Could gas be more expensive? The unfortunate answer is…. yes it can. I went to fill up today and the gas was around $2.22 per gallon. I think since I don’t really enjoy driving, hate filling my tank, and despise spending money that I will just walk to wherever I need to go. Hmm…well, it is also unfortunate that I do not enjoy being outside or walking long distances either. I guess I will stick to driving, but cut down on the driving as much as I can.

If you are searching for the gas station with the lowest prices in town, check out Gas Buddy. Gas Buddy can help you find cheap gas prices in your city. It is comprised of 170 gas price information web sites that help consumers find low gasoline prices. For some of the larger cities, there is also a forum where you can chat it up and find out who was the lowest in town. For small cities, like mine, I could type in my zip code and run across the latest compiled data of the gas prices in our area.

I discovered when plugging this information in that I could save like twenty-two cents per gallon if I just drive about two hours away from here. With my amazing knack for numbers, I think I could save at least four dollars if I drive out there. I will just need to fill my tank up to get there and fill it up to get home- think of the savings!!

Go ahead and comment on here where you are at and what your price of gas is. Maybe I will feel better about that $2.22 per gallon that I put in my tank. If you paid less then me, you are not allowed to comment on here- it makes me look bad!

Prescription medication is an expense that many families cannot afford. If you are not blessed with an insurance plan that will cover your prescriptions and are a low-income family, there are programs available to assist you with your medications. Here is a list of a few sites that you can check for more information on medical assistance programs:

If you cannot find what you are looking for on these sites, don’t forget to check directly with the drug company for programs that they may offer. The sites above are your best bet for finding this information, but do not be afraid to ask your doctor, the drug company, or your pharmacy about programs that you may be able to take advantage of.

Please note that all of the sites that are listed above will gain you information for FREE. If you are looking for more information, there are sites on the internet that will supply you with the information, but they will charge you for it.

If you are aware of any other information or websites that you feel are beneficial in medical assistance, please hit the comment button and share with our readers.

Yesterday was a rough day for our family. I came home from a play date to transfer laundry over to our dryer and noticed that everything was still damp in the washer. After realizing this, I got that sickening feeling that something was definitely wrong with our washer. Thankfully, nothing was wrong with our favorite appliance, but something almost as bad had happened. A .79 cheapo paint brush had lodged itself in the drain of the sink where our water drains into from our washer and had clogged the sink up. Looking down at the floor, I realized that we had a good two to three inches of water that was now covering our basement floor.

Using our teeny-tiny shop vac to try and get all the water up was very labor intensive and not as effective as those nicely sized shop vacs (note to all of you for our Christmas list next year). Ryan and I worked on getting all of the water up, but now my two hundred loads of laundry have doubled to four hundred loads of laundry since there were nice clean clothes, toys, and various other belongings lying on the basement floor. Not only that, but our basement floor also was covered with all of the things that we had moved down from our living room while we have been painting and redecorating it. I am thinking now that the room that we redecorated will forever look the way I originally set it up because all the things downstairs are water damaged. It is a good thing that I liked the way the room looked and it saved me a trip to the Goodwill box for a donation. I will have to hunt around the house for other unnecessary things to offer to them. I am sure I will be able to come up with something.

In light of our evening last night, this morning I woke up with the worst back pain ever (next to the car accident back pain) and I feel like an old woman who can barely move her body. You can imagine the fun that Ethan is having with his mommy today as I am sitting on the couch like a bum with the electric heating pad on my back. My eyes are also bloodshot and hurting so I am also wearing my, less than fashionable, glasses. This is definitely not how I had planned to spend my day.

I hope that you all are having a better day then us and please stop by again for more of my depressing blog.

I can tell by the messages that I have received that you guys love the freebies as I have received a lot of inquiries on my Budget Living Magazine post.

Now on to more freebie magazines….

