We Fixed the Dryer Today Using Google!

The SIL's clothes dryer has been acting up a bit since we got here. Lately it has been getting worse so when I mentioned it to the SIL, she said she would call a repairman to fix it. I told her to wait while I Googled the problem to see what it could be (always a good idea, especially when dealing with repairmen because you want to be able to give a good description AND know that they are on the right track when fixing your broken item). I Googled the problem as accurately as possible "Kenmore Elite HE3 error message E1 stops drying" and came up with this page. The forum question seemed to describe the problem exactly so I ordered the part online and it came within a few days. With the diagram on the page, it looked easy enough to change out so this morning with replacement part and small toolbox in hand, hubby and I went to work on the dryer. Amazingly it took only a few minutes to change out the part (instead of taking off the duct assembly I was able to reach around behind it and get to the thermistor part to remove and replace it because my hand was small enough to fix back there). Now the dryer is humming along and not shutting off every 10 minutes like it was before. Problem fixed!

Moral(s) of this story: Google has an answer for practically everything because someone out in the world has probably needed to fix what you need to fix. Doing things yourself can save a ton of money (the cost for the part was $35 with shipping as opposed to the $100+ a repairman would have charged). Be careful when doing your own work (ie: unplug things so you don't get electrocuted). Also, it's nice to invite a friend over to help if you have no clue what you are doing (we built a house from the ground up with friends years ago, hubby was an electrician years ago, and I used to repair my car often because #1 it was a piece of junk and #2 I couldn't afford to pay anyone to fix it, so this wasn't an overwhelming experience for us. For people who have never done anything mechanical, it would have been kind of intimidating so help from someone who knows what they are doing is nice).

A Few Things About Goal Setting

It may be serendipity or maybe since I was thinking about my future goals, goal-related things are just on my radar, but all of these things came together today...

• I stayed up until 2am watching Oprah Winfrey's Master Class last night. If you get the opportunity to watch this two-part series about Oprah's life and her success, please take it. Here words are sooo inspiring and the things she says are sooo insightful it makes you want to go out, be awesome, and conquer the world!


• I was reading through the blog posts I wrote when I first began this blog in 2009. It is amazing how far I have come since then and it is also amazing that many of the goals that I had written down way back then actually have actually come true. At the time, I wanted to quit work and travel but there was no way in Hell that was going to happen. I was so far in debt that the idea of me quitting work was laughable. Fast forward to today when not only have I quit working, but our biggest problem now is deciding where to travel to next. Lesson: write down your goals and the universe will amaze you by helping you make them come true.


• I just found out today that I will get to meet one of my favorite bloggers in a couple of weeks. I had the goal "meet a favorite blogger" on my list of things to accomplish this year but had no idea where I would find a blogger to meet. Today the Family on Bikes posted on FaceBook that they will be in Atlanta in a couple of weeks and they asked who wanted to meet up with them. I quickly answered back "ME!" Yet another example of how writing your goals down somehow opens the door to making them come true!

Do you have goals? Do you have them written down? If not, you should. I don't know how it works, but for me, writing my goals down has made amazing things happen that I really believe otherwise would never have come true.

Preparing for Disaster Series (Part 1 of 10): Domestic Violence

For the next couple of weeks I want to focus on ten scenarios that can have disastrous affects on you as well as your finances. While there is never one sure fire plan to take care of every possible thing that could happen to you, there are a number of things to think of ahead of time that will help you out in the event that a particular disaster happens.

For the first part of this series, we will focus on domestic violence. Not only is it a problem that is currently affecting my family (see previous post), but as a former social service provider, this is one of the most common problems people would come to me for help with. In fact, is one of the problems that would bring the widest spectrum of clients to my door--all races, both genders, all ages, those who were rich, poor, or middle income, the well educated and the uneducated...basically no one was immune from this. Here are ten (financial) things to consider if you find yourself in a domestic violence situation:

1. Get help from the experts, preferably for free. The National Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-SAFE) is a good resource for general information. You can also call 211 to find local resources for domestic violence help in your community (ie: a DV shelter, DV court advocates, DV counselors, etc).


