More September Decluttering P*rn......Ooooh Baby!

For your decluttering viewing pleasure, here's another installment of Salvation Army worthy P*rn.

Most of today's haul is courtesy of #2 son from The Great Dig Out of 2011.  Along with all the trash we pitched, we also salvaged stuff worthy of a Sallie's donation.  A few things are courtesy of Hubs as he spent part of Sunday cleaning off his dresser. (Bonus points if you can spot which items were part of his donation to the effort.)  The rest is from my boxes of merchandise I have begun to go through from storage.

  September Donation #2

15 young adult books
2 Cube World cubes
2 Gamecube Game Books
1 Get Smart beanbag doll
1 hand massager
1 collectible tin box
1 Crayola Xmas ornament
1 quartz hand carved turtle
1 set of Speed Stacking cups
1 pair of safety goggles

1 pair of Designer Sneakers(hardly worn)
1 Power Rangers Lunchbox
1 LL Bean Lunchbox
1 over the door bathroom rack
1 roll of wallpaper border
1 package of stationary

1 GI Joe Footlocker
1 Star Wars Figure Maker toy
1 Sylvester the Cat Pen
3 Star Wars Pez Dispensers
1 Matchbox helicopter
1 Cat in the Hat Watch
1 Pokemon cards Booklet and collection of cards
1 collectible Mets die-cast car
2 Legos Bionicle comic books
1 Star Wars boxes and figures Set

More Decluttering coming soon to a blog near you!

Sluggy

My Brain & A Check Go Missing & 4.5 Years Ago Today

2 days ago I got mail from my insurance company.
Inside was a Notice of Cancellation of our homeowner's policy.

THUD!

After I picked my excessively large butt off the floor I then said....

WTF?!?!

I am a class act if nothing else.

Seems we are being terminated for lack of payment.
Translation--The insurance company didn't get our check!

So I went to the checkbook register to see if indeed I wrote and recorded a check.
Yes, July 29th.

So I went online to our bank account and saw that the check in question had not been cashed yet.
Hmmmm.

Now I am thinking that it got lost while in the capable hands of the almost bankrupt US Postal Service.

But just in case that is NOT the answer I began to go through the stacks of paper on my desk.

I have stacks and stacks of paperwork on my desk and on the bookcase next to my desk.
It's about hit Critical Mass Stage and needs to be filed, organized or otherwise pitched.
This MIA check payment was just the impetus I needed to start throwing papers around and muttering under my breath.
Ok, so I mutter under my breath anyway.....

And after 2 hours of thrashing about I did NOT turn up the missing check or envelope or anything!
So I started channeling my dead doggie Mango(which meant I started grumbling and saying "Crap!" in the cute grumpy old doggie voice we imagined he would have had, had he been capable of speech)and I went about putting all those papers back into assorted piles.

About an hour later, #2 son comes home from school and is raiding the kitchen for snacks.
As I am standing next to my desk talking to him, I look at the space between the back of the desk and the wall it sits in front of.  There, laying halfway underneath the desk is an envelope.  I get the yardstick and fish it out from behind the desk.

Do I REALLY have to say what it was??lol
Yes all you Miss Cleo wannabees....it's the envelope with the missing check.
It seems in the chaos, that was my August, the payment never actually got mailed.

This is so unlike me.....yah, that's my story.

So yesterday I bopped up to the agent's office and hand delivered said insurance payment.
All is now right with the universe until the next bookkeeping catastrophe hits.

Which brings me to the second part of this post.
As I was looking at the paperwork I enclosed with insurance payment, I saw that they still have our mortgage company listed as the lien holder on our house.
Hell NO!!
I need to get the release papers out to send to the insurance company so they take the mortgage company off.

You see, 4 years and 6 months ago today, we paid off our mortgage in full.
March 15, 2007.
I will never forget that date.
That is our personal Independence Day.

By paying off our 30 year fixed rate mortgage in 6 years, 6 months & 25 days instead of 30 years, we saved roughly $109,088.00 in interest.

If we had taken 30 years to pay off the mortgage we would have paid out $142,792.39 in interest alone.
We only paid less than 24% of that interest amount by not dragging out the payments the full 30 years.

