Sunday, December 28, 2008
Bartering
| By Lynn Forgy My monthly expenses have seemed to increase lately, with dental work, grocery prices, and everything else seemingly going up in price. My income, on the other hand, seems to be going down. With the holidays, instead of working 3 10 hour days, I only worked 2 last week and the same will probably apply to the upcoming week. With that in mind, I have been considering starting a local barter network. The problem is I don't feel like I have much to offer. I need lots of stuff (electrical, plumbing, and dental work to name a few), yet my skills don't seem as valuable in comparison. My skills include cleaning, billing and invoicing, receptionist, organizing, and secretarial work. I suppose I could start the board (maybe on Yahoo Groups), and see what comes of it. I have nothing to lose by doing that, and I might find an undiscovered skill that I could barter with! Anyone have any ideas, comments, success stories they'd like to share? Labels: barter |
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Cheap Meals
| By Lynn Forgy On the menu for this week are some extremely cheap meals (all my money seems to be disappearing in my mouth -- on my teeth). 1) Baked beans and cornbread: Large Can of Bush's Vegetarian beans - $1.50 Cornbread (I buy a mix that requires egg and milk) - $.45 Total $1.95 2) Pizza: Dough (homemade, less than $.25) Sauce - $.88 Cheese (I buy the fat free, but Wal-mart and Kroger usually have shredded cheese on sale for $1.50) - $3.00 $3.88 3) Corn Casserole: Cornbread (I buy the mix, adding a little more butter to make it more soupy) - $.45 Corn (creamed corn and regular) - $1.00 Sour cream - $.90 Total $2.35 4) Cheesy Potatoes and Broccoli: Potatoes (I have these already, but a 10 pound bag is now $3.98 at the local Wal-mart) Cheese - $3.00 Broccoli (I buy the frozen bags) - $1.00 Total $4.00 5) Fried Rice: Rice (a large box is $2.00, and I'll use about 1/4 of the box) - $.50 Shrimp (small bag of frozen shrimp) - $2.50 Onion (have this on hand) Green Pepper (it will probably be $1.00 each at the grocery, so I'll wait until these go on sale to have green peppers in my fried rice) Egg - $.25 Total $3.25 |
Friday, December 26, 2008
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
| By Lynn Forgy As I said in my post yesterday, I have had a lot of drama in the past several weeks. Maybe a more accurate word would be setbacks. I like to make lists, so here goes... 1) The root canal ($2000 including the crown) that I had last year continued to get worse - I went to the oral surgeon who told me that I could either have an apicoectomy ($1000) that might work, or I could extract it ($250) and go with an implant ($3500 including the crown). (BTW - did you know that those lovely little crowns they put on your teeth, you know, the ones that cost about $1000, are actually not worth anything! It may seem stupid, but as frugal as I am I asked the oral surgeon if the existing crown could be "recycled" and placed on my implant. In case you have ever wondered the same thing, the answer is NO!) My thoughts were, with the way my luck was going and the problems I have with my teeth (genetic maybe, one dentist told me it looked like I never had fluoride when I was younger, who knows) I would spend the money for the apicoectomy and then have it fail. Not only would I be out the root canal money, but the second surgery, and then the additional money for the extraction and implant. So I elected to have it taken out. Now I have to wait 2 to 6 months for the implant. That's good, though - it allows me time to save up the money. 2) My daughter had a tooth issue as well the same week. She is too young, according to the periodontist, to have an implant so they would not pull it (it was one of her back molars). Instead, they said the only thing to do was a root canal. Guess how much that was - $1200! She does have insurance, but the endodontist would not bill the insurance until after I had paid the money up front. Just a side note - $1200 is more than 3/4 what I bring home each month. After much prayer and pleading with God, he answered my prayer and the money to pay up front for the root canal was given to me. 3) Another tooth issue for me - I won't go into too much detail, but it seems another of my teeth (or possibly 2 teeth) need a root canal. I hesitate to throw more money away on these as I have had 2 that both failed. We'll see in another month or two after I have saved up enough to go back to the dentist. 4) My health insurance premium is set to go up in another month (9 months before they said it would!). Needless to say, I've been shopping around for a new provider. 5) Our dryer is on its last leg - literally. We can only dry clothes for about 15 minutes. I then hang them up to air dry. I had been so excited to pay off my student loan at the end of the year, a mere 5 days away - I could see the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, my path has been blocked and I can't move forward and feel like I have instead moved backward. The funny thing is that I'm not really worried anymore. I probably should be, but I'm not. I have my baby emergency fund in place, I've saved enough of my 1099 income for taxes, my car is paid for, and my other bills are current. I don't know if these situations have been tests, or trials, or whatever - maybe they have happened so that when (not if) I finally get out of debt I will be able to truly appreciate it. Your comments, thoughts, and stories are welcome. |
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas
| By Lynn Forgy So much "drama" has happened in the past couple of weeks, but I'll get into that on my next post. I wanted to wish my faithful reader(s) a Merry Christmas :) |
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Christmas Gift Ideas
| By Lynn Forgy In our family, we have tried several ideas for gift giving over the years. These have included drawing a name from a hat, keeping the price of the gift under $5, and my all time favorite - giving "free" gifts. Last year, we instituted the "free" gifts and will do so again this year. I LOVE this! It's a chance for us to be creative, and can sometimes be very humorous when opening the presents. My free gifts come from a variety of places. 1) Free Samples - I request as many free samples as I can find. I have gotten coffee samples, free meal coupons, bath and beauty products, etc. 2) Mystery Shopping - For some of the shops I do, I have to purchase something. I try to buy something that is within the reimbursement guidelines, and I look for things for individuals on my list. I have gotten glasses (the kind you drink from), shirts and other clothing, home and garden items, etc. Depending on what type of shops I accept, the list is seemingly endless! 3) Surveys - I have signed up with MyPoints.com, and have earned enough points for a $10 gift card from Kohl's. MyPoints has a variety of merchants from which to choose. Check back for other ideas regarding cheap or free Christmas gift ideas! |
