Is Any Amount Of Money Too Small To Be Worth Saving?

I don't think there is any such thing as an amount of money too small to be worth saving.

The only criteria is that it must truly be "saved". When I was an associate dean, a recent immigrant from Poland worked as my student assistant. Her family was on a very tight budget and she often complained that her dad drove to three grocery stores each week to get the lowest prices, but that they spent more in gas and time than they saved.

I didn't realize it at the time, but if that young woman had such a clear grasp on the value of money at age 18, she is likely well set now, ten years later. Kudos to her!

And her complaint about her dad's actions is valid. You really need to take the time to know your numbers. According to AAA, driving a mile costs over 50 cents as of 2007.

In coming up with the estimates below, AAA figures in average fuel, routine maintenance, tires, insurance, license and registration, loan finance charges and depreciation costs. Fuel prices are based on late-2006 national averages.

Composite national average cost per-mile for 2007: 52.2 cents

So if five items are each $1 cheaper at another store, but you have to drive four miles each way to get there, you are spending four to save five and clearing only a dollar.

Likewise, there is a dollar value to time. If you could spend an hour and earn $20 mowing a neighbor's lawn, the extra half hour at the shopping center to save $5 is clearly not going to put you ahead. But if you would otherwise be watching television, then it might.

Another benefit to saving even the smallest amount is that it makes you much more conscious of the bigger amounts. If you worked hard for 15 minutes to create a grocery list, stuck to the list and dropped $25 off your usual weekly amount, you are far less likely to blow it on over priced popcorn at the movie theater. You're more likely to stay in the savings mode, pop some at home and feel great about saving another $5.00.

Isaac Newton taught us that a body in motion tends to stay in motion and I think the same holds true for the happy tightwad. If you know the exact cost of your Chamomile tea bag (10 cents) and choose to reuse it at least once, you're more apt to pass by McDonalds despite the kids' clamoring and eat at home, saving another $12.00 or so.

So don't let anyone bully you into thinking some amount is TOO penny pinching. As long as you're still enjoying life and accumulating assets, only you can determine what your cut-off is. And of course, in time, those pennies become dollars, which become thousands, which become a retirement fund.

Best wishes! Eileen
P.S. Just for fun for you garage sale addicts out there - the popcorn popper was $1 and works great.

Are you the average American tossing $230,000 in food over the years??

The following is the result of a big refrigerator cleanout. The total came to $5.20, broken down as follows.

.77 = 1/5 of a container of Stonyfield yogert
2.80 = full container of salsa
.50 1/5 container of picante sauce
.13 1/3 of an apple
1.00 1/2 bag of carrots (these were estimates but should be pretty close to costs)
_______
Total tossed $5.20. This is added to an earlier cleanout of $6.69. So the total for the month is $11.89.

According to the 2009 Department of Labor's consumer expenditures reports, the average American spends $6133 on food each year. And according to several reports, the average American wastes 14 percent of their food purchases.

Broken down, this means the average American is tossing $858.62 each year. That's $71.55 per month. If that same amount was invested at 6.5% from age 20 to 65, that's $230,000 being tossed in the trash.

Hoping the next refrigerator cleanout is under $3.00. Baby steps, baby steps. Best wishes. Eileen

Why it's harder to spend "your" money

If you have kids, you've probably seen them in tears demanding life can't go on if they can't get Captain Ken's Blaster thingy.  But when you said, "Fine, use your money." Suddenly, the life or death need seemed to disappear.

I've had a similar experience when I've earned money outside my teaching pay.  When I went on a mission to earn some extra money each day, carefully tracking each penny, I found that gave me a different perspective.

I had a garage sale about a week ago and was delighted to earn about $300. But to make that much and have cash in hand, made me realize how much stuff I'd had to sell to earn it. This was somehow different than my regular paycheck. It made me take a pass on those frequent trips with the kids to McDonalds where $3.29 or so for three ice cream cones equaled three shirts sold (I sold all clothing for $1 each). I didn't really think an ice cream cone was worth a shirt anymore;-).

I had such a fun time making this extra money that I started to ask myself if I could do some other things that would bring in a small bit of extra cash and started setting a few perennial divisions out in my driveway with an "honesty jar". I would often come home to a few dollars just tucked in there while I'd been busy at the store. Again, this money seemed much harder to part with, as did money in general when I would think, "Would I trade one of my hostas for this $3 box of sugar cereal?" Or, should we just use up the food we already have at home?

