tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72375104880984848272024-03-13T05:11:10.783-07:00Frugal Wife = Wealthy Life"Not only are the most prodigious accumulators of wealth frugal, their spouses tend to be even more frugal." The Millionaire Next DoorCarolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361293553525222340noreply@blogger.comBlogger216125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-25142111773962766252011-07-26T15:31:00.000-07:002017-01-25T13:39:40.461-08:00Getting Your Children to go to College William Elliott III, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Kansas recently published findings that "kids with a savings account in their own name are six times more likely to attend college than those without an account." <br />
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Dr. Elliott continued, "It's helping them to be thinking of college, to have it on their mind in a more concrete way than simply saying, 'I expect to go to college. They've taken some actions, they've got a savings account, they're saving some money. Positive expectations aren't quite enough." <br />
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Would these conclusions have been true for you or your children??Carolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361293553525222340noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-36622261748039285302011-07-07T06:11:00.000-07:002011-07-07T06:11:38.195-07:00Dave Ramsey video about buying cars (Carole)So, after a<i> long</i> winter's nap, here I am with a <a href="http://www.daveramsey.com/media/flash/elearning/drive-free/player.html">great video</a> from Dave Ramsey on buying cars. Hope you enjoy it and get a little bit of inspiration!Carolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361293553525222340noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-38631531399451533602011-05-18T12:33:00.000-07:002011-05-18T12:35:42.755-07:00CSA (Janssen)I've mentioned on my <a href="http://everydayreading.blogspot.com/">personal blog</a> that I've signed up for a CSA this year (if you're not familiar with the CSA format, it stands for Community Supported Agriculture and you pay an upfront cost to get a box of fresh (possibly organic, depending on the CSA) locally grown vegetables every week).<br />
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We subscribe to <a href="http://www.jbgorganic.com/">Johnson's Backyard Garden</a> (which is an organic farm) and it costs $300 for ten weeks. We have some friends that we split it with (which also means we can split up the weekly pick-up), so it's $15 a week. It's a LOT of produce - we really have to work to get through it all.<br />
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Do I think it's worth it?<br />
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Depends on what your goal is. If it's to spend the least amount on food you possibly can, it's probably not worth it.<br />
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On the other hand, if you're trying to increase the amount of vegetables you eat, want to support local industry, and don't want to pay the really high sticker price for organic produce at the grocery store, this is a great way to go. For me, I've decided that it's worth a slightly higher price to eat better and put a fairly large percentage of my grocery budget into my local economy.<br />
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I feel like I've been able to keep our grocery bill fairly stable even with this addition, because I now plan my meals around our vegetables, rather than meat. Instead of vegetables being a side dish, they are part of practically everything we eat.<br />
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Plus, we've now eaten a ton of things I'd never tried before and very likely would never have purchased on my own (bok choy, rainbow chard, kale, escarole, fennel, etc). <br />
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Anyone else do a CSA?Janssenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13178196211079230972noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-3744974953078470152011-04-26T07:12:00.000-07:002011-04-26T07:14:44.977-07:00Are You Wealthy Yet? (Carole)Recently I ran into an old friend. I don't see her very often, but I hear about her through the grapevine from time to time. She is a lovely person with a great family and many talents. She and her husband are also quite wealthy. They own at least two multi-million dollar homes (I think there's also a large cabin out there somewhere), they travel the world on a pretty regular basis and drive very nice cars. But if you just met her at the grocery store, you would really never know they were loaded. They don't talk about their possessions or travel and don't dress in an expensive way either. They are just good people -- even their children are delightful, which I think is a quite an accomplishment when you have lots of money.<br />
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A few years ago, a mutual friend mentioned that this family earns about $3,000,000 per year. I did the math and that works out to $250,000/month! Of course, they lose probably half of that to the IRS, but still. That's a lot of moo-la. I find it interesting to see what people spend their money on. <br />
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If you had millions to spend, what would you do with it? Would you be quietly generous? Would you flash it around in certain ways? Would you just buy stuff just because you could? I hope I would be frugal still and be a good steward with what I had. I know I would travel. And I'd probably still watch for cheap fares and good deals at hotels. In that vein, here is a interesting blog, <a href="http://www.helpmetravelcheap.com/">Help Me Travel Cheap</a>, that I recently found that helps those of us who are still working for a living, travel the world without breaking the bank. Being able to travel and experience new places, makes me feel like my life is wealthy. Maybe you feel that way too.Carolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361293553525222340noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-60379300652364935252011-04-20T09:04:00.000-07:002017-01-25T13:38:32.028-08:00Frugal vs. CheapIn my mind, the difference between frugal and cheap is this:<br />
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Frugal is saving money by limiting spending on yourself; cheap is saving money by limiting spending at the expense of someone else.<br />
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For instance, when my husband and I go out to dinner, we don't spend a lot of money. We usually get one entree and perhaps an appetizer to share. We are water drinkers and dessert is usually something I prefer to have at home (because my list of desserts to make is so long that if we have dessert when we go out to eat, I'll never ever make a dent in this list). So, generally our bill is fairly small. I would call this frugal. <br />
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But the tip? We always leave a good tip. My husband's standard is to leave (he claims that if the service is really bad, he'll do 15% or if it is truly terrible, 10%, but I have never once seen him do this). And if our meal was so inexpensive that even a 20% tip would be less than five dollars, we generally round up to at least that. Trying to save money on eating out by shortchanging the waiter seems cheap to me.<br />
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Plus, I like the idea that the waiter might assume it'll be a pathetic 7% tip or something because we obviously aren't big spenders and then opening up the bill to see that we did right by him. <br />
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I think of cheap as trying to get other people to pay for things that you should be responsible for or trying and save money at the expense of someone else. <br />
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I always want to live frugally, but I try hard not to be cheap.Janssenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13178196211079230972noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-13308380010918103062011-04-08T07:30:00.000-07:002011-04-08T07:30:02.497-07:00Money and Marriage, Part 3 (Guest Post by Alisha)Welcome back! This is my last post about how my husband, Neill, and I handle finances. I've already dished on the money situation when we dated and then when we moved in together and in this post I want to share with you how we are handling things now that we are married.<br />
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For Neill and I, being open and honest with each other about our finances and our financial goals is very important. So, we've been having lots of frank conversations about spending, saving, and goal setting. We try to be 100% transparent with one another and we've decided to take a big step that will help us with<br />
this.<br />
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In my last post, I mentioned that we opened up a joint saving account a while ago that we've used in addition to each of our personal saving accounts. Now, however, having our individual accounts just doesn't seem to feel right anymore. Even though both of us have said that whatever we save individually is really for us, we want to make that thought a reality. So, we decided to totally revamp our organization.<br />
