Tag: savings

Back to Couponing and Crocheting and Publishing

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life, Writing

Saturday afternoon I spent a chunk of time clipping coupons – for myself, my sister, and my daughters.  For the first time in nearly six weeks, I made a grocery list based on my apps and coupons.

Ken went grocery shopping early on Sunday as he usually does.  He overspent by a little but I knew he would because we haven’t really shopped while we’ve been helping our daughter move.  He used a bunch of coupons – saving over $32.  In apps, he saved over $5.

I meant to spend my Saturday working on publishing but by the time we were done with errands, I was wiped out.  I tried napping to get rid of a headache and get some energy back but spent the time talking on the phone with multiple people including some of my daughters.

Sunday I managed to get one book published – Draconian Peace.  Here’s a brief description of it:

Racial tension has destroyed the relationship between the Draconians and the humans, leaving thousands of mixed breeds disenfranchised.  Prejudice and suspicion mar the joining of Dewi Bradon, half and half, and Lord Lachlan Camdon until they learn to look passed their race and trust in each other.  As they begin to trust, changes ripple through society and expose rampant corruption and crime.

It’s available on Amazon and Smashwords for now.  It will get out to all the other options as time permits.  There is a paperback as well on Createspace.

I kept getting interrupted so only one item published.  I did work on a holiday gift and have it about three quarters done.  I’m pleased with the pattern and how it’s working out but it means I’ll have another pattern to publish.  I might submit it for publication first to see if I can get it in a magazine.

Bad Sleep

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life

Ken got the shopping done early this morning.  With my list, coupons, sales flyer shopping and rebates, he saved over $20!  This is about 20% of what he spent.

Last night I made a list of what I wanted to get done today.  I meant to get up early, get to work, and keep at it as long as possible.  I didn’t count on a bad night’s sleep.  I got up this morning – woken up by one of the daughters.  After talking to her, I did the rebates for the shopping.  Then I proceeded to do nothing more strenuous than play a couple of games on my phone.  I’m up and moving again.  After I’m done on the computer, I’ll head back to the kitchen to do some food prep for the week.

If I find any energy, I’ll go back to the craft room and work on organizing.  I have a few things Ken needs to carry out and put elsewhere – mostly empty rubbermaid containers.  There is some stuff which is going in a box to our daughters in Atlanta.  If my energy level stays, I’m hoping to make more of a dent in that room today.

Last night I worked on a skirt for a friend.  I LOVE how it is turning out.  I made the waistband using broomstick lace technique.  Then it’s a simple hdc for the rest but with a vertical stripe – which means I have seven strands of yarn hanging down.  This slows me down a bit but it is still coming along nicely. As I’m working, I’m writing the pattern.  I’m trying to write it in such a way it doesn’t need sizing.  However, I’ll have to see how successful I am at this.  I’ve never written a pattern for clothing before – one of the reasons is I don’t like to size things.

New experiences are good even if they are a little scary.  I’ll keep pushing forward and hope it works out.  Once I’m done with this size, I may have to try the pattern on a larger size to see if it works for the plus size person.

Unfortunately, with the bad night’s sleep I just want a nap but Sundays are a bad day to nap because I have to go back to work tomorrow.  I’ll have to find my energy and work on things which keep me moving forward and awake.  Hopefully that means I accomplish a lot but only time will tell on this.

Motivation Needed

by eileentroemel, posted in Life

I meant to get up early today and get to work on publishing.  That didn’t happen.  Instead I slept late and only got up when one of my daughters called.  I chatted with her, worked on sales, coupons, rebates, and so on.

Ken is off now to go do stuff with his family.  I’m going to work on publishing – I swear.  It is pay weekend so I need to do coupons today so he can take them with him tomorrow when he does the grocery shopping.  We are going to have Panera for breakfast.  I had a rebate of $1 if I spent $7 and got a drink.  We are getting three pastries and a coffee (for Ken not me).  The bill came to roughly $12.  Ordering online, I had a $2 coupon from Panera and then through Find & Save, I have a $1 rebate.  This takes my 12 down to 9 which is nice.

I’ve been reading my Wayfarer series for multiple reasons.  The first is to get excerpts so I can post them on social media and the second is to get back in the story and characters as I edit 10 and finish writing 11.  I started Wayfarer Freedom last night which is book 8.  This means I’m almost caught up to do the editing on 10.  I’m hoping to finish it and publish it next month.

The first week back for classes was a bit rough.  It was insanely busy but I got through it.  Hopefully it gets a bit better this next week.

I’m trying to decide if I want to take my birthday off.  It’s a Monday which is sort of a bad day to take off.  I need to decide soon.  I may just save the day so I can have a writing weekend later.  

