Back From The Brink

Up from the depths, 30 stories high, breathing fire, his head in the clouds. Godzilla, Godzilla, Godzilla!

Okay, that may be a slight over dramatization, maybe, but I'm feeling pretty good. It's nice to have a budget and, simultaneously, an income that supports it. Funny how that works, isn't it?

Though I was recently feeling overwhelmed with the concept of actually spending money, I think I'm good. Habits are habits, after all. On the weekends I'll end up cooking up a nice batch of chili, which is good enough to induce drooling at the mere mention of it, and most likely I'll fire up the steam engine, otherwise known as a rice cooker, and cook up a hefty batch of that also.

It's simply not possible to waste money on food if you are cooking and eating low priced, home cooked and healthy meals. Well, it might be possible, but you'd probably have to work at it.

Additionally, I'm now in the habit of making sandwiches for lunch. I know I could take a tupperware container full of chili or something, but I can't be bothered to drag dishes back and forth from work. When I take things to work it is generally a one way trip!

Anyway, it will soon be time to think about figuring out things such as debt repayment and so on. Not today though. For couple of weeks I'm just going to bask in the pleasure of not having to worry about so many things. It's been a while since I've had a chance to put that load down.

Frugal Identity Crisis

This may sound hard to believe, but after dealing with some very frugal circumstances I'm now finding myself pondering what should be simple decisions.

For example, I'm thinking I might like a cut of beef other than "ground beef" once in a while. Instantly, I question this thought. Am I on the road to throwing away money just because I actually have a few dollars for a change? Should I just stick with ground beef because it is cheaper?

I guess this is a symptom of forced frugality. I really didn't have to make many decisions concerning spending because most of the time there wasn't anything to spend.

I am happy to report that I'm still using the rice cooker and cooking up batches of chili. These are easy ways to make those food dollars stretch. Oatmeal for breakfast is becoming a staple again though I did need to take a break from it after living on it not too long ago.

However, the issue that is giving me the most pause is the fact that I'm looking forward to applying some cash here and there. Different cuts of meet. Something more elaborate than a bologna sandwich at lunch time. Replacing some of the threadbare clothing that may not even fit anymore. Buying a pair of shoes for work that don't have a sole that is nearly worn off.

Individually these items wouldn't amount to a hill of beans, but taken together, after years of neglect, there are a ton of little issues waiting to be solved. Combined with all the expenses of moving to a new city and starting a new job, it's disconcerting.

Just because I have a good job doesn't mean I want to start throwing my money away...

AdBrite Review: Negative

In my ongoing effort to find a way to monetize my blog I recently signed up for AdBrite.

It seemed like a great idea. I could manually approve any offered advertising and avoid low quality material. When there were no advertisers available my Adsense would be shown by default. Unfortunately, the only advertising that AdBrite could offer was very low quality run of network material.

Eventually, I was sent an email suggesting that my site did not measure up to their "standards" and they requested I remove their code. I talked with their support folks a few times and it came down to the fact that it was costing them bandwidth and they were not earning anything.

I suggested they consider the long term ramifications of rejecting sites with higher standards -- as you can imagine what their network will eventually look like, but nonetheless, they deactivated their code and I had to remove it.

In short, if you are only willing to show quality advertising, don't bother with AdBrite unless your blog or site is very popular and in a niche that will support a lot of advertising. Hint: that niche is probably not frugality.

Informative Post Review

Recently, before I became fully employed, I had a little bit more time on my hands than I do now.

So, in an effort to earn a little bit of income in my spare time I signed up with Informative Post (sign up). I only wrote one or two articles for them, but they accepted my work and paid me for it via PayPal.

At the current time they are expanding (especially since they've just introduced a new affiliate program). I hope they can keep their focus on accepting only quality original articles -- there are more than enough article directories out there with not so good content.

If you sometimes feel like writing something that isn't a good fit for your blog, perhaps you should give them a try?

As with any online program, be a little bit cautious. Give it a try. Make sure it works for you. Then, after dipping your toe, feel free to jump in a little deeper if everything seems alright.

Here are the current rates for accepted articles...

Technology	Science	World & Business	Sports	Entertainment	Gaming
$3.75	$3.47	$3.58	$4.11	$3.83	$4.32