Last night, the day was about to end when I realized I had made no attempt to "earn" any extra so I took five minutes and found a book to list on Amazon. So best wishes to each of you as you try each day to earn just a wee bit more. I think you will find the benefits twofold: First, if you are successful, you will have an extra $150 a month or $1800 a year. Second, you will find yourself doing a very specific analysis in terms of spending almost in line with a "trade" and I suspect you'll find it much easier to save than spend.

Knowledge + Action = Financial Independence

Now You!

For fun, take a piece of paper and come up with ten ideas to earn extra cash. Be as creative as you can, you're not held to the list. Maybe you could dog sit for a neighbor's dog you otherwise listen to bark half the day. Maybe you could mow lawns, babysit, tutor math, have a garage sale, or sell perennials from your driveway. All of these ideas have low or no start-up costs and can quickly be shut down if they don't work out. In the meantime, the extra cash/work equation will become strong in your mind.

Our $9,417.50 sofa!

After law school, my husband and I got our first apartment in Chicago. Our living room furniture consisted of a truly horrid green couch that had followed my husband through his undergraduate years and law school years; its earlier years remain shrouded in mystery.

My protestations of "this really has GOT to go!" were met with defenses such as "comfort", "cost to replace" and some personal affection on his part I believe.

But I was on a mission. I saw a white sofa gracing that room and upping our style quotient, and started looking at little for sale by owner ads.

Looking back, I'm surprised we were as frugal as we were. At that point, we were fresh out of law school and both working for a big law firm. Our combined income for a very short while until I jumped ship to teach, was about $140,000.

Still, in those days, I wouldn't have dreamed of paying $800 for a Crate and Barrel sofa and waited until I saw the ad reading, "White sleeper sofa (we agreed we needed a sleeper sofa for guests since we had a one bedroom apartment) Excellent condition. "$150".

I went to look at it and quickly saw why it was so cheap...it was sitting out in the hallway of her new apartment. It was indeed in perfect condition, but the owner had just moved in and the sofa couldn't make the corner of the old building into the door. She had moved it up three floors and now was literally and figuratively stuck.

I've never seen myself as an expert negotiator, but this one cried out for some wiggle room. I offered her $75 and she responded "sold!" within about four seconds.

With the help of a wonderful friend, we moved that sleeper sofa (do you have any idea what those things weigh?) all the way down the three floors, and then walked it (none of us had a truck) about seven city blocks to our building, then up to the third floor again. We still owe you Mike!

And many thanks to my then newly wed husband who graciously went along with my decorating mandates and swapped his old green couch without too much regret. I knew you were a catch on that very first date!!

Some of you might think "ewww" at the thought of a used sofa. And if I'd followed up the ad and walked in to find some gold chain wearing macho guy with personalized plates reading "SWINGER" and blasting "Love Shack" on his surround sound stereo set, carving yet another mysterious looking notch on the doorframe, I would too. But if a sofa is in new condition, it can't have been through too much....or at least so I prefer to believe.

Later we moved to Wisconsin and made an offer on our current house. We also fished around for a price on the furniture as lo and behold, another white sofa set for the living room. And our white sofa sleeper would go in the family room.

There was an island in the kitchen with five cream bar stools and a large kitchen table and six chairs all of which we would have to replace.

It turns out the living room set had been custom made and it along with the bar stools, kitchen table and six chairs had originally cost around $5000.

Everything was in pristine condition as the previous owner was and is the best housekeeper I've ever met (we have been to their new home several times and I still can't believe how perfect she keeps everything.)

We agreed to $800 for all. And ten years later, we still use all these pieces every single day. The family room sofa has had the hardest wear (picture two boys and a dog) and now is covered with a green throw and some pillows when guests come.

So let's look at some numbers. Imagine we'd paid full price for the furniture ten years ago. That would have been $800 for a cream sofa sleeper and another $5000 for new custom living room and kitchen furnishings. Today we'd have the same furniture, but not be the same place financially.

Rather than spending $5,800 (which we could have afforded), we spent $875 and invested the difference, which was $4925.

Assuming a 6.5% return over the past 10 years, that money has now grown to $9417.50.

