Maranatha's Personal Finance Blog

but I've never had it happen or know anyone that it has happened to. I woke up yesterday morning and logged onto my local bank account. There was a deposit of 215,000.00 (and change) showing being made the evening before. There was no hold on the money all funds were available. I never made this deposit! I called the bank and the lady said she'd try to figure it out and call me back. About 45 minutes later the money was gone, no trace of a deposit and I never heard back from the bank. I bet someone was in BIG trouble....can you imagine if someone withdrew the money? There was no hold on it, the lady on the phone even commented on that....weird.

Another no spend day for January 2nd. eBay earnings are now at $465.00. I have more items to list but lack the motivation for some reason. When it's rainy and yucky I just don't feel like doing anything.

We ate lasagna out of the freezer and a fresh salad for dinner last night. I haven't cooked since Monday we have been eating leftovers. Hoping to keep the grocery bill down and use up some items I've had for awhile now.

I've weighed in at 136 pounds, hoping to lose at least 11 pounds. It should be an attainable goal as I have not been eating as I know I should. I have started eating sugar and bread again when I know I shouldn't. I need to get back on track. I try to walk 5-10 miles daily but it hasn't been happening the last few days because it has been raining. I hope this weather clears up soon. If I don't get enough exercise I really start feeling blah!

I started 2015 with a no spend day. I hope to have many, many more of these. For lunch and dinner we had leftovers of cheese enchiladas and Spanish rice which I had cooked the day before. There are still plenty of leftovers so I will will make frozen dinners out of the rest. I usually have about 20 frozen dinners in my freezer at any time. This works out great for lunches for my husband and is great for those times I don't feel like cooking.

I sold one purse on eBay for a total of $85. I have a brand new Samsung phone listed and am hoping to sell it but all of my best offers are coming from overseas which makes me nervous. I have it listed at over $400 and possibly losing that much money makes me nervous. It is a replacement phone for one that stopped charging and I had already started using a different phone before it arrived in the mail. Hopefully I will get an offer from someone in the US with good feedback and will be able to sell it with no problems.

Has your New Year gotten off to a good start?

As of today from Jan 01,2014 I have sold 254 items on eBay for a total of 12,538. Not bad, with my Dad being ill with cancer and dying this year I didn't really try all that hard so I know I can do much better. I'm going to try harder this coming year and hope to at least double that amount. I'm working on cleaning and taking pictures of 45 purses to list by tomorrow for the New Year 2015. Ebay is having free listing until Jan 4th, so will take advantage of that. For those of you who do list and sell on eBay, how did you do in 2014?

My father passed away at 1235 this morning. He suffered so terribly in the last week of his life, then felt as though he had lost his dignity as his two daughters had to clean him after toileting etc. He wasn't able to do anything himself in the end. It was so terribly sad and just horrible.
He did smile up to the end, he was always a happy person, with not a bad word to say about anyone.

I've prayed and prayed this week that the Lord would take him. Daddy kept telling me he just wanted to go home, someone take me home. I told him he was home but he said he wanted to go to my mothers home that he missed her terribly. They were married 50 years when she passed away last October. I believe they are now reunited.

After being a caregiver for my parents for the last two years without hardly ever going to my home much at all I feel completely lost and sad and just feel such a void. I miss them both dearly and am not taking any of this well. I know they are in a better place, and I wouldn't want them here suffering but I just feel such a void and so lost. Please continue prayers for me, I need them now more than ever.

I made delicious breakfast tacos this morning. It made enough for 4 tacos and cost under a dollar.


I used, three large eggs, a small piece of yellow pepper, a small piece of orange pepper, two very small green peppers from the garden, two green onions, a very small potato and garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and some pepper.

I filled two corn tortillas with the mixture and added a bit of salsa. It was delicious, cheap and satisfying.

I'm going to try hard to keep up with my grocery spending and cost of meals.

I have sold 27 items for $1291.61. Three weeks of the month gone as of today. I have not been listing much as I have been doing other things. My sister and youngest son are going to start helping me find items, list and ship. We will split the profits 3 ways. I think if we all three work at it we can make some serious money.

