IT MAKES "CENTS" TO ME FOR FRIDAY - DECEMBER 20th



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi everyone,

 

How have you been? I've recovered from being sick. The antibiotics that I have been taking have really worked their magic and the sinus infection is G-O-N-E.

 

The photo I posted above was one that I took a few days ago when I was out at Asilomar State Beach and it reminded me of how God can still the storm-tossed waves of our lives. 

 

So I've been working on a financial plan of getting out of student loan debt and then I got thrown a curve ball the other day.  I'm still working on saving up a $1000 emergency fund when an unexpected expense for the dentist came up. I have to save up money for an xray before I can continue in my orthodontic/braces treatment. 

 

So sometimes when things like this happen, other wants get put on hold....again...and that  might be the situation here. I'm not sure yet.

 

One thing I have decided to do is tithe 10% of my gross paycheck. I started doing that last week and I'm going to continue to do that with each paycheck.  It's just something that I felt like God had been laying on my heart for awhile. It's all His money anyway and I just manage it...and I'm simply giving back what belongs to Him first.

 

I think it will look different for everyone and I firmly believe that we can also tithe with our time and talents when money is really tight. 

 

I've noticed a couple of things: 1) somehow my budget is working out and everything is getting covered, even inspite of me tithing 10% off the top of each paycheck 2) You can never outgive God.

 

I know that the money I give will be put to good use for people in need.  

 

That's just where I am at right now.  I got paid today and haven't given every dollar a name yet, other than to budget for my tithe.

 

The Christmas holiday season at work is still crazy, but once I can get past Monday, it will be smooth sailing ;) :) I'm so looking forward to Monday.

 

That's the news from the ocean shores of California today.

 

Love and hugs, Heather :)

UPDATE - BEING SICK IS ZERO FUN

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to update you all on how I am doing. I'm still sick. I've been sick since I worked Black Friday on November 29th.

Well, last Monday night I developed pain/soreness in behind my right eye, right cheek and lower part of the right side of my jaw.  It being so unbearable that I finally had to make a trip to the ER on Tuesday morning. 

I called out sick from work on Monday and it was a good thing because the congestion was just getting so bad.

In any case, I am now taking antibiotics and an indoor/outdoor allergy decongestant.  So far the pain in my face has gone away and that is a total answer to prayer.

However, I'm still noticing that I'm having a bad reaction to mold/dust at work. I know that it's at work specifically because when I leave the building I automatically feel better.

Anyways, this whole thing is really tiring me out quite a bit. I've been sick for 2 weeks now.  So I'm needing to rest quite a bit. That is why I haven't had any blog posts up in awhile. 

Pray that my body will heal from this sinus infection quickly and that the antibiotics will do their job!!! Thanks all.  Otherwise, I'll be praying for all of you. I sure do miss hearing from you.

That is the news from the ocean shores of California today.

Love and hugs, Heather :)

BEING SICK IS NO FUN

Hello to all of my sweet blog readers :) :)

Sorry I haven't been around much the last few weeks.  Christmas/holiday season at my job is in full swing and it means crazier than crazy hours.

I've also been fighting some sort of cold/flu virus for a week. So it's really put me out of commission.  I will have more blog posts coming up this week, including and especially on Friday :) :) :)

Here's a Scripture photo that I created this morning. Last night I was feeling really miserable and I was extremely congested. I just couldn't stop coughing, which made sleep impossible. While laying in bed, I was starting to let the worries about my financies and others things start to overwhelm me a little bit.

However, almost as soon as those thoughts entered my head, another thought, or rather a Scripture, entered my mind. It was Psalm 50:10 where it talks about how God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. It just encourages me to know that God is in control and that He does care about the things that concern me. He WILL take care of me.

I also thought about this photo that I took a little over two years ago. This was shortly after I moved back to California. I thought it was very appropriate.  So I decided to put Scripture and photo together.

Here it is. May you all be encouraged today and everyday.  I'll be praying for the things that concern you today, too !!!

Feel free to share this on your blogs and Facebook pages. If you do, PLEASE credit it back to me here at Heather's Blog-o-rama and also at my public photography page, Heather Danielle Photography.  While you're at it, leave me a note that says you stopped by. I'd love to "meet" you all :) :) :)

My best friend from church brought over some cold and flu stuff for me. I'm feeling much better right at the moment.  Plus my father is being really sweet and doing all my chores which amounts to a single load of laundry right now AND cooking all my meals today :) :)

That is the news from the ocean shores of California today.

Love and hugs, Heather

 

IT MAKES "CENTS" TO ME FOR FRIDAY - NOVEMBER 15th

Hi everyone,

How are you today? How has your week been?  My week has been crazy and good and everything in between.  We're starting to get into the "BUSY" season at work. It'll stay busy until the end of the year.