And yes, the grass IS greener now in the yard & the air IS fresher without a mortgage! ;-)
And yes, it IS easier to squirrel away money into savings....a LOT of money into savings, once you aren't paying a mortgage too.
Money to buy cars with cash.
Money to pay cash for college.
Money to pay cash for most anything if you save up that new found income instead of buying stuff with it.

If being mortgage-free is your dream I hope you get there, and I hope it's soon.
You can do it!  8-)


Sluggy

I Attempt to Answer a Reader's Question

A reader of mine(I LOVE saying that!lol) named Free!~ asked a question the other day in the comments.
I thought it was a great question and worthy of a blog post.

She is a newish blogger and wondered how to find readers.

So I went over and checked her blog out to see what she was doing already or not.

One thing you need to do is 'enable' the "Follow" feature if you have a Blogger blog.
This lets folks who want to follow you do so with Google Friend Connect and/or put your blog into their Google Reader so they can find your new blog posts in their reader each day and not to go have to search through all the blogs they read.  Personally, I throw every blog I like to read into my "Favorites" on my computer, so I have the URLs bookmarked.

While you don't have to have your "Follow" feature abled, it's nice to see all those icons and your number of followers on your blog's home page. 8-)

So how to gain readers?
*  Well you could do giveaways and/or contests to get readers.  Either find a company to sponsor a prize or if you are independently weather, supply a prize yourself. ;-)
Make people become followers as a way to get an entry to your giveaway.
Make people blog about your contest to get an entry.
Make people post on facebook and/or twitter to get an entry.
Make people have a friend enter your giveaway(and when they say XX friend told them to enter, give both an entry).
Post your Giveaway/Contest on one of the Blogs that sponsor a Giveaway Post(this is a post were you can link to your Giveaway from their blog).  Do a search for Giveaway Memes or Giveaway Blogs.
Do a joint Giveaway with another Blog.  Connect with another blogger(or more than 1 other)to do a joint giveaway.  That way you get to cross advertise your giveaways on that other blogger's site.

*  Find another Blogger who is looking for "Guest Posts".  In your travels reading around the Blogisphere you will come across other bloggers who want other bloggers to write a post for their blog.
Either they want fresh ideas or they will be unable to blog for some time and need new posts to fill in rather than rerunning old material.


* If you have a blog you enjoy and read, write to that blogger and see if you can do a link exchange.  Most bloggers will put you on their Blogroll as a courtesy.  Some not so much but it doesn't hurt to ask.
I personally follow different types of blogs.  I have gotten onto some of their blogrolls, but the ones who limit their blogroll to one type of blogs(personal finance, deals, humor, etc.)often won't exchange links with me since I am all over the places with topics.  If you are strictly say a frugality blog, it's easier to find other strictly frugality blogs to exchange links with.

You've got a nice Blogroll already Free!~ so contact all those blog owners about a link exchange.

*  Some bloggers run "Carnivals".  This is a special post of a collection of blog posts from many different blogs, usually on a certain theme or POV.  You can submit particular posts and they choose which ones they want to include and the resulting Carnival Post will contain Links to all the selected posts.  Carnivals can have many different themes and topics.....frugality, single moms, personal finance, retirement,  homesteading, working moms, Christian moms, etc.

Often times bloggers will reach out and showcase other blogs they find with some "Linky Love" and point their readers in the direction of a new or new-to-them blog.

*  You need to actively get your blog out there.  If you read someone's blog that you enjoy, say something.  The more you comment of other blogs, the more other bloggers will notice you......then they will go check out your blog and if they like what they read, they will stick around and keep reading you.
If you have family and/or friends in 'real life' then tell them about your blog.....er, unless you are dishing those family and/or friends on your blog.lol

*  If you are desperate and rich enough, you could also buy ads on popular blogs to advertise yourself.   I haven't gotten to either desperate or rich enough yet!
Or you could write an actual book and advertise your blog on your book tour.  Yah, that's my plan!lolol

It might help if you have a Blogger blog to go into your dashboard, into the Analytics or STATS pages of your blog.  There you can look up how many page views you have, how many readers and how they are getting to your blog....through a search engine or a certain other blog, etc.....and where they live and what type of browser they are using.  This information might be informative in going forward or it could just be fun and a time waster, depending on what you do with it.


