Published: by Crystal Paine on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
Today is Small Business Saturday!
Since I love to support small businesses whenever possible, I thought it would be fun to open up the comments to all of you who have a small business. Comment and tell us about your business and let us know about any special you’re running right now that might be great for us to consider purchasing for Christmas.
And be sure to leave a link to your site or Etsy shop!
Published: by Crystal Paine on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
Today is a day when we celebrate our blessings and reflect on all the wonderful things we have to be thankful for. It’s a good thing to stop and express our gratitude — we all have much to be thankful for.
However, some of you are probably really struggling this Thanksgiving. Maybe your husband recently left you, or your child has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, or you are battling an addiction, or your finances feel like they are in shambles and you are just digging yourself into a deeper hole because of unemployment and ever-mounting bills.
Life is hard and messy sometimes — and just because it’s Thanksgiving doesn’t mean that the pain and burdens are lifted. If this Thanksgiving finds you in a difficult place in life, may I encourage you to read my post on Hope for Women Magazine on Choosing to Be Thankful Even When Life is Hard?
Here’s a snippet:
My husband was rummaging through old financial statements not too long ago, and we were aghast to read some of the numbers. During the first year he was in law school, there were six months when we made less than $900 — and some months it was as low as $650.
I recall that season of our lives fairly vividly, but seeing those numbers on paper again after a number of years was a shock to our systems. I’m still not sure how we made it on so little!
During those years, we lived in a little basement apartment that only had four windows on one side. I could plug the vacuum cleaner into one outlet and vacuum the entire apartment without ever switching outlets…Click on over to read the full post.
Our struggles during the lean law school years pale in comparison to many of the struggles you are facing. But I hope that the words I shared might encourage some of you.
Don’t lose heart. Don’t lose hope.
Choose gratitude today — even when it feels impossible. It might not change any of your circumstances, but I promise that it will transform your attitude and lift your spirits.
Homemade apple pies ready to go in the oven this morning… yum!
A Heartfelt Word of Thanks to Each of You
By the way, can I just say thank you to each of you for everything you mean to me and how you bless me on a daily basis?
Thank you for your kind words and constructive criticism. Thank you for reading here, commenting, and emailing. And thank you for sticking with me and putting up with the fact that I’m often behind schedule in my blogging commitments because life has taken precedence or I’ve just bitten off more than I can chew (I’m working on that one; it may be a lifelong lesson, though! :))
As those who know me well can attest to, my years of blogging have been a journey of growth, learning, and stretching for me. It’s not always been easy and I’ve made oh-so-many mistakes along the way, but God has taught me much through it and changed me from the inside out as a result of blogging.
When I began blogging back in 2005, I thought I pretty much had life figured out. Now, 7 years later, I feel like there are very few things in life that I have figured out, but I know one thing: blogging has been the catalyst for life-transformation for me.
It’s brought me from a place of insecurity, legalism, and being a people-pleaser to a place where I feel whole, free, and truly happy in who God has made me to be and what He has called me to.
And you’ve been a part of that journey with me.
Someday, I may be ready to blog more about all that life transformation, but for now, I just want to say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. Words cannot express how much you mean to me and how much I’ve learned and grown as a direct result of each of you.
Before we close off this series, though, I wanted to end by talking about the flipside of earning extra cash. Because it is even more important than earning extra cash when you have a strapped budget.
The Flipside: Managing the Money You Already Have
If you earn more money, but you don’t manage it well, your bottom line isn’t going to change. Instead, you’ll just end up spending more than you used to — and no financial traction will be gained.
If you’re struggling financially, can I encourage you to first focus on getting on a written budget and maximizing the mileage of the money you already have before you go out and try to make more money? Not only will this help you to achieve better financial traction if your income increases, but you might find out that you don’t need a pay increase in the first place — you just need to manage what you already have!
The Best Way to Save Money: Stop Spending It
I’ve got a surefire, proven method to help you save more money. This method has been concocted from years of my own personal experience and years of observing other people’s money management.
It’s very simple: Just. Stop. Spending. It.
It works every time. 🙂
Yes, you definitely need to spend money on necessities like making sure everyone has warm clothes to wear, food in their bellies, and a roof over their heads. But beyond that, there’s very little that we actually need to survive.
There are many things that make survival more comfortable or enjoyable, but when we boil it down, many of these things would be considered incredible extravagances to most of the world.
Our culture is constantly sending us messages that we “need” this or that. Tune out those messages and train yourself to focus on the blessings you already have. Buying more stuff might give you short-term enjoyment, but it will never satisfy you long-term.
