Tripping...

Took an impromptu trip to New Orleans this past weekend. A friend went and took her daughters. I was invited to go along for the ride. It was fun and a real eye opener. People tend to do a lot in excess. The spending, the waste, it was all so much more than I was expecting.

I am back home and dealing with the news that my seasonal job is coming to an end next week. It was expected though so we're planning our frugal summer. Thankfully my Beloved is able to work more in the summer and can pick up side jobs.

Clearing Out the Clutter - Notecards

Today I tackled the two boxes full of note cards today. I use these for addresses, recipes, websites & passwords, and directions for various duties. My two boxes were over flowing. It was quite embarrassing. I had 2 or 3 cards for my beloved Granny Annie who passed away in 2003. I also had one for my uncle who died in 2002! It was obvious that the website usernames and passwords were vastly out of date. 15 minutes later, I had a big pile of 180 notecards in the middle of my living room floor.

We don't have a shredder so I put these into a cauldron and burned them. Passwords and Account numbers, even old ones, don't need to get into the wrong hands!

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Of course, you know that I'm keeping track of the items we give away (besides food) this year. We're also counting items thrown away as they are out of our house. I started a secondary list of the paper clutter items. We're going to have a goal of 1,000 paper items gone from the house this year. 180 down, 820 to go!

Cut The Crap

I joined this group today with the hopes of decluttering our lives even more! I'm amazed at the sheer volume of crap that we manage to have in our lives. I don't think that Hubby & I are hoarders or anything, however, the stuff still is here. My mission is to eliminate it from our lives, one piece at a time.

Make Happiness Happen

In an effort to be more positive, I am posting things that make me happy. I hereby declare Monday as Happiness Day and vow to find things to make me happy all day!

• I am awake with little pain this morning.


• Today is going to be beautiful.


• I still have a job - pink slips went out to the first batch of people last week.


• I have a full day of work today


• I'm feeling quite artistic!!

What makes YOU happy today???

Giving It Up ... Letting Go

We're just 4 1/2 months into our 55 Week Fling. Things are going better than I ever expected. We are not counting food items given away even though I've given away A LOT of food to my mom's friend who is having financial problems and to an online friend of mine who feeds a lot of the kids in her neighborhood.

That being said, we're now at 2,657 items removed from our house. Almost all of them went via Freecycle, though a few were thrown away or sold on Craigslist.

The main thing that I've discovered in this adventure is that we honestly do not miss the items that are gone. We still have some work to do in one room of the house before starting on the garage area, attic, and hubby's shop. I can easily see us getting to an astounding 3, 008 items!

I have kept up the list of items in a spreadsheet. It is astounding to look at that list and know that I had those items in my house.

We have a lot more space now and we're actually enjoying it. It is amazing how those things work.

Living With Less

Oprah is on living with less today. Check it out if you can! I'm watching it and taping it to share with my husband.

It is the little things..

It is the little things that seem to add up. The quick meals out instead of cooking, the soda bought at the gas station instead of planning ahead and bringing your own, the peer pressure to succumb to the monster that is Starbucks. Each of these little things adds up and soon enough a large chunk of your money is gone.

The first thing I have to do in order to reign things in for our family is to start cooking every meal at home. While fast food or restaurant food is convenient, it costs more. This is one area where I am in complete control.

Another place I need to look is at our WalMart runs. Don't bash me for using this store. I live in a town where there are not alternatives. Sadly small town America does not give many alternatives. Driving 30 miles into "town" does not help my environment and until they have rural bus routes here I won't be making that trip unless I have other things to accomplish at the same time. Anyway, hubby runs to WalMart a few times a week when we realize we're out of something. Inevitably, we end up with something that we did not really need.

Together, hubby & I are going to do this. We want me to be a stay at home wife and in order to do that, we must make sacrifices.

What are some of your favorite recipes? I need something quick and tasty!

Wow...Has it been that long?

Life tends to get crazy around here. The season at work ends today so things will hopefully go back to some sort of normal soon. For now, I'm reading homemaker, frugal blogs and am trying very hard to get my frugal mindset back on.

In terms of the goals we had for simplifying our lives in 2008, have been going great. We have surpassed all of our goals. Over 2,500 items have left our house and our lives. It is amazing! And the saying "When your hand is open to give, it is open to receive" is very true. We have been gifted with some amazing things from Freecycle as well.