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Jim’s Weekly Update 4/19

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First I wanted to apologize to everyone for this weeks worth of posts from me.  I am so used to writing those kinds of posts on all of my blogs that it seemed right.  One thing I am not used to is writing about myself personally.  I did tidbits here and there, but nothing on a regular basis.  Hopefully you will accept my apologies and we will go from there.

Today is my son’s actual birthday party.  What we do is on their actual birthday, we have the grandparents come over and we just have cake and ice cream.  Then a few weeks later we have a birthday party for the child, on a weekend that we have both.  We are going to be changing this up starting next year though, and on their actual birthday, it will just be the four of us doing something special.  For both of my son’s birthday parties, my in-laws decided that camping was more important then their grandson’s birthday party.  Last year was forgivable, because they had the trip planned for a few months.  This year however they decided on either Monday or Tuesday that they were going.  This totally gets me rattled up.  Besides knowing the fact it was also Easter and on Monday my mother-in-law was supposed to take my wife to a doctor’s appointment.  I had to switch around my schedule to be able to take my wife now, which isn’t that much of a problem.  But when we went there two weeks ago, the doctor’s kicked both my son and I out of the office, because my son was being “too loud.”

Ok sorry rant over, I will be posting an update on my son’s birthday party on Tuesday.  I have some juicy frugal details, plus some not so frugal moments, that deserve a whole post to itself.

As everyone knows Sunday is Easter, and I am a little sad this holiday.  We didn’t get my children anything, besides a few pieces of candy.  This is a first for us.  Here is what their baskets looked like last year.

Easter 2013

I feel bad about this, but know that they really don’t need anything this year, and it seems that they both are becoming a little ungrateful.  The daughter, she is always like is this it?  Then she doesn’t even play with anything.  The son will play with everything he gets which is a good thing, and he is too young to really understand gratefulness.  But what makes me really sad, is that we didn’t get them new easter outfits and they didn’t sit a get their pictures taken with the easter bunny.  We have a picture of every season with either Santa or the Easter Bunny.  But the wife and I made the decision that no pictures till the family picture in November.

A few people asked how the Amazon business is going, I am happy to say that I am in the black.  I sold six of my multipacks for a gross profit of almost $99.  Now it did cost me $85 to buy the product and ship it off to three different Amazon Fulfillment Centers.  So I technically only netted about $14 so far.  But there is still tons of product at Amazon and it is nothing but profit from here on out.  This tells me this is a viable option to make money, so I might throw more business income at this and see where it goes.

Some other people don’t feel like I am that committed to getting out of debt enough.  Haters are going to hate, and I am used to that.  Every time I posted something about my debt this happened, and well I am not going to let it get me down.  I will do my budget the way I want to and what works for me.  I am always open for discussion on everything, but to tell someone they are doing it wrong and become a little nasty about it, well is there a right or wrong way to get out of debt?  In my mind there isn’t.  Yes, I am not looking to picking up a full time job, for I rather spend time with my family.  Yes, I am not going to tell my wife she has to quit smoking, for that is up to her to make.  But is it the wrong way to get out of debt?  Not at all, it might take longer, but I will still make headway.

With that said, I have taken on somethings.  I actually applied to two long term contracts, that will contract me out for two days for about a month and a half.  One would start in two weeks and contract me out Friday and Saturday.  Then the other would start right after that and contract me out for a Saturday and Sunday.  I don’t see a reason for me not to get these positions, for I contracted myself with this company a few times in the past.  But what I am really excited about is that a big time internet marketer posted that he is looking to hire some people under him for about 12-20 hours a weeks.  The pay is average for this kind of entry level position, but to be honest I would have done this for free, to be able to study under him.

I also realize that I have a S#!t ton of stuff again, so I will probably be hosting another yard sale again.  Someone here asked me to give a link to one of my current blogs, as I don’t feel comfortable doing this, I want to point everyone to a blog that I no longer do, but had somethings that deal with what I currently do to save money, and sometimes even make money.  I will be linking to the kind of money I made in 2012 from a yard sale.  Maybe read it and come back here and comment if you have some tips.

Well I think that is about it.


13 Comments

  • Reply Kiki |

    I look forward to reading about your new contract work. Oh Jim, you are taking it much too much to heart about the kids’ Easter baskets! My four children are now grown, and believe me, they hardly remember those things. What they DO remember is playing great hide-and-seek games with their parents, or the time we installed a cheap Nerf basketball hoop on a wall in our living room and we all played that for hours.

