WAY OT: Now that I've lightened up I want to lighten up: Living on a budget with a DS

If you don't have any TV shows that you can't do without you could get rid of cable if you have it and pay $8 a month to stream Netflix. They have a HUGE selection of TV shows and movies to wat*****ase you're ever in the mood.   

If I didn't have two phones on my call plan I would get service w/Boost mobile. My brother uses Boost and has unlimited everything for $50 a month. Boost also has a program called shrinkage, where is you pay your bill on time every so often the price you pay decreases by $5 or so.

I bought a couple of cookbooks a while back called Fix Freeze & Feast and Once a Month Cooking which helps save both time and money.  Some things aren't cooked completely, but are prepped for freezing so they can be cooked later. Since I'm usually cooking for four I follow the instructions provided, but I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult to make the portions smaller to serve just one. With the Once a Month Cooking you basically spend an entire day prepping meals for the whole day. They even give you instuctions on what order to prepare things. Very helpful. It's not all DS-friendly, but there's some good meat recipes and some soups and stews that can be minimally altered to be DS friendly. (Here's a smple one-week menu. http://www.once-a-monthcooking.com/includes/HolidaySamplerFi nal.pdf) 

Check out www.learnvest.com & Mint.com. Learnvest has a "cut your costs bootcamp" where they send you an email each day with ideas on how to cut costs.

I think netflix would work better for me than cable tv.  I am going to check on that.  I'm so techno illiterate.  I don't know how you get your TV hooked up for that.  I kow that I don't get $100 a month enjoyment out of my TV and I resent that bill.

I just got my phone bill reduced from $70 a month to $10.  Woot!  It will take a few months to see that reduction because I had to spend $25 to get switched over, but in about 3 months I will start seeing that big savings.  I switched to be another line on my daughter's plan which allows us unlimited time to talk to each other and also gave me unlimited texting which I have never had.  So I thought that was a win.

Food is a HUGE HUGE HUGE part of my budget and one I really must address.  I do not eat out and I do not do fast food unless I am traveling but my Walmart grocery bill is ridiculous.  I'm going to start tracking all my food costs I think.  I need to get a grip on it.

Thank you for the website link.  learnvest.com?  I need that BOOTCAMP!!!!  THANKS.  I just went to the website to bookmark it and wow it is going to be so helpful!!!!  Woot!!!

~Becky

Suze Orman has a show (I think it's on CNBC).  She also has books out.  I'm going to check our library to see if they have any of them.  She's a no nonsense type and tells it like it is.

I, personally, suck at budgetting, since my DS.  I still cook too much food, and I hate leftovers since my DS.  I'll give Suze a shot and see if she can help me!

I love her.  Did you see the show she did with Octomom?  haha.  It was funny.  Like talking to a brick wall.  I'll look for her books while I am at the library too.  PM me if you find a really good one.

~Becky

I found what I think is a GREAT shopping help!

Its carterware.com



Its 10 bucks for a lifetime license and the guy is on the ball and helpful if something goes awry (I had some downloading mishaps).

anyway, you can make separate lists for all the places you shop (I shop multiple places since a single store doesnt carry everything I need) and you can edit the item so that you can put the price of what the item costs at that store.  You can see you have a running total at the top.

I do a lot of bulk cooking and we dont eat out, so that helps a lot!

That is what I need.  I'm going to check it out.  I have such a poor memory that I couldn't tell you the price of anything so I never know what is a good price or not.  I need to have prices written down.  THANK YOU.

~Becky

You and I must share a good price memory cell!  I cannot remember either (but I do remember random things, like where the lizards put their eggs, how many stripes on a ground squirrel's face, random *important* things!).

What I have done is dug out all the reciepts I have been stashing (you know.. good intentions, path to hell and all) and have whipped them out and have input the information from the there!  Course, only if its a regular price, not a sale price, but anyway, if I have my standard, say Kroger list, I can see if the circular has better prices on it for X thing, or if Publix's regular price is cheaper (she says, laughing, knowing full well Publix is rarely EVER cheaper), or if their circular has a better price. 

The running tally at the top of each of the lists is really great, so I can guesstimate how much I am going to spend (I round up the prices of things to the next dollar, and then I can pretty much know 7% of whatever the total is, is pretty much the price I pay, maybe with a few cents back).

The software also comes with a free prescription reminder too if you need it!  I figured it would be good for me to stash my vitamins in there, and so I can see when I am going to have to put a new proferrin order in, or my spzyme or whatnot! 

I just only got it the day after the last grocery shopping day (I shop every 2 weeks) so this grocery shopping weekend should be telling about if its really as helpful as I think its going to be!  Yaay for help!

You are welcome!

 Becky - 
When I moved to northern Michigan, I literally gave away 75% of my belongings on Freecycle.   I did not have time to have a yard sale, as I needed to pack and move in three weeks.   I have NEVER missed my stuff!    Since that time, I met my husband and consolidated households.   We just had a yard sale and got rid of a bunch of stuff, not even all of it, as we didn't have time to get it all out of storage, and made a THOUSAND dollars!   We couldn't believe it!    I already have a corner of the basement designated for more stuff for next year's yard sale.    I did not sell any clothes, because in the area I came from, they did not sell.    In this area, people aren't too "proud" to buy used clothes, and I had probably 25 people ask me if I had clothes for sale, so next year, I'm putting out clothes too.

Downsizing is great - we are working hard to do so, and it's very liberating.

Before my move I did the normal clean out. To trash and to the local donation places.  What is left should be very sellable.  Hell, a lot of what I donated was sellable.  Where I live now I could have sold all those large clothes I gave away.  

My daughter's bf does a lot of ebaying so I'm going to try to get him to teach me how to do that and I'm going to SELL all that STUFF that I swear I can't even remember what it is.

I have two "collections" that I will keep.  I collect a certain color of green McCoy pottery and I collect old iron door stops.  Other than those two things the rest is GOING.

I guess I have to figure out a way to sell it from NC so I don't have to pay to move it.  Now there's a challenge.  I have no idea how to do that.  Maybe I'll sell the furniture up there and move the small stuff here.  I wonder how long I would have to stay up there to sell the furniture?  One bedroom set.  One OLD dining room set.  One treadmill.   Thinking....thinking....

The DS has changed my life.  In so many good ways.

~Becky

 What era McCoy?    I want to buy a few McCoy or VonBriggle pieces (I have one VonBriggle already)
You know what sold the fastest at my yard sale?  Electronics!  Old stereos, guitars, game boys....sheesh....even if you find them at other garage sales for real cheap and resell them....I can't believe how much I made.....my good china and pretty stuff was the hardest to sell - everybody wanted to pay a dollar for my Waterford....LOL...I'm going to try ebaying that