Anyone else ready to GET OUT OF DEBT #3

[witch's mom]

The Debt Thread #2 was getting long, so I'm going to try and get a new one started. (I'm new at this, so thanks for the instructions!)

Here's the #2 link in case anyone new to this thread wants to see other posts. http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?p=1615118

And the #1 link: http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=138939

[Peppermint]

Great job witch's mom! :wink Thanks for the new thread.

This thread is for anyone who wants to get out of any debts they have, we are here supporting each other, sharing successes and ideas and encouragement.

I am in major credit card debt (actually dh and I are- it's not all my fault :LOL), and have a goal to be out of the credit card debt in 2 years, I have other "money related" goals too, but this one is the most pressing, the most immediate for me.

[angel04345]

I want to give some info to you mommas about low cost internet, phones and cable tv! I can cut your bill in half!!!!!! Our cable is network tv. It is channels 2-23 (in maine) see if your state has a similiar offer. It costs us 16.92 with tax and everything every month. We are considering bunny ears though (good ones! LOL) The phone is basic telephone with caller id we pay around 20.00 a month for this. It is called lifeline. If your child or anyone in your home happens to have maine care or your states medical ins you are eligable it will cut your plan ten dollars a month. (no one in ours does anymore) Then theres the internet. We use netzero high speed. I don't think it is any better or worse then our old carrier. It is a fraction of the cost! It is dial up service. They offer unlimited regular for 9.95 a month and high speed for 14.95 a month. I think they have another package as well not sure! If you do sign up please use our email as your referal gusnbonn@netzero.com. We don't check this email though, sadly I don't even know the password to it!!! If you need a link let me know!!!! I will send it to you. Hope this helps some mommas out! All together I think one of you said you paid some where around 95???? this plan would be around 55$ a month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (we have switched threads and I cross posted in the last one so here is my post!)

[witch's mom]

I didn't include my basic info in this thread starter. Here are my goals:

*Stay out of credit card debt (just paid off the card)
*Pay off house debt early (paying extra principle on loan)
*Build up savings and retirement accounts

Whether it's reducing debt or building for a future, the means are the same: We've got to cut down on the expenditures! There are some great ideas in these threads.

Off I go to make a crockpot of beans, homemade bread and log on to netzero.com to look into reduced high speed internet!

[newmainer]

thanks for all the good vibes and support... its *is* important to look at the big picture, rather than the daily stuff, because you will go crazy. As I start unpackign more and more boxes, I have made a box of books to sell either at our intown used store, or on Amazon. Who has sold on Amazon? Is it easy? Is it worth it for the 15% commission they take? I guess some is better than none. Certainly I want the money, but I am also in the mode of just wanting less stuff. Plus, the less books we have, the fewer bookshelves I need to find at yardsales. We have a couple of boxes full already for stuff for our own yardsale that we're going to have in August.

I wish we had a Trader Joes near us! The nearest is in New Hampshire- definitley *not* cost effective to drive there to save 50 cents on milk! lol.... I think i actually might start a price book, between our co-op, factoring in my 15% discount, the other natural food store, and the regular grocery store. I too have been thinkign about what is important to buy organic or not. For me, produce is important. For those of us who have lived in agricultural areas, the pesticide spraying is intense (this was when I lived in California, i worked in watsonville, which is where most of hte country's strawberries are from, and a lot more). Plus, beyond the environment is the health of the farmworkers. But, while I used to buy all natural chocolate chips, spices, etc.. I think I am willing ot let that stuff go. I really appreciate with the YMOYL program that it encourages you to spend where your values are- it makes the extra money for organics worth it- again- looking big picture rather than the individual receipts. But, its hard when you get the total at the check out.

Regarding the craft fairs... I just did a google search for Maine Craft fairs- so, obviously do a search for your state. Calling Chambers of Commerce will get you the information as well. Some of them are juried. The ones we are doing are not. Cost only $40- to join the organization and I get access to 8-10 fairs.

This week I am going to tackle our phone service. Angel- i'm in Maine, but our daughter is not on mainecare... I am not sure if we could get it or not. I looked into Talk America, but I coudl only get long distance, so i'd need separate local. I don't want to pay taxes twice. I am thinking about doing just local and pre-paid calling cards for awhile to really see how much long distance we use and go from there.

You know a cool thing is about all this though? I actually feel my desire to spend decreasing- for the first time i can really remember! In the past its been brief and out of the fact that I really *did not* have the money to spend. I feel like now its a real change of outlook and goals. i am starting to look at things and see their broader impact, environmentally, socially, and on our big economic picture. Its actually kind of exciting! (wish I felt that way with no debt though...) :innocent

take care, mamas.

[angel04345]

Hi new Mainer, The great thing about Maine is that they are offering so many more telephone companies!!! MCI, talk america, I also saw a commercial for another company too! It was 24.95 a month with call waiting callerid. I would try doing a search on the internet. If I see the commercial I will let you know about it. Yes Yes all of you sign up for netzero! I will get 20.00!!! I will put it in Ali's savings :)

[kerc]

newmainer --- i sounds like you are really making some strides towards never being in this debt situation again. :clap

amazon -- i'd run the books by the bookstore first. less hassle. then whatever they won't take I'd list on amazon. Personally I just figure the 15% is worth it. What am i going to do with a book I'm done reading?

[bamboogrrrl]

Everyone is doing so great with trimming costs! I am seriously impressed and inspired!

Newmainer: I started selling books on amazon.com in February, and so far, I've made almost a thousand dollars. Can't exactly quit my dayjob, but more it's more money I can throw at the mortgage... I find it's really easy to list books, and I go to library sales and yard sales to find stuff to post. I picked up a book last weekend for 50 cents, and sold it for $55 dollars ($48 after amazon's cut). Books are the love of my life, so I 've got a pretty good feel for what's valuable anyway. Popular stuff is being sold for literally pennies, and to me, it's not worth it to wrap up a book and mail it for that. If I can't sell it for at least 5 bucks, it goes back in trade to the used book store. I'm pretty organized about it, so it doesn't really take that much effort...

I got really sick of the lack of raises at my job, so when I learned about selling books on amazon, it seemed like an easy way to give myself a raise. And it's work I like!

Gotta figure out how to make this paycheck last until the next one. Will be creatively looking in the cupboards this weekend. I DID throw $300 in savings this month, but I have to buy a dumb dress as I am in my sister's wedding. I hate having to spend the money on something I will never wear again. Maybe I can unload it on ebay afterward... Ack!