So before you head out to buy a new room of furniture, get out your calculator, and give at least some thought to the bargains to be found on Craigslist. An aside, personally I would buy only from the original owner, only in pristine condition, and only from someone with no pets (you don't want a distinct cat odor showing up in three months).

By doing some bargain hunting, you'll have more time to actually sit on those sofas and contemplate the view rather than working a lot of extra hours to pay for them!

Could you live on a dollar a day? She did!

I thoroughly enjoyed a book titled, "How I Lived a Year on Just a Pound a Day" by Kath Kelly. The author decided to live on a pound a day for a year (excluding only her rent) to save for a special wedding gift for her brother.

As you might imagine, she has to get mighty creative to do so. But she is in fact so successful, at one point she wonders if she could even reduce costs to 50p a day. And what she finds she has a lot of is time so she spends it taking a free art class at a university and going on LOTS of picnic lunches and dinners (with cheap eats) with friends.

It is fun to see how she manages a trip to France (hitchhiking, camping at free places, and eating sandwiches). Or how she finds there's a lot of free food along roadsides with old apple orchards and berry bushes. She learns about Freegans, Freecycle, and dumpster diving. And she says not a day goes by that she doesn't find yet another way to reduce costs. And for anyone who truly gets a kick out of tighwadding in general (whether to save for a special item or retire early or for environmental or other reasons) you can't but take your hat off to her.

And it makes me want to recommit to my four no spend days a week. But also, in doing so, to figure out why I'm so drawn to spend as it is. Because at some level, though I like to tease my friend who spent $20,000 on clothes via a personal shopper last year, I'm kind of doing the same thing in the sense that though I will have spent a tiny, tiny fraction of that, I'm still getting a huge kick out of getting something new (used) for a bargain. Both of us could get by a year easily without buying new clothes, so it's not a "need". For me, it's not just the thrill of the new item, but the thrill of getting it on the cheap. And this, according to Kath Kelly, is a problem.

Going back to post WWII, we were able to ramp up production of goods to never before seen levels. And there was an actual government program that addressed the problem that to feed this economic machine, we needed to convince Americans to buy more stuff than they needed. We simply produce far too much. And if everyone just bought what they needed, our economy would come to a halt. So then came the idea of a consumer society, consuming or getting rid of this year's model for next year's or risk being out of date. (This part isn't talked about in Kelly's book, but is talked a lot of in the book Affluenza.)

And that did quite well. But now Kelly points to the dollar stores, where people get the biggest kick out of seeing how much they can get for their money, even items they didn't need, and if an item doesn't work, no one feels bad as it was just a buck and it's easier to buy another than try to fix it. We've had this experience with a few dollar store plastic water guns for Kirk that worked maybe twice, then we tossed them.

I know for a fact, while I generally eschew the dollar stores because I try not to buy new, that I get that same high from the bargains I get at my local thrift store. And if I come home with a big bag stuffed full of books, toys, clothes, and a new juice pitcher for $8.00, I feel great! At least for awhile, then I've used the new (used) stuff, and feel drawn back to get another haul.

I often bag up things that didn't work out for our family and then donate them to a thrift store or another family.  The environment gets a break, but what exactly keeps me wanting the new stuff? I'm not sure.

I have too many clothes now, but if I see a lovely cashmere sweater, I get a thrill both in buying it and wearing it. But after I've worn it lets say ten times, that thrill is much dimmed and I want a new one. I will continue to wear the other one, but I don't get that, "here I am in my new, bargain cashmere sweater and feeling great!" 

I'm not seeking an austere lifestyle. I frankly like my flowered cushions on the sofa, my 20 various white planters, my collection of vases, my silver framed family photos and other items. I like our Christmas, Easter, and Halloween decorations. But what I want now that I already have so much is to enjoy more, to savor more, to get more of a kick out of using what I have, than in the gathering of yet more new (used) stuff.

Would love to hear your thoughts on any of this. Today I recommit to four days a week no spending.  Best wishes. Eileen

 

When 5 Million Isn't Enough Money To Retire On.

I have a good friend who met with her financial advisor recently to see if she was on track for her dream - retire at age 50. She's 44 now, an 80 plus hour a week professional who's been burned out for the past ten years. Her advisor told her that her if she wanted to retire at 50, she'd need approximately 6.8 million.

When she told me this, my jaw dropped. Who has that kind of money? And did he know she wasn't planning to eat gold bars for breakfast?