I'd like to use my part of the money to put back into the small community in which I live. The ladies group I belong to would like to do things for the children that live there. This is a very poor community. We went Christmas caroling year before last and I was shocked at the state of the homes in which we visited. Windows knocked out, holes in the walls and floors. It truly was heart breaking. When I no longer have to worry about my Father I plan to get very involved with the community and also visit the hospital and nursing home in another nearby small town.

Are there very many very poor people in the community that you live in? When I see how bad some people truly have it I realize how blessed I've always been. Even at my very poorest, which I thought was pretty poor, I was very blessed compared to the majority in the little town that I live closest to.

I made gluten-free muffins this morning for breakfast.
My daughter, her husband and my grand daughter came for the weekend to visit us. It was a nice visit, always nice to see the grand baby. She sure is growing.

My husband also came for lunch yesterday, I made roast, gluten free brown gravy, carrots, mashed potatoes, peas, yeast rolls, blackberry cobbler and a peach cobbler. It was an awesome feast! We ended up having 9 adults eating, I had to buy two beef roasts, the entire lunch cost about $50 dollars, there was a crumb of nothing left at the end of lunch. Very inexpensive considering what a nice restaurant would have charged for that many people.

My father continues to hang in there although the he is suffering much pain. He says that the morphine patches, liquid and hydrocodone barely touch his pain. He fell in the restroom again day before yesterday and my brother had to help him, he is very modest and it makes it hard for my sister and I at times. It now takes two of us to help him out of bed and his chair. I will miss him greatly but I pray that his suffering will end soon. Please continue prayers and good thoughts for my family.

My sales for eBay to date are 1237.62, that is not just my profit, I've lost track and will have to sit down and figure it out.

We have gotten several sweet watermelons, okra, tomatoes and squash, as well as tons of black eyed peas from our garden so far. I've frozen most but it feels like we have been eating like kings, I love fresh veggies and love this time of the year!

I made stuffed green peppers and a meatloaf last night. I used the hand held chopper to chop a yellow squash which I added in the meat mixture, it was delicious!

I've been wanting to invest in Vanguard for a couple of years now, actually longer but never did, for what reason I'm not really sure.

I finally opened up an account this morning and transferred 10,000.00. I'll set up an automatic transfer of 3,000.00 per month to go there. I've just been keeping my money in my savings account but it doesn't earn much interest in there.

I get a monthly allowance from my husband of 8,000.00 per month and he contributes to an IRA for me every year also. I've been hesitant to post exactly how much money I receive from him as I didn't want to give the impression that I'm a spoiled princess, I realize just how blessed I am as I've spent many years struggling as a poor (financially) single mother. I mainly use the money he gives me to help others in need. I help my family, as most readers know I lost my mother to cancer in October and my father is in the end stages of lung cancer. Had it not been for my husband I'd not have been able to stay with them and help them and to spend their last days with them.

I try not to get tempted and just spend willy nilly, I've been frugal for many years and those habits have stayed with me.

I sell on eBay to make extra money as my goals are to still be frugal so that I can help others and to be a good steward of the blessings that I believe God has given me.

I'd really like to make enough extra money to not have to touch the monthly allowance so I could invest all of it. I will keep working at it.

Do you invest monthly?

For the first six days of July my ebay sales are 768.00, that was selling 15 items, I'm just going to guesstimate that my profit is around 550.00 after shipping and fees, including ebay, paypal also.

How's everyone else doing?

I have sold three items in the first two days on eBay, all were purses. Are we reporting total sales or profits? My total sales as of today are 178.00, profits are 148.00. How many people are doing this challenge? How has everyone else started out the month?

My husband has decided that since I'm gone all of the time that he needed to hire a housekeeper,
I occasionally go home a few days if I can find someone I can trust to stay with my Dad, but it just doesn't happen much,
I do agree with him, someone needs to clean his restroom, he is a rancher and you cant believe how his shower looks after he's been out in the pasture all day! Plus he is just not one to clean.
He found a lady through my sister in law, she works for her and another couple who live on the same road as us. We live 30 miles from the nearest town so she has to drive a good way.
The job just requires dusting, changing beds, sweeping, mopping, and vacumming area rugs. I have a steam mop so mopping is very easy to do on the hardwood floors and theres a fluid in the same steam mop that shines them. It really isn't a lot of work, as far as the rest of the house goes we are very neat and we pick up after ourselves. Id like to have someone do baseboards and ceiling fans, the stuff I really dislike doing. We don't leave dirty clothes or dishes for her to clean.
After she worked the first day my husband asked the sis in law how much he should pay her for 5 hours and she said 150 dollars. That's 30 dollars an hour! She refuses to use the steam mop or the vaccum I think it might be because she thinks something might go wrong with them. After she cleaned last time I went home for a day and there was dirt all under the rugs and in the spare bathroom. I just would think that for that price she could sweep vaccum and mop!
My sister said she would do it for that price and I think I'll take her up on the offer because she does know how to clean.
Does anyone here use a housekeeper? What are the rates in your area?

