One of these days, life is going to slow down long enough for me to get back to blogging all of the great things I want to share. . In the meanwhile, this was too good not to share with you.

I shared how to make mock swiffer pads and other cleaning supplies in Put Your Budget on a Diet, but I didn’t know you could also make Swiffer Duster refills to be reusable at home! Yahoo!

I was pretty excited to find these instructions, which I plan on trying out for my self sometime soon, from Hickery Holler Farms’ blog.

Love it!

Those swiffer dusters make short work of dusting, especially my ceiling fans. I hope this is helpful to you too!

Lately, I’ve heard the word “enough” quite a few times, mostly in the form of questions. The question is usually phrased in one of a few different ways:

But is that going to be enough?

That’s not enough, is it?

Sometimes, it’s even phrased as a statement:

I don’t see how that’s going to be enough to make a difference!

Mostly this question of enough has been experienced by me after having five different friends, all in varying forms of financial crisis, read my new book, “Put Your Budget on a Diet”. I have three friends in foreclosure/bankruptcy, two with huge medical bills, and all five of these friends are facing stagnant wages with rising expenses. I wanted to find out if the information in the book was generally useful.

Just one dollar make a difference

Last week, as I met with a friend down in the city, she was talking to me about my savings plan that I talk about in Put Your Budget on a Diet, where I put every $1 bill I receive back as change into savings. I call this “The One Dollar Plan”. It’s simple, but effective.

She was dismissive.

“I don’t see how that’s going to be enough to make a difference!”

I know the feeling. I do.

I like to look at the long term. If I know I will need to get to a certain spot by a certain date, I will figure out how much I need to save by then. Oh, wait, I don’t have enough to put that much into savings, I’ll realize.

So how do I did I deal with this issue in the past?

I’d not put anything into savings. After all, my best is not going to be good enough.

The Question to Answer

So I asked her the question. If you’re thinking that putting aside every $1 bill and any loose change into your savings account is not enough, then you need to ask yourself the question too. What’s the question?

How much are you putting into savings right now?

When it came to Mary, the answer was that zero was going into savings on a regular basis. Not a surprise. That’s the answer most people give. All five of my test readers said the same thing. Four of them are half way to their emergency fund goals just from having the $1 plan in place for three months, after realizing the simple fact that $1 is more than $0.

Let that sink in. Say it to yourself a few times.

One Dollar is More than Zero Dollars.

Stick it with a sticky note in your wallet if you have to.

We know we need an emergency fund, but when we can’t put what we think we should into it, what we think would be enough, so we don’t put in anything. We know we should save to replace our cars, but we don’t put anything aside for those either.

Here’s what I told her, and what I’m telling you: $1, if that’s all you’re putting into savings, is still more than Zero.

The Habit to Build

For our family, though we didn’t realize it at the time, the value of putting even a dollar into the savings account went well beyond the dollar we were setting aside for emergencies. As I look back on this habit of saving, I am able to see the truth. It’s not about what is and is not enough, especially if you’ve grown up as I have as part of the generation that spends everything we earn plus going into debt for what we think we should have over and above our income.

The act of saving all loose coin and all dollar bills was not as much about the amount we were putting into the bank, and whether or not it would be “enough” for our goals. Not at all.

The act of saving even a small amount was more about building a habit of not spending everything I had in my wallet, and then some.

When my husband and I would decide that I’d have, for example, $100 in grocery money for a certain week, he often teased me that I’d somehow manage to spend $102.67. No kidding.

Most of my friends would say I was frugal, so I felt it was okay that I always went a dollar or two over. I was doing better than most people.Two dollars isn’t going to make a difference. Two dollars is hardly enough to make a difference.

But, that wasn’t the point.

There was a habit there, whether reasonable and understandable or not, of spending just a little bit more than I had budgeted and then saying, “Oh well, I’m still doing pretty good compared to most people”

When I got into the habit of putting every individual dollar bill and coin into a separate part of my wallet and then into my savings account as soon as shopping was over, I was building a new habit. A better habit. This habit may not have been enough to become financially free in six months, but it was a new habit that was breaking the old habit that would keep me from ever becoming financially free. It was the habit of spending less than budgeted.

