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Archive for December, 2006

Ungrateful teenagers!

December 31st, 2006 at 11:27 pm

This is more a rant than anything. I have a son who is almost 16. (also have two other children son, 21 and daughter 20, who live away from home already.) First off, I would like to say that he is not a bad kid, he is kind, good hearted and very polite. Man is he lazy though, he also thinks money grows on trees! I did not bring him up this way. Money has always been pretty tight, I have never recieved child support for him and have always had to work to support him. I bought him a coat at Ross Dress for Less about a month ago, it was 14.99. A couple of weeks later I noticed the coat was torn so I said, I cannot believe that coat is already torn! You should be more careful! He says to me, "It only cost 14.99 anyway, what's the big deal?" It really irked me, maybe it it is just me......what does it matter how much it costs? He sure did not have 14.99 to buy it but expected for me to have it! Kids, I just cant seem to get into his head how hard money is to come by! He thinks it grows on trees! He does not recieve a lot of things and usually does not get any money to spend as he refuses to earn it. Nothing motivates him!

Counting My Blessings Today

December 23rd, 2006 at 09:15 am

I just wanted to take a moment to count my blessings today. I'm an area manager for a chain of convenience store and have quite a few employees to keep up with. At one of my stores I have an employee who has had the hardest time the last three weeks or so. Her mother died unexpectedly about three weeks ago, her mother in law took her daughter out of state without permission and she had to go to Indiana to bring her back, her father and sister kicked her out of the house and left her to sleep in her truck, it has been pretty cold here and I worry about her and her daughter sleeping in their car. Her daughter is only three years old, poor little thing probably doesnt understand what is going on! She hasnt been working much because of her recent problems and I know she is worried about Christmas for her daughter. I've been very fortunate and have never had to sleep in my car or go without food etc.
My son and I went last night and bought a giant stocking at the Dollar Tree last night and filled it up with $30 worth of toys for the little girl, at least she will have something for Christmas. I think I will go and see if I can get a gift certificate for a nice Christmas dinner for the two of them somewhere. When you see someone in such an unfortunate situation it really makes you take a step back and count your own blessings. It really does put a damper on the holiday spirits, I wonder how many people don't have a place to stay or food to eat, it's just so sad!

Sister thinks I'm a nut!

December 19th, 2006 at 01:04 pm

I was telling my sister that I found hamburger helper on sale at HEB for only .50 a box. I bought eight boxes, two pasta sauce for .59, bisquick for .50 and a few other things. She says I will be one of those "people" that have things like canned goods stuffed under the bed, I think she thinks I am very eccentric! She goes to the grocery every day to buy things for dinner, rarely does she buy groceries for more than a couple of days at a time. She is always complaining that she spends upwards of $40 a day. I've tried to give her advice on grocery shopping on a weekly basis and how it cuts out those impulse purchases but will she listen? NO!
She thinks it is funny that I use coupons and am always looking for a good deal. Of course she is not single and making it on her own either and her husband has a very well paying job with security and great retirement benefits, all of which I don't have! (of course I dont have near the amount of debt that they carry either!)

So much Stuff!

December 18th, 2006 at 03:39 am

Sometimes I wonder how I got to this point! As I sit looking around my house I have so much stuff! Stuff that I don't use, stuff that I don't even know why I bought in the first place. Lately I've been feeling as if all of this "stuff" owns me. I cannot feel comfortable in my own house because of the clutter. I was not brought up with alot of things. My parents, well, my mother was and is very frugal and never was our house cluttered and never did she buy something that was not absolutely necessary. Sometimes I wonder if that played a part in the way I am today. I always felt as though we did not have as much as the other kids. I longed for the designer clothing and all of the cool things that others had but my mother simply never bought into that. We got to choose 1 thing that we really wanted on our birthday or Christmas but never any other time. Was I deprived? Of course not, but I sure thought I was! When I was out on my own I simply bought everything I wanted to make up for all I thought I went without! So after 20+ years here I sit wishing I were back in the good old days when life was much more simple!
My first goal is to get rid of all these un-needed possessions, clear the clutter. I will go room by room until I am down to only the things that mean something or the things that I really need. This will be quite a challenge considering the size of my house and the amount of things to go through!