The answer comes from the shocking ability of everyday expenses to erode retirement dreams. The advisor's basic look at it was a six percent return, her living to a ripe old age of 104 (which she has long said she plans to do), a 2 percent withdrawal rate and no worries of ever running out of money.

So why would she need 6.8 million? Her current lifestyle takes about nine thousand a month to support and the advisor bumped it up to 12 taking into account inflation and unexpected expenses.

Does that sound insane? She would say her lifestyle is not luxurious at nine thousand a month. They live in a 2400 square foot home in California, have two cars, and take one nice trip each year.

The nine thousand, very roughly is as follows:

$1600 mortgage/real estate taxes $1400 health insurance $1200 one major vacation a year - usually 3 weeks of foreign travel $1600 food - most meals eaten out $ 600 house maintenance $ 200 car maintenance/gas $ 400 clothes (very well dressed professional;-) $ 200 gifts $ 300 medical costs $ 400 entertainment $ 500 electric, heat, computer, phones, television, etc. $ 300 haircuts, hair color, acupuncture, massage, non-comped work expenses, etc. $ 200 pet expenses (including kenneling for long vacations)

The take away for me was how enormous is the cost of a dollar spent in retirement. For every dollar you want to spend, you need many, many multiples of that dollar working hard for you. And the fact is, sometimes those other dollars (your capital) go on strike or get sick - i.e. stock market crashes.

With no more in-flow, all the numbers change. Looked at this way, every dollar of expenses not used in daily living can do double duty on the road to retirement. Saving a couple hundred a month not eating out really does matter. First, those saved dollars can be added to your workforce (the final capital sum you need to retire). Second, your workforce has more breathing space as it doesn't have to support those lazy two hundred dollars that ate out.

So the next dollar bill you hold in your hand, ask is this gal going to enter my workforce or loll around living off the earnings of the other working dollars;-)

What you pay EACH DAY to live in your house? Housing costs reality check.

A man builds a fine house; and now he has a master, and a task for life is to furnish, watch, show it, and keep it in repair the rest of his life.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson


I get antsy to get out of my house...often. I have a lovely home, a large garden, and televisions in each room, but still wanderlust hits me most days.

And yet, I like most people pay or did pay, close to $77 a day for the privilege of living here. And with rent rates like that, I really feel I ought to be here more.

At the most basic, to live here, I pay electric, gas, taxes, insurance, maintenance, and until recently, a mortgage. In order of costs, it breaks down like this.

Our mortgage, when we had one, cost roughly $1200 per month. That breaks down to about $40.00 per day.

Our real estate taxes are $6000 a year, or a bit over $16.00 per day (you better believe our kids are going to public school;-).

Our electric bill averages $162 per month or $5.42 a day.

Our gas bill, averaged over the year is $4.50 per day.

Our house insurance is about $1.83 per day. .

Add to that, maintenance costs, which are suggested at 1% per year. http://realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=25490855
That means with inflation, your maintenance costs will continue to go up.  Our house is valued at $250,000 so according to that estimate, we will pay $2500 per year maintaining it - that includes roof, windows, furnace, hot water heater, etc.  And that would be minimum.  My guess is ours is higher.  But at that figure, we spend another $208 a month or $6.94 per day on maintenance.

As I mentioned, we are lucky to have paid off our mortgage, but still, that leaves almost $37 a day to be here. So what are the options?

We love our home and neighborhood so have no intention of moving, certainly not "buying up".  At the same time, it does leave me pondering how to reduce the cost per day.  At $37 a day, divided into six main rooms, we spend $6 per day, per room to live here.

Without a mortgage, we still pay $1110 a month or $13,320 a year for housing costs. 

Tomorrow, before I hit the open road for some coffee house to settle into for a few hours of work, I will see if my own home may suit me as well. :-)

Knowledge + Action = Financial Independence!

Now You

Take fifteen minutes and add up the costs of your monthly mortgage, real estate taxes, electric, gas, and insurance and divide by 30. Now you know what your digs cost you each day. Maybe it's time to downsize, or simply stay in a bit more and enjoy those accommodations

 

Save money by decluttering!

Inspired after reading about how "stuff" keeps Americans from doing the stuff they'd like - spending time in the yard - I started on a new goal - 2,000 items out by the end of the month.  The first 200 were frighteningly easy;-)  Interestingly, the person at Goodwill who helped us unload told me  he has "NOTHING" extra at his apartment.  He said he sees people coming in with entire pick up trucks full of stuff and now sees it as just extra baggage so to speak.