Worrying about whether or not it would be enough was just an excuse. A form of procrastination. Sometimes it was even a pity party about not having enough.

I’ve learned that if you think what you have is not enough, it never will be.

The habit not only helped us get used to not viewing the amount in our wallets as what we get to spend today but it also surprised me by fully funding my emergency fund in under a year….$1 is more than we realize. It is enough.

Hi all. I know it’s been a while since I last posted. Life has been pretty busy here at my house.We’ve been focusing, as a family, on saving even more money on our household budget, as expenses keep rising. If only pay rose too!

In doing so, I sat down and wrote a brand new book on saving money in every area of our household budgets. The book is called “Put Your Budget on a Diet: Practical Advice for Saving Money in Every Area of the Household Budget, One Step at a Time”.  I have a special pre-order offer for you at the end of this post, so keep reading.

In this book, I’ve gone through each area of the household budget, not just saving on groceries, to help us all cut back even more.

The main problem with most money saving books is that they focus primarily on saving money on our grocery bill. Although it is pretty easy to carve out extra money through smart shopping techniques, as I talk about in my book Shopping and Cooking Frugally, our family was so strained, we started to look at other areas in our household budget, like our insurance, our electric bill, and our heating bill. The result was a monthly savings of nearly $1000, almost twice what our goal of saving $500 was!

Pre-Order Put Your Budget on a Diet in time for Christmas

This book is already available at Amazon.com as a Kindle Ebook for just $2.99, which is a great deal.

I’m also making the print edition available to you in this pre-order special. The normal price for this print book will be $19.99, but I’m offering it to you for just $15.95. The book will ship out on November 30th, just in time for Christmas.

In fact, if you know any families that are struggling this year, this would make a great gift for them. Think of it as a gift that keeps on saving. If you’d like to order 10 or more, contact me for special pricing!

The Super Saver Special

Also until December 15th, I have a Super Saver Special I’m offering.

I’m selling the pre-order of my book, Put Your Budget on a Diet plus my book Shopping and Cooking Frugally, bundled together for just $25.00! This would be a great gift idea for yourself or someone else.

Shopping and Cooking Frugally is your guide to saving big money at the grocery store. You’ll learn

• how to plan a menu and shopping list
• how to wisely use coupons for maximum savings
• frugal cooking techniques that maximize flavor
• how to feed teens on a tight budget
• how to make dozens of frugal dishes that will become family favorites.

This bundle will ship out on November 30th, just in time for Christmas!

I love Autumn in Michigan, because the sights, smells, colors, and flavors are a refreshing treat after the heat of summer starts to wear on me. My dear husband prefers the hot weather. I prefer the cold. You have to love how opposites attract.

Seasons in life change too.

I started this website almost nine years ago now (gulp).

I’ve struggled to write more and more “on topic” because the topics of my life have changed with the seasons. I’m still a mom. I still homeschool. I still work to be frugal. I still serve God. But, there’s been a shift that has shifted more and more.

To be sure, life has been so weird in the last two years, as we’ve struggled with a house in foreclosure, the insane inflation that our leaders still insist doesn’t exist, and trying to figure out where we as a family fit in all of this.

We’ve had some seriously deep discussions in our household, as we’ve moved into this new season — a season with kids who are no longer kids, a season where our oldest has graduated and works, and our next oldest is about to join her, a season where we have no clue what next year holds as we await the dreaded eviction notice and cynically wonder how much the next paycut is going to be. We hope we won’t get one of those, but it’s hard to not brace for it, since it’s happened so much.

My husband went from being very indifferent about me writing to my biggest cheerleader in these nine years, as I write here, write on a few other sites including Hub Pages, and as I create a few ebooks. He has even started to write too, on Hub Pages, through me, giving me ideas to work from. He was pointing out that part of the change has not been so much with the age of our kids, but just how much we’ve changed through parenting them. He and I were different people too.

Twelve years ago when I started writing the articles that would be on the first version of this website, I was a mom with 5 kids 7 and under. I was in a mode where I thought I knew everything (the more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know. Tis true). We lived exclusively on one income. Parenting and Homeschooling was a very hands on activity in ways that could be easily shared in the way of products and pictures.

