It's amazing how much sunnier my outlook is without all of this house stress. I had yet another lovely 24 hours focusing on the house we live in. Yesterday, I organized, and sorted (for donation or otherwise) the stuff in the basement laundry area. It now looks clean and clear.

I also started on the garage. I posted several freebies on craigslist. A double jogging stroller and a car seat, and two rugs we don't have space for in these houses. All needed to be seriously cleaned, and it wasn't worth the energy for me to do it. Within two hours of posting, all was taken.

I have at least three big boxes headed for the thrift store later this week.

I just sold our old reel mower for $20 as well, so that went into the home improvement piggy bank. We now have enough in the piggy bank from craigslist, recycling cans, and birthday money that hubby and I can buy the new platform bed frame we've been eyeballing. And maybe a little something else.

So, the house is a little bit cleaner and the piggy bank a little bit fuller. What a way to kick off the weekend!

We're heading to a BBQ at my sister's soon. It's funny. I am a serial party thrower. She rarely has parties, so she is freaking out about everything. It's cute. I guess she didn't realize how much work it is!

The transfers for the mortgage pay-down are scheduled for Tuesday ($118,000), and the $2500 to savings is scheduled as well.

I've also already set up some appointments for estimates for the work we need to have done on this place. I have about $8,000 in sale proceeds set aside for these projects. Any left over will go to the other goals.

It's weird. This round of stuff (a tree removed, new gutters, more attic insulation,) and other than that, the house only needs decorating. Considering I spent the last five years fixing up a house that needed major things every year, this feels too easy!

I made $7 today without much work at all. I had forgotten that I still have a few things-- mostly vintage sewing patterns-- for sale in my etsy store. One of them sold and shipped today, so I made $7 after expenses. Not too shabby.

I am hoping to have a craft night with a friend in February. We have some ideas of things we want to make, and maybe I can make them well enough to sell them on Etsy.

I really need to take better advantage of Etsy. It's just been a time thing. So many goals, so few hours in the day. Alas, I will just have to set aside some time to post more to the store, and to design a few new things. It really is nice to make the money, even if it is a little at a time.

The $7 is going to my $20 challenge.

I added $12 to the $20 challenge today, as I sold a book on Amazon. I had forgotten how those little amounts add up.


Otherwise, not much to report. We just spent the weekend with some friends in Maryland. It was a serious baby party. All the kids running around all crazy. A house with three toddlers and one infant is not a house where anyone gets a good night's sleep.

We had fun, but are happy to be back in our own beds and on our own schedule.

I paid the bills yesterday, and the checking account is pretty slim. I only managed to send $35 to savings this pay check. It's always like that this time of year. Lots of big bills come in January-- property tax, homeowners' insurance, etc.

I still haven't gotten a single tax form. I'm anxious to get the return done so we can get our refund!!

Hubby has been a nervous wreck the last couple of days. When I told him we hadn't received a statement for his 401k in two years, he automatically began to think the worst. Symptom of our generation, I suppose. We Gen Xers lost money in the dot.com bust, the housing bust AND the great recession. Doesn't make you optimistic about the future.

Anyway, I told him just to call HR and ask how we can get a statement. He avoided it all day out of fear and dread. He just came up with the password, etc. for me to look at the digital statement and make changes to our allocations, etc.

The good news? I had estimated we had $66,000 for our net worth statement. We have a little more than $151,000. And, his company match is more generous than I thought, matching 100 percent up to the first 6 percent. (We exceed that, so we're getting all of our match).

That was a huge pleasant surprise.

Also, I sold one of the kids' unused toy storage racks on Craigslist today for $20. That went into the $20 challenge piggy bank.

I haven't done the $20 challenge since 2008. Except I started again today. To took two bags of aluminum cans to the recycler today, and got $6.05. It's going into the piggy bank.

Woo-hoo! The online yard sales is actually going pretty well. I've managed to sell a few things, and I've brought in about $8o so far thanks to Craigslist. This money has been added to the tiki fund.

I've also donated 4 boxes ad two bags of items to Goodwill, and am going through more closets and drawers hoping to find more. I am really determined to cut to the bone. We have way too much stuff in this very small 1400 sq ft house.

In other happy news, I have written 59,00 words of my novel, which means I am more than halfway finished. Th3e tiny green tomatoes have sprouted in the garden and it's raining outside, hopefully making way for more.

The bad news is, of course, that we are still 9,200 away from ur savings goal for the year, thanks to the 5000 my stupid hubby lent to his dead-beat friend, and which I will never see again. I am trying to not stew about it, but it is hard.

I've decided to have an online yard sale this year. I have a list of about 20 items that I am selling on Craigslist, etsy, as well as a lot of small items I plan to donate or freecycle. This is part of my serious decluttering kick. De-clutter til it hurts!

so far, I've sold two items and made $35. I have realized already people will pay more for something on craigslist than they would pay for the same item at an actual yard sale. I have sold another item today for $10, and they plan to pick up today.

All of the money is going to the $20 challenge and to the tiki bar fund, which has been on life support since I cleared it out to pay off my student loan last year (a decision I do not regret, as I no longer have a payment and interest on savings has bottomed out at 1 percent).

