Fashion Sense & Cents

This was the dress my beautiful daughter chose for the homecoming dance. It’s a deep blue that matched her coloring perfectly. I love the rhinestone accents, it’s perfectly placed, not gaudy. It also had pockets, that is a huge bonus!

I was at her field hockey game last night and a teacher from the school came up to me and said, “I heard the girl was the prettiest girl at the dance.”

I think so too.

Here’s a summary of fashion and cost for a homecoming dance. I don’t know if it’s the going rate – but it’s what I paid.

Girl

- Dress: $60 at Macy’s
- Necklace and earrings: $10 at the $10 store at the Southwest terminal in Baltimore, Maryland. I’ll have to write about it some time.
- Shoes: from 8th grade dance. Can’t remember how much we paid.
- Hair: Julianne’s Hair Design. With wash, trim, dry, curl, tip and shampoo and conditioner purchase for me – $105. I know, I know. She needed a trim anyway.
- Makeup: mom’s except for the lipstick and mascara. $6 for Cover Girl lipstick, can’t remember what we paid for the mascara.

Boy

- Shirt:  from Walmart, can’t remember the price. Purchased two years ago.
- Pants: from Walmart, same as above.
- Shoes: Dad’s
- Tie: Dad’s

Kids – absolutely priceless.

For Wordful Wednesday.

The “No” Word

At times I find it difficult to say “no” and I perfectly understand that it’s a weakness. I work on it, I call myself on it and I admit that it can be a struggle. At time I suffer for it, and those I love suffer for it.

And sometimes, a certain young teenage girl takes advantage of this personality trait. Like when it comes to choosing a rug for the her room. I made slight mention of it one night.

After going through many rug choices and looking at all of the suggestions made by my bloggy friend and interior decorator, Kelly at Jax Does Design (by the way, her site is awesome,)  I was worn down.

We were right back to where we started. I admit, it looks really good in her room. It’s great quality and very cute. At least that’s something.

Sorry Dave Ramsey. I’ll be a better student of your financial advice next time – when I’m not so tired.

With Help From The Sun ~ Just Call Me Heloise

As stated yesterday, we are dealing with high energy costs. After all, it’s winter.

It gets dark in the depth of winter. Very dark. I wanted something that will light up the sidewalk but couldn’t justify installation of electric lights.

So from a purely economical stand point, we decided to install these solar exterior lights. They don’t give out a ton of light but they are perfect the path to the front door so your guests can find their way in the dark.

They’re cheap and most important, they will not send your electric bill through the roof.

Here is what they look like at night. They form a great star pattern on the ground.  From a photography perspective, you can imagine how much work it took to get this photograph. I couldn’t find my tripod so this photo involved a step ladder. Then I held my breath and stood on one leg. Night photography is not for the faint of heart:)

Once again Dave Ramsey’s name comes to mind. That man is visiting me in my dreams.

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Disclaimer: I am not a Dave Ramsey sponsor, just a Dave Ramsey fan. He has no idea who I am nor would he care. This post and all consequent posts on money using Dave Ramsey’s advice are strictly at my discretion. However, if for some reason he wanted to pay me, I wouldn’t turn it down. I would then put the money toward our taxes . .

The Warmth Of Candlelight

Our electric bill last month was astronomical, sky-high – crazy.

We are now in the process of identifying what we can do to change this. The kids have been very cooperative, but truly, they are not home enough to really make a difference. So I suppose the husband is culpable.

I jest.

It’s probably the constant use of my kitchen appliances coupled with these bone-chilling temperatures. Whatever it is, we are tackling the problem head on.

So we’ve been very fastidious in turning off unnecessary lights and electronics. I had no idea that there is so much that is around us that is always “on.” In addition, I started lighting candles and really enjoying the warmth of the light. I’ve always been a candle lover and that along with dimmers gives me a great excuse to set the ambiance. It makes a big difference in our home and our finances too!

Thanks Dave Ramsey, I feel somewhat empowered after your Financial Peace class . . .

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Disclaimer: I am not a Dave Ramsey sponsor, just a Dave Ramsey fan. He has no idea who I am nor would he care. This post and all consequent posts on money using Dave Ramsey’s advice are strictly at my discretion. However, if for some reason he wanted to pay me, I wouldn’t turn it down. I would then put the money toward our taxes . . .

