I spent enough in 2007 on dining out that I could have paid off my car loan.  Of course, I didn’t think of it like that until afterward.  I asked on Facebook how much people spent on alcohol and cigarettes each week, and a lot of people said their own answers surprised them.  How much do you spend each week on cigarettes, alcohol, soda, snacks, the energy drink, the morning latte, nail care, hair care?  This week, for each day you go without buying those items, put that amount in your savings account.  If you read the newspaper online, put the amount of a subscription in your savings account. Skip going to the movies for a week and put that amount in your savings account.  Include popcorn and soda costs, too. I’m not saying stop pouring money into the economy, I’m saying take a break from incidental expenditures like these, so you can make sure it’s something that is important to you, not just a mindless daily routine that is eating up your dollars.  It’s the little things that add up to surprise you later in life. Make them good surprises.  Like paying off your car loan with the money you saved this year on things you didn’t realize you were spending it on.  Going to the movies once a week and having a latte each day has never been my thing.  But paying off a debt?  Now that turns me on.

LEARN FREE: The Secret2Dollars. No cost, no kidding.

It’s so beautiful outside, nice and balmy in the evenings now that we’ve been getting the rain during the day. Yesterday, I asked a galpal who lives around the corner if she wanted to go for a walk around the ‘hood. She said there are misquitoes. I said there is insect repellent. She said that’s poison. Hmmmm.  And I think “poison” is thinking I have to stay indoors for 4 months complaining until the misquitoes leave.

I was talking to a friend earlier this week and sharing how I manage to get along without an assistant.  I’ve had them in the past and learned a lot from it.  I’m one of those people that like for everyone to “have it in writing.”  Whatever our agreement is, whatever I expect from you, that way there are no misunderstandings.  So I created a list of duties for the assistant to do.  It tells what gets filed where.  It tells the step by step process for logging in a new client or getting someone on the subscription list.  That way, anyone can sit at that desk in that back office – the assistant’s office – and they can pick up the list of duties and go to the in-box and know just what to do and how to do it.   It’s been helpful when a friend volunteers to help, or when I can talk my cousin into giving a hand.  And it even helps me, when I have a free hour and think, let me go do the assistant’s filing real quick, since it’s all in one place for me.  It helps me a lot. Continue reading →

I had a new shift in consciousness about food and nutrition this week and learned some interesting things about my body.  In trying to identify how particular foods acted in my system, I’ve been having small 6-bite meals every 8 hours.  So far, so good, no adverse reactions.  Since I’ve been doing that, I’ve naturally dropped 6 pounds, since I’m not taking in many calories.  Since my focus was on discovering how individual foods behaved in my digestive system, I didn’t think of it as depriving myself of food. I have sufficient body reserves, so even though I’ve dropped to maybe 300 calories and 5 grams of fat a day, it’s way ok for me to do this.  It’s been several years since I fasted, so perhaps this is a prelude to a fast. Continue reading →

I was talking with a galpal yesterday who has had several long term careers in several fields the past 30 years and is again ready for change.  “I know the attraction process, ” she said, “now if I just knew what I wanted to attract.” That’s a good question, isn’t it?  What if I don’t know what I want to attract? My experience is: you don’t need to know the specifics – I want to be a fireman, I want to be a CEO, I want to travel the world – you just need to know that you want to attract a good life, with plenty of friends, good health, plenty of dollars and fun times for all.  You want to spend time thinking thoughts like:

I want to attract circumstances and events that show me what I enjoy doing.
I want to attract information about people who have careers that interest me.
I want to attract multiple streams of income.
I want to attract ideas that are compelling to me, that fire my curiosity in satisfying new directions.

I will keep myself alert and watchful for opportunities with every person I meet and every circumstance I find myself in. One way to keep myself alert and watchful in the moment is to find things to appreciate about every person and circumstance I encounter. Continue reading →

I’ve got a renewed interest in art and last night pulled out my Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards (a good review of it is here).  I haven’t opened it in a decade, but I remembered it gave a good explanation of the mental confusion I feel when looking at my first blank page in months, and how to overcome it.  I’ve never taken an art class, and never thought I’d want to paint realism, but I wanted to learn the basics. I love internet search engines!  The last time I “studied” art, was with books from the public library, pre-internet days. I quickly found some cool sites online to teach me the basics – for free! – and last night I studied drawing shadows, light and dark values, and one point perspective. Continue reading →

I spent Sunday sketching and drawing, something I haven’t sat to do since last year.  The night before, I pulled my big art bag out and looked through some spiral sketch books to see what I had.  I usually keep a couple going at once, a 6×9 and a 9×12.  I’ll sketch images that come to me, or images that I see in front of me.  I may do just a rough sketch and then skip a page and begin another.  I leave every other page blank on purpose.  I will go back and forth through the sketches later and add more detail.  So I always have dozens of drawings in various stages of completion.  If I do anything I particularly like, I’ll watercolor it or maybe use some pastels to finish it. Continue reading →

Someone I know wrote on Facebook that friends have insulted his new wife of two weeks, whom he met a month ago. I don’t know the details other than JP met her through work and Spanish is her native language, which he speaks so all is well.  There were comments about her “getting a green card” and driving out of state to pick up her children whom no one knew about before. She has moved in with JP, age 40+, who lives with his parents.  I wrote to him:  “I take it some well meaning friends projected a hidden agenda for marrying before knowing each other? They are likely just fearful for your heart (and $$) and didn’t express themselves diplomatically.”  His response was to unfriend me, as I figured it would be.  Continue reading →