    Even today with my young granddaughter, we stacked four pillows on the bed for her “horse” and used my purse straps for the “bridle.” She had a blast. What your kids really want is YOU. Don’t fall into that crap trap, as we like to call it. Kids can actually be cured from affluenza! : )

    PS I like all that you have written thus far.

    • Reply Jim |

      Thanks Kiki, it means the world to me. You know what, they didn’t even notice they didn’t get anything.

    • Reply Jen from Boston |

      Maybe it’s because we’re not that religious, but all I ever got for Easter was candy. And that was pretty AWESOME!!! One morning I woke up and saw that the Easter Bunny had left a big candy popcorn rabbit on my nightstand. Exciting!

      Once we were out of bed my brother and i would look for the eggs and jelly beans. Of course, we couldn’t eat any until after breakfast, and we split them evenly. The only other fancy thing for Easter that we did was have a bigger dinner than usual. One time Mom made a ham glazed in mustard.

      So, really, don’t worry about getting Easter presents. Not everyone does Easter gifts, and, actually, I don’t know anyone offline who does. The only thing my offline friends and acquaintances may have done for Easter outside of food and candy is buy a new Easter outfit for church, but even that isn’t really necessary unless your children have outgrown all the dress up clothes.

  • Reply Jessica |

    I love your honesty in this post about your daughter because I think so many kids are like this now 🙁 I’ve found myself disgusted with the ‘stuff’ I’ve accumulated and wasted money on as I try to dig myself out of debt…most of it because I thought I ‘had to have it’ Your kids will be totally satisfied with a few pieces of candy in their basket – that’s how it should be anyway, not full of toys! Love how this blogger explained it –
    http://www.livingwellspendingless.com/2012/09/14/why-i-took-all-my-kids-toys-away-why-they-wont-get-them-back/

  • Reply Kili |

    Hi Jim, I agree with the previous posters. Some candy will be enough for Easter. Teach your kids that there are more important things than “stuff”… teach them to have fun with the family, teach them to care for each other.
    Have a fun Easter weekend.

  • Reply Joe |

    Jim,

    No need to feel or get defensive about comments from this blog. I think the implicit assumption is that if you are a blogger on this site, you are trying to get advice/comments. Not every comment will be on point, but on the flip side, if indeed _every_ comment seems to be not useful to you, then the concern would be that there is not a good fit with the site. No judgments about who is right/wrong necessary.

    In terms of the posts earlier this week, I also found them lacking just in the sense that this site has always been about personal journeys to get out of debt. You could have used some of the same material, but with some discussion on specific ideas you had gotten from some of the books and whether they were useful or not.

    I’m certainly glad to hear that the business ventures are going well, and I very much like the sentiment re: having too much stuff in this post. Happy Easter!

    • Reply Jim |

      Thanks Joe! You are right, I probably wrote that wrong, I wasn’t really blaming anyone or taking offense to the comments. I like both good and bad comments, they all help us grow. Hope you had a great holiday!

  • Reply Helene |

    Jim, all the crap we buy to fill the baskets will only become part of the living, breathing crap pile that so many people’s homes become. My son’s Easter basket was also very stripped down this year, but thankfully he didn’t make a peep (pun intended!) about the diminished gifts. He got a big beach bucket from the dollar store with a dollar-store box of sidewalk chalk, some candy and a new t-shirt. That’s it, aside from some extra smaller candies, jellybeans and spare change hidden throughout the house in my trusty dollar-store plastic eggs that I’ve been re-using for years now.

    We played ball, worked on a school project and read together. Your children do not want or need more stuff. They want and need your love and attention and time. I swear it up and down.

    Stay the course and you will make it!

    • Reply Jen from Boston |

      Speaking of crap in the Easter baskets, how about that fake grass stuff that gets everywhere? It’s like the Christmas icicles, only in pastel colors instead of silver! Blech!

  • Reply Jim |

    You are totally right Helene, I really thought my daughter would have said something, because at times she is very vocal. But not a peep! (Pun intended as well ;-))

  • Reply Slinky |

    Growing up, our easter baskets were always just a bit of candy and some decorated eggs. Maybe a couple of plastic eggs with quarters in them. Sometimes I got one new book and my brother got one tiny lego set. As we got older, we often got one joint easter basket with our favorite snacks and candy. Usually more strawberries and cheese and crackers and beef jerky than candy.

    To me, your easter baskets look like an entire Christmas haul including gifts from all the relatives and grandparents!

So, what do you think ?