The Frugal Place

Have You Heard of Sculptor 3?

2007-12-13T22:08:00.001-08:00

Positive affirmation software allows you to reach heights you only dreamed of in the past. I have been working with Sculptor 3 for a while now and LOVE it. For more info Click Here!

Making Money The Online EASY Way

2007-12-13T18:00:00.000-08:00

I have found two great ways to earn extra income lately. They are

Paid Surveys, which you can check out here:
Click Here!

And SWATCash which you can check out here:
Click Here!

SWATCash

2007-11-15T07:24:00.001-08:00

Okay everyone - I found a new AWESOME GPT site - SWATCash!

http://www.swatcash.com/13581

--Donna

Another Great GPT Site

2007-09-02T10:55:00.000-07:00

I cashed out $450 last month from GPT sites!

Proof:

Aug. 30, 2007 Payment From Freebie Fortress Completed Details $100.00 USD $0.00 USD $100.00 USD
Aug. 30, 2007 Payment From DealBarbiePays Completed Details $43.21 USD -$1.55 USD $41.66 USD
Aug. 23, 2007 Payment From Roberta Kachel Completed Details $79.50 USD -$2.61 USD $76.89 USD
Aug. 22, 2007 Payment From loretta scali Completed Details $71.96 USD -$2.39 USD $69.57 USD

In addition I have a $150 check coming from Freebie Fortress.

Check out this newer site and help her get members!!!!

http://DIY.fmsfreebies.com/?referral=396

I Earned $450 Last Month with GPT!

2007-08-01T22:22:00.001-07:00

In the last month I managed to earn over $450 with GPT (get-paid-to) websites. By far my favorite is Freebie Fortress. On this site alone I earned $250!

Here is a link if you want to check it out. I would love for you to sign-up and I will happily help you with any questions you might have!

http://www.freebiefortress.com?referral=50

Freebie Fortress Review and A Life Update

2007-07-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

First a short life update... Willie and I purchased the "Arsenic Master" this week. This was the first alternative we have found, that is reasonably priced, to deal with the arsenic in our well water. While it is a bit of a cost at about $1600, it will FINALLY allow us to stop hauling all of our water, and use our well water. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Willie said the other day that it has been almost 4 years that we have been dealing with hauling water. That's a lot of wasted time and gas...

To help off-set some of my water and credit card type stuff I started doing GPT (get-paid-to) sites while I watch TV and before I go to bed. I try to keep on task and writing during the day, but when I am wanting some fun and relaxation, I do the GPT stuff. The idea is that I am dedicating all of the money I make to debt and/or our water project(s). My freelance writing needs to support us, with Willie's income of course, and this GPT cash is going only to debt and not into our general fund.

As I started playing around with the GPT sites I discovered one that I really love. It is Freebie Fortress. I love that I found it when it was practically brand new, I think less than a week old, actually.

I e-mailed the site owner and asked a question and immediately got a response. (I was having issues with the site being slow in IE7 and wanted to let her know because her site was new and I didn't know if she knew there was an issue or not. Ends up that it works in IE7 but works a LOT better in Firefox.) In less than 1 week I have earned over almost $40 from this site. It is by FAR the easiest because offers clear and there doesn't seem to be the long waits I sometimes see on other sites. I also am finding that all of my offers clear. Which is a nice change!

The other thing that is GREAT is that each offer, even the easy zip/e-mail submits, are worth 1 point. 1 point translates to $1! So while other GPT sites are paying $0.30-$075, and only some of them clear, Freebie Fortress has offers of all $1+ and they seem to ALL clear! How totally cool!

Freebie Fortress really is a great site and and I urge all of you to check it out. Sign up! And, ask any questions you might have. I am happy to answer them. To get to the site simply click here!

And no, this is NOT a paid blog posting... I just love the site and want others to enjoy it as well. :)

GPT Basics - FREE Money, Now THAT is FRUGAL!

2007-07-08T19:23:00.001-07:00

I have been getting a lot of questions recently on how I am making some extra money to pay off bills. Let me try and explain...

A little while back I discovered GPT (get paid to) sites. On a GPT site you enter your name, address, an e-mail address, etc... and get paid for it! Generally the pay is between $0.35 and $2.00 EACH.

What I did was to get a FREE phone number (voicemail box) from freephone.com. This allows me to use a phone number, and get the messages in my e-mail, but not to have to give out my unlisted home number!

Also, I go to www.google.com and signed up for a few e-mail accounts with easy to type/remember names. I alternate these for offers. Also with google you can use iamsmart, i.amsmart, i.am.smart, etc... and they see it as all one address.

Here are a few of my referal links and thoughts on each site: (Also they each have a forum to read so you can understand how to do things better!)

My favorite by far right now is Freebie Fortress. I have $27 there from about an hour. There are TWO $10 offers for filling out a request for college info! You can do them both (once) and get an easy $20! This site is brand new and looks very promising. I am glad to help her advertise!

http://www.freebiefortress.com?referral=50

Second favorite is Deal Barbie Pays. This was the second site I started playing around with and I LOVE it. Things clear very well! Right now I have money coming from last month and another $20 or so in my account for this month.

Next favorite is Fairy Tale Treasures. This site was my first adventure into GPT and I have $80 coming in about two weeks from a week's play last month! Great pay for something I do while watching TV!

My Cash Safari is another new-to-me site that I think is adorable!

Another brand new site is My Cash Honey

That should be a short list to get you started! Please e-mail me at thefrugalplace@yahoo.com with any questions you might have, or post a comment on my blog!

I will give more info on GPT sites over the next few weeks and will post copies of my payments for proof.

The Cost of Milk!

2007-07-01T18:32:00.000-07:00

Geez, I went to the grocery store today and milk, at the cheapest local store with the 2 gallon deals, was $6.29! OMG! Looks like cheese and other dairy will soon follow....

Today was a stock-up day. First Jason and I hit the Rays for some London Broil steaks that were on sale for $2.99 a pound. They look GREAT.

Then it was off to the WalHell to stock up on the usual canned stuff and pasta. I haven't stocked up on pasta in a while and I can honestly say we have some now! :) Also have a lot of Bush's Baked Beans in the huge can for $1.

I got 3 bottles of KC Materpiece BBQ sauce for $0.50 each because of coupons. And, I scored some TP for a great price with a coupon as well.

Then Jason and I went to the grocery store where we got a ton of produce and the golden milk. :)

$250 later we came home and unloaded the car. That's gotta be the worst part!

An update on other things... I have still been playing with the GPT sites. Yesterday was the end of the month cash out and in a week I earned $21 on one site and $85! on the other! HOW COOL!!! Here are the links if anyone else wants to try it out! (IF any of you belong to others and want a referal - send me your link and I will sign up and post it here on my blog!)

http://cashmvp.com/members/register.php?ref=dhentsch

Tips and Hints For GPT Sites

2007-06-25T22:32:00.000-07:00

I have written a couple times about finding GPT (get paid to..) sites and making money with them. I belong to two of them and have made over $75 in the last week! It is SO easy and cool to make free cash...

One of the best hints I read was to create free e-mail accounts with Google and use those for the surveys. I created donnahentsch@gmail.com. For one survey I use that as my address. For surveys after the first one I start putting periods into my name. For instance d.onnahentsch@gmail.com, do.nnamaciolek@gmail.com. Once I have exhausted the e-mail account I create a new one. Right now I do one e-mail account every day or two and use it as much as possible.

The other good hint I read was to go to personalphone.com and get a LOCAL phone number with voicemail for FREE! I use that for my phone number on all surveys. Works great!

If you want to try the GPT sites try these two: (any questions? post a comment or e-mail me!)

I Finally Found a GREAT Resource

2007-06-24T00:22:00.000-07:00

I found it. I can't believe it, but I finally found something I had been looking for online. This is the BEST eBook on working from home and avoidng scams. I cannot recommend it more!

The eBook is "Legit Online Jobs." If you want to check it out for yourself
Click Here!

Another great resource worth mentioning to those of you who want to work from home is the eBook "Get Paid to Write on the Internet." Because all of my clients are online this eBook was really helpful for me. It can be found if you Click Here!

Well, I still have articles to write for my clients, so I better get to it! I spent too much time on the dang Fairy Tales site today. But, it's a promotional weekend and I am making FREE cash by the hour. Can't beat FREE for frugal!

Happy Weekend Everyone!

7 Articles Down, 23 More to Go!

2007-06-23T15:11:00.000-07:00

Well, since I posted yesterday I have managed to complete 7 of the 30 articles I have to write this week. :) I try to do the interesting ones and the boring ones mixed together so I don't end up with an entire day of boring writing to do.

As a bonus to myself, each time I finish an article I get to spend some time doing offers on Fairy Tale Treasures. I am almost able to pay the cell phone bill now with my first week's earnings! Come - join us!!!

From Famine to Feast In a Day...

2007-06-22T10:49:00.001-07:00

Well, when I woke up yesterday I only had one project on my plate. Today I now have 6. Two of which are HUGE. Looks like I will be very busy for the next week or two. As Martha would say "it's a good thing!"

A Day In The Freelancer Life

2007-06-21T10:17:00.000-07:00

As you may know, I left my j-o-b in April and have been making a go at being a freelance writer, proofreader, and virtual assistant.

My day starts out, when I wake up, by checking all my e-mail accounts, looking for new projects on RAC, W4H, Deb Ng's Freelance Writer Blog, and RatRaceRebellion, updating the spreadsheet I keep with all my projects on it, and reading a couple blogs and websites.

After doing all that I mosey on over to the freebie sites for WalMart, and a couple others I visit each day. If there is anything interesting I order it. Nothing like the price of FREE!

Then I go over to Fairy Tale Treasures an fill out some offers. It's a GREAT way to make some extra cash for free. I use my "spam" e-mail address and a local phone number I got from www.privatephone.com so that I don't get spammed to death and harassed by phone. Works GREAT and it's earning me FREE MONEY. My hope is to cash out $100 by the end of the month. And, I am well on my way. Check them out here -

From there my work day begins. If I have writing projects then I work on those, if all else fails then I work on proofing. Today I had planned on proofing as I only have one writing project pending. Then I read my e-mail this morning and found $800 worth of new projects I have to do! What a difference a day makes!

