Do you do anything for Mardi Gras? We sometimes get a King cake just for fun and get the kids a few beads, but otherwise, nope. My ex-husband is from Louisiana so I know he celebrates, but I’m not sure how.

So if you do celebrate, what do you do?

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I’d like to wish my bloggy friends and faithful readers a very Happy Valentine’s Day. Don’t forget that Valentine’s Day is a celebration of love, and can fit into any relationship (Mother/Child, Best Friends, etc.)

Check out my blog for fun ideas to celebrate the day and things you can do together as a family. Enjoy!

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I filed my taxes the other day, and was absolutely thrilled to see I was getting a lot more back then I normally do. I qualified for a higher EI credit and I made a little bit more this year. I am a freelancer too, so I don’t get back as much as others usually because I have to actually pay my taxes, but I usually get something back. This year I get a lot more.

The problem is, I know I will spend it quickly. It’s the one time of year I am less than frugal. Last year I got a new laptop and an iPod touch among other things – some new clothes, a few dinners out, software, books, etc. I’m always happy with what I buy though, so its not like I am just blowing it. I’m still not sure what things I will be doing with it this year, except I know I need a new laptop cord for one of the laptops the kids use, and I’d like to upgrade from my tiny netbook I got a couple of months back to a full size laptop again. I guess I’ll check back in with my tax spending in a couple of weeks and let you know what came about.

Do you have plans for your tax check yet?

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Wow. Sometimes people seriously go to extremes to be frugal. And honestly, the woman I am about to tell you about, did it more for the principal of it being her money, but she fought for over 10 years about 14 cents. Is that not the craziest thing ever?

It all started over a cheap phone plan on pre paid phone bill. She was left with .14 at the end, and one day it just disappeared. She felt it was her .14 so she began a long process to get it back. And guess what? She did!

She was sent her check for .14. I know its the principal, but is it really worth it to be THAT frugal? Here is the article.

DO you know anyone who has done, or does something crazy to save money?

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I love my hosting company, but lately this blog and another blog have been having problems. I think we have them all ironed out and everything is working again as normal. It was at their end, not mine – so I am relieved I didn’t do something.

They tried to talk  me into combining all of my blogs onto one hosting account. I thought that sounded like a much better idea than having them all separately, but following their directions, I switched two over to one of the hosting accounts and lost everything. This blog was the last to be moved, since I write on it the most. I’m not moving it.

I am not taking the risk of losing everything I have built with this blog. Rebuilding the others has been challenging and difficult and I’m angry. So this one is great and not going anywhere.

Now I just have to get the others finished with rebuilding, though I am sure they will never be the same again.

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After a most disturbing experience with my ridiculous Keurig KCup coffemaker that I purchased not even a month and a half ago, I had to do something to rectify my lack of coffee situation. Face it, I’m an addict. Must have coffee. Cannot survive without coffee.

I acted as quickly as I could, and I went armed with very little information so I really did feel blind. I looked at every model, every setting, every perk, every look – it was overwhelming.

I only really had a few simple requests, because I was holding out hope that someday I would have my Keurig back again (haha!). I wanted one that did not require the use of those stupid paper white coffee filters, I wanted one that was programmable and that wouldn’t shut off after 30 minutes. And I wanted one that was easy to clean. That’s ALL I was really asking for.

I found the Black and Decker 12 cup Programmable Coffemaker and brought it home after thinking about it for about fifteen minutes while I finished shopping for other stuff. I’m so thankful I did. While I do still hold out a little hope that my Keurig will begin miraculously working at some point, or a newer model will land on my doorstep tomorrow, we all know that it isn’t going to happen.

I opened up my box and was thrilled to see that it was just a simple plug-in coffee maker and that it needed no assembly. Not only does it not need the stupid white paper coffee filters, the removable coffee filter it does come with, is perfect and very easy to use (and clean).

The coffeemaker is programmable (delayed brewing), allows for strength adjustment (regular/strong), allows you to brew between 1-4 cups of coffee OR an entire pot, keeps the coffee hot for up to 2 hours (this feature is VERY hard to find in coffee makers!), comes with a sneak a cup feature (it pauses momentarily for you to remove the carafe and pour yourself a cup of coffee while still brewing), and is truly simple to clean. I love this coffee maker and it is affordable and brews a delicious cup of coffee!

Updated: After using this coffee maker for a full month, daily – I still cannot say anything bad about the coffee maker. I have had no issues, it brews a delicious pot of coffee, and it so super easy to clean and use.

