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May 24, 2011, at 6:00 am If you're new to BFS, please subscribe to my RSS feed. It shows me a vote of support and keeps me motivated to keep your attention. If you have any questions or comments for me, please contact me and I'll get back to you asap. Thanks for visiting! My husband and I recently celebrated our 6 year anniversary! Yay! We’ve been together nearly 10 years, but we were married in May 2005. It was the best wedding ever and we are even happier 6 years later.
If you are reading this honey, I love you.
Anyway, I will fully admit that his gift to me was WAY better than the gifts I got him…
The Gift
Picture what you know about me: I love my husband, family, friends, our dogs, and blogging. And right now, most of my life does have blogging involved, lol. My biggest goals for this year were to be able to blog full time by the end of 2012 and to lose 26 pounds. Well, I am down 25 pounds (shooting for 11 more by the end of the year) and I am on track to hit my blogging target number by the end of the year after all – maybe even sooner!
Given all of that, guess what Mr. BFS surprised me with? He took my hand in the living room and pulled me off the couch. He then told me to close my eyes and walked me to the front door of our house. My close friend was following us giggling like she knew what was coming. He gave me a kiss and I opened my eyes to see…THIS (well, it was in a box leaning against the wall, but he put it together later)!
If you cannot see that picture, my FANTABULOUS husband bought me an office desk and set it up in our spare bedroom as the beginning of my work-from-home office! What could possibly be a better gift than having faith that I will hit my goals and supporting that in the fullest?! Plus, he has excellent taste AND consulted with my friend (they agreed on this one), so the end result was a desk that is dang perfect in my opinion! 
Yep, I am over the moon!!!
My Gifts to Him
I bought him Portal 2 for the PC as his actual gift since he enjoyed Portal. I also got him the Ace Ventura Pet Detective set of DVD’s since those were two of his childhood favorites that still make him smile a little if he’d flipping through the channels and sees one on. Ahhh…physical comedy…it’s not my thing but men are simple creatures. 
So yes, I feel like he definitely got the short end of this anniversary stick. BUT, he made me the most jumpiest, giggliest, smiliest girl in the world there for a few minutes and I’m still grinning from ear to ear. He also seemed pretty happy with himself while I was chattering away about my plans…
General note: there is nothing better than having faith in someone and showing your support.
What is the absolute best gift you have ever received? Given? What would you want most right now?
May 23, 2011, at 6:00 am
Have you thought about jumping in to the wide world of coupon clipping? I personally only cut out a few a week, but here are some tips for those who want to become coupon clipping fiends:
Coupon Clipping Tip #1 – Find a Good Website
There are so many couponing websites on the Internet that you could spend days searching through all of the offers. There are large, medium, and small sites that provide savings on everything from hair shampoo to food. Select one or two of your favorite sites and bookmark them. Denise at The Single Saver likes “Frugal Freebies” and “The Frugal Girls”, so she follows them on Facebook. Visit those favorite sites regularly.
Coupon Clipping Tip #2 – Coupons via Email
You can save yourself the trouble of having to scour the web for coupons by having them delivered directly to your email inbox. Sign up to have daily deals and newsletters delivered right to you so you can quickly scan for the best deals. This will cut down on your web surfing time.
Coupon Clipping Tip #3 – Coupon Notebook
If you want to make sure that you take all of your coupons with you to the store, you can set up a little coupon notebook for yourself. It’s great to easily store all of the coupons that you will use on your weekly trip to the store. You can even categorize them by aisle or product type. This way you won’t forget to use your coupons and shopping will be easier.
Coupon Clipping Tip #4 – Get Help
If you have a friend or family member that loves to clip coupons, ask them to clip some for you too and offer to reimburse them for their time. Chances are they will enjoy doing it. It also gives you an excuse to see friends and family members more often. You could also easily convince your kids to do it as a family activity like Shane at Beating Broke does.
Coupon Clipping Tip #5 – Digitize Your Coupons
Instead of cutting out any coupons, you can use your cell phone or laptop to use digital coupon codes. Promo codes are offered on everything from events to cell phone coupon deals. You can have these codes sent to you via text on a daily basis.
