Well, it looks like things might be getting better at my day job. A few days of being really short-handed and a couple of people quitting seems to have made all the difference! I have also made it known that I want to be back working with my "dogs". I know that most people would rather sit in the air-conditioning and not have make-up run down their face. They would rather have their hair stay stylish than to have it frizz and twisted up on their head.
They would rather have their padded rolling chairs than to be out in the heat scooping up poop. But that is not for me. I've had jobs like that before and I always felt like I was playing a role. I need to be true to myself, but I also need to pay my bills. So I've decided to start "Frugal Friday!" Every Friday I want to give a frugal tip and/or ask for frugal tips. Or maybe I will find a Frugal Blog and talk about that. But I hope to make it informative and REALLY helpful. I see SO many tips like:
Stop getting Speciality Coffee on your way to work or Get rid of Cable or Buy in Bulk.
These are no help to ME. I don't ever get drive-through coffee and I don't have cable and I am only one person so buying in bulk isn't always the solution. To me being frugal doesn't mean to go without the important things in life. Things like Art, Pets, Flowers.
I think it's better to buy one delicious cookie than a whole bag of funny after-taste off brand cookies.
I think it's silly to cut the pocket off of a pair of old jeans and make a handbag with a piece of discarded ribbon as the handle....
unless you are really into that style. I think it's better to haunt the garage sales or Goodwills in the "rich" neighborhoods and pick up a beautiful crafted discarded handbag for $1 or 2.
I mean REALLY, when you figure the amount of time spent making your jean bag, well..... don't you have better things to do? Suddenly the FREE homemade bag isn't so free anymore. And then there's price comparison deals. The other day on a morning show they were talking about bathroom scales. One was over $60. and the other one could be found at a competitors for $20! Such a deal! Or as my Dad would have said..."What kind of deal is that!?" He would have said, "What do you need a scale for? Are your jeans getting tight?"
"Then cut back on the food! What do you need to see numbers for? Look in the mirror!" Yep, my Dad was very frugal. He had nice things and he believed in buying quality items that last. He didn't hang on to much but he used everything to it's fullest. I remember when he got new carpeting. There were left over pieces and he cut it up into smaller pieces. He lined his toolbox and his tools didn't rattle. He lined the shelves in his work room and I came home to find he had stopped by and lined my dog's kennel with a piece. And then he discarded the the rest, he wasn't a packrat. He was a frugal tidy man who grew up in the Depression. He would use the card board roll left from a toilet paper roll and fold up his extension cords and slide them into it.
Nice and tidy. Everything in it's place and not much wasted. I think that I rebelled from that upbringing because he got rid of so many of my things. Now I find myself hanging on to "things" and spending money on silly useless items. I think that after all these years of living paycheck to paycheck and never having enough. Always needing more money... I think that I need to try to be even more frugal than I have been. And that's why I'm starting Frugal Friday!
The other night there was a program on TV which was having a "contest" between USA and the WORLD commercials. The one that won was very cute but this was my favorite! (BIG SURPRISE that it has a dog as the main focal point! LOL!) Anyway, I loved how they showed how their car could SET YOU FREE to be YOURSELF and to find your VOICE to SING! He's so cute! He reminded me of my Ralphie. When he's in the car or in his yard, he's THE KING OF THE WORLD! but he's kinda scared sometimes around people he doesn't know. If I didn't have my van, I'd think about getting this CAR!
http://www.flor.com/room-type.html is happening over at Nita's at Mod Vintage Life. I LOVE mixing Old and New, MODERN and VINTAGE. I just sit and stare at my "FLOR" catalog and just drool. I love the styles and I want some FLOR tiles! Someday, I hope to be able to order a "rug". It's not really expensive but it is to me right now. What's so cool about them is that they are so durable and if there's an accident, you can just pick up that "square" and rinse it off! My animal friendly lifestyle really needs something like that! LOL! But right now I mainly just use their catalog for INSPIRATION. Like the photo above. I want my kitchen floor to look like that dining room. I love the black and white on a diagonal. I love the Modern look of the room with the Retro chairs! I just adore it! So I'm linking up to her Mod Mix (hopefully I will do it right! Ha!) So stop over and see the other mixes.
Yep, one week, That's all it took to get back to square one.
My vacation started on a real roll. I cleared my side yard and filled 15 tall leaf bags FULL of limbs and yard waste and TWO van fulls of branches.
I sorted through all my STUFF and got rid of SO MUCH of it.
I pitched furniture and doors and old bikes and that little trampoline!
(Don't worry! Most of it was carted away by pickers!)
I worked in my garden transplanting my daisies and catmint that is now growing EVERYWHERE. And I gathered together my art supplies and got them closer to my work space where I can begin to CREATE. I felt HAPPY and SURE about how I wanted to LIVE my LIFE. I would not let my Day Job cause me stress any longer. I would put in my time and FOCUS on my time at HOME. I felt at PEACE.
Then I went back to work. After several months of everyone covering for people who were gone on maternity leave, working various hours and overtime in a team effort for the good of the clinic we have been told that our hours will be cut from 40 hours to 35.
That's 10 hours off of every paycheck. Most of us work paycheck to paycheck. Those 10 hours is what pays for gas and groceries. Oh well, I wanted to lose weight and I wanted to have more time to work on my PASSIONS.
So...... I have to remember that "when one door closes, a window opens" (Is that right?! or is it another door? Hmmm, anyway....) I wish that window wasn't so damn high.
I just spent ALL evening trying to get into my blog. Every time I would enter my blog address I would get redirected to a message that said : URL Too Large 414 error. So I typed in some of my favorite blog addresses and when I tried to comment I got: URL Too Large 414 error After whining about it in a phone call to a friend (who had no answer) and after HOURS of trying to figure it out, I walked away. Then came back and finally after much Googling, found an answer from someone who had the same problem. This is what you do: Tools, Internet Options, then - Delete Cookies. So Simple, So Easy, So Quick.......So Maddening!
