Surprised myself and actually did some on line shopping today. Thought it was a no spend day, but had time to put one of those deals together so many here have talked about.

Used My Points to get books from Barnes & Noble, also paid for the memb. bit from there.........and cashed in my g/c I had redeemed from my points for B & N. Managed to find what I needed to get shipped, went just over the total necessary for free shipping and I think it is going to work. Shipping books to an incarcerated person, I can't ever ship things that aren't new, must come from the company, etc, etc. I was determined not to spend any more than I had to, and now I've got more points to redeem another g/c........so I think it is almost going to be a wash. Amazed myself that I got this accomplished. We'll see if it all goes to where it needs to go....I haven't been too successful in the past.

Down to 2 kids this evening, feels like a vacation!

Had a drop in visitor, another person who is willing to rent space from me & live on the back 40. We're meeting again tomorrow when I don't have 3 boys milling around asking me a thousand questions.

All my little ventures might add up to enough income to make this new retirement "plan" of mine work. (thank you to all of you who have given me encouragement to just keep waiting for the windows to open here)

The "plan" as it looks from here:
-have current house mate pay more than her share for the first time in decades so I'm not really paying for housing.
-new housemate paying rent starting 7/1
-monthly rent from parking boat
-1/2 the power bill paid from "Navy" person staying on the property
-monthly income from 2 part time clients here on week ends
-monthly income from antique booth
-monthly income from boarding the 4 horses
-brand new income from sewing customers (have no recent numbers from this, but I was always able to make as much as I wanted when I did it before.)

So, with all these taken into account, I'm only using the figures I know.....I'm less than $100 off what I will be giving up in income as of July 1st. Not bad. I just need to come up with a little more sophisiticated accounting system here, so I can keep track of who has paid what!!

Feeling quite positive tonight! Grateful I have a piece of property I can MAKE money from, as well as some talents I can get paid for.

And, just to put the whole thing over the top, the whopping 1 book sale a month from Half.com!!!!