The Frugal Lawyer

Someday, I'd Like to...

One of my girlfriends gets married in a little less than a month.  We had lunch last week and I got all the details about her honeymoon.  It made me think back to my honeymoon and how wonderful it was.  She and her new husband will be traveling to Venice and Croatia.  

It put me into daydreaming mode.  Someday, I'd like to...  Then I though, hmm, when will it be someday?

I think I decided on when it will be someday.  I created a mini-debt payoff challenge.  This year, I am working my butt off to not only payoff Discover, but to payoff all of my credit cards.  In addition, I'm trying to save as close to $10,000 as I can.  (That is going to be difficult since I am putting even more than planned toward my debt.)  Next year, I want to focus on paying off my grandfather and continuing to save.  That's a two year plan.  

If at the end of 2011, I have my debt to my grandfather and my credit cards paid off and at least $20,000 in the bank, then it will be someday.

For most of my adult life, I've dreamed of taking a cruise around the Mediterranean.  I've never been anywhere outside of the US, other than England and the Dominican Republic.  This is my Someday, I'd like to...  And it would be perfectly timed for our fifth anniversary.

If I meet those financial goals, I will then begin saving for the trip and hopefully we can go by the end of 2012.  I realize that I will still have student loan debt and a mortgage at that time; however, I think this added incentive will make me work even harder to get my cards and grandfather paid off, while I continue to save.  

What's your Someday, I'd Like to...  Is there a place that you want to go or something that you have been putting off because your financial house is not quite in order?  What is it?

I Will Blog for Books

One happy day, Robin emailed me a link to a site that offered free books to those who are willing to write reviews of the books on the blogs.  It didn't take much more than that description.  Sign me up.  

I recently received my first book.  I've updated my Disclaimer page to reflect that I will be doing reviews for Yorkshire Publishing on this basis.  However, I thought I should share this with my frugal friends.  Free books for your reviews.  You review on your blog and then also on Amazon or B&N.  (I'm an Amazon girl.)  

I've got a few books in queue, but the first book I will be reviewing is Finding the Soul of Big Business by Paula Marshall.  It sounds like a great book.  Another option was a mystery/thriller.  I strongly prefer nonfiction, and I am interested in books that intersect with this blog, so I went with just this title.  

Does anyone else have any helpful hints for ways to get free items to review?  I think it is a brilliant marketing strategy.  Can't wait to read the book too.  

Do You Have A Queen Bed? Potential Prize Alert

If you have a queen bed and like prizes that will keep you healthy, go here.  My friend Robin has a contest going on her blog.  It seems that it would protect one's bed from dust and the need to vacuum the bed.  Something we all recently learned that I don't do.  Run along and enter.

One of these things is not like the others: On PF bloggers

During my brief blogging hiatus, I also wasn't keeping up with other blogs.  If I wasn't at work, I was sleeping.  On Saturday, with a bit of fear, I opened my reader and saw the hundreds of articles waiting for me.  I read them all.  A la Carrie Bradshaw, I began to wonder, where do I fit in in this world of money blogging?

Recently, I've also had to define who I am as a blogger.  For example, when I signed up for Blogher.  There was no category for confessional recovering shoe whore who is trying to learn how to be financially responsible.  So I stared at the form.  I eventually selected Personal Finance.  But let's face it.  I'm not a PF blogger.

That really hit home on Saturday when I was reading the blogs I subscribe to.  Honestly, I like the info that they provide, but they often make me feel like I am doing a lot of things wrong.  Right now, though, I am doing a lot of things right for my personal circumstances.  CRAZY AND I ARE KILLING DISCOVER.  We haven't talked about it yet, but I am trying to work on a plan that would allow me to pay off A.L.L. of my credit card debt by the end of this year.  That would mean that I have focused and paid off $36,000 in credit card debt (not even adding in the additional money that has gone to my grandfather and everything else) in two years.  Not too shabby.  

But still, my site doesn't fit into the mold.  It's mostly me telling my story.  It's never going to be the blog that will tell you about the latest swag bucks code.  (I don't know what swag bucks are.)  I am never going to give you a throwdown between a Roth IRA and a regular IRA.  

I still don't really know where I fit in.  I'm not a standard PF blogger.  But this blog is definitely about money, so does that make me a PF blogger by default?  

I know that there are other bloggers out there who are more 'like me."  Somehow they've found me and I've followed them back to their blogs through the comments or through links that I've found on typepad's stats.  I really like these blogs.  So let's give them a brief shout out to some of my favorites:

2 Dog Casa 

Windy City Blues 

All that I Seek

The Hodge Podge Lodge  

j'lynn's world

I've been reading A Gai Shan Life for a while and I love her style too!

Readers, where do you think I fit in?  Does it really matter?  Do you have any other websites to recommend that I would like?    

The Mystery Is Solved - Comment Subscription Enabled Again

A few folks have asked me why they can't subscribe to comments on particular posts.  My typical response is, "I dunno.  I have that box clicked."  

Since the feature works on my other two blogs with Typepad, I finally submitted a ticket to the help desk and it turns out that I was on some sort of Beta comment program and it wasn't allowed.  So I de-beta'ed myself and now things are lovely.  Subscribe away, dear commenters.  Just like a normal blog.  

(Scary.  I hit spell check - seriously, it does happen about 50% of the time - and dunno is a word.  That means don't know.  How disturbing.)

