artofthecoupon.com

Welcome back!

For the most part, I have completely embraced the concept of living like no one else.  I don’t feel envious when my neighbor across the street comes home with a brand new Mercedes SUV, and I don’t mind not having the newest clothes or shopping with coupons, even if some people don’t think its ‘cool’.  I feel enlightened and like I am making the ‘right’ decisions in a society while a lot of American’s make the wrong ones when it comes to money.   But, despite all that, there are still just a few people out there in the world that I want to Impress, and for some reason that includes making them think that I have Money.  (more…)

I was planning on going couponing today, but the snow has kept me in.  I suppose thats one way to save money- become snowbound.  Of course, even for those who live in warm climates, sometimes spending the whole day at home can really be a friend to your pocketbook, in more ways than one.  Not only did I not spend any cash, but I also baked and cooked so now there are a few more meals in our freezer and a yummy desert to eat.  I may declare a “snow-day” once a week.

Ok, I am not a huge fan of everything Dave Ramsey says.  But, my DF is a guy who had a lot of credit card debt when I met him, and who didn’t seem all that eager to buckle down and pay it off (lets be honest, he wasn’t eager at all and we nearly broke up several times over his spendthrift ways).

Now, not only is my DF not spending money, not only has he paid off a good portion of that debt, not only is he checking his credit score every day… but he is watching the No Debt guru!  He even TIVO’s it.  I’m so proud I am nearly speechless!

When I started this blog back in June, my first month I earned like 3.00 total in revenue.  Most days, I had $0.00 and then a few days I had between two cents and ten cents.  It seemed like it was more likely I would climb Mount Everest than ever get to the $100 required to get a payout from Google.  Well, 7 months later I am just a few measely dollars away!  I know it isn’t much- $100 over 7 months.  I know I am a long long way from becoming the full time professional writer I one day hope to be.  But, you know what.  I am really proud of this step along the way.  I have kept at this, and I have a lot of subscribers, and a lot of people that come here and read this blog (thank you!).  And I am making a little money each day now, I have very few $0.00 days.  If it grows, even enough for this blog to pay $5000 a year and fund my IRA, well that would be amazing.  If it eventually grows and I can support myself by writing, well that would be a dream come true. If it takes me 10 years to get there, that is OK too.  At least I’ve taken the first steps and am close to getting my first money reward (my readers are a reward in themselves!)

As I wrote here, I firmly believe that you can be delighted about living a frugal life- as long as you feel that it is a choice.  One way to be a cheerful Frugalist is to consider all of the reasons why frugality is a great thing.  So, here is a list of 5 reasons why I am delighted that I am living a more frugal life. (more…)

In this post at Wisebread, the author presented the story of Person A, a person who had a great job with lots of money and toys; and Person B, a person with a job she loves and enough money to get by without a lot of extras.  The author, of course, was both Person A and Person B and concluded that Person B was happier.  And, that may very well be true- I know I have made the choice to be Person B when my education and background could easily have put me in a position to become person A.  But, would every Person B necessarily be happier?  Or is the key to the happiness of person B the fact that Person B chose that life? (more…)

Are you a delayed gratification person?  When I join survey sites, or sites where you get points for doing things, I almost never cash out at the first ‘level’.  I always decide to wait and save up for a Big Prize.  For three years of law school, I saved up all of my LexisNexis points and at the end I was able to cash out for enough Sears gift cards to almost pay for a 42 inch plasma TV.  I’m doing the same thing now with the new paid-to-search site I am on.  It has been a week of occasional searching and I have already earned enough to cash out for a $5 Amazon gift card… but instead I want to hold out for as long as I can and see if I can earn a big prize like an Xbox 360 or a Wii.

I’m a real sucker for beagles, so I especially loved the Money Hacks Carnival over at Money Beagle!  It also included my post Why I Want to be Wierd About Money.

The Carnival of Money Stories at Your Money Relationship included my Plan to Spend $0 for Groceries.

Consumerism Commentary hosted the Carnival of Debt Reduction, including my post about Managing Frustration with Money Goals.

I’ve updated the sidebars.  Paid $75 to my citibank loan, and $242.00 to my IRA (Christmas bonus that I wasn’t expecting!).  I don’t know why it feels so good to update those, but it does.  As soon as I make a payment, it is pretty much the first thing that I do- come here and change those little bars.  Isn’t it funny the way the mind needs something tangible to really feel like you’ve accomplished something!

Meanwhile, my IRA has growing to a (somewhat pathetic) $558.04… I can now invest in some of the mutual funds that have a $500 starting requirement.  Anyone have any advice for me on how to select one?

Since the name of this blog is about couponing, I’ve decided to devote a page to just that.  I will be tracking every purchase I make, beginning January 14 (well, so it began already).  I’m going to list the items purchased, along with their prices.  Up at the top, I will keep a running total of how much I spent versus how much I saved.  (I’m not going to break the spending down by receipt- I’m just going to add to that number the amount I spent each time I enter a receipt, so it doesn’t get confusing to look at, with all sorts of different individual lists). I am also going to be better about updating the weekly shopping lists page, so you guys can shop with me!