More Financial Woes

Woe is me. We are in it again. I will talk more about it tomorrow. I Zumba'd my a** off and I can barely keep my eyes open.
Sigh

Passing on GOOD $EN$E

I took daughter to the bank yesterday. They have a new saving program for children where they get pretend bucks for every deposit. After a certain amount of bucks they get to cash in for prizes. They get a new piggy bank and newsletters come in the mail for them. They also get a balance booklet.
I am really excited because I want to teach daughter how to balance a checkbook and how to be responsible with finances. She is three and I think it is important for her to know the value of money.
She was thrilled. The lady asked me how she could help me and daughter (who is the most brilliant child in the world, if I have not mentioned this before) steps in front of me and says "Hi, I would like to open a Kirby Kangaroo account please." The whole bank goes "aaaaaawwwwww." It was precious.
I am going to have to go soon tonight I went to sister's house and she just got the new zumba. OH BOY, did I shake it and I may have even broken it. I am exhausted!

Almost There

Vacation is a week away. This week my friends have all invited me somewhere. I am going to breakfast on Wednesday, pedicure on Thursday and I still need to ready the car and start packing.
All of these outings are great but cost money. Thankfully we have a few extra bucks from the garage sale or I would feel really guilty about going. I hope that we don't go crazy on spending this vacation. I hope that the autopay system is helpful and not hurtful.

In the hopes of finding something outside of selling all my stuff I found a website that I am trying to join to write prayers. I thought my first prayers were great and I hope that they enjoy them. I enjoy writing. I never thought of doing it for money. I think that is one of the great things that the book I Will Teach You To Be Rich is doing for me. I feel like it is pushing me to do more than I thought possible, to expand myself in ways I never thought I could. If I get the assignment, great, if not, I enjoyed the writing and will keep looking for places to do it.
Nice huh?

Money Frustrations - As USUAL

When you suck at money and don't make a ton of it - it really blows!
I know I am trying to dig us out of a financial hole that we dug ourselves in and it is only going to happen one day at a time, but it is so frustrating! I have been on a no interest program for teachers for the past year paying only towards my principle loan that I took out for my Masters program. I am behind by one payment and I was not able to keep my status and therefore am going to be cut off the program. Grrrr....I know it is my fault for being behind but whine whine whine. I will stop now.
I am running out of ideas on how to earn more money. I am not yet at $100 for July and I hope that I will get there. Maybe tomorrow I will wake up with brilliance and ideas!
I am off to bed to dream of millions!

Garage Sale-ing

Was waffling yesterday about whether or not we would have enough stuff to make a decent garage sale. Pulled out more stuff from who knows where to sell and actually had a good deal of it. I checked for tips from garagesalequeen.com and got started pricing, labeling and sorting things. Our computer ran out of ink last night at about ten so husband and I were handmaking signs and consequently high on permanent marker.
Got up bright and early this a.m. and placed my signs about the neighborhood. I sold for a couple of hours then it was off to ballet to take daughter to her class. Husband manned the garage sale while we went. Daughter was so cute, she asked if I was outside "sale-ing."
We got a few people. We got a few drive-by's. Great thing was that the people who did stop all purchased something. I guess I priced things better than last year because last year I had so little sales it was sad.
So I made $44.75 today and then immediately took the left over stuff to Goodwill so it would not sit in the garage for another year.
Well, I am exhausted now and off to bed with a good book.

I am now reading I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak. He is such a great writer. I love the way he expresses things.

Complaining here, complaining there...

Funny thing happened yesterday. I was getting all the stuff that I have been putting in a box in the garage marked "garage sale" and thinking that I was just full of junk! I got all the stuff last night. I really don't have that much. I decided to go through the cupboards and everything to get stuff to sell.
We had a garage sale last year and it was such a flop. I really was trying to charge much more than the people that came wanted to pay. I am charging really low prices but that said I want to sell only things I am willing to sell for very little money. I am going to go through my Christmas stuff to see what I want to sell there too.
I had a tin out and husband laughed and said that no one would buy it. I laughed and said I have seen people buy weirder things.
Off to gather more stuff! Wish me luck!

Shake that Money Maker!

Received another amazing email from Ramit Sethi today. Seriously, if you have not started reading at least the website you need to start. This guy is so funny and practical.
He was talking about how all the advice we hear is about cutting back and saving money but he recommends trying to earn more money. It is so true, we can only save so much. Even if we stopped all our fun activities completely there were certainly be an end as to how much we can save, but earning more - THAT is limitless!
As you know I am starting off by trying to earn an extra $100 per month. I met my goal for June and I am starting by trying to sell some surplus things from home. I know this is temporary but I will be purging unnecessary items while making cash on the side. That is helpful.
So this weekend I am holding my summer garage sale. I hope to make a few bucks. Wish me luck!
I am off to start getting these things ready!