a reader’s question: emotional spending

Last week, after the post, Out of Debt: 5 steps, a reader Carrie (who btw, makes & sells these awesome totes), sent me this email in response to my response to her original comment on the post:

I appreciate you mentioning that budgeting is a lot like weight loss. I have been the heaviest I’ve ever been ever since having my first child (currently 27 weeks with #2) and I think a large contributing factor IS being in school, having the uncertainty (husband graduates tomorrow and we have no idea what’s going to happen), and feeling out of control. I was praying for years for comfort, and then recently started changing my prayers to solutions.

The first thing was to get out of debt. We have a hefty goal of getting out of credit card debt by the time the baby gets here and I really...

Little Sprout

be inspired

are good.

Because in the act of growing things, you learn.

We planted our garden several weeks ago.

Mostly tomato plants–cherry, heirloom (those always freak Joseph out & he swears he won’t eat tomatoes that look like “that”), grape, & a few others. I think about 7 or 8 in total.

Also some herbs–cilantro, basil, & parsley–predictable stuff.

Cucumbers, squash, & a pea plant from Amalia’s preschool & a bean plant from Asher’s kindergarten class.

Oh, & swiss chard.

I wanted more greens, but the truth is, I’m scared to grow anything that might wilt in the hot Texan sun. And not being a native, I really have no idea what’s going to make it & what won’t. I figured if they sell the plants at Lowe’s it’s probably okay. They didn’t sell chard as plants, just seeds, but chard is known...

simple strawberry ice cream (less than $2 a quart)

ice cream

[For this week’s , go here.]

Thanks to those who commented on Friday’s post about blogging.

I realize most of my readers aren’t bloggers, so you probably don’t care about the discussion, but I think it’s a relevant topic even for non-bloggers as we are all affected by the shifting trends in online media.

The key questions we’ll have to answer & figure out in the coming years are: how do we pay for content on the internet? Is there value in non-commercial work? Does commercializing something artistic devalue the end product (the content)?

I am interested to see how blogging will evolve, & what audiences (the readers) will do to influence those changes.

For the record, there are a few things I think I need to make sure are clear.

I hope every blogger who wants to make money, can &...