Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Sigh of Relief

I just applied for my first online writing job! As excited as I am, I feel huge relief that my first article is written (that needed to be included with my application), and that the nervous jitters are now over with as well. It took me several hours and constant rewrites, but it is done, and I feel very good about it. Now the waiting part has come, however, and that could take up to a week! I am excited about the possibility of doing this kind of work. I think it will be rewarding, and the extra income will be really nice. I just hope they like my article and my resume is acceptable! I will be sitting on pins and needles until I hear from them...

Monday, October 26, 2009

Honey, I shrunk the grocery budget!

If you've been following my blog at all, you'll have noticed that I have been working on becoming a smart shopper. Since June I have been keeping track of any grocery/household purchases and set them up on a spreadsheet. I have great news! These are the percentages saved since June:

June: 28.43%
July: 40.46%
August: 45.84%
September: 49.57%

I am very excited about that! It went from very minimally saved to almost 50% savings in 4 months! I never would have dreamed I could cut our spending in half, let alone do it in such a short time.

Our next goal is to cut electrical usage. We've been doing a lot of things differently over the last couple of weeks already and hope to see a drop in our utility bill by the end of December. We've switched the majority of our lightbulbs over to LED and florescent, turned off all computers at night (we used to have 3 up and running 24 hours a day), and have been keeping lights off that we would typically leave on in the evening. I would love to hear other ways to save on electricity if you'd be willing to share!

I am still looking for ways to bring in income, and have been researching companies for at home work. Hopefully I will find something soon that will be a good fit.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Beginning the road to debt free...

I am extremely tired of seeing our debt. I want to know what it feels like to be debt free, and to know that we are not tethered to a bank or company because we owe them money! I also want to be a good steward of what God has so generously given us, so it's important for me to do all I can, but I am realizing that I have no idea how I can make income from home to help supplement so we can start paying down our debt faster. Smart shopping has been helping immensely - I am SOOOO thankful that I can help us save money this way, but I am convicted that we need to become debt free as soon as we possibly can, which means more income sooner. Herein lies my biggest problem, however! I am limited as to what I can do because health problems make it difficult for me to work outside the home at this time. So what am I to do? I don't like sewing, and I'm not a craft-type person. The most I can do is crochet granny squares, and that only gets you so far!

I would absolutely love if anyone who has work-from-home experience would share with me what they have done, so I could try to come up with some ideas of what I could possibly do. I would appreciate your input!