2. Have an emergency fund. Unlike most people who keep an emergency fund with their spouse, this one you want to keep without your spouse's knowledge. Financial control is one of the most common ways that abusers control their victims. You may want to keep cash hidden in your house (may be difficult to access if you need to leave in a hurry), leave cash with a trusted friend or relative (make sure they won't spend it!), or open your own bank account (choose a different bank than you and your SO usually use, don't accept an ATM card for the account, and make sure the statements are only provided to you electronically or sent to a friend's house). You want to bulk up this fund up as much as possible, even if that means you can only put $10 a month in taken out of the grocery fund. Also, since without at ATM card you can't access your bank account on weekends, be sure to keep a little cash on hand to use until you can get to the bank.


3. Keep all of your important documents on hand or, as abusers also use holding your documents as a method of control, scan them into your computer and keep copies of them on a hidden thumb drive. You want to scan the entire family's documents (yours, hubby's, kids) and want to include birth certificates, driver's licenses, passports, military records, list of financial assets, etc. This will help you sign up for emergency social services (food stamps, welfare) as well as provide necessary information for your attorney.


4. Develop a circle of friends. Often abuse victims are isolated by their abuser to the point that they will have no one to turn to for help. If possible, let a few people know about your situation and find out if you can count on them if necessary. These people may include trusted co-workers, family members, people from church, or neighbors. Friends will be able to help with a range of things including hiding you until you can get help, taking care of your kids, giving you money, giving you a place to leave important items, etc.


5. Keep a bag of emergency escape supplies in an easy to access place. You want a bag that includes a change of clothes, basic toiletries, a list of emergency phone numbers in case the abuser takes your phone, some cash, spare car and house keys, a thumb drive with your important documents on it, etc. You may not be able to keep this bag in your house so consider other places to keep it such as at work, at a friend's house, in a bus station locker, etc.


6. Have an escape plan. In scenario-based planning, people consider all of the "what ifs" and make a plan for each possibility. What if things blow up and you need to get your kids from school but don't have a car? Idea: a friend can be added to the list of people who can pick up your kids and they can go get them. What if your abuser is flipping out and trying to kill you? Idea: teach your kids how to call 911. What if you only have a short period of time to escape? Idea: have a plan to exit the house, get to a safe location, get your emergency bag, and get assistance from a local DV agency. The bottom line is to think of every possibility and think of ideas to work around these possibilities so that you can escape and get help.


7. Document, document, document. Often people who are in abusive relationships don't want to call the police, don't want to press charges, and don't want to go to the hospital if they are injured because they don't want the abuser to get arrested. While I always say call the police! press charges! I know that this doesn't often happen. What needs to be done however, whether you are ready to press charges or not, is to document the abuse as much as possible. Going to the hospital is one way to do this, taking photographs is another, keeping a diary at work of each incident, even having a co-worker keep this information for you, is a way to collect enough evidence that in the event that you eventually want to get a restraining order or press charges it will make it much clearer to the judge that there is cause to issue these orders.


8. Once you escape, you will need to cover your tracks (often abusers have access to your cell phone and bank records so can track you this way). Buy a cheap, prepaid phone and turn off/take out the battery from your regular cell phone so it can't be tracked. Withdraw cash from your emergency bank account and pay cash for everything. You may need to apply for a new job so your abuser can't find you and enroll your children in another school depending on how likely it is that the abuser will hunt you down at these places. As a side note, don't use your home computer to plan your escape, look up resources, or otherwise find information that could be useful to your abuser--your internet history will provide this information to your abuser and you never know if key logger or other software to track you has been installed. Ditto, if the possibility that your car may have a GPS tracker on it (usually the police will be able to check your car for this if requested).


9. Set up your defenses. Once you escape, keeping yourself and your kids safe becomes imperative. Staying at a DV shelter at first is a good, safe place since they are very security conscious and used to these types of situations. Take a self defense course (it will give you some confidence but shouldn't be depended on to save your life). Carry a weapon with you that you are trained to use (again, you don't want to confront your abuser and this is a last, LAST resort, but even something like pepper spray can give you a few minutes to escape if they track you down). Let people at work know about your situation and ask if certain safety precautions can be taken for your safety (change the location of your office, put a coded lock on the door so only employees can come in, transfer you to a different location, etc).


