Nix9to5

Goodbye, February.

// February 28th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // Budget, Couponing, Life in General, Money Matters, Work at Home

Well, February is over, bringing an end to my 2nd month of trying to live within a budget and to the first month of Nix9t05.  February brought good news on both counts.  We are cutting expenses and saving nearly $400 month on groceries, and we’ve paid off two debts, freeing up an additional $500.  I’m at least $900/month closer to reaching my goal of replacing my income so that I can stay home with Bear next year.

As for Nix9to5, I’ve been able to pretty consistently keep up with blogging, and I’ve submitted my first guest post to another blog.  I’ve also been hired at another writing company, even though I haven’t actually had time to start working, and I have another possible prospect for online tutoring.

Thanks to all of my readers who have joined me at the beginning of this journey.  Now that winter is ending, I’m excited to see what Spring has in store.

Old 97′s

// February 27th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Life in General

Since I’ve been writing so much about my personal time and how important it is to me, let me just tell you what I got to do with my Friday night:

Last night, HH and I went with some friends to see the Old 97′s play in Bricktown. I have been a big fan of these guys for a long time, and I was excited when our friends called and asked if we wanted to go see them play. We called HH’s brother to see if he could babysit the Bear for us, but he was going to the show, too. So we asked Auntastic and Uncle Awesome if they could just keep Bear all day while I worked and then pretty much all night, too, so we could go to the show. They agreed, and we were off.

It was a great show, and our friend is a big, tall guy who was able to clear a path through the crowd to get us right up next to the stage.  Just look how close we were! I haven’t been that close to a stage since college, probably. Good grief, I don’t think I can even remember the last concert I went to. Regardless, the show was fantastic. We had a great time, even though I’m old and stayed up too late and stood up too long in high heels.

I owe Auntastic and Uncle Awesome big for this Bearsitting. When we ordered our tickets online, it said the show started at 8:00. When we got to the venue, we heard that the opening act wasn’t starting until 9:30. The Old 97′s didn’t take the stage until 11:00, so it was late, late, late when we picked up Bear, and poor Auntastic was up waiting for us, even though she and her family were leaving town at 6:00 in the morning. I feel terrible about that, and she was so nice about it.

Okay–that post has nothing to do with working at home, or frugal living, or anything else, but I loves me some Old 97′s and just had to share.

It’s my time.

// February 25th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // Balance, Family, Life in General

This has been a challenging week at work. Some of my colleagues feel like I ought to be giving more of my time outside of work, and I feel like I need to spend as much time as I can with my family. Now, I know they are entitled to their opinions, but really, my decision should not affect them in any way, nor should I have to justify my decision to anyone else.

The main reason I want to work from home is to be able to spend more time with my son. As it is, I generally get home with him around 5:00. That gives us two and a half hours before bedtime, much of which is taken up by things like cooking, dinner, ironing clothes and packing lunches for the next day, and bath time. Less than two hours per day of play time is just not enough. In addition, I often immediately begin working on one of my other projects–copywriting, tutoring, etc.–immediately after Bear goes to bed, and work until I go to bed. On nights that I work, the only time I am not taking care of anyone except for myself is when I’m in the shower. Generally, that shower isn’t even long enough to shave my legs. Who’s got time for that?

So when people (who are in no way my supervisors) tell me that I need to put in more time at work–more UNPAID time at work–I really take issue with that. I take issue with anyone bad-mouthing me for my decision to spend as much quality time with my family as possible, and certainly for anyone to speak as viciously about me and my decision as one colleague chose to do.

Margaret Fuller said, “Men for the sake of getting a living forget to live.” I am not going to allow work to get in the way of my time with my family. I think it is ludicrous for anyone to expect me to do so, and it is even more ridiculous that anyone would be upset over that.