While it’s quiet I should get something accomplished.  I shouldn’t just be a bum and do nothing or play computer games – right?  I need to focus and get to work.  The motivation is a bit lacking today.  This is not a good sign.

The Holidays

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life

The insanity of the holidays always makes me grumpy.  This year I’m missing my girls but I’m trying to make the best of it.  Vicki is home but the other two are in Georgia.  I’m missing them and I’m missing the all day game playing, movie watching, and being together.

Ken and Vicki went off to his family gathering.  They likely won’t be back till late afternoon or early evening.  I’m working on the computer for now but then I’ll be going back to crocheting.  I currently have two projects in the works for Vicki – an apron which will be a mix of terry cloth and crochet cotton and a shawl which I’m crocheting.  If I could figure out how to work on both, I would.

Yesterday Vicki and I went to Festival and got groceries.  We shopped their sale items and had a ton of coupons.  We spent $250 and saved about $120 between sales and coupons.  Today I was going through the receipt to split up her items and mine.  I noticed several of our coupons didn’t take off.  I called them expecting them to say there was nothing they could do since it was yesterday.  Instead they refunded the money and gave us two coupons for a dollar off.

Tomorrow we are going to do as much as possible with the girls in Georgia.  I’m sure there will be video chatting (or at the very least phone conversations) but we are also attempting to go to a movie at roughly the same time.  Saturday when Beth is over, we’ll open gifts and have more family time.  I’m also hoping to go see a movie on that day.

Aside from the holiday stuff, I’m hoping to get a number of projects done.  I’ve pulled out one of Vicki’s bags and have been working on the projects in it.  I finished two skeins of yarn to make her hat, wristers, scarf out of one and hat and wristers out of the other.  I’ll see how far I get by the end of the weekend.  I may have to shift things to determine what I’m going to work on.  As is normal – I have a LONG LONG list of things to do for her.

I’ve got classical music on.  I’m babysitting the two grand fur babies – Sasha and Ava.  I’ll be going back to crocheting shortly.  All in all, a good day so far.  Just one more day to get through with the holiday silliness and I can put another year behind me.

No Jammies Today

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life

It was supposed to be a stay in my jammies day and do little to nothing.  That didn’t work.  I got up to an email from Joann with one of the things I wanted for a project being on sale.

After spending part of the morning on marketing, I got organized and Ken and I headed out to Joann’s.  While I was looking at things online, I got a notice to text Joann’s to get a coupon.  I did.  I got a 20% off coupon.

The items I wanted were already 50% off so we went in, found what I wanted and picked them up.  At checkout, they used my coupon and I spent nearly $10 less than I had budgeted.  I spent $42 and saved $60.  This is good shopping as far as I’m concerned.

I’ve spent the last two hours working on getting marketing stuff organized into a One Note notebook.  This is the software I just learned how to use.  I have to say, I’m finding it useful both at work and with my writing things.  I’ve created two notebooks to make my marketing tasks simpler.  I’m still gathering quotes from different books but it’s coming along nicely.

Looking to move on to the next thing – will it be more marketing, work on the project I just got the materials for, or something completely different?  I’ll have to see how the mood strikes me.

Dropped Cable

by eileentroemel, posted in Life
In the last two months my cable /internet provider informed me my bill would go up to about 175 a month.  I could not afford this.  I called them to ask what they would do about it.  I got horrible customer service. Apparently they only want to get new customers and don’t care about keeping their current customers. 
In the past I’ve gone back and forth, argued, let them raise my blood pressure and essentially spent weeks being miserable at the thought of even talking to them on the phone.  I asked them what the cost of internet alone would be – they told me $45.  I looked at a different provider’s website for internet and the cost was $30. 
My daughters all have a Roku.  This is a device you attach to your tv and can access television shows and movies through Amazon, Netflix, Hulu and so on.  My one daughter also got an antennae for her tv so she could get local stations. 
We looked at the pricing and here is how it broke down for us:
            Roku (2) – 150 (one-time cost)
            Antennae (2) – 50 (we bought one for 10 and one for 40 which gets more stations – one-time cost)
            Amazon prime – shared with one of my daughters – my cost will be 40 annually
                        Since we are sharing the prime account, my daughter and I will be sharing the cost of shows we both watch
            Netflix – shared with one of my daughters – my cost will be 4 monthly
It took some getting used to but I’m finding I am not missing cable.  The DVR feature I liked so much is even better because the shows on Amazon and Netflix don’t have commercials. 
At this stage I’m estimating my costs will be roughly 50 a month for internet and tv rather than the $120 I was paying before they raised my rates.  The $200 investment I think will be worth it over time. 
I believe this will save me a lot of money, which is always a good thing for my overall budget.