I feel like I have learned a LOT over the past 4 months. My seasonal business did quite well for 7-8 weeks, but I was running CONSTANTLY 80+ hours a week. BUT I can stay home with the kiddoes for the next year and SURVIVE, between my husband's income and the money I put aside.
We paid off 2 credit cards, so have 2 credit cards and 2 car payments to go. I paid back mom (who was so wonderful to loan us the money to get the business started!), so next year we will do even better.
SO this leaves me 45 weeks out of the year to try and supplement our income. This year, I need to be able to take care of the babies and make $200 per week to keep up with our standard of living.
I just ordered a book on amazon. Sadly enough, it is not available on an e-reader. It is called the TIGHTWAD GAZETTE. It is by far the BEST resource I have found about saving money, yet they DO take it to extremes. I am expecting it on Tuesday, and that, along with a few resources on the internet, my next post will be on the top ideas and resources to save money.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Saturday, September 24, 2011
A Totally AWESOME update!
My husband let me try out the bunk room!!!! OK, so it took a little persuading because it is not traditional, but here is how we have it set up:
Master bedroom: Ours and BABY K- he is still not sleeping through the night at 13 months, so he stays with us.
BR #2 THE BUNK ROOM- which right now, consists of one bunk bed, and 1 crib (which turns into a toddler bed). The closet has many storage areas from bins to those hanging clothes holders, but nothing closed.
BR#3 THE PLAY ROOM/GUEST ROOM- This consists of a daybed, a dresser with a TV on top (out of the babie's reach!) and a small bookcase with a lamp. The top drawer will be craft supplies, markers, pens, pencils, etc. The third will be for games and board games. The bottom two are yet to be determined.
I plan on taking over the 3rd bedroom closet for food storage so we can save money by buying in bulk. Since we are in a hurricane evacuation area, we will want to have a decent food storage.
Anyway, this idea has turned out to be spectacular!!!! LIL C (our 2 year old) can be napping while (BIG M- our 9 year old) is doing his homework.
Still, BABY K (our little 1 year old) can throw toys around, scream and squeal as he wishes in BR 3. While BABY K is destroying the room, BIG C (our 12 year old) can watch TV and keep an eye on BABY K at the same time!
END RESULT: Better study time for BIG M who has SEVERE concentration issues. TV time for BIG C without distracting BIG M. BABY K and LITTLE C can get naps any time without being woken up....
PLUS- when family visits, they have a seperate room. Also if one of your kids has a sleepover, they can have some privacy away from their siblings. IT works so much better than traditional room sharing!
If you have more people than bedrooms, this is a great setup and has made everyone happy.
Master bedroom: Ours and BABY K- he is still not sleeping through the night at 13 months, so he stays with us.
BR #2 THE BUNK ROOM- which right now, consists of one bunk bed, and 1 crib (which turns into a toddler bed). The closet has many storage areas from bins to those hanging clothes holders, but nothing closed.
BR#3 THE PLAY ROOM/GUEST ROOM- This consists of a daybed, a dresser with a TV on top (out of the babie's reach!) and a small bookcase with a lamp. The top drawer will be craft supplies, markers, pens, pencils, etc. The third will be for games and board games. The bottom two are yet to be determined.
I plan on taking over the 3rd bedroom closet for food storage so we can save money by buying in bulk. Since we are in a hurricane evacuation area, we will want to have a decent food storage.
Anyway, this idea has turned out to be spectacular!!!! LIL C (our 2 year old) can be napping while (BIG M- our 9 year old) is doing his homework.
Still, BABY K (our little 1 year old) can throw toys around, scream and squeal as he wishes in BR 3. While BABY K is destroying the room, BIG C (our 12 year old) can watch TV and keep an eye on BABY K at the same time!
END RESULT: Better study time for BIG M who has SEVERE concentration issues. TV time for BIG C without distracting BIG M. BABY K and LITTLE C can get naps any time without being woken up....
PLUS- when family visits, they have a seperate room. Also if one of your kids has a sleepover, they can have some privacy away from their siblings. IT works so much better than traditional room sharing!
If you have more people than bedrooms, this is a great setup and has made everyone happy.
Friday, August 12, 2011
stay at home
There is absolutely nothing wrong with staying at home with the kids. After all, kids are a 24/7 job. On the other hand, if you want to stay at home, there are many people who still would like to have their own money for personal reasons.
Some people may want it so they feel like less of a burden. Others would like to buy things that their spouse doesn't disapprove of, but it is not in the budget or may have to make another sacrifice.