The Frugal & The Pragmatic Equals College Fund

We just finished the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University course and money is on our minds . . . Why not? It’s a new year after all and it’s time to bring all those gifts back to the store. Kidding. It’s a time to reflect and commit to change and what better way to start than with your finances?

Don’t look at your credit card statement. I told you not to look! Well, it’s better to face reality I guess.

I know that being frugal can lead to a well stocked college fund for your child who will be leaving you too soon.

Or they can work and pay their own way like their parents did. Dave Ramsey suggests that saving for your kids’ college fund should come after you save for your emergency fund and your retirement fund. It’s a hard reality.

How much we can contribute to our kids’ higher education is still to be determined – if they choose to pursue higher education. The boy had his first college tour to my Alma mater over Christmas break and it brought home to his dad and I that he’s leaving us soon.

Here are my kids in front of my old dorm. I can’t believe it’s been 26 years and it still looks exactly the same.

So it’s a good thing that Christmas has developed to be a pragmatic as well as a magical holiday for us over the years. So much so that the husband and I bought each other a mattress for Christmas. It’s a great Christmas gift because unlike a once in a lifetime event like a wedding or bar mitzvah, Christmas comes every year so you have more opportunities to get something shiny for your finger:)

And you know what else is great about the mattress? After 15 years, my back no longer hurts when I get up in the morning.

However, I do have to say that for all of our talk of being frugal this Christmas, we weren’t totally successful. It’s hard. The husband bought me some really great knives and – a Kelly Moore bag. It’s beautiful but I feel a little guilty about the it. I can use the knives though.

Some habits are hard to break.

Where was I? Oh the boy’s college fund.

So if you’ve made it this far in this post, I want to leave you with this. Do not count on real estate to save for college – like yours truly. If you have young children, start a 529 right now. Right now! That way you won’t have to worry about timing the real estate market. We know of where we speak.

Go forth and save.

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Disclaimer: I am not a Dave Ramsey sponsor, just a Dave Ramsey fan. He has no idea who I am nor would he care. This post and all consequent posts on money using Dave Ramsey’s advice are strictly at my discretion. However, if for some reason he wanted to pay me, I wouldn’t turn it down. I would then put the money toward our taxes . . .

$1.09/lb

We spoke to the IRS the other day and pleaded for our lives. Only kidding.

The on-going saga is that we apparently do not have enough withholdings and as a result, owe some back taxes. I have be somewhat proactive in my attempt to stream line our spending and boost our savings and give back to Uncle Sam what is due. I can’t say we’re there – what ever “there” means but I will proudly announce that the IRS has agreed not to jail us.

It’s a huge victory.

The irony of all of this is that we (or I in this case because the husband has not been able to make many classes) are taking the Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University course just as all of this drama is unfolding. God definitely has a sense of humor and timing.

Even with all of our financial woes we are blessed and eating well. I like to cook and it definitely saves money since eating out really starts to add up.

I have been cooking up a storm for all for all of the various parties and etc: it’s Christmas time after all.

One of the best tips I can ever give anyone on how to eat well and stretch a dollar is this . . .

Buy a turkey.

Then put said turkey on the grill rather than the oven.

And when it’s done, serve it to . . .

1. Your Christmas party guests.
2. Use the leftover meat for turkey soup for various sports gatherings like your child’s equestrian meets.
3. Make turkey soup for someone who just had a baby and can’t eat spicy Thai food.
4. Make turkey sandwiches for your kids lunches for a week.
5. Use the turkey soup to feed your husband as he recuperates from hernia surgery.
6. And finally . . . feed your dog the leftover meat after two weeks and the human are sick of the soup and sandwiches.

It’s extremely economical. Get your turkey today! It’s just not for Thanksgiving anymore.

Financial Peace . . . Sort Of

I know this is Wednesday and most people in blogland are going wordless today but not I. This is a continuation from Edition 1 of our tax bill saga . . .

I had a week of problem solving so by the time the end of the week rolled around my brain was seized up and couldn’t function well. So last Friday night I decided to skip not one, but two commitments. I came home and couldn’t bring myself to walk out the door again and so I plopped on the couch and the boy and I watched Ironman II together. What a fun movie!

I don’t really feel badly about it. The boy had some kind of wrestling thing the next morning and then I was at my church early to take photos of an outreach ministry. Then I dropped the girl off at the farm and then . . . it was to the mall with the boy. See? Plenty to keep me busy.

