Give Blood - A No-Cost Way to Donate

When I was working in a school district, the Blood Bank bus visited one or more of our campuses several times a year, so it was easy for employees to occasionally donate since they came to us. But since I've been working at home, it was harder for me to remember to donate blood.

Last year I learned that the Blood Bank comes to my hometown two days every eight weeks at two locations in my hometown, so it's been easy to get into a routine of donating blood with them. If I can't make it one day, I can go the next.

I'm currently living off of my savings, and I need it to last as long as possible so I've really had to watch my spending. But giving blood is a great way for me to contribute something important without affecting my savings.

It's a part of my calendar now.

Burning Money

Over $15,000 is the average amount of credit card debt in the American households that have debt. Michael, from BusinessInsider.com figures if a person carries that amount of credit card debt, paying an average current rate of 12.83% over a period of 40 years, they would pay the credit card companies over 2.6 million dollars. Did you get that? 2.6 MILLION dollars!! In interest, which means one has nothing to show for spending 2.6 MILLION dollars. 

Think of what you could buy for 2.6 million dollars:

• A house, paid for. 
• Several vehicles, paid for. 
• College degrees for your children, paid for. 
• Nice vacations, paid for.
• A very comfortable retirement, paid for. 

If people turned around and saved the same amount of money burned up in interest payments, they would be millionaires by the time they retired. 

But no, we've trained ourselves to satisfy our every want, on credit, with little thought to how much money we are throwing away in interest due to our impatience and greed.

In the early years of my marriage, my husband and I paid over 15% interest on a $40,000 home improvement loan. We refused to think about how much money we paid to the bank each year due to our inability to wait until interest rates dropped dramatically or until we saved enough money to pay cash. We thought everyone operated this way, that living with debt was normal behavior. And based on our government's modus operandi and example for us to follow, that's the dysfunctional truth.

I never had $15,000 debt on my credit cards, but I did my fair share of interest payments and late fees and even bank overdraft charges in my younger years because I was ignorant about managing my personal finances. And I wasn't disciplined enough to change my sloppy ways until it finally dawned on me how much money I was throwing away every year.

One of the few people in the media promoting debt free living is Dave Ramsey, and it's exciting to listen on the radio when a person or couple calls in to do their debt free scream. I hope to be able to do that one day. Ramsey is a rare voice of sanity and self-control in our out-of-control, over-indulged culture.

Today, I use one credit card to earn travel miles, and I pay it off at the end of each month. Credit card companies are the modern day loan sharks, and they're laughing all the way to the bank as they prey on folks' ignorance and weaknesses.

Keep sweeping

I remember as a young mother driving down a street of very small and humble houses. I saw a woman sweeping the porch of one house and wondered what motivated her to do that. Did someone tell her to sweep the porch? Did she sweep the porch on certain days? Did she sweep the porch only when she noticed it needed sweeping?

My house and porches and carport at that time were big, and it was easy to get behind when it came to keeping it all swept clean. My biggest motivation for cleaning occurred when company was coming, and I felt guilty that I didn't give my family the same consideration on a regular basis. They deserved better than that.

It's taken me years, but I've finally learned to pick a time to clean the floors, which I do once a week unless we've been extra messy, and then I'll use a whisk broom and dustpan in-between times. Tomorrow morning, I'll vacuum the hardwood floors and rugs and then steam-clean the hardwood floors, (for which I gladly abandoned the mop for a light-weight steam cleaner). With the size of our house now, I can get it done in an hour. The porches take about fifteen minutes. And it feels so good to walk on clean floors for a while. Then I don't give it another thought until next week.

Have you ever watched an archeological dig on television? How did entire structures and civilizations get buried over time? I've decided that somebody got behind on their sweeping.

10 Reasons to Have a Porch

1. A porch is a place of peaceful contemplation and enjoying the flora and fauna. 

2. A porch is the best spot to park rocking chairs, which invite folks to sit down and enjoy some face-to-face, tech-free conversation.

3. A porch is the poor man's counselor's office.

4. A porch is doubly special when it has a swing attached. It's my favorite place to hang out with my grandchildren and rock the baby to sleep.

5. A porch is an oversized playpen for children, pets, and adults alike.

We made a simple rolling gate out of a section of fence to enclose the front porch for pets and little ones.

6. A porch is a great place to read and expand the mind. I don't need my reading glasses when I'm reading on the porch.

7. A porch is a good place to shell peas, eat watermelon, crochet or knit. 

Every time my grandson Finn visits, we find a new stack of sticks on the porch, leftover from his imagination.

8. A porch can be a magical anything to child's imagination. My grandchildren regularly turn the back porch into a food store, or a fort, or a miniature town with wood blocks.

My grandkids think we built the ramp just for them!

9. A porch is a good way to stay connected to the neighbors.

10. A porch is the smile on the face of a home.