Last year, I had a yard sale that failed miserably. We sold a lot, but didn't make a lot of money, and it was a lot of work. We did get rid of a lot of things, but not enough to make it worth it again.

FINALLY! Some money to the tiki fund. I made a few sales on Etsy and this is the profit. I need to start working harder to replenish the tiki fund, since I emptied it to pay off my student loan.

Hubby and I went away for the weekend while his parents looked after Beanman. It was the first time we seriously talked about my tiki bar. It ended in a fight. The fight stems from our differing views of work.

Hubby comes from a family of salary people and has been taught to get a job, work hard at it, make money at it, then retire.

I come from a family of entrepreneurs, who believe you need to work hard-- at something you create- and you need to be boss if you really want to get ahead.

Long story short, Hubby is afraid to invest any of our money in a business venture. He thinks we'll be better off if we just both work 9-5 jobs for salaries and that's that.

The thing that upset me most was his suggestion that by opening a business, I would be taking money away from the Bean's college fund. Um, what???

We save and save and save. We're doing everything right. If anything, owning a business with a modicum of success will generate money to help pay for college.

Maybe this hit a nerve with me. Hubby's parents paid for all of his college. Mine paid for nothing. I had to drop out after two years due to lack of money, and go work in a bar for 7 years before I could afford to go back. I worked 60 plus hours a week and went to college full time, I paid as much in cash as possible to tuition every semester and still graduated with 40,000 in loan debt.

It's a sore subject to me. Obviously, I am still paying for that college education.

And, to make it worse, I got a journalism degree, took a 50 percent pay cut from working in a bar to take my first journalism job AND now, eight years after graduation, the industry has completely fallen apart. No ones hiring, no one is making money.

So, I guess it made me extra upset to hear that I had to supplant yet more of my dreams for yet another college education. I feel like I have been paying for one college education or another since 1993, and it's gotten me nothing but heartache. Is my whole working life, from age 18 to 65 only about paying for college degrees?

I am hurt and angry.

Well, in my effort to get a tiki bar and to clear out things I no longer use, I am making two sacrifices from my beatles collection: 4 1963 Beatles stamps and my copy of the Paul Mccartney death hoax magazine. I bought them almost 20 years ago and it's time to let them go! Sigh. I guess this means I am serious about decluttering. They went up on Ebay tonight.

Also, I posted an autographed Bob Feller photo a relative gave us as a gift. I hate to regift, but we really hate baseball....Hey,someone bid on the baseball stuff already!

I don't want to jinx myself. But, I have ordered tons of seeds for my garden. I will be starting these indoors late next month.

If more of these veggies turn into viable seedlings than I can use in the garden, I am going to sell them for $1 or $2 per plant on Craigslist.

I'm growing some interesting varieties that often sell for $4 to $10 plant, so it will be a deal for whoever decides to buy.

Of course this all depends on those seeds starting!

Geesh. I just updated my sidebar to reflect my 2009 goals. It's much less satisfying than seeing the progress report from the end of last year, with money saved, IRAs funded and all that.

I'm sure y'all feel the same way. Oh well. I suppose that is the magic of New Year. Wiping the slate clean.

I have my work cut out for me this year for the $20 challenge. My goal is $2,500. Rather ambitious given the down economy.

The good news is I'm kicking it off right. I just sold a book on Amazon for a $17 profit!! Woo-hoo!

I thought I would do a round-up of where the money came from for my 2008 $20 challenge. Maybe it will give me some new ideas for 2009 and let me know where my efforts were best spent. I'd also like to know how you made your $20 challenge money. The more ideas the better!

Percentage of freelance work: $511.75
Web craft sales:$411.89
Google Adsense:$259.66
Tax rebates/refunds:$184.00
Change jar: $142.19
Misc Web projects (writing): $114.83
eBay: $54.82
Amazon marketplace: $45.52
ING referrals:$35
Etsy: $28.67
CafePress: $26.20
Tiki Savings account interest: $24.60
lotto tickets: $10

OK, so looking at those numbers, in 2009 I could:
- probably do better with eBay. I have stuff to sell, I just rarely post auctions.
-I will add a yard sale into the mix in June.
-CafePress was a surprise. I poste a few designs, spent little effort, and got a check. I will post more designs this year and promote them a bit and see if I can make more on this. It's my kind of gig, creative and with zero capital outlay.

Web craft sales and misc Web writing gigs not related to my day job were bigger money makers than I suspected. I will put more effort into these in 2009.

Tell me about your best $20 challenge projects for the year!

I'm only $46.63 away from meeting my savings goals for the year.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

That's my way of saying I am very excited.
My last freelance check put me $251 over the tiki fund goal (with more to come, I'm sure), and all of my other accounts are either fully funded or overfunded.

The only thing left is to round out the car fund, and I have some auto-debits scheduled that should take care of that.

I never would have dreamed that hubby and I could save this much. I was inspired by Automatic Millionaire (the book), and it really has worked. So simple. Why haven't I been doing this for years?????

A $147 freelance check came today. Yay. No haggling to get paid on this one. Half will go to savings ($73.50), $36.75 will go to extra payment on the student loan, and $36.75 will go to the tiki fund.

I also sold a Monster bag on etsy, so that's another $15.99 in profit for the tiki fund.