Willie, the kids, and I spent yesterday at a local lake. This summer Wed has turned into "lake" day. It's so nice to get out and enjoy the area and the added frugal bonus is the free alpine lake trout for dinner - mmmmmmmmmm....

What are you up to? Post me a comment!

Procrastination...

2007-06-19T09:33:00.001-07:00

Now that I am working from home, I am struggling with the one thing I believe most people do - procrastination...

It can be so much more fun to play with the cats, watch TV, read, etc... than to do the work I know needs to be done. This makes me "on deadline" whenever I have a project due - like today for example.

I guess on a positive note, I seem to write well when I have to get something done.

Today I have to write articles on real estate in North Carolina. Living in CA it is a topic I know zilch about... But I am about to learn! :)

An Easy Way to Make Money - FREE!

2007-06-17T12:08:00.000-07:00

As our income as decreased I started looking around for easy ways to make some extra cash online. This site ROCKS! Just by completing the "Generous Genie" offers I have made about $50 so far!!! Check it out!

Here is another great site, with higher payouts! If you know of any other sites please post me a message in the comments.

Life's Choices...

2007-03-31T00:14:00.000-07:00

It seems to me that everything in life ends up boiling down to choices. While the "yes" and "no" choices seem to be okay, it's the "what if" ones that seriously suck for my brain.

This last few weeks have had a lot of the "what if" choices and the resultant stress which invariably comes with them. In my self-absorbed mind my "what if's" for me (at least the ones I will admit to) tend to be about the usual boring work\home delimas.

The worst of the "what if's" is the question which lingers in my brain as I write this now at midnight on Friday night- What if he had called someone instead of jumping off the bridge? What if I had seen him that day? What would I have said? What if I had driven the Blazer that day and he asked me again if he could drive it...? What if the world was more tolerant of differences and people and their choices and lives? And the questions go on - never to be answered...........

While my usual posts here end up being about my life and job stuggles, this post comes from a very different part of my brain. The part I don't let out in "public" very often. The part which prefers to write and do so under some other name where it feels free to write some blatant honest truth without any recourse or acknowledgment.

People are all individual and all require different things to get them through their lives. Maybe you create something to find that happy place in your life. Maybe you go out in nature and watch the birds. Maybe you choose to simply watch the sunset over a mountain. Maybe you choose a partnership with another person. Maybe you choose to live alone in the woods. Maybe you have a dog, a cat, or even goats. :)

Whatever your choices and requirements are in life, understand that other people have theirs as well. What works for you might not work for them, but we should at least try to understand what makes other people happy. With this understanding comes empathy and tolerance. That empathy and tolerance breeds good will towards the other people we share our planet with.

By having tolerance in your life, it is entirely possible for you to show someone the reason NOT to jump off the bridge. You may not realize they look at that bridge differently than you do, but you just might change their view without ever knowing it. It's in what you say and it's in what you don't.

Think for a moment today about all the people and events in your life which shaped who you are, and what you believe, and the choices you have made in your life. Do these people know they influnced you? Do they know you considered their opinions and acceptance or non-acceptance of their lives? The answer seems to be that most don't know. And that's fine. However, understand that you have the same types of impacts on other people's lives. EVERY SINGLE DAY!

Monte, if you read my blog I have one thing to say to you - NEVER jump. There are people on this planet who love you and want to know you are alive and well somewhere... While you may not always be able to bring yourself to that place, and that "non-public" part of your brain might not get there - even with pharmacutical help - the happy place exists somewhere here on the giant blue ball - that happiness is not out in the unknown darkness. It doesn't lay at the bottom of the river. Just maybe it can be found in the people around you. Or in the birds you watch. Maybe it's in the sunset over the ocean or the mountains of Washington. Or, just maybe, it's in the refelections your life makes in other people's lives.

Where Have I Been?

2007-02-07T10:23:00.000-08:00

Sorry for abandoning my blog for these past couple weeks. I have been doing a lot of writing, proofing, and went on vacation to Vegas.

Vegas was AWESOME! Then again, how can it not be? :)

Right now I am doing a lot of proofing and thinking about what I really want to write about and for whom.

Frugal Articles For HUB Pages

2007-01-17T15:23:00.000-08:00

I landed a new writing assignment which matches wonderfully with the topic of this blog! I am going to have a "HUB" on hubpages.com about frugal living!!!

I also managed to get two more articles to write today so I better get to it.

What are you up to? Post me a comment!

Freelance Writing and My Day Job

2007-01-16T13:14:00.000-08:00

The time has come for me to settle down and decide what to do about my freelance career. In a quest to do this as painfree as possible I have joined the Fast Track Community of Dreamers and Doers. The goal of Fast Track is to have 200 people such as myself who want to bag the day job and get a real life join together with some amazing professonals to coach us along the way. Fast Track is an offshoot of Changing Course. www.changingcourse.com

Today I did something I am happy about. I turned down a blogger position with families.com because it wasn't going to pay me very well and I want to earn more money with my writing than what they offered.

I am still working on RAC projects and building up clients in other ways and will keep to the projects which pay better. One decision down! :)

Decision Time For My Freelance Writing Career

2007-01-13T10:36:00.000-08:00

Freelance Writing Decision Time

I find myself in an interesting position right now. I have been offered a paid blogging position. Pay isn't great at about $300 per month, but it's guaranteed income. Reading about other's experience with the site tells me that about half think the cash is okay for the work, and the other half don't.

I was also offered a staff writing position on another website. Pay is decent, better than the paid blogging position. I will be doing this gig.

In addition to the two above I was offered another staff writing position but am not sure yet what the pay will be. I would have a byline though on all of my articles and that is a huge plus.

In addition I am still proofreading and doing other projects from a bidding site...

Decision time!

It's FRIDAY! YAY!!!

2007-01-12T10:01:00.000-08:00

I just had to show my appreciation that today is the Friday of a three day weekend. How cool!

Party Gammon Is a Fun Website

2007-01-12T09:51:00.000-08:00

Party Gammon

Party Gammon is a website where you can play tournament games or download games to play on your own computer. They offer poker, backgammon, etc... Their backgammon is good and you can even download it free. Now, that's frugal!

Party Gammon is a gaming site which uses 128-bit encryption and are regualted by the county of Gibralter for safe and reliable gaming. Playing in their backgammon torunaments you can be sure your gaming is trustworthy and secure.

Party Gammon Check them out.

Fast Track Your Dreams

2007-01-11T13:14:00.000-08:00

I started on my serious road today to quit my day job and write full-time. I joined a new program by changingcourse.com called "Fast Track Your Dreams." If you are interested in the program here is a link:

http://www.changingcourse.com/

On the writing front I am happy to report I have a small task left on my wiki project and will also be done with my second eBook by tonight. YAY!!!

Freelance Writing and Frugal Living

2007-01-10T15:44:00.000-08:00

In my continuing quest to bag my day job, and write full-time, I have managed to land a paid blogging gig. I will have a freebies blog on families.com. The pay isn't stellar, however, it will be exposure and guaranteed cash each month.

Today I finished up a project writing website reviews for a new wiki. The reviews were much more time consuming than I thought they would be, but kinda fun. Wish I had more time to spend on the project.

I have my 2nd ebook about 7/8ths done. I need to sit down and write two chapters and then it will be totally finished. Good thing, it is due by 2pm on Friday afternoon. :)

I am finding that frugal living and freelance writing really do go hand-in-hand. Each freelance project I pick up I think of in terms of which bill it will pay or how many of them I will need to match a month's income. Lower the cost of living, lower the required income.

Added Another Income Stream Today!

2007-01-08T21:43:00.001-08:00

I was offered a blog on a website today. It's paid! YAY!!! I'll post a link when the time comes and it actually has some content on it. :)

Added Another Income Stream Today!

2007-01-08T21:43:00.000-08:00

I was offered a blog on a website today. It's paid! YAY!!! I'll post a link when the time comes and it actually has some content on it. :)

An Update On My Freelance Writing and Frugal Living

2007-01-06T13:11:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!

First, I hope you all like the new Blogger template? My old one had something weird about it so I changed to this more basic one. I think I prefer this one so I will work on getting my linking back up on it soon.

I am VERY busy right now with my freelance writing. I finished up my articles so that's a $600 project in the bank. I have my wiki project about half done. It is due on Wednesday so I plan on finishing it up this weekend or Monday at the latest. My new eBook on "blogging for cash" that I am ghostwriting is about half done or so. The book is due Friday so I will be spending most of my waking hours this week getting it done and sent off. I will also be working on incorporating some of the info I have learned into my blog and another blog I hope to launch at somep point when I have time.

NewStand has been having technical difficulties so I have not gotten much proofing work done. Good thing, actually, because I need to concentrate my ADD brain on writing this week. :)

So far this week my income total for freelance is $700. :)

Willie and the kids return tomorrow. They have been gone for about a week and a half. It will be nice having them home. And, as an added bonus Nugget the Wonder Cat will have someone else to hassle for a while. Dang, that cat is diving my batty.

How is your life going? Post me a comment or two. Anything you want to know about????

Why Can't I Sleep?

2007-01-05T08:13:00.000-08:00

As many other people do, I seem to suffer from a horrible case of insomnia. It tends to come every month or two and seems like it lasts for a week or longer. It is SO frustrating. I feel like crap all day long and yet when I get into bed at night I am wide awake. I don't do caffiene late in the day, I don't do anything overly brain stimulating before bed, and yet I lay awake and stare at the ceiling.

I finally gave up last night and crashed about 9. At about 10:30 I think I actually managed to fall asleep. More sleep than I have gotten all week, but I am still really tired today.

On the writing front I have the eBook due next Friday. It is supposed to be about 40 pages of text and I have about 10 done. Guess what I am doing all weekend? :)

Can I Freelance Write Full-Time, With Frugal Living?

2007-01-03T08:10:00.000-08:00

Can I Freelance Write Full-Time, With Frugal Living?

The race is on. I have given myself one year to acquire enough writing and proofing work to leave the day job behind. To do this we have some bills to pay and some money to save. Can I do it?

So far this month, and it's only the 3rd I have a check for $60 from RAC and $10 from a blog ad. I think I will keep track here and post my "extra" income and where it goes. (However, this month some of that will be going on vacation to Las Vegas with me....) :)

Oogles N Googles Parties and Busniess Opportuntiy

2007-01-03T08:01:00.000-08:00

Oogles N Googles

In surfing around the web I found a great new company catering to children's birthday parties. They are Oogles N Googles!

