My upcoming expenses for September ...

Tithe 65.00
Rent 196.50
Tobacco & filters 20.00
Jason - 20.00
Etc. 25.00
Cable 10.00
Phone 65.00
Compassion Int. 32.00
Debt Reduction 25.00
Blogathon 20.00
Laundry 10.00

Etc.

Cat food [dry]
toilet paper
Art print

Yesterday I started to track my volunteer minutes and am gonna try to get up to one million of them.

I'll keep track of them on this post 'cuz that way it'll be easier for me to track them.

I consider volunteer time as any time spent in doing something for others.

This includes working on crafts to give others [which I do alot of] and also visiting others [older people, etc.]

8/1 - 200 minutes
8/2 - 130 minutes
8/3 - 194 minutes

I had taken $25.00 out of my check this month to go towards debt reduction.

I'm still waiting to hear from Blair so I can start paying on that bill.

Money was still in my checking account and today I couldn't take seeing all of those hurting people in Lebanon anymore who've had to flee there homes, etc.,

so I donated the $25.00 to Samaritan's Purse in order to help those people who, especially right now - have far less than I do.

That is not to say that I don't believe that Israel has a right to defend herself, because I believe that they do [this is my own opinion here],

but that really is neither here nor there,

those people who've been driven from their homes and cities need help now and if I could even help a little with the 25 dollars, then I am glad that I did.

For anyone else, if you'd like to donate to this cause,

you can go to

I hope I remember to keep this up and edit this entry on a daily basis.

I want to keep track of my no-spend days for the month of August.

8/1 - No spend day!
8/2 - No spend day
8/3 - No spend day
8/4 - No spend day
8/5 - No spend day
8/6 - Spend day
8/7 - Spend day

Coupons Needed

$1.00 Morningstar [any product]

Borden cheese [must be good on fat free cheese]

$1.00 Dawn Direct Foam [need longer dated ones than 8/31]

$2.00 Nice & Easy Hair Color [need longer dated than 8/31]

Will add to my list as I think of more.

I'm sure that you all probably already know [and do] this but a few of the things I learned over the past week or so are:

Dilute your liquid laundry soap [it works just as well if you do especially if your clothes aren't really dirty such as mine.]

What I mean by really dirty is that I don't have grease stains and no kids so don't have all the dirt and things on my clothes that young children do when they go out 'n play.

Another thing I found is that when I diluted my Dawn Direct Foam dishwashing liquid - it worked just as well and had just as much suds as before.

Also, instead of paying for the Fabreeze type of fabric freshner, I now will just use fabric softner and save $.

I thought I'd write these out in case someone can use the tips and also, so I can put them in my "Articles, Hints & Tips" category and go back 'n read them again later.

There are times I get lazy or forget and to go back and re-read could be valueable sometime down the road.