The last contest winner of 2008...

I took a couple of days off from the computer. Not doing that much, just having fun with the family and doing things that needed to be done. We also went to dinner at friends' house last night and enjoyed a tasty Mexican feast. We had to cancel the original time due to the snow. As for the snow...

The rains have come, washing away most of the snow and making the Portland area look, well, more like Portland. We can now get around fine, too, so I'll be packaging up the most recent winners and shipping them off this week.

Here are your random numbers:

15
Timestamp: 2008-12-29 16:58:32 UTC

This week's free book winner, the last of 2008, is Virginia. She won with a comment on the post Snowflakes and Gingerbread. Virginia, please choose one book from the list here. Email me your choice along with your snail address. You can use the contact form on my website.

Last week's winner Marianne chose Kerrelyn Sparks' Vamps and the City. Enjoy!

And don't worry, I have plenty of books to giveaway in 2009. Every comment you make on the blog gives you one entry into the weekly free book contest, so comment often!

As 2008 comes to an end, I've been busy trying to get ready for the new year. I've been busy setting up a monthly budget and a monthly menu plan.

We've decided to implement Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. I've heard him on the radio and bought his book earlier this month. For over a year now, I've thought about-okay, dreamed about-being debt free. Imagine no credit card bills or a house payment ever again! I listened to what Dave had to say and he says makes a lot of sense so we're going to a cash only system. No more credit cards. And we'll be using an envelope system for several things in our budget such as food, clothing and gas.

I really like Marianne's Tightwad Tuesday posts. They've given me some great ideas. The hardest thing is going to be implementing and sticking on budget. My income comes in very randomly. There's a sheet for irregular income as part of the budget, but we rely on my income for things like the kid's classes which are monthly expenses. So I've been trying to figure out how to make my irregular income come out more regular.

I've also been trying to get ready for JaNoWriMo. I'll be posting on that blog about my efforts along with several other offers so if you want to follow along during the month, you might want to add it to your google reader or bookmark the blog.

So that's what I've been up to. What about you?