My Amazon Prime just ran out so this is fantastic. Add this book to your cart and select the 2 day shipping. You will be prompted with an Amazon Prime thing about your 3 month free trial and how to cancel. Make sure you check out.

I finally figured out a written budget.  I’m only figuring in Dave’s income based on just 40 hours per week.  He will have holiday pay in January and he is hoping to work a little overtime.  I’m also not including any income from my ebay sales or my Thirty-One Gifts since neither of those are guaranteed income.  Hopefully I’ll make good money with Thirty-One but I’m not relying on that money yet.  So here’s the plan:

• $20 per week for gas As long as prices don’t go up this should be ok, however I have a feeling if we travel anywhere it’ll be more.  If we plan on doing anything extra we are going to have to make that extra money with either overtime or ebay.
• $60 per week for groceries.  This is a little high and with the pantry challenge this month I don’t plan on using this much this month.  This will let me have extra each week if there is some good deals or great rebates, whatever is left from this at the end of the month will also go into my ING account.
• $20 per week for fun.  I almost always make at least this much from my ebay account so it will be funded from there, if I don’t make that much then we won’t spend it.  Since this is the biggest splurge it will come out of the ebay money.
• With all the other regular bills that doesn’t leave alot left over but we will plan on putting $200 a month into the ING account.

I’m hoping to make more money with ebay and Thirty-One.  If you haven’t heard of them please check it out and let me know if you are interested in anything.  I’m also considering setting up an Etsy account, I have a very crafty side and it helps me relax.  I’m going to check it out and maybe start crafting and possibly sell some of my items.  I make jewelry, scrapbooks, paper piecings, knit projects, sometimes crochet, sewing.  What can I say growing up I had a mother who could do lots of crafts and I have crafting ADD so what she didn’t teach me the internet did.  Plus I have some income from this blog and Swagbucks and if all else fails I’ve been considering a part-time job.

As you can see I really want to put away more money to move.  I hate the apartment we currently live in with a passion, the hatred grows everyday and Dave and I plan on not putting the Christmas tree back up here.  So we either move and rent a house or buy a house.  I’m not fussy either way at the moment.  LOL

So how is your budget coming?? How do you plan on making a little extra? 

This is a great way to start the year with a personalized calendar and one for a family member too.

If you follow many blogs you’ve no doubt seen this logo and lots of people talking about following along with this challenge.

I’ve decided that along with Precious’s Money Saving Challenge I will be joining this challenge as well.

Here are some guidelines they have set to help get started:

• Reduce grocery spending. We're talking about reducing grocery spending this month, not eliminating it. Set a goal that is lower than your regular food budget and shoot for not exceeding it.
• Take stock. Take an afternoon and empty your pantry, freezer, and refrigerator. Ditch what's gone bad and make a list of what's left. Knowing what you have will make you less likely to buy more.
• Use what you have. Check your pantry before you meal plan or head off to the store. Develop meals based on what you have rather than buying new.

Now here’s what we are going to be doing here.

• Starting January 1st we will be reducing the spending.  I will have to buy fresh fruits, milk and some veggies every week.  I will also be getting any free foods or foods under .50 that we use regularly.  I will be couponing all that I can to reduce those costs.
• I will be going through the pantry at some point in the next 2 weeks (after school starts again) and donating the things that won’t be used if they are close to expiring to the local food pantry.
• I don’t meal plan, I’ve tried and failed several times.  I’m trying to focus all my frustrations I mean energy on following a written budget so I won’t be attempting the meal planning this month.  But I will be preplanning what I can.
• We are going to make a big effort to eat every meal at home for the month of January.  Honestly the only draw to eating out is not having to clean up, most of the time I know I could make better food but I don’t want to be bothered.

We have no family coming up this month (that I know of) so we should be able to stick to this very well.  The money we save will be going into the new account I just opened with ING for a down payment someday on a house.  If you are thinking about opening an account with them please let me know there is a referral bonus and I’d love to send you the link, they have a good interest rate for a basic savings account (1.3% vs .25% at my bank)

Drop me a comment if you are planning on joining on to this challenge.  I’d love to hear how you are doing.

I think I have the comment problem fixed, thanks Precious for emailing me to let me know.  The easiest fix I could find was to just make the comment a pop up window so if you can’t leave a comment check your pop-ups.  Again please let me know if this is a problem or difficult, I was amazed that it was so easy to fix.

If you come across anymore kinks please feel free to let me know.  I’m new to all this kind of stuff so I will most likely screw up a few times.  LOL

Have a great night all!!

You have more than likely noticed a big change in my design.  I’ve been looking for awhile for something more fitting and decided with the New Year and the new challenges I’d start fresh with a new blog face.

If you have any trouble viewing anything please let me know so I can change things and make it easier for you.  Thanks for sticking around during the growing pains.