Fast forward, and the seven year old is nineteen and works full time. My other kids, all teenagers, do quite a bit of independent work. My son takes classes online for programming. Even though I’ve become a web designer and programmer in these last 12 years, he knows more than  me. He is always off doing service projects, or working on the sound system at church, or fixing someone’s computer. One morning, I woke up to an empty house. Oldest daughter was at work. Dear son was helping someone roof their house after a storm. The younger three had been hired to paint a fence, coop, and barn for a week with two of their friends.

I’m in that spot where I find myself without a car despite our family c0llectively owning three of them. Seriously? How’s a momma supposed to go grab some milk?

Changing seasons.

I started writing while revelling in my 2600 square foot farmhouse on my 1 acre hobby farm, with chickens running around. The village has long since asked me kindly to remove my chickens (apparently only dogs running around barking at people without leashes on are allowed here…grrr.), and my garden has been left to return to it’s natural state as we await our foreclosure eviction. We’re now actively downsizing our house and belongings, looking for ways to live on less, and embrace a more minimalistic, healthy lifestyle.

Changing seasons.

I’ve tried to move with the changes by doing stupid stuff like redesigning this blog every few months (hey, I’m a web designer. it’s like therapy for me.). I’ve come instead to realize, with my husband’s help, guidance, and input, maybe we need to make a bigger change than just the look and renaming categories.I thought about this last year, when my server had a freak out moment and 8 years worth of this website vaporized, but I was more focused on just continuing on the same path. I felt God really moving on my heart, and my husband felt it too, but we both ignored it until we could no longer.

I’m not sure where this is going to lead. Because dear husband has been around a lot more, and because we’ve been more united than ever before, particularly in trying to be open to God’s leading in this time of uncertainty (which has been both frightening and exciting at the same time), we’ve thought about something that is more the domain of our whole family and not just moi. Something that reflects this crazy ADHD existence of this unconventional growing family, and on some level the joy and struggle of pursuing our little American Dream.

We’re still working on the idea and we’ve decided to make no changes until we are 100% sure, and until we are 100% prepared. If you think of it, pray for us.  We want to offer content, ideas, videos of art projects and stuff of that sort, instructions for fixing your computer, and stuff I’ve learned about being a work at home mom that all 50 of those “how to start a business from home” books I own seem to get wrong. There may eve be some origami, some steampunk, and notes on saving money too, as well as the knd of stuff on here.

In the meanwhile I’m going to keep blogging away whenever I Can, while planning on this stuff.

I recently heard someone say that how we deal with change and the curve balls life throws at us says more about our character than anything else does. I cringed, because I’m really bad at handling those changes and curve balls.

I used to think I really, really had strong faith and that I would be able to trust God through thick or thin.

Now I realize that I’m like the Apostle Peter, declaring boldly that I would die for the Lord, but denying Him three times just a few hours later.

God keeps bringing me back to the same topic over the last year or so: “Relax and enjoy the ride. I’ve got this”

Instead, I feel like I’m looking into a mirror reflecting back on me just how “control freaky” I really am.

For a good long while, there was that promise I often heard (and believed): “God just has something better for ya’ll!”

Maybe He does. Maybe He doesn’t (by my definition, not His, of course).

I had been looking up at that promise of “when I get through this then…” or “there’s some good that will come out of this…” or even looking for the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. I had been thinking of and focusing on the day when the trial was over.

This works well for the short term, but I’ve become convinced that it’s still not the right focus.

I started to realize this while driving my son down to Tennessee for his summer job. We’ve not had a family vacation for a decade, and that was just a weekend trip a few hours away. Prior to marriage, I lived and traveled all over Europe and parts of the near east. As a world-traveler and backpacker extraordinaire, I know that half the fun is the journey not the destination.

Dear husband didn’t see it that way. His eyes were on the prize: get to murfreesburo! On the other hand, I was noticing all of the little stops along the way that we were just flying past, and missing out on! On the next drive down, to fetch my son, my husband had to work, so I took my oldest daughter with me instead. It took significantly longer to get there, but the trip was more enjoyable.