My Guest Post at The Millionaire Nurse Blog

I make a lot of homemade yogurt.  Read all about the process for making homemade Greek yogurt in my guest post at the Millionaire Nurse.

Right now, I'm about to make a batch of yogurt so that Brian has his favorite treat for this week.  

Cocktail Party Contest Winners!

This post is WAY OVERDUE!  

As you may recall, I was having a cocktail party!  I was very intrigued by all of the entries.  I am going to give two honorable mentions.  These don't come with prizes, but their drinks sounded quite tasty for people who aren't as picky as me.  

First I must commend Kellie.  Kellie did win a small prize for a later entry because she got fed up and told me to get some water.  That was an instant win.  She won a stainless steel water bottle.  She should have put that down first since she works with me and I drink lots of water and that is really the only thing I ever drink.  It is my very favorite beverage on earth and that's all it takes to make me happy at a party.  I did, however, like her mocktail recipe.  It was warm though.  I do not like warm beverages.  Just one of the many quirks that had to be overcome.

Next, with an honorable mention is 2 Dog Casa.  Her recipe kicked some serious mocktail ass.  But it contained raspberries.  Raspberries upset me greatly because of their seed content.  A normal human would love her mocktail though.

In third place, we have Stephanie with her Carbolic (high)ball mocktail.  My family will tell you that I lived on kool aid for many, many years.  Too many to admit (well into high school).  You rocked my world.  You get the joy of third prize (as seen in the photos)!  Plus, I like a good lawyer joke!  Nice.

In second place is A. Moore.  Once upon a time, I was a cosmo girl.  I love that mocktail recipe and I hope that I don't get the ghosts of hangovers past just by drinking it.  A fine mocktail indeed.  

No Dad, you didn't get first prize.  Without a doubt, that goes to Kamira.  Mira's Mambo Madness Mixer and Mira's Mocklini.  While I may despise the pomegranate in its natural form, I love pomegranate-blueberry juice (which Brian drinks, so I could easily swipe it).  This made my mouth water when I read the recipe.  Heavenly.

I want to thank everyone that entered, except when my dad tried to poison me with aftershave and then asked me when I called when he would be receiving his prize.  

Our next post will have a girlie prize and will be beauty focused.  I have a lot of unused beauty products, but I've mentioned that little habit before.  

Congrats to all of the winners!  Oh, and I think our next prize might be located on the Facebook fanpage.  Then we might do a Twitter contest.  See, I'm trying to be all technologically savvy.

Have you even missed me?

I've been gone for a few days?  Did you even notice that I wasn't here?  Don't worry - I haven't been on a spending bender.  I've been on a candida detox (if this is all new to you, you will need a long and thorough study of the Fibromyalgia Diaries on Kittenagogo to go through all of that history, but I will refer you to this simple link on the herxheimer reaction).  Mostly, I've been burnt out and crazy tired.  I didn't preload all of last week's posts on Sunday (which I sometimes do) and that meant when my energy ran out, so did the posts.  

To the four of you who missed me, I'm sorry for my absence.  I'm pretty sure things will be back to normal now.  

The Millionaire Nurse - Get Your Copy NOW

Dear Readers, as you know, I have Money Coach.  I am sure that many of you have probably wondered how poor Dr. Dean deals with me and CRAZY and my path to reform.  Dr. Dean is, quite simply, a saint. 

When we entered our Money Coach/Money Minion relationship, I warned him that I am... me.  Plus, one can gain a certain sense of the Danielle flavor from five years of blogging.  I'm wired a bit weird.  Dr. Dean deals with that very well.  In fact, it doesn't seem to bother him.  Even better, he was easily to see the core issues that I was dealing with regarding money and I got homework that was REALLY meaningful and changed my attitude about money.  

As a Money Minion, I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek at Dr. Dean's book, The Millionaire Nurse: A Proven Financial First-Aid Kit.  

 
The book was simple and it made sense..  I didn't want to punch it, like a certain book about making over my money.  

There is something we should be clear about - As the title of this blog indicates - I am a lawyer.  I'm not a nurse.  While I am occasionally my own unlicensed doctor, I am not usually a nurse.  There are certainly medical analogies, but I understood most of them due to many years of watching ER.  So don't feel that you will not be able to enjoy the book and its many lessons if you aren't a nurse.  This book could have just as easily been called The Millionaire Danielle plus medical analogies and I would have happily read it.  

I have so many pages dog-eared.  I have picked a favorite line:  "Every purchase you make should have a purpose."  I say it over and over to myself now.  To me, this is more important than any of the lines I read in that book by that bald guy that I don't like.  

Okay, sure, I get that I might be biased.  Dr. Dean is Money Coach.  But I think that should be a reason why you would rush to buy this book.  Look at my posts from last summer.  Look at my posts from January until now.  Look at the difference.  Look at the progress.  That's Dr. Dean's coaching and influence.  That's what he can teach you in The Millionaire Nurse.  So go here and buy your copy today. 

Perhaps this is why grocery budgeting is so hard...

My phobia of seeds is finally paying off.  Page 152 of Glamour.  Just had to share.

 
Taken by my phone, so the image quality is exceptional.  Sorry, still trying to get everything transferred to new computer. And this isn't remotely related to money, but I've one to be one of the women interview in Glamour since I was a teen.  Now it's finally happened.  It did cost Zero Dollars to make the dream come true.  My husband bought me copies of the magazine as a gift.