It’s time to print your Holiday Photos and any other ones you might need to print off.  Go to Walgreens.com and start uploading, they are currently offering 9 cent photos as long as you buy 50 or more.  You have until 1/2/10 to order all your photos so get going. 

This fits in really well to my frugal budget as this is about as cheap as I will find them.  I plan on printing as many as I can this week and hopefully I can find a nice deal at Wag’s with RR’s and pay for the photos with them.

Check back next week I’m going to start to tackle my New Year’s goals and keeping my money in my account and not anyone else’s.  What are your goals?  I’m going to try and get a budget in writing and pick an amount that we’ll spend every month and once that money is gone it’s gone.  We’ll see how it goes.  LOL

As I sit here thinking about all the things I should be doing I thought maybe I’d start thinking about next year at least till it warms up in here.  I don’t want to wash dishes or vacum, I’d like to stay under the warm blanket.  LOL

So here’s a few things that we are hoping for next year.

1. Get back on the money saving wagon.  I’ve done well at the grocery store the past month thanks to a full freezer but of course there’s lots of holiday shopping.
2. Start drug store shopping again.  I’ve been pretty burnt out at CVS and Wag’s, I have lots of stuff and little room to store it but some of my stash it starting to dwindle and I want success at my next yardsale.
3. I want to lose some weight.  DH and I both want to lose a few extra pounds so we’ll be helping each other stay motivated.  I just got into the Jenny McCarthy houseparty that came with her new Wii game and I’m getting a few Wii fitness games for Christmas to help.
4. My biggest goal is to increase our savings account balance.  Dave and I want to move and are hoping that we can afford to buy a house in the next year otherwise we’ll hopefully move into a rented house.  We have outgrown our little home and it’s hard for Shawn to have friends over since it gets crowded quick with more than one 5 yr old running around.
5. In order to obtain that goal we’ll be spending less and I’ll be looking for more ways to earn money.  I’ll be back to religiously clicking all the emails, tracking rebates and ebates for everything we have to buy, selling stuff we don’t need, and I will be devoting myself to selling my Thirty-One gifts.
6. Of course I’ll be getting back on track with blogging as well.  Blogging here helps me save more and be more accountable.

Well that seems like a hefty list.  I’m also working on setting up a weekly budget for next year that will hopefully let us save even more.  You might not see me much for the rest of the year since life is hectic with Shawn home everyday and of course preparing for the holidays but I will be back and better than before very soon.

Have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!

I just got my party pack for the Fun Fit Guilt Free party from houseparty and am so excited. I got this game:

I just was able to order 1 Zhu Zhu hamster online through Walmart.com  head over there and search for them.  I put a 2 pk of them in my cart and it gave the option to buy just one at the top in the other customers bought section.  I added one of them to the cart got rid of the 2pk because we only really need 1 and am getting it shipped to my home.  They are only $8 at Walmart but act fast they may be gone soon.

for a decent price!!!!

Is your little one worried about what to get the family pet for Christmas??  Mine was and then I saw what the Lowes project was for this weekend, a Pet Treat Keeper.  I’ll be taking Shawn over but SHHHHH!!! don’t tell Belle (the dog) he doesn’t want her to know what it is.  Don’t ask how we are going to wrap this without the dog seeing. LOL

Could it be any cuter??  Head on over to the Build and Grow site and sign up before it’s too late.  While you are there you might as well sign up for the one on 1/9 here’s a pic of that one to.

So I've been super busy and really bad about posting the free songs that amazon is offering everyday. Add that to the fact there have been a few that I just don't care for and I haven't posted most of them so here's a link to take you straight to the page that has them all listed.

Free Amazon Songs

Enjoy!!!!!

I won't be posting the daily freebie song from Amazon today because it has language in it that I wouldn't want my son to listen to. You can find it on their site but I did find 2 other free songs that you might be interested in that seem to be much cleaner.

There are all sorts of great free events to take the kids to tomorrow. We are going to be very busy running from here to there.

Lowes event this weekend is a Gingerbread house. Their event runs from 10am to 11am. You might want to head over here and sign up now since they fill up quickly.

Home Depot is also having a building event this weekend. They are building this cute little wagon. The event runs from 9am to Noon, there is no preregistering here.

Michaels will be having a Sant'a’s Workshop with 3 free Make and Takes for the kids. They can make a Holiday Card, a Stocking or a Trinket Box. This event goes from 10am to 1pm.

And just in case you have any energy left you can head over to Bass Pro Shops and your kids can make a very cute Reindeer Hat from Noon to 5pm and get a free photo with Santa while they are there. We went a few weeks ago and there was lots of fun stuff for the kids.

Have a great weekend and try not to run around too much.

Here's today's free music download it's Snow Angel by Tori Amos

Amazon is having a promo for you to get some more free mp3 downloads. Click the link below everyday to see what the new free song of the day is.
Free Holiday Downloads

Today's pick is Joy to the World by Casting Crows. Check back tomorrow and I'll post the next freebie.