A barter way to do things

Some businesses and professions have been hurting during this economic down slide. Personal Training has been one of them. When money is tight, no one is going to run out and hire someone to get them in shape when it's hard enough as it is to put gas in the car. It's a luxury service, not a necessity. This is why I love online training; it's a fraction of the cost for one-on-one sessions, making it more affordable for everyone.

But, I digress...

I'm lucky to have chosen a service career that is easily traded. In the last year, I've bartered for so many things that we wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise:

• Photography - family portraits, Christmas cards, birth announcements, maternity portraits, newborn portraits.
• House Cleaning every week.
• Drop-in childcare whenever we want.
• Massages every week.
• Bikes tuned-up and a brand new bike trailer for the kids.

I'm in the process of looking for someone to do some work on the car (fix our air conditioner) and lawn service.

These barters have been a win-win situation for everyone involved. I find that these people are pretty dedicated to their fitness programs because they really want to do them, knowing that they wouldn't have the chance otherwise. I'm excited for the same reason; I wouldn't be able to have these services done either. Not only has bartering been mutually beneficial, but relationships/friendships have grown from them. Our house cleaner has been cleaning for us since before Carter was born. She's been here every week and Logan loves it when she's over.

We were just smacked upside one way and down the other with some heavy medical bills that need to be paid now. It would be an awesome world if I could barter for those. However, I'm feeling a hell of a lot less stressed about this pinch than most people might because for one, we are experts at being poor and living on practically nothing, but I can also be creative here and think outside the box with ways to come up with the money we need.

I've got some brainstorming to do. But, I know this little bump in the road is just that. Little.

Broken and stranded

Yesterday afternoon I got the kids packed up in the car so we could go grocery shopping. I had volunteered to make dinner for of the moms in the club who had her second baby a week or so ago and I needed to pick up a few things to make our favorite chili (and other stuff).

I was driving down the road when the power steering went out. I thought I might have had a flat tire since it was more difficult to turn in one direction. The street I was on was pretty small and I was about to make a right hand turn onto a very busy road when the radio died. OH CRAP, I thought to myself as I hoped the car didn't die where I was - a terrible place to break down. I was lucky enough to make the turn and then turn safely right into a medical complex parking lot. Both boys were fast asleep, oblivious to our situation.

I called Bill at work (which was about 3 minutes away) and he came to our rescue. He drove us home with the boys finally waking up and confused at being loaded up in a different car, a friends car that Bill had borrowed. We stayed home for the rest of the day and I canceled dinner plans for the following night.

Today the car was towed and worked on. We are very lucky that it was a simple fix; a belt broke, the battery needed to be replaced as well as the battery cable. It cost a chunk of change, but it could have been a whole lot worse. Plus, the auto shop discounted the bill quite a bit. Bill found a great car repair bargain!

While being stranded without a car at all, I felt lucky to be living where we do. We live in a small town where you really don't have to have a car (sort of), but for us specifically, we have everything we need within walking distance - Target, restaurants, the gym and a brand new library among many other stores and many more that aren't even open yet. Our only car breaking down could have been a major fiasco in another city, but it was a very small annoyance here.

The car is back in action tonight and our little adventure was fortunately that. Little.

Come out, come out, wherever you are!
Not a whole lot going on in these here parts today. Bill is getting ready to leave for his grandma's funeral & we stopped by Aunt Ju-Ju's house to pick up Uncle J's black jacket for Bill to wear to the services (because the suit he wore to our wedding doesn't fit. This makes me want to try on my wedding dress to see what happens). The cousins played a little bit, but it was mostly Logan stealing Cousin B's goldfish crackers. The little snack thief!

I realized the other day that I am not as smart of a bargain shopper that I think I am. I thought I found a great deal on toilet paper (I even had coupons!). Turns out that it wasn't such a great deal after all. I bought packs of single ply. Yep. It sucks. Now I dread going to the bathroom.

Also, I found out that the post I wrote on Virtual Fitness today got picked up by FOX News & Reuters (again). I wrote this in the middle of a two hour nap time battle with Logan. I was amazed that it got published. Typos & all. Once I get a few more publications under my belt, I think I'll start hitting up some more job postings for freelance work. I have been sending out cover letters and writing samples without any luck. I'm not discouraged by it only because I thought pursuing this would make for some great practice or "homework" to keep working on my writing skills. I plan on spending a lot of time working on my two books this winter when we're stuck inside all day long. If I'm lucky, we'll get snowed in again for a week or more.