Now, not only feeling lighter,  I found three things I'd been looking for and realize we have doubles of quite few things, like pet medicines, that I won't need to buy.  These are all financial savings.  Out of curiosity, I Googled "Does decluttering save you money?"  Here are a few links that say yes!

Best wishes!

Decluttering saves you money: http://www.chieffamilyofficer.com/2013/02/10-ways-decluttering-saves-you-money/

Decluttering your home room by room: http://www.livingonadime.com/decluttering-your-home/

Does your "stuff" make you sad? At what cost?

If I asked you to quickly list ten happy moments you experienced today, would any of them relate to your "stuff"?

I, like so many Americans, own too much stuff, plain and simple.  We have too many toys, too many books, too many clothes, shoes, etc. etc.

And I know full well, the stuff doesn't make me happy.  I'd say the stress that comes from cleaning and organizing the basement, garage, kids' rooms, closets, etc. is one of my major sources of stress. 

About six months ago, I started a nightly review of 10 happy moments that day. What surprised me was that 99 percent of happy moments were interacting with people: my husband, kids, friends, family, neighbors, the joke I shared with the check out clerk.  For a self-confessed introvert, that was surprising.  The only physical things that appeared regularly were nature and flowers in my garden.

Now I easily have 10,000 or more objects in the house if you include every pen, book, toy soldier, and screwdriver.  Yet not one of those makes me happy.  (Which is not to say the lack of say a refrigerator wouldn't negative impact my daily happiness).  By and large, all this extra stuff costs a lot not only in dollars, but time.

I came across an article in the Boston Globe called Too Much Stuff, Too Little Time, which tells me I'm not the only one. http://www.boston.com/community/moms/articles/2012/07/10/new_study_says_american_families_are_overwhelmed_by_clutter_rarely_eat_together_and_are_generally_stressed_out_about_it_all/?page=1
According to the article, people have so much stuff they don't have time to be in their own backyards!

It occurred to me that rather than "investing" in another gizmo, I ought to invest in shared smiles with the people around me preserving both cash and emotional well-being  So today, 7/18/2013 will be day one of a thirty day no buy except food goal.  This sort of thing is always easiest day one;-).  Best wishes! 
 

When five million dollars isn't enough to retire on.

I have a good friend who met with her financial advisor recently to see if she was on track for her dream - retire at age 50. She's 44 now, an 80 plus hour a week professional who's been burned out for the past ten years. Her advisor told her that her if she wanted to retire at 50, she'd need approximately 6.8 million.

When she told me this, my jaw dropped. Who has that kind of money? And did he know she wasn't planning to eat gold bars for breakfast?

The answer comes from the shocking ability of everyday expenses to erode retirement dreams. The advisor's basic look at it was a six percent return, her living to a ripe old age of 104 (which she has long said she plans to do), a 2 percent withdrawal rate and no worries of ever running out of money.

So why would she need 6.8 million? Her current lifestyle takes about nine thousand a month to support and the advisor bumped it up to 12 taking into account inflation and unexpected expenses.

Does that sound insane? She would say her lifestyle is not luxurious at nine thousand a month. They live in a 2400 square foot home in California, have two cars, and take one nice trip each year.

The nine thousand, very roughly is as follows:

$1600 mortgage/real estate taxes $1400 health insurance $1200 one major vacation a year - usually 3 weeks of foreign travel $1600 food - most meals eaten out $ 600 house maintenance $ 200 car maintenance/gas $ 400 clothes (very well dressed lawyer;-) $ 200 gifts $ 300 medical costs $ 400 entertainment $ 500 electric, heat, computer, phones, television, etc. $ 300 haircuts, hair color, acupuncture, massage, non-comped work expenses, etc. $ 200 pet expenses (including kenneling for long vacations)

The take away for me was how enormous is the cost of a dollar spent in retirement. For every dollar you want to spend, you need many, many multiples of that dollar working hard for you. And the fact is, sometimes those other dollars (your capital) go on strike or get sick - i.e. stock market crashes.

With no more in-flow, all the numbers change. Looked at this way, every dollar of expenses not used in daily living can do double duty on the road to retirement. Saving a couple hundred a month not eating out really does matter. First, those saved dollars can be added to your workforce (the final capital sum you need to retire). Second, your workforce has more breathing space as it doesn't have to support those lazy two hundred dollars that ate out.

