Day 314 and another lotion update

So for those of you that are following my attempt to find a lotion that keeps my hands from cracking, and bleeding, and generally looking like I'm about 100 years old, here's the latest update.

This past week, I used the Gloves in a Bottle again. I am so pleased with this stuff. It worked great, by the end of the week, my hands hadn't cracked at all and they were pretty soft, especially for me. Next week, I'm going to use the Skin MD Natural again and see how it does using it once a day as suggested. I'll keep you posted. Out of any of the three products that I've tried, I would recommend any of them. They've all worked pretty well, and my hands have been in pretty decent shape the last few weeks. With the cold, windy weather we've had, that's been amazing. I'll keep everyone informed as the weather gets even colder how things are going.

No word yet on Josh's car. The mechanic was able to drive it up onto the trailer so I'm hoping that is a good sign. Anyway, please keep praying and sending those good thoughts.

Day 313 and Josh's car

Well, Josh's car broke down today. I'm not a mechanic, but it sounds to me like the transmission. Ugh! I just do not want to even think about it. Anyway, pray, pray, pray that it is something easily fixed and fairly cheap.

That's all I've got for tonight.

Day 312 and something to think about

This came from the bulletin of the church that I grew up going to. They still send me the weekly bulletin. These words of wisdom were written by a Presbyterian clergyman, Rev. William J.H. Boetcker in 1916.

Ten Cannots
1. You cannot bring about prosperity while discouraging thrift.
2. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
3. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
4. You cannot left the wager earner by pulling down the wage payer.
5. You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
6. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. (Tracy here: OH how well, I know that!)
7. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
8. You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
9. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence.
10. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

Day 311 and Christmas gift ideas

I was visiting Dave Ramsey's website the other day and came across a link to some Christmas gift ideas he has up. I'll share about some of them here, and if you're interested in reading more about them, you can click on the link to his website at the bottom of my page and then click on the Christmas gift ideas link.

Themed gift box: for example a movie gift box with movies or movie rental cards, popcorn, sweets, etc. A couple of years ago, I found big popcorn buckets at Dollar Tree and filled them with microwave popcorn, Dollar Tree movie theater candy, movie rental gift cards and gave them as gifts.

I love this idea if you have little kids: frame their artwork and give it as a gift!

Run errands or bake for someone.

There are other ideas listed, this is just a few.

Living on a Dime also has some Christmas gift ideas too, click on the Debt Free Holidays link on the left and then scroll down to the Christmas section

Day 310 and a debt update

Ok, here's an updated debt list:

DLO: $14.40-PAID!
DLO: $34.11-PAID!
Radiology: $37-PAID!
Urgent care clinic: $46.15 (August 2007)-PAID!
Urgent care clinic: $40.55 (November 2007) PAID!
Urgent care clinic: $21.50 (February 2008) PAID!
Dr. Office: $79.20-PAID!
Dr. Office (June 2006) $105.02-PAID! Dr. Office (March 2008, Tracy & Tasha)-$63.44-PAID! Dr. Office (August 2008, Tasha) $53.30
Dr. Office (October 2008, Tracy) amount yet to be determined
ER Doctor: $93.54-PAID!
Dentist: PAID!!! Dentist: $27: PAID!
Auto parts store: $161.73-PAID! Auto parts store: $75 Josten's-PAID!
Second half 2007 real estate taxes: $148.64-PAID!
Hospital: $261.16-PAID!
Car loan: Balance: $767
House: paid $3350.60
Credit card #1: $2970-paid $450
Credit card #2: $1104-paid $150
Credit card #3: $990-paid $150
Credit card #4: $899-paid $529.19 (balance $370)
Credit card #5: $908-paid $150
Credit card #6: $2509-paid $375
My student loan: $12, 913 (in deferment due to my full time student status)
DH student loan: $53, 248(in forbearance)


As of November 14th: $9664.26 in debt paid off!

Can you believe the car loan is below $1000??? I don't think we've owed that finance company less than $1000 from the time we took out our first loan there many many many years ago. That is super exciting! I was thinking too when we get that paid off, we will be able to drop our car insurance down to liability only if we want to, which will save us a little bit more $'s.

Day 309 and the return of layaway

A few years ago, Wal-mart closed it's layaway departments in all of their stores, marking the end of an era. Almost noone had layaway anymore. Even though I rarely used it anymore, I was very sad. When my kids were little, layaway was such a blessing. I could pick out their gifts early and pay on them a little bit at a time. Most places did not charge anything for it and it was definitely cheaper than wracking up interest rates on credit cards. I didn't use it for just gifts, either. The computer desk that we have had for years (and is looking a little worse for wear, LOL) was bought through layaway at K-Mart. Shortly after we put it on layaway, it went on sale for a lower price and I was able to get them to adjust the price to the lower price. Anyway, enough on the memories. The bottom line is that eventually layaway was no longer available anymore, although I don't think K-Mart ever got completely rid of it.

Last week, I got an e-mail from Sears advertising the return of layaway for the holiday season. I have seen and heard of various other retailers offering it again, which I think is great compared to putting Christmas on plastic. Most places charge a fee now, one article I read says K-Mart's is $5. A bargain compared to interest rates and possible late fees.

So...if you need another option this Christmas, check out stores that offer layaway!

Days 307 and 308 and a lotion update

Ok, here's the latest on the lotion. This week I used the Jergen's Ultra Healing lotion. Out of the three I have used, I think I am most impressed with it mainly because I only used it once a day at bedtime and my hands were still in pretty good shape at the end of the week. They were a little dry, but no cracked swollen spots. Since it was pretty chilly all week, I thought that was pretty good. This week I'm going to start again with the Gloves in a Bottle since it should be cool most of the week and we'll see how that goes. At this point, I'm thinking the most important thing with any of them is actually remembering to put them on! Before this experiment, I was pretty bad at remembering to put lotion on until my hands were already hurting and cracking.

Women of Faith was awesome and almost indescribable. Have you ever gone through something so emotional that you just almost cannot talk about it? That's how Women of Faith was for me this year. I'll try to share more through the week as I process all my emotions.