Have you got the Shawshank-redemption mentality?

Yes! Most definitely. I find especially that when I'm tired or don't want to deal with things, I come here or do other inconsequential things money-wise and that soothes my conscience because I can say that I'm "working," and I somehow expect it to add up to something much more than it is. I'm not sure I'm glad to have come across your post!

I'm very guilty of keeping myself very busy whilst not achieving anything significant.

Neither.. I just do what I'm capable of when I have the energy and time. Though I've always been a firm believer that a little in abundance is a lot. That is how I get through while earning pennies.

Oh dear - where to begin. I am like you in the fact that I saved the pennies from mylot and only recently cashed them in. When the cheque comes it will go straight onto my credit card which is so out of control. This is the earnings of nearly five years or more so it is a reasonable amount even though I only earned maybe 6 cents some days I too, have to create hope for myself to keep going but my belief in God helps me such a lot as when it comes to the crunch a way out has always been possible for me and I give thanks for this. I can dither with big decisions too and take comfort in the fact that I have taken a decision not to make a decision as it were I am not a leader but a good second in command I suppose. Don't be hard on yourself as we do what we have to do.

Yep, myLot is a great place to make use of our little pickaxes - ha ha! I guess I fall somewhere in between. Although I like to think "long term", I often make a lot of "short term" goals in order to reach the long term ones. I can only do so much with these online ventures - pennies - until I start being in the work force again . . . at the same time I want to do "something" to help out with things to build up our house. I may not have built up a big savings, but we do have some things that I have been able to purchase all on my own. In the end, hopefully our place will be just how we want it to be! Shawshank Redemption is a movie I can see over and over and over!! Ah, if only I were as clever (and had the time, though I would never want to "do" the time) as Andy Dufresne!

Hey bounce I like the way you think, I have never thought of what I am doing in quite these words, but I like to think that yes even small things can become great in the end.

I don't think that I would have ever thought about things in this way, but now that you've mentioned it, I have to say that you are exactly right. This is exactly the way that I am. I mean being a stay at home parent I don't have a lot of opportunity to make money so I think about it as being something that is one penny at a time, but I do believe that those pennies will add up to be something that is great. Thus the reason that I'm going to be saving my pennies for the rest of this year to give a very memorable Christmas to my children.

I think it would be nice for me to be able to balance the two. Have a good amount of big tasks that accomplishes things fast and working at small task that will add up to at least something in the end. For me a big part of it is I need to have a balanced outlook. Which in itself is hard to do when so much of the world focuses on having the newest and latest of everything. Recently I'm trying to set the goal to really simplify my life. Keeping my life simple will mean not buying things that I don't need. I think it is alright to do it every now and then but it shouldn't be habit. When I'm successful at this small but big thing it will allow me to have more time to spend with my daughter and I will be able to use the small finances I have to take care of our needs. The two quotes that I read yesterday that I appreciate are: "nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little." and "your children need your presence more than your presents."