Expressions of Perceptions

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I’m amazed at all the times people think that because I’m home I must not be busy.  I must have my feet propped up with the television on.  Maybe I’m flipping through a catalog or magazine to see what I should friviously spend my hard-working husband’s wages on.  Yes, “home” means lazy.  If I’m home, I must not have anything to do.

Wow.  I can barely imagine being bored at home.  My children don’t cook for themselves, dress themselves, change their own diapers, clean up their messes, wash their own dishes, wash and fold their own laundry, or school themselves.  Also, my house doesn’t clean itself, vacuum, dust, mop, or otherwise help with clean-up.  My clothes and dishes don’t wash or dry themselves either.  And don’t even get me started on the checkbook, budget, grocery list, or other paperwork that requires concentration not even remotely possible when my children are around.

I don’t know about you, but I think I’m busier at home than I am when I’m lugging my kids around to soccer and cheerleading.

I’m not angry at the people who think I do nothing though.  Honestly, it makes me wonder what THEY do all day.

I admit that I do alot of work that others deem unnecessary.  I homeschool, but most others send their children off to public school.  I can as much produce as possible at the end of summer, but most people just buy their canned goods at the store.  I cook from scratch, but most people go out to eat or cook convenience food.  I’m sure there’s more, but I think I’ve explained it well enough as is.

I suppose I could be less busy at home if I really wanted to, but I’d be compromising who I am and what I believe, and I can’t in good conscience do that.  I’m at stay-at-home home-schooling health-nut frugal mommy who tries her best but still can’t figure out why there always has to be at least 20 building blocks on the living room floor less than 20 minutes after I clean all the toys up.

So, don’t worry about interrupting me, but please don’t assume I’m just being a couch potato all day either.

I haven’t written anything on this website in quite a while.  Life has been busy.  Things have been forgotten.  Time has been a precious commodity.

Just now though, as I was sitting at the table cutting up watermelon and tomatoes for with dinner tonight, my mind wandered and I began thinking.  There’s so much that I want in life.  Maybe too much.  Maybe unrealistic things.  Maybe more than I deserve.  But I want.

Lately though, I’ve seen God begin to really work in other people’s lives.  He’s closing some doors and opening others.  He’s really pouring out His blessings.  I’ve noticed it alot with others, but sometimes i fail to see it in my own life.

I’m incredibly blessed.  Maybe God isn’t giving me everything I want all at once, but I can’t deny that He’s working in my life.  He’s blessing me, even if I’m focused on #’s 2 & 3 of my list of “wants” while He’s blessing me with #’s 27 & 48.  27 & 48 aren’t insignificant, but they get less of my focus than 2 & 3 do.

Some day maybe I’ll get #’s 2& 3, or maybe even 1-20, who knows?!  But I shouldn’t be disappointed by 27 & 48.  They’re still blessings, and God is still working.  I just need to open my eyes and be grateful for what I’ve got instead of focusing on all that I want. 

Life is good, and I am blessed.  That’s where my focus should be.

Since so many things have been breaking around here lately, I’ve needed more money than I’ve been earning.  Getting a job in my area wasn’t an option, and wallowing in self-pity wasn’t working either.  I knew there had to be a way to earn money from home working part-time, seriously, I even wrote a book on it!  So, I got out a copy of my book and began searching through it for an income stream that might work for me.

Truth be told, I was already doing two of the jobs I had written about in my book, but they’re both very part-time, and I needed more money.  Finally, I came to the chapter I had written about working at home as a customer service representative.  Some businesses were very rigid in their scheduling, but one of the resources I had listed was absolutely perfect for my situation.

And so, I got started as an independent agent taking calls for infomercials from the comfort of my own home – after my kids go to bed at night.  I did a little bit of training, had an additional telephone line installed for only around $14 per month, paid for my background check, bought a headset telephone, and started working.  Since I was nervous, it seemed stressful at first, but once I got the hang of it, I found that I really do like doing it.

I make my own schedule, the pay is good, and I get to work from home.  There’s not much more that I could as for.  Well, maybe I could ask for things to quit breaking, but with regards to the job, I’m completely satisfied.

Some people feel that they are stuck in their job, earning only what their current job pays.  The reality is that there are other ways to earn money.  Trust me, I wrote a book on 100 of them (hence the title “100 Income Streams for Full-time Moms”), and I personally do 3 of them.

It’s not always easy juggling jobs and 3 kids, but it is possible.  Don’t feel stuck.  If you’re not happy with your income, you can earn more without taking on another full-time job.  Just do your research.  The opportunities are out there.

I’m very blessed to have found such a great opportunity that fits so well with my family life.  This new job is certainly a blessing from God, and I’m incredibly grateful to Him for it.  That’s just more proof that He really does take care of and provide for His own.