So the next dollar bill you hold in your hand, ask is this gal going to enter my workforce or loll around living off the earnings of the other working dollars;-)

P.S  I was shocked to realize I hadn't posted since January 2012 - where does the time go?  I've finished my book and it is with a professional editor.  That has been sheer joy.  I'm about half-way through my second book.  In the mean-time, I've been "frugaling" with enjoyment!  Best wishes!

Happy 2012!!

Happy 2012! Every spare moment these is spent on my book. I feel so blessed to do something I enjoy so much! As a result my blog has gotten the short shrift, but undoubtedly all those years of frugal choices have helped me be able to write now. I hope each of you is progressing toward much dreamed for goals and hopes and that 2012 is a fantastic year for all!! Eileen

Good news on nature!

I read this article this morning with my iced tea and bagel and it just made my day!

http://www.nature.org/newsfeatures/specialfeatures/top-comebacks.xml?src=gp

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween to All!!

The Future Is Looking Bright....

Kirk and I were reading the story of Louis Braille tonight. It starts out with a heartbreaking accident that causes young Louis to go blind. Then it goes on to explain that at that time, early 1800s, most blind people had miserable lives.

Since blind people couldn't communicate with others by reading or writing, it was considered useless to send them to school. As a result, they were cut off from such professions as teaching, law, and medicine. Many blind people had to live in poorhouses. Others begged for food and money on street corners. The lucky ones found jobs shoveling coal or carrying bricks in exchange for food and a place to sleep.

The story goes on to tell how Louis was determined to find a way to read and help others do the same. There was at the time a cumbersome system of raised letters, but it was time consuming to read, expensive to produce, and would never truly open the world of books to the blind. At fifteen, Louis Braille created the Braille system - though it was not accepted during his lifetime, this gift he gave to the future lives on today to millions of blind people.

When we finished the book, Kirk and I talked about how sad and troubling things we now accept will one day likely be changed, perhaps by one person, dedicated to solving that particular problem. In the future, we may not be able to imagine hungry children, ill children, people dying in wars or being sent to prison. All it takes is that one person determined to find a way. Good wishes! Eileen

NO complaining 21 day challenge. Hit or miss;-)

One night, browsing the internet, I read about a person trying to improve his marriage by not complaining for three weeks. He referred to a 21 day no complaint challenge that eventually led me to the website http://www.acomplaintfreeworld.org/

I LOVED the idea. And I was successful for almost three hours. Then, ironically, I found myself complaining to a friend about my kids' complaints pertaining to four of the five food items on their dinner plates. Following the suggested practice, I switched my bracelet (my own though the site offers one) to the other wrist as a notice to myself I'd have to start the 21 days over again.

And thus I've gone on, once going three days before the switch. I will be delighted to hit a new high of four days but am benefitting from the mere attempt. The very process of editing the complaints, negative descriptions, griping, and whining from my communications makes me realize two things. First, negative talk is a complete bore. Second, when I talk about the "bad" stuff, I "re-infect myself" by reliving the situation and just bring myself and whomever I'm talking to down.

This challenge has made me very aware how much I complain to the kids ("Yuck! Can't you please close your mouth when you chew!"), about the kids ("You wouldn't believe how much the kids were fighting today!") and around them ("I can see why the postal service is going broke with those inconvenient hours").

So if you take out all the negative, what's left to talk about? I've started asking "So what's the good word?" when we sit down to dinner or I call my parents. I really enjoy hearing what's going well in others' lives. And talking about the good in my day: a hug from the kids, a perfectly toasted bagel, a kind check out clerk, the blue jay up in the Oak tree, the fact the kids ate all their veggies (even if open-mouthed), brings my mood up, reminding me of the myriad of happy moments in each day.

So far I've made it to 9:02, Wednesday morning, keeping it on the up and up. I had to start over again last night....not that I'm complaining...;-)Good wishes!

Hello!

As I got more and more behind on my blog, I was too embarrassed to even check my last post date. Finally, tonight I took the plunge, wow, almost two months!

