Week Off Successful ... Moneywise

We were able to get quite a bit of work done on our house last week, but nowhere near as much as I had hoped. We spent very little out of pocket, shelling out about $50 for paint and painting supplies. Everything else we were able to get with a gift card for less than $25.

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Getting Inspired

Few things inspire me more to do the work to get my debt paid off than seeing other people do the same thing. Sometimes on Saturday nights, I get a dose of inspiration through watching a show called "Princess" on CNBC. The premise of the show is that a woman who spends like there is no tomorrow gets a series of challenges designed to get her on track financially from Gail Vaz-Oxlade, a financial expert. I've seen Vaz-Oxlade in a similar series called "Til Debt Do Us Part," in which she helps couples do the same. I can't say I really get tips from the shows, but it does help to see others who owe large debt start feeling empowered to take control of it.

Finding a use for gifts you don't use

( Stuart Miles / FreeRangeStock.com ) Question: Someone gives you a present. You open it, give the gifter a sincere smile, and say, "Thank you," but you know that gift is something you'll never use. Not once. What do you do with it later? Me? I keep them. I just can't shake the feeling of guilt that goes along with regifting or selling them. As a result, my family and I have lots of items we either haven't used in years or have never used at all: An electric knife, electric griddle, a big mixer, something called Yonanas. The list goes on and on. But the bottom line is, Yonanas and electric knives don't fit my family's lifestyle. They never have, and I doubt they ever will. So I think I might need to get over feeling like it would be ungrateful to get rid of them and post them in places like Craigslist or some of those online sales sites on Facebook for sale. That way, at least we can have the cash to pay toward part of our debt. Wouldn't...

Trimming the Grocery List

This week is another grocery shopping week, and I'm dreading it. I had at one point managed to get my grocery spending under $175 every two weeks, the last few trips have not gone that well. They've all totaled more than $200, not including any supplementary trips I needed to make later. I'm not really sure what I can do to cut it more at this point beyond rethink what we've been eating. Over the past few months, the price of ground beef has gone up quite a bit, and much of what we eat has ground beef in it. I had been buying the leanest beef available, but on my last grocery trip, I bought 90/10 meat. Perhaps we'll need to eat more chicken.

Going for Not Broke

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