We have been getting produce from our garden for a month and a half now. We have lots of green beans, okra, black eyed peas, tomatoes, onions and bell peppers.
Our watermelon is starting to produce, they just need to get bigger, I can't wait, I love watermelon! I love making a full meal of veggies that we grow ourselves, nothing like cornbread, black eye peas and onion. The taste of home grown is so much better than store bought. I made some omelettes with the bell pepper and onion and they were delicious.

I've made 667.00 dollars this month so far on eBay which isn't bad considering everything I've sold has been in the last week. I've done very well this year. It gives me something to keep busy with while I'm staying with my Dad during his illness.

My father continues to go downhill little by little and he is now taking liquid morphine for the pain. I wish there was something I could say or do for him. I know it must be scary knowing you will die any day. I felt the same with my mother, that was the thing that got to me most. There is just nothing to say that makes anything any better. It just still doesn't seem real that both my parents had cancer at the same time and we will lose have lost them both in such a short time.

My grand daughter is also in the hospital for salmonella poisoning. It is very dangerous in infants and she will have to stay in the hospital for two weeks on an I.V. If you believe in prayer please say a few for my family!

So much has happened since I last posted in December. The kids and I went on our NYC vacation and we all had an awesome time. We made the most of every minute of it and really hated for it to be over. It was a once in a lifetime event. We were so blessed to be able to go and to stay a week.

In February my father and sister had an auto accident on the way out of town to a dentist appointment. They hit a spot of black ice and slid head on into an oncoming truck. My sister broke a rib and had lots of bruising but was okay and up and walking. My father was knocked unconscious and had a broken sternum, two broken vertebrae and a broken leg. He had just finished his chemo treatments for cancer and this ended up really setting him back. While in hospital he developed two blood clots in his lungs and one in his leg. He stayed in the hospital for a month.

After coming home and getting another pet scan he found out that the cancer has already come back in the same areas plus several new ones. The doctor said according to her experience she thought he had maybe another two months. It has been almost that.
All four of us children are here staying with him.

He received 12 thousand dollars for his truck from the insurance company which is what he bought it for about 7 years ago. We were very surprised. However his PiP only paid 5300 dollars toward his medical expenses. The hospital bills were around 61,000.00 . Crazy! Thankfully he has V.A. benefits and medicare as his secondary ins. He shouldn't end up paying too much out of pocket.

I became a grandmother on the 4th of April, my daughter ended up having a C-section as her blood pressure was out of control and the amniotic fluid was not at the level that the doctor thought it should be. I have a new grand daughter named Jossalyn who was born with a full head of black hair. Of course I think she is beautiful.

Life is good, staying on budget and counting my very many blessings.

It's been a while since I posted but things are still the same with sister in law. She still has my mothers car and now claims that it is making a terrible noise and she doesn't know what is wrong with it. I knew that would happen!! She can't get enough money to have her own vehicle repaired, I'm sure she wouldn't be able to fix my mother's! Nothing has changed with her and I don't expect that it ever will. I try to just mind my own business and keep my mouth shut so I don't upset my father.

My two youngest kids, niece and I are going to NYC on the 12th of December and staying for a week. We are all so excited we can hardly contain ourselves! I booked a hotel only half a block from Times Square and the kids have pretty much figured out what we will be doing. We are going to do as much free stuff as we can and maybe see The Nutcracker and another show. The airline tickets were not expensive but the hotels are outrageous! I chose one that was just about the least expensive I could find. The ratings are not 4 or 5 star but I figure all we need is a place to sleep as we will be busy sight seeing etc during the day. The location of the hotel is in a great place and right near most things that we want to do. For food etc, we intend to use Groupon deals and also eat at street vendors and some of the least expensive places out of the tourist district to try and keep costs down. This trip was my kids Christmas present and my nieces graduation present. I've always wanted to see the lights/Christmas activity in New York and I can't wait!