I always assumed that I was saving money and getting the best possible price on nearly all of the items that I purchased at my local Dollar General store.  After all, a dollar store is a place for absolute rock-bottom prices, right?  Surely the prices I was paying had to be the lowest… or not.

With my oldest daughter’s upcoming birthday, I was desperately trying to find some fake gold coins to put on her “Jake and the Neverland Pirates” birthday cake.  I didn’t want to pay the outrageous price that I found them for on ebay, but I’d looked at other stores with no luck at all.  My aunt told me that she’d seen them at the Dollar Tree, so I went there to look.

I took my two youngest children with me so they could pick out their older sister’s birthday presents, because with their extreme generosity I couldn’t afford to take them anywhere where things were more than $1.  We went up and down every aisle in the store, and I was amazed at the selection.  Everything in the store was priced at $1.  I expected nothing but junk, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Although I found the gold coins I was looking for, I also found other good deals.  Instead of paying $1.75 for 12 disposable birthday plates at the Dollar General, I paid $1 for 24 at the Dollar Tree.  Plastic cutlery was equally inexpensive.  I was thrilled when I saw the selection of craft items there and picked up multiple packs of beads, string, and other craft supplies for my daughter.  She says she’s going to be an artist when she grows up, and I’m so glad that I finally found an affordable place at which to buy her craft supplies.

Although the Dollar General is right in the town where I live, the money I saved at the Dollar Tree more than made up for the gas I used to drive there.  Besides, I went out of town to buy milk anyway, so I was already near the Dollar Tree anyway.  My budget’s about maxed out for the remainder of this month, but next month, I plan to make another trip to the Dollar Tree and spend alot less at the Dollar General.  I always thought that all dollar stores were basically the same.  I wish i had known sooner how incredibly wrong I was.

In the past couple of weeks or so, I’ve managed to kill 2 blenders, a computer, and a breadmaker.  Also, the dashboard warning light came on in my van, and I’m slightly leery that my hair dryer may start to shoot fire.  I don’t know how or why technology and I became so incompatible so quickly!

When the blender that I just got for Christmas died, the company sent me a new one, but I had to pay about $10 for shipping.  The first time I used the new blender they had sent me, it broke.  My breadmaker is only a few years old, but I use it practically daily, as I make all of our bread products from scratch.  The computer, well I don’t know much about computers, so I don’t know what went wrong with it.  The van: “check engine”.  The hair dryer: “pop”, burning smell.

Yes, I’ve developed quite the knack for breaking things, but I haven’t quite gotten the knack for replacing them.  After all, things cost money, and I just can’t afford to replace and/or repair that many things at once.

I admit, I was pretty down about it all.  I was sad, angry, depressed, and frustrated.  I need a blender because I make smoothies for breakfast every morning.  They’re quick, easy, healthy, and my kids don’t even taste the spinach and asparagus I put in them!  The blender was something I would have to replace.

Thankfully, my mother had a blender that she had never even used, and being the wonderful mother that she is, she gave it to me.  The first time I used it, my kids were so excited to tell that Mommy used the new blender and it didn’t even smoke!

Another wonderful woman, my mother-in-law, gave me her breadmaker because she rarely used it.  I’ve been using it, and it works great.  I’m so grateful to these generous people in my life.

I’m not a good “taker”.  I’m more comfortable giving than receiving, probably because I don’t like to need anyone or anything from anyone.  I feel the need to always be strong and in control.  I can’t let myself rely on others because I can’t be that vulnerable, but in the past month, I’ve received help from many other people.  Yes, I was uncomfortable, but it was truly great.  Other people were meeting my needs and caring for me.

I thrive as being someone who takes care of others, but I just didn’t have it in my budget to take care of everything that needed taken care of.  It wasn’t easy letting others help, but it was definitely worth it.  I’m not good at asking for things, but I guess sometimes it’s okay to accept help.

I will forever be trying to whittle down my budget.  Most recently, my focus has been on lowering my monthly food expenditures.  My kids are growing, and eating more, but I didn’t think I was buying much more food than I was a year ago.  If so, I didn’t think it was a very significant amount.

Then, I read an article on Yahoo News that stated that grocery prices had gone up 11% in 2011.  Great – so my kids are eating more, and groceries are more expensive!  (I hope you caught the sarcasm on that one!)

Last month, I was able to trim 5% off of my food expenditures.  I was going to try for another 5% this month, but my oldest daughter’s birthday is this month, and boy has she made her food requests known, so I think I’ll wait until next month to try to cut my food budget any further.

It should get easier as the year goes on though.  I’m planning to do alot of gardening.  I’ve already started my seeds inside, and so far my quinoa and two different kinds of tomatoes have sprouted.  My kids love fresh fruits and vegetables, so growing them ourselves should reduce the amount we purchase considerably.

