Personal Note from Jill

My Year’s Recap

2019 has been a year of cleaning out for us. We have eliminated lots of items from our home by recycling / tossing, selling, donating and more. Each and every month we have gotten rid of items – everything from paperwork (which was scanned and originals shredded) to unused exercise equipment to streamlining our clothing.

Here are some of the specifics we did:

Donated formal attire to the local high school formal attire club, work clothes to Dress For Success and more
Sporting Equipment to the local sports drive
Books to the Library Book Sale fundraiser
Cell phones and accessories to Cell Phones for Soldiers
VHS movies to local senior living facility
Tools and ladders to Habitat for Humanity Restore
Old sheets / towels to the animal shelter
Electronics to the Salvation Army
Stuffed animals to the local thrift shop
Office supplies to several non-profits based off their wish lists
Clothing to the local food / clothing bank

Sometimes this seemed like a never ending project, but there has been much progress. For more information and ideas on what to do with your stuff, please visit my Resources page.

Here’s to a more organized 2020!

Celebrating Our Anniversary

We have stopped buying gifts for each other a long time ago. We don’t need more stuff in our home. We chose to celebrate occasions with experiences.

Our wedding anniversary is next week, but we celebrated early and took a weekend away. We love music and had the chance to go to Eric Clapton’s Guitar Festival 2019 in Dallas – two great nights of music with so many performers benefiting his charity Crossroads. It was an incredible experience.

We were able to do this with many opportunities to save. We were able to use airline miles for the upgraded flight and we earned miles for flying for the next trip. Our hotel points got us an incredible rate of 50% off and the hotel had shuttle service within 2 miles of the hotel. No need to rent a car, pay for parking at the hotel or transportation to the arena.

This was a great way to celebrate and save money in the process.

Thank you

Thank you to all of those who took the time to reply to my question.

In the coming weeks, I will do my best to respond to your thoughts / suggestions.

Need Your Thoughts!

You, as loyal readers of my newsletter, I need your thoughts.

For years, i have been writing my newsletter and informing you about personal finances issues. I wants to know what you want to hear about. What topics are of interest to you? What do you want to learn more about?

Here are some suggestions (but please feel free to add your thoughts)

Personal Finance General
Getting Out Of Debt
Savings For Your Future
Money and Kids
Retirement
Money For The Fun Things In Life
Organizing Your Finances
Your Choice __________________________________

Let me know by responding to this post on social media, blog post or an email to jill@jillrussofoster.com. Thank you in advance for taking the time to respond.

The Tulips of Kuekenoff

Thank you all for your posts / comments over the past few weeks. We are back from a fantastic vacation to Amsterdam (as you can see the flowers / tulips from Kuekenoff) and then a British Isles cruise. Starting next week, we will be live posting and responding.

What can you do today as a random act of kindness?

Today is Random Acts of Kindness Day.

A few years back, I read a book by Cami Walker called 29 Gifts. What a life changer that book was for me. What can you do today to brighten someone life?

Need ideas, this is a great book of inspiration and an easy read to get you started.

What did you think?

You received my new format of a newsletter / blog combination on Friday. What did you like? What would you like to see that isn’t there? What would you change? Let me know your thoughts.

Money Choices Newsletter

Happy New Year and welcome to 2018!

My goal for all aspects of my life for 2018 is to simplify. To start this goal off, I have changed up the Money Choices newsletter. Money Choice was a bi-weekly newsletter delivered to your inbox every other Friday. My blog was something that I posted other content to. For 2018, now they are one. You will receive my newsletter every Friday with all the blog posts of the week. I hope you enjoy.

What topics are you interested in? Let me know.

It’s official

I am have been approved as a Professional Member of the National Speakers Association.

National Speakers Assoc & CT Book Awards

I was busy yesterday.

I’ve submitted my membership and paperwork for my National Speakers Association professional membership. Will keep you posted to let you know if I am accepted. 🙂

Submitted my application and 7 copies of my book, 111 Ways To Save to the Connecticut Book Awards. I’ll know in September if my book wins. Keep you fingers crossed for me.