Finding the Perfect Gift

Last Christmas, I felt bad that Bug was going to have many more gifts than Monkey so I impulsively bought a little toy puppy for him. Later I decided that it was silly to buy gifts just for the sake of buying gifts when the recipient was just 18 months old, so I planned on returning it. But I never got around to it, and I'm so glad.

He loved it then and he loves it now. And to think he almost didn't get it.

The toys that were begged for last year are sort of collecting dust now, the surprise ones were the hits last year. It almost makes me want to go to the store and randomly choose gifts for the kids - it certainly worked last year!

Thinking About Christmas

This week, I'm working frantically to tie up loose ends in preparation for a craft day at my church. All of the things offered would make great Christmas gifts, so I'm starting to think about what, if anything, I'll be making for Christmas gifts this year. After Christmas last year, I wrote about how I wasn't sure that making gifts was always a cost effective option. In the past I've made several gifts in an attempt to shave a few dollars off the Christmas budget, but this year I'll think more about if the total cost and effort will really make for a better gift (as in, something the recipient will really like!).

photo by Bekathwia

What about you? Will you be creating any gifts this year?

Thinking Way Outside the Box

This is John, Paul, George, and Ringo. Collectively known as The Beatles and this year's Halloween costume of choice for the boys in my house.

I sewed jackets and pants for the older boys (The Tall One already has a John Lennon costume), but didn't want to mess with making a tiny version for the baby. He's going to be Ringo (over there on the left), so I thought I'd just pick up a pink onesie and some pink pants to embellish. Easy enough, right? Except for the fact that I could not find just a solid pink outfit. Then I thought, he has a red shirt and red pants, what would happen if I bleached them?

It's more tye-dyed looking than we would have liked, and they are two different shades (but they started out that way, so it would have been hard to match them), but I think it will work just fine for a five month old who will probably be squished into his carseat the entire time he's wearing it! Now it just needs some ribbon and buttons and whatnot and we're good to go!

Sometimes a bit of creative thinking can really help when it comes to saving money!

What I Made Wednesday: Decorating with Mason Jars

Looking for a quick last minute Halloween decoration? Fill a glass jar with some plastic spider rings.

Then, for a nice Fall decoration, fill the jar with some small plastic pumpkins and gourds. I found these at the dollar store (my favorite place for holiday decor!)

When it's time for the Christmas decorations, fill the jar with something red and green. I filled this one with strips of paper.

Have you blogged about something you made recently? Leave me a link in the comment section - I'd love to see it. What to join in next week? Send me an email and I'll be sure to link to you in next week's post.

The Credit Card Spectrum and Why I Blog

I've mentioned before that The Tall One and I tend to make all of our purchases using credit cards, pay them off in full each month, and then enjoy our cashback rewards. In the blogging world, this isn't fairly uncommon, but for whatever reason I thought that among my friends it wasn't necessarily the norm. Turns out there's a full spectrum of credit card users in my circle of friends. Some, like us, buy everything with them while others rarely use them. And, of course, there's everything in between.

I relate this to you all because I think it's a fairly good example of why I keep this blog. I'm very interested in all things money related, though I don't always feel comfortable discussing money issues with my friends. Reading other personal finance blogs and writing this one is the way I "join in the conversation". For whatever reason, when I come across something I find interesting, I like to share it with anyone who will listen (hence the story above). This blog is a great platform for that. If I choose to, it is also a great way to hold myself accountable. My What I Made Wednesday feature encourages me to complete the projects that are on my to-do list. Writing about my family's finances encourages me to constantly improve and set goals for us. Composing my thoughts also challenges me in a way that I'm not normally challenged, and I mean that in a good way.

That's why I write this blog, and I'd love to know why you read it.

This post is part of Talk To Me Tuesday at Tip Junkie.

What's The Deal With Groceries?

photo by qmnonic

When gas prices skyrocketed, grocery prices rose as well. Clearly every area sees different grocery prices, so this is only my experience with food prices where I live.

Milk is now regularly under $2 per gallon at one store. Another store often has it on sale for $2 or slightly less per gallon. It wasn't too long ago that $2.50 was a steal!

I used to always snatch up pork loins when they'd go on sale for less than $2 a pound. Then for a very long time that just wasn't happening and about $2.29 seemed the price to beat. Now, they frequently go on sale for about $1.89 a pound and last week I even picked up one for $1.29 a pound! Chicken seems to be going on sale more frequently as well.

Last week, I got 1/2 pound of cheese for $1. Though this is usually about what I pay when I buy shredded cheese in bulk at Costco, it's been years and years since I've seen it that low at the grocery store.

