By the grace of God and lots of prayers from my dear sistahs and prayer warriors.....

We have made it to payday!!!!! We still have light and we still have a phone....don't know how, or why....but I'm thankful...

Today we get to go grocery shopping and Ramon Noodles for two weeks will be a thing of the recent past....

At this point there is no reason for LB'ing Mr."T" for putting us in this predicament...my many creative uses of Ramon Noodles can emphasize that fact without any comments from the peanut gallery......(besides my older girls who complain rather loudly do the job for me....."WHAT???? RAMON NOODLES.......AGAIN???????" WAILS DINOBON <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" /> !)

I know we will be tight for a few weeks, but if we can just get caught up without getting another consolidation loan, we will be lucky...

We are seriously thinking about getting a loan anyway to take my ex-H to court for the money that is rightfully dinobons and curly-tops....
Pray for wisdom in that area for us.

thanks.....off to get more diet cokes!!!!! my one guilty pleasure in life!!!!! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="images/icons/shocked.gif" />

Hugs,
Twiisty

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

I love the first grocery trip after money--You get to have all the stuff you didn't get to have.

Hm, maybe I have food issues lol
EJ

"Come on baby, let's do the twist...."
"Let's Twist Again Like we did last summer"
"And the name of the dance is the Peppermint Twist..."

Sorry, first concert I ever saw was Chubby Checkers when I was two- or three-years old. Also saw Elsie the Borden Cow that night too. Elsie made a bigger impression on my little mind.

Congratulations! Twisty. We too are making it payday to payday. We tapped the 401K again and will probably be doing that until Mr. J's business is up and running.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by twiisty:
<strong>
thanks.....off to get more diet cokes!!!!! my one guilty pleasure in life!!!!! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="images/icons/shocked.gif" />
</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Don't forget: it's cheaper in the two litre size. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

I have become the queen of store brands, coupon clipping and only buying food the grocery store has on two-for-one sale. Actually, it is suprising how much further I can stretch our food budget when I buy 4 chickens when they are on 2-for-1 sale. Cook one and freeze the other three. We eat what is on sale that week or what is in the freezer from previous weeks.

There was a time when we flew first class and went to world-famous resorts. Know what? we weren't any happier then than we are now. I think God is teaching us (especially Mr. J) a lesson in humility and (unfortunately) I don't think He is done teaching us yet.

MJ

I thought I heard something… and I noticed that the sun was shining a little brighter!

We, too, are living paycheck to paycheck… we both get paid bi-weekly, but the checks are on opposite weeks, so we get one each week.

I love to grocery shop… but we don’t do it like we used to.
At one time, neither of us had a job… we were living in Section 8 housing… and were on food stamps. When we signed up for them we signed up at the end of a month and wound up with 2 months worth of stamps…
We had become the Coupon King and Queen… the route driver for the newspaper gave us the left-over coupons… clipping 6 and 7 copies of the same ones…
We would go to stores that doubled coupons up to 60 cents and those that would have triple coupon days.

Our record of savings was a 7½-foot receipt, with a savings of $99.69 in coupons alone. That does not include the savings of tax by using the food stamps. It took 4 grocery carts to cart it all out to the truck.

This was 6 yrs ago. We have since climbed out of that hole that we were in… yet, we can still see where we have been.

((HUGS)) to you Twiisty… I told you I was praying.. and I know many others were too… Your lights and phone are proof!!!!

twisty
glad today got here for you.. I do know how hard days like that can be.. we have seven people in the house, not counting the friends of the kids that spend the night for days at a time, so we spend about 800 a month on groceries..
I buy in bulk and use coupons when I can and I always buy whats on sale to stock the freezer, and sometimes we get half a calf and put in the freezer, saves time and money. WE go through two and half gallons of milk a day... I have teen boys... That should say it all.. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="images/icons/shocked.gif" />

Make lots of things like casseroles, lasagna, enchilada, always keep peanut butter and jelly around, tortillas, eggs amazing what you can do with those items...

Glad your having a good day, It will come to gether you will see. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

Twiisty,
I am glad for you. We are too living paycheck to paycheck and I am scared to death if we have to pay child support. I might have to take some tips from you!

Dawn

<small>[ July 26, 2002, 03:53 PM: Message edited by: Dawn71 ]</small>

I have heard the halleluiah chorus

I have just heard the hallelujah chorus! We to are living from paycheck to pay check. I (Husband) have read the financial chapter in "His Needs H N". I have also listen to the "radio tape" on this websight about finances. I got my Adult High School Diploma. Could not find a good job, so I got a "minimum wage" job.Its very hard finding a decent paying job at age 44. My wife insists that I must be the provider. I agree. Wife works very hard at home as an artist. She gets paid peanuts.I am in a midlife crisis.It seems we are going no where. She slept on the couch for 9 months.(Very Painful) <img border="0" alt="[Teary]" title="" src="graemlins/teary.gif" /> We have been back together since I got the min. wg. job <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" /> Another seperation looms on the horison <img border="0" title="" alt="[Frown]" src="images/icons/frown.gif" /> Any advise? Questions?

Provider,

Do you own your own vehicle. There are jobs that you can do as an independant contractor using your own vehicle and get tax write offs for mileage, maintenance and gas expenses.

Jobs like courier, newspaper delivery, etc.

When I am on vacation or am off for the weekend my H will volunteer for out of state or long distance runs. They often take about 4-5 hours one way, but pay very lucrative.

The newspaper delivery is nice because he gets up in the middle of the night while we are all asleep so we don't miss him working two jobs during awake hours. I would die if he had to work a day job and immediately head off to the second job.

Another idea is bar tending or waiter. Tips can be very very lucrative if you get in at the right establishment.

Good luck on your quest. Hang in there. Surely a woman won't kick you when you are trying your best.

Z.

Twiisty,

I hear you. we are pay check to pay check. i try my best to stay away from 401K and my stock options. those are for dire emergencies, like mortgage or car!

otherwise they can turn the rest of this crap off!

We both make decent money ... I have more benefits and perks and bring home a bit more with my one job to his two. But no matter how much more we make we seem to have bigger bills.

Gas, electric, cable, daycare, insurance all seem to take a hike everytime I get a raise. What's up with that!

Doesn't it feel good to know he's smiling on you though?

Z.