Then, there the need for extra income while you are unemployed, paying off credit card debt, saving for a down payment on a home, or saving to start a business. Whatever your reason is, there are a LOT of ways to make money on the internet or while your children are around.
I am able to care for my children, cook, clean, AND bring in some extra income between it all. We get free dinners, gift cards, and all sorts of other free things! PLUS I easily pull in a couple hundred bucks a month extra. I don't even have to go anywhere I don't normally go! I NEVER paid a fee for any of the stuff I do. In fact, I am evaluating my first investment into an online business right now, and will update you on that shortly (and I will recommend it or not only at that time).
How do I do this? Well, there is not just one way I do this, and there are a few things I must say before I go any further:
1. The income potential is MUCH higher than I am giving you. The main reason: this doesn't count referrals. Until now, I never went public with what I do.
2. You do NOT HAVE to pay anything to make money online, but it is hard work. It doesn't come overnight, but the rewards can be life changing.
3. I did not add anything to this list you need any special skills for. I left these out intentionally. So there is no blogging, web page design, etc. required for these programs.
I am working hard to get a list together to help anyone make some money online in their spare time. Imagine a $50 check each month for just doing some computer work while you are cooking dinner. If you are like me, fifty bucks is an extra 600 per year.
You can find this list HERE
Some people may want it so they feel like less of a burden. Others would like to buy things that their spouse doesn't disapprove of, but it is not in the budget or may have to make another sacrifice.
Then, there the need for extra income while you are unemployed, paying off credit card debt, saving for a down payment on a home, or saving to start a business. Whatever your reason is, there are a LOT of ways to make money on the internet or while your children are around.
I am able to care for my children, cook, clean, AND bring in some extra income between it all. We get free dinners, gift cards, and all sorts of other free things! PLUS I easily pull in a couple hundred bucks a month extra. I don't even have to go anywhere I don't normally go! I NEVER paid a fee for any of the stuff I do. In fact, I am evaluating my first investment into an online business right now, and will update you on that shortly (and I will recommend it or not only at that time).
How do I do this? Well, there is not just one way I do this, and there are a few things I must say before I go any further:
1. The income potential is MUCH higher than I am giving you. The main reason: this doesn't count referrals. Until now, I never went public with what I do.
2. You do NOT HAVE to pay anything to make money online, but it is hard work. It doesn't come overnight, but the rewards can be life changing.
3. I did not add anything to this list you need any special skills for. I left these out intentionally. So there is no blogging, web page design, etc. required for these programs.
I am working hard to get a list together to help anyone make some money online in their spare time. Imagine a $50 check each month for just doing some computer work while you are cooking dinner. If you are like me, fifty bucks is an extra 600 per year.
You can find this list HERE
Sunday, July 24, 2011
washing soda , white vinegar , and boric acid as cleaners
I spent the day on Friday researching homemade cleaning recipes. I did this for several reasons. The first one is due to the amount of cleaning supplies we currently use. I am purely guessing, but I am going to try to average what we use for a month in cleaning supplies:
1 lg bottle laundry detergent- $14.00
1/2 dishwasher detergent- $1.50
1 bottle dish soap- $1.00
fabric softener- $2.50
carpet refresher- $3.00
1/3 furniture polish- $1.00
all purpose cleaners and wipes- $3.00
upholstery cleaner- $3.00
We use a few other things, but they are in such small amounts that it is not worth adding in the cents of it we use every month. So we use roughly $30 a month or so in high end cleaners.
I decided for my Spring cleaning in July to go au natural, that is, not using the stuff I normally do. Because I wanted to try out cleaning as naturally as possible with as little money as possible, I researched different cleaners, gambled with how they would work, and am here to share my experience with the natural solutions I used. I learned a lot today! Now, just for the record, I used normal laundry detergent because I just bought a HUGE container of the cheap stuff, and want to use the container when it is gone for my homemade trial. So I used regular laundry detergent.
What did I clean, what did I use, how did it work?
I did a thorough cleaning of our bedroom today. Our bedroom for now is a bedroom for 4. Our 23 mo. old and 11 mo. old are in cribs in our room.
The wood-
Lemon juice and olive oil seems to be the norm for furniture polish. I varied this to what I had on hand, which was lime juice (from making salsa) and I have all sorts of oil, but canola oil is SOOOO much cheaper than olive oil, so I tried that.