Staples such as flour and sugar seem to be still steadily rising. Since baking season is just around the corner, I've been catching a few nice sales here and there, but the regular price seems pretty high.

I know one "trick" that manufactueres use to keep their prices steady and low is to change the packaging size. I know that ice cream comes in smaller packages and tuna seems to be as well. However, I saw on a news show within the last few months that companies are doing the opposite as well. Instead of lowering prices when their costs decrease, packaging size is increased and you see something to the effect of "25% more free" on the packaging. Chips were the example given in the news report.


Overall, though, it doesn't appear to be enough to actually lower my grocery bill (but could it if I were a bit more disciplined? Maybe), but I'm not finding myself feeling like I have to make any increases to the grocery budget to account for rising food prices.



What about you? What are some trends you are seeing where you live?

The Perfect Picture Package

I'm sitting here with the order form for my son's school pictures trying to decide which package to buy. Luckily, we already received a proof and know it's an adorable picture so it's worth paying at least some money for. But how many pictures do we really need? We had a family photo shoot over the summer, so I do have some nice professional pictures of him already. So that eliminates the larger packages. I do want to put together a frame with all of his school pictures (starting with this one - he's just in kindergarten), so I need one for that. But how many others do I need? I pulled out my own kindergarten school pictures to show the kids and they both thought that was fun. But, one really just needs a single picture for posterity's sake, and I had a whole sheet of wallets! I'm sure the grandparents wouldn't mind a framed picture of him, so I should probably make sure there's some for them. He's too young to want to give pictures to friends (do kids even do that anymore? Is it just a girl thing?) so there's no need for lots of wallet sized ones. Decisions, decisions!


Do you purchase school pictures? How do you decide which package to buy?

The Writing in the Web

photo by scoobygirl

The current favorite movie at our house is Charlotte's Web. I adore that movie. It's full of great messages and humor for adults, yet still an enjoyable movie for children. I watched it many times as a child, but never realized the advertising lessons. Charlotte decides that in order to save Wilbur, she'll play a trick on Mr. Zuckerman. She says "people are gullible, they'll believe anything they see in print", so she proceeds to weave positive words about Wilbur into her web. And do the people fall for it? Well, Mrs. Zuckerman almost doesn't. She says, upon finding the words in the web for the first time, "It seems we have no ordinary spider". Mr. Zuckerman is quick to correct her. It's just a regular grey spider, he says, but that pig, that certainly is a fabulous pig (or rather radiant and terrific)! We know there's nothing special about Wilbur. He is just a regular pig, but the writing in the web says otherwise so everyone comes to think that he's extraordinary.

What I really think is funny is that Charlotte says it's all just a "trick". Is that what advertising really is? Sometimes maybe. Just some food for thought next time an ad leaves you thinking there's something you can't live without.

Just Doing My Best to Boost Holiday Spending

Last weekend, I purchased fabric and notions to make Halloween costumes for my kids. It's not often that the price I pay for something surprises me - usually I have a decent idea of what I'm going to be paying beforehand - but not this time. I watched the total go up and up and I actually started panicking a bit. I didn't mean to spend that much, so where did I go wrong?

I thought about that quite a bit on the way home. My first mistake was that I went in without any idea at all of what I wanted to spend. How can I go over budget when I don't have one in the first place? I also didn't keep any sort of running total in my head as I was grabbing materials. If I would have done that, I would have maybe gone back and picked a more inexpensive fabric, or perhaps waited to buy some of the items another time when I would be able to use another coupon. Another option would have been to shop around some more for less expensive options.

I also realized that the total is not a bad number on its own. The number I should be worried about is simply the difference between what I wanted to spend and what I did spend (not that I know that first number, but stick with me here). So, if I wanted to spend $10, but really spent $25, I shouldn't get hung up on $25. It's the difference - in this example $15 - that I should pay attention to. I was planning on spending $10, so why worry about that portion?

I read an article a few weeks ago that said consumers were expecting to pay 30% less on Halloween this year. If I had been polled, I certainly wouldn't have said I was going to spend more than I did last year, yet I did. So it makes me wonder how accurate such a number really is!

What I Made Wednesday: A Place to Hang Winter Things

Winter is not quite here, but when the sun goes down the temperatures go down also, so it's nice to have the mittens and hats handy. It's also nice to be able to quickly find a pair of mittens that are the same size!

I'm fairly certain this idea came from an issue of Family Fun magazine. I just put two small hooks into the wall and strung some string between them. So easy and I think it will be quite useful.