Good luck on your new couponing adventures! What other coupon clipping tips did I miss?
May 22, 2011, at 6:00 am
Since I do plan on blogging full time by 2012 and even came up with my target number, this is the year for a HUGE push. These are the new goals to keep us on the right track!
Here are my Goals for July 4th, 2011:
Here is what we are shooting for by July 4th, 2011:
Alexa – Maintain a Ranking at or around 37,500
Visits – 60,000 total visits (I started BFS on February 20th, 2010)
Feedburner Subscribers – 500
Twitter Followers – 500
MozRank – 5.5
Today’s Update
Alexa – 34,354 (Yay, but this is inching up, so I will work on this…)
Visits – 66,653 (WOOT! We’ll be way over by July 4th!!!)
Feedburner Subscribers – 496 (last Wednesday we hit 496, only 4 more to go!!!)
Twitter Followers – 504 (WE MADE IT!!!)
MozRank – 5.05 (0.45 to go)
As always, thank you so much for being my supporters! I could not do any of this without you and I really never forget that!!!
The Saved Quarter Challenge Update
I joined The Saved Quarter Challenge this year and am aiming to save at least $21,000 by the end of 2011! That would be a tiny bit more than 25% of our GROSS pay from our two full time jobs.
Here’s how I’ve done this week for the Saved Quarter Challenge ($21,000 Goal):
I have better updates after the 13th of every month since that is when our billing periods end, but here is where we funnelled away money this past week:
I banked $500 on Monday and another $500 on Thursday to my blogging income ING account. We use that account to fund our 2nd Roth IRA and I’m building it up with as much padding as possible by the end of the year to be a backup fund when I start blogging full time.
The $21,000 goal is hopefully going to be reached solely through 100% true savings – 401(k), Roth IRA, emergency fund/savings, home and auto maintenance account, extra cash for investments, and blogging income.
Total This Week: $1000
We can save what we do because we live off of a little more than my husband’s salary as a school librarian ($38,000 take home pay), which means we save most of what I make ($26,000 take home pay) and all of our hobby job incomes (reffing for Mr. BFS and blogging for me). Reffing usually brings in $2000-$3000 a year and blogging is bringing in $15,000 or more a year (we’ve already hit more than $8000 for January-April 2011).
Total to date: $14,748 guaranteed, $6,252 to go.
Additonal Info
I will continue posting monthly and yearly blog statistics and income updates from here on out, so stay tuned at the beginning of every month!
In case you didn’t know, Alexa traffic rankings are determined by the numbers of hits a site gets by people with the Alexa toolbar. If you want to be part of this ranking community, you can download the Alexa toolbar here.
If you don’t already, you can follow me via RSS or Twitter by following those links.
To learn more about the Yakezie, the blogging group that has helped me in SO many ways, check out my Yakezie page! Feel free to email me if you are a Yakezie member or challenger and don’t see yourself on the list!
If you are interested in seeing how I went from an 8 million plus Alexa rank to about 50,000 in less than 8 months, you can see My Blogging Schedule, which breaks down everything I do related to blogging. If you want to see how I brought in $6000 in less than 10 months, you can check out How I Make Money Blogging.
THANK YOU ALL FOR BEING THE BEST READERS EVER!!!
May 21, 2011, at 6:00 am
Also, check out my other blog, Crystal Clear Thoughts,
for my Weight Watchers Updates!
I’m down 25 pounds and shooting for just 1 more by July 4th!!!
My Favorite Posts this Week
Guest Posts at BFS
Thank you for a day off!
If you would like to guest post on BFS, please contact me with your idea or post and I’d love to have you over for the day! If you are a business, please contact me here for more details. Thanks!
Giveaways and Other Info
Blog Carnivals
My carnival – Totally Money Blog Carnival -
was at Retire by 40!
Please check out the last edition and submit here every week!
If you are hosting a carnival that includes Budgeting in the Fun Stuff, please email me so I can include it in my roundup. Also, please email me if you’d like to host Totally Money. Thanks!