While I am at work, I will give it my all and will help anyone in any way I can. When it is time to leave, I will walk out the door and not look back. If others object to that, there is nothing I can do about it. We each have the freedom to choose how we spend our time, and we each have the freedom to choose our reactions to those around us. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” I am no longer consenting to feeling guilty for not putting in extra time, and I am no longer consenting to getting riled up about what other people think of my choice to put my family before my career. If someone tries to stand in my office and yell at me (again), I’m walking away (again). I will not listen, nor will I let it bother me.

Whoooooooooosh . . .

That’s the sound of me letting it go.

Sounds like my kind of deal.

// February 24th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // Couponing, Life in General

Today has been one of those days that really solidifies my decision to try to work from home. I know that it will be hard sometimes, having no one but a toddler for conversation during the day, but you expect whining, crying, and temper tantrums from a 15-month old. When adults act like that? Ugh.

Instead of throwing my own little tantrum about the day I’ve had, I want to tell you about this deal I found in my email inbox. It’s from Groupon, which gives a “deal of the day” for your particular city. It’s new for my city, and until today, the deals haven’t been things I was interested in–for example, a restaurant deal for a restaurant that is quite a drive from my house.

Today’s deal, though, may be one of the best things I’ve ever seen in my life: $25 for four hours of errand service. Ooooohhhh, it makes me so happy I could almost cry. Just the thought of someone else taking care of my details while I, oh, say . . . NAP. Bliss.

Read more about it here or sign up here for Groupon in your city.

No pie, no pics, but still pretty awesome.

// February 23rd, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Budget, Cooking, Couponing, Money Matters

Tonight’s dinner: chicken quesadillas. I didn’t take pictures, because everyone knows what a quesadilla looks like. And although a quesadilla is round before you cut it into wedges, it’s not a pie.

Tonight’s quesadillas had some excellent qualities:
1. They were easy.
2. They passed HH’s taste test.
3. They contain cheese.

The best part though (well, except for the cheese) is how cheap they were! See, tonight’s quesadillas were made exclusively with bargains. Below are the ingredients and what I paid for them:
1. Flour tortillas (.75/package)
2. Chicken breast ($3.99 for a 3lb. bag)
3. Reduced fat shredded cheddar ($1.25 for a 2c. bag)
4. Black bean side dish (.39)
5. Salsa (FREE)
6. Sour Cream (FREE)
7. Guacamole (FREE)

That means tonight’s complete dinner–quesadillas, dips, side–was about .75/serving. And there are leftovers.

Murphy’s Law for Working Moms

// February 23rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Life in General

If you dare to take a sick day, your child will wake up in the middle of the night much sicker than you.

Corrollary: This is especially true if you just got back from the pediatrician’s office earlier in the day for a follow-up visit and your child’s health was declared “perfect.”

Nix9to5 News and Events

// February 22nd, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Budget, Couponing, Debt, Money Matters

This is a short post tonight because I have more copywriting to do. I met one deadline last night, but have another project due in the morning. In the meantime, though, I wanted to let you know of some exciting things coming up.

First, I will be posting a guest blog detailing my journey toward frugal living on Simple Saving Savvy. Simple Saving Savvy is the site that got me hooked on using coupons and saving money. Amanda’s (not my sister Amanda) explanations and matchups are very simple to understand and helped me realize huge savings on my grocery bill. Look for my guest post at the beginning of March.

Second, I will soon be hosting a coupon seminar called “Clip SmART” which shows the art of couponing and how to maximize savings. The presenter, Amanda (a different Amanda–not of Simple Saving Savvy fame, nor of my-sister-Amanda fame), can feed a family of 5 for $20/week. I’m not sure I can even feed myself on $20/week. I’m hoping Amanda will be able to show me how to take that $400 savings I managed in the first month of couponing and make it grow. When I finalize the details (time, date, and all that), I’ll be sure to let you know so my local blog readers can join us.

Third, and possibly the biggest news of all, HH and I paid off his truck and motorcycle today. No. More. Vehicle. Payment. It was so nice to delete those two columns off of our monthly budget! Every little bit of debt we eliminate just gets me closer to my goal of staying home.