[angel04345]

Hey mommas I'm back again! I thought of something else I want you all to get excited about!!!! I started a savings account for all of our family with ING direct.com. They do not have a branch but they ARE FDIC insured. (you can call and check) I opened one for myself and for opening it they gave me 25.00$. Then I emailed a link to my daughter and put her on as the primary owner and I get 10$ for referal bonus and then she gets 25.00$$$$! (were up to 60.00 just for opening new accounts!) If you did this again and again you can get up to 250.00 for referals. The interest rate is competitive at 2.10%!!! Call and see what your current savings is getting! (ours was less then one percent!) Let me know if you want the link to get the 25.00$ bonus. If you are nervous I urge you to call the FDIC this is to good to pass up!!!!
New mainer, usa telephone was the company I was thinking of! Good luck getting new phone service!

[MamaMonica]

:wave We're working on paying the mortgage off. It will be a few years and it's taking dedication to make the extra payments every month- which means cutting expenses.

I went to dial up internet for $5.95/mo from Acees4Less, whcih I like- but my local phone service cost $30 that month because I had metered calls on my local plan- so I had to pay $19.95 a month to get unlimited local calling to dial up- a savings of only $8 off DSL. It is such a learning experience to find out what cuts actually save money!!!!

[A&A]

Have any of you used priceline.com (for travel--hotel, air, car)?

My sister said she's gotten good deals from it but I'm just wondering if any of y'all use it.

Regarding selling books on amazon--how do you figure in your cost of shipping? Doesn't that really eat away at your profit?

And how fast are you expected to get your butt down to the post office and mail it? That would be my problem--people would be waiting weeks for the book they bought from me!

[kerc]

re: shipping. there's a shipping credit -- they pay one flat rate, which has every time but once covered the cost of shipping for me. amazon gives you whatever the flat rate is...

re: priceline. they used to be much better. on local hotels - say you're going to a wedding in abig city or something. you can do really well at the last minute. but i find that they aren't that great (compared to orbitz or travelocity or any of the other big search engines), especially since for airfare you have to go with the flight they pick.

[witch's mom]

Yeah, figuring out what is really a worthwhile savings can be time consuming and eye-opening. I spent a lot of time on the netzero site yesterday researching internet options and basically it came down to the fact that it won't work for my situation. If I were just doing straight e-mail and websurfing, that'd be fine, but because I have my office e-mail address configured to both my home computer and my office computer, and because I send and receive large files, it'd be a big fat hassle because I wouldn't be able to SEND e-mail from my office e-mail address and save it with any reliability. The time involved looked extremely daunting.

Today's budget-minded excitement: 7-year-old DD is off doing something special with a girlfriend this morning, so I've got an entire morning of one-on-one time with 4-year-old DD, so we're going to pack up breakfast in a backpack and go ride the bike trails together. Normally in a windfall of one-on-one time like this, we'd go out to breakfast or lunch and maybe go do something else more costly (shopping just for her, ceramic place, park with train), but we've all been trying to refocus our ways on spending time together without necessarily spending money. Especially with little DD, who much more than her sister LOVES new things and regards shopping as an activity ALREADY, I want to get the consumer attitude out of our lives. It's tough in suburban California where, everywhere you look, people have lovely new things (and are mostly buried in debt . . .)

[angel04345]

This morning I had errands to run, wash Ali's car seat, borrow nanis, post office, and return some things to walmart. So I just told Ali we were going shopping. I didn't really think she understood and I'm not going to list the errands to a toddler I thought wouldn't understand. My husband asked her where she thought she was going and she looked at him with such conviction and said simply, Shopping!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What have I done to my daughter!? Would she have understood park, or simply post office? Would she have answered him correctly if I told her were going to take a walk? Probably not as she LOVES to shop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have spoiled her rotton! She is 20mos old and she knows that shopping means new clothes or toys or just things for the house!
So I did good grocery shopping today spending only 61.00!!!! I am hoping to spend no more then 10.00 on laundry. (laundry mats stink!) The good news is the car ins went down 34.00$ a month! Which is nice! Well got to go talk with you guys later happy saving!

[georgia]

A&A, I recently read an article that said the data show that calling the actual hotel itself and asking for their best rate is almost always the way to get the best rate rather than the on-line travel sites or the hotel's individual website. Thought that was great as the "old fashioned" way is still alive and kicking ;)

I listen to our local consumer advocate Clark Howard, and he does a program about great travel deals each week. You might want to check out his website for more cheap travel info/tips@ www.clarkhoward.com

I went under budget today when I went to the co-op and farmers market!! My only splurge was my favorite organic shampoo. I rationalize its expense b/c when I use it, I only have to wash my hair every three days rather than every day when I use the regular stuff. It's amazing! Sometimes you gotta pay to be frugal :bag:

[MamaMonica]

When you go the hotel and ask for their best rate, then ask if they have any other discounts. They often will give an even lower rate for asking. We experienced this on our recent trip.

[newmainer]

kerc- thanks for the hands clapping... I've never gotten that before!!~ :D And I just remembered that dh and I have to do our meeting (4th week in a row!) so i need to make this quick...

food budget. got to work on it.

bamboogrrll...I am so impressed with your book selling. I think I will try our stuff on Amazon and then go to the local store if I can't sell it for anything decent. What kinds of books are you looking for at yard sales? hardcover? hard to find? i'm not even sure what would be considered hard to find. I assume romances and westerns aren't big moneymakers...lol. I'd love to make money like that on the side though.

I concur with all the comments about the messages we're sending to our children. Its a tough one. I actually just posted a similar thing on the Simple Living forums. Dont' have time to get into it now, but think it warrants more discussion along with the allowance topic. Did that get to another thread already?

frugally yours,
kelly

[witch's mom]

Checking, Monday morning. Did pretty well over the weekend, except for having to pay a late fee at the video store. (Two video stores we go to, and we've got late fees at both of them. Sigh.) What a waste of money!

Otherwise, though, I've stuck to the grocery pledge--Wednesdays Trader Joe's, Costco and the regular store in store, Thursday the Co-op--and stayed out of the grocery store all weekend. Made bread.

Still have to look harder at the car insurance situation with DH. That's this week's goal.

Happy saving, everyone!

[kerc]

we had a pretty good weekend as well.
movies from the library. no late fees there either.

my major purchase for the weekend was flowers. granted it was 5 bucks of annuals for the yard, but I'm po'ed at myself because i swore no flowers this year due to budget issues.

i spent 50 bucks at the grocery last thursday and plan to stretch it till this thursday.

on the budget issue I am in panic mode because my dh's first summer paycheck came and it was for less than I thought. School started a week later this year than last and I forgot to think about that. So the net amount will be the same, but the first check mucho smaller.

Listed a handful of items on ebay too. Hoping they go for loads of $$. Especially since I noticed this weekend that my dd's feet grew a whole size and she needs new sandals already :eyesroll . Happy that she is normal and growing. I bought the ones she's been wearing at goodwill in april (new at goodwill). Tried em on her and thought they would be too big for much of the summer. Little weed!