I realized that though life in the last 12 years or so, with all of these crazy challenges, particularly of the financial sort, were not at all fun, I was going to miss life if I sat around with my arms folded, pouting, until the chapter ended.

Embrace the journey, potholes, curves, and roadblocks included!

Most of the time, when we hear the verse Jeremiah 29:11 quoted, it’s quoted using the NIV translation, because it just sounds better. I usually prefer to use the King James myself, but even I like the wording of that verse in the NIV:

“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.”

In fact, when I originally came to Christ some 22 years ago now, this was one of the verses that spoke to my heart in a special way, which God used to really grab hold of me, and change my life forever. I love that verse. Who doesn’t love the promise of “a future and a hope”?

So, years later, reading through the Bible as I do, when I hit Jeremiah 29, I again thought within my own head, “I don’t like how that’s worded.” It’s kinda silly to say that, I guess.

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. “

“An expected end” doesn’t quite have the same impact as the promise of “a future and a hope”.

I felt strongly impressed to look closer though. I am the sort of person who likes to look up verses in the original languages, to really get a feel for what God was saying to us. I started to wonder if one of these translations was incorrect. It didn’t occur to me that they were both expressing the same thought, but just scratching the surface. In this case, I looked up the keywords of this verse in the original Hebrew, and discovered something I had never seen before.

Those words, translated “future and hope” or “expected end” are:

tik-vaw’ From H6960; literally a cord (as an attachment (compare H6961)); figuratively expectancy:—expectation ([-ted]), hope, live, thing that I long for.

akh-ar-eeth’ From H310; the last or end, hence the future; also posterity:—(last, latter) end (time), hinder (utter) -most, length, posterity, remnant, residue, reward.

I don’t think I’ll ever look at “an expected end” the same way again.

The God I serve, the same one that “declares the end from the beginning” (Isaiah 46:10) is the one that promises the hope, the future, the expectation, the thing that we long for in the end.

We tend to think of time in a very linear fashion. God is eternal, outside of time. Hubby and I were talking about this recently as we watched the news. 20 years ago, studying the book of Revelation and taking a class together in Bible prophecy, much of what was written seemed like science fiction, even then. Now, developments have hurtled us even closer to what God saw and declared all along.

That’s on a grand, world wide scale of course.

On a smaller scale, in my life and in yours, He has a plan and a purpose for us, as we serve Him, as we walk in His Spirit, and as we serve others in His name. As we go through hard times, He knows that things are not necessarily falling apart, but falling into place for the next part of life. He knows how it all works out, and can remind us that “all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28).

He knows enough to promise His children a future, a hope, and an expected end.

A few days ago, I posted about our grand adventures in decluttering. I had a few questions about holding yard sales, I I thought I’d post a little more about that. My own yard sale did fairly well for being in a rural area, and for having mostly older stuff, but the main point of it was to get rid of things instead of making money.

My own view on yard sales is this: if I’m going to chuck it or donate it anyway, any money I make is better than nothing. In particular, if I’d otherwise have to pay to throw something large out or have to pay the gas to take it to the nearest thrift store, even giving something away makes me come out ahead.

With this view, it’s a little easier to price for great deals at your yard sale.

Sorting

I usually start by sorting my stuff. A few things I’ve learned:

Books almost never sell at yard sales. Try half.com or donate them. At this most recent yard sale I offered our unwanted books for free, and advertised in big letters “free books”. If you happen to be a struggling author like I am, you also stick advertisements into each and every used book you’re getting rid of, however unrelated those books are to the books you’ve written.

People come to yard sales looking for bargains. If you have something nicer of value, try to sell it on ebay, craigslist, local swap sites, or a consignment shop.

Giving away or selling cheaply is cheaper than paying to store something you don’t need and probably won’t use again.

Pricing

When it comes to yard sale pricing, I have a very simple, but somewhat unconventional approach.

I don’t use those little stickers. I just put up a big sign that says “Everything is 25 cents unless otherwise marked!” This philosophy worked for the old dime stores, and works for the dollar stores.

Life is so much simpler this way. By including this on your big yard sale signs everywhere, you’ll also attract more attention.