So who out there has some other great ideas to help readers find your blog? 
I have some great brilliant readers so let's hear some ideas!

Oh, and it never hurts to butter up your readers and stroke their egos......!

And before I forget, this great question came from Free!~ over at Pay The Bills or Feed The Kids.  Go check her out if you get a chance.


Sluggy

The Flood of 2011

What do you get when you put 8 inches of rain from Hurricane Irene with 8 inches of rain from Hurricane Lee?

At least in this area, here is what you get.....

Though we are saely high and dry up on the mountain, the clean up has begun for those not so fortunate in the valley.
Pictures of devastation are still coming in on the local news from areas they are just getting access to since the flood.

Only 2 flood related deaths so far from this Flood but the property damage will far outweigh what the Agnes Flood in 1972 caused.  At least we lost fewer lives if you can see that as a bright spot.

Lee  2011 is the new benchmark for disaster in this region.

Hold your family tighter tonight.  Don't sweat the "stuff".

Sluggy

Of Menu Plans & September Food Spending Week 1

I set right to spending on food in September.

It took me all of 2 days to get to the store and go on a $50.56 spending spree.
I bought 8 pizzas(5 small, 3 big), 2 boxes of frozen fruit bars, a 2 lb. block of cheddar cheese, a box of pancake mix, 2 watermelons, 2 bags of salad, 1 container of sour cream, a package of  sweet Italian sausage patties and a bag of brown sugar.
I coupon & sale prices later and I had a savings rate of 31% over reg. retail.

Then on the 6th, I hit another grocery store and bought....1 roasting chicken, a bag of onion rings, another pizza(what can I say?lol) and 2 bags of Doritos for a grand total of $14.62.
Hubs also picked up a gallon of milk for $3.77.

Grand Total for the 1st week of September food spending is $68.95.
My Food Spending Budget is $250 per month so we are sort of on target for the week.

My menu last week ended up being this....

Sunday--Fish, French Fries, Snap Peas(all from freezer or pantry)
Monday--Chinese (take-out on Entertainment budget)
Tuesday--Meatball Subs, Salad(all but salad from freezer or pantry)
Wednesday--Roast Chicken, Roasted Carrots, Onions, Potatoes, Gravy(carrots, potatoes, onions from pantry)
Thursday--Kielbasa on Rolls, leftover Veggies(all from freezer or pantry)
Friday--Subway sammies (take-out on Entertainment budget)
Saturday--Leftovers or Burritos(all from freezer or pantry)

Miscellaneous--#2 son ate 6 pizzas and 1/2 bag of onion rings.  These are his 'snacking foods'.

As of today, I still have 2 of the 9 pizzas, most of 1 watermelon, most of the cheddar cheese, the sugar, the sour cream, 1/2 of a bag of salad, the sausage patties, the pancake mix, 1/2 bag of onion rings, both bags of Doritos(this is shocking that no one has eaten them yet!lol) and a couple of fruit bars(my vice)from last week's shopping.

So far this week my Meal Plan is this....

Sunday--Tacos(using up ground beef in fridge by adding some ground chicken from freezer and some of the huge block of cheddar)
Monday--Ravioli, Salad(using ravioli in freezer)
Tuesday--BLT Sandwiches(using garden tomatoes, bacon from freezer)
Wednesday--Mac & Cheese, Broccoli and Cauliflower(using some of that huge block of cheddar)
Thursday--Spaghetti and Meatballs(using meatballs in freezer and making fresh pasta sauce from garden tomatoes)
Friday--??
Saturday--??

I'll have to dig in the freezer and see what proteins I find and get inspired to use for Fri/Sat.  I don't plan on buying any meats this week unless I find a surprise deal.
I need bread badly as we are fresh out, onions(down to my last one), cauliflower, more milk and Hubs bought more lettuce on Sunday so we've spent on food this week already.

How much did you spend last week and how is your food spending shaping up for this week?

Sluggy