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With this new set-up neither one of us will keep a personal savings account. We'll only put money into our joint savings. This certainly wasn't something I would have wanted to do originally, but right now it makes the most sense for us.<br />
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We decided to keep a total of two joint savings accounts so that we can save money for different purposes. One is a Save for a Rainy Day Account. This is our six-month emergency fund that is not to be touched unless we have . . . an emergency. The second is a Save to Spend Account. This is where we can save for vacations or a new piece of furniture (like maybe that couch I mentioned in my last post!). The only catch? Our numbers aren't quite where we would like them to be. So, we've started a friendly-competition to get into savings gear. We each have a savings goal (different, to accommodate our salary difference) and the first person to reach their goal wins $500 dollars out of the Save to Spend account.<br />
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A bonus of merging our savings is that it motivated us to finally set up an emergency fund. Since Neill is still the primary wage earner in the family it is really important to me that we have an emergency fund set aside. We've always known where we might pull money from if we found ourselves in a dire situation, but this is the first time actually pulling the money, setting it aside all in one place, and taking a hard look at whether or not we have enough. I'm really excited about our new plan because I feel like we are a bajiliion steps closer to following through on our new years resolution to be financially secure.<br />
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As you’ve probably already gathered, I don't have any secrets to successfully negotiating finances in a relationship. But for us, communicating and being flexible seem to really help. Since we both keep an eye on our finances and discuss them pretty regularly we are able to realize when something isn't working. And, we aren't afraid to switch things up a bit. Who knows? Maybe in another year we'll decide to merge Finances can be a touchy subject to talk about and I think the uneasiness surrounding money-talk makes it extra difficult for couples. So, I thought I'd quiet that little voice in my head that says discussing money isn't appropriate and lay it all out there for everyone. I’d be lying if I said that it was easy! But, I had a good time writing these posts and I hope you've enjoyed reading them! Please do come over to <a href="http://marriedinchicago.blogspot.com/">Married in Chicago</a> and say hello from time to time. I’d love to hear from you!<br />
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What are your thoughts on merging finances completely? Do you keep a private saving account? What<br />
motivates you to save money?<br />
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<i>Alisha is a 20-something newlywed pursuing a doctoral degree in psychology and blogs at <a href="http://marriedinchicago.blogspot.com/">Married in Chicago</a>.</i>Janssenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13178196211079230972noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-22316067819665224762011-04-06T07:00:00.000-07:002011-04-06T07:00:10.247-07:00Money and Marriage, Part 2 (Guest Post by Alisha)Hi everyone! I’m back with the second part of my story. In my first post, I shared how my husband, Neill, and I handled money throughout the first two years of our relationship. Once I finally found a job, we realized that we seriously needed to get real about how much money we made versus how much money we spent. So, we made our very first budget in good ol' Excel!<br />
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To do this, we made a list of all of our monthly expenses. We had 24 in all--from groceries, restaurant, phone bills, household bills (e.g., electric), car insurance, medical bills, money we put in savings, public transportation costs, etc. Then, we looked through our bank statements and wrote down the amount we<br />
spent on each category for the preceding three months. Finally, we averaged these three numbers to determine how much money we typically spent in each category. For example, on groceries we spent $613 one month, $498 the next month, and then $402 the month after that. This averages out to spending $504.33 every month on groceries.<br />
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Then, we looked at how much we were spending each month on average for personal expenses (e.g., buying a new shirt), bills, and joint expenses (e.g., going out for dinner together). All of this gave us a good snap-shot of what we were spending. For example, we discovered out we spent an average of $970 dollars a month on joint expenses (groceries, restaurants, gas, and miscellaneous items) and we had an average of $3,566.17 hundred dollars of household bills per month (mortgage plus all the monthly bills).The next step was to look at the money going in and compare it to the money going out. Obviously, we hoped to find that the money coming in far outweighed the money going out so that the extra money could be spent on <strike>frivolous shopping sprees</strike> put in savings.<br />
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But, no such luck. Taking a cold hard look at our bank statements and comparing our in-put versus our out-put helped us realize that if we wanted to save the sort of money we wanted to save, we had to readjust our monthly spending habits. Since most of the monthly bills were fixed, one area that we targeted was how much money we spent at restaurants. For example, we reasoned that if we were spending an average of $500 on groceries every month, we probably didn't need to be spending an average of $300 dollars on going out to eat. So, we developed a budget to help us curb our spending on non-essential items so that we could put more money in savings.<br />
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Awesome, right?<br />
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Eh.<br />
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I must admit that I don't think we ever truly stuck to our goal spending in each category. Keeping up with a budget every month is time-consuming and hard work! But, our first foray into money management together was still really helpful. It raised our awareness and forced us to talk about our financial details more than we ever had. It set a precedent in our relationship that each of us would be open and honest about finances. Plus, it gave us a chance to really discuss what our financial goals were. Looking through our past spending also showed us that a lot of what we spent money on was joint expenses. So, we decided to open up a joint checking account.<br />
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With the addition of the joint checking account, we had five bank accounts between us! We each had a personal checking account, a personal savings account, and then one joint checking account. Our respective paychecks got automatically deposited in our personal checking accounts and then each time we got paid we would transfer a certain amount of money to the joint account, a percentage of money to our personal savings, and keep a percentage of money in our personal checking accounts to pay our credit cards and use as we pleased. We would use the joint account to pay for groceries and anything we did together. But, the boundaries were (and still are) pretty fluid. If I needed something but had no cash left, I was free to use the joint account. Similarly, if our joint account was empty and we wanted to order food one of us would cover it. While this is basically the opposite of sticking to a budget, it has worked for us. After opening up a joint checking account a joint credit card was the next logical step. This way, we could make big purchases together without worrying about how to split the cost. Even though I knew it made logical sense, I was definitely aware that opening a credit card together was a big step to take. I remember being pretty nervous about what might happen and I refused to be the primary name on the account! I guess I was worried about being in charge of a credit card that I didn't have complete control over.<br />
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Making a budget also helped us realized that if one of us spent a big chunk of change it would inevitably effect the other. So, it became less acceptable for one of us to make a big purchase without consulting the other. Do we always consult one another on things we buy impulsively? No. For example, I didn't need to get Neill's permission before I went on my recent shoe buying binge and Neill doesn't need my<br />
permission before he buys accessories for his guitar.<br />