10. Recovery. After you escape, you will need to start getting your life back in order. There are a number of legal things that need to be done (protection order, separation or divorce started, temporary child custody/support order) which DV agencies can often help with for free or at little charge. You will also want to see, if you are short on cash, what other sources of aid are available to you in your community such as temporary housing, food stamps, other welfare programs, etc. Many of these things can be found through the DV agency or by calling 211.

And a few resources:

• Call 211 (for assistance and information about social service/legal/medical resources in your community).


• National Domestic Violence Hotline


• AARDVARK


• An escape plan template
  
  

Money Links

Here's a bunch of links to help you stretch your hard-earned dollars...

• 7 Ways to Do More With Less


• 10 Free Ways to Speed Up Your PC


• 10 Dirt Cheap Housing Markets


• Living in a Box


• How to Live Well on $40,000 or Less


• Your Ideal Life Strategy

My Emergency Fund is Having an Emergency

My little $1000 emergency fund which has been sitting in a savings account for more than a year just took a $600 hit. I am not happy. It caused near physical pain when I had to withdraw the money from that account today. Bummer.

Right now we are living on a pretty tight budget since I am not working. A month ago, I noticed that our cell phone bill with TMobile was averaging $100 a month for not a lot of service (two lines sharing 1000 minutes a month, plus we had to pay extra for text messaging and internet). Then I noticed that TMobile now has a $30 per month pre-paid plan which includes 1500 talk and text minutes plus internet. For two phones that is only $60 per month, a much better deal than we had. I did a quick calculation and found that by discontinuing our contract cell plan we would save $40 per month. Due to the hefty $200 per line cancellation fee, it was a big $400 payment at once but the contract still had many months left and after ten months of using the prepaid plan we would then be ahead.

So I went ahead and cancelled the contract and switched to the pre-paid plan. I got the final bill today with the two cancellation fees and the last month's phone bill plus tax which ended up to be about $540. I am happy with our pre-paid plan but paying that big bill all at once made me run to my emergency fund because the income I make (about $200 a month from AdSense and website updates I do for a couple of clients) only covers my monthly bills (cells at $100, tithe at $50, and $50 spending money).

Hubby also had to reach into his emergency fund today to send his daughter $500 so both of our little emergency funds are now even smaller. We didn't want to take the money out of our travel/resettlement fund since we will be having some big airfare bills coming up in a few months as well as the possibility of first/last/deposit for an apartment at the end of the year. Hubby's monthly income (about $2000) is used for our monthly spending (food, gas occasionally, entertainment, lunch out occasionally, sundries, etc) and the rest is put aside for our annual and semi-annual bills (storage unit, car insurance, grandson's education, etc).

As it stands now...

• I am a bit freaked out that $500, an amount I would pay for a purse or pair of shoes in my previous life, is such a big deal.


• We need to put $600 back in my emergency fund ASAP.


• We need to put $500 back into hubby's emergency fund ASAP.


• I need to see how creative I can be. At this point we have nothing to sell on CraigsList or EBay for some quick cash and working at a regular job is a bit out of the question since we will be leaving in about a month.

So now I am pondering my options to make some quick cash (which should make an interesting blog post). I'll let you know what happens.

Getting to Know Me

Here's a little trend I noticed in the blogosphere the last couple of days...the Getting to Know Me Post. Basically you tell about yourself in A to Z format like I will do below (inspired by Shaking the Money Tree and Out My Window). So this is me...

A--Age: 44
B--Bed size: Queen (but hubby and I can fit in a twin if necessary...we are cuddly like that)
C--Chore I hate: cleaning bathrooms. Yuck. Gross.
D--Dogs: none (we travel too much but I do like German Shepherds and Akitas)
E--Essential start of my day: Japanese green tea and email
F--Favorite color: green
G--Gold or silver: gold
H--Height: 5'3"
I--Instruments played: none (but I can sing. And I always wanted to play the piano)
J--Job: none (kind of on sabbatical now. My usual job is to own businesses and start non profits)
K--Kids: five step kids (who are all awesome)
L--Live: Usually Seattle, now travelling and deciding where to live next.
M--Mother: Mary
N--Nickname: none
O--Overnight hospital stays: none (knock on wood)
P--Pet peeve: bad customer service
Q--Quote: "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...and I chose the one less taken" Robert Frost
R--Right or Left: right
S--Siblings: three
T--Time you wake up: between 7am and 8am
U--Underwear: thong (I don't like panty lines)
V--Vegie I dislike: Brussels sprouts and okra
W--What makes me run late: being online
X--X rays I've had: dental...that's all
Y--Yummy food I make: granola, yogurt, pie, brownies, chocolate chip cookies
Z--Zoo animal: elephant