Have you blogged about something you made recently? Leave me a link in the comment section - I'd love to see it. What to join in next week? Send me an email and I'll be sure to link to you in next week's post.

I Need a Printer That Will Microwave my Food

photo by TalAtlas

But a microwave that would print documents would work too.

On Sunday night our printer died. It had been giving us random error messages for awhile, so we knew it was coming. It had served us well for nearly seven years, so I think we were mentally ready to part with it. The microwave is another story.

Our microwave was purchased by The Tall One at a garage for a few dollars before we were even dating. Five years ago, the fuse started going out on a fairly regular basis. We'd replace it and all would be well. Yesterday the fuse blew once again, but we have no fuses to replace it. The Tall One finally gave in and started researching new microwaves. He headed out to Walmart (he was already going to pick up a new printer) and returned with... not a new microwave. Apparently it was just all too overwhelming. Too many bad reviews on the internet and not the right one that we wanted in the store. So he says the ball is in my court - if I want a new microwave (and I do, mostly so it will smaller and take up less space), I must go get one. The side benefit for him? I can't blame him when it stops working in five months. We were more than ready to get rid of the printer, and finding a replacement wasn't too difficult, but I'm just not quite sure what should be done about the microwave. Get a new one (that's what I want) or just buy new fuses (would perhaps be the more frugal option).

Why Yes, I Do Love Target!

One of the current Target ads starts out, "Alison likes Target". Hey, that's me they're talking about! But not really, in fact the character in the ad and I really have nothing in common (other than our love of Target, of course). Yet I still felt the need to go to Target after watching the ad. That "personalized" advertising seems to be pretty effective. It doesn't seem like other companies use names in their ads, or do I just not notice because they don't use my name?

A Close Call

On Wednesday, I just happened to open up Quicken to check on things. And I'm so glad I did. I knew that our student loan payment was due that day and saw that checking account at our local bank was about $6 short. Oops. I had no cash to put into the account, but thought that perhaps The Tall One did, so I called him at work to see if he could run to the bank to deposit some. He had already taken lunch, so it was all on me. I could pull some cash from our ING checking account via an ATM and then deposit that into our checking account at the local bank. Easy, right?

I headed to the bank and used their drive-up ATM to withdraw money from the ING account. I planned to deposit it into the other checking account right at the ATM (so I didn't have to take the kid inside) but my ATM/debit card for my local bank had long expired, so inside we go. I deposit the cash and also request a new debit card.

Everything worked out fine in the end, but of course I learned a few lessons:

• Keep an eye on things, especially automatic transactions. Check you accounts and bills due frequently.
• Keep some cash on hand. I could have saved myself a $2 ATM transaction fee if I would have already had some cash.
• Don't let your cards expire without getting a replacement. This wasn't the first time I wished I had had a current card.

These were concepts I already knew, but apparently I need a little reminder every now and then!

What I Made Wednesday: Choice Chart

I'm still getting used to having a child in school full time and all that that entails. One of the new daily tasks I have is packing my son a lunch. This is best done before I go to bed each night in order to avoid the chaos of the morning. In an effort to help me remember to do this each night, I created a little chart for my son to fill out.

I typed out the things that most often seem to be choices and then left blanks for me to write on. I covered the paper with clear contact paper and then used sticky back velcro to attach them to the dry erase board (one that has clearly seen better days). He can then circle the things that he would like in his lunch. It's my hope that seeing this up on the fridge will be a good visual reminder for me to make his lunch before I go to bed! I also imagine that it could be used as sort of a grocery list - as soon as we are out of something, it can come off of the chart and I'll know I need to add it to my list.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go make a lunch!

Have you blogged about something you made recently? Leave me a link in the comment section - I'd love to see it. What to join in next week? Send me an email and I'll be sure to link to you in next week's post.

When All Else Fails.. Add To Your Wish List

photo by Leedman

My birthday and Christmas are just around the corner, which means it's time to start figuring out what I  might want. This is not hard at any other time of the year, but for some reason around October 1 my mind goes completely blank until the end of the year. Then January rolls around and it seems that everywhere I look I see something that I'd love to have!

Instead of thinking to myself "wow, that's cool, I wish I had some extra money to buy it", I'll think "awesome, something to add to my wish list!". And then comes the part I apparently always forget about it - I'll write it down!

A little bit of positive thinking can go a long way. In this case, I can have a list full of ideas for the gift giving season and it will perhaps help quell the "woe is me" feeling that I get when it seems like I'm never buying anything for myself.