I very rarely spend money on new clothes because I am on a really limited budget, so it's not worked into my budget, even when I really could use some new clothes. However, today was payday, and I decied that some new shirts for work were really needed. My goal is to have enough work clothes in my closet, that I could have one new outfit to wear every day of the week for 7 days, so that I don't have to wash the same thing over and over again.

I happened to be working in a department today that sells Ralph Lauren clothes for women. So I took a look at some basic long-sleeve tops. I ended up purchasing two black and one dark gray top.

Now listen to how I saved some serious "cha-ching" aka money, on the tops that I purchased today.  Most employees at work have a store credit card that they use.  We are required to have one in order to get the employee discount. However, there is also the option of having a prepaid store card. That's the one that I took, since I MUST put money on it FIRST before I can use it. 

So I happened to be looking at these tops, because I've purchased Ralph Lauren tops in the past on clearance and I've always had good luck with them. They also wear really well in the wash and still look good. so I know it would be a good deal, even if they were full price.


I saw these tops.  They are normally $32.98 each. However, they had a clearance tag price of $29.99 each.  When I checked the final price at the register, they were ringing up at $24.99 each. That's great !!! There was also a "use your card" discount of 20% on sale and clearance.

So I used my prepaid card and got 20% of the current clearance price. That dropped the cost of my tops to $19.99 each at the register.

So with all three tops together plus 7.5% sales tax, my total came to $64.47..

But wait, it gets so much BETTER.  Since I am an employee, I also get an additional employee discount of 20%. So that will bring my overall total down to $51.58.

Before I go into how much of a percentage I actually saved, let me throw in a picture of the cute little pocket on the left arm of each of the tops.  I don't normally like pockets on the front of any top. This is small, subtle and on the side. So strictly from a style viewpoint, this is fantastic.

Okay, if I had paid regular full retail price for all three tops and 7.5% sales tax, this would have cost me exactly $106.36.

However, since they were on clearance, there was a 20% "use your card" discount and my 20% employee discount AND the fact that I paid cash on my card FIRST....well, now my 3 designer tops only cost me $51.58 with tax.

That means I saved a GRAND TOTAL of 52% off the original retail price with tax. I'm really proud of that.

Now my next goal is to start building my collection of work pants. I literally have one pair that I wash every day. In fact, I will wear one of my new tops to work tomorrow.


Next week, I'll share more about how I give every dollar a name. I get paid every week, which is really nice. It's making "giving every dollar a name" much easier.

That is the news from the ocean shores of California today. Love and hugs to you all, Heather

IT MAKES "CENTS" TO ME FOR FRIDAY - NOVEMBER 8th

Hi everyone,

Okay, so this post is four days late. I'm really sorry. Talk about a crazy last few days.  We're gearing up for the holiday season at work and it's already starting to tire me out. 

I hope all of you are doing well this week so far.

One of the things I LOVE to do is color my hair. I keep it pretty much my natural color with a hint of red in it for warmth.  That and I am starting to see just a few white hairs.  I've decided I don't want to go all white  until I'm at least 50 years old.

Coloring my hair at home is NOT an option, since I make such a big mess in the bathroom every single time. I also have some limited mobility in my right shoulder, so that is sometimes painful and not the easiest thing to work around when trying to apply color to my head.

I'd heard about henna hair color and thought I would give it a try.  There is a LUSH cosmetics store in Carmel that sells this wonderful, chemical-free henna.  I went for a color called "Caca Rouge"..yes, they used that word on purpose because when it's all mixed it up it looks like muddy runny stuff. It looks gross, but it works fabulous.

The salon I go to normally charges $65 for color application.  Here at my local LUSH cosmetics store they only charged about $28 for the henna.

I called the store ahead of time to make an appointment, just in case they were busy.  This particular henna is set with cocoa butter into hard blocks like this, but it melts down easily with warm/hot water.   When it's melted down, it sort of looks like this:

It does feel a little heavy on the head, especially after it starts to dry. However, once it is applied to the head, I looked a bit like a cave woman:

I also didn't have a blessed stitch of makeup on my face, not even moisturizer.  Henna takes a really long time to set.  Here I waited about 3 hours total before I washed it out.  Now I left for home as soon as the henna was applied to my head. I did wait a little bit while the lady who a pplied henna to my hair helped other customers. While waiting a took a couple photos of the store.  It's a beautiful store that is light, airy and just really lovely:

The store was small but so well decorated.  I didn't feel closed in.

After the henna had been drying in my hair for about three hours, it was time to wash it out. That took about 15 minutes, because it was caked on my hair and it's really, really grainy and gritty.  It took me awhile to wash all the henna out of my hair. I LOVE the color result.  I wanted to add back some of the red undertones in my natural hair color and this did that.  However, my white hairs are now carrot orange...but when blended in with the rest of my hair it looks great.  Next time, I'll probably try the LUSH "caca marron" henna. That's more of a reddish brown color.