Advertising

There are many ways to make the internet work for your yard sale. you can just  advertise on some local swap groups on facebook, post to craigslist, and email all of your friends, and you have customers.

I also post signs up on the street corners and in my yard.

Location

The most “logical” place for a yard sale in our house has been in front of and inside of our barn, or so I thought. We rarely got much foot traffic that way. Then I realized why. Most people couldn’t see what was in the barn — it was dark and scary looking, even if it was sheltered from the elements. Most people were driving by slowly, looking at the few items we had outside, and not realizing there was more, even if the signs said “barn sale”.

Then, one year, we decided to move it to the front yard instead, storing everything on our large porch when bad weather approached. That worked much better.

Try look at it from the perspective of anyone who is going to stop, or who is just driving by. Most people drive by first to see if there is anything “interesting”. You need to catch their eye.

Other Preparations

Make sure you’ve got plenty of change for making change for your customers. Shopping bags are also handy to have on hand. I saved up plastic shopping bags for about a month or two before our sale. I also had some old newspapers for wrapping up any breakables.

For most of the last month, I’ve spent a lot of my time clearing out my house some more, having yard sales, and listing items both on ebay and on half.com. I was hoping to be done by the start of our new homeschooling year, but no such luck. I’m starting to wonder if this won’t be my “project” for the next year!

It seems strange. Twenty two years ago, I traveled Europe with all of my worldly possessions in my backpack. Now, I have so much junk that I’ve taken four van loads to the thrift store in the last 2 weeks. I find myself wondering, “Where on earth does all of this stuff come from?”

My hubby and I have been feeling pretty overwhelmed by the “clutter” in our home, as we are faced with moving when this whole foreclosure saga comes to it’s inevitable ending. It’s both freeing to clear out all of the unneeded bits, and quite sad. It’s also pretty scary, because we’re not sure where we are going to go and what kind of place we can even afford as expenses keep climbing and wages stay the same.

Some have written to ask if we are in foreclosure “again”. Nope. More like “still”. The process has been paused, then restarted, then paused again. Notification was recently sent that the process is again moving down the pipe. To that end, we are packing, decluttering, and so forth. There is such a back log in some areas that these things take a lot longer than they used to.

Big Houses Attract Clutter

As we have been trying to sort through all of the stuff one married couple amasses after 20 years of marriage living in a 2700 square foot Victorian farm house, raising five children, we have come to realize that the simple act of having a big house attracts a certain level of clutter. We justify holding onto items “just in case” because we have a large family and a large house, and a three story barn. Others justify dropping off things to us because we have the room. It’s crazy.

We went through and decluttered room by room over the last few months, we put anything we didn’t want to keep into a corner of a room, which soon took over the whole room, in anticipation of our yard sale, ebay sales, and half.com listings. I finally had to bite the proverbial bullet and go into the dreaded room to start sorting. That “weekend project” has taken me most of August, and I’m only halfway done. We started to call the room, jokingly, “the land of the misfit toys” (like the old Christmas cartoon from our childhoods). That’s what it felt like, anyway.

Lessons from Clutter

As I sorted items, listed items, or donated items to the local thrift stores, I was struck at times by memories of buying some of this stuff.

Sometimes it seemed like an urgent need to have it now, but now this item is just another piece of clutter, taking up space. In the last five years, especially, I’ve gotten really good at fighting the urge to engage in “retail therapy” of any sort. I’ve gotten better, with the Lord’s help, of really looking at things and asking myself, “Do I really need this?” before opening my wallet. I used to think that I didn’t have a “shopping problem” because I’m so thrifty when I shop, and the same is true of my husband, who often would come home with finds from flea markets, garage sales, or “curbside specials”. Instead, about four or five years ago now, we started to realize that buying anything that we didn’t really, really need was wasteful, even if it was a “good deal”, or even free. Standing in the “land of misfit purchases” there, in what was once our spare bedroom, I was surrounded by “Good deals” that we wound up not really needing. Ouch.

