My 1/2 Dozen Daily

Riddle me this, Batman... (a rant!)

If the U.S. dollar and the Cdn. dollar are *almost* on "par" and have been for quite a while now, what explains this huge price discrepancy between Amazon.com and Amazon.ca?

U.S Price:

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Hold onto your hats...

Canadian Price:

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If I were to buy my girls this much lusted after DVD set from Amazon.ca, after shipping ($1.99 even though they say "free") & taxes, i'm going to pay $81.34 in total. Let's take a moment to think about this shall we... Amazon is trying to tell me that our consumer goods cost more than TWICE as much as they do in the U.S!? Really!!?? Un-be-lievable!!! I know our food & health and beauty items cost a good bit more, as i've been through this before, but i'm sorry, no wonder so many of my friends close to the border decide to border hop and save some of their hard earned dollars rather than spending local! Geez...

Lucky for me, I have American friends. ;)

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How do you feel about our US vs. Cdn. prices?

Are there any HUGE price differences you've noticed?

Do you cross-border shop?

Budget Thursday, er, Friday....

Oh boy... i've made a complete mess of this weeks budget. We have had so much money going out, (sewing machine, custom orders, medical, etc..) and then random $$ going on through custom orders, payments that i'm waiting on, etc... nothing is balancing yet and will probably take a good week to do so.

I've sort of went over the numbers, and I just don't have the time or energy to figure everything out this week. There's just far too much going on in our account. I can tell you though, that by looking in our ledger book we've spent over a full months budget in one week. However, when I receive payments from a couple orders, Blue Cross refund, and money transferred over from Paypal payments, it'll all end up evening out to being "close enough". I posted yesterday that i've almost earned back the cost of my sewing machine, so that greatly helps!

So instead of going over each category, amount spent, etc... i'll just leave it alone this week and start fresh today, for over the next weeks budget. I'm giving myself a pass on a "messed up budget week", and simply moving forward.

My current goal is to get our Slush Fund back up to $3K asap! It's currently sitting at $2411.80. So this is how i'll gauge my progress over the next week or two as this is the number that needs to go back up as soon as possible. June is our last "normal" month, then our income drops by 1/3. Ouch! I'll post more about our new budget in June. Anyways, our variable budget for this week is $240.00 (doesn't include needed sewing supplies, shipping on orders, etc...) but everything else. My goal plan is to make up a menu plan today, stick to it, and come in under budget this week with any luck.

I've moved $80.00 over to our slush fund, $50 to our TFSA, and that'll be it from hubbys pay. The rest will be from custom orders and will reimburse all the money i've put out for supplies this week and thankfully bump up our slush fund when it comes in! :)

Well i'm off for now! I need to get it in gear or i'll never get anything accomplished today! I'll be back later on with some photo's of some custom orders i've been working on! :)

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How is your budget going? Smooth as silk, or hitting some bumps in the road?

Busy, busy, terribly busy...

I got my title from the Veggie Tales version of the Good Samaritan. lol! Love Veggie Tales.. they're just so funny & cute! Who doesn't love veggies who can sing and dance and do all sorts of things we can do but with no arms! Just pure awesomeness! ;)

Anyways, I was going to do my budget post today, but I haven't had any time to sit down and crunch numbers yet. I do know that we went waaaay over if that helps anyone out. lol! So I think i'll work on that post tonight and have it up tomorrow morning instead.

For now i'm going to head downstairs and get a bit more sewing done before I need to get the girls in bed! Thanks for popping in, hope you had a great day, and have a wonderful night!

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What have you been "terribly busy" with lately?

 

My sewing machine has nearly "paid for itself"! :)

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You know that something was 'in the stars' when it comes together so very nicely...

When I bought my new sewing machine last week for a hefty $960.00, I knew it was a major splurge for us, and could have possibly waited until my other machine 'died'. However, with my other sewing machine not being "worth" fixing what was wrong with it, we 'bit the bullet' and bought a new machine. Since it helps with our income and I sew nearly every single day, we don't think it was 'extreme'. I have to say, I absolutely LOVE it and don't regret the purchase even for a second. It's just incredible how much easier it's made sewing.

I was wondering how long it would take me to "make up the cost" of the machine and apparently, not long at all!! I've received a handful of large orders since we bought my new sewing machine and after I take out the cost of the new materials I need to buy, i've made back a nice chunk of what we put out already!!