Kraft Food Magazine– Chock full of great dinner ideas which include recipes or variations on some of your old box favorites. They usually have special kid recipes and also have great ideas for birthday cakes and entertaining. This is a magazine that I look forward to each time I receive it.

Lowes Creative Ideas, Garden Club and Woodworkers Magazines– Lowes offers several publications that are full of great ideas on home improvement projects, gardening, or learning more about the art of woodworking. Some of the projects are very simple while others are for more of a seasoned home-improvement expert. They also include within their step-by-step instructions, a shopping list for you to go by to pick up the materials needed for each project. This is one of those publications that my husband and I both fight over.

Enjoy all of those free magazines and give me some feedback, some gratitude, a bone or something for all these nice things I do for you….I will even be happy with some comments, people!!

I just got my first issue of Budget Living Magazine so I can learn about more ways to save money. I saved even more money by getting this subscription for free as I do almost all of my subscriptions. If I cannot acquire the magazine for free through that company, I trade with my girlfriends or I hit the library and read them there.

I read my first issue of this magazine and poured over the magazine for hours. I marked pages and shared articles with my hubby. It really is a great magazine if you are trying to save money. Unfortunately, it also makes me want to SPEND money in order to get all of those fantastic deals that I now feel like I missing out on. I suddenly need every product in there and it is as cheap as heck anyway so why not? This very reason is why I can no longer go to a drugstore. I am a self-proclaimed drugstore junkie and I would go there to get my fix. Two dollar lipsticks, five dollar mascaras, the latest shampoo, the newest razor, and anything else that strikes my fancy would get thrown into my cart. My “great deal” adds up to a gazillion dollars and I have tons of stuff to prove it.

When I began staying home, I realized that
1) No one cares about what I look like anymore except for me.
2) We have zero money in our budget for my weekly hit of my drugstore fix

The moral is, even if it is cheap and even if it is the best deal ever- it might be better if you didn’t buy it.

The tips I did get out of Budget Living this month were:
– Use your extra mouse pads as trivets in your kitchen (this is where my husband said, “What is a trivet?” If you are not into cooking, a trivet is a hot pad.)
– Cut the magnets out of the bottom of your old shower curtains to be used as refrigerator magnets.
– Steal It Back is where you can go online to score some deals on police auction items like electronics, diamonds, and designer goodies.

I highly recommend the magazine and they have a fantastic forum as well!! Visit their forum and don’t forget to swing by our forum as well! Our forum is soooo much cooler….seriously.

Editor Note: If you see a message in italics, I am sharing tips & quips and no fluffy stories. Regular font from now on will get you those touching stories that you have grown accustomed to on my blog….Gotta appeal to all the fans out there (fans= my family) and the haters (you know who you are!)

On with the breaking news…

How many people really thought that you got to keep your rentals indefinitely? Apparently there were a few raised hands out there- catch up on the Blockbuster late fees scandal….

Blockbuster No Late Fees Campaign Busted Tue Mar 29, 2005 – As Saving Advice reported at the end of last year, Blockbuster ended late fees – with a catch. That catch being that if people didn’t return their rentals in a timely manner, they had to actually buy the rental. That catch has now come back to haunt Blockbuster as it has agreed to pay some $630,000 to settle claims by 47 states and the District of Columbia that their “No Late Fees” campaign deceived consumers.Under the No Late Fees campaign, the movie was automatically sold to any member who did not bring the rented movie back within on week after the rental was due. This came as a surprise to many consumers and many considered the $1.25 restocking fee if they tried to return the rental as a defacto late fee.The settlement requires Blockbuster to refund money to consumers who claim the campaign misled them into believing they could keep their rented videos or DVDs for as long as they wanted without any fees being incurred. For those that make this claim, Blockbuster will give a refund or credit to both consumers who paid the restocking fee or the full price of the video or DVD they rented.While it will help those who incurred fees to this point, Blockbuster is not going to end the campaign. Instead, they will make alterations to the way it’s advertised by adding signs and other information in its stores to better explain the details of the program.While you may have avoided the restocking fees and forced purchases until now, it’s unlikely you’ll get a break from these in the future. The best piece of advice is to make sure you get the rentals in before their due date.

