September Goals

So now that August is behind me, what does September hold?  Here are my goals: Short Term Quit smoking.  I know, I know, this is my goal every month.  But with Governor Rell proposing a $1.00 per pack tax increase I have more incentive than ever. Cancel newspaper subscription.  I don’t clip the coupons, and realistically, [...]

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August Review

I suck at this goal-setting thing.  I’m good at setting goals, just not good at achieving them.  I guess I really suck at goal-achieving.  Let’s look at August… Short Term Compare auto insurance prices.  I switched to GEICO. Quit smoking. Cancel digital cable and landline. Start clipping coupons again. Become more vigilant about unplugging appliance that [...]

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August Goals

July was a tough month, for obvious reasons!  August won’t be much better, with Back-To-School shopping for 3 children this year.  (Yes, little Bekah starts Kindergarten!)  Plus, Shaunna has Senior Portraits at the end of the month.  So I’m back to looking for ways to reduce expenses, especially since they cut all overtime at work.  [...]

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So I’ve put it off long enough.

I didn’t do a June recap because I sucked at the goals I set for myself.  But part of achieving my goals is being accountable to someone.  And since I don’t have a significant other, YOU are the people I’ve chosen to hold me accountable. So here goes… Goals I Set for June Lower savings to [...]

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Dude, Where’s My Money?

Suddenly, I can’t seem to get my budget to balance.  My income has gone down and my expenses have gone up, but I didn’t think that it was going to effect me as much as it has. First, my child support has gone down $80-100 a month.  Jim had to pay arrears in the amount of [...]

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I hate grocery shopping

There.  I’ve admitted it.  It’s the first step to recovery, right?  Admitting you have a problem. I hate spending my precious time walking up and down aisles, comparing unit costs, figuring out if using a coupon for item X is better than buying item Y without a coupon. I HATE taking my children to the [...]

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Verizon Discount

Last week, Shaunna went to Verizon to buy a new charger for her Blackberry.  She told me that she got 25% off because I pay my bill on time every month.  I looked all over their website and I couldn’t find anything about this discount, so I don’t know if it’s a local thing.  But [...]

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Learning to say “No.”

Last year, my nephew bought an iPod Shuffle with his birthday money.  Since I already had iTunes loaded on my computer, he came over and we tried to load music on it.  But first we had to download the latest version of iTunes.  Which wouldn’t work on my computer because I still run Windows 2000.  [...]

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Taking frugality too far…

I had to get my drivers license renewed.  It expired the first week of March, but I was more concerned with not being able to get on the plane Sunday than I was with getting a ticket for driving without a license. Here in Connecticut, we have the option of going to AAA and renewing [...]

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The high cost of eating out

I decided that I needed to track my food expenses better.  I know I eat out too much, and I know that I go over my food budget month after month after month. In the month of February, I broke “Food” out into two separate categories – “Groceries” and “Eating Out.”  I spent more on [...]

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