One of the most important things you can do on a single income is control your spending and find ways to save money. Life for most families is much easier on two incomes in most cases, but there are very good reasons why sometimes families have to live on just one income.

Saving money just makes living on that one income more practical. It can help you avoid or get rid of debt, and it’s there for emergencies. It also just feels good to have solid finances.

Debt is one of the most important things to avoid on a single income. This is especially true of credit card debt, which generally comes with higher interest than other forms of debt. If you can pay your credit card debts off you can free up quite a bit of money each month. Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, Gage has officially hit that stage… he’s experimenting with water. Yesterday it was his teddy bear dunked in water in the backyard.

Today it was my cell phone in the sink.

Yep, I’m just ecstatic.

It’s all so innocent, but he was just devastated when I told him he had done something wrong. Just froze until I asked him if he wanted a hug. Then he started crying and just melted into me.

Guess I’ll have to warn my husband not to leave his cell phone there. We used to charge them there because it was out of Gage’s reach. But now that Gage is fascinated by water and especially that particular faucet I wouldn’t call that a safe spot anymore.

[tags]cell phone,water,oops,experiment,toddler[/tags]

It probably hasn’t surprised any parent to find out that the highest percentage of food ads aimed at children were for candy and snacks. Experts feel that these are one of the contributing factors to the increased rates of childhood obesity.

I can’t say myself for certain. The ads certainly do attract children’s attention; Ariel is at the age where every ad she sees is something we “must” have, whether or not she understands what the product is. But we don’t buy everything she asks for.

I think there are a combination of factors at play here. Certainly children are more aware of the nonhealthy options due to all the commercials, but the younger ones can’t get that stuff alone. It still takes an adult to provide the unhealthy foods. Read the rest of this entry »

Interesting opportunity coming up for those of you who want to build your list. Most participants and potential subscribers will probably be fellow online marketers, but if you have something to offer, this is an interesting opportunity.

The Easter JV will run for much of April. Right now they’re looking for more contributors. Your product will either be purchased in a group with all the other products or the people subscribe to your list to get it. If you offer something that is relevant to and refers to your business, you have a shot at doing well either way.

If it sounds good, sign up to participate now. If you want the products but don’t want to offer anything, just wait. I’ll let you know when the products are available.

[tags]Easter JV,joint ventures,online marketing,internet marketing,list building[/tags]

My daughter has no fashion sense. Her classmates, on the other hand, certainly do.

Ariel dresses just like I think of a preschooler dressing – no care for color or style. So many of her classmates care about color and worse yet, name brands.

I love it!

It’s just so nice having a little girl still just be a little girl. I don’t get how you can let a child worry about fashion yet. I know it will happen all too soon, but I look at her classmates and hear their parents grumble about having to buy name brands, and I can’t help but be delighted with my situation.

Going through stats can always be interesting. Today I thought I would take a look and see what odd terms my site has been found under by search engines.

1. im doing a project on canada and i need to know all the jobs the
2. importance swimming
3. can a us citizen work abroad for us company remotely
4. why going outside is fun
5. how can i cope “with the” stress of being bored?
6. can i inflate a balloon using vinegar & baking soda
7. how was housework to be done and children cared for?
8. meaning of errands
9. save money without spouse knowing
10. yearly meeting for stay at home moms
11. pictures of people surprised
12. what is the car with the highest gas mileage
13. what kind of software is my doctor using

Kind of an interesting sidenote – many of the oddest (to me, anyhow) queries came from people using ask.com. I didn’t look to see how often I get traffic from Ask on more standard queries, but they popped up as the search engine used in at least half of these queries I selected.

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Ariel’s in one of those phases right now where she’s testing the rules. Big one right now has to do with the truth.

She’s not too bad yet, and the lies are pretty small and obvious. She doesn’t even mean to lie, I think, most of the time she does it, but other times it does seem to be more deliberate, and those are the times we keep the most watch on. Four year olds tell lots of innocent lies, though.

We’ve talked to her about how lying can make her friends not trust her, as well as expressing our own disapproval. She is getting more interested in having good friendships with her classmates, so the idea that lying will impact that definitely disturbs her.

I’m curious, of course, about what other parents do about lying. I don’t think we have a problem yet, but I always like to hear about how these things should be handled at different ages.

[tags]children,lying,truth,honesty[/tags]

[tags]Wordless Wednesday[/tags]

For about the entire month of March my routine has been completely off. Just lots of little stuff getting in the way… family events, field trip, a little girl in a more defiant mood than usual and a little boy who is going through a clingy phase.

It’s exhausting.

All this has greatly impacted how much work I get done each day. The extras just leave me too tired to be as effective as usual in the evenings when the kids are asleep.

I hope this all clears up soon, although there’s nothing to say it will. I’m just getting tired from it all, and that’s the kind of thing that leads to burnout. I definitely need to remind my husband to work harder at helping out, so that I get some relief.

[tags]household routine,family,children,tired[/tags]

Another week, another Supahstar. This week we’re visiting Work at Home Musings, one of my fellow work at home bloggers.

Going through Cecile’s blog, I noticed her organization section. Being the classic disorganized work at home mom, I can sympathize and enjoy reading her challenges in that area. She does the Tackle it Tuesday blog meme sometimes, so you can read about what she’s doing to keep up.

Her time management tips are also pretty good. I can tell from constant, unceasing experience that managing your time when you work at home is quite the challenge. And just when you think you have a good schedule, something can get in the way and make things difficult again.

[tags]Supahstar Saturday[/tags]