Debt Free Kid

I mentioned  in my previous post that I won a gift certificate from Squirrelers' Thanksgiving contest. It was for $20 at Amazon.com. I normally order from Amazon.ca but xmas was arriving quickly and I thought I'd redeem it for something for someone I love. I had a harder time than I thought I would. Shipping from the U.S. is expensive and since I had left it so late, nothing I chose would be here in time for xmas. A couple of toys I had picked out for my son would not ship to Canada at all. I finally chose a backpack for my bro-friend but before I hit the switch I decided to check locally. I found the same pack for the same price at a shop in town and avoided shipping altogether. Last week I decided to buy a book with it. The book cost $10 and the shipping was $11! I couldn't bear to spend more on postage than on the book itself, so I went with my original plan and offered the gift certificate to a friend in the U.S. Since I had carelessly applied it to my own account ...

For the first time ever, and without requesting it, I received a refund cheque for interest paid on my rent deposit. I almost fell over when I opened the envelope and realized what it was. With that I am $18.16 more wealthy. On a similar note, I checked my ING account today and found a $25 referral deposit, another first. Many thanks to the person who took my orange key from the sidebar and used it to open their own account. I hope your $25 serves you well. Since I gave up monetizing this blog I haven't looked at all at my account settings. Last week I chose to renew my domain name and clicking around in google took me to my adsense account. I saw that I had almost $10 in my account so I decided to update my information with them. I'm waiting on a password to arrive in the mail to finish the process. On a whim I also decided to re-visit my abandoned Swagbucks account. In the past few days I have earned over 40 Bucks just playing around on the 'net. I think I might try...

Simply Frugal informed us today, and for today only (January 5), David Bach's Debt Free for Life is available as a free pdf download . Seriously, Karissa

Happy New Year everyone. I have been working on my budget for 2011 and I am confident that I will have the last of the credit card debt gone by the end of the coming year. I can't say I will be debt-free because I will then have the $30 000+ student loan debt to tackle, however I am feeling pretty ecstatic to see the end of the credit card era of my life. It was nice to receive my paycheque on the 28th of December and be able to allocate it entirely into my new budget. I didn't have any credit card bills to pay since I managed to use some savings for all my xmas gift purchases. I also bought way less this year than in previous years. My sister and I agreed to buy nothing for each other and instead got together on xmas eve for a nice visit. I also didn't buy for any of my step-siblings' kids (of which there are now 6) because they keep multiplying while I responsibly keep my number of offspring to just one :) I kept my traveling to a minimum this xmas and when I di...

I have been trying to wean myself off the internet, and it's not quite working. I took a two-week vacation from my Google Reader and it helped a bit but I WAS still checking facebook several times a day. I try to filter as much as I can by refusing to click on external links and this helps a bit. However I realized that I feel like an ostrich with my head stuck in the internet, and I am avoiding everyday, real-time life by spending more than five minutes on the internet each night. This is especially not fair to my beautiful four-year-old boy who is growing up so quickly. I thought, how ironic that I read all these sites about minimalism and quality of life, but I don't put them into practice. An hour online goes by, and my dishes are still piled up on the counter. I am overwhelmed by all the "stuff" I have to do but I avoid it by checking what someone from my life ten years ago is doing. It reminded me of how I first got into meditation, and I would read and re...

Snagged from Butterfly Collector Part One - Describe: Your hair? shoulder-length, natural light-brown. I haven't coloured it in over five years, since I became pregnant. I actually like my natural hair colour, after years of abuse :) Your favorite food? veggie curry Your dream last night? I can't remember Your favorite drink? Coca Cola (in a can) Your dream/goal? to be debt free The room are you in? living room Your hobby? playing on the internet Your fear? that something terrible will happen to my son Your TV? is turned on when my son is home Your Pets? none, but I'm thinking of getting Bean a dwarf bunny for his fifth birthday in April Friends? I don't make them easily, but I keep the few I have close Your life? waiting Your mood? at this moment I am ok If you're missing someone? I miss my Nan, who passed away five years ago this month Your best friend? I have more than one Part Two - The Wheres: Where do you want to be in 6 yea...

I've been maintaining this blog for (close to? more than?) two years. I'm obviously not keeping track of time. The blog is not exactly what I thought it would be, but it's been an amazing tool for tracking my progress and that's the most important thing. It keeps me honest and accountable. It probably keeps you asleep - if you even read it anymore. I don't care really, I stopped watching the stats almost immediately. And I've come up with a few rules and here's three: 1. Stop clicking on free stuff. Maybe even stop following blogs that offer free stuff. Thanks to a couple of thoughtless keystrokes I now get a spam phone call each night, and at least a couple of spam snail-mails each week. Good thing I'll be moving and leaving my landline in the spring but in the meantime ... 2. I've stopped following almost all blogs that don't offer a full blog post in their feed. I follow way too many blogs now and rarely click on them individually unles...