Total (approximate) earned after *new* materials are bought is $730.00. I'm not counting materials that I have on hand as i've already put out the money for them, or else the profit won't be as high, so i'm simply going with what will be put into our account. Add the $100.00 I had tucked aside for myself and that puts me at $830.00 of my $960.00! So, it appears that my sewing machine has almost already "paid for itself" which is exactly what my husband said when we bought it. :)

With these orders and after I have in all the payments, i'm hoping that our slush fund will be very near the $3K I like to have it sitting around once again! The only fabrics & materials i'll be buying for a while are materials I absolutely *need* to buy for orders. Other than that, i'll be using the wonderful fabric I have on hand as much as I can! :) Isn't that just amazing?? What a blessing!

Before I leave, I just wanted to thank the lovely Sicorra over at "Tackling our Debt" for the feature and kind words about me! :) I'm always so humbled & honored over the genuine kindness of others i've 'met' through blogging! What a wonderful way blogging is to have friends near & far!

Well i'm off for now, after I do my running around and finish up with the girls i'll return with my "Budget Thursday" post... it's not a pretty one this week, but such is life. ;) lol!

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Have you ever bought anything that practically "paid for itself"?

 

Something to ponder...

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Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

~Lao Tzu

 

Happy Mail from a FQ swap! :)

I decided to join a couple sewing related swaps last month, and this one being the first was a fun one! The other one is still "in process". I joined Kool Beenz FQ Friends swap as I loved that you were swapping new fabric. You were to send your partner 4 FQ's (Fat Quarters) and could include whatever else in your swap pkg... little treats if you liked, but it is optional.

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I was matched up with April, from Kool Beenz! Here is the pkg. I sent her... 4 FQs of Michael Millers new Norwegian woods, a spool of Gutermann thread, and a matching glossy button! She seemed to really like what I sent, so I was happy! :)

And here is the fun pkg. I received from April today!! :) She spoiled me!!

A bundle of bright & fun 5 FQ's!

Not sure who makes this fabric however, thinking maybe Moda?

A pkg. of PEZ candy, which my girls have already inhaled enjoyed, a pretty spool of the awesome Gutermann thread, and a bone folder. (For pressing seams i'm assuming? A lot better than using my fingernail I bet! lol!)

Along with 5 pretty DMC threads!! LOVE these colours!!

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Thanks so much for the wonderful pkg, I love it to bits! What great happy mail today! :) If you'd like to join the fun, the June sign ups for the FQ Friends Swap on Kool Beenz can be found HERE!!

And with that i'm off... the girls are done their schooling and are desperate to get outside and burn off some energy, so i'm off for now! :) Have a great day!!

 

5 reasons I may be reading your blog!

There are some blogs that I love to read and will read without fail, day in and day out. There are some blogs I read here & there, and there are some blogs I avoid like the plague.

I thought i'd share 5 reasons why I may be reading your blog....

1. You keep it *real*! You're not trying to be anyone else, you don't put on 'airs', you're honest and caring. You don't do 100 "pinterest" projects every week with your perfect family. ;) I simply cannot read a blog where I feel like i'm always trying to be "impressed" and "harped at" about one thing or another. I really enjoy getting to know who the blogger is, and I tend to read blogs who don't post anonymously 99.8% of the time.
2. Your blog doesn't constantly overload me with advertisements, guest posts, affiliate links, etc... I don't mind guest posts, links, ads, etc... but there comes a point when it is no longer a personal blog, but a revenue to simply make money. I've seen this happen to a few blogs that I used to read and comment on, and have since stopped reading. It's just "too much" for my liking, so I cut my losses & move on.
3. Your blog is "clean" and easy to read. I find it incredibly hard to read blogs where there's soo much going on that I have no idea where to start. Either it's too crammed, there is too much going on, the colours are horrible (dark background, dark text, or light background, light text), and so on. I also cannot stand when blogs have "music playlists" or "pop-ups". It's a surefire way to keep me away!
4. You inspire me. You are positive & upbeat!! I understand we all go through tough times, sometimes need to vent, etc.. I do too! But blogs which are forever negative, always in the "woe is me" mood, always getting the "short end of the stick", etc... If you have more family & personal problems than most "reality stars", then there's a pretty good chance, that i'm not reading.
5. You post regularly. I find it hard to keep up with blogs that post sporadically at best. If I know you post daily, or even every other day, etc... I read. If there are posts for a couple weeks every single day, then you fall off the earth for a few weeks, then come back for a week of regular posting, gone again for a month, I usually give up. There's nothing wrong with only posting here & there, but I do find it keeps you from getting regular readers who come back faithfully. Myself included.

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What are the reasons that keep you going back to read blogs?