Owner: Engineer a debt free life URL:http://engineeradebtfreelife.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2008 20:18:55 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Frugal living, saving money, paying down debt, bills, free things, freebies and anything cheap. Site statistics:Click here
Engineer A Debt Free Life Global Overview 2008-07-23 15:23:00 Since I am past 10,000 hits I thought that I would share some snapshots of the visitors maps. With the advent of the internet it still amazes me just how far someone can reach out. I think I have had visitors from almost every major country and many really small countries I barely knew about.According to Google analytics I have had 7638 unique visitors, 13,232 page loads. Top 10 visiting countries Read more:Global
, Overview
3 Month Blogaversary 2008-07-23 12:18:00 I just realized that yesterday marked my 3 month blog anniversary, or blogaversary I guess one could say if it were a real word.Anyway, with that in mind I realized that I have a TON of useful information, brain farts, ideas and how toos posted in chronological order by date as a typical blog format, but that it has become quite a disarrayed mess. I have the labels on the side but I haven't put mu Read more:Month
Can we afford to live on a single income? 2008-07-22 12:11:00 I really need your thoughts and comments on this one. I will do my best to describe our situation. We are seriously figuring out whether to have momma stay at home instead of working and I want to get any opinions from others who may have done it.My salary is roughly enough that we can afford
to make ends meet so to speak. But we have been using her salary to pay down the debt and continue the sno Read more:single
The one financial thing I have ever done right in my life... 2008-07-17 20:39:00 When I graduated with my Bachelors of Science in Electronics Engineering back in 2003, the student loan rates were decent. So I sought out advice of a financial guru friend who told me to consolidate my loans for a better rate, but to make sure that I do it at the end of my grace period BEFORE repayment starts in. I followed that advice and consolidated my 45,000 dollars of student loans in the
Debt snapshot / update 2008-07-17 20:35:00 It's been a while since I updated all of my balances on my debt tally page and re-did the pie chart.Interestingly enough we are making progress. With a starting debt of 204,000 dollars, it seems like dumping money into it left and right barely makes the chart change. But with all this hard work, we have managed to move the chart a couple percent. We are not at 42.X % paid off. Phew. I think w Read more:snapshot
Freebies for the masses 2008-07-17 13:06:00 Free 3 year subscription for Remedy Magazine Free picture book from Kodak Quiznos free sammie coupon As always, ENJOY ! Read more:Freebies
W00T ! ! Extra Truck Payment 2008-07-15 12:17:00 ::HAPPY DANCE:: We checked out the accounts last night and found that we could resonably put out a snowflake of 1000 dollars and still make things work. So I cut a check and sent it off. Man it feels good to drop those in the mail. As an update... The evil siding loan is paid in full... all gone. The truck note is now our full focus, put the 350 a month fro Read more:Extra
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Free Degree Men Absolute Protection deodorant sample 2008-07-15 12:14:00 Free Degree Men AbsoluteProtectiondeodorant
sample Unilever has finally over-engineered an anti-perspirant deodorant strong enough for a man with their new Degree Men Absolute Protection. Receive a free sample by clicking on the deodorant image and filling out your mailing info. Available while supplies last.
Free Pedia-Pop sample 2008-08-07 10:45:00 Free Pedia-Pop sample Sign up for a free sample of Pedia-Pop. An oral electrolyte quick mix with calcium, it's just the thing the doctor ordered when it comes to sick kids. Although it's available in orange and apply, it's unknown what flavor you'll receive. Available while supplies last.
Home Made Deodorant 2008-08-05 20:31:00 This post is for my wife who broke out in hives from her last supposed hypo-allergenic deodorant. It sure would be nice to know what those forty syllable chemicals are in deodorant and why we need them, especially for those of us with severe allergies.In case anyone else wants to try home-made deodorant, check out this awesome post over at angry chicken's blog.Home Made
Deodorant
Please be patient this coming week... 2008-08-03 19:00:00 I will be traveling to Detroit, MI for most of this week for work, so I will be limited on my blogging capability. I will try to do what I can, but when I travel it is usually very long days.Do not despair, I shall return with a fresh outlook and new posts shortly.In the meantime I will be roughing it on the companies dime. By roughing it I mean I get to stay in a country inns and suites which a Read more:Please
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w00t ! Made an extra 1400 dollar truck payment 2008-08-01 21:50:00 Managed to scrape up an extra 1400 to pay towards the truck loan. We looked at the checkbook last night and after looking at all the frugal choices we have made lately saving us money, some working on the side, overtime and selling a couple things on ebay we have managed to scrape up a decent snowflake to the ol truck loan.This is great. Hopefully we can continue this, although it may be hard be
Frugal Idea: Fridge Deodorizer 2008-07-30 10:34:00 Another frugal Idea:I grew up with putting baking soda in the fridge to combat odors and while it is cheap, I have also heard that you can put lump charcoal in the fridge and it will do the same thing, but cost a lot less.Worth a try anyway. Read more:Frugal
, Fridge
