Saturday, July 3, 2010

Happy 4th of July

Every year for the 4th of July, we always grill out and let off our own fireworks. This year is going to be a little different. We are going to have snack food and let off our own fireworks. Since our oven is still broken we are tired of using the grill. Instead of having hamburgers and hot dogs again, we are going to have chips and dip, popcorn shrimp, etc. This should be a nice break.

We have decided to make an attempt to fix the oven and ice maker on our own (with a little help from some friends). Hopefully, we can get them working without spending a fortune. The nice part will be the get together.

One of my favorite ways to save money and time is to get organized. I have found that the more organized the house is, the fewer things I need to purchase. I have also found that donating extra items is a great way to maintain the organization. I have taken about four car loads of stuff to donate so far this summer and I have only gone through about 1/4 of the stuff that I need to go through. Sometimes donating stuff is really difficult, because of the emotional attachment to the "stuff", the simplest way to get past that feeling is to continue to tell myself that someone else may really need the item, or that someone else may really love this "stuff".

There are only a few things that I continuously struggle with to save money: the most difficult to overcome is the shopping. I do love shopping. I have to continually remind myself that acquiring new things is not the way to build up our savings.

Hope that everyone has a great 4th!