Updates, updates, and more updates!
Posted by Lynnae on October 25, 2007
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There’s just so many posts to update, that I’m just going to throw everything into one update post! 
Sam’s birthday party was Monday, and it was very small, but fun. We only invited his three best friends, because we have a very small house, and I can’t count on the weather to be nice for an outside party. One of his friends couldn’t come, and another friend got sick the day of the party, so his party turned into a play-date. That was fine with Sam, though. He still had a really great time. I haven’t forgotten about my promise to write a post on frugal birthday party ideas. I got sidetracked by my husband this week. 
Speaking of my husband, our plans for starting a copywriting business are falling into place. We got a great deal on business cards, stationary and address labels at Vista Print. The labels were actually free, or I wouldn’t have ordered them. Our landlord gave us a letter saying it’s OK for us to use our home for our business. The next step is to register a business name and take our plan to the city council. I don’t think we’ll run into any trouble there. Our city is pretty liberal about home businesses, and we don’t even have to get a letter from the neighbors, since our business won’t impact the neighborhood.
Also, after searching around for great accounting software, I clicked an ad on someone’s blog, and came across a link for a free copy of Quickbooks. It does exactly what I wanted it to, and we sent an invoice to my husband’s first client yesterday. Word is getting out about his copywriting, and he’s supposed to call a former boss about doing some copywriting work next week.
Meanwhile, he’s applying for jobs to keep him busy while we get off the ground. He’s at an interview today. I’ll keep you posted on what happens.
Since we have lost our income, I have canceled our YMCA membership. We’re also canceling our Blockbuster online membership. I’ve been cutting expenses as far as I can, and we’re going to try to sell some things on Craigslist. I’ve been meaning to do that anyway, and now is the perfect time. We’re going to try to hold on to our satellite service, but if unemployment lasts longer than a couple of weeks, we’ll cancel that too. Or at least drop our subscription as far as we can without totally losing our service. I know that canceling it now makes the most financial sense, but we all like certain TV shows, and I don’t want to slash the budget so far that the family is miserable if I don’t have to. But if it comes to the point where we don’t have a choice, I’ll cut it out of the budget.
I also updated the checkbook this morning. It turns out I’m pretty good at doing math in my head. After not writing things down all month, I found that we came close to being within our budget anyway. We went over in groceries, which I figured, because I’ve been stocking up. That expenditure should pay for itself soon. We also went over on eating out, which I knew, and miscellaneous, which I knew. But we were under in a lot of other categories, and so far this month, we’ve spent less than we’ve brought in. I even made another payment to the credit card this morning, so our debt is going down, too.
So enough about me….well, my personal life, that is. I have a little bloggy business to tell you about. On Tuesday, I will be hosting the Festival of Frugality. It’s my first time, and I’m really excited! I would love it if all my blogging friends would submit your posts about frugality, so I could include you. It’s a great way to drive traffic to your blog! If you’re interested, submit your post here. You have until Monday at 9 pm EST to get your articles in!
Also, the M-Network is moving it’s feed. We are really excited about the new feed, as it shows you who wrote which posts. Our old feed didn’t do that. Also, it is a full feed, so if you like, you never have to leave your feed reader to read articles by the M-Network. Of course we love it when you stop by and make comments, but we realize sometimes time is limited.
If you don’t currently subscribe to the M-Network feed, I encourage you to do so. Not only will you receive my posts, but you will receive the posts of the other M-Network members as well. And if you are currently subscribed, please change your subscription to the new feed as soon as possible. Unfortunately you have to do it manually, but I think it will be worth the effort. You can find our new feed here. The link for the new aggregated feed is on the right sidebar under the list of member blogs.
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I am not a financial expert. I'm just a wife and mom doing the best I can to live a frugal life and get out of debt. Like any human, I make mistakes. I write this blog out of my own experiences, and nothing I write should be taken as expert advice. If you need financial advice, please consult a professional.
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Lynnae,
I’m new to this site and just wanted to say I’ve really enjoyed reading back through the archives. I’ve gotten some good ideas. I’m praying for you and your family while your husband job-hunts.
God bless!
Looks like thing are improving for your family. This is great. I would love to see a post about the whole process of starting a business.
Very exciting! I’m glad your son had fun. It’s surprising how “little” can work for kids.
And good luck with your copywriting business. It sounds very exciting! What kinds of qualifications does your husband use when he pitches himself? Experienced salesman? (you see, I’m a writer who might enjoy doing this on the side)
@Pinyo - I will do a post on starting a business, when I have a better handle on what we’re doing. It will probably be, “The mistakes we made in starting a business. Don’t make them yourself.” LOL
Speaking of, does anyone know whether an LLC or a partnership is better? That’s our next decision.
@Mrs. Micah - My husband has been in sales for years. He’s sold ads for radio, television, and newspaper, so he’s pretty savvy about marketing. And he’s written tons of radio ads himself, as well as helped with newspaper ads. That’s how he’s pitching himself. We’re hoping to have a basic website up by Monday (very basic), and I’ll link to it, so you can see what he says about himself.
Thanks, Lynnae. I’d like to see that!
Your son is so cute! And so is the cake–it looks awesome!
Woohoo! Oh, I’m so excited for you guys. Things are looking good for the copywriting business
And I love your son’s cake, did you make that? I have all boys here so I’m lovin’ the racetrack. (and your son is a cutie!)
What an adorable cake! I love it!
And congratulations on the math-in-your-head! I’m so bad at that - I always end up WAY off!
I don’t know anything about LLC’s or partnerships, but I have a sole proprietorship and it works out great. However, my business would never be big enough to be anything else. I have one employee, my husband, which works out great for the tax benefits. And, my business would never be able to be the only thing keeping our family afloat as it is. I’d have to change a lot of things up in order to be the breadwinner. Get organized would be the first thing on my list. But check into the sole proprietorship if that would work for you! It’s easy!
@fiveberries - after spending lots of time on our state’s website tonight, it seems that a general partnership would be the best thing for us right now. We don’t want to do a sole proprietorship, because at this point, we’re both bringing in the income. But we can set up a general partnership in much the same manner. The only additional thing we need to do is register a business name. So that’s what we’re going to do for now, and if our business grows, we’ll move to an LLC at that point. Apparently it’s not hard to do.
Love the cake and the picture…the expression on his face is one of those priceless moments