Lessons Learned at the Book Fair

Last week was the book fair at my son's school. Certainly not the most inexpensive place to purchase books, but my son was sure excited. He had big plans to spend his own money. His decision making process surprised me - in the past he's been so careful about his purchases to the point where he's decided not to purchase anything actually. At the book fair, he was pretty much picking up the first thing that caught his eye and wanting to buy it. Sometimes it's hard to let him make his own decisions with his money, but overall he did a great job. Here are a few other things that made an impression on me:

When you're five, apparently you can judge a book by a cover because that's clearly what he was doing.

He was looking at two books when I reminded him that I was going to buy him one soft cover book with my money. He asked how much each one cost and then promptly handed me the more expensive one for me to buy. Smart boy.

I had him pick a book to give to his teacher for his classroom. He chose to pay for this book with his own money even though he didn't have to. I wish I had that same spirit of giving.

New Shoes Make Me Happy

Occasionally The Tall One receives tickets from work to local charity events. Saturday was one of those occasions. The dress code was "festive attire" with festive being defined as whatever makes you happy. And you know what I decided made me happy? New shoes. So, I went out and bought some. Quite possibly the best $20 I've spent in quite awhile. I adore these shoes and how I feel when I wear them.

My point is not to advocate retail therapy to cure all that ails you. I know that I rarely spend money on myself as I tend to focus a lot on saving for the future and forget about living for today. Saturday night was a good reminder for me that I need to do things for me every now and then.

Happy Birthday House

This post originally appeared on November 15, 2007, about one year after we bought our first home. This month marks the three year anniversary and I still pretty much feel the same way - perhaps not our best financial decision, but overall it feels like we are in the right place.

One year ago this month, we purchased our first home. Lately The Tall One and I have been reflecting on that decision. Literally the night before we found this house we had decided we were going to wait at least a year before buying so we could save up a down payment. But then we went house hunting anyway, because it's fun, and here we are.

There's really no way to know if it was a mistake or not. Sure we'd have more money in savings had we waited, but in the past year we've payed off a student loan and a car. When money became not so abundant after we bought the house, we really focused on getting rid of our non-mortgage debt. Would we have done that if we didn't buy the house? Who knows.

Money isn't everything though. We've made friends we wouldn't have met had we not bought our house. We've had opportunities we wouldn't have had if we didn't live where we do now. When finances are completely taken out of the picture, it's been the best decision we could have made for our family, and that should count for something.

Christmas Card Letters with a Twist

This post originally appeared on November 14, 2007. It is by far my most popular article I've ever written (you'd be surprised - or maybe not - by how many people google "creative Christmas letter" even in the middle of March). With many people tightening their budgets, I imagine mailed Christmas cards will be among the things to go this year, with many people perhaps opting to send out electronic versions instead. I love receiving a Christmas card in the mail, so I plan to try and send some out this year to return the favor, so to speak. What are your Christmas card plans for this year?

I always love reading all the "this is what our family has done this year" letters that we receive in Christmas cards. Even growing up I thought it was great fun to read letters from friends of my parents that I had never met. Ever since we've been married, The Tall One and I have sent out a Christmas card letter. Last year I was tired of the same old same old and went for something different. I created a timeline that highlighted a few events from the past year. Here are some other ideas for sending out a Christmas letter that's a little different:

Use Numbers
Try and convert events from your family's year into statements relating to numbers, for example:

We moved ONE time this year, from Smallville to Metropolis
We spent TWO days at Funland this summer
John hit THREE homeruns this past baseball season
Mary got FOURth place in the state spelling bee
Dad planted FIVE rows of corn in the garden this summer

Use the Alphabet
Try to come up with an acrostic poem using things that happened to your family in the past year, for example:

W e moved from Smallville to Metropolis
H ad a great time visiting Funland this summer
A unt Sue visited us for Thanksgiving
T he boys did a great job on their baseball teams this spring

A nd Dad had fun coaching Timmy's team

Y es, Dad still works for ABC Company
E veryone is doing great in school
A lso, mom joined a tennis leauge
R eally, we all had a wonderful 2007

Change the Point of view
Let each kid write a sentence or two describing their year, or let the kids write the whole letter. If you have a pet, you could write the letter from the pet's point of view.

Make Some Predictions
I read a letter at my parent's house last year that was written in two parts, the first half in January with the predictions for what the year would bring and the second half at the end of the year with what really happened. This would have to wait for 2008's Christmas letter, obviously.

Keep it Simple
Come up with one or two sentences for each family member that recaps their year. Make those sentences be apart of the card (as opposed to on a separate paper), perhaps written under the family picture, or just have individual shots of each family member with the recap under the appropriate picture.

Those are some of the ideas I've had as I think about what to do this year. Any other ideas?

Get This Book!

If you have a grade schooler that is ready to learn some money basics, then If You Made a Million by David Schwartz is a book that you should definitely add to your home library.

It talks about the "value" of a dollar (that one dollar equals four quarters, for example) and throws in some fun facts - did you know that if you had $10 in pennies you'd have a five foot stack or that one million $1 bills would weigh 2,500 lbs? It discusses bank accounts and earning interest. It introduces checks and explains how a paper check is connected to real money.

The best part though? It not only teaches about interest one would earn on their own money, but interest that one would pay a bank when taking on a loan. The book emphasizes that when you borrow money, you will end up paying more than you borrowed - perhaps it's a book that many adults would benefit from as well!

What money related books for kids do you love?


(The link above is an affiliate link, so if you click and end up buying anything as a result of that click, I get a teeny, tiny bit of money in return. )

What I Made Wednesday: Jar Mix Gifts

photo by House of Sims

Last Saturday, I taught a mini class at a church event all about creating these jars that are filled with baking mixes. Not that I'm really all that qualified, but I figured I could poke around the internet and experiment a bit.

The internet is full of such "recipes", but it's easy to convert your own recipes into jar mixes. To know if a recipe will be a good fit, add up all the dry ingredients. A quart jar hold four cups but since the ingredients will pack down (and you want them to so your layers don't get too mixed up), shoot for putting about 4 1/2 cups of ingredients in. If you're doing a cookie mix and want to put the baking chips in the jar, 3 1/2 cups of dry ingredients will live a good amount of room for the chips. If you won't be adding any chips, you'll need to make sure your recipe contains at least 4 cups of dry ingredients. Pint jars hold 2 cups, so smaller recipes can squeeze in those.

These make great gifts for those neighbors and friends that you'd like to give a little somthing to. They are also lots of fun to just have around the house!

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.

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!