Noooo! Do not do an anticipation loan. They take an outragious amount out of your tax refund. Go to TaxAct.com and do an efile with direct deposit to your bank. It is free for federal and you will get it pretty quick. We've used them for several years and never waited more than a week and a half to see it in the bank. State might be free or up to $15 to efile at the same time. Easy. We were able to itemize and everything direct to checking acct for fed and state for $15 and got our refund this year within 5 business days.

yeah. Count me confused too. :confused:

Nothing. He is four. Give him some paint, legos, knex, A bucket and shovel in the yard and read to him. Never ever bribe to learn. Learning is it's own reward. That's what I would do. :)

Oh! I love that! Thanks!

I know. My feeling defensive isn't about you. It's about me. That's why I stopped.

That's a bit misleading. I don't personally know anyone who doesn't eat lettuce or rice. But they buy iceberg (near useless nutritionally) instead of kale. White rice instead of brown. Personally we mix kale in when we can afford it. We love wild/brown rice but it is easily double the cost of a 25lb bag of white at Sams. Altho I hope for middle ground when finances improve to get basmati rice. Can't stand quinoa. But we love black beans, which are pretty healthy. We eat eggs and toast a piece of fruit for nearly every breakfast. But yeah it's the weird tasting cheap crate. Still even if I only give them 2 eggs each, that's nearly 2 dozen every breakfast. Oh well. I'm stopping bc I'm obviously feeling defensive.

Oh and I don't argue that it does cost more. I'm not saying their price isn't fair. But how fair their price is doesn't change my income. And not having a cheaper option doesn't change my income either. Obviously I can only buy what I can afford and if it costs more, I'd eat less.

Well yeah. But they didn't eat kale much either. And who eats just a bowl of kale? Most don't. No then they buy stuff to put on it. Healthy stuff is still more to buy. And people were home a lot more then too so they had a lot more time for gardening and scratch baking. I don't buy boxed mac and cheese. It's more than if I buy cheese and mac and make my own. Yes if cheaper foods were not available people would have to buy the other stuff. And maybe they'd eat less. And maybe they'd just not eat. I know the entire notion of 3 meals or any snacks was not the norm for older families and even those who had it didn't do it like we do. Lunch was some cheese and a bread roll maybe a cup of tea. Breakfast was one egg and a slice of bread and coffee or milk. Dinner was a small bowl of mostly broth and potatoes and a slice of bread. If I didn't have more than that to offer my kids people would think I was starving them. My grandmother would have been impressed by that meal.

Oh and I should note, we are buying cheap foods for the most part. Only organic if it's cheaper or same. altho really the only fresh produce we ever get is when it's from Aldi's on Mondays. (Every other day of the week it looks like it was dragged behind the truck rather than carried in the truck for delivery.) Dh gets cheap diet pop to drink (knock off of Pepsi unless Pepsi is on sale) and I drink coffee in the mornings. Otherwise, it's water or milk in this house. The only sweets are those I make, not boxed, and not often bc I don't have the time or inclination and my backside doesn't need expansion. ;) We do eat meats on sale. Lots of pasta and sandwiches and rice and black beans (the ONLY beans anyone in my house will eat) in this house. I'd love to eat more healthy and esp more organic (it just tastes better!), but fact is that is does cost more and we don't have more to spend.

OT - for years and years I've wanted to make a quilt out of denim. soft and heavy and plenty of out-grown britches in this house to cut up for the cause. I even have some floral denim britches I could mix in. Opinions, would this make for a good first quilt (or any quilt) or a terrible idea?

family of 11 here. on average I would say we can rarely go below $100 per person per month without completely sacrificing health. That does NOT include anything other than what we humans eat bc paper and cleaning goods and pet foods and so forth are additional in a seperate non-grocery budget.

My 3rd and 5th graders are doing core 3 with the science and they are really enjoying it. None of the books have been a problem and they've learned a lot. They want to do SL next year and have actually flipped through the catalog, but I doubt finances will permit that.

I do not expect that all my kids are always going to get along with all their siblings friends and I don't expect that my kids should only have friends that want to play with their siblings. It all goes around and I'm pretty harsh about it. Their day and friends will arrive too and their sibling(s) will be the one left out. No big deal here. No tears or anything.