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Very excited!! I applied to be the examiner.com St. Louis Frugal Family Examiner after noticing that the previous writer had not published anything since April of last year. I waited for awhile before applying to see if she would post again, but she never did. I took the chance about two weeks ago and went ahead and applied.

After I submitted everything, I learned that examiner had just opened up to Canadian applicants and they had a surge of applications. So, for me, it wasn’t looking promising. I didn’t say a word to anyone about applying (not even family), so I just patiently waited to see what would happen.

Last night I got the email that I was invited to be an examiner writer for the St. Louis Frugal Family section. I cannot tell you how happy I am, and how awesome it is to be selected to do it, as I’ve also since learned that many have trouble getting in to write for them.

I figured my topic over there is awesome and worth it, since I just began teaching Frugal Living classes again in my area, so this will all connect together nicely. And even if we do move at some point, we are not moving THAT far away, that I would ever not be part of St. Louis, so I’m safe.

I’m pretty excited to get started. I submitted my photo and bio last night and all I am waiting for now is for them to create my page and do a background check. Woot!

Update: As I was writing this, I got the email congratulating me and letting me know that my page has been set up already. From what I understand, it is not available to the public yet, so I won’t share it just yet, but expect it soon! And please, please stop by and say hi to me over there. I’m the newbie on the block and many of these peeps have been writing for examiner for awhile. I could use the support.

If you write for examiner, are you loving it?

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If you have been following me for any length of time, one of the first things you learn, is how much I absolutely adore my coffee. I mean, LIVE for my coffee. Like, so much when the kids play Whoonu with me, they all pray they get the ‘coffee‘ card for me. Well, with that knowledge, then one may deduct that perhaps it is imperative that I have a coffee maker that works. Right?

Back on November 24, 2009, I proudly wrote a blog post and review on the brand new Keurig Elite Home Brewing System coffee maker I had just bought. It was NOT a bad review. Quite the opposite. I believe I raved about what an awesome cup of coffee the new gadget had brewed.

Well, today is January 5, 2010 and I hate the damn thing. Okay, so perhaps hate is a strong word, but I am a coffee addict. And when a coffee maker cannot even survive in my household for a month and a half, we have problems.

So here are my problems:

• The light on the ‘add water’ spot hardly ever lights up, even when clearly it needs water.
• The ‘descale’ light has not lit as of yet, which is good since it predicts about every six months.
• The problem with this, is that all of a sudden about a week ago, the water started coming out in a very slow trickle. I tried cleaning it. I tried running it with no coffee grounds, and then as a last resort, I tried descaling it. (two bottles of vinegar LATER)
• When I called Keurig, the gal that answered the phone was nice enough for the first minute or so as she insisted that it needed to be descaled. Once I told her I had already done it, she seemed to get edgy and frustrated with me. It was as if the only solution to ANY problem with the stupid machine, MUST be to descale. Yeah. Well I would be THRILLED if that had worked. Instead I have an expensive coffee maker that simply is unusable at this point, the extra extension pod to use any coffee but is useless without the Keurig, and two HUGE boxes full of coffee pods that I can do absolutely nothing with.

So I reverted back to using my ridiculous $20 Mr. Coffee maker that has been around for about 9 years now. I mean really. My $20 coffee maker lasted longer than my $130 one?

Sure, makes sense. Do you have any experience with the Keurig – good or bad? Please tell me about it, maybe you can make me hate the company a little less.

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Every once in awhile, I do sit down and find myself completely at a block as to what to write. It isn’t that I don’t have great every day fodder to include on my blogs, but most of the time it probably isn’t funny to anyone but our family.

So I’m always on the look out for new things to write about on my blogs and in my article writing ventures. Well, today while blog hopping, I came across The Ad Master blog. I’ve been there before and I quite enjoy the blog because I usually leave with new ideas for something. So today’s posts is titled 15 Article Ideas to Start Your Next Brainstorming Session. Absolutely AWESOME post. If you haven’t read it, you need to check it out. If you ever have trouble coming up with new ideas, try some of them – I bet they work!

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It’s so quiet here now that the holidays are over. The kids go back to school in a few days, Christmas is wrapped up and put away, we’ve celebrated the New Year and we’re quite frankly…. bored.

We’re playing all our new Wii games, playing new board games we got, reading books and watching movies, but it still doesn’t take away the quiet that seems to have settled over our home.

We had a special visitor for Christmas…. my birth mother. She left last night, and since she left it has felt a bit empty too. I miss her and worry about her long journey back home to Pennsylvania.

I’m ready for Spring. It’s not even my favorite time of year, I’m just ready to be outside again, sun shining, birds singing and the world renewed from this frigid time.

What does it feel like at your house?

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