[A&A]

So, how do y'all decide when something IS worth spending the money on? My dd wants to take a week long summer class--and it sounds fun, but it's $150. :bag:

[Peppermint]

A&A- good question. What does this class mean to your dd? Is it really worth the $? Is there any less-expensive alternative? Would any of the grandparents want to treat her to that? My parents and in-laws are paying for the kid's gymnastics classes.

I am a firm believer that my debt is not my children's fault, and they will not be punished by my bad choices. That does not mean that they will get every little thing they want, I need to teach them not to be like me with spending.

I don't know how old your dd is, but, if this means a lot to her, and the grandparents aren't going to foot the bill, I would sit her down and talk about the expense. I would give her an opportunity to "earn" half of he money for it (that will help determine how much it means to her), maybe have a garage sale, list some stuff on ebay, have a lemonade and cookie stand, chores, whatever.

HTH!

[georgia]

i'd also check and see if the class was refundable or partially so (or you could switch classes/teachers) in case dd didn't end up liking it or what-have-you. then, it's not such a scary expense. i try and ask myself pros and cons to most every purchase....then, i've made a conscious decision either way. sometimes i regret it, but at least they were thought out :) if you end up not paying for the class, is there anyone you know who might be able to co-op with???

[angel04345]

My husband and I were talking last night. It was a lot about what is a good expense as opposed to a bad expense. We determined that as the bills go we will stay very basic for now. Then he brought something to my attention. Alicia's closet! Oh dear! I never really realized! When I give someone hand me downs its enough to clothe not one but TWO children! Something I like to do with friends who have children is go bargain shopping! I love to find my daughter outfits for under four dollars! However for instance in the closet now is enough for Ali to not repeat an outfit for two solid weeks! I have already begun shopping for sizes that she can't yet wear because I get such good deals!!!!! But then I just buy more and more and more because they are cute! Or they go on clearance later in the season! So that is what I feel I waste a lot of our money on!!!! I am working on it but its hard it clearance season!!!!!!!

[A&A]

[QUOTE=jess7396 I would give her an opportunity to "earn" half of he money for it (that will help determine how much it means to her), maybe have a garage sale, list some stuff on ebay, have a lemonade and cookie stand, chores, whatever.

HTH![/QUOTE]

I like the idea of a garage sale. (That would give us a chance to get rid of some STUFF, as well! )

[Graceoc]

Ok I definatly need to subscribe to this thread....I (well DH and I) have been living in denial ever since we got married about the state of our financial affairs :bag: The past five years we have always gotton 'so close' to haveing a major disaster but somhow it always worked itself out.....well that is not going to happen now :(

We currently have almost $20K in CC debt (just one card) and goodness knows how much in student loans (my undergrad and DH's law school) which are on deferment because we can't make the payments. We also have a $563 car payment that will be done in 2 years....and there is no real way to get rid of it because we need the car. BUT our biggest problem is that was a spenders :bag: It is totally our own fault - we are both terrible with budgeting and are big impulse buyers....and now we have spent all of our 'cushion money' and barely have enough to pay our monthly bills.

We are looking for ways to cut out some of our montly expenses - we are considering getting rid of cable and internet and I am DETERMINED to lower our grocery bill. That will help some, but we need more then that. We are due with #3 in December and I so DESPERATLY want to have a homebirth but now I can't see any possible way to get the extra $2000 that it will cost :crap We don't even have enough to send DS back to preschool next fall - which I know is not really a *must* but he loves it so and to be honest with the new baby I will REALLY need a break (no family around)

On the plus side for the first time we are putting away 5% of DH's salary into retirement savings, as well as paying alot on our mortage - so that is instant savings. But that dosen't help us on the monthly basis when we are $100 - $200 short on bills.

Any suggestions? Or just support would be nice. We are going on vacation (already planned and mostly paid for :bag: ) for the next 2 weeks and when we get back are planning on meeting with a credit counsler. It just makes me soooo mad at myself because my DH has a good job and makes really good money and there is NO REASON why we should be in this kind of debt.

Oh and about kids and money - my DS already says "well let's just go and buy it mommy' whenever he wants something. He is no trying to be sassy or anything - it is just what he is used to. We have always just enjoyed picking up little (or big) things here and there for the kids so they really don't know or understand any other way. It makes me so sad.....

[Peppermint]

Grace-
welcome to our group, I am getting tons of support from this thread and I am sure you will too. :hug Really getting serious about the debt and the pressing need to get out of it is most important. I have been almost "there" before, but, this time, I am truly "there" and serious about it, and I know that a couple of years of working hard at this goal won't be easy, but, the time is NOW and we HAVE to do this. I am also hoping to truly change my ways, so that all of the money now going to pay off debt will go into savings, the kids college accounts, charity, etc..

[Peppermint]

Was just flipping through the channels and heard Dr. Phil say something right on track, he does that on occasion :LOL.

Anyway- he was talking about drug abuse, but the principal applies here too- he said that the most dangerous idea is that one must "hit rock bottom" before they can be seek help, and he pointed out that "rock bottom" can be 6 feet under. In the debt situation, bankruptcy would be "rock bottom" I suppose. I am thankful that I am getting serious now. :thumb

[kerc]

Welcome graceoc -- you'd be surprised where you spend your money. I'd suggest checking out of the library the book "your money or your life" -- the #1 walk away message I got from it is that to control your spending you need to know what you are spending your money on. and being 100-200 bucks short each month -- that sounds like it might be easier to find than you think -- dunno what you spend on groceries, but 10 bucks less a week x 4 and you're at 40 bucks. cut out cable and you're likely there.

Ok question for you mamas. Anyone have a fleet bank cc? I got some good cc offers today in the mail and then found out bank one regularly ups your interest after you sign up. (checked the wording closely on bank one and sure enough they don't guarantee the low rate for ___ period of time. Just that you start there). So I checked out the other offers, and fleet looks decent, but I don't want to switch if they are crappy to deal with KWIM?

[angel04345]

Graceoc :w I am not as much in debt. I have no credit cards but we would like to live comfortably with me at home. We bought a 1,00$ vacum. (WHY?!!!!) We have a car payment on my car and we have a furniture bill. Again WHY! I would love to have that extra money every month to make life more bearable! Some suggestions that I have found helpful are, one utilize atleast half of your tax return for paying off or down high interest accounts! IE when we do taxes at the end of 2004 :( we will pay off the thousand dollar vacum and the furniture bill! YEEE HAA Two cut the other half of the return in half again put half in your savings for a cushion for the year(or years) and the other half spend it! Buy the things you have needed or REALLY wanted!(Spoil yourselves now and then!!!!) Three Try babysitting or getting an evening job. This works for some moms to get a little extra cash and its a change of pace. I get over a hundred a week babysitting for grocerys! It helps our family and I have a little spending money! Four try cutting down your utilities to the basics. There are also some free internet programs out there watch out though often its only so many hours of free access a month and then its a charge per hour. Good luck and welcome!!!!!