Yes! I love that my kids are close in age. For every challenge, there's many positives, imo. In fact, some days just having the youngest two so far apart in age seems rougher to me at times.:)

I remember feeling that way when my oldest was 6 months old.:grouphug: Parenting is such an awesome adventure, isn't it?:D Exclusive nursing doesn't mean diddly to my fertility.

My dh calls it Kitty Crack. She will claw into dresser drawers, dig in the toy box, you name it.. Dh calls her a Kitty Crack bloodhound. Yes, well when the human in this house have health insurance, we'll worry about getting it for the pets.:)

Well I think she is going to be okay.. still alive and spry, so that's good. Last night we were int eh kitchen and the she went to use the liter box in the bathroom off the kitchen and we heard a rather horrid scream of agony and ran in there to see her umm.. well apparently she pooped about FOUR FEET of some kind of orange plastic netting with wire along the two sides like what you get in bendable ribbon!:ack2::eek::svengo: She was trying to run away from her poop and ended up bent over her belly hobbling from the liter box tot he washer and dryer before she was done (heaven I PRAY she was done!) and then she just look at me like, "OH Thank you God!", cleaned herself, and started begging for treats. (which she didn't get. give those innerards a rest!) None of us have any idea what that stuff was or what it was from and how she got it.:confused: Dumb cat. Good thing she's pretty and we love her.:)

It could be over days. I had a few cats do that, espcially if they were having a large liter. I had one deliver 8 over about 2 and half days. That poor kitty took hours to deliver each one. I brought her food and water and kept a heat lamp on her (it was a snowy december in a shed). And yes, they will leave the nest briefly to eat and such. If the kittens survived, I can promise you they aren't very far away. She typically won't go further than she can hear them, which is further than you think. Poor thing. You might try cracking your garage door just enough that she could slip in and hide in there? She probably won't, but she might to seek warmth and security. Growing up, I always had a liter of kitties behind either the dryer or the the furnace. Used to infuriate my parents, but I didn't care.

I'd leave the liter in the bathroom floor against the wall/corner opposite of the food. I would NOT want them to think they can go in the tub! We keep out liter box under the bathroom sink with the cabinet open. Nice and private with easy access. I'd prefer to take the cabinet door off or cut a hole in the side of the cabinet between the sink and the toilet, but dh doesn't want to do that. Where ever you want to end up LEAVING the liter box is where you should put it now. Or as close to that as possible. Besides, clumping liter in the drain is a plumbing nightmare.

Hey I'm reading That Crumples Paper was Due Last Week right now and planing to get started implimenting it Monday. Thanks for the tip off! I'm sure hoping it helps. Although she is clear that we might not see a big improvement for 6 - 12 months.:ohmy: I'll take it. But I have to admit, that exhausts me just to think about. Going through all that every day for who knows how long... worth it when it pays off, but geez.. I'd sure like an app for this instead.:blushing:

:iagree::glare:

I think she is part goat. She eats anything and everything. A few months ago we paid money we really didn't have to waste to have a nerf bullet removed from her intestines. All nerf guns and bullets were rounded up and thrown away. But she still eats the dumbest stuff - erasers, marker caps, bread twisty ties, you name it. And this morning she is pooing bright red blood, I'm thinking lower intestinal.. no brown, just blood. She is playful and eating/drinking okay so far. but that's not good. zero funds for another vet trip. so. I need my kitty to be better soon.:crying:

Oh that looks promising! And 10 minutes is about what I'm likely to get time for!

a question.. what about warm ups? can someone recommend how to warm up and stretch before hand? my big goal is to get fit my big fear is to do more harm to my already stretched out, pull out, dislocated, blubber bum wreck of a body. I like the no excuses site.. don't own a sledge hammer lol put some of those strong women books in queque at the library... what about dvd programs? any suggestions? I might be able to netflix them... I like the no S diet and have added no drinking calories (with exception of morning coffee AFTER breakfast;) trust me no one ever wants me to miss my coffee) Thanks ladies!

Ok here is what I need. I need a zero cost strength training option. Some thing that tells me what to do and how to do it properly and requires absolutely zero expense to impliment. No balls, no weights, no equipment. Either a website or a book from the library. I'd like to loose at least 25 pounds, but I can't do high impact stuff. I'd like to build muscle, but I need to be sure it's a good burn and not doing damage due to poor technique. I've culled my diet. I'm going on walks. Time to get serious. But dh is unemployeed at this time and absolutely zero funds can be wasted. So is this possible? Suggestions?