To anyone kind enough to have checked in during that time, thanks and apologies for being so slow. It has been a wonderful few months. I made huge progress on my book. I have worked really, really hard to be a better mom (not always successfully) by listening more and being more in the moment. I got a lot done in the yard, finally tackling the weediest areas. And of my list of all the projects I wanted to tackle by October first, I made serious progress, including getting the 1980's wallpaper out of two bathrooms after living here for 14 years with plans to do so;-)

I'm enamored of the Happiness Project and get her daily postings. A recent one I really took to heart was about making the life you want. She wrote "If I've learned one thing from my happiness project, it's that if I want my life to be a certain way, I must be that way myself. If I want my marriage to be tender and romantic, I must be tender and romantic."

I love that line! I copied it and emailed it to myself as a reminder to create the life I want, I have to be the person I want to be and do the things that person would do. I get it wrong a lot, and get frustrated when I do something the person I want to be wouldn't do (over eat at the Chinese Buffet, yell at the kid over minor stuff, ignore my family, not call my parents regularly, let the dishes stack up till the ants all come back, etc. etc.) But I make baby steps to be that person and when I do something she would do, I pat her/me on the back;-).

I hope all of you are striving toward goals that will and are bringing you joy. Best wishes! Eileen

Five daily frugals

I've been trying to do several frugal things each day to keep on track. It's sometimes easier to make a goal of five choices a day that are frugal, and then enjoy trying to meet that goal.

Admittedly, that's not as efficient as sticking to a budget, something I've slacked on this summer. That said, it was a fun, frugal weekend. We took our big quilts to the laundry mat because when we bought our washer I asked the guy for any advice on getting it to last as long as possible. He told me keep the lint traps clean and don't wash big blankets. He said that shaking thing you sometimes get when the blanket gets to one side is very, very hard on the machine.

We also biked to the beach. We live too far out to bike to most places so we drive part of the way, park, then bike part of the way.

Kirk had wanted swim flipper and goggles. We stopped at a thrift shop on our way to the beach and lucked out finding flippers that fit for $1.

We spent Sunday at a local park playing baseball, soccer, Frisbee and even a bit of tennis (almost all equipment gotten at garage sales through the years), so fun and frugal.

Cooked a big batch of pasta, then made three meals for the week ahead - mushroom, spinach pasta; ricotta lasagna pasta, cold veggie pasta.

Happy frugaling;-)

Frugal decisions -

Frugal Decision #1

Two months past the one year warranty (NOT frugal), I make a long overdue call to the appliance store to say our "new" dryer isn't drying very well. She suggests prior to sending a technician for an $85 trip charge, I disconnect the dryer from the vent system and try one load of towels. So I do, and sure enough, rather than needing two and a half full cycles, all six towels are dry in 50 minutes. So I look into the vent system as best I can, where it curves into the wall, stick my hand in and feel a LOT of lint.

Next I look for vent cleaning services, and up pops "Vent cleaning scams", so I check the local listings for good reviews and find one that got 28 positive reviews and no negative. They charge $179 to clean the dryer vents, sounds pricey, but they got good reviews, and my dryer vent goes all the way under the family room, has three 90 degree angles, is almost 20 feet long and I know hasn't been cleaned in at least the decade we've lived here.

The tech comes and can't get his "magic wand" through. He has to take apart each piece of the pipe work (ripping off the duct tape), and shows me it's so clogged with wet lint (stinky too) that barely a pen could fit through the middle. He completely empties the entire line - almost three grocery bags full of wet lint, puts it all back together and my dryer is working great. Lesson learned, and I think, money well spent as I wouldn't have been comfortable taking apart all that tubing.

Frugal Decision #2 -

Kai's training wheels, which I'd gotten for 50 cents at a garage sale, finally gave way. We bought another set for $10, and they lasted all of about a week before bending when he hit a curb. A person recommended a bike shop that I think of as pretty expensive (think Trek bikes) to see if they could help. I went and asked the tech and he said they had a pair they'd taken off another bike that I could have for free and would just have to pay the $10 installation fee. Happy to do so, this new pair, as he showed me, was almost three times thicker metal than the first.

Frugal Decision #3 -

We're biking almost everywhere. Cheaper than gas, better for the environment, and makes for healthier mom and kids;-).

Frugal Decision #4 -

Working in spare moments, I'm finally making some progress on the book. Today I set the timer for one hour and told Kai if he played quietly for an hour, we would go to the lake. He found some dinosaurs and I was able to get in some writing and sketch out a scene. So happy all around.

