Going for Not Broke

Thanks to a tummy bug my daughter had then gave to me, I'm a day late posting for this week. Hopefully, I'll be back on track after this. Grocery Shopping The last time I went grocery shopping, I went to a Walmart Supercenter at which I haven't shopped in a couple of years. I wasn't happy with that Walmart's ground beef selection. Most of the packages were 75/25 (25 percent fat), and I prefer 90/10. There was only one package of 90/10, and it was so bloody I didn't want it touching my other groceries. Therefore, I settled on two 2.25-pound packages of 85/15. To make matters worse, the packages didn't weigh out as they were marked. The first thing I usually do after I unpack the groceries is weigh out the ground beef so that I can divide it into as many 1-pound packages as I can get, then turn the rest into 4-ounce hamburger patties, then freeze it all for later use. Therefore, for the two 2.25-pound packages I bought, I should've come up with fou...

Last month, I posted about the new heat-and-air unit my husband and I had to buy. It cost far more than we have, so we had to go further into debt. I don't remember how much it cost exactly, but it was somewhere around $5,000. For a heater, we got a heat pump, which costs a little more than a regular furnace, but the salesman said it would save us money on electricity in the winter. I don't remember by what percentage, but I knew it should be significant. So, when our utility bill came this month, I did a year over year comparison to see how our first month with the new system compared to our electric bill from the previous year. It was $60 lower! I was blown away, and in doing the math, it looks like it saved us close to 40 percent on our bill! However, if the past month was warmer than the previous year, that would make a difference, too, so I can't say for sure how much we saved, but it does look promising so far.

For the first time in months, I took on a little freelance work this past week. It won't net me a big huge payout -- I'll get about $10 total -- and trying to meet my deadline on it cut into my blogging time Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. I hope this is the start of my momentum building. The more I do the work, the faster I'll get at it, which will make it more worth the time. In the meantime, though, I just keep reminding myself that every little bit will help me meet that ever elusive goal of zero debt.

I've been hoping for a chance to install the foot pedal onto my home computer so that I can do some transcribing practice. I'm a fairly fast typist, but translating what I hear into text isn't as easy as just copying something that's already written down. Over the last week, though, I've had a tough time sleeping and I've been battling a rather nasty cold. The result: I haven't done a thing with the foot pedal yet. Hopefully, the next seven days will yield better results. Debt Assessment I wouldn't trade my daughter for anything, but since we've had her, I've become even less organized than I was before. It's been months since my husband and I have looked at our total debt, something we used to do on a monthly basis. I think looking at our total debt periodically is good for us. It's one thing to know it's too high and file it away in the back of your mind, but it's something else to get reminded, to see whether you're...

Because I need to make time to earn extra money, I've decided to cut back my posts here to Wednesdays this year. Occasionally, I might have more than one in a week, for instance, if I see a super good deal I'd like to get the word out about, but in general, all new posts will be on Wednesday mornings only. New Year's Resolution: Make a Huge, Huge, HUGE Dent in My Debt