[georgia]

www.bankrate.com is a great place to find out more info on cc rates, etc. it also has some super clear advice :). about the children's clothes---i have a friend who has quite a few little ones, and she decided one day that everyone had too many clothes. she went and sold, donated and traded away ALL but 7 outfits per child plus kept some playclothes. each child gets one jacket per season, and two pairs of shoes. she made a fortune on consignment! she was doing laundry every day anyway, so now she's even more apt to get it done so everyone will have clothes to wear :D amazing. i wish i could get to that place! i tried to go through and be ruthless, but i kept thinking, if we NEED this, it would be more expensive to rebuy it......

[vegmom]

yeh! we lowered our cc interest rate by half just by asking for it! DH called the credit card company and asked if they can wave the annual fee and if they can reduce our interest rate and they were happy to do it. We were able to drop from 19% to 10%. But they could not drop the annual fee of 25$ because we were at a lower interest rate now. It was one or the other. With the lowered interest rate we save $20/month so it pays for itself in almost a month. From what I have been reading in this thread is that cc companies are very negotiable. You just have to call them up and ask for what you want. I hope that everyone tries this!

[bamboogrrrl]

Welcome, Graceoc! Facing the debt is probably the hardest step, and you've done that - Woo hoo! Sounds like you've found some great ways to save here and there. You can also call your credit card company to see if they will lower your interest rate, and if not, you can try to find another company to switch your balance to that will charge you less interest.

Rather that throw extra money at your mortgage and the 5% to your dh's retirement, you might want to take that money and throw it at the cc debt and into a fund to restock your emergency cushion. For examply, if you can find another $400, split that between CC debt and your emegerncy fund... What is the interest rate on your mortgage? Have you refi-ed to take advantage of the low interest rates? Your dh's retirement is not making that much money right now, and if your interest rate is low on your mortgage, that isn't costing you that much in interest. Therefore, you will save much more $$$ by paying off your cc debt which is probably at 15%-20% or more.

On amazon.com, you can buy a used copy of "Your Money or Your life," any of the Tightwad Gazette books, or "The Millionaire Next Door" for cheap to get you started. You'll probably find that tracking your expenses will be the first major change you make. You can also start learning more about paring down by visiting the Simple Living discussion forum at: http://www.simpleliving.net/forums/default.asp

On saving money...I found a cheaper place to get a dumpster for dh's auto shop. Which translates to about $100/year. Seems small, but every little bit counts. Sold a book on amazon this morning for almost $18 - that's like a 20% raise today!

[angel04345]

I was actually thinking of trying to sell Alicia's clothes instead of giving them away. They are all like new. (and why shouldn't they be they only get washed and worn twice!) Do you think that is mean though? I have a niece that will happen to fit into all of the clothes in the right seasons! Her mom is looking to me for free clothes all the time! Shes always looking at Ali's clothes and mentioning that she can't wait to get that one!

[Peppermint]

I think you have to make a judgement call on selling them vs. giving them away. I happen to get tons of hand-me downs from dh's cousin for my dd, and I am soooo very thankful for them. I pass my son's clothes down to my nephews too. Maybe just sell the nice brand name stuff? That's the only stuff you'll get any money from anyway, IME.

Charity in general is a problem for me, every charity that writes me gets at least $5, so, of course, then I get on all the lists, even though I am giving so little. Every homeless person I pass gets whatever I have in my pocket- which is never very much. I like the feeling I get when I give, it's addictive. I tend to think that God won't let me go broke by giving too much to those in need, and really- it's not the giving that got me where I am today- it was the unnecessary, frivolous spending.

[Jordansmommy]

If you're looking into low cost phone service and already have high speed internet (cable or DSL will do) then try www.vonage.com. It's voice over IP and *fantastic* quality but very low cost. There are a variety of plans - $24.99 gives you unlimited local (same area code) plus 500 minutes of long distance. That's what we have and it works well.

You can also get a "virtual number" - for example if you live in Maine and have relatives in NY that call you all the time you can get a NY area code so it's a local call for the people calling you but it still rings through to your number. I think that's $4.99. Pretty swift.

[A&A]

Yesterday I went grocery shopping with my kids and I had a full cart. My 7 yo. dd looked at me and said, "Mom, this BETTER all be on sale." So at least I'm teaching her something right!

[witch's mom]

Hi everybody. Welcome Grace. I've been diligently reading all the posts the last couple of days, but was too busy out SPENDING MONEY to post myself. Well, not entirely. Worked a couple days this week, then yesterday had to do the weekly Grocery Shop. ($100, not counting a $95 trip to Costco for paper goods and staple items--no astrobrite convenience foods in this house--that won't have to be repeated for three to six months) The $100 grocery bill (conventional and Trader Joe's combined) is slightly higher than I hoped--I wanted to meet $100 for the whole week, and I've still got the Co-op to hit today for a little produce and some bulk organic beans and flour. I bet I'm out of there for $15, though. This is so much better than I WAS doing, and I credit this thread for keeping me motivated and conscious of the money.

Kids' activities are expensive. My older DD really wanted to take horseback riding lessons, so we're trying that out for summer. ($30 a week) Both girls are in gymnastics ($100 a month for both), big DD takes piano ($100 a month) and little DD is in an art class ($80 a month) that she'll quit in August because of kindergarten. They LOVE these activities, and these aren't things they'll get at public school in California. But we're looking at $400 a month in scheduled activities right now!

It sometimes feels silly to be endeavoring to save a few bucks on the grocery bill when we're shelling out $400 a month in extracurricular activities. But boy, it all adds up. Our grocery bill, before the big focus on reduction, was about $1000 a month for four people. The organics, the gourmet stuff, the convenience stuff, the seafood. I remarked in amazement to DH, who works in grocery, about the people over on simpleliving who have a goal to spend no more than $35 this week and he said, "Yeah, honey, you buy the most expensive stuff in the whole store."

I'm not planning to cut the quality of food we buy, but to use my own skills to make it go further. I've been spending a lot of time in my kitchen. Got a crockpotful of beans going today (we thoroughly enjoyed our last vat), got a new sourdough starter brewing and will try making bread tomorrow, been air-popping bulk-bought popcorn for snacks and using a little real butter--DDs LOVE this. We've made juice popsicles, cookies, bread machine bread, banana bread out of rotting bananas. Used every last scrap of a whole organic chicken, and little DD ate homemade chicken/vegetable soup for breakfast one day and now asks for it every morning. Used one freezer-burned piece of turkey Italian sausage to flavor a homemade spaghetti sauce the other night. I've always loved cooking, and lately I've just put a new spin on it: use everything up and keep costs down. Like someone said earlier, even $10 a week in savings adds up to about $40 a month.

And now, my tomato garden has begun to produce! Yippee! Every day this week, we've had salad tomatoes from the yard. And fresh herbs. Happy summer!