Anyway, one of the things I decided not to attend was my Financial Peace University class. I am committed to making up the class soon because I cannot stop thinking about money. No matter what it is that I’m in the midst of doing, there is a neuron or two that continues to fire dollar signs in the back of my mind. Can we afford it? Should buy it? Should I get pepperoni on the pizza? It’s $1.50 more.

I’m driving myself crazy.

Speaking of the mall . . . I fell off the wagon. The boy told me that he “needed” new shoes and “needed” new hoodies and etc.

Unlike the husband, I don’t argue much with the kids when they say they “need” new things. They really don’t do it very often – especially the boy. On the other hand, I could go to the tack store and drop $12 on a bag of horse treats and the girl wouldn’t blink an eye.

I can say this; the boy looks much nicer with jeans that don’t have holes in them. And I bought myself something as well. A confession for a later time.

I have been keeping a tax envelope with the intention of using the money to pay our tax bill. I put a little piece of paper in the envelope as a sort of check register to track the money that goes in and out of it. We don’t have near the amount we need so it’s fair to say that we will be reaching deep into our savings to pay for the tax bill. The envelope is now just serving as an illustration of how we manage our money – or in a few cases, not managing our money.

Here’s a run down to the activity over the last two weeks . . .

The following was income to the envelope . . .

+ $80 Halloween costume return
+ $100 Reimbursement for some software I purchased

But  on the negative side . . .

- $10 to the girl for food at the farm on her lesson day
- $20 for pizza
- $8 to the girl for a pumpkin patch thing she attended with a friend
- $20 to the girl for food at her meet. The fact that I made some of the food and donated bottled water and Gatorade only to have turn around to give the girl some money to buy what I just purchase – well, it’s a lost cause.
- $20 to the girl – no reason was stated

I asked the girl to give me that change if any from all the money I gave to her. She gave me $11.75.

This illustrates to me that the girl is the spender in the house. And that I’m a big fat sucker.

Total in our tax envelope now $291.75. Yipee! We’re getting somewhere. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single dollar. Someone said that a long time ago.

Onward . . .

Disclaimer: I am not a Dave Ramsey sponsor, just a Dave Ramsey fan. He has no idea who I am nor would he care. This post and all consequent posts on money using Dave Ramsey’s advice are strictly at my discretion. However, if for some reason he wanted to pay me, I wouldn’t turn it down. I would then put the money toward our taxes . . .

Up From The Basement

I’m up from my basement and look what I found.

It’s a horse skull that was painted and decorated by an artist from an American Indian tribe who’s name now eludes me.

We bought it on our way to Sedona, Arizona about 12 years ago. At the time it seemed like a good idea. We lived in the Southwest so we wanted a Southwest memoir to hang on our wall.

Now I wonder what we were thinking.

Interesting huh?

Maybe I’ll have another giveaway:) Speaking of giveaways, you can get something else from my basement here . . . the giveaway ends this weekend.

And if you are really curious about what I’m doing in my basement, I explained here, I’m not sure the sale of the above will pay my tax bill but then again, I wanted it at one time.

Okay, back to the dungeon I go . . .

Make The Kids Think They’re Next . . .

We filed for two extensions to our taxes this year and it seems that procrastination never pays. We owe. And we owe big.

For the last two months, I’ve have been taking a class called Financial Peace University from the financial guru Dave Ramsey. Its purpose is to help us get informed and get serious about our finances. Ironically,  this tax bill comes right in the middle of the class, how funny is that?

In the military we have a term that describes someone who is over-enthusiastic about something. It’s called being ate up. Well I’m ate up over this new found awareness of how to manage our money. We are already implementing many of the suggestions and it feels so good! I want to get out of debt and fast!

One of our strategies is this – sell everything. Dave Ramsey says to be so bold about it that the kids will think they are next. That reasoning is twisted enough to make me get on board.

Over the next few weeks I’ll chronicle some selected tactics that we are taking in order to follow Dave Ramsey’s advice to Live Like No One Else so that later you can Live Like No One Else.

The first thing I’m doing is selling what is in our basement. These things are all precious to me, I remember when and where I bought every single thing. I just don’t always remember why. I get very emotionally attached. But it’s not doing me any good in the basement and as Cousin Ellen asked me, “Will any of those memories and feelings go away if you sell it?”

Well, no they won’t.

However, there are some things that I will be giving away as well – to you.

Before I take my trip to the Black Hole known as our basement, I want to tell you a little math story.

