Common cents

Do you know how it feels to be working away on your PC, almost at the end of what you're writing and then suddenly the power goes out? I suppose you do. Well, that's what happened about half an hour ago when I was winding up a blog entry. After a 2-second power failure, I whimpered silently and sulked that, again, I neglected to save the post as a draft.

But then thank God I wasn't in the middle of some term paper. Or that no editor's deadline loomed on me as I was typing. Thank God I even have a pc in the first place! And that the power is back on. Worse things could be happening to me.

So here is the reconstructed post (slightly shortened though). Pleeeease read it, if only to sympathize with my temporary anguish over the lost original. =)

---------------------------------

When my other blog got wiped out earlier this year, along with it went the list of links to other blogs that I used to frequent. The blog has since been recovered through a friend's kindness and expertise in techie stuff, and I've found Phil's blog again -- one of those that I visited regularly.

A Family Runs Through It makes for light, entertaining and informative reading. In one post he shares simple (but often overlooked) money-saving strategies that he and his family have employed. If you decide not to read them now, be sure to take another peek the next time you find yourself complaining of the impossibly high cost of raising a family.

A sample from Phil's post:

A post about the economy over on DadTalk got me thinking about the sacrifices we make in order to have one parent at home with the kids.

It's not that hard, folks. Or maybe it is for some of you.

Here are a few things that we do in order to live comfortably on one income:

Entertainment: No cable TV. It saves us alot of time, too, as we aren't tempted to plop down in front of the TV for marathon sessions of House Hunters or Kumars at No. 42. We have a subscription to Netflix at $17.99 a month, so we still enjoy TV shows and movies, only without the commercials. We don't go out to the movie theater except for a family film a few times a year. Books are from the library. Games and puzzles were mostly Christmas presents from relatives. Monthly savings: $40 to $60

Home Maintenance: I do most of it myself. With the amazing resources available on the Internet, a person can figure out how to fix just about anything in your home. As for landscaping and house-cleaning, I'd love to have someone come in once a month to spruce the place up, but those services are usually wildly expensive. There's just no need to pay for that when you can do it yourself. Plus, the kids will see you working and learn to do those chores when they're older! Monthly savings: $20 to $50

Read more of "Common Cents"