walked with mom for 55 min

Went to the library and got my holds. I have a book on tape that I'm listening to. I would have finished it Friday if I hadn't had to go into work unexpectedly and it was due Friday, but since I'm halfway through and I can't renew it I decided to keep it and finish it on Monday. I'll probably end up owing about 30 cents, but it's worth it to finish the story

I went to the miniature store that's near me today. It's funny how there isn't a miniature store in the big town near me, but there's one in our little town. Anyways she always sends out coupons for 15% off everything you buy around your birthday. I've had mine for quite awhile since I haven't had time to work on miniatures. So I used it today and only spent $41.33 which comes out of my miniature budget.

My mom gave me a list of 3 things she wants for her birthday and xmas. One was a victorian doll lamp from a catalog so I ordered it today. Total is $64.70 which comes out of the xmas budget.

I see that I got paid $4.49 from half.com so after postage I made 2.52

In the freebies section there was a post from mjrube94 about HSBC giving a $35 sign up bonus for a $1 min deposit, so I opened an account with them today. Supposed to get the bonus 45 days after the initial deposit.
Thanks mjrube94 for the link. I've been doing a lot more of the freebies stuff lately. Recently I've gotten several samples and coupons in the mail. It's nice, I'm getting things for family members too. I got the free JCPenny t-shirts coupons for my sister and my mom and I got free starbucks coffee coupons for my dad. I also finally talked my sister into using the discounted gift card site and she's real excited about it now.

I finished re-reading the library book Shattering the Two-Income Myth by Andy Dappen. This book has a ton of ways to save money. It's like the Tightwad Gazette I re-read it at least once a year to prompt me to new ways of saving. It's a really good book.

Here's a quote from the book that really struck me this time around:

"When you work for a business you give people you may not even know, like or respect the best energy of your life. You give them action and that makes them money. Now it's time to give that energy to what you care about most - your family, yourself. Once you have identified your goals and made the choices necessary to pursue those goals, action is all that spearates you from success."

I think that it's difficult to take actions that we know will benefit us sometimes, things like calling a company and asking for a lower rate on a service or even changing companies. Things like starting and keeping a price book, or cooking meals or fixing a lunch to take to work. Things like doing maintenance on our possessions to make them last longer. Almost everyone's lives are so packed with work responsibilities that it's difficult to find the energy to do the things that benefit us both financially and mentally.