Update: Plans, Health, Some Mini Disasters, and a Few Links

Like I've mentioned before, our plans seem to change nearly daily. Here's what's going on:

• Plans. We finally bought our tickets to our next destination which will be Las Vegas. Hubby and the BIL will be taking part in the World Series of Poker tournament there (fingers crossed that they win the multi-million dollar prize!) and I will get to catch up with some friends I haven't seen for a few years. We will be there the last week of June and the first week of July and after that? Well, we haven't decided yet.


• Health. As soon as we decided to go to Vegas, I decided I better get serious about my health. While my days of having a "boomin" bod and hanging out at the pool all day and nightclub all night are long gone, I still don't want to look like a beached whale (which is exactly what I feel like after basically lounging around and doing not much of anything for three months)! My goal is to lose 25 pounds in 40 days and in order to do so I have been working out at least two hours each day as well as eating better than I ever have. I went with a "Paleo-ish" diet of only natural, nutritious foods including meat, fish, lots of fruit and vegetables as well as non-paleo foods such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, bananas, and very occasionally rice. In fact, a few days after I started eating this way I was reading Carla's blog over at My 1/2 Dozen Daily and found that what I eat basically follows along with this post (although she rendered the explanation much better--and prettier!--than I could). Basically you skip the grains, dairy, and processed foods and eat only natural food. After just a week, I actually do feel much better, although I very much miss my favorite food groups--wheat, dairy, and Starbucks.


• Mini Disaster #1. About a week or so ago, I was ready to throw in the towel, move back home, buy another house, and get back into the rat race. I was bored silly (I have always worked at least one, usually two, jobs since I was sixteen but for the past four months I haven't worked at all and was going stir crazy). I missed my friends (I talk to them often and they always ask when I am coming home and I felt like I was missing out on so much with them...I was homesick!). And, since I read the online version of our local paper each day, there have been no less than six front page articles that, had I still been "in the mix" so to speak, I would have known about before the things hit the paper. I would have been a part of what was going on instead of reading about things from afar. I felt like my life, or at least my previous life, was passing me by. Then I had a moment of feeling sorry for the idle rich. It is all of these things--working, having a social group, being part of things in a community--that creates the fabric of life. Just traveling around and having no ties takes this important part of living away from you. I was ready to hop on the next plane and go home but hubby told me to stick it out, at least until after Las Vegas, and see where we feel like going from there. So I am waiting and in the past week I haven't felt so bad.


• Mini Disaster #2. A couple of days ago my step daughter (who is wonderful and the only "daughter" I have), sent me a text message. It said "I'm leaving my husband, can you help me?" I was ready to do the happy dance as I thoroughly dislike her husband and find him to be borderline abusive and getting worse but we have kept out of their relationship and told her we support whatever she wants to do. After four kids and trying to work it out, seems like she finally wised up and is kicking the idiot to the curb. But I digress. Like most women with four kids, a lousy husband, and a bad relationship, leaving him means that she will basically be out on her own, have to find a new place to live, and have to support her family by herself (we are hoping the guy will pay child support but that remains to be seen). So I know that the help we will provide will be mostly from our emergency fund. Ouch. Fortunately the kids (there's five of them) have learned to not ask us for money (we don't co sign loans, pay their massive cell phone bills, dig them out of credit card debt, or pay bail) but on occasion we do help out with unforeseen emergencies. This is one of them. It remains to be seen how much and what kind of help she will need.