Get more great advice on http://www.savingadvice.com

Happy Easter to everyone! I hope that you have had as fun of a day as we have had. Our day was filled with family activities, visits from the Easter Bunny, and lots of egg hunting.

The Easter Bunny left a cowboy hat, sheriff badge, and red bandana for the little guy so that he can look like a real cowboy. He has suddenly been really interested in cowboys, but it has been a sad sight to see him do his cowboy impersonation in my beach hat. He would throw my floppy hat on over his head and say, “Howdy, partner!” The catchy phrase and the beach hat just didn’t go together so I spent a day walking around the costume shop trying to find the perfect cowboy attire (minus the gun). The whole set was a total of eight dollars which was a gosh darn miracle considering the other cowboy costumes were at least fifty bucks for a pair of pleather chaps and vest. Unbelievable! Those stores must be raking in a ton of money with those prices!

After making this purchase I was beyond excited to see my little cowpoke’s face when he woke up. We displayed his gifts neatly in a little cheap Easter bucket that we had laying around the house tucking the bandana in the basket along with his badge. Can you guess what his favorite thing was? Yup, the stupid bucket…oh, and the cowboy hat was also used as a carrying case for his Thomas the Tank Engine trains. Oh well! I made a good effort.

I hope that our son will be able to sleep tonight as I hear him kicking his legs against the wall. Considering the amount of goodies he consumed before he hit the sack, the outcome looks doubtful. I am sure I am not the only parent wondering if their child will be resting tonight. I guess I should be happy that Ethan is only kicking against the wall and not jumping through the ceiling with the copious amounts of candy he has eaten. But, heck, isn’t that what Easter is all about, ya’ll?? Goodnight, partners!

I made the mistake of putting several of my articles up on a Free Ezine Article site. The idea was that other websites would use my work (and my bio) and then link back to our site.

I also made the mistake of Google Alerting myself if anyone used my work. I could discover this through the keywords Amy Allen Clark, MomAdvice, Mom Advice, or Amy Clark.

This is what I have discovered through making these two mistakes:

Mistake #1- Letting Others Use Your Work

This first mistake was a biggie- letting other sites use my work. Now if the sites were comparable to my site or were even slightly decent, then I would not have a problem with my article being posted there. The unfortunate thing though is that these sites that used my work suck- and I mean, suck. I went on this really awful cult-like site and found my, “Decorating On a Shoestring Budget” article. This made me so sad because the site was actually called, “How to Tell A Great Story.” Now I am not saying that this article is not great, but come ON! Do you actually think that my greatest story ever told was how to decorate your house? Then, the more depressing part was that it looked like I had submitted that article to them because they had a link that said, “Tell Your Greatest Story Ever Told.” Not only are they using my article, but now they are making it look like the only stories that I have to share are on how candles create the right mood in every room.

The other part to the mistake is when someone uses your work and then doesn’t give you credit for your work. You can imagine how thrilled I am when someone uses my work (the whole purpose being to get someone to come on our website) and then doesn’t include my bio.

Mistake #2- Google Alerting

I don’t know if you know this or not, but the internet is actually not anonymous. When people write things like, “Your writing sucks,” I am going to find out. I am going to find out and then I am going to type your name, city, and state into Switchboard.com and then I am going to print out a little map that says exactly where you are (I will have trouble locating you, please read past blogs for more info), and then I am going to tell you that YOU suck and not me. No one actually wrote that my writing sucked, but someone did get my blood boiling.

