Brooke Blogs This

One of my top priorities at the moment is saving money, and making some on the side as well. In this spirit, I have decided to start "Frugal Fridays" where I share my newest ideas to save money. Earlier this months I wrote about birthday freebies, and now I have stumbled upon savings from radio stations. I have found two radio stations in town, 103.3 and 107.5 , that have half priced gift certificates and other deals to local restraunts and attractions. Sometimes you even get good deals on travel. Don't pass up registering for radio station giveaways either! Your chances are pretty decent with local giveaways. If its free and your interested, what's the harm??

How do I know my 20 month old is full blow terrible twos? Because I had this conversation this morning with my daughters daycare teacher: Me: "Sorry, I didn't make it to the store last night, Shiloh wasn't having a good night." Teacher: "Does Shiloh throw fits at home?" Me: "Yeah, She is getting in the rest of her two year molars" Teacher: "Well Yesterday she was playing with my name badge and I had to ask her to quit and she started screaming and then she was standing in the chair and I told her to get down and she went ballistic." I did not really know how to respond at that point. I was secretly hoping she had not started throwing things at daycare like she did at home, when she was told "No". I was secretly hoping she was not full blown back talking with "No I do it." I was secretly hoping that we would somehow skip the terrible two's, but my daughter and the word ballistic in the same sentence? I think the ...

The first picture, lot 23, is our current house. Second picture parcel 7.17 is what we are considering. Sometimes things unexpectedly land in your lap! Recently an very nice couple that has been a long time family friend offered me their house at a discounted price, if no realtors are involved. I have explained that we have a house currently that would HAVE to be sold, before we could even think about being in a posistion to buy their house. They said they would hold on the their house for now and give us a chance to sell ours. Anytime anyone offers you a house a good 25 thousand below appraisal, it deserves some serious consideration. We were not currently looking to sell our house, though we have talked about moving in the future to be closer to Zachary. We just both thought we needed to get in a better financial situation and our house could use a little work before its "market" worthy. Whenever I am faced with a major decision, I find myself mentally making Pros/Cons l...

Yes, Shiloh's birthday is still 4 months away with Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas between now and then. Yes, I am already obsessed with where we will have it this year. I am having absolutely NO luck finding an affordable (cheap) and approriate place to have a 2 year olds birthday party. However, I have found some awesome birthday freebies!!! My Three Favorites are: 1. Toys R Us looks like it will be my favorite. Register your child's birthday and you will get a 10% off coupon for the month leading up to his/her birthday and THEN your child will get their very own card and gift (I hear it is a $5 gift certificate) from Geoffrey on their birthday! 2. If you register your child at Sonic.com, they will get a coupon for a free kids meal the month of their birthday. Register yourself too as an adult and you'll get a special treat on your birthday as well (though I am not sure what)! 3. The Childrens Place will send you a 15% off coupon for use during your child's bi...

This morning, I innocently planned to replace my daughters summer back up clothes with winter back up clothes at daycare. When I got her bin down at daycare this morning, I saw it. The LAST emergency paci. Three months ago, my daughter gave up her paci cold turkey. Looking back I really think I was more dependent upon it than her. My daughter loved her paci and it went everywhere with us. In 17 months, we had only lost one pacifier. I dreaded taking her pacifier away. I imagined days of screaming and weeks of not sleeping. The first day was a little rough, with her whining for it from time to time, but we made it. It helped to have my husband there, because when one of us thought about giving in, we reminded each other how long we HAD made it, and stayed strong. I tried to distract her with gold fish crackers, sippy cups and her favorite toys and books and we made it through the day. Getting her to sleep that night was rough. She just would not stay in her toddler bed and kept crying...

Wal-Mart you have failed me. Yesterday I requested that someone at the corporate level please contact me about my complaint, and I also requested that any contact be made by e-mail, and provided my e-mail address. Last night, I once again received a call from the Franklin, KY store, from yet another manager. I did not answer the phone, nor did I call him back. I am through playing games. Today, however, I was searching for an Ipod touch as a Christmas gift, and google returned a search showing Wal-Mart had one of the lowest prices, so I reluctantly went to the website to look. Sure enough, an 8 gig 2nd Generation Ipod Touch was listed for $179.00. Below that was a Value Bundle package for an 8 gig 2nd Generation Ipod touch and a $10 Wal-Mart gift card for $197.98. I am sorry, I thought it was supposed to be a VALUE BUNDLE, as in saves me money, not makes them $8.98?

Friday afternoon I received a call from a manager at the Franklin Walmart store. She was a very nice lady, she said she was sorry about the incident and had corrected the problem, but did not do a whole lot for my confidence in Wal-Mart in general. She talked fast, and laid out alot of PR bull about the economic times and how Wal-Mart wanted to help not hurt their customers. Then she ended the conversation by asking if she had answered my question. What question? I had a complaint. So I sent another complaint to Wal-Mart today. I explained that I had sent a complaint on Friday, and copied that complaint into the body, then below it I added: Friday afternoon, I received a call from a store manager, who applogized and stated the problem had been corrected and assured me she did not know how this had happened. She then asked me if she had answered my question. At the time, I was in the middle of feeding my daughter and said yes. But I am not satisfied. First, I didn't have a question...

Please enjoy my below complaint I just sent to Wal-Mart corporate about Franklin, KY walmart: Last night, I was shopping at this store and went down the "clearence" aisle. There were two boxes of plastic toy trucks, bulldozers, etc with a tag underneath saying they were $3.00 reduced from $3.44. The tag ON the toy said $2.97. I am furious about this because this is not the first time this has happened. Last year, I complained because there was a tag underneath childrens swimming pools listing it as reduced from one price to another, when again, the tag on the item itself listed the price lower. I received a call from the store's manager, telling me that those items had been put in the wrong place, and the tag did not match the item above it. He appologized for the confusion and promised it would be corrected and should not happen again. This time I took pictures. If you will give me an email address to email the pictures to, I would be happy to share. This is ridicu...

....will it go away? Today is just one of those days when everything hits me all at once: The stress of our situation and uncertainty of what is to come, the worries of money and how we will survive, and the feeling disconnected from the world. Day in and day out, I try to look at the bright side and hope and pray for the best. I do research to affirm where we stand and the likliness of a good outcome. I have thrown everything I have into finding ways to make and save money, telling myself it will make a difference. I never stop racking my brain. However, I never seem to shake the feeling of being disconnected from the world. My only social outlet is work, and being that, is limited. I seem to have very little in common with the people who are easily accessible to me outside of my family, and very little time for those with which I can relate. I crave something creative...to paint, photograph, write, but by the end of the night, when I alot my self some time, I am too mentally tired...