Saturday, January 24, 2009

from Women Who Run With the Wolves...

...Anyone close to a woman is in fact in the presence of two women; an outer being and an interior criatura, one who lives in topside world, one who lives in the world not so easily seeable. The outer being lives by the light of day and is easily observed. She is often pragmatic, acculturated, and very human. The criatura, however, often travels to the surface from very far away, often appearing and then as quickly disappearing, yet always leaving behind a feeling: something surprising, original, and knowing.

Understanding this dual nature in women sometimes causes men, and even women themselves, to close their eyes and hail heaven for help. The paradox of women's twin nature is that when one side is more cool in feeling tone, the other side is more hot. When one side is more lingering and rich relationally, the other may be somewhat glacial. Often one side is more happy and elastic, while the other has a longing for "I know not what." One may be sunny, while the other is bittersweet and wistful. The "two-women-who-are-one" are separate but conjoined elements which combine in the psyche in thousands of ways.



we are complicated.....

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

What's Special?


Each one of us has gifts. But often as girls do in our society, we are more likely to pick out our flaws and focus on the bad.
I'd like for each one of us to talk about one special attribute that we have. Then, perhaps we can open up to the special gifts of the women in our lives too!


Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Coffee, caffeine, etc.

Aola asked how the coffee withdrawal was going for me. Well, I was down to 1 cup a day...for one day. I'm at two cups a day now. It seems like any more than that makes me see the world thru brown glasses, and wake up kind of hungover. But two cups is just enough. And supposedly some caffeine is good for your heart and brain. So...if I don't go over that, it should be fine. And I really like it.
I fasted for one day and I was surprised at the energy I had. It was good.
I decided that I needed to not be too hard on myself physically right now since I'm struggling with some legitimate anxiety and some weather-related depression, too. Thank the Lord for two days of sunshine. It's supposed to stay for a couple more days - I sure hope so.

Kristen is my inspiration for money saving. She always encourages me with her organization and discipline...sometimes I wonder how she's my daughter. Ha ha.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Things I'm doing to save money and the environment:

On decent days I hang out the laundry - except jeans and towels. I hate the way they feel if they've been air dried.

I use ECO, an all natural laundry soap I buy at Sam's Club. One jug costs $12.00 and last me a month (and I do a LOT of laundry)

The old "if you aren't using it, turn it off" of course.

I unplug appliances that aren't in use - like the big mixer and the coffee pot.

I continue to gripe about the length of showers that Mark and Seth take (to no avail)

Since we live 15 miles from town I only make necessary trips, usually only once a week and that is the only night we eat out.

I am buying more and more from the buying club. I've found that if I am careful and watch the prices I can save a lot of money. But, it helps that we have lots of storage space for items like bundles of 36 rolls of toilet paper and huge packages of paper towels.
And, when we go this month we won't be going to Red Robin and waste all the money I just saved.

These are just a few off the top of my head.

I'd like to see your list, maybe I could pick up a few more tips.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Electric bills @#$%#%^

We have two electric bills, actually three but one is Levi's to pay, every month. One for the house and one for the shop/studio. The one for the house was $70.00 this month. The one for the shop was $389.00 . It has gone up over a hundred dollars last month and the month before - two months ago it was
172., then 274., and now $389.00???

We called the electric company and they gave us some run around and peak days and usage charges.. which come to find out was 90.00 this month- $90.00 extra dollars for electricity that we didn't use.

We don't who to complain to.

Our only solution was to try to be more efficient. The shop is not even heated. Mark uses spot heaters(propane) to be able to work out there. We had a small electric heater in the office which we replaced with a small gas heater. Other than that we are kind of at a loss as to what we can do.

What was your bill like this month? and what are you doing to try to keep it down?

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Tightwad Finds and Frugal Minds

My favorite money management books are The Tightwad Gazette and The Millionare Next Door.

a good blend of practical tips and philosophy.

:)

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Okay, so I'm thinking about what to do with our tax refund, if in fact we do get one this year. Being self-employed it is always a guess right up until the very end for me. I mean, I can look at our books and think "yeah, this will be the way it ends up" and then be totally wrong once our accountant finishes. But, this year I think we are okay since we bought two new vehicles for the business and I started us an IRA. I wasn't able to contribute the maximum when I opened it but I am hoping to be able to add some more before April.

I really figure the best thing to do is pay something off that we have to pay interest on. I have a couple of small bank loans that I could pay off but my gut tells me to keep the money close or easily accessible instead... so, I was thinking .. maybe a one year T-bill, or maybe a regular bank CD.

what do you think? and have you thought about what you will do with yours?

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Thank you

Thank you for inviting me to this group. I admire you ladies all so much, and feel honored to be joining you!
I was just reading over on Kelly's blog and wondered about... that since this year we all seem to be thinking about the economy, saving money, etc. that we should use this space to share money saving tips and to share what we are doing to save money.
I think we should invite Cara to join us since the woman is a freaking genius when it comes to money stuff.

what do you think ?

Monday, January 05, 2009

Reluctantly, I am throwing out all of the junk food. I have to keep the chips for David, but they don't cause me any problems because I don't eat them. I'm throwing out all that remains of the holiday candy and any soda that is in the house.

I'm going to focus on eating natural foods rather than anything that is processed. I'm not sure I should do a full on cleanse because I'm breast feeding, so I'm just going to cut out all the sugary and or processed foods and focus on eating more vegetables and fruit.

I'm off to make an omelet full of veggies and goodness. :)

Friday, January 02, 2009

A cleanse (for your body) can be as extreme as a total fast for a few days, but, you don't have to go to those extremes to make you feel better and function better.

You could simply chose one thing you know you eat or drink too much of, like coffee or pop, and fast from it for a few days.

I usually do a three day cleanse when I do mine.

For the days that you are fasting, take a colon cleanse supplement every night. I use either psyillium husk or Colon Clenze - any health food store will have some sort of formula for this and they are all about the same thing, most of them are very mild and don't cause cramping.

For my cleanse I cut out almost all the caffeine (I HAVE to have at least 1/2 cup of coffee in the morning to survive :) but no other caffeine. I do one day of juice fasting with a small meal in the evening - try to only eat foods that are easily digested. I don't eat meat or cheese while doing a cleanse.
Then a day of fruit and veggies only, and the last day I add whole grains along with fresh fruits and veggies.

It's a pretty simple fast, not too hard to do and it will help you get started on some better eating habits for the new year.

I am going to start mine on Monday, the 5th.

Anyone else interested?

*another little note about detox - drink lots of water and if you drink water with a little fresh lemon juice squeezed into it it helps stimulate your liver for detox. Vegetables in the brassica family (broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts,etc.) are the best for liver detox. Of course, cranberry juice or cranberry pills are the good for kidney/urinary tract detox.