My Fab Four

I'm staying with my 4 kitty friends again. This is Bella (short for Queen Isabella). She just LOVES to be outdoors. Today she has to stay inside because it is rainy. She did go out on the deck for about an hour this morning.

I've had a rough couple of weeks due to having to replace my phone twice because the same puppy damaged it (my bad), and also having to say good bye to some long time doggie clients.

I am ready for a much better week and getting caught up on some major office work. I am thinking of organizing my service so that I can hire people to help me with office work and I can take on more animal charges which I love. I had better get busy.

Vacation Overnight Fun!

I'm having a great time with my two Viscla's and Bassett hound family.

Finding Time to Post

I was shocked to see the date on my last post. During the little free time I have, I've been giving too much away to Facebook, learning about people in and out of my life. Lots of fun but not so productive or even relaxing, for that matter.

The "random things you might not know about me" has been going around Facebook. I don't really enjoy the game of being tagged, but thought it was fun coming up with obscure things about myself to post both here and Facebook that I've since deleted. Yes, there is such a thing as too much information. :)

Happy New Year!

Wow! The weeks just FLEW by. This is my busy season so I have been averaging about 4-5 hours of sleep each night. I finally got a good night's sleep last night. I am now rested and ready for a productive and eventful 2009!

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Cat Sitting

There are 4 special kitties I have been sleeping with for the past week. They are such a treat to be with.

Their next door neighbor brought over a container on wheels that she is no longer using. She is giving it to my clients to use to store their kitty food. Although one of their cats is HUGE, he fit nicely in the container and he even let me drive him around a little while he took it all in stride.

The recepticle became good fun for all four kitties at one time or other during my stay. I layed it on its side and you never knew who you were going to see tucked away inside it as I walked past.

Although I had a great time playing with the kitties and driving them around by myself in the make shift plastic vehicle, I realize that it is probably not a good idea to do this in front of children. It takes an adult maturity to comprehend the frailty of these little beings.

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Good to be back

Wow! It has been 2 weeks since I was able to enter anything here. My att service went out so I could not use my phone or internet.

We've had some good snow the past couple of days. My kitty, Miso, was able to experience snow for the first time. At her former home, she was kept indoors all the time since all four paws are declawed. I am very careful to watch her when she is outside and have a little swinging door she can go back and forth from in to out as most cats love to do.

Dollars & Sense

Like a lot of folks, I am working on lowering my debt. Behold! I've finally learned the secret!

According to the "Budget Guru," Kathryn Greiner at UMCU here in Ann Arbor, I can start reserving money for emergencies on an ongoing basis. This way I don't use my credit card for those unexpected occurances and then wonder why my balance never reaches zero.

My way of "budgetting" for the last 10 years is trying not to spend anymore than I "need" to. Unfortunately, I'm finding that for me this is not the best way to eliminate debt.

What happens is that whenever I earn a little more money, I try to pay as much as "possible." Then, when something of immediacy occurs, like tires or car repair, the expense must be applied to my credit card since I used my cash on last month's payment. The card never gets paid off and I end up switching cards when the 0% financing runs out!

What I do now is to pay the same amount off each month, in my case $100 goes to one of my 0% credit card each month. Then instead of paying $200 or $300 on a credit card balance, I put that money into an emergency savings account (The Credit Union showed me how to open several different savings accounts to help me with this).

Since I have been implementing this plan, nothing has gone onto my credit cards and my amount owed is steadily lowering. If I continue to work this program, I will be debt free by August of 09. Just in time to start saving for a replacement car if I need to.

I spend less too. In the grocery store my budget is always on my mind. In the past, I might have sprung for some expensive treat, etc. But I am saving a lot of money by not indulging in so many little things. And I don't feel deprived at all because it is my choice. Each time I decide not to buy something I keep focused on my budget and the good feeling I have of that amount lowering each month.

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