Last month, I asked for readers to consider participating in an $0.81 challenge. The deadline to complete the challenge was April 30th.
If you completed this, please email me any photo(s) and notes of what you did no later than Friday, May 11th for my wrap-up post and winner announcement. I can be reached at angela @ thecouponproject dot com.
I can’t wait to see what everyone did!
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I’ve debated whether or not to share this with you, but figured why not. I share so much of what happens in my life with you anyhow, right?
So Monday I had this this thing inserted under the skin in my upper chest – it’s called a loop recorder and it basically records my heart’s rhythms. The goal will be to determine what’s causing these random episodes of racing heart I seem to have.
I’ve had them ever since I was 16 and they can be rather disturbing. I’m not in any pain when they happen, it’s just that all of a sudden my pulse will go from normal to like 160 in nano-seconds. The last episode I had was around Christmas and it lasted a good hour and sent me to the ER. But of course, by the time I got there the episode had ended. I finally met with a doctor who thinks he knows what it is that I have and if he’s right, it’s benign. But after dealing with these episodes for half my life I just really wanted the diagnosis, so here I am with this thing in my chest. (I feel very Hunger Games.) The good news is my heart is healthy – I have normal blood pressure and the last time they took my pulse it was 64 (I credit this to my new healthy way of eating).
Anyhow, I’ve been in a fair amount of pain and discomfort the past couple days – more than I anticipated – and have been dosing in and out (thanks to the painkillers). So if I’m a bit incoherent or sporadic with my postings for the remainder of the week – you’ll know why. I hope to be more with it here in the next week.
Thanks, friends. I’m off to sleep and watch random shows I’ve DVR’d over the past few days.
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My 2012 resolutions can basically be summed up in these four words: GET RID OF CHAOS. Truth be told, I’ve made some decent progress. I’ve shed nearly 20 pounds and cleaned up my diet, I did a big house purge, and my husband and I have two more lessons before we’ve completed Financial Peace University.
And yet the past couple weeks or so, I have noticed that I still feel stressed. Why is that? You’d think that with finances in order, health in order, and house in order (well, somewhat anyhow!), I’d feel that I’d arrived at the new American ideal of the “simplified life.” But I didn’t, and I don’t. I spent some time contemplating this and realized what my problem was. I’d not gotten rid of the chaos in my mind!
It occurred to me that so much of my added stress and worry comes from this fear that at any given time, I’m letting someone (or someones) down. While some of these seem silly, they are very candid and honest!
If I don’t show up for all my kids’ school activities and make sure they get to participate in extra activities, I am letting my kids down.
If I don’t write my sponsor child in Brazil frequently, I am letting her down.
If I don’t keep my kitchen clean, I will let down all the women (past and present) who do keep their kitchens clean.
If I eat something at a fast food restaurant, I will let down a whole host of people including Bob Harper, Jaime Oliver, and the guy who made the Super Size Me documentary.
If I don’t get the Albertsons deals up by Tuesday, I will let my readers down.
If I don’t spend time with my husband instead of writing the Albertsons deals, I will let him down.
If I don’t post about healthy deals, I will let my readers down.
If I share too much about what I’m doing with my diet, I will let my readers down.
If I post deals that are too local, I will let my national readers down.
If I post deals that are only national, I will let my local readers down.
If I don’t floss regularly, I will let my dentist down.
If I don’t respond to the friend on Facebook chat or Skype right away, I will let them down.
If I use my debit card instead of withdrawing cash to use, I will let Dave Ramsey down.
If I don’t answer the 80 unread emails in my inbox, I will let down readers, PR agents, companies, advertisers, and other random folks.
If I don’t workout today, I will let down the Greater Fitness Community.
If I don’t also bring a meal for the friend with the new baby, I will let my friends down.
If I can’t show up for a friend’s special event, I will let my friend down.
…. and I’m sure there are many more if I took the time to think about it.
When I actually took the time to write this out, I realize how silly it is. And sad, really.
