Saving vs. Penny Pinching

I've learned lately about myself that while I am really good at pinching pennies and stretching a dollar I am really bad at actually saving that money and putting it to work for me. I wouldn't call it a "lightbulb moment" it was more of a "duh" moment. I've realized that I can look all I want through books and the internet to try and find ways to "save" money, but if I am not actually putting that money into an account, I am just bargain hunting.

My husband and I are taking the Dave Ramsey "Financial Peace University" and reading Financial Peace Revisited.
One of his first steps is to put money into an emergency fund. This is not new advice to me, I've read it and seen it a gazillion other places before, but I haven't put it into practice. I guess now that we are taking the class together and it is sort of like homework, I feel more empowered to work towards that goal.

I've been getting some extra income doing work for my mother. My father recently passed, and I am working on cleaning out his office and I have been doing some "mystery shopper" stuff to get a little extra cash. This month I plan to sell some more things on Ebay and Amazon and hopefully I will be able to post how much cash I have actually accumulated towards my goal.

The clock beat me.

I caved- I got some money from my parents to keep us "afloat" with this car insurance premium coming up. We don't want a handout though, so my husband will be working off what we received today in the next few weeks. I could have asked for more, but I got just enough to help us along.

I went to go sell some books at a used bookstore which on their website claims they will pay you cash, but instead they gave me store credit. I didn't want to make a big deal about it, and I was happy to get something for VHS tapes and books we won't use anymore. So I basically traded a bunch of crap that we don't use for 2 books that I wanted to read and a book that my kids picked out. I still have some store credit, so the next time I am jonesing for a book purchase and I don't want to check something out of the library, I can use it there.

They gave us some items that they wouldn't take and so I put the ones I could for sale on Amazon

I plan to do our taxes over the next couple days, I am hoping since I was laid off this year, and our income was spotty, we will get a refund back. I hear all this chatter about the stimulus package- but it all seems rather murky to me. Some things say that if you received the stimulus check last year, you don't qualify for this year, and then other things say that there are additional tax credits for families. I am hoping that is the case.

I also plan to sell some of the kids old clothes this week sometime, I probably won't get much for it, I think I made $15 the last time I did that, but that is $15 more than I have right now.

It worked! (For now)

Today after I got home from the Y and doing some grocery shopping with the kids, I called ComEd, and they told me that at this time I am not in jeopardy of being shut off. That's a relief! I still need to pay them $200+ for current charges and some past due, ASAP. Once my husband gets back from his trip and we deposit his check I will send them some more.

I still owe the gas company a lot, so I will be pushing them up on the priorities list as well.

I am thinking to make this work, I am going to have to try and generate some extra income. I've considered part time work, but right now I'd have to get a babysitter to cover some of the hours between when my husband comes home and in the end I don't know if it would be worth the aggravation.

As far as that goes, I've signed up for some mystery shopping assignments. The money isn't anything great right now, but they do reimburse you for things, so that has been nice. I am hoping to get some restaurant type shops so we can have a meal out for free.

Also, I am going to see if my father will pay me to help him with his office. His health is failing and he has a one-man brokerage office, but will need some help getting the books together and getting the place cleaned up. I was working for him a few weeks ago, but he took a turn for the worse health wise, and it didn't seem right to push the issue right now. My parents have also offered to pay my husband to do some handyman type work for them either on the weekends or when he is in between projects at work. This has worked out in the past for both my parents and me. I know most people don't have this option, but I guess when you are in a tight spot, it is good time to be creative and look at all of your options.