I've got all my Christmas gifts purchased except for my dads. I'm having trouble deciding what I should get him. He really doesn't want anything he says and it's hard trying to figure it out. I suppose I will probably end up giving him candy or some sort of food.

Thanksgiving was hard without my mother. It just didn't feel like Thanksgiving day at all with her missing. Christmas just won't be the same either. I'm sure it will get easier as time goes on but her death so close to the holidays has really been very depressing and so hard to deal with when this should be such a festive time.

I hope all is going great for everyone and your holidays are great filled with love and family!

My beloved mother passed on last Friday Oct. 25th. She finally gave in to the cancer after a long hard battle. She nearly made it to her 68th birthday, she missed it by 2 weeks.

It's amazing how people/family act when there is a death. I have a sister in law who takes what she wants from my parents house without permission from anyone. My mother had lent her van to her one day and she never bothered to bring it back. My poor Dad doesn't like to confront anyone so he doesn't say anything. Her own car is broken down and has been for four or five months, she claims she cannot afford to repair it. What worries me is that if the van breaks down she won't be able to afford to repair it either! It will be my father's responsibility.

She tried to go through my parents financial business and I wouldn't let her, I am my Dad's power of attorney for medical and financial decisions etc and I just don't think she needs to know any of that. I don't want her asking for money from my Dad as he has cancer also and pays 20% of his hospital, doctor and chemotherapy bills. He will need what very little money he has for him to live. There's a possibility that he might live for a year or two, of course it could only be 6 months also but no one knows. He has around 35 thousand dollars and that isn't much!

I'm still staying at my parents home with my Dad and will until I know he's able to care for himself or until he passes on also. It's hard to see the decline in health and very hard to see someone you love deteriorate in front of your eyes. The silver lining in all of this is spending time and getting to know my parents and become closer to them in the time they have left.

I've been doing well keeping track of my finances and have been writing all transactions in a small notebook for cash spent and updating my checking register instead of just checking online as it forces me to write down every transaction on that account.

There's a little over 2 weeks left in the month and so far so good as far as spending goes. I've budgeted $800.00 per month for the few bills that I pay that are automatically billed to my Discover card every month, prescription drugs, food, fuel and any other misc. So far I've spent $481.00 of that money but that is already having paid for prescriptions and the bills for the month. It should be easy to get through the rest of the month as I will just have to buy food and fuel. Staying with my parents I don't spend much money on anything else.


I had routine lab tests done a couple of weeks ago and my physician called to tell me that I am severely anemic. I was really surprised as I'm not overweight but I'm not extremely thin either. I had been having a lot of strange things happening though like seeing large white spots, my legs feeling very weak and feeling like they may give out, so tired I could barely make myself move and a few heart palpitations. I honestly thought it was anxiety due to the situation with my parents and my doc had just prescribed meds for that and depression. I have read some on anemia now and have found that it's really not all that uncommon to be iron and b12 deficient. One thing is for sure, I've got to start taking better care of myself or I might not be able to take care of my parents!

I have been staying at my parents home as we found out in Oct last year that she has terminal cancer. She gets weaker by the day and is in the very end stage. I took my father to the doctor last week and he has also been diagnosed with terminal cancer. He was admitted to the hospital today for the second time to drain fluid from one of his lungs. They say he has a malignant plueral effusion.

I will keep doing what I have been doing for them. If you believe in prayers please send lots my way, my family and I will need them as it looks like we might lose both our parents around the same time.

Thanks for listening, I just needed to get this off my chest.

I had to go out of town again to see the dentist and dermatologist. I had an appointment Thursday morning and Friday morning. I decided to look for a hotel again and found one that was willing to give me several discounts so booked for two days at $139 dollars per day. The only other alternative was paying $249 per day at another place. The ones that seemed more reasonable in price with vacancies had terrible reviews and since I travel alone I'd rather stay somewhere that I feel safe and somewhere that is clean and as sanitary as possible. I don't have to be back for another month but will book the same hotel next time.

There was sales everywhere this week for back to school. I found 4 dresses that were deeply discounted and a couple of blouses and pants that also were discounted. That will probably be the only new clothing I buy for the rest of the year. Most of my clothing items I buy from the thrift shops or flea markets.

