Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Some Changes

I've been having trouble with my template lately and can't seem to find the problem, since I know very little about HTML. So, I've decided to change templates. This one is just a basic Blogger template. Nothing too impressive, but it was the template I used on my very first blog a couple of years ago, and I still like it. A few little tweaks and it should be done in a day or so. I've also taken away the Adsense ads.


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Posts are few this week because I've been reading, reading, reading. There are so many good personal finance, frugality and home management blogs out there, and my time online will be limited once I start working in January, sot I decided I needed to make the most of the reading time I have.

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A Little Something To Save Money: You've read it before, I'm sure, but it does make a lot of sense (cents) to use instant dry milk instead of fluid milk when you can. My family doesn't like the flavor as substitute for milk as a beverage, but I still use it in cooking. The flavor is almost always undetectable in cooked foods. I use it, reconstituted, any time I can as a substitute for milk. I also add it in it's dry form to many recipes (breads, meatloaf, casseroles, soups, etc.). I have osteoporosis, and it's an easy way to boost my daily calcium intake. In my area I can get a box that will make 5 gallons for about $5.50. That's $1.10 per gallon, compared to an average of $4.00 per gallon of fluid milk. I can't afford not to use it whenever I can. Prices will vary across the country, and I've read that occasionally, dry milk is more costly, so be sure to do the math first.

A Little Something To Save Time: Our post office is slow, and especially so at this time of year. Whenever I send a package in the mail, I use PayPal Auction Services to pay for and print a postage label. It doesn't have to be for an eBay auction; you can print a label for any package. Just log in to your PayPal account, select the "Auction Tools" tab, and select "PayPal Multi-Order Shipping" under "Shipping and Tracking". When the blue "Getting Started" box comes up, select "Create New Orders" and go from there. Large packages still have to go to the Post Office (unless at least one of them is Priority or Overnight, in which case you can arrange a home pickup), but I can just set them on the counter and leave instead of waiting in a long line.

3 comments:

DadGuy said...

This seems to be a popular layout.

I'll have to check into the powdered milk thing, that's a lot of possible savings. Though our milk goes fast via cold cereal and 3 little girls. I usually don't use a ton of milk in my cooking (when I cook, heh), but I have pretty sensitive tastebuds. Things that other people can't seem to tell the difference on I notice right away.

As far as packages... I should probably sell more stuff on ebay that way. I tend to not do as much because it's a hassle and usually not worth my time.

Annie Jones said...

Dadguy: My biggest obstacle to eBay is the time it takes to make a listing. I love selling books, music, movies, etc. where I can just enter a UPC or ISBN number. On listings that actually require my own description, I find it easy to procrastinate. It's a shame, because I have a lot of things I think I could sell if I just took the time.

Donna said...

THANK YOU for explaining PayPal accounts to me today! I JUST set up an account but know nothing about how to use it! I'd purchased a Registry cleaning program for my computer and had to pay through PayPal.