We have an envelope that I am putting monies in as a start for our tax bill. At this point, it’s more symbolism than anything but I wanted to challenge myself. We hardly ever handle cash anymore, that could be a part of our problem.

I started by taking the money I made the last couple of weeks teaching my yoga class. Most of the time, I claim this money as “spending money” or “blow money” but this time I wanted to put that money into the tax envelope.

So I deposited the check for a total of $96 into my checking account and then a couple of days later, I went to the ATM and withdrew $120. I had to have an extra $20 to give to the girl for her field hockey raffle tickets. I strong armed my co-workers and friends into buying the tickets but then I spent the cash in my wallet thinking I would just replace the cash when the time came to hand in the money. And the time was now.

So I took out an extra $20 and gave it to the girl for her fund raiser.

As we all know, ATMs do not give you dollar bills so in order to get the exact amount of my yoga paycheck ($96) I had to buy some Swedish Fish. They were good.

And so it continues . . .

Yesterday I looked in my wallet and counted my cash. I had $63 from the original $120. What?

I sat down with our administrative assistant at work and back tracked to see where the other money went to. Here’s what we found.

$120 – ATM withdrawal

- $20 field hockey raffle tickets
- $1 Swedish Fish
- $15 field hockey player packet (I didn’t know what it was but I handed the money over to the girl no questions asked.)
- $1 Nestle Crunch Bar for the girl from the concession stand. She needed sugar to play her game.
- $17.99 I treated the office to pizza (half vegetarian)

Total – $65

But I had $63 so I have no idea where the other 2 dollars went. So that’s what I put into our tax envelope. It was $33 less than what I intended to put in there.

It was very interesting to me (maybe not to you.) It gave me a look into my own psyche on how I viewed money and how I interact with other people and my own family. Velly velly interesting.

How much is in our tax envelope now?

Here’s the breakdown . . .

$100 sale of the boy’s drums (He came home last week and asked “Where’s my drums?” I ignored him.)
$15 sale of old Japanese molds and abacuses to an antique store. I think she took advantage of me but I have to let it go.
$63 yoga money minus the moments of weaknesses.

So we’re $178 toward the tax bill. Only $129,387.40 to go.

Only kidding . . .

It’s going to be hard, I am not under any disillusions. Hopefully I’ll have a lot of encouragement and accountability. For the record, the husband is even more ate up than I am. Unlike me, he was raised in a home of non-spenders. And for some reason, aside from their cars and boats, guys have a much more active savings gene.

But I am going to give something away today. It just makes me happy . . . and then maybe I’ll get some more Swedish Fish:)

Disclaimer: I am not a Dave Ramsey sponsor, just a Dave Ramsey fan. He has no idea who I am nor would he care. This post and all consequent posts on money using Dave Ramsey’s advice are strictly at my discretion. However, if for some reason he wanted to pay me, I wouldn’t turn it down. I would then put the money toward our taxes . . .

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Just Call Me Heloise – Safeway Soup Sale

Say that three times really quickly, Safeway Soup Sale, Safeway Soup Sale, Safeway Soup Sale…

At the risk of sharing too much information, I will tell you that the husband and I were hit with a big, huge, humongous tax bill – right before Christmas. The timing is our fault by the way. We are not opposed to giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s and we don’t want to go to jail so we are selling a bunch of stuff from our basement to help pay for it.

I’m not kidding.

Another way to try to save some money is to shop for sales…sales…and more sales…from now until Christmas. Okay for true disclosure, we are taking a financial class from the Dave Ramsey program called Financial Peace University.

When I say “we,” I really mean, me. The husband is not here for most the class but he is participating in absentia.

Here’s a financial cost cutting tip.

The girl had a horse clinic yesterday and I was tasked to bring soup. I didn’t have time to prepare it from scratch so I ran to our local Safeway to buy pre-made soup and pass it off as mine – kidding.

I stood in front of the aisle and looked at the prices and I started to get really discouraged. The girls don’t need any soup. They can eat carrots like the horses do.

Anyway, a nice couple came by and for some reason, I shared my plight with perfect strangers. They told me there were select Progresso soups on sale for 99 cents per can and a Safeway sales coupon reduced it to 89 cents. So for less than $5, I was able to serve enough soup for 20 girls.

It’s soup season so if you have a Safeway grocery store in your area, run down there now, but grab a Safeway sales flyer on your way in.

I may just get addicted to cost cutting …