Soooo broke...

Last month we went on that mini vacation. I'm so glad we did and I don't regret it at all. But... our TV just went black. I'm crossing my fingers that it's a cheap and easy fix. But the warranty just went out so we'll have to repair or replace it ourselves. And of course the money I would have used for that was just spent on our vacation.

How are you guys doing with the recession? Making ends meet? Just scraping by? Or living large?

I am sorry for your tv - tbs.

How am I doing with the current set of events - ah, let me see. Oh here I have it - I live very rural so even if I wanted to spend some cash I would have to travel 2 1/2 hours one way just to get to a Walmart

I also am the rural of coupons, returnables. However, from the what I have viewed here when it comes to savings in coupons my tiara would be knocked off like some cheap lil knock off from one of those - well, you know what I mean . . .

Our Tv went out in July, was given to us so no warranty. , got a good deal on a samsung LCD at walmart, check them out...The hardest part of it was going from a 80 inch to a 50 inch..at least for Dh it was.

We are making it, but it is tough.We wouldn't normally be this broke but we are doing some repairs on the garage and that is $$$. Did new siding soffits and fascias, then caulk and paint and a new roof.....would have probably been cheaper to rebuild the whole dang thing. There is also this new housenote we have, haven't had one of those in 10 years, but hopefully we will pay it off in our projected time, 15 years, that will save us 93K in interest. So in order to do that we are paying 2 1/2 notes a month...not absolutely necessary, and makes us broke , but oh well.

We're scraping by, but we were before too. So not much has changed, lol. But we makes ends meet so I am thankful. Every extra buck is buying more boards for Rob to make more cabinets for my kitchen and I have been sneaking in Christmas presents here and there. I'm half done and I did so cheaply

Well...I worked the harvest for extra money..and used my survey money and amazon survey bucks to buy Christmas presents for DH's family, which saved him from having to spend it. All year long I've been returning bottles and cans for the deposit $. Each time I take them back there's about $15. to $25.00 which I use to either buy gifts or buy stuff we need around the house. Every little bit helps. Our projection TV we had a while back crapped out and we had to buy a new TV, we had to put it on credit card. We lucked out though because dh ended up getting that check when they did away with the pension plan at work and we paid off our credit cards..

Thankfully I have a lot of my Christmas shopping done already, so I won't have to deal with that AND with buying a TV.

I know they're expensive, but I prefer to buy something large-screen. Buying 6 movie tickets is $35 before popcorn even for a matinee, so instead we have a big-screen TV paired with Redbox and popcorn we pop ourselves. If that means going out even once a month less often during the next year, the TV pays for itself. That being said, I'm not looking forward to buying it. I think I'm looking at spending at least $600-$700.

On the plus side, I finally read Twilight last night and am working on New Moon today. I've got a cold and keep falling asleep or I think I'd be done by now. They're fast reads.

The past couple of months have been major money-bleeders here.

New windshield and master cylinder in the truck, plus car insurance, internet fee (I pay 6 months at a time for a 10% savings, but it's a chunk at once), plus I've picked up a couple of used items as major bargains (used Dell Pentium 4 and a gently used KA mixer {thanks, ia2ca!}) that bled more cash.

Then my 1.5 year old monitor blew up. I "stole" one from another computer that I'm refurbishing, but I still need to get a replacement for the blown one, so I'm checking sales online waiting for a bargain to show up. Which means more $$ going out.

I'm hoping my refrigerator will keep going so I don't have to replace that any time soon. It makes loud clunking noises whenever the compressor stops, which is NOT encouraging.

And now the heating season is here, so the big electric bills will start rolling in. (sigh)

I need that big lottery winner Real Soon Now!

So I guess you could say the economy here isn't too good either.

It sucks BIGTIME here.

Br is working 6 days a week, around 16-17 hours a day, and I am still not able to drive into town to do my PTA stuff. Our fridge went out a month or so ago, and we had to buy a new one. I bought a used one, we were very lucky, we actually had 300.00 that I had just told BR we were over the budget with. (first time I havent been in the red by payday in about a year) .

We were ahead enough to get the kids 4-H projects, and build them some cages. I have been able to buy boots or shoes the second my kids need them, and stuff like that.
But we havent ate out in months and months and months, not even little ceasers 6.00 pizzas.- The only thing we do is home, church and 4-H shooting sports. We have been to two rodeos in the last month or so, but thats cause they were free - My church puts them on, Plus, you know me- I'm a sucker when someone says "we need help" so I work them. Plus, I did the women in the outdoors event. But again it was free and I worked it. LOL

I miss my PTA stuff- badly, and I wish I could do more, But, I still dont have the emergancy fund in the bank yet. and although, I have been in the black the last 3 months running, its not far into the black. LOL

I had to get my TV through rentacenter. Not the best way to get one, but I was doing a favor for my BIL - he was going to have to send it back, and Lord knows I couldnt have afforded one myself.

I did pay it off, so I expect it to go out VERY soon... its no longer under warrenty. LOL