The only real negative is the smell. It doesn't smell bad. It reminded me a bit of muddy wet grass while it was wet. Later, after I washed it out, the smell of my hair reminded me of patchouli spices.  Here is how my hair color turned out. It wasn't a dramatic color difference, but it did add a lot of vibrancy to my hair.

This is what my hair looks like from the back.  I deliberately stood in direct sunlight so that you'd be able to see the red tones a little bit better.  All in all, I'm very pleased about how my hair color turned out. I'll let you know if I try it again.

The associate at my local LUSH cosmetics store said that it fades out in about 4 weeks.

Have you ever tried henna hair color? Or do you use something else to color your hair? What do you do to keep up with hair color and save a little money at the same time? I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments.

That's the news from the ocean shores of California today. Love and hugs, Heather :)


IT MAKES "CENTS" TO ME FOR FRIDAY - NOVEMBER 8th

UPDATE: Saturday - November 9th at 7:07 p.m.

HI everyone,
I'll do my Friday "cents" post tomorrow on Sunday. I worked today. It was 4 hours that turned into 5 because it was unusually crazy busy at work...but it was so stressful that it felt like 10 hours today and I'm just physically wiped out.

So I'll blog about the henna tomorrow. I got fabulous results with it and I can't wait to tell you about my experiences with that product :) :)

That's the news from the ocean shores of California today. Love and hugs, Heather :) :)

Hi everyone,

I'm actually going to do my usual Friday post tomorrow on Saturday.  I went and had henna hair color put on my hair this morning. It was quite the process but I saved a lot versus regular color in the salon.

I went to the LUSH cosmetics store in Carmel.

I'll tell you all about it tomorrow and have photos and everything :)

Have a great weekend everyone. That's the news from the ocean shores of California today.  Love and hugs, Heather

MERCY TREE, GARLIC FRIES AND OTHER STUFF

Hi everyone,

Oh, it has been quite the week. It's been rough, beautiful and just full of all sorts of interesting things. NONE of them were things I expected, but somehow I'm seeing beauty, joy and laughter through all of this :) :)

I was going to blog about a hat that I'm knitting for a friend's daughter, but I'll save that for another night.  Today was a rough day out on the sales floor and I just wanted to cry. So when work was over and done with, I met my father at Whole Foods and consoled myself with some fresh, made to order garlic fries...oh, boy was it ever tasty good... :) :)

My job is also full of many blessings and really interesting stories as I get to interact with people from the community.  I got to help a couple of my favorite customers. It was an old retired Philippino couple who've been married since God was a boy. The wife is retired military. The husband uses a walker and EVERY TIME I see them in the store they're always holding hands. ... So while the husband was sitting, I helped the wife. When they were finished, I walked over to the husband and helped stabilize his walker, so that he could stand up. The first thing he did was reach out for the walker with one hand and his wife's hand with the other How romantic is that In any case, I'm so glad God brought that couple my way tonight. They always bring a smile and laughter to my day This is just one of the many, many reasons I love my job and being able to interact with all sorts of people on a daily basis.

When I got home, my sweet dog was at the door to greet me. However, lately she's developed a habit for eating the leaves of this one little tree in our living room and now the tree has almost no leaves on it. I'm not sure how to get her to not eat the leaves...but every time I catch her eating them, she puts on the extra sorry puppy dog face as if she's saying "Who me? Lil' ole me?"  Any ideas on that? I'm totally clueless why my dog is eating the leaves

 

 

 

 

 

I did get a copy of the latest Mary Jane's Farm magazine in the mail. So this was just another blessing to the end of an otherwise rough day at work. This magazine is so much fun...and it's got everything that I love in it - farmgirl stuff, farmgirl of the heart, feminine, frilly, DIY etc ;) :)  Click here to visit their website.  It's all about organic, American living and so much other fun stuff. 

 

Oh and then to top it all off, there was a Billy Graham program on tv tonight. We don't have a t.v. anymore. So my father was watching it on-line and he asked me if I knew who Lacey Strum was. I had never heard of her before. So I looked her up and came across this beautiful music video called "Mercy Tree" that was featured on the program.

 

 

I don't normally cry with songs, but after this one I was just a mess of tears. It's a beautiful song and beautiful video. So maybe I needed to hear this tonight and be reminded that I (and ALL of us) are loved by the Author of Ultimate Love. 

 

Tomorrow I have the day off from work. So I'm going to the LUSH cosmetics store in Carmel to have henna applied to my hair. It's a natural hair dye alternative that will hopefully cover up a few of the gray hairs. In any case, I'll make sure to take some pics and let you know how it all turns out :)

 

That's the news from the ocean shores of California today. Love and hugs, Heather :)