Oogles N Googles does all incusive educational theme parties for children aged 3 to 11. The party is led by an educational insructor and the party is meant to be both a learning event and Oogles N Googles of fun at the same time.

Oogles N Googles provides a themed cake, invitations, digital photos, costumes, goodie bags and also does the set-up and clean-up. They do everything so you can take the time to enjoy your child's birthday party.

Oogles N Googles looks like a lot of fun for kids and parents!

Frugal Grocery Shopping Solution!

2006-12-31T13:57:00.000-08:00

Frugal Grocery Shopping Solution!

I recently discovered the coolest grocery store software ever. I started using this to make my grocery shopping easier and just love it. Check it out for yourself and let me know how you like it. Click Here!

Freelance Writing is Fun But Tiring

2006-12-29T18:41:00.000-08:00

I don't think I have ever typed so much in my life. Seriously, I have been writing, writing and more writing for what seems like days. :) I can't complain though, because it is so much fun!

Today I managed to get 10 of my remaining 30 content articles done. Total that's about 6,000 words of BS, oh, I mean content. 20 more to go and I will be DONE with that project. Can't wait.

On to the eBook and Wiki project.......

How Did This Happen?

2006-12-27T23:19:00.000-08:00

I am still wondering how I managed to get myself into this mess.

It started with a desire to write. Long, long ago I wanted to be a writer, but never managed to write much. Then came Associated Content. Their website (Link on the sidebar of this blog...) pays you to write about just about anything non-fiction. I thought that sounded too good to be true and one day while I was bored I whipped up a few articles. They paid me for them! Much to my surprise...

So, I started posting on the WAHM message board about how cool writing was and how I wanted to do more of it and get into freelance writing. A kind soul, pointed me to a site where I could get freelance jobs, and it has totally taken off from there.

So, my mess you ask? I have a week off from my "day job" and find myself with 30 more content articles to write, a 20,000 word eBook and now 15 more content articles for a new wiki site. All three of these contracts have long-term, (full-time job) type potential and I want to make them all love my work. However, there are only so many hours in the day.

I came down with this miserable cold on Christmas day and the cold medicine makes me less than creative. And, the watering eyes don't help much either... :)

Well, I should get back to writing. I think I need to make some goals and a calendar and then make sure I stick like glue to it to make sure I get everything done on time. It's doable. But I need to concentrate my ADD brain and write, write and more write!

The Berkley Center for Infertility

2006-12-27T23:11:00.000-08:00

Berkley Center

Many women suffer from infertility and look online for solutions. One of their first stops online should be to the Berkley Center blog site. This website/blog is a WONDERFUL resource for women who are trying to conceive.

The site is run by Mike Berkley, Licensed Acupuncturist; Doctor of Acupuncture. He has a great resource list and talks about some good points on his site. Other providers from the Berkley Center also post messages on the blog.

If you are looking for solutions to infertility, I highly suggest you check out the Berkley Center website.

(This post is sponsored by Blogsvertise...)

Sick Again For Christmas...

2006-12-26T09:24:00.000-08:00

I don't know what it is about Christmas, but I ALWAYS manage to be sick. I was fine on Christmas Eve and then BANG - Sick as a dog on Christmas Day. I think I probably caught something shopping on Friday afternoon at the grocery store. It was totally mobbed and I stood in line for about a half hour with all the other shoppers coughing and complaining about the wait.

Regardless of my illness I gotta write, write and more write this week! I'm off from work and have not one, not two but THREE writing projects due... Thankfully I have four short articles to finish one, 34 longer ones for the other and then my new eBook project that is not due for two and a half weeks. :)

The company I proofread for has been working on their website so that's actually a good thing because I haven't been tempted to proof while procrastinating about writing. :)

I hope everyone had am amazing holiday season and was safe and healthy. Off to get some writing done before my cold medicine stops working.

Happy Holidays - It's Almost "Vacation" time!

2006-12-21T10:10:00.000-08:00

First off I wanted to tell all of you who read my blog HAPPY HOLIDAYS! I really do appreciate you reading my ramblings. :)

What's up on the homefront? The kids are excited for Christmas. Jason's play is tonight at school. He has one of the leads and is a Christ-moose. Should be interesting. After the play we promised the kids a resturant meal at one of the places we like to eat. Don't go out often, but they have good food for a reasonable cost.

Tomorrow is my LAST DAY at work before vacation. I will be off until Jan 2!!!! How totally exciting.... However, it will be a "working" vacation as I have a contract to write 50 articles. 10 are due tomorrow, with part of those done already, and then another 40 to go... :)

So far this week I have made my day job income, $30 for blog ads, $105 for proofreading and $595 from my writing on RAC. Not bad for "extra" income.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Patriot Safe Company

2006-12-18T14:34:00.000-08:00

Willie has been looking at gun safes on the web. We have one currently but with Cody getting older and interested in hunting, it will soon be too small for our guns and we would like a bit larger one.

So far we feel like the
Patriot Safe Company offers the best gun safes. They have an amazing selection and their prices are great.

The Patriot Safe Company has the largest selection of products available. We really like the look of this hand gun safe located here.

It's Friday!

2006-12-15T13:47:00.000-08:00

I managed to complete both my eBook and my tech article this week. RAC will pay me for them next Friday. YAY!!!

I have to say that I am SO glad it's Friday! It's snowing lightly here and it's a really nice day. I am looking forward to being home for the next two days.

One more week of *gag* work and then I am on vacation!!!!

Freelance Writing and Proofreading Occupy My Days

2006-12-13T08:50:00.000-08:00

I have embarked on a mission to replace my full-time job income and become a WAHM once and for all. To do this I am employing all of my multiple income stream knowledge and trying to build some "perm" type projects and some "temp" ones to balance those out.

First I have been eBaying during the holiday season. That was fun and I am happy it's done for the year. However, I will be on the lookout for items to sell over the next holiday season, next year.

I have been doing blog ads. Those weird posts you see here, with a lot of links in them, are paid. I get $10 for each of them and they take like 10 minutes to do. :) LOVE those.

I have been freelance writing and earning cash doing it. Right now I am on schedule to get paid for a $200 and $500 project next Friday. Not bad! :) I have another $600 project under contract and pending my working on it. I have two months so I am not in a big hurry on it.

For all aspiring freelancers I highly suggest this as your first stop to learning how it's done!
Click Here!

I am in negotiation with someone about ghost writting a full-legnth book for them. This would be GREAT. We shall see.

I recently discovered a great job doing proofreading from home. I love it and the pay isn't bad either. :) This is work I can do 24/7 and pay is based totally on my time and effort. Right now I believe in two days I have earned about $100. I am waiting to see my first pay from it and decide if it is a viable "perm" job to add to my list.

I am also still doing surveys and MyPoints. I recently earned another $35 in WalMart gift cards from MyPoints and last month earned about $50 from surveys. Not bad. :)

What are you doing today to start to live the frugal and happy life you want? Post me a comment!

Frugal Wedding and Party Resources

2006-12-12T11:55:00.000-08:00

Party Pop

I recently discovered a great resource for party information, resources and items. I found a local resource for wedding invitations through this link here: CLICK ME!

Through Party Pop!you can create an online bridal party, order your invitations, and buy over a million different items for your party. How cool!

Check out Party Pop for all of your party needs.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday, UG....

2006-12-11T10:44:00.000-08:00

It's always just so dang hard to get out of bed on Mondays. I can't wait for the day when I can work from home and not have to be here by 8am five days a week. It's such a drag... :)

This past weekend I wrote an article on encryption algorithms and looked over the changes that need to be made to my eBook on ethanol. I am hoping to get both projects cleared for payment by Friday's cut-off date. This will make the income count in 2006 and not 2007. Better for us because I made less income than I should next year.

The only shopping I really plan to do now for the rest of the year is a small gift for the kid's teachers, and the Angel Tree gifts for work. Hopefully we can get it all done without spending too much cash, though I do have a budget for it.

Well, back to the daily grind. :)

Frugal Life Insurance Site

2006-12-11T10:26:00.000-08:00

I was trudging around the net the other day looking for information on life insurance. I happened upon a site called Financial One.

Financial One is a one-stop shop where you can get life insurance rates from up to 125 companies all in one place. This will save you time and money in your quest for the best policy for you.

I was happy to have found Financial One and I hope you check them out if you are in the market for some life insurance.

So Many Websites & Blogs, So Little Time

2006-12-08T16:33:00.000-08:00

It's Friday. Anyone who knows me IRL knows that I announce this all day. I live for Fridays. :)

I wish I had about a month to do nothing but search the web and read other people's sites and blogs. There is such amazing information out there. With search engines like Google, I can find anytthing I want in a matter of seconds. How did we live without the net?

However, since I do have a "day job" and am working on building up my various income streams, I have to save my searching and reading to things mostly relavent to working and writing. Please post a comment though and share your site or others that you enjoy. I'm always on the lookout for new places to check out!

On the writing front I am finishing up my eBook. Glad when that beast is done. This weekend I am working on an article on data encryption algorithms for a software company. This project is actually pretty challenging and interesting. I find it amazing that I am getting paid, and well, for learning something and writing a bit about it! And, behind that project I have a contract to write 50 content articles. The pay is decent and they should be pretty quick to write.

My egg income stream seems to have dried up now for winter. The hens just aren't interested in laying much when it's about 20 degrees out! :)

However, my referal income is up for AC and other sites. That's pretty exciting. I am also funding Christmas this year from surveys and eBay. Shipped out my LAST eBay packages of this season today. Happy to have that beast over as well. The post office isn't exactly a fun place to go in December. Even in a small rural town like Yreka CA!

That's my frugal and freelance life for today. What are you up to? Any good sites to check out while I procrastinate about writing??

Resources for Earning Money Writing

2006-12-07T10:24:00.000-08:00

On my quest to leave my day job for good, I am building up my income streams. Many of them revolve around writing in one form or another.

I have found two GREAT resources to help me along the way. The first is an eBook by
Melanie Mendelson titled "30 Minute Articles." This eBook is great at showing how you can easily spend 30 minutes and write an excellent and profitable article.

