Yes, I took the nanny job and now I am working out my two weeks notice. I am cautiously optimistic about the way things are moving. If I hate it by the end of the summer, I will move on and find another job.
More money! Will keep you posted on the transition!

The deed is done, the strings are cut. I wish he could have talked to the HR person before he left, but she was gone. He was right, they asked him to leave immediately and not work out his two week notice.

Now, he is a self-employed business owner. I sure feel like I have jumped off the diving board and I'm not sure if there is water in the pool or not!!

On the upside, the new job is going to pay his health insurance. Did you hear that?????? We have been paying over $800 a month for health insurance. It will be around $1000 for COBRA. And the new company will pay it!! That extra $800 will go a long way toward paying off the debt!!

Now, here's the clincher..... Hang on to your seats..... I am thinking about QUITTING MY JOB TOO!!! How about that??!! I have a job offer that MAY come to fruition in Aug/Sept, until then, a friend of mine (more like a niece, and I helped raise her) has asked me to be a nanny to her kids for the summer (she is having a baby in Aug/Sept'ish and will then be home for 6 weeks). While it is more money, it is more hours too. BUT, since DH will be working from home for most of the week and the kids will be home for the summer soon, this would give me the opportunity to take care of my own kids as well. We could stay over at my girlfriends house during the day and they have a subdivision pool. Plus there is the zoo, parks, Magic House, Six Flags, etc.. The kids are 3 and 5, can talk and do things for themselves and NO diapers!!
And if the other job doesn't work out, my friend says I can stay on watching the baby and the middle one, as the oldest will be off to school.

So.... what do you all think??

For the kids that is! Last one goes back tomorrow! And I have a day off! Can't wait! So many plans and spending money is not one of them!

I have been so busy, I haven't had time to think this weekend. But I did get up early this morning and make a pot of chili in the crock. So yummy! I am so confused by this time change. I hate losing an hour!

DD3 had a DI competition, we placed 5th out of 11. At least we don't have to move on to state. We also had a couple of GS cookie booths. I have been lucky to keep my 20 pounds off, but I sure haven't been able to loose any more!

Did spend on eating out twice yesterday because of the competition, but at least hubby was fed.

I can't believe I missed such an important event!! Three years ago I joined this wonderful blog and I am so glad I did! You guys are awesome and I love all the support you have given this undisciplined debtor! One of my best buds, Thrifty Ray, joined right after me and we have been bloggy BFF's ever since! Here's to you all and all the wonderful bloggers who have since left our little spot, but are still in our hearts! (Contrary, PJMama, DivaJen, Retire@50, I could go on and on!)

I hope everyone has a thrifty and lovely Valentines Day!

Fridays has a buy one get one coupon you can print off and use as many times as you want until March 1.

http://fatwallet.cachefly.net/attachments/2006_tgifriday_cou....
Enjoy!

The kids were off again. I guess I have grown up with the snow, so its "snow" big deal. Having a car that has front wheel drive helps and teenagers to shovel helps too! Here is what we got:

The girls are hoping school will be called off tomorrow. Our school district calls it when it is -30 windchill. I don't think it will get much more than .... -20. Lord, please send these kids to school!

So far so good. I have been cooking every night. I really enjoy getting back into our old "boring" routine! Comforting! We have plenty of food and I have made a menu for the next two weeks.

PS Kids went back to school today! Yeah!

Mom came by and fixed my sewing machine. Boy do I have a pile of things to do!

Gosh darnit! They were supposed to go back today, but mother nature intervened! She sent a lovely sheet of ice to keep those little varmits home again! I still had to go to work though, but they sent me home early. I am glad for the money, but what a pain, to get ready, get there and then get sent home.

Anyway, here is what has been happening in boo world lately for those uh, maybe 3 people that follow my blog! ....

I finished the part time job. If I ever try to work retail at Christmas again, push me off a roof! Ugh! Christmas was good, under control, most everything paid for in cash except for what hubby bought me and show tickets for the girls.

Still have not found a full time job... most days I am just thankful to HAVE a job. Now I just have to do my best to use this money wisely. Not my best quality.

Debt is up to around $66,000. Makes me want to throw up. Nuff said about this for now.

DH is going to quit his job and follow my brother in law to his new business. Another thing that makes me want to throw up. I am scared to death.

We had to bury a very good friend of 30 years two days after Christmas. Please, live life, laugh and love your family and your friends. Don't hold back on this! It has been heartbreaking and soul searching... again, nuff said.

DH is still letting me juggle the bills. Times are so tight, the kids are great at pitching in. We are still at an impasse. Until he starts the new job, I have no idea what kind of budget to make. I am just doing my best.