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So how do we know what we need to talk about? Since we don't usually keep a lot of extra cash in our checking accounts, a good rule of thumb is that we need to talk it over if we would have to take money out of our savings account or put it on a credit card to buy it. We try to frame the conversation like "I want this. How can we make this happen?" rather than seeking permission, but sometimes we just can’t<br />
make it happen. For example, I’d love to get rid of our hand me down couch in the living room, but have you seen how much couches cost?!? We just aren’t willing to spend that kind of money on a new couch when our current one is still usable. Honestly, we tend to talk over most things we are planning to buy. Not because we necessarily have to, but because we talk and it comes up in conversation. But, I think if either one of us was constantly buying small things impulsively we would have to have a conversation and figure out some sort of system to manage it.<br />
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We've basically stuck to this system, with a few added tweaks, for the last three years. Our attention to finances as waxed and wane--some months making a big effort to keep our spending down and other months allowing our selves to put things on the credit card and worry about it later. However, after about 9 months of marriage we decided to make some big changes!<br />
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Have you ever made a budget? Where you able to stick to it? If so, what are your secrets? How much do you and your partner talk to one another about things that you buy? Do you keep a stash of money that you're allowed to spend however you want? How do you manage having a joint account or joint credit cards?<br />
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<i>Alisha is a 20-something newlywed pursuing a doctoral degree in psychology and blogs at <a href="http://marriedinchicago.blogspot.com/">Married in Chicago</a>.</i>Janssenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13178196211079230972noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-46665594944734356172011-04-04T07:00:00.000-07:002011-04-04T07:00:14.715-07:00Money and Marriage, Part 1 (Guest Post by Alisha)<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eXaDRel48sg/TZkupjjmf5I/AAAAAAAAGts/s4_TtUjihZE/s1600/AlishaNeill-571.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eXaDRel48sg/TZkupjjmf5I/AAAAAAAAGts/s4_TtUjihZE/s200/AlishaNeill-571.jpg" width="200" /></a><i>Hi! I’m Alisha. I’m a 20-something newlywed pursuing a doctoral degree in psychology. When I'm not toiling away at schoolwork, I love going out to restaurants, taking on home design projects, practicing yoga, cuddling with my husband, and catching up on my favorite television shows. I'm a city girl at heart and my husband is a transplant from the mountains of West Virginia. Right now we live in a small condo in the heart of Chicago and love being in the middle of it all, but one day we'll move to our forever home with two floors, a yard, room for a dog, and . . . a girl can dream. I blog at <a href="http://marriedinchicago.blogspot.com/">Married in Chicago</a>.</i><br />
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I’m a long time reader of Frugal Wife = Wealthy Life and so I’m absolutely thrilled to guest post here this week! I’m not very good at keeping an organized pantry or getting a month’s worth of cooking done in one day (although I really wish I was), but I can share with you the financial story of my marriage.<br />
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Sometimes, one of the hardest things to negotiate in a marriage is money. This can be a struggle in any relationship, but marriage adds the complex layer of fully joining finances (or not). And as it so happens, money is also one of those things that polite society just doesn't talk about. It can be tricky to talk finances<br />
with family and friends and I've noticed that, at least in my own life, when it is discussed people tend to paint broad strokes and avoid sharing the nitty gritty details. Think about it, when was the last time you told your friends exactly how much money was in your retirement account?<br />
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This hesitancy to divulge makes total sense. The number in your checking account or on your credit card bill are personal. But for me, I think it also has to do with the nagging fear that my numbers don’t match up with what everyone else has. I get anxious just thinking that maybe everyone else on the planet is saving gajillions more dollars than me or that my credit card balance is exponentially larger than the<br />
person’s next to me. Yikes!<br />
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With all of these feelings about what each number means and with the hush-hush money shroud of secrecy, it can be HARD to talk money with your significant other. Really hard.<br />
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No wonder people fight about it, right?<br />
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So, I thought I'd share with you the money history of my relationship with my husband, Neill. Am I little nervous to share so much information with you? Sure. But, if sharing my story helps just one person feel less alone, anxious, or concerned it is worth it. Plus, I think our society needs more open discussions<br />
about the different ways people handle finances in a relationship.<br />
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My husband and I have been together now almost six years. But, I’m going to start at the beginning of our relationship so that you can see how our finances have changed over time. When Neill and I first started dating we were in very different points in our lives. He had already started his career, while I was a college student who worked during school breaks. He lived in his own apartment and was completely financially independent, while I lived in a dorm and was on a meal plan that my parents paid for. Many of these differences were because of our age difference. When we first met, he was 26 years old and I was only 19.<br />
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The first two years of our relationship we dated long distance. While only seeing each other every other weekend was difficult, I think living in different cities protected us from dealing with difficult money issues too early on in the relationship. For example, I don't think we talked about how much money we<br />
had in our savings accounts, if we had credit card debt, or Neill's income. I knew Neill had a “good” job and Neill knew I basically had no job, but that was that. We each had a personal checking out and a personal savings account. I had some small mutual funds that were set up for me by my family and Neill had a retirement account started. Our finances were completely separate. When we saw each other, Neill usually paid for dinner or whatever we were doing. But, once in a while I would use the cash I had to pick up the tab.<br />
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A few weeks before I graduated college Neill officially became a homeowner and when I was finished with school I moved to Chicago, officially ending our long-distance status. We had some general discussions about what he was expecting financially from me, but the expectations were pretty low. We knew we wanted to live together and so we figured we would make it work somehow. At this point, Neill paid the mortgage and all of the bills. I, on the other hand, was an unemployed college student with my eye on graduate school. I wanted to find a paid position working on a research study, but I couldn't find anything. So in order to get the experience necessary to be accepted into a competitive clinical psychology doctoral program, I started working on a volunteer basis in two different research labs. Yup. You read that right. Volunteer. As in for free ninety-nine. As in Neill was pretty much completely supporting me, with a few hundred dollars from my mom every once in a while.<br />
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I am so thankful for Neill’s support because this arrangement let me build my CV and helped me get accepted to a clinical psychology program. But, living completely on Neill's dime brought up all sorts of uncomfortable feelings for me. For example, I remember when we would go grocery shopping I felt like I had to ask Neill's permission before I put anything in the cart. Plus, with taking on a mortgage Neill's monthly expenses went up. Even though Neill has always been extremely generous and never once made me feel like he differentiated between what was his versus what was ours, money was tight. I hated feeling like I didn't have any money of my own to spend however I want.<br />
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Thankfully, after six long months I finally found a job. I wasn't making much, but it was a full-time salaried job with benefits! Even though Neill still made about five times my salary, bringing home a paycheck made me feel good about being able to contribute to our household. It was during the first few months of my new job that we made our first household budget -- an excel document that I still have<br />
saved to my desktop.<br />