• And finally, some links. Here's some interesting links you might like: Your Debt Free Checklist (exactly the process we used to get out of debt). Daily Habits that Keep Me Out of Debt (I have most of these same habits). Your Ideal Life Strategy (we basically did these things to get to the point we are at now).

Finally, since my blog always looks a little blah due to the lack of pictures, I decided to throw up a picture of my favorite flower to photograph, a dahlia. Have a great weekend!

Splurge!

For the first time in months, I actually splurged on something I wanted. My weakness is notebooks. Getting a new notebook with crisp, clean pages is so exciting I can barely contain myself! A new notebook means inspiration and new beginnings and...well I guess unless you feel the same, listening to someone wax poetic about paper is probably a bit odd. For others with this same affliction, there is even a website for us...check it out here.

So I was at the mall and I needed some inspiration. I have exactly 40 days to get in shape before we go to Las Vegas. After our first month in Atlanta during which I exercised every day, I have really slacked off. Add to that the mountains of yummy food hubby cooks daily and more snacks in the pantry than you would find in a convenience store and, well, let's just say that even my "fat clothes" are getting tight.

I was at my favorite store (Barnes and Noble) and I was lost in their huge notebook section and I figured that if I got a new notebook I could track my efforts to get in shape and lose weight during the next 40 days. There were plenty to choose from ranging from expensive (about $10 each) to super expensive (around $20 each). I saw the notebook pictured above and just had to have it. It is a Moleskein notebook designed specifically to log your health and fitness and food and goals and...basically everything I wanted to do. I was sold. I did have a coupon for B&N which came in my email box but it was only for 13% off. Eighteen dollars and ninety five cents later I left the store with my new notebook in hand, properly motivated (I hope) to make some significant changes to my health in the next six weeks.

Of course I could justify my splurge...I figure that if I don't have anything from Starbucks (another unfortunate weekly habit) for the next 40 days I will have more than saved the cost of the notebook...too bad I can't justify the $189 Marc Jacobs bag I saw at Nordstroms!

Lots O' Links

My favorites list is getting quite full...this is how I empty the list...

• 7 Ways to Sink in a Stagnant Economy (so true and a giant change from just a few years ago)


• 380 Free Movies Online (we love free stuff...especially movies!)


• Forever Frugal (an interview with one of my heroes, Amy Daczyczn)


• Making Sense New England (features the above interview plus lots more)


• 10 Things I Won't Give Up to Save Money (everyone has a list like this, I'll post mine in a future blog post)


• Living a 6-Figure Lifestyle on a $30,000 Salary (smart guy...I think many consumers are getting smart like this)


• Finding Money (we all can use extra cash)


• A Tearful Break Up Letter to the Credit Card Company (funny!)


• How to Become Wildly Successful at Anything (useful!)


• 10 Articles that Changed My Life (even more useful!)


• Four Free Ways to Learn Code Online (if coding is part of your current/future job, this is great info)


• 30 Best Free Project Management Software Programs (if project management is part of your current/future job, this too is great info)

How to Get the Best Prices on the Things You Need

Being die-hard frugal people, the hubby and I always try to get the best price on everything we buy. Being fairly wealthy, the SIL doesn't really care about price tags. Every time the SIL goes shopping, hubby tells her "you can get that cheaper at..." She just rolls her eyes. Now these people are in their 60s so it's kind of cute to see them acting like older teenage brother/younger sister instead of the seniors they are.

Anyway, hubby's latest comment was on soda. The SIL went to Costco and bought a case of soda in the can for around $6.99. We were at the local Kroger store and found the same soda in the two litre bottle for 85 cents each. When we got home, the hubby pointed out the great price to his sister. She rolled her eyes...again.

We have a few methods for getting the lowest prices on the things we buy...