Well, long it is! But that was my holiday in a nutshell. I am looking forward to a successful 2009. I am 20 pounds down in weight and looking forward to dumping the last 15!!

I hope you all have a fun and happy New Years Eve and a Spectacular, Fantastic and WILDLY fruitful and frugal new year! Go 2009!!!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday season! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy New Year!

Our sweet doggy, Bebe, and her best buddy!

I sure give thanks for all my wonderful encouraging friends here on SA! Have a blessed and "stuffed" Thanksgiving!

Imagine the sweeping verandah, the high ceiled massive rooms, with cozy strategic seating throughout..... and you would'nt be at my house!! We do have a breakfast area and dining room, an office and a family room. We will have 20 people over for Thanksgiving (gathering strays, I am!!) Where am I going to put all these people? I am thinking this is a buffet Thanksgiving year! Perhaps with Chinet instead of Chin-ah! :-) Hope I have enough food too!
I thought about setting up "stations", like a drink station in one room, appetizer station in another, maybe desserts somewhere else? And the buffet in the kitchen. Ahhh!
I give thanks for all the lovely family and friends that will gather here. Lord, please feed them and find them a place to sit! :-) AMEN!

Pounds that is! On the Weight Watchers. I'm pretty pleased, that is in 9 weeks. I could do better, I could do worse, I am just doing evenly! :-) It is a bit harder that there is no microwave at the store I am working at. Tempting to go to all those nice little resturants in the mall. Ugh! So far so good though. I did pick up two tacos one day, other than that, I am resisting. I am there to MAKE money. Why ruin one hours pay at $9 by eating out for $8-$12!!

Thats it. Just wanted to say, hey, I'm tired. Have a good night!

I have started on my two job journey. It is very interesting working in retail after all of these years.
Because the store is owned by neighbors (and friends too), I have a vested interest in seeing it succeed. So I don't find it quite as hard not to choke at some of the goofy items people waste money on.
BUT on a more interesting note, every sale I rang up today, was paid for in CASH and most amusingly, most people paid exact change. I wanted to cheer for them and say "Good job"! But they would have just thought I was goofy. So my report is...more folks using cash - YEAH. Will report back the closer we get to Christmas.

Well, I have been quite quiet on the blogs for a while.

I tried starting my own blog, but Wordpress is such a confusing pain to use! Oh well, it was a free attempt and I may still update it till my year subscription runs out.

Anyway, I got the job at my friends store at the mall! Starting Nov. 1 till after Christmas! Woo hoo! This will really help us with Christmas, brakes and keeping up with the bills! I am looking for meal ideas though, because I will be going from one job to another, but I want to leave easy to prepare meals for the family that I can eat when I get home and hope to stay true to the Weight Watchers. I can use the crockpot and premake some other meals, but any ideas??

Yes, we're freezing, but think of the money we're saving!! I'm sure my husband will probably sneak the heat on when I'm at work or something, but we'll see. The whining hasn't revved up enough to crack!

I have been working 5 days a week. Some full time days, some part time days. I have Wednesdays and Saturdays off and really have fallen behind on keeping up with the house. I have been letting eating out sneak back in on us too and this has to stop!!

DH and I have been on Weight Watchers. I have lost around 10 pounds, DH a few more than that.

I downloaded a program called PearBudget that my friend at "I've Paid for it Twice Already" suggested and it looks pretty grim. I am considering another part time job to maybe help add some money to the budget. Not sure what kind of job I can find that will work around the weird hours I already work, but we'll see. I have a friend that is opening up a shop in the mall just for Christmas. Maybe I can work there? Here is the link to PearBudget if you would like to try it out. It is free!

https://www.pearbudget.com/spreadsheet.

I have been slowly buying Christmas gifts. I have to sell some more on ebay, so I can buy some more gifts! :-)

Well, I have been laying low waiting to make it through the birthday madness. Finally all the parties are done! We still have one more birthday, but mom and dad will be treating us to dinner that night, so hopefully we can get the resturant to give us a cupcake to stick a candle in!

I am now offically the parent of a driving teenager. Pray for me! (Really!) The license is hot off the press, so I need to call the insurnace company tomorrow and see how much it will kill me!

Still trying to keep a tournaquet on the bleeding. I did find a 2.9% card to toss some more of the astronomical AmEx onto. That will certainly help!

Hopefully the next few months will be financially quiet with a little coasting and some chipping away of Christmas presents!

Yesterday was Mom and Dads 50th Anniversary! We had a great time with family and friends. How amazing they are!