Disorganization can lead to some clutter issues too. I was struck by this reality too, because I’ve become much more organized in the last few years, but not before rebuying lost, needed items. Sometimes, I found multiples of the same item, like mailing labels. Yes mailing labels. I’m sure some of the mailing labels came from my inlaw’s house, as they had a vast assortment of “office supplies” that they dropped off to our house by the trunk load. But, given my own addiction to office supplies, I’m sure I bought some of this too. We had multiples of some tools, some craft items, and other things. How many times did I need something that I already had, but couldn’t find? Yikes.

Flylady is right. You really can’t organize Clutter. As we sorted through much of this stuff, there was a large number of organizational helps to be found. Yes, cluttering my house up with organizational tools. Brilliant.

We’ve both come to agree that saying no is a good thing too. One of the weirdest things we found on our decluttering challenge was 7 sets of golf clubs. Why is that weird? Because none of us plays golf. No, these were dropped off by family members because they were decluttering. We have clothes galore that were generously handed down by friends and family, but frankly there was just too much of a good thing too.

Simplicity is a good thing. Right now, I have a whole cupboard of “cleaning supplies’. For most of it, we’re trying to use those up in some way before buying anything else. As I’ve posted before, I make my own laundry soap, and I use vinegar for cleaning naturally. I’ve come to realize I don’t need anything else, except maybe mr. clean magic erasers for tougher jobs. When I started emptying out that big cleaning cupboard, I realized how much easier it is to just need vinegar to clean, instead of a different bottle of dangerous chemicals for each and every job. It takes up less space too.

Freedom!

As we get rid of all of this extra “stuff” we’ve been storing or hanging onto, things that have been lurking in the upstairs hall closet or the basement corners, I’ve been overwhelmed with a feeling of freedom to just let this stuff go already. Society tries to convince us, through clever marketing and ads, that “stuff” is going to make us happy, but actually the opposite is true most of the time.

Decluttering is quite freeing.

I was going to post something today, and had even worked on my post a bit, but then I had to take a trip to the doctors after waking up with a badly swollen knee and low grade fever. Turns out I have some sort of infection in my knee, but after some treatment, it’s feeling better. The problem is my brain turned to mush as a result. lol

Sooo….I was pleased to find this really well written piece by Sheila over at Love, Honor, and Vacuum, which addresses the topic of marriage.

well, actually, Sheila’s whole blog is about marriage.

This post, however, is an excellent review of a topic discussed Created to be His Helpmeet by Debi Pearl. I felt that this gave an interesting and thought provoking insight.

You can read it here:

Submission isn’t lying over and taking it.

In the meanwhile, I have a new short ebook on menu planning available over at Amazon.com, called Saving with Menu Planning. Enjoy!

This issue of what is a want, versus what is a need has been on my mind quite a bit lately.

About a month ago, the bank once more restarted foreclosure proceedings (this whole situation has stalled a few times for reasons unknown…not that I’m complaining). The prospect of downsizing has been about as stressful as the years of paycuts and rising expenses.

There are three big issues I’m facing with downsizing:

1. When you live in a big old farmhouse, everyone you know thinks you’re a salvation army drop off center and/or a free storage unit. I don’t even recognize some of the junk I’ve been selling, donating, selling for scrap metal, and chucking. I think my inlaws decluttered their house by emptying large amounts of it into my house. For the life of me, I’m not sure how a couple of non-golfers like us came to have so many golf clubs, or how we came to have 97 three ring binders.

2. When you are crafty and great at upcycling various found treasures, you usually have more than a sane amount of said treasures laying around. Being a part time art teacher, there’s also paraphernalia for that occupation. Having a home business also apparently takes up (tax deductible) space.

3. When you have five teenagers, that also poses some issues of stuff-i-tis.

Most of this month, I’ve been decluttering and holding yard sales, and listing on Half.com and Ebay.com. I’ve also made several runs to area thrift stores to donate.

I asked some friends for help in getting rid of “stuff”. I received two great pieces of advice:

1. If it serves no purpose in your life and you don’t love it, get rid of it.

(this can be a bit harder if it is someone else’s…ha ha…)

2. When shopping, if it takes you longer than 3 seconds to decide if you need it, then you probably don’t.

What are some of your favorite tips for clearing out the extras and downsizing your life?