[newmainer]

welcome, Grace! I dont have all that much to report.. just wanted to check in. We're still keeping track of spending and as the end of the month approaches, i am anxious to pull out the statements and the lists and see where we're at.

Grace, I second bamboogrrl's suggestion about putting money toward paying down cc's rather than the retirement. Splitting the money between a cushion and cc's seems like it would tackle part of your problem and then once your' cc's are paid off you can look at retirement issues. *Definitely* get Your Money or Your Life. It will seriously rock your world- it whatever way you need it to!

Re the giving to charities... I am a firm believer in tithing and that in order t allow money to flow into your life, you need to allow it to flow out. you're right- we dont' get into debt by giving to those in need too much..lol! I highly doubt all the stores I have shopped at and the restaurants we blew money for big dinners at needed our cash!

Keep on, keepin' on everyone.

(oh, I have one personal thing to share. Yesterday was dh's and my 3rd anniversary. We ate dinner at home - mom took dd- with some filets i had bought on accident several weeks ago (meant to get a cheaper cut), salad, and homemade cards. Much better than blowing the money his mom gave us on dinner out. we're going to save it for something special in the future. Or- when we need some quick cash!)

And... I forgot. I was thinking we could all share some things that we do regularly to save money/resources. Kind of like our own Tightwad Gazette. I"ll start-

Instead of buying expensive cloth wipes, I used a bunch of receiving blankets from dd's birth (we had a million of those flannel ones. you always get a bunch. and they're cheap) and cut them into 5x5 squares. If i'd been really on it, I would have stitched the edges to keep them from unravelling. But- about 4 blankets gave us several dozen. She's a year now, and we are still using them.

Who else has a tip?

[angel04345]

Heres my tip......
We purchase clothing for my daughter well ahead of time at clearance sales! For instance during this summer clearance we are purchasing 4t clothing which is what she should be wearing next summer. I got her winter coat near the end of the winter last year for six bucks in size 3t!!!!! Why pay full price?!

[kerc]

angel --- sometimes that works for me, but my dd seems to be one of those kiddos who grows sporadically so I end up with loads of things that fit at the wrong season. I *do* shop like that for winter stuff (and umm, winter is like 9 months a year here :))

my tip: veggies that will go in a soup (like celery) but are destined to be spoiled before you can use them up can be chopped and frozen. I always do this with celery. We eat about 1/2 of it then the rest gets all white and dried out. So I take the inside 1/2 (with the leaves) and chop it for soup, freeze it, then when I'm making soup I just dump my little baggie of veggies in there.

[kerc]

:banana

I just transferred my 17% cc to a 0% cc (till fall 2005!) all new stuff is 9%. YEAH! (the new stuff rate is important to me bc we are in a transition stage in my life right now -- probably last year of many spent working towards a phd. hubby's phd too!).

[Piglet68]

Just popping in to say hi. Not too much to report these days. End of the month is drawing near and I'm pretty sure we are going to end up dipping into our overdraft account. However, we will have paid off one debt in full :banana AND we have made a big payment on a second that will carry us through until August. And we have started making a dent (bigger payment) on the third on our list.

We will also be taking out of my paycheque whatever we have overdrawn so that we start July with an overdraft balance of zero owing. Since we have two less payments to make in July, we should be able to make up the difference, and hopefully come out even at the end of July.

My biggest source of stress right now is that we are moving in late August and DH does not have a job lined up. He will be doing some work from his own business at home, but this will be new and we have no idea how much income it will bring in yet, so we really can't count on that at first. There is one company we found that works in his trained field, and I'm trying so hard not to but...I'm really pinning my hopes on them. If he can get a job there, he can work his 40 hrs a week, and make a nice enough income that we'll have a nice apartment and be comfortable while I'm SAHM-ing. If that doesn't pan out, he will have to get a bunch of "joe jobs" that don't pay very well, and I'm a bit concerned about how we are going to make ends meet without having him working 70 hours a week. We have to find an apartment, and that is tough without knowing exactly what our income will be.

At least by then we will be debt-free. Our property sale is scheduled to go through in September, and the profits from that will pay off all our credit card debts and our car. I won't feel the relief though until that money is in the bank!

[angel04345]

Congrats Piglet!!!!! I hope that everything goes the way you want it to! We will have two bills payed off and a big chunk put down on the last!!! YEEEHAAAA in Feb or March of 2005! It will be wonderful and until then we are just surviving!!!! I am taking my money from one child I watch and saving it up and then christmas and bday shopping!!! Takes a lot out of me! Does anyone have any suggestions about thrifty christmas gifts??? My brother goes all out on my little girl but I never do on his kids. I would like to get them something cool this year but it depends I guess! We have atleast twenty people to buy for. (thats just my side all but three on his side are not celebrating holidays for religous reasons.) have a great day girls......happy saving!!!!

[Peppermint]

Piglet- I think you are going to be the first to "get out of debt". That will be such an inspiration to the rest of us :).

I am plugging along here, not incurring any new debt :thumb.

[Indigo73]

angel04345 - I make 99% of my gifts - Cookies in a Jar, Mittens, Scarves etc. I search the yard sales for big canning jars and yarn scraps and start any knitting, sewing and crocheting (the more portable the better) now so I don't fee overwhelmed come November.

[Peppermint]

We also make about 99% of the gifts we give. For weddings we often give a framed "Irish Marriage Blessing" that my dh designed on the computer, I get frames for $2 at Wamart :hide:.

What other frugal things do we do? hmm.. lots actually, but I am having a hard time thinking of examples right now. I use coupons combined with sales to get things like soap, deoderant, toothpaste, toothbrushes for free or at most .50.

I plan my meals to make good left-overs. ie) Tuesday we had homemade mac and cheese, Wednesday we had tacos, Thursday I put the left-over taco meat and mac and cheese together for a meal. (my apologies to the Vegans on the thread :wink: )

I also use flannel squares for wipes. MIL makes receiving blankets for baby shower gifts, then cuts squares from the leftover fabric and serges the edges for me :thumb (she's not all bad :)).

Can't think of anything more right now, the BFing, cloth diapers, whole foods that WOW people on other sites I visit are not exactly impressive here at MDC. :LOL

[newmainer]

Kristin, that is a *great* idea about freezing veggies ahead of time for soup. I never thought of that. We always have some veggies that are on teh verge of going but that i dont' have a plan for.

We make a lot of our christmas and holiday gifts too. Framed pictures of dd are always a hit. we also have canned in the past, especially when we had an apple tree. we canned homemade apple pie filling- got raves!! This year we are going to do tomato/pasta sauce, i'll be knitting, and I have a few other ideas. definitely not buying much this year at all. angel- can you guys draw for names or something? 20 people is a lot. I think cool things for kids are like a gift certificate for an afternoon outing with you... or reading them a story on tape... putting together a custom "book" with a story you write and then make pictures from magazines or whatever. Not as flashy as storebought stuff, but more meaningful and less impactful resource wise.

piglet- you definitely inspire me!! its so cool to see someone get out of debt while the thread is still going. sometimes it seems like its going to be forever.

ttfn...