I know that I am now able to write a 500 word article for submission to places like Associated Content in 30 minutes or less. I procrastinate, something I am working hard at changing, but I need that extra structure and help to get me writing. I highly suggest you check out her eBook. Click Here!

The second resource I love is by Beth Erickson. I love her work and respect her very highly as a writer and for all she does to help other writers in their quest.

Discover how a writer living in the middle of no-where consistently earns
an incredible freelance income year after year. Over 101 battle-tested techniques to utterly turbo-charge your freelance income. Get all the juicy details here:
Click Here!

Happy writing and income streaming everyone!

My Freelance Writing Week...

2006-12-07T10:15:00.000-08:00

This has been a pretty amazing week in my life. First I submitted my first draft of my eBook to the buyer, who loved it, and now I have two more contracts to write for cash! :)

Guess what I will be doing this weekend?? :)

Everything else in our lives is chugging along well. It's still COLD here in Siskiyou County but we are expecting either rain or snow soon. I'm hoping for snow.

Social Mail is Really Cool!

2006-12-06T15:43:00.000-08:00

Like everyone else I am getting to a point where I have multiple e-mail accounts and with them the multiple passwords that go along with them. Sometimes I will send out an e-mail, forget which account I used, and wonder why I haven't gotten an answer. Has this happened to you before? There is a GREAT new site out there helping to change all this, and make our family/friends/business communication work better. This site is called Social Mail.

Social Mail is all about bringing group communication to one place and eliminating the gazillion e-mail messages that get lost in spam filters and clog up our e-mail boxes. It's a site who's time really has come!

One of the absolute coolest things on Social Mail is that you can create a poll or survey. You can then sit back and process the results when you get the time. I have to say I am registering and will really use Social Mail.

Check them out at www.socialmail.com!

My Freelance Career Is Taking Off!

2006-12-05T22:29:00.000-08:00

I wanted to share the exciting news with all of you... I received an offer today to write a 1000 word article for - drum roll please - $200! :) HOW TOTALLY COOL is that?

I am almost done with my eBook, thankfully, and have to send it's first draft/version off to the person I am writing it for tomorrow. After that I will have to start working on my new article because it has a 15 day deadline and requires a bit of research on my part.

It's amazing to me, still, that money can be made by doing something I enjoy so much!

The BEST Information Out There on Freelance Writing!

2006-12-05T10:19:00.000-08:00

A Freelancer Secret Revealed

By Beth Ann Erickson

From what I’ve experienced, there are some heavy-duty insider secrets

that allow some writers to pull lucrative writing assignments towards

them on a on a consistent basis.

But you say writing isn’t about money.

I agree. It’s not. Most writers write for self-expression, to influence their

world, you name it, most writers do not write for the money.

However, a steady flow of income can have a profound affect on your writing

career.

I call this phenomenon the “High Profit Writing Lifestyle.”

What I love about this lifestyle is that I now have more than enough time

and plenty of incoming c ash so I can write whatever I want to.

Simply stated, the techniques I outline in a series upcoming articles

easily supports (what I call) my “fiction writing habit.”

Fiction writers make notoriously poor wages.

Not any more. Now you can write short-term high-paying lucrative projects

and devote the lion’s share of your time to the activities you love most.

It’s cool to allow my characters to rumble through my mind knowing that

I can afford to give them their voice, breathe life into their actions, and

transcribe their stories on paper.

Way cool.

And I’d hate for you to miss living your dream!

Believe me, there is NO shortage of high-paying freelance opportunities.

Your next big paycheck can be but a moment away.

That’s fantastic news because you can download this information in an

invaluable resource.

Imagine downloading an easy-to-digest resource, digging through it, and

within 24 hours you can plug in the techniques that’ll work with your own

personal style.

You can get a jump on all the other freelancers by clicking this link

right now and downloading your copy today. Choice is yours. Super charge

your freelance income so you can start writing and living the lifestyle of

your dreams.

Here’s the link: Click Here!

Stocking Up For Winter

2006-12-03T22:23:00.000-08:00

We have more food in our house than I think we ever have in the past. I started doing some couponing, requesting free samples, and just plain stocking up on sales. It's a pretty gratifying feeling to see all of the food in the house and know that no matter what's up in our lives we could eat well for a very long while.

I also think I have most of my Christmas shopping done for the year. We aren't buying too much this year and that helps. :)

I'm still working on my eBook that I am ghost-writing. It's been a LONG process but I am happy that it is almost over. My deadline is Wednesday for a rough draft so I know what I will be doing with all of my free time for the next three days. :)

On that note, I also just submitted another article to someone I am hoping to get another paid writing gig from. Slowly but surely I am bound and determined to build up an income writing.

The eBay items I bought this summer did well for the Christmas buying season on eBay. Thankfully those are dwindling now and I am leaving eBay again until sometime next year.

It Is COLD Here in Siskiyou County CA!

2006-11-29T13:40:00.000-08:00

Our top temp so far today looks to be about 40 degrees! It was only 17 on the way to work this morning. That is just, plain, down-right COLD! :)

I have been continuing to try and create my multiple streams of income. I have been writing a lot, blogging some ads, and writing some content/marketing type articles for pay as well.

Right now I am working on a 50 or so page eBook on the conversion of grains to ethanol and it's a bit dry of a topic for me... I'm ready to be done and I am no where near there yet... :)

Well, I guess I should get back to it...

What Can Seasoned Trade Lines Do For Me?

2006-11-29T13:33:00.000-08:00

Seasoned Trade Lines.

Have you heard of Seasoned Trade Lines?

I recently saw information in the Wall Street Journal about
Seasoned Trade Lines.
and the fact that they can give you the information to raise your credit score up to two hundred points!

The price you pay for any loan interest is based on your credit score so if Seasoned Trade Lines.
can assist you in raising your score, then they essentially help you to borrow money at a cheaper interest rate - and that is frugal!

Happy To Report Good Things!

2006-11-28T15:37:00.000-08:00

November is turning out to be a great month for us. I had thought, briefly, that I might loose my job. There was some big hush-hush crapola going on around here. But, then I was told that my boss was offered another position and is in negotiation. That mystery was solved and I came out the other end with my job intact. :)

November has been a great extra income month as I have been doing the blog ads for pay, landed a few contracts off of RAC, and eBay is kicking into high-gear for the holidays.

All in all it's been a great month. Now, about those car repairs...........

If You Have To Get a Payday Loan - Do It With Them

2006-11-28T15:30:00.000-08:00

National Payday.

If you have come to that point and you really need a payday loan or cash advance National Payday is probably the best place to obtain one. National Payday is well known and reputable.

National Payday provides payday loans and cash advances both quickly and securely at competitive rates.

**This post sponsored by blogsvertise**

Sometimes I Just Gotta Be Me

2006-11-28T15:29:00.000-08:00

I can't help but think that every once and a while we all just gotta be ourselves for a day or two. No outside forces, no other opinions, peace and quiet. :)

A Frugal and Quality Suggestion for Diamond Shopping

2006-11-24T12:03:00.000-08:00

While working for the charter school I was unfortunate enough to loose my wedding/aniversary band... Willie has it in his mind that since I am now working in a group of men that I need a replacement. :)

While roaming around the internet I found this great store called
Abazias. Abazias has wonderful quality jewelry and specializes in diamonds of all types and shapes.

Abazias allows you to build your own diamond wedding or engagement ring on their website. It's a pretty cool tool to play around with a get just the ring you want. Abazias sells wholesale diamonds, loose diamonds, discount diamonds, diamond engagement ring(s), and even cheaper diamonds.

Check them out if you are in the market for a ring this Christmas. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2006-11-23T10:12:00.000-08:00

To all of my readers in the US I wanted to take a moment and say Happy Thanksgiving! I saw a great sign the other day that said; "This Thanksgiving don't only be thankful but also greatful." I think that's a pretty powerful thought.

This long weekend, while others are out shopping, I am doing a very frugal thing and working on a freelance writing project. I recently landed a project that pays really well but I have to write a long research paper on a pretty technical scientific process. So, I am doing the research and starting my outline this weekend. Wish me luck on this project, it may be a much needed step in my quest to be a writer full-time!

Donna's Life This Week

2006-11-21T11:15:00.000-08:00

I think I need more Zoloft this week. Maybe it's hormonal or maybe it's just this crappy weather, but I just really hate my job this week. I would rather be just about anywhere but here...

As you can all tell I have been doing some blogging for cash on this blog. No biggie but the pay is a nice additional income stream. I've also found some interesting websites doing the projects. :)

I bought my frugal turkey yesterday along with all the other things that go with cooking a turkey meal. I'm really looking forward to having 4 days off from work! :)

What have you been up to? Leave me a comment...

Save Big on Trade Show Displays

2006-11-21T11:00:00.000-08:00

Don't blow your budget on your next trade show display! Visit

http://www.showstopperexhibits.com/
and you'll see something for every budget. And whether you need a table top
model, a 20 ft. display or something in between, you get superior quality
products and the same unbeatable customer service.

Blog for money

Save Money with These Christmas Gift Ideas for Your Girlfriend or Wife

2006-11-21T10:59:00.000-08:00

If you want a great selection of
Christmas gift
ideas for your girlfriend

at a great price, you can save 30-40% when
you buy Christmas jewelry online. Whether you're looking for an engagement
ring or a Christmas jewelry piece that will make her proclaim you Man of
the Year, they've got an awesome selection that won't blow your budget.

Blog post sponsored by Make Money
Blogging

High Quality Trade Show Display Graphics

2006-11-21T10:58:00.000-08:00

With No Headaches The last thing you need to worry about when prepping for a
trade show is whether or not your
trade show display
graphics will attract attention. And when you order from ExhibitDEAL,
you don't have to worry about it. You'll know their in-house designers are
right there to offer their creativity and expertise and help create trade show displays that will give
you that much-needed edge over the competition.
Blog post sponsored by
Get paid to blog

GPS Receiver?

2006-11-21T09:51:00.000-08:00

Recently I was looking online for a new Bluetooth GPS receiver. I purchased the Holux GPSlim240 from a company called Practical Solutions. Practical Solutions sells all kinds of GPS, mapping, mobile navigation and other high-tech solutions at a really competitive price. They sell solutions for both personal and professional use. Practical Solutions has great customer service and even offers free shipping on international orders.