If I add something to my to-do list, it should be for the right reasons. It should be done because the relationship matters to me or because the task is important. Some of the people on my list above don’t even know or care about me personally. If I happen to eat some mexi nuggets at Taco Bell, have I really devastated well…anybody, really?
And yes, while it’s entirely possible to let people down, I wonder if I let as many people down in real life as I’ve blown it up to be in my mind. I am my own worst critic.
In the three years of running this blog, I have realized I can’t please everyone. But I still try! It’s hard to have people criticize you, but it comes with the territory of blogging. If you put it out there – someone will not like it. One of the mantras I’ve created for myself around here is “cater to the people who like you, not the ones who don’t.” It’s time I go back to that! If I can’t please everyone, I should put my effort forth to please the readers here who are loyal, who are invested in the topics I care about, and regularly participate here.
As far as the rest of my list goes? Yes, I should make time to do things like attend friends’ events and floss my teeth. But I should make sure that these things have the appropriate weight in my mind and life and not place added unnecessary stress on my shoulders. (I mean, really – is my dentist going, “wow, I hope Angela flosses today!” right at this moment? Is he losing sleep over it? Probably not.)
With this in mind, I’ve decided that some of the small items that I feel are important – like writing to my sponsor child, filling out some handwritten notes, and responding to a few key emails – would take some stress off my plate today. I’m going to weigh which are truly important and matter, and which can be removed from my list. I want to be deliberate about how I spend my time, and paying attention to cleaning up the chaos in my mind.
I know that this post has little to nothing to do about coupons (and see, I could start to worry right there that I’m not pleasing a certain subsection of readers!), but I wanted to take the time out to share my heart. No doubt some of you struggle with this too, and I wanted to let you know you’re not alone today.
I’d like to end this post with one of my all-time favorite quotes. It’s an ancient Chinese proverb, and I find myself coming back repeatedly to it and giving pause -
Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in eliminating the nonessentials.
May you all eliminate some nonessentials today.
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As you might have noticed, I take a pretty conservative stance around here when it comes to coupon deals that I share on the blog. Where matters are gray, I err on the side of caution. Two reasons:
What this means is that you’ll often find me silent on coupons and deals other bloggers are reporting. In many instances it’s not because I’m not aware of those coupons or deals, it’s because I have specific reservations in sharing them with you.
A couple of years ago, I decided that entering zip codes to obtain printable coupons was something I wanted to steer clear of. I came to this conclusion after a conversation I had with an editor at Red Plum.
After watching this practice continue to grow, I decided it was time to see if anything had changed. Was there more I could learn on this topic? I approached two of my affiliate contacts for Coupons.com. It is through these affiliate relationships that I serve the Coupons.com links here at The Coupon Project.com. (For more information on my affiliates, please see my Disclosure Policy.)
The answers I received differed from each other. One response indicated that it was acceptable to share the different zips (but without a definite policy in force), while the other had some more specific guidelines and official stance on this topic. Here’s what I learned from the latter affiliate:
After some further clarification with that affiliate, the issue may be more of a practical one than ethical one. I don’t want you heading to checkout with coupons that potentially won’t work. What I’ve learned recently echos what I was told a couple years prior – that some manufacturers may wish to release a certain coupon offer in a select market. Why? Well, I don’t know. But should it matter? Sometimes offers are available in certain areas. I’m alright with leaving it at that.
I also contacted the CIC for additional thoughts on this topic, but as of this posting, I’ve not heard back. According to this forum discussion, Jill Cataldo (“Coupon Maven” in the thread) is also researching this topic and is planning on sharing soon. I greatly admire her insight and ethics stance, and will be curious to see what she discovers. Thus, more thoughts on this topic may be forthcoming.
So what do I do with all this? One group is telling me it’s OK, another had something different to say, and then there’s the conversation I had a few years ago. But most of all, there’s my gut feeling that says there’s something that just doesn’t sit right with me about it, again for both practical reasons and ones that bug my conscience a bit. Therefore, you can continue to count on me to only promote coupons that are available nationally. If you see me reference a zip code on occasion, note that it’s to validate the coupon’s existence (as per #2 above), and not to highlight a coupon as being only available in one zip code. If you have problems seeing a coupon appear, I would suggest you start by entering your own zip code. (Heck, you should be entering your zip code anyways – you might see some coupons you won’t find otherwise!)
