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Archive for December, 2012

Tamalada, It's that time of year for tamales!

December 19th, 2012 at 10:01 am

We made and sold tamales at church twice this past week. The first time we planned a tamalada we made 20 dozen tamales but we kept getting orders so we made them again a few days later. In all we sold 43 dozen tamales to raise for missions. We charged $7 a dozen so we made 300.00 or so.

Have you ever been to a tamalada? It is alot of fun if you have several people helping and you get to chat and laugh for hours. Good for the soul!

I'm doing great with my grocery spending this month, so far I've spent 134.35 for the month and have 115.15 in the budget that I can spend. I've had several no spend days, but that's easy to do when you live out in the boonies!

I've spent way too much on Christmas gifts, I haven't gone over board but have spent more than I normally do. Oh well, it's a special time of the year!

My mother goes for her very first chemo treatment tomorrow, I hope she makes it through these treatments without it making her so sick that she regrets her choice. She had considered not taking it as she was afraid it would diminish the quality of her life. She didn't want to spend what time she has left being bed ridden and sick. She's lost so much weight now and is so sick to her stomach that surely it can only help. Anyway, please send lots of prayers and positive thoughts our way, we can use them!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

Money In Money Out

December 13th, 2012 at 04:52 pm

I've made 60.97 selling some clothing on eBay in the last day. I used to sell quite often but then a lady ended up with my expensive dresses and the money too and I took a couple of months off from doing it. I was just disgusted at that point, she got away with about $260. Hopefully that won't happen again!

Sent my brother $700 dollars, he called and asked for a loan, he doesn't ever ask me for anything so I decided to go ahead and do it.

We made tamales for our ladies church ministry group and we ended up selling and making 20 dozen at 7.00 a dozen. We still have orders to fill so we will be spending Sat. making more. It is an all day affair even if you have the meat prepared the night before.

Staying busy, going to my parents for the rest of the day, my mother has a doctors appointment and then going to clean her house but am going to come home tonight so I can list more clothing on Ebay.. Gas costs when I go there are about $30 round trip. Thats why I usually stay a few days and get my groceries there in a bigger town as there is nowhere around me with a decent grocery store.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

Careless mistakes due to stress

December 9th, 2012 at 10:16 am

I have found myself not paying attention to what I am doing with money lately and also not checking receipts and being over charged on many things.

My mother has terminal cancer and I spend my time between her house and my own. I stay at my parents house three to four days a week and then home the rest of the time. My parents live 70 miles from my home. It is very stressing worrying about a loved one with a terminal disease. I'm so thankful I don't have to work a full time job and try to manage that as well, I just don't know if I could do it.

Just in the last week I have been over charged $87.00
for prescriptions, I didn't even notice until I had left the pharmacy and had to return for a refund. I've been charged twice for the same thing and didn't notice until later. I can't account for my money, who knows what I've bought or where I've put it. I found a one hundred dollar bill at the bottom of my purse that I didn't even know was there, normally I'd know every penny that is in my purse.

I hope by using this blog I can keep my mind focused more on keeping up with this and not over spending in areas where I've really gotten careless.

Oh What A Beautiful Morning!

December 8th, 2012 at 12:38 pm

It's a beautiful 75 degrees here in South Texas this morning!

I usually get up about 3:00 am, a habit I got into and can't break after working years in retail and having to go to work early. I don't like to get up and be rushed so I would get up a couple of hours before I had to be at work. When my children were young that was the only time I had to figure out finanaces and have a bit of "me" time.

These days I usually get my first cup of coffee and sit on our front deck. Lately it's been a bit chilly but this morning is just perfect. You can hear the coyotes howling and other sounds of nature which I find very relaxing, I love it.

We have three dogs, two of which are outside dogs that stay in the back yard. One is a boxer named Lilly who is about 7 months old. Around 4:00 am she starts moving the patio furniture around on the back deck. Before that you will hear the two of them have a fuss every single morning. They sleep in the same dog house and Lilly sleeps on the inside. I suppose it must really aggravate Penny, our other dog, to have to get up and move to let her out of the house. My husband says he is going to buy another house so they will each have one. I really think they will still sleep together but he doesn't seem to think so.

In the summer it was so hot that he bought them an airconditioner for the back deck, we have some very spoiled puppies here! Their house is also on the back deck, they own the whole area.

As it gets light I usually see a couple of deer in the front yard and lately about three or four turkeys have been in the pasture just off the side of the front yard. Living here defenitely reduces stress and bloodpressure which saves on medical bills. I used to have major problems with both.

We will be planting our grass in the spring, we bought the seed and a tiller last spring when we had our house built here but we had so many other things to do and so many people working here that we just didn't get around to planting it. There is so much dust because it's very dry here, I'll be glad when we have grass, hopefully it will cut some of the dustiness. I've had some allergy problems and asthma problems because of it and the ragweed that is in this area. Also there is alot of oilfield activity out here and they have cleared alot of the land on the ranches in the area.

I hope everyone elses morning is just as beautiful!

Hello!

December 7th, 2012 at 03:07 pm

Hello! Love the site, have been lurking for years and enjoy reading the blogs. I look forward to finding ways to cut my spending and make money in order to give more to church and community.

I am interested in ways to reduce my grocery spending and spending in general. I look forward to being a part of this wonderful community!