The Holux GPSlim240 I ordered is a fully integrated GPS receiver and uses Bluetooth technology to easily transmit to a PDA or a Bluetooth enabled notebook. If you do not have a PDA or Bluetooth enabled laptop you can also use a traditional wired connection with it.

The Holux GPSlim240 comes with a rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery and uses a third-generation chipset designed by SiRF. This insures longer battery life because it uses much less power than a traditional GPS receiver. Also included from Practical Solutions is a car charger so that you are able to charge the receiver on the go if you need to. We all know there is nothing worse than getting to your destination and remembering you forgot to charge the battery. Now you can easily do it in the car!

The Holux GPSlim240 also comes with an GPS antenna and is able to track twenty satellites at a time. All you need to do is point the antenna to the sky and it will do the rest for you. The Holux GPSlim240 acquires and reacquires satellite signals every tenth of a second and updates the position data once each second.

The Holux GPSlim240 is designed to meet all of your GPS needs such as car navigation, mapping, surveying, and a myriad of agricultural and environmental applications.

I have found the most comfortable way to wear my new Holux GPSlim240 is across my chest. This allows me to use it and saves my hands for other tasks.

I have been very happy with both my new Holux GPSlim240 and with Practical Solutions where I purchased it from.

How's Your Cell Phone and Plan? Frugal?

2006-11-20T09:20:00.000-08:00

I bought Willie and I cell phones about six months ago. With him going to dialysis 80 miles from home they were a necessity both for safety and convenience so that we can stay in touch.

The online site we used was horrible... It took like 6 months for our rebate to arrive... And their customer service was horrible.

I have been looking around the web trying to find another site to use for the next time we move our phones and service around. I stumbled upon a cool website. They are Cell-Phones-n-Plans.

Cell-Phones-n-Plans offers some great free camera phones and some if not all of the best cell phones on the market. I don't know about you but for me it's all about finding a good phone, a free phone is great and frugal, and good service to back it up!

Cell-Phones-n-Plans also offers some great prepaid cell phone plans which can be a great frugal option as well for those of us who don't use our cell phones like they are attached to our bodies. :)

Prepaid cell phones or pay-as-you go phones are great options to consider.

Wassup With Those Weird Posts?

2006-11-19T12:41:00.000-08:00

Howdy Everyone!

If you happen to see some weird posts on my blog they are likely paid ones. Occasionally I get paid to post links or a review to a website. Can't turn down the cash because it's so easy and neat to get to see websites that I might not otherwise find. Should you see one of these please do me a favor and click on a link or two and checkout the product. :)

Student Loan Debt? Seen NextStudent?

2006-11-17T08:39:00.000-08:00

I am very fortunate that when I went to college, it was back before the days of such easy to get student loan debt. I was accepted to, and would have attended NYU had I been able to borrow the money to do it. Best choice? Who knows, but I do know that if I had, then I likely would still have debt from college...

In my quest for finding all of you the best frugal options out there, I came across a site that I think might interest you. They are a company called NextStudent.

NextStudent offers both initial student loans as well as consolidation of existing loans. If you have loans out there it's always frugal and wise to check the current rates and see if you can consolidate to save yourself money.

NextStudent offers a huge variety of loans from Federal Stafford loans, PLUS loans, Graduate Plus Loans, and Private Loans.

My Second Blog Has Launched

2006-11-16T11:30:00.000-08:00

I started a second blog called Donna Hentsch Photography. On this blog I will start putting all of my photographs. I'll place a link over on the sidebar if anyone wants to come check it out and drive some traffic to it. :)

Printer Ink - A Suggestion on Where To Get It Frugally!

2006-11-15T13:31:00.000-08:00

I recently discovered a great place online to buy all of my printer ink and toner at frugal prices! The company is called Inkers.

Inkers offers high quality inkjet and toner cartridges for printers, copiers and fax machines and can easily save you 20-40% off the manufactuer's retail price on comperable items. They have a huge variety of products to meet your every printing need.

Inkers guararantee their products to meet or beat OEM specifications on the original brand or they will replace them at their cost, or refund your money, for a full year!

Inkers provides their products to government offices, the Armed Services, corporate offices, businesses and home home offices.

I have been very happy with their ink and hope you give them a try!

Do You Sell Your Work Online?

2006-11-14T15:58:00.000-08:00

I have recently started another couple business ventures/income streams. I have started selling my photography on items on CafePress. Here's a link if anyone is interested:

www.cafepress.com/thefrugalplace

As another income stream I have been selling my writing on Associated Content. If you are interested in what I write about check it out:

Post a comment here and let me know what your income streams are!

It's Monday...

2006-11-13T10:25:00.000-08:00

While a three day weekend is a great thing, the Monday that follows is just not so great. I was fast asleep this morning, having the usual "need to use the phone but it won't work right" dream, when the alarm clock sounded. Nothing like starting the day running from a dead sleep...

I got up and when I finally waddled into the kitchen I discovered that I have zero idea where I left my coffee cup last Thursday. Thankfully the school bus was actually a bit early and I was headed off to the local coffee shack for a mocha. Half way to work I saw something big and black in the middle of the road... Imagine my surprise at the sight of horses running along the road. Apparently someone's fence blew down in the 50 MPH winds we had last night and their 5 horses escaped. Thankfully I managed to wedge my car into an area where one of them was blocked in to a driveway while it's owner attempted, with love, to catch it - all the while screaming "I'm so selling your a@@, this is IT!" (We know what kind of morning she was having...)

Then I got my mocha and headed to the office. Is that jail or office? They seem so alike most of the time...

Anyway, that's been the excitement so far on my Monday. Hope yours is going well!

It's Almost The Three Day Weekend!

2006-11-08T16:18:00.000-08:00

I've been waiting for a three day weekend for I don't know how long! Three days to sleep in, knit on the baby blanket I am making, and just some time to spend on the homefront. It's my favorite place to be!

On the work/income/frugal front I have had a couple nice things happen in the last week. I scored some great coupons and deals on grocery type items. This is the best time of year for that, IMHO.

I did some GREAT surveys which helped add more cash to our Christmas fund.

I also managed to start producing articles that Associated Content has been paying me for. I've got some free time, love to write and the two just became another income stream! :) I highly suggest anyone who wants to write for some spare change try associated!

That's about all the excitement for me for the day. I have a horrible chest cold and am ready to go snuggle up with my cat Nugget and watch some Oprah on the DVR. Gosh, I LOVE MY DVR!

What have you been up to?

I Got Published and Paid...

2006-11-05T21:25:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to share my first PAID, published article.... :)

Check out my recently published content on AC:
Boer Goats Are a Wonderful Addition to Any Small Farm

What Do You Like For Lunch?

2006-11-03T11:00:00.000-08:00

Once or twice a week I head on down to the local McD's for their chicken selects meal for lunch. I think it's a good deal, for about $5 I get chicken, fries and a soda.

It's a fun game to see how many selects I will have in the box. Some days it's only the 3 I ordered. One time it was 6! They barely fit in the box. :)

I never really liked the chicken nuggets from McDonalds but I really do like the white-meat selects. They do a good job on those.

Our local McDonalds in Yreka has some interesting weather this time of year. Right now the trees are all changing. Pretty soon it will be snowing there like it was in this photo that I took last year.

Well, gotta run and get those selects now because it's lunchtime and they are sounding good. :)

What Do I Want To Do When I Grow Up?

2006-11-03T10:35:00.000-08:00

I’ve hated that question since I was a child. Still do, come to think of it. J I always wondered why other children growing up seemed to have an idea of who they were and what they wanted to do, while I has NO idea.

For a while I wanted to be a chemist. Right now I work in the IT field, but am still not sure, even at the age of 37, that it is my “calling” either… I would LOVE to work from home, write, sell things, craft, etc… but haven’t figured out how to both match my current income and benefits. Maybe at some point I will, and then I can stop working for The Man and work for ME. Something tells me that until we get healthcare reform in this country that isn’t going to happen anytime soon though.

I have a 12 year old and a 14 year old. When asked what they want to do when they grow up my 12 year old tells me he wants to move to LA and act. (I actually think he will and will probably do very well at it. But, I am biased…) My 14 year old just wants to be done with school and do something where he never has to go back to school and textbooks. I assume he will make a great carpenter or mechanic, but that’s just my guess.

I guess the biggest thing I hate about the question of what we want to be when we grow up is that my job so does not define who I am. I’ve always found it a bit ludicrous that our obituary lists what we did for a living. Why not list that we were a good person, did good things for others, etc… I mean who wants to be defined as John Smith who worked pumping out toilets for 40 years? Not exactly the last impression that I want to leave the earth with…

I do hope that someday I figure it out. Who knows if I will or not though.

Multiple Income Streams

2006-11-01T15:39:00.000-08:00

I often wonder what other people do for income. One job, many jobs, no job but a business, born rich? Don't we all wish...! :)

I am a big believer in multiple income streams. The idea being that you have income from various places. Sometimes one venture may be making more money than others, and in the lean times another stream is there to make up some of the difference. For us a good example is eggs - good in the spring, not so good in the dead of winter. However, during winter is the holiday season which is great for eBay sales and other holiday ventures!

Our income comes from: My job, Willie's disability pay, eBay, eggs, my Usborne Children's Book Biz, MyPoints, forum boosting and all the online surveys and other things I find to do to make a few extra dollars.

This year's Christmas will be funded almost completely with surveys and MyPoints! How entirely cool is that?

I am saving up the egg money to make an extra house payment. Might take me a year or two but I love that idea... At $2 a dozen it's a lot of eggs.... :)

Willie's SSDI is pretty secure. It isn't going anywhere at least any time soon.

My day job is pretty secure though I wish I didn't have to leave home to do it!

EBay, when I work at it, does well. (Just getting that going again for the holidays. Here's a link if you wanna look:
http://search.ebay.com/_
W0QQsassZmountainshadowcreationsQQhtZ-1 )

My Usborne book biz is able to do Toys for Tots and I am contemplating whether or not to do this again. Last year I managed to raise about $500 in books for local kids. That was LOT of fun. Otherwise I let me website hang out there in cyberspace and get an occasional order. Here's the link if you wanna look - www.mtshastausborne.com

I have always heard about MyPoints and pretty much ignored it. I am SO sorry I did! They have some great deals and I have earned $50 in gift-cards for WalMart in just the last few months. I shop a lot at places like Overstock for gifts and it's great to be able to get some of that back. (If anyone wants a referal for MyPoints or anything else please e-mail me at thefrugalplace@yahoo.com. )

Online surveys can also be a great source of pocket-change. I managed to do $100 worth in a single week once, and no it wasn't that much time out of my week either! I do them when I have time and try to stick to the ones that are not "offering" me to subscribe to other things along the way.

