Just how far DOWN will this economy go before there is really a turn-around?  I was watching a program a few days ago on CNN TV where the talk was about job losses, etc, and one of the speakers reported that it would take 150,000 NET new jobs each month for 48 months to get the unemployment rate back to 9%.  They went on to say that it would be impossible for there to be 150,000 NET new jobs (all the layoffs continuing and to have enough NEW jobs created for a net of 150,000 new ones).

It appears to me that if those who are losing their jobs left and right have any chance at all to make some extra  money, it will be by coming up with their OWN little businesses!

We've talked before about starting your own part time business, working out of your home, in order to get the extra money you need to pay the bills and put food on the table.  We've suggested the fastest and easiest ones to start are ones you already are doing as a hobby, such as doing alterations for people, sewing for plus size children or sewing for plus size men and women who are in desperate need for clothing to wear that actually fits!   There is also the sewing machine repair business where you could be repairing those sewing machines that people are bringing out of the attic and closets in order to begin doing their own sewing again.

What hobbies do you have that could be turned into extra income?  Do some serious thinking about what you enjoy doing and what could be helpful to others that other people would pay you to do.

        

I don't believe I've ever seen a bunch of kids whose "play" is almost always centered around "work".  The boys, Jacob, Brandon and Zachary are constantly "working" with their play tool sets, building a house out of a box and using the flaps we'd cut off other boxes as boards to fill in the top for a roof, or building gates, fences, etc out of blocks.

We have a supply of roasted peanuts that we are shelling to make honey roasted peanuts, and Jacob LOVES to "crack" the peanuts.  When he's at our house we have a box set up on a little table for him with his own bowl for the peanuts, bowl for the shells and zip lock bags to put them in when the bowls get full.  It never fails, if he's here on a Friday night and the peanuts are set up, he'll wake up Saturday morning, half stumbling half asleep into the living room, and when we ask him if he'd like to lie on the couch for a few minutes he always says "no, I have to do my peanuts"!  Now THIS is the kind of worker anybody would be proud of!!

A few days ago when the quads were here we had a new "job" little Zachary came up with.  Early in the morning he gathered some sheets of paper that I'd printed extra coupons on - wanted to make them into a "book of coupons" for Mommy, so we put a spiral binder on the pages.  He then got a length of string that they all like to play with and had me tie one end to the binder so he could pull it around.  Later when they got to go outside to play, he took a hand cart and filled it with small branches where Papaw had been trimming a bush.  He informed me he was the "garbage pick up man", to which I let him know what a good job he was doing.  Later I saw him tying the hand cart filled with branches to his bicycle WITH the string from the coupon book he'd made.  He did a great job of tying it all together and spent the rest of the day pulling around the cart with his bicycle so he could find more garbage to pick up.  Check out this picture - doesn't he look like a great "workin' man" -- that's what they always say they are..... a workin man!



Boy howdy!  I hope they keep this work ethic when they grow up --- we'll certainly have aome "workin men" in this family!

        

If I said SERIOUS couponers love the Coupon Clutch, I would be misleading you, because from what I hear, serious AND part time couponers love the coupon clutch.



The Coupon Clutch website has the best looking and most functional coupon caddy or coupon holder I've ever seen!  At this website you can get the coupon clutch itself, or with a deluxe set of plastic pages that hold the coupons.  In addition, you can get the 3-pocket pages, 6-pocket pages or 9-pocket pages separately, depending on the types of coupons you like to save.

The coupon clutch holds up to 3,000 coupons --- now that's SERIOUS stuff!!  I have one of the clutches, and I'm amazed at how fast I can fill up those pockets.  I LOVE the way I can have everything organized by categories and the two pockets on the inside flap are perfect for me to stick the coupons that I'm using (when I put the items into the grocery cart, the coupons go into the pockets on the inside flap) -- when I'm finished and heading to the cashier I have all my coupons readily available in one place.

Check out CouponClutch.com and look at all the wonderful designs that are available!

        

Another GREAT giveaway has been posted at SewingBusiness.com -- this time the giveaway is for a pair of Gingher pinking shears AND a 4" Gingher thread snips.  The contest runs now through February 1st, with the drawing on February 2nd


You can get up to four entries into this fabulous giveaway - just run on over to Sewing Business and get your entries in!  I love Gingher sewing tools, but I believe the little "thread snips" are the best things they've ever made!

Which Gingher items do you like best????

