After my brief hiatus..okay, maybe not so brief.

Anyway, I’m very excited for this time of year. Fall is my favorite season and Christmas is my favorite holiday. This year we’re using a new tactic when it comes to fighting the cold and getting through the holidays. We’re hopefully getting the fireplace fixed in the next few weeks. The guy is supposed to come back on the 14th and I’m praying that the estimate hasn’t gone up. We’re going to have to really pinch it to make it work at what it was. I will have to flat out tell him we can’t do it if it goes up even fifty cents. We’re also going to basically wrap this house in a layer of insulated plastic wrap. I bought the kids all electric blankets so we could keep the heat dialed down at night. I’m hoping all of these measures work, we can’t afford to pay more for heating than we do for a mortgage payment.

Christmas and the holidays. I’m going to get my old Bath and Body Works store behind me in sponsoring the Angel House this year. Every year they sponsor the battered women shelter downtown. Not that it isn’t a worth cause…but everyone in town sponsors them…last year when we went to drop gifts of, we had to wade through TONS of stuff to get to the desk. They hadn’t checked it all in yet. For those of you that are unaware. Almost every county has an Angel House or something similar (call Social Services or the Red Cross to inquire as to what your local one is called.) This is where all the children that were taken away from their parents for abuse or neglect and are awarded to the state go. These “houses” are their safe houses. The people that work there are THE most selfless people I have ever seen in my life. They get their asses bit, kicked, spit on, beat up, called names and get the brunt of what is left of these shattered children…and they still hug them, read to them, cook for them, bathe them…care for them like their parents never did.

They are always looking for help with supplies, toys, food, clothes..you name it, they need it. They are state funded. And as you know anything pertaining to kids and state funding means they don’t get jack shit. I am excited about getting BBW to sponsor them with me.

I have also vowed that since my children are so spoiled and don’t know the meaning of going without, that’s exactly what we’re doing this year. I’ve set a strict $100 budget for each kid, this means everything. Stocking filler, gifts, candy…all of it for $100 or less. I’ve also vowed I’m not buying anything that’s not on sale AND I’m hitting the second hand stores. I’ve found stuff in these stores that you wouldn’t imagine. My son has 6 school uniforms. All Ralph Lauren….all for less than $10. That was for all 6 uniforms. Yup, major score…and the best part is…when I take them back, they give me store credit to buy more. That $10 investment is going to take me far when it comes to getting more and more clothes for the kids. Same for the girls. You won’t believe what you find there…and they don’t look used or worn. Same goes for toys.

I bought my youngest her birthday present already from one for $12. She’s an avid horse lover…they are all over her room, including a 12×8 ft mural on her wall. It’s a Barbie brand stable with Mare and pony. This thing goes for around $40 in the store brand new. The only thing it didn’t have was the box. Big deal..I’ll smack a big bow on top and she’ll never know the difference.

I’m also going to turn into the coupon queen. I have time, I might as well make it work for me. I’ll look for deals online on products that I buy. I will buy the Sunday paper and clip coupons, I will also shop using the weekly store ads.

Nick and I make good money. Not fantastic, but good. We work full time, have benefits, own our crumbling home…there is no reason we should be living paycheck to paycheck with no money in the bank. Here is why. Before I started working we lived on his income alone. Well, I worked at the mall part time for $7 an hour…for maybe 10 hours a week…that was our play money.

Why is it now that I’m making more than twice that are we broke? We had a wedding to pay for…that’s why, now it’s over. I have a plan to be caught up and have $1000 in savings by Christmas. Why do I say that here? So I can be accountable. If I tell someone, then I’ll follow through for fear of failure and having to admit that we’re too weak to do it.

I’m serious about it too…I’ve told Nick to cancel either the home phone or my cell phone. I want the cable cut back to basic…we don’t need all that other shit. We have games, if he refuses to do that then I’m selling the Wii…no one hardly plays it anyway…it’s a big dollar sign sitting next to my TV. I’m also going to sell the surround sound system. We’ve had it since we got the house….it was hooked up for a week then when we changed the living room around he never re-ran the wire…it sits there, for no reason…taking up space. We have two printers…a camera printer..and I think 3 PC monitors…why? I want to know why we have this stuff lying around..collecting copious amounts of dust and getting in my way?

This is my frame of mine lately. I hate being late on bills…I hate collection calls and we are behind on every.single.bill. That ends now…by the end of the month we will be caught up on all but a few small ones and by Christmas…all will be as it should. We will have bills paid (on time) and money in savings…and working on getting a second car that will hopefully save our ass in the unfortunate case of an accident this winter with the super-sliding, can’t even go on water car. In that case…we’ll pay that one off and live with the beater. No car payment. That’s an extra bunch of money every month…not to mention the drop in insurance coverage for not having to carry full coverage. Why on earth did we ever take on a car payment to begin with? I hate feeling like that. I am fully committed to being debt free in three years, with the exception of the mortgage and student loans. You can bank on that.

That said..I’m looking forward to colorful leaves..the smell of them burning, lots of baking (cream cheese cookies, banana nut bread, and weekly $5 pizza in front of the TV watching a movie). That also means snowmobiling season is soon to come. I love me some snowmobiling. Can’t.wait.

I am also curious in these hard economic times…what do you do to save money? How do you make it through the holidays…or even through the grocery store without going broke? Please tell me your secrets…I told you mine.

My spirits are high…my hope is higher that hopefully this year won’t be so bad as long as we plan for the worst…which is what I’m going to do. I just hope that my husband is behind me in this. He’s not very good at compromise and hates to give up anything he wants…for no reason other than he wants it. I’ve skipped starbucks three times lately…because I would rather use that $5 to put towards a credit card or towards a night for all of us at the movies. He flipped out when I mentioned cutting the home internet because he wants it…mind you he has a laptop for work with wireless access that’s paid for by them….but then he can’t play his world of warcraft. Can I just say that I hope the people that run Blizzard rot in hell for the stress they put on people and the amount of neglect they cause children. I hope they die slow painful deaths and rot in a hell that looks a lot like the game and they just have to play for eternity…no talking…just typing stupid text type and running in circles doing endless quests for nothing more than to hit a level 70…no other reason.

Anyhoo. I think that’s all I have for right now. I’m still waiting for our professional wedding pictures..and still hoping they hold off for a couple more weeks to get caught up financially before we have to pay the balance on them…but I am still dying to see them nonetheless. When I get them I will post a few of them here…because I’m positive I will love them.