So, welcome to October!

After a busy week last week chasing FUNK out of the home and catching
up on paperwork leftover from August and September, I am pleased to
say that I think I am ready for October!

And I am not alone. The retailers are ready too! YES, the season of
spending is officially here. Halloween clutter, Thanksgiving clutter,
and Christmas clutter are lining the shelves of the stores. I saw the
most amazing thing on Saturday. Boxes and boxes of Christmas clutter
(all stamped "Made in China") were piled amongst the aisles of one of
our local retailers. A store clerk was unpacking the boxes and
setting up the displays (I have to admit the displays are gorgeous �?
Christmas colors are simply beautiful). A shopper was busy digging
into the UPOPENED boxes. You would think she found a hidden treasure
LOL. That poor clerk had to drag the shopper away. The shopper's
husband gasped when he saw all the crap, uh clutter, uh decorations
that she had already loaded into her cart. "What do we need all that
for?" he asked. I saw them at the till �?in a matter of minutes, she
had loaded up $190.00 worth of stuff in her cart.

He's right. What do we need all that for? Me, I enjoy the beauty of
it IN the stores and leave it for someone else to BUY. I have enough
treasures at home. And I have too many things I want to DO. Big smile.

Hang onto your pocket books, the season of spending has arrived!
Every place you look, those retailers, advertisers, and marketers are
going to do their very best to get you to part with as much of your
cash during the next three months as possible. The com-mercials, info-
mercials, and testi-mercials are coming at us hard and fast.

Oh �?and if you don't have the cash, no problem, the stores are very
quick to offer you 10% off if you sign up for one of their handy-
dandy credit cards that you can pay back next year with 24% interest.

If you don't have the cash now to pay for something, what makes you
think you will have the cash in 2008 or gosh �?2009? (They want to
maintain your INTEREST as long as possible).

Today, we are kicking off October with a BANG! We're changing the
season of SPENDING into the - drum roll please �?SEASON of DOING!!!

Retailers want us to spend and buy.

I plan to enjoy and DO!

Are you ready to join in?

This week we have three goals:
1) How much do you PLAN on spending on the big three (Halloween,
Thanksgiving, and Christmas?)
2) How much do you PLAN on DOing during the month of October?
3) How much do you PLAN on paying off on your credit card (or
other debt) during the month of October.

Yes, you heard correctly. Right in the middle of the season of
spending �?we are planning on paying off chunks of our credit debt
(or other debt).

You are going to be amazed by how little the season of spending
actually costs with a little creativity and planning and�?

�?a whole lot of DOING!

Take care of you,
Cindy

PS: For those of you who have been looking for October's meal
planning calendar �?it is posted on Cindy's Porch. SHOP at home
FIRST �?use up the foods you have already paid for! ALSO, we've
posted our fun SHOP at home FIRST Halloween decorations that won't
cost a dime. http://www.cindyspo<WBR>rch.net