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In my next post, I'll share how we made our budget and how we decided to open our first joint checking account. Until then, I'd love to continue this discussion in the comments. How did you and your partner handle finances in the early stage of the relationship? Have you ever been in the position of not earning an income or being the breadwinner? Is it easy for you to talk about money with family and friends?Janssenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13178196211079230972noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-4977905284911288632011-04-01T04:41:00.000-07:002011-04-01T09:14:24.673-07:00Organizing to Save Money (Merrick)I'm one of those crazies that loves to organize. We always get a good laugh when my husband unloads the dishwasher and he has to ask where half of the dishes go since I've rearranged everything so many times. But things stay so much cleaner and I'm <span style="font-style:italic;">much</span> more likely to put things back where they belong when everything has a place. <br /><br />Case in point -- I reorganized the bottom shelf of my pantry a few months ago:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b8P79BPt8B8/TZX5y9juVtI/AAAAAAAAC4w/kWq9qBJeZA4/s1600/DSC_0001.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 237px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b8P79BPt8B8/TZX5y9juVtI/AAAAAAAAC4w/kWq9qBJeZA4/s400/DSC_0001.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5590649166363514578" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PU6uHyypqg0/TZX5ylcejCI/AAAAAAAAC4o/_5To6fPnxL4/s1600/DSC_0002.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PU6uHyypqg0/TZX5ylcejCI/AAAAAAAAC4o/_5To6fPnxL4/s400/DSC_0002.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5590649159890668578" /></a><br /><br />I purchased all the containers at Walmart for $2-3, and the used a label maker to label each of the items. Now let me tell you a little bit about why I love this, why it works for me, and why it stays clean: <br /><br />First, I love having everything uniform and in the correct place. It makes my heart go pitter patter every time I open the pantry and see everything so neat and organized. And because it's such a simple system, everything gets put back every time so it stays look this awesome ALWAYS. <br /><br />Second, I love having them in clear containers AND labeled so I can look in and see exactly what I have and easily grab what I need. <br /><br />Third, the containers are pretty good quality (rubbermaid) and have screw on tops that are airtight so my food will not go bad. Some of the other options were cuter, but were more expensive and didn't have airtight lids. <br /><br />And fourth, having all the food in clear containers allows me to see when I'm running low on an item. Before I did this, that bottom shelf was stacked with bags of flour, brown sugar, coconut, etc, and many times I would re-purchase an item because it was buried underneath something and I thought I was out. <br /><br />So not only does having an organized pantry look awesome, it also saves money because you can keep track of what you have.Merrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03459273173644882597noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-88443160614675847542011-03-30T07:48:00.000-07:002011-03-30T07:48:15.765-07:00Call Before You Pay (Janssen)I have a secret theory that some companies send out bills without a lot of detail or add on extra charges, hoping that you'll pay them without noticing or bothering to find out what exactly you're paying.<br />
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A couple of weeks ago, a friend asked me how much we'd paid out of pocket for our daughter's birth. I told her (probably with no small degree of smugness) that it'd been completely covered by insurance.<br />
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Then, of course, THAT AFTERNOON I walked to the mailbox and pulled out a bill from the hospital for the sum of $700. My baby was eight months old! What could I possibly owe? Also, goodbye tax return. <br />
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I went home and called the hospital to ask what this $700 bill was for (you might have guessed that the bill made no mention of WHAT I might owe $700 for, just that I owed it and ought to pay it quickly before it went to collections).<br />
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They told me that $200 of it was my co-pay and $500 was my co-insurance. (I have no idea what co-insurance is). They did rush to assure me that the insurance company had already paid $15,000 for her birth, and had only bumped back this very small $700 charge. This did not make me feel better.<br />
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I felt certain that everything we'd read about the health insurance plan insisted that a birth would be completely covered and there would be no copay at all. So I called my health insurance company and asked how come they hadn't paid it.<br />
<br />
The answer? They'd listed my delivery as being out of network. Was it? Of course not, and as soon as they looked up the hospital where she was born and my plan, it was clear that she was born right smack in the middle of the network and that I certainly did not owe $700 and they would cover it.<br />
<br />
But if I hadn't called, I would never have known, and I also would have been $700 poorer. On Monday, I got a form from the insurance company indicating that they had increased the amount they paid and I now owed nothing.<br />
<br />
If I wasn't already convinced that you shouldn't call about any bills you think you don't owe, I certainly am now.Janssenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13178196211079230972noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-33145866703844561342011-03-23T05:51:00.000-07:002017-01-25T13:39:27.929-08:00Saving on Tolietries and Household Items (Janssen)I count household and toiletry items as part of my grocery budget, which means every time I have to buy laundry detergent, there is less money for me to spend on cheeeeeeese or other equally delicious things (what a lie - there is nothing as equally delicious as cheese). <br />
<br />
I think the truly cheapest way to get household items like toilet paper and shampoo is probably through drugstore deals. I subscribe to <a href="http://www.commonsensewithmoney.com/">Common Sense with Money</a> and they have weekly posts about the deals at Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid (not to mention Wal-Mart and Target). But 1) I don't take the newspaper and you usually really need those coupons in order to rack up your savings and 2) the idea of going to the drugstore on TOP of regular grocery shopping and then trying to keep track of my Register Rewards and CVS Extra Care Bucks without letting them expire overwhelms me. If you are willing to put in the effort there, though, you really can save a ton of money. <br />
<br />
For me, the happy medium is Soap.com. I was wary until I made my first order a few weeks ago when Bart needed new razors and the idea of making a special trip to Sam's Club made me want to weep softly into the carpet. But buying razors at the grocery store makes my soul shrivel up and die a little because I might as well just flush dollar bills away.<br />
<br />
And for many household items, I'm not usually willing to go with a generic version because they simply don't work as well (the difference between Tide and the $2 bottle of detergent? night and day for me. And my husband hates any deodorant that is not Old Spice). <br />
<br />
Everything on Soap.com is pretty reasonably priced (the Mach 3 razors, for instance, were cheaper per blade than if I'd bought them at Sam's Club), and they often have digital coupons that you just click and they'll take off anywhere up to $3 off. Brilliant. <br />
<br />
Shipping is free if you spend over $39 (which thrills my husband because it means I will actually stock up a bit on things he lives in fear of running out of). And if you aren't happy with something, you can send it back for free too.<br />
<br />
AND, if you have coupons for items, they send you some postage-paid envelopes with your order that you can stick your coupons in and mail back to them and they'll post them to your account (you have to send them in at least a week before they expire) and you can apply them to your next order. I love it. <br />
<br />
There are almost always coupon codes so that you can $10 off or 20% off your entire order, etc. If you use the code <b>FRUGALWIFE</b> when you check out, you can get 20% off your first order.<br />
<br />
AND (I know, it just keeps going), if you go through <a href="http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=Kiww6woAhMCWgvcmxJyYzA%3D%3D">Ebates</a> first, you can get up to 5% back in cash. <br />
<br />
I tell you, when that box of deodorant, razors, lotion, and Draino (yes, envy my glamorous life) just showed up on my doorstep, without me having to leave the house or drag my baby out with me, it was pretty much the greatest thing ever. That UPS man probably thinks I have a very sad existence.<br />
<br />