For material goods (clothes, TVs, etc), we look at our cheapest options in the community (Dollar Store, Discount Store, Walmart, on sale at a big box store, etc) then go online to compare prices. I'm not much for buying used things but plenty of people I know shun all of these options in favor of finding the items they want at garage sales and on CraigsList (which is a super cheap way to get stuff as prices are usually 10 cents on the dollar this way). Another way to stretch your money while buying material goods is to look for substitutions. I may be looking for a 50" name brand television but can I live with a 50" TV of another brand that costs $400 less or a slightly smaller TV which will also save hundreds of dollars? In most cases, the answer is yes. What we also ask is can we do without? Obviously this saves the most money and reduces the clutter/stuff we will eventually get rid of considerably. Finally, an option which is kind of between buying and doing without is borrowing or renting an item. This has become more popular as people realize that they don't need to buy a fancy lawnmower/edger/weedwhacker/etc when the items will just sit idle in the garage 95% of the time. A better option is for each neighbor to buy an item and share it with everyone else in the neighborhood saving both money and the time/upkeep/storage space to keep it.

For food, our options are similar. The first thing we do is look at store advertising circulars and find the lowest prices offered for the things we want (generally we build our menus around what is on sale instead of building menus then trying to find low prices on the items needed). Next we look at all of our shopping options: grocery store, Walmart with food center, military commissaries, Dollar Stores, discount grocery stores, even the local quick stop market sometimes have great prices on staples (like a gallon of milk for $2 or 10 pounds of potatoes for $1). Again, like with material goods, we also look for substitutions (sometimes when we get to the store and look for a sale item that is on our list, we may find the same item in another brand cheaper than the name brand sale item), and we look for substitute items as well (ie: if mozzarella cheese has a cheaper price than the swiss cheese we planned on buying, we determine if this different product will work for what we are making and usually go with the cheaper option). Occasionally we go to our last option which is doing without. I haven't had salmon since we have been in Atlanta simply because the price here ($9 a pound) is astronomical compared to the price we pay for salmon in Seattle (about $5 a pound). Finally, sharing is possible with food too. At home we often have "potluck" type meals with friends and relatives and if someone finds an awesome price on an item, such as a case of bananas for very little money, we tend to share these as well.

I am a little freaked out by how quickly and astronomically prices are rising on many of the items we use everyday however with the methods above, we are still able to get the things we want and need at a reasonable price.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you awesome mothers, grandmothers, aunts, God mothers, step moms, foster moms, and all of you other ladies out there who take an active role in helping to shape the future of our kids. Moms have a super tough job to do (you don't realize this until your own kids are making you crazy and then it hits you...yes this is what my mom had to go through with me. eekkk) so setting aside just one day to spoil mom doesn't seem like enough but, at least for today, here's hoping you indulge your mom like crazy today.

Financial lesson: this is one area where I don't mind splurging. My mom died young so I never got to fully appreciate everything she did for her kids and I didn't get to spoil her on her special day like I wish I could do now.

Stay Home, Save Money. Here's How

One of our biggest challenges when we were first getting serious about saving money and paying off debt was what to do with ourselves. At that time, our habits were pretty bad and almost everything we did included spending money. Instead of staying home, where we couldn't spend money, it was our habit, if we were bored, to go out. Go out to eat. Go out to the mall. Go out and wander around Costco. Go further afield and run to Vancouver, BC or Portland, OR for the weekend. It seemed like every time we left our house, it included parting with our hard earned cash whether for gas to get us around, food because we weren't home to eat, or to buy more and more material items at the mall because they looked new and much nicer than the stuff we had at home. What we really had was a problem with keeping ourselves occupied when we were bored.
Now that we have been at my sister-in-law's house for a couple of months where there is pretty much nothing to do that doesn't involve spending money if we leave the house (and since we are trying to save every penny for our trip to Asia this fall) we have become experts at keeping ourselves entertained for free. Here's some ways to keep yourself and the family entertained at home instead of spending money to beat boredom:

• Cook. We have been cooking up a storm, using whatever we can find in the pantry. Actually hubby usually cooks and I usually bake. This tends to take up a lot of time and it is fun too.


• Read. There is a library down the street so occasionally I will go there and read books but mostly I have found quite a few books to read online for free. All you have to do is Google for free books to read online and/or download the free Kindle e-reader at Amazon then check out the huge list of e-books offered for free at Amazon.


• Study. I have been brushing up on both Spanish and Japanese during the past couple of months. This involved an initial outlay of cash for the books that I am using (the Practice Makes Perfect series is awesome!) but now I use the books to study every day for free. If there are other subjects you have been wanting to brush up on, MIT offers an excellent (free!) list of online courses here.


