CLIPD* tip: Eyes on YOUR cash flow

Record every expense, every day. My beloved still has paper ledgers of rupees in and out while we lived in Nepal. We now use Excel Spreadsheets on the go, but at home, we use Quicken, so easy to key in financial data in categories, classes, accounts, etc.

Doth protest too much? If you've got too many receipts, then as Clark Howard intones, “Shop less, save more.” Every weekend aim to balance your cash for the week. As the Stock Market tanks, don’t let what you overspent tank your finances or pile your place with faded receipts.

*Cindy's Leanings In Personal Downsizing

Friends and Light Repairs, #2
(Photo: MBH* in Luminescent Bike Jacket)

Deep questions in the Deep South hound us. Why am I still here? What do I do when I grow up here? And the ever-ready question, “Why hold this flashlight?”

That latter query may have bugged MBH, *My Beloved Husband deep in the heart of Texas, far from our home. But his company had a peach of a project: to test, analyze, and help maintain machines that taught pilots to fly as smartly as Captain Sullenberger, hero on the Hudson, former Air Force pilot. The company’s boss asked employees to volunteer for multi-week trips over the next few months.

MBH had to go. I pouted. He told me again it was better to be employed anywhere, then unemployed elsewhere.

Though he bristled when his new boss ordered him company business cards with the title “Dr.” and his nickname instead of his formal name. I watched MBH receive his Structural Engineer PhD. Wryly my husband claims “PhD” stands for, “Piled higher and deeper.” Yet I knew the grades behind his degreed distinction, how many colleagues appreciated his analytical prowess at work.

On the initial work trip MBH and the team worked 12-hour days, six day-weeks, in cramped, dark spaces of a chilly hangar. There were days his analysis was needed. Most days the mechanics and master technicians took over.

Meanwhile, my beloved chauffeured, assisted, and held a flashlight.

Once MBH held a flashlight hours at many areas. Then on a singular Thursday he held it one long hour at a cockpit GBH (G’s beloved husband) wired. Both men were sweat tired and longing for home. In the flashlight beams, one man noticed how pale the other’s face looked, especially when he asked for the car keys so he could sit and rest.

The two walked to the car. One returned to work, pausing to share his concerns with the boss. After awhile the two went to talk with the rested, yet aching man, the boss convincing him to ride over to the medical clinic.

There my beloved called. He asked for prayer as a gurney rolled out to an ambulance. Hours later one team member watched a surgeon insert a stent into an artery to end heart attack. Hours after that, the doctor told the victim, “Your colleagues probably saved your life.”

MBH and GBH were more than colleagues. GBH and his wife became our friends at the Company Christmas party. Chums in Christ are cool. They aren't ashamed to hold hands in public prayer or hold a flashlight to help them see.

You wouldn’t be ashamed to shine a light for a friend in the dark, would you? As my beloved learned, a little light can save a friend’s life in a big way.

Hide it under a bushel, No! I'm gonna let it shine...

Shop-aholics Guide

How do shop-aholics wisely shop for delights in a deepening recession?

Try to make shopping an exercise walk. I don’t mean a stroll. Aim for 10,000 aerobic steps.

Also, try to shop with a tall, clean, handsome companion with a wider stride than you have. Evenings my walking companion is my beloved, and daytime, unemployed Buddy substitutes, when he’s done cleaning breakfast messes in the kitchen.

Whether at Wally’s world or Kroger’s Marketplace or at the mall, Buddy sabotages my excess purchasing urges. He watches my laser-surgery eyes heat-seek a buy of original, great price, but red sticker reduced. As my hands move the prize into the cart, he warns me, “Mom, what are you doing?”

I turn to seek other delights, only to glance back to see Buddy’s long fingers return my first item back to its shelf.

Eternal delight is what my son finds in a kitchen or store that needs order in their respective disorder. He’ll reshelve toys little hands misplaced in the clothing areas at Kohls. Buddy will grin as he gathers clothing off the floor to be re-hung, by him, on crowded clearance racks. He would return food items left behind at the checkout area, if I didn’t stop him.

Someone needs to hire this guy soon.

On the other hand, shopping with Buddy has its connective perks. Buddy always had friends greet or honk at him up north. Now he has folks down here come and chat with him as he’s decked out in his NFL Super Bowl winning team jacket. In our new church and around town we’ve found friendly ties to the Steeler Nation, the Joes and Josie citizens of diverse color and economic status, united in noisy, enthusiastic awe of a team with six victorious rings. We’re peculiar folks who continue to believe in a blue-collar way, friends who buy local and cheer loud at local sports pubs.

It’s wise to shop local. It’s wise to shop with a careful friend. Let the times temper my impulsive spending, but I won’t let the times mute my noisy awe, my enthusiasm over who I am and Who is always with me.

So I’ll pray for other shoppers, pray for the cashiers, pray over the phone while I shop to 10,000 steps. For I walk with a family of friends, a greater nation of peculiar folks who, by faith, believe in a way that’s the only way to eternal delight.

Even if the left eye is a bit fuzzy and needs repair... to be continued.

CLIPD* tip: A REAL DEAL

What’s a cheaper purchase at Kroger’s Marketplace?

• a Buy one, get another box of strawberries free.

• b. Two boxes for the price of one strawberry box.

• c. One box in the Two-for-One item price.

• d. One box in a BOGO promotion

At Kroger’s store my beloved hubby learned one box is cheaper, when it’s NOT a BOGO. Kroger will only charge a discount on Buy One, Get One if you get two of the item. So when we need a single box of strawberries, we look for the Two-for-One, and got a real deal!
Don’t let store promotions mystify you. Learn each store’s policies for applying price breaks, so you don't break your wallet.

*Cindy's Leanings In Personal Downsizing

Why is Fuzzy Eyed Faith part of the Steeler Nation? At church I talked to a young woman who lived in Pittsburgh for seven decades. Her late husband was crazy about the Steelers and so too her daughter who stood nearby. I found out her daughter was born at West Penn. Buddy was born near Pittsburgh! So by birthrite, Buddy is a native-born Pittsburgh Steeler Buddy.
Congratulations to the Steelers for the final seconds, grind the nails down the chalkboard, terrible towel swirling, endzone scoop Super Bowl XLIII victory!

As Bud puts it, "Five plus one is SIX."