Today was my birthday and we tried to celebrate as cheap as possible! DH gave me breakfast in bed, some face wash (wouldn’t buy it for myself!) and some candy, oh and lottery tickets!
I had a great time a work. They did it up nice with lunch, gifts and a cake.
When I got home, I had left a roast in the crock pot, so we had that with mashed potatoes and corn. Then we had the leftover cake from the office.
The entertainment highlight was free tickets to the local community colleges production of Once Upon a Mattress. My neighbor is the director and gave us comp tickets, and my daughters’ piano teacher was the lead. She did great and it was so entertaining.
Then I fell off the wagon and picked up White Castle after the show for the whole family. I did have a coupon, so the splurge cost $16.00. Hopefully tomorrow will be a no spend day!

There is a neat website that has special blog giveaways a couple times a year. It helps the bloggers get new traffic to their sites and the commenters get a chance to win all kinds of goodies. Being that we are of a frugal mindset, simply commenting to win a gift card is easy and cheap! Go check it out and don't forget to sign up for www.cutupthecards.org's giveaway!

www.bloggygiveaways.com

Well my friends, I have a new baby!! Yep, its a ..... blog!! A few months ago I entered a contest to win a blog of all things. My very own, really own it (hence the .org) blog given to me by Heather at Desperately Seeking Sanity! Did you know you can make money with these things? And it was FREE, so why not?? I will still be here at "home" visiting and writing, but hopefully you will come see the "baby" and tickle it under the chin, and hopefully it won't spit up on you (I am VERY new at this!!) Feel free to subscribe, so the latest entries can be emailed to you! And all suggestions will be appreicated, except from the cranky people who hate it when other people move out into bloggy land!! (I know you are out there!)

Most of the things I have blogged about so far have been my story up to this point, so most of you know it, but I hope to include sooo much more about my life, new ideas, contest, receipes, etc!!

So please come visit

http://www.cutupthecards.org/
Thanks my friends!!

There you go, all the cards are cut up! Seems like such a tiny pile compared to the HUGE amount of debt on them!!

DH and I went round and round tonight. I guess we made peace with this weeks paycheck. I have BEGGED him to go grocery shopping, but to no avail. But he did say he will take DD3 to get her glasses this weekend. That will help greatly and I won't have to justify the cost.

I'm still working, working, working! Hope it will help us make a dent! Things at home sure get messy and crazy when I am gone, and dinners sure can be a challenge. I told DH tomorrow HE has to make dinner!

I have been carrying the responsibility of this debt myself. I am going make my husband listen to how much we owe. He chooses not to know, but I am tired of doing it alone. This could mean divorce for him. Seriously. So lets see if I can do it before the end of the week.

We just got back from a quick trip to Branson Missouri. Took the kids to Silver Dollar City. We were supposed to take out a boat on Saturday, but would'nt you know, they got about 8 INCHES of rain! So we spent our time in town, did some shopping at an outlet mall (are these places really cheaper? I don't think so, unless you find a good clearance!) We also went to the Titanic exhibit. Very educational, but quite a downer. My DH said, "What did you expect, them all to live and a happy ending??" Well, it is vacation! So now we are home safe and sound. I had chosen a condo based on the internet and emailing with the owner. There was a little "stretched" lingo in the verbage. We were nowhere near the water, lake or pool. But oh well, since it rained anyway. They also said they had internet connection. I called her about this and "lo and behold" there must be something wrong with it, but it is located in another unit. Whatever. We sponged off someones wireless that did'nt need a password. All in all, a good time was had, except for DH who did'nt have good fishing!

Ok, warning, this is a boring post, but I thought for those of you who are wondering about Aldi's prices or want to compare costs for other Aldi's or just other grocery stores, here it is....

Plain bagels 1.39
Boxed au gratin potatoes .85
Mac and cheese .33
Beef Hot dogs 1.97
Frozen apple juice concentrate 12 oz. .85
Wide egg noodles .99
Frozen waffles 10 count .99
Shredded cheese 12oz. 2.79
Fudge brownie mix .97
Snack crackers 16 oz. 1.49
Iceburg lettuce 1 head .59
Instant choc pudding .39
Real Chocolate Chips 12 oz. .99
Sour cream 16 oz. .99
Cream cheese .99
Brown sugar 2 lbs. .88
Thin spaghetti 32 oz. 1.39
Mild Salsa 24 oz. 1.49
Tomato juice 46 oz. .99
Whole grain white bread 1.29
Tortilla chips .99
Cat litter 3.49
Chocolate sauce 1.19

Hope everyone has a great cinco de mayo! We had a lovely Frito-y, cheesey, yummy casserole for dinner!