From an ethical standpoint, there are bigger fish to fry in my opinion. I feel more strongly about say, copying coupons or barcode decoding. However, I wanted to give my personal conclusion on the topic since it’s coming up more and more, and I hope this post serves to clear some of that up for you.
It’s always possible that my stance, opinion, and thoughts on this topic will evolve as I continue to learn more for myself and for your information. On a personal note, thank you for following my site, even if it means you aren’t always notified about all those “hot” coupons and deals out there. And thanks to those of you who are invested in wading through all these meaty “gray” topics with me.
PS. Feel free to leave your comments and questions on this topic today. Heck, I welcome opposing viewpoints as well so long as it’s kept nice.
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The other day, I got the following check in the mail:
Yup! That’s right! It’s a check for $0.81. The phrase “try not to spend it all in one place” seems to come to mind.
As I was guffawing at how silly this was – the cost of the postage the party spent to send this to me, the cost of gas it will cost me to drive it to my ATM – I had another thought. An idea kind of thought.
What if I were to try to turn this meager $0.81 into something much more? After all, I’m a keen shopper, a lover of bargains, and a stretcher of dollars. So what if I were to demonstrate how far $0.81 could go if I really tried?
I’ve not cashed my check yet, and I’d love your input.
I don’t have an immediate plan here, but I think this could be a ton of fun, and I’d love your input!
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I don’t know about you, but I’ve had it.
It seems that every other week, someone I know and care about has lost a job. Other friends have spent months (or longer) looking for work and not finding it. These aren’t slackers, either. I know people who hold college degrees, have worked in technical positions, or have resumes that would knock your socks off who are now finding themselves jobless. Even more devastating to have put your heart and soul into a company for years, built close friendships, and feel like you’ve had the rug pulled up from under you.
And quite frankly, I’ve had it!
Early in our marriage, my husband and I struggled with seasons of unemployment and I know how scary, frustrating, and trying that it all can be. I believe many of you have found my site as a direct result of unemployment. Suddenly your income is slashed and getting food on the table becomes more of a survivalist skill than a culinary one.
The other night, a friend of mine shared how her husband had lost his job, and it was sort of the hair that broke the camel’s back for me. I can’t make everything right for everyone out there, but I can do what I can do. And it occurred to me that I have a decent following here. I have loyal, loving readers here who CARE. And a light bulb went off that maybe in some small way I could use this blog to bring hope to some of the families out there dealing with unemployment. (And no, I’m not suggesting we all go Occupy Wall Street.)
So here’s what I propose: one day a week, I will feature a Coupon Project reader who is looking for work. I will do my best to highlight the wonderful talents, skills, and personality that you bring to the table. We will put up an email address so potential employers can contact you. I will then share the posts via The Coupon Project Facebook page (currently approaching 11,000) and Twitter (over 3,000). My prayer and hope is that the Coupon Project community would then carefully read through these posts and share ANY tips or ideas for job leads. If nothing else, offer up a prayer, kind word, or virtual hug as we begin to put faces behind that steep unemployment number.
First up will be my friend’s husband, and that post will go up on Monday.
If you would like to be considered for this series: please email me at angela @ thecouponproject dot com. In the subject line write “HIRE ME” so I know you or someone in your family is interested in being featured. I am still working out the kinks, but I will be building an email list so I can contact those interested with details early next week.
While I can’t promise that anyone will in fact get a job out of this, we can certainly try! Will you join me?
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Hi. I'm Angela. My goal is to show you that using coupons is easy, fun, and an effective way to save money. I'm a proud firefighter's wife, mother of two, and freelance writer. I practice ethical, common sense couponing. Since Feb 2012, I've been eating a plant-based diet. I also sometimes write posts about reality TV shows. I'm blogging out of the greater Seattle/Tacoma area. New? START HERE.
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