        

We always joke that our little 4 year old quadruplet grandbabies (and their big 5 year old brother) are eating us out of house and home.  Well I realized a few weeks ago (or longer ago than that!) that this is no joke -- those little guys and girls eat everything in site and ask for more.  For example, the day before they come here to spend a couple of days, I always get 2 packages of strawberries, 2 packages of grape tomatoes, a cantalope, some grapes and/or bananas -- they LOVE fresh fruit and veggies!

Well this past week, we picked them up around 8 in the morning on Wednesday, brought them here, then on down to the library for story hour, then we took them to Times Grill, where kids eat free (1 child per adult).  My sister and I enjoy their blt's while we divide up 2 (free) orders of chicken strip/french fry dinners among the kids.   The minute we got home and before nap time, they always get a "snack", and they were begging for strawberries.  They ate one of the packages before nap time, and the minute they woke up they started asking for more, except this time they wanted strawberries AND tomatoes in the same little cup.  Needless to say before the day was over, both pkgs of strawberries AND tomatoes were gone -- and we hadn't even gotten to supper yet!  One of the little girls informed me that I should buy a "whole big strawberry PATCH" - and I had to agree with her!

Breakfast is always the same --- the kids eat their food then start in on Papaw's food.  Really, no matter what Papaw has to eat, it becomes their "favorite" food, so they come around to help him eat his food.   On this day, Papaw had some leftover meatloaf/gravy on a slice of bread and two "sunny side up" eggs on top.  WOW!  How delicious could that be ---- check out this picture:



This time Zachary and Sienna were helping eat his food.  Sometimes all four try to squeeze in by the food (so they can reach their own spoons onto the plate, and sometimes just two or three help him out.  Papaw always says he's thrilled to have them come eat -- he says he'd be happy if they ate every bit of it -- he could always find something else to eat!  Way to go Papaw!

        

A few days ago I told you about the super cool coupon clutch (binder coupon holder that holds over 3,000 coupons) that Denise had designed and made.   She can barely keep up with orders -- I had NO idea that so many people are involved in coupon clipping (and saving big bucks by doing the coupons)!

Well, Michelle at IHeartPublix is hosting a giveaway for one of the coupon clutches.  All you have to do is go to her post at iHeartPublix and leave a comment in order to be entered into the random drawing.

I would suggest you go to CouponClutch first so you can check them out and see which one you want to drool over while waiting for the drawing to be done.  The drawing includes the coupon clutch binder AND a complete set of inserts for holding all your coupons and any rebates you're keeping track of --- this is a super giveaway, so don't miss out on your chance to enter it.

        

Most of my adult life I have been a "hit or miss" with coupons type person.  I always knew you could save money by using coupons, and I'd watch for the coupons in the newspaper for my favorite restaurants' "buy one get one free" -- and off we'd go!

When the economy went sour and several family members lost jobs - including losing an income stream of our own, I realized it was time to start doing some serious re-thinking about coupons.

Denise, my daughter and business partner, who also lost an income stream due to the economy, decided to do something drastic about couponing.  After all, she has the 4 year old quadruplet babies and older 5 year old son, who are currently eating them (and us) out of house and home, to take care of.

Denise began her own "shopper Strategy" and started working all the angles of couponing, such as cutting ALL coupons from the newspapers and inserts, then saving them for when stores would have sales on the items, at which time she'd stock up on stuff they needed at the sale prices and have coupons as well.  I now call her the queen of couponing, because she has gotten SO good at using the right coupons at the right time (when the item is "buy one get one free" then use two of the coupons for the item, etc) that she is now routinely saving between 50% - 70% on the grocery and drug store bills.  You can check out her "Couponing 101" where she says there are five keys to using coupons strategically.

When dollars coming into the home becomes more and more scarce, it is imperative to spend every penny wisely, and get the most out of every dollar that you can.

She was a great motivator for me, and I started doing the same thing.  It wasn't long before the little "check file" organizer that I was using was so full and so unorganized that I had to make a change.   I immediately went to CouponClutch.com and checked out the coupon organizers that she had made.  Remember Denise is a pattern designer, so it was no surprise to me that she'd designed a "coupon clutch" organizer that looks like a designer tote.  Knowing that I love paisley and love the color green, she made one of the first ones for me --- check this out:


This designer tote looking coupon holder will hold several thousand coupons (she also sells the coupon holder pages on the same coupon clutch site, and the prices are cheaper than I could go to Office Depot and get them individually.

