Ooops!  Forgot my daily photo.  My son Isaac and his family are moving today.  So this photo is in his honor!  (Wish I was there to help!  Love you guys!)

Ron and I just watched a really great documentary on Netflix about food.  "Food Matters".  Take a look.

I am super busy right now, so I am just going to give you two photos for today!  These were both drawn by my oldest sone, one when he was four or five...and one now (at 33).  More later...

Great site I just found out about.  Authors can post links to their e-books.  Most are cheap or even free.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Authors-on-the-Cheap/202517513144047?sk=wall

Last night my granddaughter held an auction of her original artwork.  Present: parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents.  She auctioned her "art", even making recommendations of which one we each of us should bid on!

I was feeling a little down today.  Mostly because I messed up on one of my jobs yesterday.  When I was young and did that type of thing...I just shrugged and fixed it.  Now I think "old age" when I mess up.  I hate that!

Photo of the day:  Where I WISH I was right now!

How about $39.95 for some of the most AWESOME shoes you have EVER seen???

www.justfab.com

Wow, have I been busy lately!  It's that time of year for one of my mystery shopping employers to do their big audits.  I have been going to movies for TWO DAYS straight.  (Hey it's a rough job, but somebody has to do it! Tomorrow is my last day.

I promise I will hook you up with some money-saving stuff really soon.   And here is a photo for good measure:

Now doesn't that look relaxing!  I took this photo in Santa Barbara CA last year.  I wish I was back there now...

Here is a great way to get free stuff!  Just sign up and then watch your email for campaign invitations.  I have gotten free frozen snacks, free pizza, free frozen desserts, free cookies, and lots more.

www.bzzagent.com

And here is a happy picture for the day!

Almost forgot to put on a photo today!  This is our 1974 Jeep CJ5.  It rocks!

Funny way to make money!

http://www.savingadvice.com/articles/2011/12/03/108306_city-mining-for-gold-strange-ways-to-make-money.html

I couldn't resist this!  CHICKEN HORROR MOVIE!

Old Spice ad

This is SO funny (and hot)!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt6iEGzLPjg

Here's a freebie for you:

https://www.facebook.com/johnfriedaus?sk=app_151290354973164

And here is my photo for today:

Glenda the Good Witch from Wizard of Oz.  Could she be more "sparkly"!

Here's one for all you Kindle owners:

http://www.amazon.com/Totally-Free-kindle-Books/lm/R27UG52OAM3TFX

For all you nln-Kindle-owners, you can download a free Kindle program for your computer at:

www.amazon.com/KindleForPC
 
(For some reason I can't get this one to do an auto-link, so you may have to type it into the address bar...sorry.)

I wanted to add this cute pic of my grandson Aidan today too!  What is he thinking?!

When I moved into a Seniors mobile home park, I thought it would be really quiet.  HA!  Sunday morning...7 am...neighbor throwing heavy objects of some sort into his huge diesel truck...clunk, clunk, clunk, CLUNK..diesel...diesel...diesel...slammed his four doors at least 20 times..then finally drove off.  Really?  At 7 am?  On SUNDAY?  Every morning SOMEONE is up at the crack of dawn doing SOMETHING really noisy.

Anyway, enough ranting.  Here is a link for you today:  http://www.savingadvice.com

They have lots of great money saving advice.

Here is a money-saving tip for those of you who like/love to shop at Goodwill and live in Arizona.  Click on the "Store Coupon" button near the top of the page, sign up, and they will email you a coupon every month for 20% of one visit's purchases.  There may be a similar coupon sign-up for other states, but I am not sure.

www.goodwillaz.org

Today I want to share a really great blog/email I read today.

http://www.365lessthings.com/?p=1460&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+365LessThings+%28365+Less+Things%29

Take a look at this site.  I am a member, and have tried out several different products.  You join, then they send you "campaigns" to take part in.  They send you free stuff, you try it then post your reviews and talk to friends and family about it.  So far I have gotten the following free: large Pyrex baking dish, free can of Pam, free tomato sauce, free boxes of cookies, free pizza, free frozen appetizers. free frozen dessert, and much more.  Give them a look.

 http://www.bzzagent.com/signup/Signup.do

Here is a great story for those of us who want to me Minimalists...but can't quite get there.

http://zerowastehome.blogspot.com/2011/11/beccas-story.html

My husband has a week off with pay.  So we decided (since we can't afford to go anywhere right now) to do the stay-cation thing and just stay home and work on stuff.  Yesterday we (and by we I mean Ron and Owen) worked on our 1974 Jeep CJ5 (wiring) and our 1990 Isuzu Trooper (drive shaft carrier bearing).  Jeep is good now.  He had to rewire the whole thing...but it seems good now.  We finally gave up and took the drive shaft to a shop to be fixed.  Two days.  Great,  Oh well, better than not fixed, I guess.  Cars are such a pain.

In case you are wondering WHY we had to work on the CJ5 wiring, let me tell you the whole sordid story!  So there I am on AZ 51 at 5 pm on a Friday.  And of course I am in the far left lane.  When suddenly black smoke starts pouring out from under the dash.  Next step...try to get into the right land so I can pull over.  The key word there is T R Y.  No one would let me over.  So finally I just had to force my way.  I am thinking "Can't these idiots see the black smoke pouring out of my car?"  Evidently not.  Back to the story.  I finally managed to inch my way into the right lane shoulder.  I try to see where the fire is coming from.  What did I see under the dash, you ask?  Melting, flaming wires!  Actually dripping melted flaming wires all over the floor...which starts the carpet on fire of course. I quickly call 911 (who showed up AMAZINGLY quickly, like less than 5 minutes!).  Within ten minutes I had a motorcycle Highway Patrolman, a fire captain, and a fire truck.  Those guys were so fast and so amazing...not to mention quite hot.  They had the fire out in a couple of minutes.  Then my husband and Owen (his brother) actually DROVE the Jeep home.  Jeeps rule!

Today I am weighing the differences etc. between cable TV, Hulu, and Netflix.  Like a lot of other people, I am irritated that Netflix doubled their price.  I personally think $17.95 is too much.  Although it is cheaper than cable, it just irks that they up and doubled it overnight!  I cut my cable, although I still have Cox Broadband internet (which I can't live without).  So everyone help me decide between Hulu and Netflix.

I am going to try blogging.  Other people just make it look so interesting.  But I am not sure I have enough interesting things to say.  Anyway...her goes!

Let me introduce myself first.  My name is Pam.  I live in Phoenix AZ.  I am married to Ron (for over 30 years!).  I have two grown sons, Jonathan (33) and Isaac (31).  Both are married to wonderful girls, Anita and Melanie.  And both have given me wonderful grandchildren, Gabriella and Aidan.

I started off with a 3 bedroom house in Scottsdale AZ.  When both my boys got married and moved out I decided we had WAY too much house and  W A Y  too much stuff..  So we started down-sizing.  I started reading about minimalism, frugality,  Since then we have lived in apartments, RV's, mobile homes, and even a boat (my favorite).  We have lived in Soldotna AK, San Diego CA, Oceanside CA, Encinitas CA, Scottsdale AZ, and now Phoenix AZ.  Right now we are in a mobile home in Phoenix AZ.  Lately I have been doing a lot more de-cluttering.  We are thinking about going back to the RV lifestyle, so we can get out of here in the summer.  

OK, enough for now.