I have paid for three meals out but it has only cost $12 dollars which isn't bad.

As I mentioned in my previous post my daughter is newly married.

Her husband is a SSGT in the air force. They applied for an apartment which required a credit and back ground check. About a week later the complex called and told them they were denied because she had a conviction for a theft by check in another Texas town to which she has never been. She disputed it and a week later the credit agency which is Transunion told her...Sorry for the inconvenience that wasn't you, this person had the same name but different date of birth and social security number. In the mean time they were running out of time to find a place to live so ended up getting base housing. The house they got is really nice and now they are glad they were denied for the apartment as the house has three bedrooms and with the baby coming they need the extra room.

They both had room mates before so neither had items to start a new household. I went with her and bought things for the kitchen and bathrooms and spent 800 dollars. Holy smokes! I didn't realize the cost of things these days! We didn't buy the most expensive of anything either. She got pots and pans, silverware, bathroom rugs, shower curtains, just the basics really.

They bought their washer and dryer also and their dining room furniture, they were surprised how quickly it all adds up. The good thing is they have paid cash for everything that was purchased so they won't start their new lives in debt.

Sometimes I wonder how people who have very little money make it these days, it seems near impossible.

I made a long post a couple of days ago and didn't save it and when I hit save and publish it disappeared. How aggravating!

It has been hard to be frugal lately as I've had a lot of expenses. I still stay with my mother since she has terminal cancer so I still go back and forth from my home to her home which is about 70 miles from one another. I've started staying with her 5 or 6 days a week instead of driving back and forth. I was driving our full sized truck and the fuel costs were astronomical. My husband bought me a new Volkswagen Passat and it gets around 45 miles per gallon so that is much better and much less expensive. It's diesel so it costs more per gallon but in the long run I save much more than driving the truck. He paid cash so no payments thank goodness.

I cook what my mother asks for so I don't really watch my grocery spending like I should. I want to be able to make her everything she asks for or order out for what she wants. It's gotten to where now she really doesn't ask for much, she's losing her appetite. It's been 10 months since she found out she had terminal cancer and they gave her about three months then to live. She did really well up until last month but now seems to be going down hill fast.
I'm thankful for the time we've been able to share and that we have gotten closer over the last ten months.

My daughter got married on August 7th and I paid for her entire wedding. All in all I spent about 5 thousand dollars for 50 people to attend. That included the church and reception hall fees, gifts to the organist and pastor and my sister in law for doing all decorating, flowers including and boutonnieres, corsages, food etc. That also included jewelry for the bride, her dress, veil, shoes and bridesmaid dresses. It was a beautiful wedding in a church that's over 120 years old. There were lots of compliments from people that attended. I think it was just as beautiful as any wedding that costs 10 or 20 thousand dollars.

Three days after getting married my daughter found out she is expecting. I've already been planning baby item purchases! I can't wait, I'll be a first time grandma!

I've spent tons of money also at the dentist and dermatologist, I still have lots of expenses to go, so far I've spent around 10 thousand dollars. Dental implants aren't cheap! The price is ridiculous! Plus I travel about four hours to get there. Because of the oilfield in a lot of towns in Texas to get a hotel in the town that I go to would cost 250 dollars a night. Price gouging! The people who make very little money cannot even find housing in some of these places in West and South Texas.

I'm hoping things settle down pretty soon financially.
Thank goodness I have such a loving, understanding husband!

How has everyone here been doing?

We ordered a trash compactor online after searching for quite sometime to find what we though was the right one for us. It apparently has the ability to use a ton of force to mash the trash flat etc etc but when we use it not much happens.

We have followed instructions and called the repair man that the company we bought it from recommends, he says there is nothing he can do this is a common problem in this particular model. Soooooo.....we call the company once again and tell them that we either want a product that works {we could stomp the trash and compact it better than this machine does} or we want our money back. They say they can do nothing because we used the machine......oh really? Well how would you know it didnt work if you didn't use it?

Finally after several hours they told us to send it back to them and they will exchange it. The shipping one way is over $300 dollars and they want us to pay for it. Why do we have to pay to send a defective product back? What a mess! If we do all this that compacter will end up costing almost 1500 dollars!

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!

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!

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.

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! 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!