Way to go Denise!  Read her information at ShopperStrategy.com and check out the designer tote style of coupon clutches - I believe you will become as motivated as I was at the thought of saving hundreds of dollars on your grocery and drug store bills.  Hey, when you can go to Publix and buy $106.07 worth of groceries and pay "out of pocket" only $33.97 or head out to Walgreens to get some Ester-C to help get through this cold/flu season -- purchase $21.98 worth and pay out of pocket 99 cents, I'd say it's time to sit up and take notice!!  The great part is that these purchases aren't "isolated" instances, but what she's doing on a regular basis.

Make yourself a resolution to start taking full advantage of the coupons and see how much YOU can save!!!

        

We have had several in our extended family that have fallen prey to the downturn of the economy and have lost their jobs.  That's pretty tough -- kids to feed, house payment to make, utilities to pay (and now the record cold temperatures thoughout many parts of the country increasing power and gas bills to the limit just to try to keep the house a little bit warm)!

If any of my readers own a sewing machine and know how to sew, a clothing alteration business would be super easy and fast to get started.  You already have all the equipment, thread, notions, etc for sewing, so you just need to get the word out that you're going to be doing alterations.   Our manual "Profitable Sewing Alterations Business" gives you step by step methods to get your business up and running quickly - tells you how to get free advertising, and covers just about everything you need to know in order to get a jumpstart on the home business.

For those with mechanical ability and like to get things working again, I would suggest our Sewing Machine Repair As A Home Business as a part time or full time home business.  From what we read and see, everyone that ever used a sewing machine is bringing them out of the attic or closets and setting them back up again.  These machines that have been setting idle for months or years need to be oiled and adjusted and ready for the owner to start back doing some sewing or repairing of clothing items.  Once again, this manual is written in step by step instruction form to get you going on sewing machine repair and gives sources for getting parts and sewing notions.

Now is the perfect time to start your own home business.  You'll be very happy with the extra income that could turn into a full time opportunity for you.

        

In my last post I mentioned the record cold temperatures we've been having here in the "sunny" South!  The "cold" problem extends to the grandchildren when they're at our house.  They BEG to "ride in the street".  (You have to understand here that we live in a subdivision of not many houses and have only one street in it).  The like to ride down our driveway, go across the street and up the driveway of the house across the street.  The driveway across the street is at enough of an incline that they think they're driving 100 Miles per hour as they come down that driveway, across the street and into our driveway.

Even when it's cold, cold, cold - they STILL beg to go out and ride the bikes.  Well, yesterday at around noon (probably the warmest part of the record cold day), they were out riding.  Zachary, the smaller of the boys, always gets cold first, so when he parked his bike and huddled on the curb beside it, I suggested that we go inside and warm up.  He said "NO! I want to ride my bicycle".   Within a minute or so he took off running for the house, and came back out with his "small" blanket and wrapped up in it right there on the curb beside his bike.  Immediately the other 3 of the quads took off for the house, and I took off to get my camera because I KNEW what was gonna happen!  By the time I got back outside, just as I figured, they were all on the curb wrapped up in their blankets.

Check out this picture and see if it isn't a picture of kids "addicted to bike riding"!



Or, would it be just "LOVE the outdoors"?   At any rate, the minute I got the picture I said OK, time to go inside and warm up before snack time and nap time.   Then, they were ready to come inside.

        

We are having nearly record cold temperatures here in the "sunny" south, but I'm anxious to get some seeds started for my garden.  Every year I order a few varieties from RainSeed.com and have had great luck growing them, so I've been checking through their website for things to try this year.

I usually try for at least one fruit type and something that smells good and looks like a real rain forest plant.  This year I believe I'm going to go for either the Apricot tomato or baby papaya -

   

The first picture is the apricot tomato - the information says it has a tomato shape but tastes like a ripe apricot.  I LOVE apricots - that was one of the staples in our orchard as I was growing up in Nebraska, so that may be my first choice this year.

For my pretty and good smelling one, think I might try the Ylang Ylang Perfume plant.  The information says it's extremely fragrant and that sounds like it would be perfect.  Wouldn't it be great to spend a lazy summer afternoon sitting beside a perfume plant?  Here's a picture of the perfume plant - doesn't that look nice?



Of course I'll be starting my usual tomato plants and getting ready for the regular garden as well, but I just can't resist the "unusual" type of plants that always get a lot of comments from neighbors and friends.

If you're looking for something different to grow, try the rain forest type plants from the RainSeed site -- you'll be glad you did!!