What I Saw: How To Cross A Creek

We have been in North Carolina on a business trip. Near Hot Springs I saw this cabin and an ingenious way that they have created to cross the creek to their house. They park near where I took this picture and board this little cart to cross over to where their house is located.

It was extremely cold yesterday and this morning. The wind was the problem. It was blowing incredibly hard and since we were around 4000 elevation it was much colder than the valley we live in. I was not quite prepared for how cold it would be. We went up to Blowing Rock attraction for just a few minutes this morning and after only about 10 minutes I felt like the ends of my fingers were frozen!

This is a picture of a mill near Banner Elk, just over the state line, in a little place called Trade.

I know these pictures are nothing compared to what others in the country have been dealing with this winter so far. I hate when we get ice in Tennessee. We don't get much and no one seems ready when we do.

Living On What You Make

I read this post at fatwallet.com that I thought I would share. How often do we think that making more money would be the answer to all our financial problems?

But if you can't manage your money when you make $40,000 a year, you won't be able to at $400,000 a year. The principles are the same.

This is my favorite part of the post: "Luxuries get sampled and become necessities. And while the pleasures you get from the finer things in life are nice, the pain that you experience if you ever have to give them up becomes huge. It wasn't any one thing, it was a train of connected "upgrades" to our lifestyle. And if you let the upgrade train get away from you, you all of the sudden realize that you're struggling to pay for the ticket."

How true is that? Here is the beginning of the post and there is a link to the rest at the end. Enjoy.

"I didn't always make a lot of money. Nor did I come from a wealthy family. Nope, I started on the bottom rung, worked hard, waited patiently, and finally one day, I woke up, and all of the sudden realized I was finally making some decenet money. Not big shot, second-home, his-and-her-7-series driving money, but better than most of the population, and certainly better than any of my friends or family. Combine that with being married to a fellow college grad with her own professional job, and between the two of us, we pull in around $200k per year. And we're living paycheck to paycheck. Although this is an alternate name I created to hide the personal details from my usual login, I've been a regular FWF contributor for as long as I can remember. I've posted quite a bit here (I'm not one of the "biggies", but I have a good number of posts to my name, all with their fair share of green). I know all the conventional wisdom. I follow the Boglehead philosophy, know about how to allocate money, know all about the wonders of compound interest, and have read all the books. Tobias' Only Financial Guide You'll Ever Need? Check. Random Walk, check. Millionare Next Door, Your Money or Your Life, and even (sigh) Rich Dad Poor Dad, check check and check. How I got to where I am was both sobering and humbling, and I figured I'd tell the story just in case it might help anyone else. No sob story about medical expenses, divorce, or some scam business opportunity. Nope, my wife and I just let ourselves spend too much. No one to blame but us..."

The rest of this post and responses can be read here.

Elf Slipper Tutorial

Check out this great tutorial at Maya Made for really cute Elf slippers. She does a great job explaining every step and the results are just too cute.

Pictures property of Maya Made

Free Cell Phone Directory Assistance

I've been so busy this week, and because it is a money saving tip, I decided to let my Wednesday post double as my Frugal Friday tip. Works for me!

Most cell phone providers charge from $1.50 and up for directory assistance. Why pay that when Google has a service that provides the same information you get when dialing 411. At NO cost (except for any general calling fees associated with your phone). Simply dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (or 1-800-4664-411) from your phone. Here is a short video that describes the service.

Works for me! For more great tips check out Rocks in my Dryer. And for great money saving tips check out Crystal for her Frugal Friday tips.

The Lunch Date Blouse GIVEAWAY!!!!

Kathleen at Grosgrain makes the most adorable clothes. She also gives some of them away. This week it is an adorable top that my daughter would SO wear. It is worth the trip to her blog just to oooohhhh and ahhhh over the way cute clothes. If you happen to win one, all the better! The Lunch Date Blouse GIVEAWAY!!!!