Top 5 Referring Sites to BFS Last Week:
(I post the top 25 at the beginning of each month)
- Yakezie
- Free Money Finance
- Get Rich Slowly
- Money Talks
- Move to Portugal / Grumpy Rumblings of the Untenured
Feel free to contact me if you have any suggestions. I’d love to add a few more blogs to my regular reading list or at least give a shout-out for great posts or contests.
As always, thanks to all the bloggers that teach me something new every day. Thanks to all my commenters for making this blog the community I want it to be. Thanks to all my “lurkers” too.
I hope everybody is enjoying this as much as me!
And please use About Life Insurance as a resource for everything life insurance!!!
Let me know if you do help out and I will be sure to return the favor!
May 20, 2011, at 6:00 am
A few of my fellow bloggers have started referring to all of my blogs and blog services as a blogging empire. I like the sound of that, so I’m using it, lol. Anyway, here is an update of how my blogging empire is doing right now:
My Own Sites
Since I do only have one of me, I only post on Budgeting in the Fun Stuff consistently. Crystal Clear Thoughts and Totally Money Blog Carnival get weekly updates. I only touch Dog’s Life For Me and About Life Insurance occasionally.
Staff Writing
I am now a staff writer at 5 other blogs. I write weekly for Sweating the Big Stuff, Stupid Cents, Passive Family Income, and Money in the 20s. I also write every other week at Wealth Pilgrim now. The most challenging part to staff writing in my opinion is coming up with topics. I am very thankful that most of those blog owners provide me with topic ideas so my brain can just fill in the details and edit for SEO, lol. Thank you all for your business!
Advertising
I run my own advertising for Budgeting in the Fun Stuff like I always have, but I also now run advertising deals for 8 other blogs as well. Kay Lynn at Bucksome Boomer was the first to take the leap with me, but her positive feedback has enabled me to branch out. Thank you Kay Lynn and thank you to the other bloggers that use my services! This is definitely a lot of fun for me and I do hope it is taking some stress off of your shoulders!
Shameless marketing: If handing off the ad request emails you receive sounds good to you too, please contact me or email me at budgetingfunstuff*at*gmail*dot*com. I’d love to negotiate for you too! I work on commission and I handle all leads within 24 hours barring special circumstances (vacations without internet access, the internet crashes).
Side Projects
I have also been renting out my time for a few side projects as well. Although projects like adding SEO to blog posts may not make me rich, I do appreciate knowing that I can branch out if I need to in order to close any income gaps once I switch over to working from home. Thank you to the bloggers that requested my services in this arena! I appreciate the show of faith!
In short, I am busy. Busy enough that I am not sure I will be staying in my day job until the end of the year as planned. There just aren’t enough hours in the day to keep growing my blogging services business and work in a cubicle.
I will let you know as soon as I do take the work-from-home leap. I am now estimating that it will be possible around September but I am going to try really hard to make it the rest of the year just to build up some padding.
This is an awesome problem to have and I have all of you to thank for it! Thank you for reading BFS and for being the most supportive community a girl could ask for!!!
How are your hobby jobs doing? How is your actual job treating you?
May 18, 2011, at 6:00 am
Hey everybody! Today I am actually asking you all a question instead of really answering any. How long have your cars lasted?
It just dawned on me that my stupid car is already 6 years old. My husband’s Prius is 4 years old. We only ever really expected for our cars to make it 7-8 years overall. That means that I will hopefully be quitting my day job to blog full time at the same time my car is hitting the big 7 year mark.
My Car History
I know, you are going to ask me why I only expect 7-8 years out of a car. Honestly, I don’t know. The car I drove the first part of college, a 1999 Mazda Protegé, was very badly abused before I owned it, so I shouldn’t use its sad 4-5 year existence to judge cars as a whole.