• Communicate. I still keep in touch with many of my friends back home and around the world. Thanks to the internet, I can do this for free! I use FaceBook, email, Chikka, and instant messages to communicate with my friends.


• Exercise. Some of the best exercise in the world can be had just by walking out your door and around your neighborhood. All you need is a pair of shoes and you can walk as far (or near) as you like, as fast (or slow) as you like. You can also do calisthenics at home, follow along with free exercise programs online or on TV, and life weights (even if you only have canned food to use as "weights") all at no charge.


• Enjoy a hobby. I am sorely challenged when it comes to being crafty but I admire my friends who can sew, quilt, knit, crochet, or do any of the other craft hobbies that can take up hours of time and effort with just a small initial outlay of cash for supplies. Other hobbies I occasionally enjoy include fishing, taking photos with my digital camera, doing origami, and playing chess with the hubby.


• Volunteer. Unfortunately there is no where nearby for me to volunteer right now, but at home I often volunteer ten to twenty hours per week with various organizations. Fortunately, the internet allows me to still provide some services for organizations that I love so I have been able to update websites for a couple of non profits that I work with and write grants for a few others. I know another lady who is mostly home-bound but was recently recognized as a volunteer of the year for all of the hours she gives to various homeless organizations just via her computer and telephone from home.


• Watch TV shows, videos, and movies either online or on cable. We haven't been watching much cable TV lately but we have both been enjoying a wide range of shows online in the evenings. Hubby enjoys his free online TV shows broadcast from the Philippines and I have been watching a Korean soap opera every evening (also free, also online).


• Playing with the kids. We like to play with the kids after dinner each evening, mostly to keep them out of grandma's hair but also because they are so darn fun to watch. I've never seen kids more enamoured with simple things (boxes, plastic bowls, the neighbor's cat, chasing the ducks) in my life. We toss the ball back and forth, make "forts" out of blankets when it is too cold to go outside, color, etc. All of this is free and it is great for the kids (and us too!).

It really is a major lifestyle change when you go from paying for your entertainment each day to entertaining yourself for free but it is also a wonderful way to explore new things and save a boatload of money in the process!

Link Round-up and More

One of these days I will write a real blog post. Until then, here's some interesting links...

• 80 Ways to Be Frugal and Save Money



• Stolen Camera Finder (this looks interesting although I haven't had a camera stolen so can't vouch for it's usefulness)



• 20 Things Life is Too Short to Tolerate (can I get an amen!)



• reddit Frugal (this is my favorite webpage to visit when I am pondering yet more ways to be frugal and save money)

And more...

• After I wrote my last post on our "up in the air" life plans, I received a nice message from a blogger I have never met (yet I often read her blog) inviting my husband and I to stay at her place for a couple of weeks this summer. I was pretty blown away because, wow, we are strangers, but the blogging community is soooo amazing and people are soooo nice. How cool is that?



• Also after I wrote my last post, my sister in law, who has been living with her boyfriend for a couple of years, said "I think I want to get married...let's go". Her boyfriend has been wanting to get married but when she called him up at work and told him he was getting married ASAP, he was surprised as us. So now we are all working on wedding plans for a wedding that will take place some time within the next month or so, somewhere in the US. As I have stated before, our plans tend to change daily!



• I have often heard of "Tiger Moms", especially after this article from Amy Chua came out. I never thought I would actually be living with one. After spending a lot of time over the past couple of weeks with my SIL and her grandkids, I realized she IS a Tiger Mom, Yikes. It seems to work, as both of her kids are quite successful, but now it appears she is working on her grandkids. Her methods are both appalling and interesting at the same time. Hmmm



• For the past few months we have been almost blissfully unaware of rising gas and food prices. The SIL provides us with a car and insists that we use her gas card to fill up the tank when needed as we mostly use it to run errands and cart the nieces from activity to activity. Likewise we do some shopping (eeking out super cheap deals on meat and produce at a wonderful local Asian store) yet she makes huge shopping hauls from Costco which provides a lot of food for us and everyone else (ie: here's 15 pounds of prime rib...do something with it!). Our "re-entry" into living on our own in a few months should be quite shocking.