Two Things to Do Before Trying to Increase Your Income
If you’re feeling financially strapped this Christmas, make sure you’re already doing these two things before you put time and energy into increasing your income:
1) Commit to getting on a budget and sticking with it. It’ll be the best Christmas present you’ve ever given yourself and your family.
2) Be content with what you already have. “Gratitude turns what we have into enough.”
I’ll be posting a lot of the best deals I find this weekend to help you save money on Christmas presents, but I want you to keep these things in mind before you buy anything. Evaluate every purchase to make sure it’s a good deal for you and your gift recipient. Don’t buy something if you’re not completely sure that it’s going to work or if it’s not in the budget, okay?
I know, I know. That statement might sound a bit antithetic to my usually frugal, money-saving ways, but it’s true.
Here’s why: The Black Friday deals online are usually just as good, or even better, than the in-store deals.
Yes, seriously. And I’ve proven this theory throughout the past few years by meticulously comparing the prices online versus the prices in-store. In almost every case, the online prices were better than the in-store prices.
Plus, you don’t have to wait out in the cold for three hours, and you can avoid all the stampeding and shoving crowds at the stores. Instead, you can get up a little early on Friday morning, sit in your PJ’s, sip your cup of coffee, and browse online.
There are other perks to shopping online for Black Friday… click on over to CrossWalk to read four reasons why I shop online on Black Friday.
Join Us For Our All-Day-Long Black Friday Live-Blogging “Party” — Complete With Giveaways!
If you’re planning to shop online, be sure to join us here on MoneySavingMom.com where we’ll be having a “Black Friday Party” all day long, starting at 6 a.m. EST.
My brother, Nathaniel, is off work tomorrow and he loves scouting out online deals so he’s going to come over and hang out with me and help me live-blog all the best online Black Friday deals all day long.
Plus, Amy has lined up some fabulous giveaways you won’t want to miss. Trust me on that one. Even if you don’t plan to spend a penny, you’ll want to show up to enter the giveaways!
Published: by Crystal Paine on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
Need encouragement to set goals, live with purpose, and cultivate self-discipline? Be sure to get a copy of my ebook, 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life.
WANT TO SAVE $100 FAST?!Join the FREE 14-Day Savings Challenge!
Published: by Crystal Paine on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
Like to read? Love free ebooks? Then, I’m so excited to introduce you to eReaderGirl.com, my brand-new site dedicated to bringing you the best free and discounted ebooks every day.
eReaderGirl.com is the brainchild of my amazing marketing assistant and ebook guru, Ashley. She concocted the idea, presented a proposal to me for it, and my husband and I fell in love with it.
And so, after lots of hard work on Ashley’s part and on the part of Joy from FiveJs.com, eReaderGirl.com is ready to be unveiled to the public. By the way, I’m overseeing the site, but Ashley and Lisa will be running the day-to-day details of it all (don’t worry, I’m not crazy enough to think I could try and post multiple times per day on two blogs!).
Published: by Crystal Paine on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
Need encouragement to set goals, live with purpose, and cultivate self-discipline? Be sure to get a copy of my ebook, 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life.
Published: by Crystal Paine on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
Do you struggle to get your children excited about doing chores? I shared a guest post on Confessions of a Homeschooler on five ways I get our kids excited about chores that you might find helpful.
How do YOU help your kids be excited about doing chores?
Published: by Crystal Paine on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
My friend, Stacie Nelson, just released her first ebook today and it’s on sale for $1.99 through Wednesday.
Thanksgiving Heart is an ebook written for moms of young children. It’s filled with practical ideas of ways to help cultivate a thankful heart in young children — as well as in your own life.
This is not a book about the holiday of Thanksgiving; nor is it a book with a prescribed formula or twenty-step program to make your child grateful. Instead, Thanksgiving Heart gives simple, meaningful ideas to guide and train your children in growing a grateful heart.
The book includes:
Practical ways to encourage thanksgiving in children
30 service projects
15 gratitude discussion starters for families with application questions at the end of each lesson
Plus, a printable 30-Day Scripture & Activity Guide, printable Gratitude Journal, printable thank you card, and a printable Incentive Chart
Published: by Crystal Paine on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
Emily emailed in the following tip:
I really enjoyed following your 31 Ways to Earn More Cash Before Christmas series… and I actually have one more idea to add to your list. I highly recommend “Sweeping” for extra cash. Sweeping is entering sweepstakes. You will probably never win “the Grand prize” but they give out millions of gift cards and smaller prizes. I always recommend people try it for two weeks and see if its for them.
There are even websites for sweepers. I follow SweetiesSweeps.com. She tells you where all the free sweepstakes are, how to enter, what the odds are, how to boost your odds, and more. There is a portion of her page for paying members, but you can get more contests in the unpaid section.