Seriously, I am completely sold (just ask my mom, who had to listen to me talk on and on about this on the phone the day after my box arrived).Janssenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13178196211079230972noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-47735566996645213752011-03-09T06:44:00.000-08:002011-03-09T06:44:00.280-08:00Hobbies That Don't Break the Bank<b>Carole:</b><br />
<ul><li>Practicing the piano</li>
<li>Crocheting or knitting</li>
<li>Decorating on a shoe string – $20 for paint, fabric for pillows or curtains on sale for cheap, cheap, cheap</li>
<li>Gardening (start with seeds) </li>
<li>Hiking </li>
<li>Bike Riding </li>
<li>Blogging<span style="font-family: Wingdings;"></span> </li>
<li>Writing in a diary</li>
<li>Volunteering</li>
<li>Book club </li>
<li>Couponing </li>
<li>Writing your epic novel </li>
<li>Touring model homes </li>
<li>Playing cards with your family </li>
<li>Embroidery or cross stitch </li>
<li>Upholstery </li>
<li>Refinishing furniture </li>
<li>Singing in a choir </li>
<li>Community theater </li>
<li>Baking breads or other things </li>
<li>Organizing areas in your life </li>
<li>Sunbathing </li>
<li>Swimming</li>
</ul><b>Janssen</b><br />
<ul><li>Cooking dinner (am I the only person who generally enjoys making dinner?) </li>
<li>Making lists (I love lists - books I want to read, recipes I want to try, places to visit)</li>
<li>Free museum days</li>
<li>Trying new restaurants with <a href="http://www.groupon.com/r/uu6208192">Groupon</a> certificates </li>
<li>Checking out cookbooks and decorating books from the library</li>
<li>Maintaining a little herb garden on my balcony</li>
<li>Reading magazines (from the library - I could not afford my magazine habits otherwise)</li>
<li>Getting the mail and sorting it immediately (I don't know what sad things it says about me that this has been the highlight of my day for <i>years</i>). </li>
<li>Craft group (<a href="http://frecklesinapril.blogspot.com/">Kayla</a> gave me this idea - you get together every few weeks and every one works on their own project)</li>
<li>Dessert nights (much cheaper and easier than having people over for dinner. Plus, you aren't staring an entire cake down with only two mouths in the house)</li>
<li>Checking out TV show seasons from the library (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000RF1QE2?ie=UTF8&tag=everydayreadi-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000RF1QE2">Friday Night Lights</a> was a recent favorite) </li>
</ul><b>Merrick</b><br />
<ul><li>Go on a walk -- the summer is upon us, and what better way to relax than take a stroll in the sunshine? I've been going on daily walks/jogs with one of my good friends. We push our strollers and catch up on each others lives! </li>
<li>Go to the library -- find a good book, a quiet corner, and dive in. So much better than spending $15 on a book that you may never want to read again. </li>
<li>Crafting -- doing something with my hands always relaxes me (one of the many reasons I paint!). Crafting can be expensive if you get carried away with it, but with my box of scrap fabrics, I can embellish a old tshirt or make a headband for pennies!</li>
<li>Rent a movie -- after a long week, this is one of Philip and my favorite ways to relax. With a $1 movie from the redbox, you can't get a much cheaper date than that!</li>
<li>House Hunting -- from the early days of our marriage, Philip and I have loved driving around and looking at houses. We mostly drive through high end neighborhoods, admiring the beautiful landscaping, scoffing at the gaudy architecture, or swooning at the beautiful stonework. Since they're so out of our price range, it doesn't depress us that we don't own a nice house like that -- it just inspires us to do beautiful things with the tiny space that we currently have! </li>
</ul>What hobbies do you have that aren't too expensive? <br />
<ul></ul>Janssenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13178196211079230972noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-18012210308435750432011-03-03T06:46:00.000-08:002011-03-03T06:53:41.474-08:00Do You Use a Credit Card? (Janssen)Some people (including financial gurus) are extremely anti-credit card. And I get that. It's easy to spend money you don't really have, the interest rates are killer, and the minimum payments mean you could be still paying for your gallon of 2% years from now. <br />
<br />
But . . . we use a credit card.<br />
<br />
Bart had one when we got married and had never once carried a balance on it. I'd never been a credit card user previously.<br />
<br />
Five years later, I can tell you that a credit card works well for us. I like the security of a credit card (if your cash gets stolen or accidentally thrown away or lost, you're just out of luck - not so with a credit card). I like that I can account for every penny spent on it by checking my online statement rather than thinking "didn't I have a $20 in here yesterday?"<br />
<br />
I know, also, that this is fairly uncommon, but it's HARDER for me to spend with a credit card than it is with cash. With cash, I have no paper trail - I can pay and be done. With a credit card, not only do I have to think about my purchase when I make it, but I have to think about it <i>again</i> every single time I look at the statement and then when I pay it (can you tell I look at our statement many times a month?). <br />
<br />
We have a Southwest credit card and we put absolutely everything on it - gas, groceries, our cell phone bill, the internet bill. If I could pay our rent on it, I would (well, technically, I believe I can but it would be $25 a month, so that clearly would be a bad call). We get probably two free round-trip tickets a year on it, which definitely makes it worth the $59 fee to us (I called to see if they'd waive it. They would not).<br />
<br />
For us, it works.<br />
<br />
What about you? Do you use a credit card? Avoid them like the plague?Janssenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13178196211079230972noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-18744186552870907162011-02-28T01:00:00.000-08:002011-02-28T01:00:10.337-08:00Do You Need an Investment Broker? (Carole)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Recently, one of you asked if we thought an investment broker was a necessity, or if it would be better to save the commission money and do your own online investing. </span><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Even though my husband and I have been consistent investors for many years, I do not consider myself an expert in any way when it comes to investing. But, I've done a lot of reading about this subject over the years, and <u>every reputable expert encourages having a professional </u>along for your investment ride. </span><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">One of my favorite experts, Dave Ramsey, has <a href="http://www.daveramsey.com/articles/article/articleID/the%2Dtruth%2Dabout%2Dinvestments/category/lifeandmoney%5Finvesting/"><span style="color: #0000f0; text-decoration: none;">an excellent article</span></a> about this subject that I hope you will find helpful. I would encourage you to read this very short article a couple of times. Investing is a complicated venture and not one to rush into, and you should be careful who you trust with your financial future. </span><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">You can expect that he/she will talk you through some simple yet important questions:</span><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">1. At what age do you want to retire?</span><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">2. What amount of money will you need at retirement?</span><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">3. How much risk are you comfortable with in your investment strategy?</span><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">From here you can discuss your current financial situation (income, savings & debt), the amount of years between now and your retirement, and any personal criteria you might have for your investment options. This person will also have tax advice to share regarding your decisions. Your investment broker should be a valuable asset and a trusted associate through the years. </span><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">On a personal note, my husband and I are big believers in not keeping all our eggs in one basket, and so we have two separate people we invest with. Neither one knows about the other. It just makes us more comfortable to split things up a bit (if one of them were to turn into a Bernie Madoff, we wouldn't lose everything). Maybe you'll feel the same way too. </span><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The best advice regarding investing is to START EARLY and BE CONSISTENT. Remember, when it comes to investing, <i>Slow and Steady</i> wins the race. </span><span style="font-family: Times-Roman; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times-Roman; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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</span></div><div></div></div>Carolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361293553525222340noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-31135609953266366142011-02-23T11:01:00.000-08:002011-02-23T15:21:42.218-08:00Health Insurance (Janssen)We feel fortunate to have health insurance through my husband's job. In the past, we've always done a regular coverage plan, but when we moved back to Texas, we switched to a high-deductible plan.<br />