My results? It didn't smell like much at all, but the mixture cleaned the furniture and gave it a great shine. The part I was shocked about though is that some of the scratches that were previously there just "disappeared". Instantly. I have never seen this with the store bought stuff, although it has a great lemon scent. That is the trade off (unless of course I ever decide to invest in some essential oils).
The carpets and upholstery-
We have a carpet cleaner, but I refuse to pay 20 bucks for carpet cleaner (our recommended brand for our carpet cleaner). So I tried using vinegar. 1/2 vinegar and 1/2 water. I tried this with both our couch and our carpets. The carpets were only dirty from shoes, but the vinegar water solution did really well removing the stains. The "miracle" was with the couch. Our lil ones fall asleep with milk bottles and cups on the couch constantly, which leaves huge outlines of stains. We have tried to remove the milk stains with upholstery cleaner, and they did OK. But the couch removal was INCREDIBLE... It looked NEW!!!!! White vinegar worked wonders for this.
I mixed 1/6 borax, 1/6 washing soda, and 1/6 white vinegar with 1/2 water. It is not rocket science, so just eyeball them. This is what I used as a multipurpose, and it worked just as well as my normal cleaner. However, what I did notice is that is you leave it on rather than just wipe it off, it takes marks off immediately.
My conclusion? Getting started on "natural" cleaning is worth it. 100%. It cost me around 7 bucks to buy the borax, white vinegar, and washing soda, and the rest we had around the house. But I believe firmly that these 3 products are worth the minimal investment. I am going to do some research on other uses for these products, and post even more uses.
As always, thanks for reading!
1 lg bottle laundry detergent- $14.00
1/2 dishwasher detergent- $1.50
1 bottle dish soap- $1.00
fabric softener- $2.50
carpet refresher- $3.00
1/3 furniture polish- $1.00
all purpose cleaners and wipes- $3.00
upholstery cleaner- $3.00
We use a few other things, but they are in such small amounts that it is not worth adding in the cents of it we use every month. So we use roughly $30 a month or so in high end cleaners.
I decided for my Spring cleaning in July to go au natural, that is, not using the stuff I normally do. Because I wanted to try out cleaning as naturally as possible with as little money as possible, I researched different cleaners, gambled with how they would work, and am here to share my experience with the natural solutions I used. I learned a lot today! Now, just for the record, I used normal laundry detergent because I just bought a HUGE container of the cheap stuff, and want to use the container when it is gone for my homemade trial. So I used regular laundry detergent.
What did I clean, what did I use, how did it work?
I did a thorough cleaning of our bedroom today. Our bedroom for now is a bedroom for 4. Our 23 mo. old and 11 mo. old are in cribs in our room.
The wood-
Lemon juice and olive oil seems to be the norm for furniture polish. I varied this to what I had on hand, which was lime juice (from making salsa) and I have all sorts of oil, but canola oil is SOOOO much cheaper than olive oil, so I tried that.
My results? It didn't smell like much at all, but the mixture cleaned the furniture and gave it a great shine. The part I was shocked about though is that some of the scratches that were previously there just "disappeared". Instantly. I have never seen this with the store bought stuff, although it has a great lemon scent. That is the trade off (unless of course I ever decide to invest in some essential oils).
The carpets and upholstery-
We have a carpet cleaner, but I refuse to pay 20 bucks for carpet cleaner (our recommended brand for our carpet cleaner). So I tried using vinegar. 1/2 vinegar and 1/2 water. I tried this with both our couch and our carpets. The carpets were only dirty from shoes, but the vinegar water solution did really well removing the stains. The "miracle" was with the couch. Our lil ones fall asleep with milk bottles and cups on the couch constantly, which leaves huge outlines of stains. We have tried to remove the milk stains with upholstery cleaner, and they did OK. But the couch removal was INCREDIBLE... It looked NEW!!!!! White vinegar worked wonders for this.
I mixed 1/6 borax, 1/6 washing soda, and 1/6 white vinegar with 1/2 water. It is not rocket science, so just eyeball them. This is what I used as a multipurpose, and it worked just as well as my normal cleaner. However, what I did notice is that is you leave it on rather than just wipe it off, it takes marks off immediately.
My conclusion? Getting started on "natural" cleaning is worth it. 100%. It cost me around 7 bucks to buy the borax, white vinegar, and washing soda, and the rest we had around the house. But I believe firmly that these 3 products are worth the minimal investment. I am going to do some research on other uses for these products, and post even more uses.
As always, thanks for reading!
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