Got a shovel?

// February 21st, 2010 // No Comments » // Balance, Life in General, Time Management

Every so often, I manage to get myself buried so far that I’m not sure I’ll ever dig my way out.  The last week or so has caused that to happen again.  Between taking too much on at a time and procrastinating, I’ve got so much to accomplish and so little time to get it all done.

I have a big copywriting deadline tomorrow, but instead of taking the time to work on it last night, I decided to go with HH and the Bear to watch UFC with some friends.  Now, it is Sunday, and not only do I need to get everything ready for the week (meals cooked, lunches packed, laundry done, clothes ironed, house picked up), but I need to finish this writing project by tomorrow and at least get started on a separate project.  Add to that the fact that I haven’t even begun to work on my new “part-time” job.

I did manage to get a good grocery trip in.  At three different grocery stores, I spent $6 each(Homeland receipt:  ”You saved $24 (81% off)”), and at CVS, I spent $30 but got $27 back in Extra Care Bucks.

I don’t really regret going over to a friend’s last night–all work and no play and all that–but I do wish I managed to get more accomplished this weekend.  I think I might need to make myself a schedule for this week so that I can get some of my chores, jobs, and projects done without feeling so overwhelmed.

It’s going to be a late night tonight.  I’d better get busy.

Hope you had a restful weekend!

Ah, weekend. How I have missed thee.

// February 19th, 2010 // No Comments » // Balance, Time Management, Work at Home

Now that it is officially the weekend, I have to get busy getting caught up on all the things interrupted by my job.  You know, like housework, grocery shopping, laundry, playing with the Bear.  I had two twelve-hour days at work this week, which also put me behind on my copywriting jobs.  I need to get caught up on those before they snowball on me.

Copywriting is my favorite of all of my side jobs, and it pays the best.  The only problem with it is that the jobs are not currently consistent enough to rely on to replace my income.  I’ll get a few big projects and a few nice checks to stick into savings (or use to buy new tires or replace a water heater or something–something almost always breaks when I think we get a windfall), and then  . . . crickets.  I have a couple of back up writing jobs I’ve found that would be more consistent, but they pay much, much less.  With those jobs, which I’ll talk more about when I have more time,  I haven’t been able to really sit down and do them to see if I could make a go of it with them.  Right now, I generally have about an hour or two each night that I could work after I get home and get everyone fed and get Bear to bed.  If I have a freelance job, the other writing jobs have to wait.  Why do something that pays hardly anything when I could do something that pays well?  Also, if I do try to work two hours each night, I get burned out in a hurry.

I found that out with my online tutoring job.  I scheduled myself for 10 hours per week, and it nearly killed me.  On nights I had to work, I would get home, feed Bear, fix dinner for my Hot Husband, grab a shower while HH watched the Bear, iron clothes and make lunches for the next day, give Bear a bath, put Bear to bed, and then eat dinner while working for two hours before collapsing into bed.   After one such evening, I told HH, “The only thing I could consider ‘me-time’ tonight was when I took a shower–and I didn’t even shower long enough to shave my legs.”  I don’t think daily personal hygiene should count as “me-time.”  Not unless it involves bubbles, jacuzzi jets, a trashy paperback, and soaking in hot water until you get all pruney.

I’m hoping that I can either get my freelance work to be consistent enough to be reliable or that this summer I can devote more time to my other jobs to see if any of them will pay off for next year.

For now, my big Friday night plans involve organizing my coupons, making my corresponding grocery lists, and going to bed as soon as possible.

Free diaper(s)

// February 18th, 2010 // No Comments » // Couponing, Family, Money Matters

Pampers has a new diaper coming out.  Click here for a free sample.   Every free diaper counts!  Stash it in your glove box so you never have that awful feeling when you realize you forgot to replace the last one you used from the diaper bag.