Plus, the 2003 Chevy Cavalier I borrowed the year after that is still going strong with my sister, so that’s good news. In short, I really don’t know why my husband and I only really expect 7-8 good years…
Of course, the crappy parts they used to build my Chevy Aveo don’t hold much of my esteem. I mean, what sort of car company builds a car with a plastic thermostat housing?! For those of you who may not know, the thermostat housing keeps the radiator fluid enclosed…it’s a part near the engine. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that plastic is probably not the best material to use next to a searing hot engine! Even Chevy must have figured it out since the replacement part was a metal one. But there was no recall…grrr…
My Husband’s Car History
So, I do not have high expectations about my car. On the other hand, my husband’s 2007 Prius hasn’t has even one little problem in the last 3 years that we’ve owned it (it was 1 year old when we bought it). We’ve had its oil changed and have replaced the tires, but no parts have broken or seem to be dying. Overall, it truly impresses me with how easy it is to own. I did not expect that out of a hybrid – I just assumed the technology would give us problems. I’ll let you all know if/when it does.
But, we sold my husband’s last car, a 2003 Hyundai Sonata, after 5 years since it started sounding funny. It never really was the same after a huge wreck we were in when it was only 6 months old. The other guy’s insurance company “fixed” it instead of totaling it, which I thought was truly awful since there are just some things that can’t be fixed. Like a completely crumpled front end…engine and everything…
Of course, I should base the life of a car off of something like that either since our current cars have never been in a wreck.
So, what kind of cars have you owned? How long did they last in general or just with you? What do you think I should reasonably expect out of my 2005 Chevy Aveo and my husband’s 2007 Toyota Prius?
May 17, 2011, at 6:00 am
The following is a guest post about saving money on baby formula by Mike Collins from SavingMoneyToday.net. Check out his new site at BabyStuffGuide.com, which is dedicated to helping new parents make smart decisions. Thanks Mike for the family post!
New parents are usually shocked at how much their little one costs, and I’m not just talking about hospital bills. Clothes, diapers, bedding, strollers, toys…the list goes on and on. And if you don’t want to breastfeed (or are unable to), then you can expect to spend a small fortune on baby formula.
Pediatricians recommend that babies stay on formula until they are a year old and then they can switch over to whole milk. That’s twelve months in which your new baby will be devouring baby formula at an alarming rate. With that in mind, here are some tips for saving money on baby formula.
Saving Money on Baby Formula Tips
Stick with powder. I know the pre-mixed, ready to drink formula is more convenient but you’ll pay big time for that. If you use powdered formula which has to be mixed with water you can slash your baby formula bills by as much as 50%.
Use generic formula. Baby formula is one of the most closely regulated food items in the US. The FDA has strict guidelines about what can go into baby formula and all brands have to include minimum nutritional requirements. In other words, the generic formula is just as good as the brand name. And it’s a heck of a lot cheaper.
Shop around. Comparing prices from one chain to another can save you money, but you should also compare prices from stores within the same chain. For example, check out different Babies R Us locations and you’ll see different prices in their “commodities” aisle. Why? Because formula and diapers are often loss leaders (that’s why they’re almost always located in the back of the store) intended to get you in the door where you’ll spend more money. To ensure they’re offering a good deal, each store independently sets the price for each item based on nearby competition. So naturally prices can vary from one location to another.
Ask your pediatrician for free samples. Baby formula manufacturers are only too happy to supply pediatricians and hospitals with free samples knowing that if they get you hooked on their brand early they’ll have a paying customer for a full year.
Skip the toddler formula. Most pediatricians agree that your baby will be ready to switch from formula to whole milk at one year of age. Toddler formula supposedly has added calcium, iron, and vitamins, but by the time your little one is a year old he should be getting most of his nutrition from solid foods, not formula. If you ask me toddler formula is just a way for manufacturers to keep you as a customer for a longer period of time. Completely unnecessary.
Buy from Amazon. Amazon offers a wide variety of formulas for 10% to 15% cheaper than you’ll find on store shelves. Plus if you spend at least $25 you get free shipping! And if you sign up for their free Amazon Mom membership program (dads are welcome too!) you can get free 2-day shipping plus you’ll save up to 30% on items like diapers, wipes, and baby formula.
Any other tips to save money on baby food?
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DISCLAIMER I am not a professional or a financial advisor. BFS posts are informational opinions only. Please make your own financial decisions based on personal research or see a financial advisor.
Also, there are paid links on this site. There is no obligation on your part to purchase any products advertised on this website.
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