Saturday February 28, 2009

Another linky post

It’s sleeting.  Oddly enough, that’s not depressing.  For the first time in years (that I can remember) March is coming in like a lion instead of a lamb.  I have huge hopes for an early spring.  Please don’t be toad and tell me some horrible prediction from the farmer’s almanac or the awful caterpillars that were extra dark or how plentious your acorns were.  I’ll believe what I want.

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Last summer Beth told me she was sort of looking forward to the predicted economic recession.  She thought it would help make people more thoughtful, to look out for each other.  Me, being the optimist that I am — cough, gulp, sputter — was sure it would more likely increase the robbery rate, the looking out for me mentality.  Virginia was among the last of the states to get hit hard even though things have been slowing down for awhile. 

David Lee says this is good for us (you would think he’s the one related to Beth) and he (they) are right in some ways.  It’s faith strengthning.  I’ve seen good things happening in him through this and I hope the same things are happening to me.  Even though you would expect the opposite, it has made us so much more grateful to God.  Rarely a day goes by that I do not thank Him several times for a warm house to live in and plenty of food to eat. 

While we haven’t personally suffered a job loss, our expenses have skyrocketed.  Our medical bills in the last two years have been exorbitant.  Groceries are up.  Electric bills are up.  Everything seems to be up.  Except maybe gas.  Late last fall / early winter I began rather desperately looking for ways to save money.  More then just the normal don’t buy any extras stuff.  That’s when I discovered couponing — matching coupons to sales, stockpiling, and even finding things for free.  There are a thousand money saving blogs and some of them still amaze me.  One of the other fun things I found is swagbucks.  A search enginge powered by google and ask that lets you win points just for searching.  I win a swagbuck about 50% of the times I search and the points can be redeemed for gift cards or other prizes.  Now I just can’t wait for a free latte from Starbucks!

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Yesterday afternoon we spent the afternoon in town on a coupon / bargain hunt.  It was so much fun because David Lee was with us.  (He had to work this morning instead.)  We found lots of freebies, especially at Kmart where they were accepting double coupons up to and including $2.  But the funniest part of the afternoon was when we got to the mall and Adam had an empty cup beside his car seat.  When I told him to jump out he said, “Mommy, do cups develop into the ground?”  I stared at him for just a second or two when the light bulb flashed. 

Me: “Do you mean disintegrate?” 

Adam: “Yeah.” 

Me: “No.” 

Adam: “Oh, bummer.  I wanted to litter.”

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