[scrapadoozer]

Hi, I am new to this thread! We have paid down all of our debts except our mortgage (which is brand spankin' new!) and DH's student loan (over halfway paid off!) Our problem is saving money. We have next to nothing in savings not to mention no retirement plan (my husband works for a small company with no 401K so it's all our responsibility to make it happen) I read the other day that you have to pay yourself first or you'll never pay yourself at all. This seems really true.
*OK, here's my tip. Picture you are in a store and you spy some doo-dad that you think you MUST have...make yourself hold off and think about if you really want/need it for a few minutes. More times that not the fever for the doo-dad passes away in that time and it's not hard to leave it sitting there on the shelf! :) There's been some great tips so far...anyone have anymore?

[newmainer]

thanks Jenny, and welcome to the thread! we got a lot of Mainers on this thread- I *think* that's a good thing....(that we are all here and supportive, not that we are all in debt..lol). And thanks for the tip!

[kathsmom]

OK, will somebody just slap me? I had to go to Target to buy a few toiletry supplies and thought I would just stop in TJ Maxx to see if they had anything. Well, I bought a light blue leather purse for $50. :bag: My mother has this exact same purse in black and I know she paid $100-$120 for it at Nordstrom's. I loved the color and thought it would go well with a black shirt/capri pant set, because it has a trim of blue and lime green polka dots. Part of me wants to keep it, but the other part of me is saying to take it back. We might wind up having to buy a new stroller, because DH ran over my Mac Quest and we are waiting for the new wheels to come (they should be here on Monday). If we can't fix it with the wheels, we are probably going to have to buy a new stroller.

AACCKK! I just paid down a huge chunk on the credit card and just charged this purse. I need more self control!

For the mama who posted about having 20 people to buy for at Christmas, we just decided that only the children would get presents. It has helped our budget tremendously and since DH and I don't live near our siblings and their spouses, it makes it hard to find presents that they would like, need, or enjoy. We do one nephew who is almost 27 and we don't buy him presents at Christmas anymore. We stopped when he was about 25, because he makes almost as much as my DH does and he is single and doesn't have a mortgage, a wife, and 2 kids to support. Sometimes, he will get us a gift card to Home Depot or something like that, but he doesn't expect anything in return.

[kerc]

ok kathsmom walk away slowly and TAKE IT BACK!!!
or put it on layaway so you can *pay* for it not charge it.


gifts: on the crafting/sewing forum there's a sticky thread that is a listing of homemade gifts. Overall we only do gifts for kids. We were the first to request "no gift for us" once we got married and it has made life very low stress. who the heck knows what to buy for dh's aunt? We do gifts for dh's brother and mom and dad, etc. Closer relations. My family has always just done gifts for the kids. Occasionally if we see something we LOVE then we'll buy it, but it doesn't imply the need for reciprocity.

will check back in later more to say but dh is waiting for me.

[A&A]

I think it's also inspirational to run your debt through a debt calculator to see how many months (or years) it will take you to pay it off at the amount you are currently paying it, and how much faster you can get it paid off if you pay more per month. (For example, I will get out of debt 4 months faster if I pay an additional $10 per month.) Just do a search for "debt calculator."

[kerc]

i'm back now. dh was busy putting together our "new" tv cabinet. A piece of junk particle board thing that was a cast off. We took it out of the car and it fell apart. So we had some drywall screws laying around and ta-da. new cabinet for us. And actually it doesn't look half-bad.

i spent A LOT at the grocery this week. More than 2 x as much as normal. But our cupboard was BARE and I was tired of not having any food. Ok pasta and butter we did have, but nothing with real protein in it.

We went camping and borrowed the thermarest we keep talking about buying. Small victory of the week.

[angel04345]

I am throwing my SIL a shower. Does anyone think it would be unacceptable to get her just one nice cloth dipe (shes asked for them) and then some other baby care items?

[lilyka]

HI checkin' in.

Just wanted to say some times it is worth it in the long run to spend a little. my car was getting really bad gas milage. As in 11 miles/gal. For a 96 mini van. we should have been getting at least 25. I figured we just got screwed. My friend harrassed me and I took it in to get a tune up, which they said probably wouldn't help but that there was definitely something wrong with it. We ended up putting $250 worth of repairs on it (stupid little sensor) on the bredit card :( but this weekend we took a road trip (the stress that inspired me to do somehting baout our crappy gas milage) and I got 22 miles to a gallon. w ith that tune up and an oil change we will probably hit 25 mpg. not too shabby. I hated putting that money on the cc but we haven't got any savings yet an it will save us $40-$80 a month. so it will be paid off in no time. And in a couple months we will have that much extra to work with.

maintaing your appliance will lower what ever bills are associated with them. keeping your car tuned, you filters clean, etc. . . are worth the monay you have to invest. Poorly running stuff can suck the money right out of you bank account.

[newmainer]

Good thoughts, lilyka. we are pretty good about changing the oil in our car (03 Subaru, leased- the only way we could afford a new car, which we needed before dd was born) but really need to be better about getting the warranty check ups and things.

I had meant to write back last night in response to kathsmom's post. I support you in returning that purse!! The layaway option is good.. or can you trim somewhere else if you really need it, so you can pay cash? Or better yet, how many time are you going to wear the outfit to match to justify its own purse? I was also struck by what you said, that you would just "stop by TJ Maxx to see if they had anything." Girl, I am guilty of that, and can't remember a thing i've bought on those "just popping in" trips- but I always come out with something! I am soooo trying to break that habit- especialy with the grocery store.

ok, deep breath. you know what our grocery bill was this month *not* counting the full payment for our CSA (community supported agriculture) subscription? $650!!! :dropjaw. There were so many purchases that were under $50- but lots of them. I know I've been championing organic here and there you go, mamas- we pay for it!! On the positive side, I know that I only started tracking my expenses on June 12th- though it feels like so much longer. And at that time was when I really started to be conscious of how much I was spending on groceries, meal planning, etc... Obviously, I am a slow learner!! :eyesroll . So my goal is to cut that in half the next month. But we are actually going back to California to visit in-laws and friends for the next month (cheap trip, really. dh works wherever he can bring the laptop, so not really a vacation for him. staying with all friends and family. minimal food expense, etc...). But i will still track spending. and then when we get home, the pressure is on.

I was amazed as I added up our spending for the month in all of our categories, that we have *never* done this before. We've made budgets ahead of time (which of course never worked, and now I know why), but never added up our spending at the end of the month. Such an eyeopener!! I saw that gas and eating out and things were the least fo our expenses, while food- obviously- and household expenses (things for repair, installing tile, etc...) were our highest. And those are the things that we know are going to go down, so at least that is positive. We also made our asset list and our liabilities list. and guess what- negative networth!! But, i know that every month our liabilities will decrease and we can watch those numbers sink, so I look forward to that.