<br />
What this means is that instead of paying a large monthly amount to our health insurance company and then having them pay for the majority of most health care expenses, we pay a very small amount monthly to the insurance company and then the rest of the money goes into an account that we can use to pay for medical expenses.<br />
<br />
We have a debit card attached to that account that we can use to pay for any medical expenses. Plus my husband's company put a large chunk of money into the account when we switched. <br />
<br />
The high-deductible part means that our insurance doesn't pay for any care (except for regular preventive care like annual exams or routine checkups for children) until we've paid up to the deductible amount (which is about $6000). But we can pay for that $6000 out of the fund we pay into each month. <br />
<br />
For us, it's worked out really well - we haven't paid any co-pays for our daughter's regular check-ups or my post-pregnancy visits and by the time we have our next baby, we anticipate there will be enough in our account to cover the entire deductible. <br />
<br />
We spend considerably less each month on health insurance <i>and</i> with an infant who has to go in for check-ups and immunizations regularly, we've saved a bundle on co-pays ($30 a visit adds up fast). Plus, even if we did have to pay something out of pocket, the difference between the monthly cost of this plan and our former plans means that we would still come out ahead. <br />
<br />
Of course, if you're about to have a baby or are currently having some expensive health problems, this might not be a good choice for you at the moment. But if you have some time to let your monthly contributions accumulate, you might consider looking into this type of coverage.Janssenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13178196211079230972noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-15849550164967470122011-02-21T01:00:00.000-08:002017-01-25T13:42:07.068-08:00Trolling the Aisles of Your Super MarketMaybe coupon shopping just isn't your bag. Maybe you hate even the idea of paging through the newspaper ads and cutting out coupons, or worse yet, printing out coupons online and using your valuable paper and ink! If this is you, here is an easy way to still pick up some great deals at your grocery store without the scissors or newsprint stained fingers.<br />
<br />
Each week during your weekly shopping trip, take an extra 10 minutes and slowly walk down a couple of aisles looking for those lovely $1.00 sale tags -- or 2/$1.00 is even better! My personal favorites to comb on a regular basis are the personal hygiene and cleaning supplies aisles. You'll be amazed at often your favorite deodorant, toothpaste or window cleaning spray are on sale for only $1.00 (which is typically much less than half the regular price). <br />
<br />
If I didn't walk down these aisle WHEN I DON'T NEED these items, I would end up paying full price just a few weeks later -- when I'm desperate. We've all been there before! <br />
<br />
My second little piece of advice is to buy 12 of these items when they are on sale for $1.00. Instantly you have a year's supply of this product. Easy Peasy.<br />
<br />
Remember, the most expensive item is the one you HAVE to buy right now. I think it's a cosmic law that nothing is ever on sale at that moment.Carolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361293553525222340noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-60546138504731580262011-02-16T07:15:00.000-08:002011-02-16T07:15:00.391-08:00Make the Call (Janssen)You've likely heard the term "planned obsolescence" where products are made to not last more than a few years. <br />
<br />
This makes me insane. Is there anything LESS fun than spending money to replace a blender? I mean. . .it's a BLENDER. It's not like a vacation or something. Especially when it's just something small that goes wrong and you have to replace the whole thing. <br />
<br />
But! Sometimes if you call the company, they'll send you a replacement part. For free (you may have noticed that free is my very favorite price). <br />
<br />
Twice in the last few weeks, I've had an item with a minor break that made it rather useless. A quick phone call and a replacement part was in the mail. Not only did I not have to pay for a replacement part, I didn't even have to go to the store! Hooray!<br />
<br />
One of the items was my vacuum belt. I only bought this vacuum six months earlier, so I wasn't every happy that it had already broken. Sure, it's only a couple of dollars for a new belt, but still!<br />
<br />
I called and, without even asking if I had a warranty or receipt, they had me off the phone, with TWO new belts in the mail, within ten minutes. <br />
<br />
All from the comfort of my living room floor.Janssenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13178196211079230972noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-46556063823187859822011-02-09T08:42:00.000-08:002011-02-09T08:42:17.561-08:00Baby-led Weaning (Janssen)Merrick wrote a post a while ago about <a href="http://frugalwifewealthylife.blogspot.com/2010/10/homemade-baby-food-merrick.html">making your own baby food</a> in order to keep the costs of feeding your baby lower.<br />
<br />
My problem is that not only do I not like to spend money, I also can be kind of lazy. And Merrick had said the amount of mess that making your own baby food created was anything but minimal. <br />
<br />
Enter <a href="http://www.baby-led.com/">Baby-led Weaning</a> (I read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/161519021X?ie=UTF8&tag=everydayreadi-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=161519021X">this book</a> about it after hearing about it from <a href="http://frecklesinapril.blogspot.com/">Kayla</a> and <a href="http://thatwifeblog.com/">Jenna</a>).<br />
<br />
The basic idea is that there is no reason that babies need to start with cereals or purees (the APA's site backs up this idea) and that your baby will be able to feed themselves things that they are capable of eating. There are supposed to be a ton of benefits, such as increased hand-eye coordination, family bonding over food, and a baby who develops a wider range of foods they'll eat.<br />
<br />
That all sounded good to me, but really the part about just feeding your baby what you're eating rather than dealing with baby food sounded exceedingly appealing to me. <br />
<br />
And for our baby, it's worked like a charm. <br />
<br />
We have <i>still </i>not gotten around to buying a high chair, so we don't do much of the "sticking food on her tray and letting her eat what she can" part. <br />
<br />
Instead, once she started showing interest in what we were eating, we put things on a spoon or our finger, offer her some and let her decide whether or not she wants to eat it (thus far, except for two days when she was sick, she has never rejected a single thing. In fact, I'm amazed I still have all ten fingers because this baby loves to eat).<br />
<br />
This morning, she put about half a square of waffle in her fist and ate it bite by bite until there was only the part left inside her hand that she couldn't get to. She also has started grabbing the spoon and guiding it to her mouth on her own. <br />
<br />
I don't spend time or money buying or making extra food, and I know exactly what's going into the food she eats. <br />
<br />
(Also, you have no idea how cute it is to watch a six and a half month old chew a blueberry).Janssenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13178196211079230972noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-65103950625754424702011-02-07T10:50:00.000-08:002011-02-07T10:50:04.463-08:00Free At Your Library (Carole)If Ben Franklin did indeed invent the idea of a free public library, then I LOVE him!! But libraries have come a long way since his day. Today, most libraries offer much much more than books and the local newspaper. Here's a list of the possible freebies you could be taking advantage of in your very own neighborhood. <br />
<br />
Books (fiction, non-fiction, how-to, cookbooks, travel guides. . . )<br />
Books on cassette and CD<br />
Movies<br />
How-to DVDs<br />
Exercise DVDs<br />
Music CDs<br />
Online services<br />
Download music and books directly to your iPod (often from home)<br />
Toys<br />
Puzzles<br />
Board games<br />
Video games<br />
Wii games<br />
Book Club back packs (a backpack containing multiple copies of the same book with discussion questions)<br />
Specialty cake pans -- I love this one!!<br />
Reading time for newborns, toddlers and young children<br />
Summer reading programs for youth and adults<br />
Movie Nights<br />
Free WiFi<br />
GED, SAT and other standardized tests<br />
Youth and Adult book clubs<br />
Cultural passes for local museums<br />
Lectures<br />
Author visits and book signings<br />
Bilingual reading time for children<br />
Homework help<br />
Genealogical research areas with specialists to assist you<br />
Book sales<br />
Seminars<br />
Writing groups<br />
Foreign films<br />
Concerts<br />