Frugal Idea: Save your pickle juice 2008-07-29 10:34:00 Another frugal idea:You know how when you get to the end of the gallon jug of pickles you have a bout 1/2 gallon of pickle juice left over. Instead of just dumping it out here are some ideas:Idea 1: My wife loves dill potatoes, so whenever I make up some mashed taters, I splash in a cup or so of dill juice, makes it like the dill mashed taters her family made growing up.Idea 2: Pick up a bunch of Read more:Frugal
Frugal Idea: Super Cheap All Purpose Cleaner 2008-07-28 10:30:00 Here is a frugal idea:A recipe for a great all around cleaning solution, works on anything:1/2 cup ammonia1/2 cup vinegar2 tbsp baking soda1 gallon of waterThis makes enough to fill up an old windex or 409 spray bottle about 6-10 times for less than a dollars worth of materials total. Plus it's a great one cleaner for all.SWEET ! Read more:Frugal
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Frugal Idea: Dryer Sheets 2008-07-27 10:34:00 Here is a frugal idea:Instead of buying dryer sheets, just take an old facecloth and put about 2 tbsp of downy or whatever you like using on it and toss it in the dryer. Works like a charm and is a whole lot cheaper.Plus, in wanting to throw less in the land fill, this requires you to toss nothing out. Read more:Frugal
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Frugal Idea: Stretching Coffee 2008-07-26 23:02:00 Read a good frugal idea:Instead of just grinding beans for coffee like normal, you can make your coffee grinds much more potent by grinding them to a fine powder. Not only does this increase the surface area for the water to contact the bean grinds, but the fine powder will make the water drip through slower and absorb more flavor.The point is this... if you can make the coffee stronger, you need Read more:Frugal
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Icemaker Tip 2008-07-26 22:54:00 We have a GE fridge with an icemaker and last year I noticed that the ice was tasting funny. I talked to our local GE appliance store to get an idea of what was up since it has a filter that I change regularly, it should be good ice.To elaborate, unlike most appliance stores, our local rural appliance store here is just awesome, great sales, above and beyond installation and deliver. The best pa
Book reviews 2008-07-26 22:25:00 I have been doing a bunch of reading to look for more ideas to trim the fat in the budget. Just thought I would share my thoughts after reading them. Of course these were borrowed from the public library, why pay for something you are already paying for in your taxes!Anyway:Kevin Trudeau's Eliminate debt: What a pile of crap, waste of time reading. I guess if you had really old loans and certain Read more:reviews
Learn Sign Language Free 2008-08-25 22:49:00 Teach your kids sign language for free! Or just learn sign language yourself! This site actually shows videos of people doing the signs. Super easy to learn, and best of all, it's FREE! So save your money and don't buy the signing videos or DVD's - just use this site instead!American Sign Language Browser from Michigan State University Communication Technology Laboratory
DIY tutorial to make your own laundry soap and save big money 2008-08-25 19:08:00 This is a super easy tutorial on how to make your own laundry soap. I made another batch last night and it literally took me all of 10 minutes of work for a 5 gallon batch (including dorking around taking pictures).To mix it up I used my drill with a new clean paint mixer attachment I use just for soap making.Use a 5 gallon bucket (clean): Add to it about 3 gallons of warm or hot water.Add to that
New review: Foodsaver vacuum system (new model) 2008-08-24 18:06:00 The good folks at Foodsaver were upset that I had a poor experience with the older Foodsaver vacuum sealing system I had borrowed and sent me a brand new unit to test out.So this weekend I did some bulk cooking as well as some cleaning up in the kitchen from bulk shopping. Talk about night and day difference. There must be something wrong with that unit I borrowed because this new unit is just s Read more:review
, model
Debt snapshot, update and thoughts 2008-08-24 12:15:00 After looking at our finances we decided we could send another $1200 snowflake towards the truck loan since we have been really sticking to the budget and being uber-frugal lately. I decided to update our debt snapshot
(above) which still shows us at $116775 in debts owing. *sigh*. It's almost kind of sad that an extra 1200 dollar payment doesn't even make the pie chart budge.I am a very visual Read more:thoughts
Woohoo got survey money in the mail 2008-08-24 06:23:00 A couple of my checks came from July's earnings in a couple of my survey accounts.Opinion outpost - 6.50Cash Crate - 15.44My Survey - 10.00Still missing is the 7.50 from survey savvy. All in all it netted about an extra $40.00 for the month of July for just taking a couple minutes a day to do some surveys. I did most of them on my lunch break or when the kiddo was taking his bath with momma.It's
Save big money, air dry your laundry 2008-08-23 20:30:00 This is a project I have been thinking of doing for a while in my head. When we first got married some 9 years ago we never had a dryer and just used to hang our washed laundry on a rack in the apartment to dry. For 4 and a half years we were fine with that. Now ever since we moved to Kansas and bought the house we have had a dryer, but alas with that convenience comes a price. The price is i
Saved even more money with Vonage (again, lol) 2008-08-22 01:11:00 First of all let me say that we have had Vonage
now since Jan, 2006 and have been nothing but impressed. There has been the odd glitch of a delay in the line, but that was early on and only in about 1 in 100 calls, haven't had that problem in a year or so. So very happy with them, especially for the price difference in having to call Canada to talk to my family.About a month ago I realized that on
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