It appears I have three families already plannig on coming to me for tutoring next year. It's nice to be able to plan on that. If I can add one or two more apointment every week or every other week, I'll have a fair amount of extra income coming in. A year or two ago I was seeing 10-12 kids a week, and with a little one at home too, that was just too much. The money was great, but it wasn't worth the stress. Not to mention that it's hard to plan on doing things with DD when I feel somewhat chained to the house eah day except Friday.

I'm still trying to set up a couple of tutoring gigs for the summer but haven't reached either family yet to work out details.

If I have a weakness, it's the fabric store. I almost never leave there without some new fabric or yarn to play with. I'm getting better at shopping the sale stuff and not always paying full price, but still... how many cute things does my daughter really need? ;-) I'm toying with the idea of trying to sell an outfit or two in my own consignment store, but we'll see. I bought five pieces of fabric today. Two are specifically for DD, and the other three are for whatever I end up deciding to do with them. All in all it still cost me under $15 and I'll get at least three outfits out of it, so while I know it would be cheaper for me to just stay out there (!) I don't feel too bad about it. Besides, this is also one of my hobbies, something I do for fun, and it's better than just shopping for shopping's sake which is something I did when I was working fulltime and single.

We're going to get at least one more estimate on the plumbing situation. Yesterday's bid came out to about $10,000. Yes, you read that correctly. Astounding. We have to get more input before making that kind of payment. It's awful, even just thinking about it.

Today was a nice day, and an inexpensive one too. We go to a UU church, and there was a picnic for the church today at one of my favorite parks here in town. We packed a cooler and a dish to share and had a great time just hanging out with everyone. We have only been going regularly for the past few months, so we are still pretty new and don't know a lot of people. But we know a few people, and DD has a friend there.

It appears we have roots growing into our sewer lines. Wonderful. We may have to replace some pipes under the house. That is, we may have to pay someone to replace our pipes under the house. There is someone under our house right now, gauging what's what and all that fun stuff.

On a positive note, I got an inquiry today for some summertime math tutoring, and I'll be talking to the parent on the phone sometime this week to discuss the situation. Could be some unexpected income.

YEA! I have my first artist officially represented in the store. I'm shooting for a launch date of June 21 and hope to add at least 2-3 more artists before then. I've gotten signed documents from two other artists and at least one or two more who said they would be working on getting photos and such to me soon. Now it's just a matter of waiting, and picking the right time to nag gently if need be. ;-) I'm excited about the possibilities and pleased to hopefully help these independent artists and crafters gain more exposure on the internet and contribute to greater success for them, and for DivaTribe.

I skimmed through the raising a family on less than two incomes book yesterday. One of the messages I took from it is something that I believe Jeffrey has written an article on - namely, find ways to save on things like insurance and other expenses that won't leave you feeling any pinch whatsoever. Most of the book seemed to talk about things I've read online when it comes to going from two incomes to one, like calculating all of the costs you incur *because* you are working, and figuring out how much you're really bringing home when you take those costs into account. I think it would be a helpful book for anyone who is considering going from two incomes to one but hasn't given it a lot of thought yet and feels like there is just no way it could be done.

I've started reading Your Money or Your Life and so far, the idea that has hit home with me is calculating how much you really earn per hour, taking into account expenses related to your job (parking fees, wardrobe expenses, etc) and the hours spent preparing for work, getting to and from work, etc. Once you know your true hourly wage, you can use that to help you gauge how many hours you are working to pay for the newest *thing* that is vying for your attention.

More to come as I read more...

I just got these today, but I thought I'd pass along the titles in case anyone else was interested:

Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence, by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin.

Retire Early - and Live the Life You Want Now (John F. Wasik)

How to Raise a Family on Less than Two Incomes: The Complete Guide to Managing Your Money Better So You Can Spend More Time with Your Kids (Denise Topolnicki).

I saw the first title while surfing for sites related to voluntary simplicity. I'm glad my library had a copy of it. I was ready to go to Barnes and Noble and take a look at it, but now I get to read it for free. :-)

Yesterday we decided to refinish our front door. While we were at Lowe's buying supplies, we priced new front doors. While it would be nice to pick out a new door that was more to our style and liking, our current door is turning out pretty well. Dh is doing a good job. We also bought a closet shelf/rod for DD's closet. It works well, and now DD can reach all of her own clothes in her closet. It also looks more organized, with clothes hanging and sweaters folded up, and shoes all lined up on the bottom. I hope it will help her feel less cluttered where her closet is concerned. Sometimes I think we need to help her develop systems that make it easy to clean up and stay less cluttered. If something is easy to put away, we're more likely to do it, right?

Actually, decluttering and finding ways to clean quickly are a couple of things I've been working on over the past several months. I am surrounded by too much stuff, and it gets to be overwhelming sometimes. Our neighbors across the street are having a garage sale next weekend, so I have been gathering up things to put out as well. Slowly I am decluttering my own possessions, but there are still areas of the house that seem to become messy too easily, too quickly. It's not a matter of needing more space - it's a matter of needing a place for everything, and to not have so many *things* in the first place!!