Magicians<br />
Poetry readings<br />
Computer classes<br />
Themed help bags for parents (such as how to potty train a child)<br />
Magazines<br />
Local, national and international newspapers<br />
A place for you to donate books you no longer need or want<br />
<br />
The list is as creative as your branch librarian. . .<br />
<br />
Heck, even with the occasional library fine, it's still a great deal! If you've run across an unusual kind of service or check out that your library offers, we'd love to hear it!Carolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361293553525222340noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-64284132727173737572011-02-04T04:17:00.000-08:002011-02-04T04:17:00.283-08:00The Thirty Day Rule (Merrick)I hate to admit it, but I have a pretty short attention span. And I have a tendency to get really really excited about things. These two traits combined means that when I get an idea in my head, I NEED to do it right then. I plan the whole thing out in my head and I spend all day thinking and dreaming about it. And if I act on these impulse ideas, which usually require spending money, I suddenly don't care about them anymore. The lust is gone, and suddenly I've spent money on something that I didn't need and now don't even want. <br /><br />Thus I have instigated the thirty day rule in my life.<br /><br />This is sort of a standard tip for saving money, but it really works. When I get the idea, I write it down (usually in my google docs so I can organize it and re-access it easily), and then I wait. Despite the temptation to act on it immediately and buy up the entire local home depot, I continue to wait. <br /><br />And then a few weeks later I browse back through my Google Docs and am able to weed through the ideas. Miraculously, I don't care about 99% of them anymore. If I am still as excited about an idea as I was originally, I know that it's something that is worth my time and money. And if I'm not, it gets trashed. <br /><br />This rule has saved me tons of money and time over the years because I'm not just spending and projecting willy nilly. I take time to think through the projects that I want to undertake and try to only do the necessary and important ones. Emphasis on <span style="font-style:italic;">try</span>...Merrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03459273173644882597noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-80946357684509163252011-02-02T06:41:00.000-08:002011-02-02T06:57:08.575-08:00A Very Long Post about Diapers (Janssen)You know those <a href="http://www.babycenter.com/baby-cost-calculator">horrendous baby calculators</a> where they estimate that you'll probably need to sell your corneas in order to afford the first year of having a baby? I hate those. Mainly because seeing the $10,000 for the first year about gave me heart attack.<br />
<br />
Also, because it estimates $72<i> per month</i> for diapers. I cannot say for certain because my records are, sadly, not this good, but I would venture to say I have not $72 PERIOD on diapers. And my baby is six months old. Besides this, I have a good 350 diapers in her room right now in her current size, plus an additional 600 diapers in the next size up. (And, no, I don't change her diaper only twice a day or something horrifying like that). <br />
<br />
I am firmly convinced that diapers do not have to cost you a fortune. Last spring, <a href="http://frugalwifewealthylife.blogspot.com/2010/05/saving-money-on-diapers-merrick.html">Merrick compared the cost of diapers at different stores and said that the cheapest diapers were to be found at Costco or Sam's Club</a>. And that's true if you just want to buy a box of diapers and be done with it. Those diapers were priced at $0.14 per diaper (and that's for the newborn size, which is generally the least expensive). <br />
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I try to spend less than $0.10 per diaper and I really am happy if I can get them for more like $0.05 or less.<br />
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This is totally possible if you follow deals at drugstores and stock up when there are killer sales. I keep an eye out and have some friends who alert me when they find good deals and so I've been able to do quite well. <br />
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Let tell you about one such good deal that you can probably do right now (I got 228 <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VHSHCA?ie=UTF8&tag=everydayreadi-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000VHSHCA">Pampers Size 2 diapers </a>for around $7 - I paid less than $0.03 per diaper).<br />
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Amazon sells diapers for around the same price as big box store (around twenty to thirty cents per diaper, depending on the size and brand). But if you sign up for <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fmom%2Fsignup%2Finfo&tag=everydayreadi-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957">Amazon Mom</a>, you get 15% off. Then when you choose your diapers, sign up for "Subscribe and Save" (the option is on the right, just below the regular "Add to my Cart" button) and you get another 15% off. Now you're talking more like fourteen to twenty cents per diaper.<br />
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And then, here's where you can really rack up your savings. Right now, many parenting magazines (Parents, Parenting, American Baby) have coupon inserts for either $10 off any Amazon Mom order or 20% off any diaper order (and this is 20% off the <i>full list price</i>, not your discounted price). Best of all, you can combine them, so I used both a $10 off coupon and a 20% off one. And Amazon had a bonus coupon for Pampers last week that brought my price down even more. <br />
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Plus it all ships for free. One of my friends bought <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VHU3V8?ie=UTF8&tag=everydayreadi-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000VHU3V8">Pampers Newborn Diapers</a> yesterday for $10, making hers about five cents a diaper. Another pregnant friend of mine (expecting twins!) ordered <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002VPE530?ie=UTF8&tag=everydayreadi-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002VPE530">Huggies Diapers</a> for around eight cents apiece. <br />
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As if my mega-cheap diapers weren't enough, every time you order something through Amazon Mom and do Subscribe and Save, you get a month of free Amazon Prime (which means all Amazon products ship for free with no minimum purchase). <br />
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My box of diapers arrived today at my front door. It was a glorious moment.<br />
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Check your pediatrician's office or your own stack of magazines for these coupons. Or ask a friend (I got my 20% off coupon two days before it expired from a friend who wasn't going to use it). <br />
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And then bask in the cheapness of the diapers (and don't forget to cancel your diaper subscription before the next batch ships, if you're so inclined - although even without a coupon, many of the diapers are only about $0.12 each. Not bad).Janssenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13178196211079230972noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-45637250639357224082011-01-31T01:00:00.000-08:002011-01-31T05:41:02.586-08:00Cooking Once a Month (Carole)The title says it all. This is a method of cooking that I've done off and on over the years. It can also be done on a weekly basis quite successfully.<br />
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List out 28 meals that your family likes and that you're comfortable cooking. Make up a shopping list so you make sure you have all your ingredients. Then spend most of one day getting each main dish as close to the cooking stage as you can:<br />
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1. All basic/raw ingredients mixed together and frozen in the baking dish<br />
2. All canned and/or dry ingredients assembled in a ziplock bag ready to be quickly assembled on the day you need them.<br />
3. A combination of #1 and #2<br />
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Take some time and figure out how much of each recipe can safely be prepared ahead of time, so that on the day you want to fix it, most of the work is done. The goal is to have 28 recipes READY TO GO. Just like last week's meal idea, this system allows you to buy items in bulk and use them up quickly.<br />
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Try doing it with a week's worth of recipes first, to get the hang of it. I remember the first time I did this, it took me about 7 hours to assemble everything for one month's worth of meals. The second time (using the exact same recipes), I did it in a little over 2 hours. You do get the hang of it, and you'll figure out some speedy tricks. I also simplified many of the recipes.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51R2DZWRAWL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51R2DZWRAWL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" /></a></div>If choosing your own month's worth of recipes seems like too much effort, you can get the book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Once---Month-Cooking-Revised-Expanded/dp/0312366256/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296481197&sr=1-1">Once-a-Month Cooking</a>, that gives you all the info you need -- that's what I did in the beginning. She has good recipes and many good tips. <br />