Picture is property of Kathleen at Grosgrain

Lazy Beyond Belief

Maybe it is the weather. Maybe I'm getting old. I don't know. What I do know is that all I want to do is sleep. I want to curl up in my warmest, coziest pajamas and hibernate like a grizzly bear.

My family would have a very poor opinion of Mama bear sleeping the day away. I beat the mattress monster off and drag myself out of bed everyday. I really need to get some things done around here.

We are past our 39 days of H-E-double toothpicks. Counting cousins and Grandmas we have 7 birthdays and our anniversary between December 1 and January 8 and then my sister on the Jan 13. We even managed to survive Christmas and New Years.

Now it is time to settle back down to schoolwork, get the taxes done, go back to work in our business and get my house clean. I haven't even taken down the Christmas tree yet. Sigh.

The days already seem to be rushing past like a fast moving stream. 2008 was gone before I knew it and 2009 seems to be moving at the same speed.

I'll be posting soon. I've got some great new pictures to share. Thanks for all the sweet comments on my older post. I appreciate them all.

True Love

Thirty years ago today these two young people got married.

Her family didn't want her to marry him.

His family didn't want him to marry her.

They didn't care.

They did it anyway.

I think they made the right choice. *******Carrie and Randy at Cades Cove*******

Hard Candy Christmas: Frugal, Wise, Or Am I Just Plain Cheap?

Yesterday at the grocery store I listened to the cashier and the bagger talk about buying Christmas presents. "I've still got to buy presents for my husband's brother and his family. I don't know what I'm going to get them but I'll have to wait until I get my paycheck cashed."

To that the bagger replied, "My mom has put everything on her credit card. She will be fussing about it when the bill comes!" They both laughed and the cashier looked at me and said, "Well, I guess there is no way out, what are you going to do anyway? It's Christmas."

I smiled at her and said (What was I thinking? I should have just poked myself in the eye with a sharp stick!), "My family isn't giving gifts to each other this year that cost over $25. We don't have any little children . We decided that we just don't need anymore stuff. We only buy for our immediate family, not the extended family because they all live out of state and shipping is just too expensive. We would spend more on that than presents. "

She stopped dead in her tracks, mouth slightly open as she stared at me, "No presents over $25? None?" "None. We took a trip to see my daughter at Thanksgiving and we are using the money we would have spent on presents for paying debt and to increase our savings." She narrowed her eyes and grunted, "That doesn't sound like much fun. Don't you think ya'll will miss opening lots of presents on Christmas morning? I would hate that."

I replied that I didn't think that would be a problem as we had other things planned for the day and that just being together would be enough. I took a minute to try to explain how important it was to us to get out of debt and for our children to understand the concept of living a debt free life, not to mention learning to put the idea of having so much "stuff" in it's proper place.

I was met with nothing more than a look of annoyance and a muttered " Well, I guess so, but it sure doesn't sound like Christmas to me." As I walked away I think I heard the word cheap muttered by someone. I left the store feeling a little chastised to say the least. I loaded my groceries and on the drive home questioned our decision to forgo so many presents. Am I wrong? Is a Christmas without lots of presents somehow not Christmas at all? Am I indeed being "cheap"? Should I feel ashamed that I'm not loading the space under my tree with beautifully wrapped, put on the credit card, presents?

By the time I had reached home I had calmed down enough to answer the question with just one word. No.

Why should I be ashamed of living within my means? Who created the idea that spending money you don't have is a virtue? And why did I even have to think twice about it being one? Old habits die hard.

Somewhere along the way we have been made to think that we should identify our self worth with the stuff we possess. I want to change forever the way of thinking that says I need to be ashamed of not being able to afford something. I want to instill in my family the idea that saving for what you want, or just for a rainy day, is a virtue. Now that, that is a gift worth giving.

Beautiful Blogs: Junk Mail Gems

Some people just seem to think in a different way than the rest of us. I love the blog Junk Mail Gems because Gretchen is one of those cool people. Right now she has some really cute recycling ideas for the holidays.

Dolls To Make

There is still time to make one of these adorable dolls for your favorite little person. A handmade gift is a gift from the heart.