Every time I pick up a magazine or turn on the television, I’m reading or hearing about ways to save money. With the economy the way it is and so many people living in debt, it’s really not surprising that this is such a primary topic of conversation. In our family, we’re really having to plan things out carefully before doing anything, everything from having the exterior of the house painted to traveling to California for Thanksgiving, it all as to be planned out and budgeted for.
For many, budgeting comes to late and then, after accumulating too much debt, they need to consolidate debt and need options. Options include everything from debt management, debt settlement, or credit counseling to debt consolidation loans and mortgage refinancing. For us, we’re focused on saving. Saving includes everything from regular savings account to 401k’s.
Of course, saving money isn’t always that easy. There is a give and take. We can take a lot of little weekend vacations, or, we can put the money we’d spend on those weekend getaways into savings. We prefer to save it. Even when I traveled in July for 2 weeks, I had all that money saved up and paid cash for everything that we did. It’s so nice to come home and not have to think about credit card bills coming in after the fact.
In the past though, we have refinanced our mortgage to reduce debt. We have such a low interest rate now that I’m glad we don’t personally need to do that now, but it’s a smart option if you have a good credit rating, can afford the payment and have equity in your home.
Here we are, just coming up on Labor Day and we’re all ready trying to make plans for Thanksgiving.
My husband is right this minute trying to figure out a way for us to fly to California to visit his daughter, her husband and our little grandaughter. We did just see them out here in June, but the little one just turned a year old and they grow up so fast, I’m hoping we can go.
We’ve been discussing this since they were here in June and he brought it up tonight at dinner. I told him if he was going to get airline tickets, he better do it soon. So, there he sits, on his laptop, checking availability!
Isn’t that the cutest little charm? We use our wine glasses all the time, whether it’s just me and my husband drinking or if we have guests. The one thing that always drives me crazy is wondering who’s glass is who’s. Now I’ve found a cute way to identify glasses, simply by putting one of these cute Wine Charms on the stem of the glass. Everyone can tell which glass is theirs simply by the charm and everyone can have a charm that fits their own personality or hobby. There are both pewter and crystal charms to choose from, something for everybody. By the way, if you’re in to sports, there are even sports themed charms that can be customized with the colors of your favorite team!
I found this over at FeeFiFoto and found it fascinating. This video shows what driving a hybrid car can do for our gas mileage! This car is driven from Texas to Canada, 1650 miles. I’ll let you make a guess as to how many times they had to pull off the road to refuel. Go ahead, take a guess. Then watch the 4 minute video to see if you’re correct. Leave me a comment and let me know how you did!
Just for reference, I recently drove a trip with roughly the same mileage and I can assure you, I made many more fuel stops than they did in this hybrid.
My sisters and I recently attended our first vendor exhibit where we were one of the vendors. We had a booth, tables, racks and everything we needed to show our products, our handcrafted purses and tote bags as well as some other items we had all made. Although we did pretty well with our sales, the one thing that concerned me, all three days that we were there, was the fact that none of us had a merchant account of any kind. We could only accept cash, we weren’t set up to accept credit cards.
Since then, I’ve been looking into merchant services that would provide us with a merchant account and allow for credit card processing. Being a small, home based business, we definitely want something that has no sign up fees, low transaction fees and no contracts. I don’t want anything that is complicated. In fact, for a free merchant account, I’m looking at the possibility of using the services of www.onlinecheck.com.
Anyone who has worked similar events, such as craft fairs, etc., let me know how you handle your transactions and what types of payments you accept.
I recently participated in a Fabric Swap and I was so happy to find these fat quarters to send to my swap partner. I loved the summery colors and batik fabrics. I had a lot of fun picking them out. I mailed the package of last week, so hopefully, my swap partner has received it by now and I’m not spoiling her surprise by posting this picture.
Tags: batik, fabric, fabric swap, Wordless Wednesday
