goddessing
cosmology, consciousness, contrarinessgoddess religion: pagan blog
www.goddessmystic.com
goddess religion: pagan blog
www.goddessmystic.com
25 Ways
2008. What a nice, solid number. Numerically, it's a product of 4 (4 x 502), which signifies stability, orderliness, practicality. Through digit summing it reduces to 1, which signifies new beginnings, quests.
We spent New Year's Day cleaning the house. Not glamorous, or exciting, or even festive, but practical. Magically, I'd say we set our domestic intentions for the year. Perhaps we sealed them ... we worked hard before the holidays on another round of decluttering, de-accessioning, and re-organizing. A major bathroom reconstruction project started here on Monday, so we've been preparing the house for the kinds of temporary chaos such a thing brings with it.
Last year brought some important transitions: a new start on recovering health and mobility and a new lifestyle based around cooking and eating gluten-free; recovery from the three-year depression following from my nephew's suicide and from the biological and logistical complications of symptomatic Celiac Disease; analysis of our financial patterns and an action plan for the upcoming 10 years and the retirement years that come after that; and spiritually, a new personal mythology and practice based on past studies/experiences and current realities.
I'm also in the earth year of my four-year series: health, hearth, heart, earth, so naturally my focus is rather practical. This morning, I found my way to Frugal for Life's 25 Ways I Save Money and have been reading it and the 43 other 25 Ways posts spawned from it. Many items are common to most lists, and to my own frugal ways, but here are a few I'd like to add this year:
1. Migrate to a new online-banker with fee-free and high-interest savings accounts. I started on this in late 2007, and I've finally settled on WaMu's Free Checking and Online Savings accounts.
2. Cut dryer sheets into halves, or thirds, or quarters. My beloved is a dryer-sheet devotee whereas I could live without. In relationships you choose your battles, and dryer-sheets were never on my list, but experimenting with using less seems reasonable.
3. Explore new sources for deals on necessary expenses: Fatwallet, Slickdeals,
4. Put all appliances on a power strip. Now I've known about this for some time and just haven't got around to doing it. Now's the time....
5. Use an Amazon.com Rewards Credit Card and rack up rewards which can be used for gifts. Hmmm.
6. Someone mentioned popping her own corn versus using Microwave. Well, I've never liked Microwave popcorn, but I have ruined a stock pot or two with burned popcorn. So, it's time to buy a popcorn maker of some kind and consider spending money to save. I'll add this to my research list. Speaking of research, none of the 25 Ways bloggers mentioned using Consumer Reports. We subscribe yearly. It's a tremendous tool for shopping research.
7. Mail gifts in USPS Priority Mail flat rate boxes and envelopes. Meredith says: "Weight is no object as long as my gift fits in the free, flat rate boxes."
8. Pay half your mortgage every 2 weeks instead of once per month. Hmmm. I'll have to check that one out.
9. Make a price list (or price book) of the things you regularly shop for, so you can compare prices when shopping to know whether you're about to overpay on an item and when the prices are good for stocking up. I've been doing something that's on its way to a price book since I started cooking and eating gluten-free, which can be a very expensive enterprise (both pocketbook- and glycemic-wise), especially at first.
10. Make your own dryer sheets and your own laundry detergent, like Jenn.
11. Eat from smaller plates and bowls to reduce portions. Hmmm. That would give a double-benefit.
12. Buy coffee beans and grind. (I use my grinder for flax seeds; why can't it do double duty?)
13. Search for virtual coupons for online shopping.
And, because I like things that make me laugh, or even smile, here are a few favorite lines from various of the 25 Ways bloggers:
"The lights are turned off when no-one is in the room. I don't live in a lighthouse." ~Hammy
"Try to drive in a way that won't get me pulled over." ~livingdeb
"Beans. They're cheap. They're healthy. They're a lot more filling if you combine them with a little meat." ~The Duchy of Burgundy Carrots
We spent New Year's Day cleaning the house. Not glamorous, or exciting, or even festive, but practical. Magically, I'd say we set our domestic intentions for the year. Perhaps we sealed them ... we worked hard before the holidays on another round of decluttering, de-accessioning, and re-organizing. A major bathroom reconstruction project started here on Monday, so we've been preparing the house for the kinds of temporary chaos such a thing brings with it.
Last year brought some important transitions: a new start on recovering health and mobility and a new lifestyle based around cooking and eating gluten-free; recovery from the three-year depression following from my nephew's suicide and from the biological and logistical complications of symptomatic Celiac Disease; analysis of our financial patterns and an action plan for the upcoming 10 years and the retirement years that come after that; and spiritually, a new personal mythology and practice based on past studies/experiences and current realities.
I'm also in the earth year of my four-year series: health, hearth, heart, earth, so naturally my focus is rather practical. This morning, I found my way to Frugal for Life's 25 Ways I Save Money and have been reading it and the 43 other 25 Ways posts spawned from it. Many items are common to most lists, and to my own frugal ways, but here are a few I'd like to add this year:
1. Migrate to a new online-banker with fee-free and high-interest savings accounts. I started on this in late 2007, and I've finally settled on WaMu's Free Checking and Online Savings accounts.
2. Cut dryer sheets into halves, or thirds, or quarters. My beloved is a dryer-sheet devotee whereas I could live without. In relationships you choose your battles, and dryer-sheets were never on my list, but experimenting with using less seems reasonable.
3. Explore new sources for deals on necessary expenses: Fatwallet, Slickdeals,
4. Put all appliances on a power strip. Now I've known about this for some time and just haven't got around to doing it. Now's the time....
5. Use an Amazon.com Rewards Credit Card and rack up rewards which can be used for gifts. Hmmm.
6. Someone mentioned popping her own corn versus using Microwave. Well, I've never liked Microwave popcorn, but I have ruined a stock pot or two with burned popcorn. So, it's time to buy a popcorn maker of some kind and consider spending money to save. I'll add this to my research list. Speaking of research, none of the 25 Ways bloggers mentioned using Consumer Reports. We subscribe yearly. It's a tremendous tool for shopping research.
7. Mail gifts in USPS Priority Mail flat rate boxes and envelopes. Meredith says: "Weight is no object as long as my gift fits in the free, flat rate boxes."
8. Pay half your mortgage every 2 weeks instead of once per month. Hmmm. I'll have to check that one out.
9. Make a price list (or price book) of the things you regularly shop for, so you can compare prices when shopping to know whether you're about to overpay on an item and when the prices are good for stocking up. I've been doing something that's on its way to a price book since I started cooking and eating gluten-free, which can be a very expensive enterprise (both pocketbook- and glycemic-wise), especially at first.
10. Make your own dryer sheets and your own laundry detergent, like Jenn.
11. Eat from smaller plates and bowls to reduce portions. Hmmm. That would give a double-benefit.
12. Buy coffee beans and grind. (I use my grinder for flax seeds; why can't it do double duty?)
13. Search for virtual coupons for online shopping.
And, because I like things that make me laugh, or even smile, here are a few favorite lines from various of the 25 Ways bloggers:
"The lights are turned off when no-one is in the room. I don't live in a lighthouse." ~Hammy
"Try to drive in a way that won't get me pulled over." ~livingdeb
"Beans. They're cheap. They're healthy. They're a lot more filling if you combine them with a little meat." ~The Duchy of Burgundy Carrots
Comments:
I did much the same for our new (Gregorian) year: cleaned! I got rid of stuff (donated it), organized the hall closet, organized my daughter's room, etc. Feels good to enter a new phase fresh. That's part of my work to increase abundance and material wealth, by making space and keeping my life in order.
Namaste!
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