It doesn’t take much time, and although you could do it forever, I set limits. I only spend an hour entering contests a night while we watch T.V. We calculated that after a month of sweeping I had earned over $800 in prizes. Most of which were gift cards, the rest were prizes I was able to sell on Amazon. (By the way, I found out that a Mountain Dew NASCAR car flag actually sells for more than you might think!)
I was able to use to gift cards and cash to buy some really nice gifts for our parents. From sweepstaking alone, last year we did not buy a single Christmas gift, birthday gift, Father’s Day gift, or Mother’s Day gift for any of our four parents.
Sweepstaking has been far more profitable than couponing, Swagbucks, surveys, or anything else we have tried. -Emily
Have you blogged about a Handmade Christmas idea? Submit the link through this form here and we’ll consider sharing it as part of this series during the next 4 weeks!
Published: by Crystal Paine on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
If you missed this morning assignment, find it here.
It was another great day today! Silas had a doctor’s appointment this afternoon, so we’d planned to have a date beforehand. Only problem was, when I went to start the car, the battery was dead.
Jesse was already planning to meet up with us to go to Silas’ appointment, so he just came home early after court so he could jump the car.
In the mean time, Silas and I made a snack and walked to the park. Being the “proper” sort of guy he is, he was insistent we bring cereal in a ceramic mug. No snack bars or paper bowls for this guy. 🙂
Speaking of “proper”, notice his outfit? He’s taken to wearing dress shirts, sweaters, and sweater vests on a very regular basis. He even asked if he could wear a tie with his outfit, too. 😉
His sense of style cracks me up. Jesse and I are totally cool with our children picking out their own outfits, provided it somewhat fits the occasion and weather, so we have lots of style variety out our house right now with Kaitlynn being the fashionista, Kathrynne opting for camo and tattered jeans, and Silas sporting sweater vests. I love to see their unique personalities expressed in their clothing choices. 🙂
While at the park, we found this guy. Silas was fascinated.
Silas was fascinated.
Time at the park with Silas definitely counted for my relaxation project today, it was leisurely and fun. I find that it’s such a good thing to have special one-on-one time with a child to get to really listen to them and just soak up the moments with them.
I also spent a little time reading and looking at knitting blogs online, too. Not that I need to be starting any new knitting projects when I already have four more lined up that I want to do after my scarf is finished. But it’s still inspiring to see all these amazing things bloggers are knitting!
I hope you had a great day today! Thanks for joining me in all these projects this week. Be sure to come back a week from Monday morning for your next assignment! Enjoy a relaxing Thanksgiving week!
How you do on Day 10? I’d love to have you share your progress and success with us so we can be inspired. Either post a link to your blog post below or leave a comment with your update.
Published: by Crystal Paine on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
I just wanted to say a big thank you to each of you for making the launch of my second ebook, Celebrating & Savoring a Simple Christmas, such a success this week. Your support of this project meant so much to me.
Also, thank you for your patience while I posted about it a LOT this week. You all are so great!
The two winners from yesterday were:
Barbara (olmfamily1@) (Facebook-a-Thon $100 Amazon gift card giveaway winner)
Kim (kdevore@) (Kindle PaperWhite giveaway winner)
Both of you should have been contacted with details on how to claim your prize.
And now back to our regularly-scheduled programming… 🙂
Published: by Crystal Paine on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
Need encouragement to set goals, live with purpose, and cultivate self-discipline? Be sure to get a copy of my ebook, 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life.
From November 5 to December 7 (skipping the week of Thanksgiving), every weekday morning at 9 a.m. EST, I’ll be posting the day’s assignment and then every evening at 7 p.m. EST, I’ll be posting my progress and pictures, along with a link-up for you to share your progress and pictures, too.
::Get dressed in something that makes you feel great {there’s something about dressing in clothes that make you feel great that just gives you more energy and zest for life! Get your free copy of SarahMae’s ebook, Frumps to Pumps, if you need more motivation in this.}
::Dust all ceiling fans and clean all light fixtures in your house. Check for burned out light bulbs and replace.
::Set the timer for at least 15 minutes and do something you really enjoy and that relaxes and rejuvenates you. If you need ideas, here are a few: read, write, call a friend, pray, exercise, bake, play with your children, laugh with your husband, stop by the bookstore and browse the book selection, work in the garden, or take a nap! Take some time to just stop and enjoy life today!
Take pictures of your accomplishments and blog about them, if you’d like. And then come back here at 7 p.m. EST to share your progress posts or tell us about your accomplishments in a comment.
If you missed this morning assignment, find it here.