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Check to see if your library has it in stock. I bet they do! You'll love yourself night after night when you quickly feed your family another healthy, home cooked meal.Carolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361293553525222340noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-88385187630922138812011-01-28T04:04:00.000-08:002011-01-28T04:04:00.105-08:00Balancing Your Life (Merrick)With the start of the new year, I'm sure you all have many new years resolutions. This year, I decided to tone down my usual new years resolutions craziness and focus on the essentials. My main goals are to simplify and balance my life. I never want to be one of those women who is doing the laundry or cleaning every day of the week, or going to the grocery store every other day to pick up a few things. I want each day to feel individual and special, and be able to have time to do the important things, like playing cars with my little boy. <br /><br />So let me tell you about a few things I'm doing this year, although not all of them specifically deal with saving money (but I'm saving my sanity here, and that is worth something!!):<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">I make bread every Tuesday</span> -- <span style="font-style:italic;">I bake it, cut it up, put it in a bread bag, and it's ready for sandwiches and toast all week.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">I clean the house every Thursday</span> -- <span style="font-style:italic;">this includes cleaning both bathrooms, dusting, mopping, sanitizing doorknobs and countertops, and any small organizing jobs that need to be done. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">I do the laundry every Friday </span>-- <span style="font-style:italic;">this includes sorting, washing, drying, folding, ironing, and putting away ($$ saved by not running the washer/dryer every day!)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">I go grocery shopping every Saturday</span> -- <span style="font-style:italic;">this includes planning my weekly menu, clipping coupons, and then going to my regular grocery store (Smiths), Sam's Club for bulk items, Rite Aid for toiletry items, and Sunflower Market for specialty items. ($$ saved by not running to the store every day!)</span><br /><br />In the interest of full disclosure, I babysit my neighbor and have art class on Monday's and Wednesdays, which keeps me busy all day. So I keep those days free of house duties. <br /><br />Also, we do many small household chores on a daily basis -- take out the garbage, run the dishwasher, clean the counter tops, pick up toys, etc. <br /><br />By dividing up my week in this way, my life is suddenly more balanced than it ever has been. My laundry basket is full, but I'm not stressed about it because I know it will all be washed and put away today. We are running out of milk, but tomorrow is shopping day so why waste my time by running to the store today (especially when I'll probably come home with $20 worth of groceries!) -- we'll just have toast for breakfast. And each of these daily duties only takes me an hour or two of hands on time, so I have plenty of time for other things during the day. <br /><br />When you have specific days dedicated to your various duties, you can better commit to each of them and perform better at each of them. You're probably not going to save much more money if you spend hours clipping coupons every day -- you're just going to hate couponing. <br /><br />So do yourself a favor and bring a little balance into your life this year. Everyone, including your wallet, will be thanking you.Merrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03459273173644882597noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-33156591736348819832011-01-26T06:25:00.000-08:002011-01-25T20:01:16.942-08:00Price Adjustments (Janssen)I am floored that I have not mentioned this before. In fact, I just spent about 25 minutes searching the blog to be sure I haven't posted about this before, but both Google Reader and the search feature on the blog are swearing I have not. So, stop me if you've heard this one . . . <br />
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Is there anything more painful than buying something at full-price and then seeing it go on sale immediately afterward?<br />
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Did you know that if you buy something and the price goes down with a week or two of your purchase, many stores will refund you the difference?<br />
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All you need is your receipt - march up to the checkout desk, and ask if you can get it price adjusted. If you paid by credit card, often the difference will just go right back on your card.<br />
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Last week, I bought quite a number of baby clothes for my little girl because Old Navy was having a really excellent 40% off the clearance price sale. I stopped in today when I was going to another store near Old Navy and noticed that all the clearance items were now FIFTY percent off the clearance price. Plus, most of the items had been marked down even further. No problem - all the items I'd bought last week now were priced at the new lower price. Two quick seconds at the register. <br />
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Most stores have their price adjustment policy on the back of their receipts or on their website.<br />
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It's probably not worth an extra trip, most of the time, but if it's a store you frequent a lot, keep your receipts in your purse or wallet and have them rescan them the next time you're in.Janssenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13178196211079230972noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7237510488098484827.post-3031852546302849042011-01-24T01:00:00.000-08:002011-01-24T01:00:12.069-08:00Neighborhood Meal Group (Carole)I have two really easy and fun ideas for saving both time and money on your family dinners. Today I'll tell you about one of them. Next Monday, I'll post the 2nd.<br />
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Find 3 - 4 friends who have similar sized families (and similar cooking styles, I might add). Make up a plan for each of you to make dinner for all of the other families once a week. You will take Monday, Brittany takes Tuesday, Cheri takes Wednesday. . . every week. This is SO EASY. On Monday you cook all afternoon making dinner for yourself and the other families, but all the other days of the week dinner magically arrives at your door while you never stepped into your kitchen. Wow.<br />
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A few guidelines are helpful:<br />
1. Set a standard time when dinner will be delivered<br />
2. Dinner should include 1 main dish and 2 side dishes<br />
3. MINIMAL or no cooking should be required when the food arrives at your house. It should basically be ready to set on the table.<br />
4. We bought matching sets of storage containers to transport food in, so you never had to return anything.<br />
5. No weird foods<br />
6. No Pizza Hut because you were too busy/tired to cook on your day-- you are expected to deliver a home cooked meal on your assigned day.<br />
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Just a few of the benefits:<br />
*The $ savings at the grocery store is incredible. When you're only buying supplies for one meal during the week (even though it's to feed 4 or 5 families) you buy a whole lot less stuff. And you can buy the big bulk size, knowing you will use it all up. <br />
*Nearly every week you'll have enough leftovers so you won't have to cook on Saturday or Sunday either.<br />
*You don't have to plan a week's menu anymore. Freedom!!<br />
*You'll never run the kids to McDonalds for dinner ever again.<br />
*Your children will be exposed to food you've never served before.<br />
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I was involved with a group for about a year and it was probably the happiest time in my cooking life! I know there are groups out there who have stayed together for a decade or more, so it is possible. Our group fell apart because of differing cooking styles (we had one member who was very gourmet and delivered odd things that some children refused to eat, another family tended cook very cheaply and that bothered some -- so pay attention to those kinds of issues when putting your group together). Now with just one child at home, I don't feel the need, but when I had a houseful of children and a very busy after school schedule, it was a god-send.Carolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361293553525222340noreply@blogger.com4