Yesterday the kids and I took a little field trip to our county animal shelter. We had to renew our dog’s license, and while we were there we just had to visit the dogs and cats at the shelter! There weren’t too many dogs, though we we were able to play with some baby pit bulls. I’m not a huge pit bull fan, but those puppies were sure cute! ...

As this post is going live, my poor Pacific Standard Time body has been out of bed for a few hours. I’m in Arkansas right now, and I’m headed to the Walmart Shareholders meeting. Walmart flew me and my fellow Walmart Moms out to Bentonville for the meeting and some other business. I’m looking forward to it, as I heard the Shareholders Meetings are a lot of fun! I’ll ...

Yesterday the bill for my son’s recent emergency room visit came in the mail. I almost passed out when I opened it. We were probably in the treatment room for less than an hour, and the total bill was…drum roll please… $1116.00 Wow.  For two stitches. $476 was for emergency room services, and $640 was for the professional fee.  Fortunately we have insurance and it’s been billed.  Since our ...

We spent the emergency fund this week. Not the whole thing, but boy did it feel like it! The first expenditure was actually planned. We needed a new timing belt on our van, to the tune of $600+. Big repairs like that hurt, but it’s better than buying a new car, which is the alternative. Then Monday night, my son needed to go to the emergency room for stitches, ...

I don’t know about where you all live, but here in Southern Oregon the weather has been all over the place. We’ve gone from rain to hail to sunny days and freezing nights. It sure has been hard to pick something to wear lately! And the weather doesn’t do much for my health either. I’ve been struggling with migraines, as we go from one extreme to the other. It ...

Do you know what tonight is?  It’s family movie night!  I’ve been waiting for this night since Walmart flew me and some of the other Walmart Moms out to New York City for a preview of Secrets of the Mountain! You can see what we had to say in the following video clip. Email readers will need to click through. Click here to view the embedded video. The movie ...

This weekend we move from winter into spring. We’re almost through the first quarter of 2010 already! How are your finances doing, three months into the year? Have you been sticking to your budget? I’m still plugging along with my YNAB 3 budget . I’ve had to make a few tweaks, but we’re on track, for the most part. Have you begun to save for Christmas yet? If not, ...

Wow, what a week! And it’s only half over! I wanted to get a real post up today (yesterday, too), but life has gotten in the way. What started out as a calm, uneventful February is ending with a bang. On Saturday I’m giving my first ever Frugal Workshop, and the preparation has been taking a lot of my time. Mostly because I don’t think of myself as a ...

Oh my goodness, it’s been a beautiful week here in Southern Oregon! The sun has been out, and the temperature has been in the mid-60s. The kids have been having fun playing soccer and basketball outside. I’d love to think spring is around the corner, but as one of my fellow homeschooling moms said yesterday, this is the “February Fake-Out.” Every February the weather gets warm for a week ...

This week my great state of Oregon enacted a couple of tax measures. One of the measures, measure 67, was a much misunderstood tax on corporations, big and small. The pro- tax side marketed the bill in three ways: Schools will have to cut days if the tax doesn’t pass Businesses only pay $10 minimum tax now, and the minimum tax will only be raised to $150 97% of ...