I find that there are certain things about me that are weird. Meaning, I’m not your typical 30 year old. I feel sometimes like I was born before my time.  So, I thought it would be interesting to give you a bit of insight into myself…I’ve been told that I can sometimes be guarded about my personal life, so I’m trying to change that a bit. If you hung out with me for a week, these are things you’d find out…and I’m sure your nose would crinkle up a bit and you’d say, “Stacy, I had no idea.”  Yes, I am 30…bet you didn’t know that either. [Read more →]

Fix and Forget Friday comes to you today from Anne over at Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy – one of the best food blogs of all time. Thanks Anne!

A few months back, I was at Ollie’s (a discount store kind of like Marshall’s or Ross but without the clothes and even messier) and stumbled across a little bottle of Spice Islands’ Chinese 5-Spice Powder. I don’t remember how much it was – maybe $1.99? – but I remember it was cheap. And I like cheap spices. So I bought it.

Problem was, I had absolutely no idea what to do with it! I had never before in my life made or even eaten anything (that I recall, anyway; I suppose there’s always the chance I ate it unaware) made with Chinese 5-spice powder. It was one of those random spice mixes that seemed non-essential to my life. [Read more →]

I am not a saleswoman. I hate trying to sell things. I was never good at it in school. I was terrible selling Girl Scout cookies…I could never sell any candy bars. Why? Because I’ve been cheap since birth. It’s really hard selling $1 candy bar when you wouldn’t DARE pay that yourself. “Excuse me, would you be interested in buying this overpriced candy bar that you could get cheaper at Family Dollar?” That just doesn’t work.

Also, I worry that I’ll tell someone to buy something they will end up hating it and in turn will also end up hating me. It’s a natural circle. You can rest assured that if I tell you about a product on here that I like, it’s something that I use and that I really like. I won’t try to ever sell you something that I don’t use or don’t like…the natural circle of hate, remember? [Read more →]

Image by surrelmar

My dad is a man in the Word. If I need to know something about a certain passage, I always ask him. My dad is also a man of few words – unlike his daughter. I can sometimes get pretty riled up when people describe debt as a “tool” when the Bible clearly speaks against that – in both the Old and New Testament. Does my dad get riled up? Nope. He just looks at me and says “Stacy, if someone wants to misbehave, they’re going to do it. And no amount of you quoting scriptures is going to change that.” I wish I were more like my dad. However, I can’t stand idly by while people continue to believe lies about debt: “I have to live this way”, “I have to have a car payment”, “you can’t buy a home without getting a mortgage”, “I have to have a credit card for emergencies”. No…that’s a lie you’ve been led to believe by society – but God can set you free from that bondage if you’ll listen to what He says.

If you’d like to read by post about what the Bible says about debt, hop on over to Modern Alternative Mama. I’ll give you some specific scriptures and let you know exactly how God feels about debt. Debt is NOT a tool. Don’t believe that lie.

Let me warn you – I’m opinionated…if you’re cool with debt, you won’t want to read my post. It  will just make you really mad.

Read more here.

*This post is linked at Frugal Days Sustainable Ways at Frugally Sustainable, at Finer Things Friday on Amy’s Finer Things, and at Weekend Whatever on Your Thriving Family.

I know it’s about time I uploaded this video. I’ve been doing these workshops for two years without anything being taped. Frankly, Barry and I didn’t know how to pull it off ourselves. So, we enlisted the help of some of our awesome friends and finally got my LAST couponing seminar taped. It is available for you to watch anytime on You Tube or at the bottom of this post. Yes, it is long – 1 hour and 47 minutes. But, you don’t have to watch it all at once….you can watch a little bit and then go back later. I’ll leave it up there for all of eternity (unless You Tube bans me because they think I’m gross for using hankies). [Read more →]