Right now I have $120 in survey checks sitting in the "Christmas" envalope! If you have ever wanted to do surveys I found a GREAT site the other day. It's FREE and has 600 companies listed!!!! I have no connection to them but highly recomend it to everyone. They are at:
http://www.survey-platinum.com/db1.php

Something tells me that it will be a while before I am able to subscribe to all of them....... :)

Anyway, just wanted to make a couple suggestions. Post me a comment and let me know what you do for your "streams".

To About or Not To About....

2006-10-30T10:04:00.000-08:00

First, thank you for each of you have been supportive of my issues with the FL site. I miss you all as well. Many of you are like extended family to me. And, I MEAN that!

I don't appreciated being censored, and it not at least being marked as such. I find it to be really offensive to have my words changed and not to be made aware that has happened. The FL site is one of the only ones I have ever been to where your words are changed, or part of your post deleted, yet there is no note made about it. If I write something, fine. If you want to delete what I write - fine. But, don't change the meaning of my posts and attribute them to me. How hard can it be to simply mark on there "edited by moderator" or something???

If the above were to happen I would happily join in again at About. I don't think it will, however.

As to my life of late - yes, I have been busy and have been really bad about posting to my blog. I think about it a lot but don't seem to get to doing it as much as I would like.

I like my new job okay. It's not great but not bad either so I am managing. My first "big" project happened a couple weeks ago and that was a pretty crazy time. Now that it is over everything has mellowed out a bit. I have a decent amount of downtime to study and/or surf the web.

I managed to pull a muscle in my rib cage Friday night. I moved weird with a 12 pack of soda and that was all it took. I am leaving work early today in search of some decent medication from the doctor. I spent all weekend in pain and I am so over this... Even breathing hurts! I am still amazed that I actually managed to get my bra on this morning. I know, way too much information. :)

We had our well cleaned out in the last few weeks. The bill for that was $3300. Basically they put a pipe down all 750 feet and then blast water into it, forcing the water to come up and out. What came out first was some smelly, grease like stuff. Apparently everyone has a bit of oil in their well and this builds up. It was pretty gross.

Then last week they finally came and put our submersible pump back down. It was $100 an hour to have that done and when they finished we pumped AIR... They finally pulled it back out and figured out that one of the pipes was cracked... Fixed everything and we now can pump groundwater agin. This bill will likely be $1000 or more.

So, for our $4300 we have water, but we can't use it yet for anything because it's so highly contaminated with arsenic and other crap. However, filtration is getting cheaper so the plan was to do the well now and save up for filtraiton.

Hubby Willie is still traveling 3 days a week for dialysis. It looks like he will be able to start home-hemo in January. When/If this happens we will save about $500 a month in gas cost and will put that towards the filtration system. Unfortunately the USDA has grants for cleaning/filtering wells but we do not qualify because our mobile home is not on a foundation (and can't be put on one because it doesn't meet the county's new snow load...)

How Are You Doing the Holidays Frugally?

2006-10-16T10:30:00.000-07:00

The holiday season is fast approaching. The leaves are turning their amazing shades of yellow, orange and red and the mornings are starting to feel cool. I have to admit that I love this time of year. I really love the snow, but if I can't have that yet, then I will take the nice cool fall weather while I wait for the snow. :)

This year I started doing things a bit different for the holidays. I joined MyPoints and have managed to get $50 in WalHell giftcards through that for free. I started doing online surveys and focus groups in my spare time and have managed to get paid about $150 for that so far. When I have received a check or giftcard in the mail I have put all of them away for the holidays in the "Christmas" envalope.

I have also received some Amazon.com gift certificates doing surveys and am using those for gifts as well.

Grocery shopping gets interesting this time of year because it seems like everything goes on better sale this time of year. I started getting coupons from TheCouponClippers and managed to save about $40 so far this month. I am planning on continuing that for the next couple months and see how it goes.

I have also started reading the samples and freebies sites, when I have the time, and ordering all the free stuff that I think we will use. Can't argue with free being a good price. :)

I changed jobs a couple months ago and now get paid every other week. It's taking some adjusting to figure out how to pay the bills and shop on this new schedule. I prefer the income coming in now later in the month but it's strange still to pay things later in the month.

How do all of you do things this time of year?

Can Fall Possibly Be Frugal?

2006-09-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

This is the time of the year when all the kids go back to school, the weather starts to (hopefully) cool off, it's hunting and hot air balloon season, and all things frugal start to become even more important.

For our family the kids have some back-to-school costs but mostly for outgrown clothing and basic things like that. We won't likely have to heat the house until Oct or Nov so that cost should stay in check for the time being. We have a "hunting" budget and account in place to help off-set those costs for Mr. Bill. However, this time of year somehow always manages to become really expensive. It seems like it's just one thing after another.

Our budget this month is weird because I have changed jobs. Maybe I should step back a minute and explain.... I am no longer at the charter school doing administrative type work. I am now an IT geek again working for the County Public Works via an outside contracted IT company.

While I enjoyed my stay (sometimes) at the charter school, I am thrilled to be back working in IT and have dove in head first with a large migration project for next month. It's great to be actively be using the brain again and the days pass SO much faster!

With the job change means a month of COBRA insurance at $1005... How painful that is I can hardly explain. Plus because of my LWOP vacation in June my check last month barely topped $200. Sad, I know.

I've been working the budget and it looks okay for the moment.

Willie and I have decided to have our well flushed/blasted out, our submersible pump reinstalled and then get a filtration system hooked up. This will mean about $6000 in debt we don't want - but we will not have to haul water and have decided that we can accept the debt because of what it's for!

For those from FL sorry to be about drama. I left because I am tired of being edited and don't think that unless that policy changes I will return. I prefer to type my own messages not type something and then have it changed for me....

Health Care, Part 2

2006-06-09T11:44:00.000-07:00

From comments: "JustThinking said...
Donna - just curious. I agree that everyone has a right to high quality healthcare and I believe it is our responsibility as a society to see that care is provided on an equal basis to all. Now the sticky part - how do we pay for it? What is "low income"? Can everyone be low income? How long? Forever? Should we have a sliding scale fee based on income? How much should a doctor earn? A hospital? A insurance company? How much should an "average income" pay to support the care of all? A "high income"? A "low income"? Should some not pay at all? What solutions do you envision? ""

I believe that everyone should have a possibility of equal access to health care. I don't know that "high quality" is possible, but I know at least some quality is.

The start to that should be that ALL doctors and hospitals should be required to accept all insurance, Medicaid and Medicare. Whether you have Blue Cross or Medicaid you should be able to see the same quality doctors. This would also spread out the burden of the low reimbursement rates to all practitioners - rather than have the "low income, crappy doctor" clinics that we see now.

I VERY, VERY, VERY strongly believe that your access to health care/insurance should have ZERO to do with your employer. Who ever started that should be shot. :) By law my employer can't have any access to my health records, so why are they footing the bill for my access to that same healthcare? Will/Are people discriminated against in the workplace because they may utilize a lot of health care dollars and make the company's premiums rise? I believe they are and will be more and more as costs rise.

If my company knew my husband was going to rack up well over $100K in bills per year, would they have hired me?

I think people should work for an income. From that income should be taken federal taxes, state taxes and Social Security. Our "benefits" of insurance should not exist. However, salaries should rise for those who currently have insurance as part of their package. (Which would be an issue...) Say for example I make $20K a year and my employer pays $5K towards insurance. I should then see a salary of $25K.

From our incomes, where ever they come from, we should be able to buy in to health care at an affordable rate. Or, we should be able to pay a reasonable amount for a reasonable service. It shouldn't cost $350 for a 3 minute MD appointment for the doc to tell you that you have a rash.... It shouldn't cost $16,000 for a 20 minute ultrasound... KWIM? Also, cash payers and people with insurance shouldn't be expected to cover for every Tom, Dick and Harry that doesn't have coverage or pay...

Likewise, just because I have an HMO and a $5 co-pay I shouldn't be bothering that MD to tell me I have a rash. I should be trying cortizone cream or something and using the skills of the MD when I HAVE to - not WANT to. When people have to pay for that service, I think they will think twice about it!
How many of us get new glasses when we "can" through our plans? Whether or not we need them? I know I am guilty of that. Wanting a new look and all. But, when it costs me $100+ for them I start to decide if I "need" them.

I read with interest the article posted on Frugal Living about the MD who says that most medical treatments are not based on science and many, while expensive, don't do much for the patient. I think there is merrit to that. I think people are WAY to attached to finding a pill to solve every problem they have. Why not use the wisky for a cough like they did in the olden days?

And, why make you see an MD for every pill you might truly need? Why not a system like in Europe where you can ask your pharmacist and make more drugs available over the counter for the people who need them? I can't really see people abusing cholestorol medication, KWIM?

As for income of a physician or hospital, I think those should be realtive to their training and the work they do. I have no qualms about a physician who makes a lot of money - because they are highly skilled. However, I have a problem with some people paying, via insurance or privately, for all of the people. My appointment shouldn't cost tons of cash to make up for those who don't pay.

Low income versus high income is a good point. We don't want people with a high income getting great service and those with low income getting shitty service. Some plan where it balances based on your income would be nice.

Donna's Thoughts on US Health Care

2006-06-07T09:33:00.000-07:00

I can't help but think that one of biggest challenges facing us here in the US today is our health care system. As a family we have had access through Kaiser, Blue Cross, MediCal and Medicare (for Willie) at various times.

While working for Kaiser we had access to their HMO system of providers and facilities. Though when we first started with them there was a lot of negative press about Kaiser, we almost always without fail had good service. Yes, we did have some bad as well from time to time. I think most of that was caused by customer service issues with staff and physicians rather than with the HMO model itself.