And finally, a day late & a dollar short, it was delurking day yesterday. I missed it because I was too busy blinding everyone with the pink blog (hey! Did you donate or Click to Give?). So, I've watched the blog stats steadily increase & often wondered who on earth is wasting their life reading about my boring days as a Stay at Home Mom (or Work at Home Mom now, I guess). I think I can count how many people I know who read here on two hands & maybe a foot. The other 100 people or so, I'm stumped. So, leave a comment & say hi! Lord knows I need to come out & say hey on a few blogs that I lurk on.



**Update**
I just found out that Detroit news channel 4 & Connecticut news channel 3 picked up the "To ice or not to ice..." post too!

This is probably really mean
Since I've been bargain shopping, coupon clipping & signing up for deals, I've been getting a crap load of telemarketing calls when I never got them before. There is a number from Ohio that calls every single day, multiple times a day. It's quite annoying.

I've never had to register my number with the Do Not Call list, so I finally did a few days ago. Apparently, it takes up to 30 days for the request to process & the calls to stop. Prior to registering my number, I just didn't answer the phone hoping that an unanswered call would be enough to make them give up (after 500 attempts). Not so much. Now I've resorted to letting Logan answer the phone.

It is so funny & I can't help but feel like an elementary school kid pulling a prank. Whenever I see this Ohio number on caller ID, I run over to Logan & hold the phone up to his ear. He smiles this really big grin while the operator on the other end talks about how I've won a million dollars, blah, blah, blah...

Logan: "Ah! Ba Ba! (grunting noises)"

Telemarketer: "Kristin, are you there? Kristin? Kristin?"

Logan: "Yesh"

Telemarketer: "Kristin, are you there woman?" (yes, she actually said this not more than 15 minutes ago).

I have to bite my tongue so I don't bust out laughing while he's trying to answer her questions. The call usually ends after 30 seconds, but you would think after 10 or more calls like this, they would get the hint! Don't they take notes? After unanswered calls & then after a Toddler answers the phone a billion times, you figure they would find something more productive to do. I guess not though.

So for the next 20 or so days, Logan will be working on his phone skills, learning how to answer questions out loud (rather than just nodding his head) & perfecting annunciation. Good times, I tell you!

Bargain high
The last few weeks I've been doing a bit of bargain shopping. I've mentioned my coupon trading site (where I just received a TON of trading coupons in the mail yesterday) & some of the deals I've found online (like the $50 pearl necklace that I got for $2.00, the Calphalon gift set that I got for free & I just got my $1.99 cookie cutters this afternoon).

The weather is getting cooler & Logan needed some warmer clothes, so I hit the sales on Sunday. I got him a bunch of new pajamas, a new pair of shoes, couple pairs of jeans, a couple of shirts, hoodies & sweat shirts & some lounge around the house outfits. I spent less than $99 & saved over $126. Carters, Oshkosh & The Children's Place were all having 50-70% off sales & I had a few coupons to boot. It was awesome!

I cleaned out Logan's closet & sold his clothes at the second hand boutique yesterday. I should be able to pick up what they didn't buy along with a check from what they purchased & go buy him some more clothes. The sales that I found were actually cheaper than buying his clothes at the boutique. You can't beat that.

I'm going to have so much fun shopping for Christmas presents this year!!

Trade it!
I've picked up another hobby. I need another hobby like I need a hole in the head, but I'm doing it anyway. Lately, I've been hooked on bargain shopping. I've been clipping coupons & finding amazing deals. I found some Christmas presents that would have been $35 & $50, but I got one for free & the other for $2.00. It's so much fun finding these deals & I get all excited after grocery shopping when I read the total savings of $50.00 at the bottom of the receipt. I'm a dork, but whatever.

So, one thing I've noticed about coupon clipping is that I don't use half of the stuff I clip (or print, really). They are mostly for products that we don't buy & would never buy, so here I am, left with an organizer (yes, I now have a coupon organizer & I'm about to get a second one. Another testament of my dorkiness) full of useless coupons. Or so I thought.

I'm trading these suckers. I'm now one of those hard core traders that has their own coupon trading site. But you know, in the two days I've had my site up, I've traded coupons that I would never ever use for coupons that we use all of the time. It's a great little system.