Otherwise, I am hung up today with a bad, bad stiff neck. Can barely move left. Had to go to the chiro this morning after sleeping badly and enflaming all the joints. ugh. luckily mom is in town and has dd for several hours. Poor peanut, I can't pick her up!! :crying. Doc says should get steadily better by tomorrow. Heres hoping. I did send dh out for a People magazine. The $3.00 of mind trash is much needed right now...lol.

keep on keepin' on....

[kerc]

The $3.00 of mind trash is much needed right now :LOL

Cheers to you for tracking the expenses. YAY mama! Knowing where it is going is half the battle.

[newmainer]

[QUOTE=kerc]:LOL

Dh came home with a People, InTouch (only .25!) *and* a Star :love. Feeling pretty trashy about now... and missing dd! my mom has had her for hours... ready to get back to my regularly scheduled life now. what the hell did i do with all this time before dd?

[Peppermint]

I am throwing my SIL a shower. Does anyone think it would be unacceptable to get her just one nice cloth dipe (shes asked for them) and then some other baby care items?


I think one nice cloth diaper is GREAT! If I were you, I'd get her the one dipe, and make a list of websites to buy dipes, and also include tips on what dipes for when (ie- KL 0s for newborns, but prefolds and BSWW for older kids) and how to wash instructions.

For my SIL's shower I bought her used books, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, Nursing Mother Working Mother, Dr. Sears stuff, etc. I also made her a nursing shawl (she is not a NIP person), and made her signs for the basinett at the hospital ("I am a nursing baby, please no pacifiers or bottles, just bring me to my mommy") and signs for the door at home ("Mom and baby are getting some much needed rest, we are so glad you want to see us, we will be up for visitors soon, leave a note and we'll give you a call")

Also- give her "coupons" for free meals and babysitting.

[newmainer]

Actually, I had something else to post. Forgot. Is related to expenses in a roundabout way.

So, as I mentioned, dh and I have remodeled this house that we bought in February (first home). Our property is adjacent to about 20 acres of lakeshore owned by the local water company. We really bought the house for the views and the location- hills, lake, woods. We love it. We have put nearly $50,000. into this house.

We got a letter today informing us that the water company is going to be selling their 20 acres of lakeshore at approx. $35,000 an acre. What?! We had heard this rumour when we first moved in, but didnt' anticipate it happening for awhile. The water company wants to know if we are interested in buying any property by July 15th. As residents with abutting property, we have some preferential treatment.

Clearly, dh and i do not have this extra money (have't even discussed borrowing from family or if any family might want to buy some). We dont' even know what any of the neighbors will think of doing.

What does this mean for us?

If the land is sold in acre parcels, we could have a huge development between us and the lake, thereby killing our view and the whole reason we really bought this property.

Even if we were to come up with the money to buy maybe the acre between us and the lake, if the rest of it is developed- what's the point of having an acre? Its all woods- which is great, we love it, but not if its surrounded in development, kwim?

The H2o company has said that they have already had the soil tested, etc...and it seems like they are ready to move on this. We haven't had the house reappraised since we've done the work. While we are definitely looking at an increase in value, I am not sure that we have enough in it that if we were to sell right now (which we aren't thinking about, really) we would get enough money to pay off what we owe for the work on the house. So, if that were the case we wouldn't sell now or in the near future, but wait on it. I'm concerned that a develpment will not help the value of our house.

ugh!! we *just* moved here!! anyone have any experience with anything remote like this? i am worried about losing money on our house and screwing ourselved over.

I know this is a bit OT, and its another long post from me- so, thanks for reading. just feeling a bit bummed and like we are having the rug pulled out from under us :angry.

[Piglet68]

that sucks, newmainer.

I guess the question is: how valuable do you think that property is? maybe you could buy up an acre adjacent to your house, thus giving you some kind of barrier to whatever goes on there (and whatever it is, is bound to be noisy!). But...land is usually a good investment. If there's a development going up, plus your house and the others around you, that acre may be worth alot more to someone looking to build a house on that site.

I would do some research and see if the "deal" on the acre is as good as they say. Could be a short-term moneymaker...but do look at it carefully first.

[newmainer]

yes, it does suck.

dh and I talked about it more, and we are thinking that this may be bigger than just our house and our property values. a subdivision or a bunch of McMansions on the lakeshore, even on 3 acre parcels would chop up this otherwise beautiful stretch of woods. It would make a big impact just on the area alone, in quality of life. We are beginning to think that maybe we should get together with neighbors, listen to what they are thinking and maybe togetehr we can talk about preserving it as open space. That would be awesome.

But, i digress from the thread.

[kathsmom]

Newmainer and Kerc,

I have decided to return the purse to TJ Maxx. I thought about it and it really is only good for one outfit, plus I don't like purses that are in my armpit when I have it on my shoulder and this one does sit in my armpit! I have a couple of other things to return that I actually did need, but didn't work (a swimsuit for DS that was too small and a paper towel holder that doesn't work right).

The wheels for my stroller came in the mail today, and I am hoping that DH can get them on and get the stroller fixed, because we are going to see his sister next week for our vacation. If not, then I have some shopping to do for another stroller.

We have been eating out way too often this past week, but DS has been sick and has managed to get the rest of us sick as well. We have been slammed with doctor bills for DS this year. He is getting asthma type symptoms and all the trips to the doctor, after hours clinic, and to the ER are just throwing any gains we have made out the window! Egads! I hope that he stays well after this illness wears off!

Newmainer,

Wow! $35,000 per acre! I hope that you and your neighbors can come together to see about keeping the area as open space as opposed to having it become a subdivision with McMansions! Good luck!

[Peppermint]

Kathsmom- :thumb, good descision on the purse ;)

newmainer- your situation just sucks, I was thinking the McMansion thing too, definitely get together with your neighbors, they must be worried too and maybe someone has an insight.

Also- I always try to click your links to see pics of you and yours, but the links don't work :scratch. (I love "seeing" the people I talk to)

[Piglet68]

Kathsmom: congratulations on having the willpower to return the purse!! :clap

I made a "luxury" purchase yesterday. A maternity swimsuit from Old Navy. It was on sale for $15!! There's a new water park opening in our local park in two weeks. DD cannot WAIT to go. I was wondering what I would wear as I have no swimsuit, and nothing I could wear in the water that fits my big belly. I had pretty much resigned myself to not being able to go with her and then I saw this sale.

I told DH right away, and he said he thought it was a good deal, and something I would definitely use. I'm actually thinking I might be able to wear it even when I'm not PG...