You see, I wrote this lovely little article that was called, “Happy Mother’s Day.” The article was all about saluting other mothers and all that they do. I thought it was quite touching and received good feedback from it and it was in a magazine publication (not worth mentioning, but heck it was in print!) This site used this article and then had a little place for people to leave their comments. Do you think that I remembered the comments where people said that it made them cry, that they were so touched by what I had to say, or begged for more of these types of articles…..no. I remembered this old lady who wrote something like this…

“This is a nice article, but I have to wonder what a mother of only one child who is only a year old could be offering any advice on. If you want advice, I can give advice on motherhood because I have bounced babies on my pregnant belly and am now raising my grandchild.

I do like her ideas though and I think I will use that one for my son. Thank you so much for sharing your work. If anyone woud like advice though you can email me at grandmammyineverybodyelsesbusiness@yourmom.com.”

Wow, so she criticized my work, told me that I didn’t know anything because I only had one child, and then told me she would use my ideas. Really, it was quite touching!

Yes, I saw all of the nice things people had wrote, but that one comment stuck out in my mind. It stuck out in my mind because…

1. Sharing your work is personal. It is hard to share your life and your writing with other people. You open yourself up for a lot of criticism, I realize this, but sometimes it is hard to hear that your writing is not that great.

2. I have found that writers are the meanest people to each other. I mean that in all honesty. I went on a writer’s board, hoping to get some ideas, and I saw that this poor woman had posted on their message board and got a spanking from every writer on there. She asked about getting published and instead of sharing some invaluable information with a novice writer, they went into criticizing her post. Her commas were in the wrong place, she didn’t use the correct preposition, her spelling was a disgrace….how was she EVER going to get published if she couldn’t even write a correct sentence. I quickly logged off and became a lurker on the board- I even feared that my login name was incorrect and I obsessed that I had not capitalized my name just so I could post.

3. I do only have one child and he is only two- so I’m not a mom? Am I missing that star-quality that would define me as a mother. I thought if I stayed up all night with a crying baby, wiped his behind every single day, and rocked him to sleep at night that maybe, just maybe, I might be called a mom.

4. Don’t get me started on the one child thing because that REALLY burns me up, given our current circumstances.

I have now asked Google to only email me positive feedback. Comments on how my hair was perfectly highlighted in my author photo, that my writing is delightful, that my wit blows people’s minds….this type of thing will be sent to my inbox. Things about how many children I have, how I am not a mom, and how I am too young to offer advice on frugal living…this will be automatically moved to my Spam file.

I guess what I am trying to say is, the internet is not anonymous. There is a writer on the other end of this blog- thankyouverymuch.! And she is a mom and she offers advice. I do not offer advice on how to parent your child (read past posts if you need a glimpse into why this is), but on living on a budget, organzing, and working at home….just a few of the topics that I think I am qualified in writing on.

I am now looking for grandmammyineverybodyelsesbusiness@yourmom.com- she better be ready for a non-momma’s wrath….

I was reading through my Self magazine yesterday and noticed a little blurb in their beauty section. The blurb said that not only should I condition my hair daily (and deep condition once a week), but I am also supposed to be conditioning my eyelashes. The tip was to rub peutroleum jelly on my eyelashes and let it sit on them for one minute and then gently wipe off with a tissue.

All I could think was…wow! Who the heck has time to condition their eyelashes? Will they become dry and brittle from my lack of deep-conditioning each individual eyelash? Will they just fall out because they have been so mistreated and neglected?

To be honest, I am lucky if I wash my hair every single day and conditioning…well, let’s just say that this is less than the recommended amount for my mane of frizz.

So here is a real beauty tip for your magazine and for all of you mommies out there who can’t wash your hair every day. You know that astringent that you are supposed to use on your face, but never get around to doing that much less moisturizing? Dab this on a cotton ball and rub it on your roots. It takes all the oils out and you can have hair that looks (sort of) like it has been washed. It can get rid of the greasies in one fell swoop.

Now that is a tip that someone really COULD use!

Me: I love Ethan!

Ethan: I love cake.

Me: And mommy?

Ethan: And cake.