I’ve kicked around the idea of getting chickens, as we love chicken and eat alot of eggs, but so far I’m not planning to raise any.  We live right in the middle of town, and although we do have a yard, there are alot of stray cats and around here who would probably also like to have chicken for dinner.  Besides, the chicken coop alone would be more of an investment than I might want to make right now.  Nonetheless, someday I would like to have chickens.  The baby chicks were pretty cute when we saw them at Tractor Supply Co today.

So, with growing kids, I’m trying to decrease my food expenditures while the price of food continues to rise probably as much as the amount of food my family eats increases.  It’s a daunting task, but at least for this year I think I can handle it.

Last week, I received a letter from my bank’s collection department.  Upon reading it, I learned that I was charged a $20 late fee, for the past 2 months, for late payments on my home equity line of credit, and that I had overdue payments.  Unsure as to how this happened, I called the bank right away.  After all, I didn’t want this to ruin my credit.

I didn’t understand how I could have late fees or overdue payments since the loan was set up to deduct my monthly payments directly from my checking account.  The payments had been deducted from the opening of the line of credit clear through December of last year.  I had more than enough money in both my checking account and savings account to cover the payments.  How could my payments be late if the bank was responsible for withdrawing the money?

I had been paying extra on the loan to pay it off much sooner than it’s due, and apparently that threw the computer off, or so I’m told.  My extra payments apparently stopped the computer from deducting the monthly payments, which were a much smaller amount than my extra payments.

My extra payments of $250 here and $400 there still left me with an overdue balance on my $132 monthly payment.  I still don’t understand how paying 2-3 times as much as is due qualifies my payments as irrelevant, and thankfully neither did the collections agent.  She put me on hold to sort things out.  When she came back on the phone, she said that my late fees would be reversed and that it would be taken off of my credit report since the issue was due to a computer glitch instead of human error on my part.

I could have just taken a check to the bank to cover the late fees and pay my outstanding balance right away, but I’m glad I didn’t.  Had I done that, the issue that wasn’t even my fault would have negatively impacted my credit score, and I would have unnecessarily paid late fees that I shouldn’t have even been charged in the first place.

When you receive a collections letter, it’s natural to try to rush through the payment process to try to get the problem cleared up as quickly as possible, but sometimes a little bit of patience and clear-thinking will produce a much better outcome.  If this ever happens to you, try to relax and figure out the situation.  It’ll produce a much better result than fearfully paying a bill that you might not even owe.

I went to the store today to pick up a few things, but while I was there, I saw that the fall and winter clothing was on clearance, so I picked up a jacket for my youngest child and a jacket for my oldest.  After all, they were only $3 each… or so I thought.

The sign on the clothing rack said $3.  Another sign stated that blue dot and gray dot apparel was only $3.  The jackets were both on $3 racks and had gray dots on their tags.  Unfortunately, at the register, they rang up for full-price.

Usually I pay very close attention at check-out, but today the cashier had me quite distracted with some wonderful news, like prodigal son type news, and it affected both me and her.  So, when she told me the total, I paid and left, not really thinking about prices very much.  Since I’m on a budget though, I had to review my receipt at home to record my purchases, and I was surprised to see that I was charged full price for both jackets.

So, what do you do if you’re overcharged?  Had I been paying attention when the cashier was ringing up the jackets, I could’ve questioned the price right away.  Then, either the cashier would have adjusted the price for me, or I would’ve had to decide whether to pay full price or put the jackets back.  Now that I’m home, my options are to either keep the jackets that I paid full price for, or return them to the store. 

Although my budget does allow for my occasional impulse shopping, it lets me know how much money I can afford to spend on impulse purchases.  That helps me to not feel guilty if I sometimes overpay or buy something unnecessary.

So, what do you do if you’re overcharged?  That’s up to you.  Whatever you do though, use your budget!

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Winner will be drawn on Valentine’s Day, Tuesday, February 14th!

I received an extra sewage bill in my mailbox last week.  I didn’t stress over it much because I figured that surely it had to be a mistake.  A couple days later, I called about it, sure that I would be told to just throw it away, but to my surprise, I was told that I had to pay it – even though the account wasn’t in my name, nor had I ever co-signed for it!

It turns out that the previous tenants at my other house had NEVER paid their sewage bill.  It was in their name.  They lived at the residence.  They agreed to bear the responsibility for it in the lease that they signed.  But they never paid it, ever, the entire time they lived there.

Apparently, if a tenant doesn’t pay their water and/or sewage bills, the property owner is responsible for those bills, no matter what the lease says.  The owner legally has to pay them, though the owner can sue the tenants for reimbursement.

I did not know that.  I wish I had.  I also wish that the township had notified me much sooner about the outstanding sewage bill instead of letting the balance continue to grow each month for the entire time the tenants lived there and then presenting it to me 6 months after I had evicted them.

Nonetheless, this is a word of caution to you (and me):  Be careful who you let rent from you.  Remember, if they don’t pay their bills, you might have to!