Now we have access through Blue Cross. It has cost us more than Kaiser, but it has all-in-all been pretty easy to deal with and find providers for. Thankfully my employer pays for much of our policy because we would never be able to afford the $1000+ each month out-of-pocket just for the premium.

MediCal was an interesting experience. Growing up we always had health insurance. Once we moved to Siskiyou County we found ourselves, for only about a year, needing the help of MediCal. I have to say that time was very eye-opening for us!

Here in our county we only have a couple of providers that will accept MediCal. Because MediCal doesn't pay the providers well the providers are forced to book more appointment and treat more patients to make their living. I saw a doctor who I would not trust with my pet chicken... I have never felt more like I was being treated like the common street-animal than during that time. One of the "reforms" I would like to see is that all providers be required to accept both MediCal and Medicare. You should NOT have to go to a crappy clinic or a crappy doctor just because you have low-income!!!

Willie also has Medicare. It has seriously saved our butts for those times he has been in the hospital or needed medical equipment of some sort or another.

When you have good insurance you don't really think much about those who don't. I think this is one of the biggest hurdles to health care reform in our country - our elected officials and those in corporate power - have (and can afford) the best insurance. Why work to change it?

Why? For me that answer is clear - you shouldn't have to die or have serious lack of basic medical care because you are lower income. It just plain isn't right.

Thank You Rinty, You Motivated Me!

2006-06-03T14:46:00.000-07:00

I started blogging about frugal living as an alternative to writing a newsletter or taking the time to finally get that book that's in my head down on paper. I don't know why but I do seem to be a pretty boring blogger. I've noticed it and someone recently pointed out that the blog seemed to be kinda bland. THANK YOU Rinty! You gave me a slight kick-in-the-butt at just the right time. I will make much more of an effort to blog from the heart and to blog the way I wanted to from the start.

For a long while I have wanted to be a writer. I have wanted to make a living doing something I can do alone, without the office politics and crap of working with other people day in and day out, and doing that which I love. Writing is a hard thing to get income doing, even freelance, but I finally decided it is time. Bought the "Writer's Market" and am working on putting those projects in my head onto the written page. And, working on those query letters to editors around the country.

Life in our household has been a real struggle over the years for one reason or another. However, our life is also really great and interesting because of those struggles and challenges. It's a human-nature thing to assume our lives are "boring" but when you think about it most people really do have interesting lives - just not to themselves. I think this is the root of my boring-blog problem. I think I assume, and we know what happens when you do that, no one really wants to hear about our story. Funny thing is, most people tell me that's exactly what I should write about - and what they want to read!

Today is Jason's 12th birthday. It's amazing to think 12 years (plus 10 weeks) have passed since we found out we were going to be the parents of a dwarf child. Who knew it even possible! Certainly not us... Jason's dwarfism is caused by a genetic mutation and not heredity. Most people, including ourselves, found it weird that average sized people can have a dwarf child. In reality, that's generally the case. Most dwarf babies are born to average sized adults. Even us fat ones. :)

I have to gloat and say that Jason is an amazing child. Really, not just a parent comment, he really is amazing. I have always found it interesting that while his limbs are short, and his challenges in life can be daunting, he handles it amazingly well. The kid can adapt to anything.

Happy Birthday, Jason! Only four more and you can drive - OMG.... HELP!!!!!!!

YAY! It's Almost June...

2006-05-31T10:33:00.000-07:00

I don't know about anyone else, but dang May was a LONG financial month in our lives! Seemed like payday was never gonna arrive! But, alas, here we are! :)

It feels strange that school is getting out and yet we haven't hit a really hot day yet. I think we made it to about 95 degrees one day but that's as hot as we have managed to get here in Siskiyou County, CA. Today we will be lucky to see the high 60s and no rain... At least if it has to rain we could get some thunder and lightening out of it...

June is a month of goals and re-budgetting. We are still adjusting to our new gasoline bills for Willie's dialysis, and to the weird diabetic-dialysis diet.

Yesterday I cleaned out the deep-freeze and tossed some seriously petrified meat and veggies. I had a pork-loin in there from 2004! Gack... I am on a mission now though to really watch what's in there and to continue to stock up on things we use. I definitely need to work on rotating the things in the freezer a bit better.

What are your goals for June?

Start Your Frugal Journey With a Plan

2006-05-19T10:29:00.000-07:00

If you are going to drive to an unknown place what do you do? Get a map? Ask for directions? Most likely you formulate a plan of how to get there. In the world of money, income, and spending this plan is called a budget.

Budget a scary word for many of us because when we read it we think “restriction” or “control.”
I would like to offer you an alternative way of looking at a budget. Think of your budget as a map to get you from financial point A to financial point B.

I get paid today so I am at point A. I have bills to pay and groceries to buy which leaves me at Point B. Like a map.

Just like while driving I have many options on how to get from one point to another. I have control over where I go and how I get there. By making a plan, a budget, for my income, savings and expenses, I am not letting that plan control me, but rather I am making the plan to control my money!

My budget is helping me, not controlling or hurting me.

To start making a realistic budget it is best to track all of your income and spending for a month or two. Write down all of your income, and write down every cent you spend and what you spent it on. This can be a very eye-opening experience. You might be amazed as how much money you spend on the things that are not important to you.

Off I Go, Into The (Unknown) Wild Blue Yonder...

2006-05-17T08:55:00.000-07:00

I made a decision yesterday. I decided that in addition to blogging and working at the day job, I am going to make a serious run at trying to do freelance writing. I have enough going on in my life, and in my frugal journey, that I know I have things to share! And, I love to write. So, the combo works for me. We shall see if it works for others and I land some (paid?) writing gigs! :)

May is turning out to be a very LONG month. Our expenses this month have risen and we just haven't done well on the budget. It seems with the price of gas (locally now $3.49 a gallon for 87) and the rising costs of food and other items we shop for, we just plain didn't budget enough cash for the month. I am working on revamping the budget for next month, and looking at where we can save, cut-back and modify.

One of the ways we save is to do a monthly stock-up on groceries and other items. Generally this includes a trip to Costco, a lower price food warehouse type store, WalMart, and maybe the Grocery Outlet to fill in. (While I don't agree with many of the business practices of the WalHell, it's pretty much the only game in town for many items - and my only place to shop within about 80 miles of home...)

For the rest of this month, my plan is to work on using up all the "pre-dialysis diet" foods in the house and to really see what I need to buy and stock-up on next month. Our diet has changed so much that it was really hard to shop this month and know what to buy.

Hubby and I are contemplating getting a Costco membership for him (I use a free one from a relative's account) so that while he is in Redding getting treatment he could hit the Costco for fresh fruits and veggies. That would save us a lot of money and I believe easily cover the cost of the membership.

I started selling our eggs at work. Right now we get about 6 free-range eggs a day. We eat some, but still have a few dozen left over. At $2 a dozen they are easily paying for our feed and eventually my hope is to take the extra "egg money" and do something like make an extra house payment with it. Right now as I sell the eggs I am transferring the cash into an ING account. This way I have a good track of what we actually made on the eggs. And, I can ear-mark the cash rather than it getting lost in the day to day household spending.

I ordered 15 blue egg laying chicks a couple weeks ago. So far they are all doing well and starting to get feathers. Looks like the egg business will be picking up nicely and I will be able to sell as many eggs as they can produce. :)

Honey, I'm Home!

2006-05-12T12:36:00.000-07:00

Anyone ever watch that 1990's show "Dinosaurs" where the dad dino comes in the door and says "Honey, I'm home?" That's been our family saying since watching that show because at the time both hubby and I had red flannel shirts that matched the dino's! :)

I have been away for a while from blog-land. Thank you to all of you who have stuck around... I'm deffinately trying to blog more now that life has settled down a bit!

As I posted before, hubby was in the hospital and is now in renal failure. For him this means a trip 170 miles roundtrip three days a week to the nearest dialysis center. It sucks because it's a long drive, it's tiring, it's boring, it's expensive, etc... but it's definitely helping Willie to feel much better. It's nice to see him working in the yard and playing with the pigeons again! The gas price is killing us (It's now $3.49 a gallon here for 87 octane!) but he feels better so it's worth it. At some point we need a small car or something though for the commute. If/When gas hits $4 or more a gallon that's going to quickly become our biggest monthly expense after eating! :)

The last three months or so have been killer on our budget. We first bought a new dishwasher, range and washing machine. That was fine, planned, and saves us a ton of water. The old range was gross and dying so that was also fine and planned.

Then it was hospital and out of area stay for me. Since then it's just been gas, the special (BORING!) dialysis diet, and the fact that it's May and almost the end of the school year. (Both at work and for our own kids.) This seems like a more expensive time of year in our lives than the holiday season. Amazing...

Right now I am working on re-doing our family budget to include our new expenses. It's a challenge, that's for sure.

Anyway, thanks for visiting. How's your month going?

Life Takes Over

2006-03-29T08:29:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!

I have not been able to update my blog lately because life has just plain been too hectic...

Hubby has been in the hospital about 2 weeks of the last 2 1/2. He started with an infection in his leg and then got pnumonia. While in the hospital our youngest son came down with the flu. Then our oldest son was fortunate enough to get it! All the while I came down with a horrible cold. We are starting to wonder what else can happen in our lives... Geez...

I have to admit that hospital and illness is just plain not frugal. There is the time, the gas and more of an issue for me - convenience foods - because the last thing I want to do at the end of a long day is cook. Heck, as DH and my kids can attest to, the last thing I ever want to do at the end of the day is cook. :)

So, March ended up being not the most frugal month of the year. So, now we will try and improve on April. Gotta move forward.

Thankfully I have been stocking up pretty well lately and won't have a lot of cash needed for groceries and house stuff this month.

What's your plan for April?

The Great Grocery Store Game

2006-03-10T13:16:00.000-08:00

Do you use a pantry and stock-up? Shop weekly, monthly, bi-monthly?

Here at the Hentsch household we make a monthly trip up into Oregon to do the major stock-ups. People ask what that trip usually entails. Here's a quick run-down:

Grocery Outlet: Things like shampoo, deodorant, chocolate chips, mixes, pasta, mustard, ketchup, and that sort of thing. Things I find cheaper there than anywhere else.

