toiletry collector. But, if just a few people do than I will have made a difference.
(BTW, I don’t post my shopping lists here because there are already so many good places to get this info on the Internet already… but if anyone is interested in me doing this, leave me a comment and I’ll put my lists up on Mondays)
The end of September brought with it a large unexpected purchase 
So we go into October with a small credit card balance. We’re going to be getting a big check next month for our first paycheck (overtime for the DF and more hours for me) so hopefully we’ll do better. Of course, it seems like I say that every month But, heres the roundup: Read the rest of this entry »
This past weekend, our freezer broke For us, having a freezer is a necessity not a luxury. We raw feed our puppies, and since they go through about 60 pounds of meat a month between the two of them, it is essential that we buy in bulk when meat is very cheap or that we have a place to store meat we got for free from hunter friends. I also like to cook a bunch of meals at one time and freeze them. So, it wasn’t a question of whether we would buy a new freezer or not, it was more a question of “who can we buy a freezer from tonight at 7 PM on a Saturday that will deliver it tomorrow before all 500 pounds of food in our existing warm-box goes bad.” Read the rest of this entry »
This weekend we said a sad goodbye to our freezer We paid $150 (plus $25 for delivery) back in May for a 17.6 cu upright freezer, which I proceeded to fill and fill with food. Well, our freezer began to cry for help, letting us know he wasn’t happy with his over-full state by refusing to keep foods on the bottom 2 shelves cold. I’m going to post more on the freezer we bought and why at a later point, but suffice to say, we ended up with a lighter pocketbook. Read the rest of this entry »
