The EZ way to sell online. Check out EZShoppes!

Have you heard of EZshoppes?
Tried selling on Etsy or Artfire? To complicated? Ezshoppes is a new easier way to sell online.
I opened a shop with them last week, you can visit it here. I was set up in a flash. It took me about a half hour to sign up, fill our all my policies, shop announcements, welcome and about info, set up checkout, and add a few items to my store page! Ezshoppes is so easy to configure and even has cute built in templates for your page.
I really like that all check out is routed to paypal and Ezshoppes allows you to control all your transactions via paypal. For the beginner, I would recommended give Ezshoppes a try. I think you'll like it. And you can't beat the price at less than $40 PER YEAR! Thats right, for less than $4 a month you can eliminate all your shop fees. (in exception to paypal fees.) ( =
The site is growing every day, so check it our and add your shop to the site. You never know, you might have just stumbled upon the next big market place! Click here to visit EZShoppes. Not a shop owner? There is still something for you. Hope on over to Ezshoppes and check out all the cool family friendly items up for grabs. Just follow the link above and click on the "Let's Go Shopping" shopping bag graphic.

"We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same." -Carlos Casteneda

   Thats right ladies. I've gone back to work. And this time... I mean a real job. I started yesterday. I've always worked in boutiques, shops, or with children but last week I was faced with a brand new opportunity. My sister in high school decided to take a summer job at a local packaging factory and asked me to join her. We are working long 12-18 hour shift for a less than gracious salary.
   When I told my husband that of the job he quickly wondered why I agreed to spend my summer in such a way. I wasn't really sure how to answer other than that I feel like it's what I should do.
Yesterday was our first day, and boy was it hard work for me! I have never worked in a factory, or even 12 hour shifts for that matter... but I'm going to do my best to hang in there.
  I feel like this might be an eye opener for me. I'm spending time with a totally different group of people at work then I would usually socialize with, but who seem nice. I think I'm going to appreciate my time off more and make better use of the time I get to spend with my DH. I think it will be good for me to become more appreciative of my hubby working while I home make. I'm not exactly sure what will come of working this summer, but I have a good feeling that it's going to be something pretty great.
SO... I'm sure a few of you are spazzing while reading this, wondering if I am ending my blog... well, fear not.. I wont be disappearing, but only make less frequent appearances. I'll still be filling orders from my Etsy shop, and I'll accept custom orders on a longer production time. I hope that you guys can understand that I'm going though this little self discover phase. ( =
Anyone else returned to work recently after years of being a home maker?

Bootcamp

No, I haven't joined the Army, or enrolled in some sort of strenuous physical boot camp, but I have discovered another "boot-camp" that's pretty darn cool. Have you heard about Learnvest.com yet? It's an awesome site that has all sorts of informative articles about anything you can think of, these guys range from date ideas to how to refinance your home. The reoccurring theme I see at Learn Vest is how to get more out of life for less. There slogan is "Where life gets richer."  I check out their site almost daily for fun articles. A few weeks ago i signed up for their free get out of debt 15 day boot-camp. Compared to the average American family, our debt is tiny, but I would still love to accomplish a "debt free" status. I have to say that I really liked the set up of the program and I feel like It covered a lot of points in a short period of time without becoming overwhelming.
The inspiration that I took with me from the program is:
"No one will ever care about my money as much as I do. I am in control of my financial future."
So what did I learn?
-To be honest with myself about where my debt is coming from.
  * Used neato Learnvest calculators to see exactly how much my debt is costing me with fees. (a $2000 charge card paid at $70 a month for 4 years (with no farther use) could actually cost $3345.81!
-Learned the difference in good and bad debt and why it's important to quit contributing to bad debt.
-Organized my current debt between monthly bills, actual debt, and current spending using the Learnvest budget calculator.
-Learned some skills for gaining control of interest rates. Including visiting billshrink, learning how to negotiate with companies for lower rates, and some tips for what to do when companies don't cooperate with your negotiation.
-Discovered the pros and cons of balance transfers, when it's a good idea, and when it will actually hurt your credit. When and how to manage a transfer and what to do afterwards. *Never do more than one balance transfer per year and be careful with hard inquires that can harm your credit.
-Shared ways to free up more money to help pay off debt.
-Calculated my yearly interest rates, transfered all bills from credit to debit, organized spending habits with a spending journal, created a budget, attempted to negotiate card rates, set up auto pay on credit card to avoic late fees, and recognized my bad spending habits and triggers.
-Learned what debt to tackle first and how to set reasonable goals
-Was introduced to several free credit counciling services, learned what average and good credit rating are, and how to obtain a free credit report and start seeing improvements in as little as 90 days.
In short:
Set goals, know your habits, cut cost, live within your budget, pay down debt, raise your credit score, and reach your goals. ( =
One thing I learned, sad, though somewhat comforting fact I learned though this whole process is that my credit score is about average for someone my age, and that our family's debt isn't even enough to consider a councilor. I hope that also means that I'll be able to buckle down, and pay off what debt that we have, so that we we start house hunting, we'll get the best rates available. ( =
I hope that you'll take the time to stop by and check out LearnVest. They offer other great boot camps too.

shock and devastation

Sorry I've been out of the blogging loop, but there has been some major things happening in our area, and I'm focusing all my extra attention on these issues. A week ago last Wednesday our little rural area was devastated by the longest running tornado on the ground in U.S. history. The death toll continues to rise and many people have missing family members, and/or have lost all of their worldly possessions due to this horrible EF-4 tornado.  At this time there have been 355+ deaths, and 100’s reported missing. The National Guard has sent out search teams to look for missing residents within the rubble. The Red Cross has triage centers set up to treat injured residents and shelters for people who are now homeless. Almost a week later the Red Cross is still housing 80+ families.  My family was very lucky to be in small area of the region that was for the most part, sheltered from the storm. All of our neighboring cities took a hard hit, and most schools and business have been out of operation. Our county will resume school tomorrow, but other counties will be forced to rebuild their schools. Ringgold, Ga (better known as the hometown of American Idol star Lauren Elena) is about 15 minutes north of where I live, and the whole town is in complete shambles. All of the roads are blocked, including the interstate, in exception to emergency personnel. Friday morning the National Guard bussed in families to survey their losses, the view was devastating.

photo credit

photo credit

photo credit

Friday after the storm I immediately wanted to try to help the tornado victims. The area was in such shambles that the city deemed the roads unsafe for volunteers. I checked in with our local mission to see what I could do to help. Although most of our city residents were not affected, the areas of mass destruction where so close to our town that the Red Cross and the United Way are referring Ringgold residents to our county food banks and relief resources. We will continue to serve victims until the food banks in Ringgold are rebuilt. This is putting a huge strain on the budget of our mission, who will be serving the tornado victim in addition to the 4,400+ families they already serve each year. The need will extend far beyond the immediate assistance that the Red Cross and relief programs can offer. The need will grow in coming weeks as families move from shelters, back in to their temporary homes and need to restock their life. The tornado hit an area that was already struggling immensely economically, and that’s sure to make the recovery process even harder for victims. I hope that the community will support our relief services to help get our sister cities back on their feet again. If you are not from our area, you can learn more about the storm, and how you can help by visiting this website: Click here to help!