Frugal Decision #5 -

Staying at home a lot more this summer and really enjoying our pretty home, yard, and neighborhood as well as the local parks, beaches, lakes, and neighborhoods.

Frugal Decision #6 -

Having too many times missed opportunities to get something I needed because I forgot, I now keep a list in the car of stuff we need, and errands that need to be run. I used to keep this list on the refrigerator door (I still keep the grocery list posted so the minute the butter is out it's on the list) but I find glancing at is as I'm about to run to the library and see "need nails for picture for Living Room" is all I need to be way more efficient.

Good wishes!

A fun day, but a troubling sight at night.

Today was a wonderful day. We got the good news the window shouldn't have broken due to a Pokeball and four- year- old and probably had a stress fracture or some fault and will be replaced just for the $60 installation costs. We also biked downtown to meet Greg (Kirk is visiting the grandparents) for dinner and got to see a free water ski show (they were practicing) and stopped to watch a Frisbee tag game.

But while we were headed back, a mini-van jerked to stop right in front of the porta-potty and a woman started to get out, then the car jerked forward again and I was a afraid she would get hurt. Then when she got out she clearly had a big black eye - all red and puffy. She went to the port-a-potty while the guy got out of the van and waited by the side. I didn't know what to do as I had Kai and didn't want to "get involved" and wished as they drove away I would have written down the license plate so I could at least have called 911. So tonight, please send up a little prayer for a woman in a situation that didn't look good and for every person everywhere that is in a troubled situation. Thanks.

Frugal steps forward and back.

With great pride I had intended to write of my frugal bike basket and fixing the drain without a single dollar to a plumber nor environmental impact of Liquid Plumber. I had seen a bike basket for $22 at Walmart, but looking at it, it looked a bit flimsy and it occurred to me that the maybe I could make my own. So I found a white wicker basket for $1.20 at a thrift store, two black zip strips that I had left over from a fencing job, and had a "new" bike basket that's worked great.

Then we had a drain that wasn't working for awhile. I figured it was just clogged and was loathe to pour nasty chemicals down the drain, so I used wire cutters a wire hanger and managed to pull out the gunk - icky, icky, icky, and now have a perfectly fine drain.

But then today, Kai was throwing a small plastic Pokemon ball and hit our family room window with a force surprising for a four year old and cracked the big picture window. I have to believe the earlier savings will be offset by window repair costs;-).

But each time I find a way to save or be creative, I still get that thrill. Good wishes. Eileen

Last day of July, 2011

Spent three and a half glorious hours at Panera working on my book, mostly research to answer questions that occured to me when I was in Boston. I put on my headphones and get my large iced tea and delve into 1775 with enormous satisfaction. I haven't had much time to write this summer. With the kids both home full-time, by the time 9:30 p.m. rolls around and kids are in bed (supposedly 8:30), the dog has been walked, Greg and I have a chance to chat about our days, I'm usually ready to sleep and the thought of powering up my computer for research or writing is as unappealing as nighttime sit ups;-). So today, Sunday, was a wonderful time to focus.

The kids and I are biking a lot as I'm trying to exercise away about eight pounds. Now if they want a weekly bagel at Panera, we ride four miles round trip to get that treat. We have to drive to a place where we can all be on safe sidewalks first, but it's fun and the kids seem to argue a lot less when they get lots of outside exercise.

We found a tunnel for $2 at a thrift store (don't shop them much now with the kids to avoid the unending "I wanna xyz"" but we did this day and trained Brandi to go through it with treats. I often feel like she needs more interesting things to do; she's not exactly the obstacles course type Sheltie, but I've read dogs are happier when they are challenged to think and try new things. So this was a happy find.

I am always trying to find ways to get the kids to help out in the garden, not usually to much avail, but when Kai realized he could deliver some annuals we'd gotten on sale to the pot I was putting them in, he got into the spirit.;-)

Good wishes to all and to all a happy summertime! Eileen

Summer and the living is good;-)

Wisconsin summers are beautiful! And the dry weather, while bad for gardening, has kept away our usual hordes of mosquitoes. Farmer's markets every weekend are a bonus. Rode our bikes downtown to meet Greg for dinner and met a very gracious woman from Columbia who is visiting his firm. She is completely bilingual and it makes me happy I've been studying Spanish with the kids a bit each day and excited to someday be able to carry on a conversation! Wishing you all happy summers!