Money, money, money,money! MONEY!

There has been a scary roller coaster ride lately in the stock market. The age old rule of what goes up, must come down is certainly proving itself to be true. Our financial advisors, have shown me how to go to our on-line Wealth Vault to see everything we have: the good, the bad and the ugly. (Lately, it has been so ugly that even the tide won't come in). I could ignore it and wait it out, except it is like the train wreck. I can't take my eyes off of it. Even when I know that I am not going to be happy when I see the numbers. As the money investors advised...ride it out.

This is good advice for us all, even those of us retired. My problem is that I can do that, however, I start to feel antsy and thinking of ways that I can save a penny here and there. Some of which, really don't make a whole lot of sense. Some ways that I already had in place seemed to be working out well, such as:

• sticking to a pre-written shopping list or better yet using the "Click List" (even with the fee tagged on for using this service, the amount of money saved by not going in to the store is phenomenal.)
• keeping the TV off when possible is like killing two birds with one stone - using less electricity and then the ads which can be very influential will not be exposing me to buy things that I really don't need until they show me all the reasons that I do need it
• make good use of coupons - only using the ones that are products that I normally would use
• buy on line - many times a product is in the store for a lot more money than it sells on line due to many outside factors
• pack lunches for road trips (so many car trips can take you for 100 miles or more before you even see a place to eat - and then that place is questionable)

There are other ways that I am still trying to work out if it really would save me money such as:

• being thrifty with homemade cleaning items (some of which I tried, however was sadly disappointed when I discovered they really don't clean that well)
• make your own beer (who knows? this could lead on to your own distillery?)
• eat on smaller plates (really?)
• take shorter showers in cooler water (this is most definitely not for me)
• take public transportation to work (if you are lucky enough to have a "working one")
• cut your own hair (even hairdressers admit this is a tricky one for them)
• sell unwanted stuff - as long as you have a body guard with you (wild things have happened to sellers using ebay or craigs list)
• use the energy efficient light bulbs (you know, the ones that you must
• 
  turn on 15 minutes before you need them, just so that you can get dressed in light because they take that long to warm up)
• wait 30 days before buying a big item (won't work when you are talking having no refrigerator or washer/dryer)
• buy a time programmed thermostat

Some of these at the end may work for some people. They just don't work for our family. We do not have a set routine any more for a programmable thermostat. I know that I am way too impatient to flip on a light switch and have to wait for the bulb to warm up. Plus their selling pitch is that these bulbs last much longer than the old kind. Well, sista, I am here to tell you that I have had to replace some of these newer ones and to this day, have not replaced the old fashion kind.

Let me share some advice that I have found to date that is most definitely worth heeding:

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!