Costco: Bottled water - 24 liter bottles for $3.86 and NO CRV! All of our cheese for a month, 4 boxes of yogurt cups for DH for the month, pepperoni for when I make pizza, frozen burritos for Jason (who eats little else...), chicken breasts, marinated pork tenderloin, ziplock bags, sugar-free coco, coffee, coffee and more coffee. :) I buy any fruit/veggies that look good and look like they will last a while.

Food 4 Less: Meat for a month which is generally a ham or two, maybe some pork, these huge 10 lb beef hunks that we make into roast, steaks and stew/chili meat, and 7% fat hamburger. I also buy olives, cereal, margarine tub and sticks, rice, pastas that G.O. doesn't have, and any canned goods we need that are cheaper than I can find at WalMart - like tomato sauce, etc...

Also, they have the BEST prices on fruits and veggies but not always the best quality. It takes some digging but I can find good buys. This last month onions were $0.19 a pound - I bought about 15-20 pounds of them! Onions here locally have been $0.79-0.99 as long as I can remember! And they keep.

Locally I buy fruits, veggies, salad stuff, milk and bread.

From WalMart I generally buy BBQ Sauce, canned stuff, bread, toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning/laundry stuff, cat food/litter and other toiletries.

From the feed store we buy feed for all of the animals and a High-Pro dog food.

I don't use coupons unless there is one in the store or something because we don't get any newspapers or magazines that have them.

I do try and buy healthy as much as possible. I am not one for "organic" but I will say that rather than buy things that are processed for the most part we cook/bake from scratch.

When we want junk-food I will make a cake or cookies or something like that.

The only time we really eat out is if we are out in town late at night or for me at lunch time. I need to get out of here sometimes, especially on "little kid" days at our school. They drive me nuts and I need quiet... :)

Use a Pantry To Save On Groceries

2006-03-03T08:57:00.000-08:00

One of the best ways we have found to save on our grocery/household expenses is by using the pantry system.

We buy items when they are on sale and stock our own little "grocery store" in the house. When we run out of something we shop in our pantry and then restock next time there is a good sale. This insures that we do not have to make trips to the store (25 miles one way from our rural home) and it insures that we always pay the lowest possible price for the items we reguarly buy.

When times are lean, you have unexpected expenses, illness, etc... then you have a "stockpile" where you can live out of for a while with little to no cash outlay.

We do not stock things for an "emergency" but rather rely on our pantry to get us through the times where we cannot shop for whatever reason.

When you use a pantry it is important to rotate what you buy and use the oldest items first. This insures that you do not have to throw things out because they spoil.

Do you use a pantry?

Saving Money on Books

2006-03-02T12:57:00.000-08:00

While I love public libraries, I happen to live a long way from one. This and working M-F makes using the library a challenge!

Long ago I fell in love with thrift stores. They have lots of odd objects, great clothing (especially for kids!) and tons of books. I love nothing more than to find a copy of a book for $0.25. I wanted to read both "Nickle & Dimed" and "The Millionaire Next Door" and happened upon them both at a local thrift store for $0.25 each. I bought them, read them at my leisure, and then donated them back. Low cost, as much time as I wanted to read them, and no clutter! :)

I also happen to love to book shop on eBay, Half.com, Amazon, Costco and places like that. Can't tell you the last time I paid "retail" for a book.

Do You Have Goals In Your Life?

2006-03-02T08:20:00.000-08:00

Setting goals in your life is a very powerful thing. Having a goal and a plan gets you where you want to go. If you have a goal, but no plan to attain it, then you have a dream. Dreaming is fine, for dreaming sake, but if you want to see it come to fruition then you need a plan.

I found this wonderful resource on the web to help us all set and attain our goals. Check it out and let me know what you think about it. What are your goals?

http://www.commuteinyourjammies.com/Setting-Goals.pdf

Change Is Always Scary

2006-03-01T09:38:00.000-08:00

There is one thing in life that never seems to change. That is - change happens. We move, we grow, we experience, and daily our lives change. Sometimes change is great, sometimes it's good, and sometimes it just plain sucks. But, the one thing we can always count on is change.

What are you changing today in your life? Post me a comment and let me know!

And, while you are at it please comment on my color changes here on the blog. I have little color-sense and worry about clashing. But, I hated the dark template colors so a change was really necessary! :)

We Had To Eveacuate For a Fire

2006-02-28T08:27:00.000-08:00

I can't help but wonder how many people out there have had to evacuate their homes, in February, for a forest fire! Amazing... Rain, snow, 55+ mph winds and fire? Interesting combo!

The Department of Forestry in my area, Mt. Shasta CA, was doing a "control" burn last week that went way out of control, jumped a major highway, and burned over 700 acres and a home! Thankfully, that home wasn't our home, but we did have to evacuate for the day on Sunday and wonder if our home would burn before the rains started coming down to put it out.

The interesting thing is this is the second time we have had to evacuate in the last 4 years. The first fire burned up to our property line and our property was saved by the wonderful men and women of CDF and the USFS.

Anyway, back to frugal living! :) It's going to be March tomorrow. Do you have a budget in place? Have you planned how you will save and spend your income next month?

Subscribe to my newsletter, The Frugal Place, and get a monthly dose of the frugal life and learn how to find that new American Dream - the one you can afford! Subscription is $12 for 8 issues a year. Money back guarantee! Paypal: thefrugalplace@yahoo.com or send check/money order to me at: Donna Hentsch, The Frugal Place, 16345 Gilman Road, Montague CA 96064.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad?

2006-02-26T10:50:00.000-08:00

I read and enjoyed the book with that name, by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter, a couple years ago. I found it especially interesting because I have a family situation where I have one frugal-good-with-money parent and one that isn't. It's been interesting, and sometimes frustrating, being in the middle of the dichotomy.

Getting married, having children, and starting our own lives we leaned more toward the Poor Dad half. We used credit. We had a lot of debt. We did many things, and purchased many things that we couldn't afford.

I've always admired the successes of the Rich Dad half of my family and decided to learn about frugal living and see if I couldn't figure that out. It started long ago with reading "The Tightwad Gazette" and progressed from there.

Subscribe to my newsletter, The Frugal Place, and get a monthly dose of the frugal life and learn how to find that new American Dream - the one you can afford! Subscription is $12 for 8 issues a year. Money back guarantee! Paypal: thefrugalplace@yahoo.com or send check/money order to me at: Donna Hentsch, The Frugal Place, 16345 Gilman Road, Montague CA 96064.

Loving The Frugal Blog!

2006-02-22T22:04:00.000-08:00

I consider myself to be a pretty computer literate human. Somehow though I managed to get this far in life without learning HTML. Looks like I need to look for the "HTML For Dummies" book at the local thrift store! Geez... took me an hour to put that AdSense affiliate ad on here! :)

The newsletter is about done and I am SO excited to get it out there and share our furgal journey and tips with everyone! If you would like a copy of the 1st edition PayPal or send me $2 and I will get you an evaluation copy. If you want to subscribe from there I will take the $2 off the subscription price for the first year for you.

Well, my day of frugal living and HTML cursing have ended.

:)--Donna

Subscribe to my newsletter, The Frugal Place, and get a monthly dose of the frugal life and learn how to find that new American Dream - the one you can afford! Subscription is $12 for 8 issues a year. Money back guarantee! Paypal: thefrugalplace@yahoo.com or send check/money order to me at: Donna Hentsch, The Frugal Place, 16345 Gilman Road, Montague CA 96064.

Your Time or Your Money?

2006-02-21T09:21:00.003-08:00

The single biggest issue that always strikes me when reading about the frugal living lifestyle is most things in life come down to two simple things - your time and/or your money. We seem to have a single tradeoff to contend with in each choice we make. Do we spend our time? Do we spend our money? Generally things cost more of one or the other based on the decision we make. We make a trade-off and a balance in each thing we need or desire.

When I go to the grocery store, for example, I make a choice. If my choice is to buy elemental ingredients for the foods I will cook that week then I purchase items like flour, eggs, milk, meat, fruits, and vegetables. Very few of the items in my cart come in a box or any kind of unnecessary packaging. I am not paying for processing of these items into another form so they are likely cheaper. The tradeoff that I then contend with is that I will have to cook my meals from scratch. This will likely take more of my time. I saved money when I shopped and I traded-off for more time in cooking and preparation.

Perhaps I do not know how to cook from scratch or perhaps I have very limited time to cook my meals due to my work or family schedules. I go to the same grocery store and purchase most of my items in a box or in the frozen foods aisle. My packages are filled to the brim with frozen pizzas and hamburger helper type meal. In theory they take less time to prepare. My food bill will likely be double the cost it was when I purchased the elemental ingredients. I have traded a higher grocery bill for less preparation time.

(Read the entire article in my newsletter...)

Subscribe to my newsletter, The Frugal Place, and get a monthly dose of the frugal life and learn how to find that new American Dream - the one you can afford! Subscription is $12 for 8 issues a year. Money back guarantee! Paypal: thefrugalplace@yahoo.com or e-mail me for the snail-mail address to send payment.

Starting Is The Hardest Part... (a.k.a. Why Is That?)

2006-02-19T20:46:00.000-08:00

Have you ever noticed that starting something is usually harder than completing it? We as humans spend a ton of time procrastinating and avoiding things, even to our own detriment. Why is that?

For a very long time I have wanted to write a frugal living newsletter. I want to write it, publish it, mail it, and watch it grow. I've spent more time thinking (can you say procrastinating?) about writing the dang thing that it would have taken to just start doing it. Why is that?

I've often wondered why I can spend hours on end reading a message board, or an hour writing a post or e-mail. I spend 8 hours a day working my butt off for the business I work for. I work hard and I do a good job. But, it is so hard to sit down, on my own unpaid time, and do something that I want to do for my own business. Why is that?

As people we grow up and move out of our parent's homes and "start" living our lives. Here in America that generally means that we also tend to accrue a lot of debt - student loans, credit cards, car payments and let's not forget huge mortgages. We make our own lives miserable by spending money we don't have on things we can't afford in the first place. Why is that?

Is it the "American Dream?" I think not. And, my mission in life is now to share with you what I think that American Dream really is!

Subscribe to my newsletter, The Frugal Place, and get a monthly dose of the frugal life and learn how to find that new American Dream - the one you can afford! Subscription is $12 for 8 issues a year. Money back guarantee! Paypal: thefrugalplace@yahoo.com or e-mail me for the snail-mail address to send payment.