Otherwise, budget days are quiet. Went over our last month and realized we missed out on about $150 in purchases!! This was mostly gas (DH keeps leaving the receipts in the car) and some grocery purchases. As well as our Netflix membership, and my illicit diaper purchase. :guilty

Still, our new overdraft account will cover it all without the $30/item service charges we were paying before. AND on payday I will be transferring exactly that amount back into it, so that we are starting with a zero balance owing. We're feeling pretty good about things these days. Especially knowing we have only 2 more months of this, then our situation will change.

Of course, then we'll be faced with all new budget situations, and that may include a fluctuating monthly income. That is sure to drive me batty!!! :nuts

[Peppermint]

Piglet- you have to tell us you are going to buy something BEFORE you do it ;) .

If anyone else needs a maternity bathing suit, I have a medium black one from Motherhood Maternity that I only wore last summer (and I'm clean ;) ). I, unfortunately, won't ever have use for it again.

[kathsmom]

Thanks everyone for your encouragement in regards to the purse! :)

Well, I tried to get the stroller wheels off to put the new ones on, but I talked with the stroller company (who was very nice and helpful) and they said a special tool was needed and that some people have all kinds of tools. I was told that I might need to take it to a repair shop and some of them can change out stroller wheels (where do I find one of these? :scratch ). I asked if I could send the stroller back to them to fix and they said yes, but then I would be without my stroller for about a month. DH is going to see if he has any tools to get this thing fixed before we go out of town next week. Wish us luck!

Piglet, what an awesome deal on the maternity swim suit! I bought mine at Sears (2 years ago) and it was about $30.

The good news is that we got a medical reimbursement check in the mail (the medical savings account) and DH deposited it yesterday, so we can use it to pay down the credit card or to help pay for things for our vacation to my SIL's home.

Thanks for all of the support that you all are giving to me!

[bamboogrrrl]

Kerc: How wonderful that you were able to get a cc with no interest for a while!

Kathsmom: Way to go on the purse! I read today somewhere that every time you go and buy something on credit, put another zero on the end of the price to find out what it will cost you in interest and in lost retirement $$ over time. THAT was motivational.

Newmainer: That sucks about your land! Is the land around you worth 35k/acre? You can go on www.realtor.com to find some comps. Maybe you could negotiate less $$$ and more property with the seller? If the Nature Conservancy is active in your area, they may be willing to buy the land if it preserves it. BTW: Have I seen you post at the SL discussion forums? Welcome! Those folks rawk - I've learned so much...

Dh and I turned a small fiscal corner this week. I set a goal to pay down our mortgage to a certain point by this December, and we reached our goal this month, 6 months early! We have a 15 year mortgage, and I hope to pay it off in eight years (or sooner!). Have to make the last payment toward dh's Roth IRA and we'll be set.

The next fiscal hurdle will be to fill up the oil tank this summer (ouch! - 500 gallons), and get enough wood cut and split to see us through a few months. We have a lovely (albeit drafty and in need of major TLC) 1860s farmhouse, so plugging up the windy bits is an ongoing battle. Last winter we deinsulated (ack - horrible job!) and reinsulated 2/3s of our attic and it made a huge difference. Must do the last third this fall. Dh is currently rebuilding (after our dog cracked one window lunging at a rabbit) the 7 ft tall windows in our sunroom (my SIL calls it "the observatory") to get them to seal better.

We went out over the weekend to dh's favorite "blackcap" picking spot, and picked about 3 quarts for free! Also bought 5 pounds of cherries, pitted them, and froze them to use in a hard cider later on in the fall. I gotta remember to buy and freeze local stuff in season...

Hey, does anyone do much gardening?

[angel04345]

WOW lots of stuff is going on!!! New mainer we have the same problem! We have land in the country and everyone out there is selling their land off and lots of houses are being built! Its to bad when people turn the country into the city! :angry (we are in maine too!)
I am so glad that you brought the purse back! (if it made you feel better.) I have made a diapers purchase and so am trying to sell some of my dipes to pay back the money to ourselves. We have no credit cards so we just keep a good amount in our checking and make purchases and pay it back. (good but bad idea! no interest but sometimes you don't pay YOURSELF back!)
I think for my SIL I am going to get her a good dipe and then a couple of outfits I really don't have the money but I would still like to get her a nice gift! Its always nice to give something that may inspire something you value! (breastfeeding, cloth diapering.) Its funny because when I started cloth diapering she was the first to scoff at it! The other ideas were fantastic too! I will have to see what I can get her for books at the local resale stores.
Well I am preparing for our lawn sale this weekend. I hope the holiday doesn't make it less productive. Have a nice day ladies.....Good luck and happy saving!

[MamaMonica]

bamboogirrl, we have a small garden and have peas, pole beans, tomatoes, kol rabi and edible landscaping like cherries, blueberries and pears.

At our other house (I still dream bout it. Sigh) we had a 1000 sq. ft. vegetable garden- bigger than the house- and I had loads of food of all kinds-as well as a small butterfly/wildflower meadow. I was so into gardening!

Congratulations on your mortgage paydown. We have plan to be rid of ours, and are staying on schedule. It will take between 3 and 5 years, depending. It's nothing to be super proud of since we've been here 12 years.

We just shelled out $4000 for a deck we really neeed to build. That was just the lumber and trex cost- labor is our own. That money could have gone to the mortgage- but you can't let your house go, either...

[kathsmom]

Yippee! DH was able to get the stroller wheels fixed! So, we don't have to buy a new stroller for our vacation! Woohoo! Now, if I could just stop obssessing over new diaper bags......

bamboogirl, I wish that we did gardening. My DD wants to grow flowers, but it has been so rainy here that it's next to impossible to cut the grass, let alone try to make a place to grow a flower garden. Plus, I hate touching dirt. :bag: I have this weird thing about liking beautiful gardens and yards, but I really don't like doing any of the stuff to get it! DH does all of our yard work. I have pulled weeds, cut shrubs and raked leaves, but I absolutely hate planting stuff. I also have never cut grass in my entire life (and I am 39 years old!).

monnie and bamboogirl, congrats on paying down your mortgage! That is wonderful that you are able to make a lot of headway on it. Monnie, I hear you on shelling out money to improve your home. Our home is 30 years old and since we moved in, we have replaced the furnace, air conditioner (the old ones were original to the home), put in new floor in the kitchen and had to get new appliances (which has helped our electric and water bill a little bit).

Gotta run! DH needs the computer! Take care, everyone!

[newmainer]

Kathsmom- excellent move on the purse! i always feel so... *responsible* when I do things like that! and you are returning other things too. Great!! I am sorry about your ds though. I hope that things begin to get better.

yes, bamboogrrrl I have been on the SL forums. Unfortunately, they don't notify you by email (at least i haven't figured out how to get them to do that yet) when someone responds to your thread, so it takes me longer to get on those boards. So many people on there are *so* inspiring!! My user name is kjmc.

sorry about my photos. I posted the link wrong and I need dh, my lovable geek, to help me fix it. I'll get on it as soon as possible!

well, no news on the property. I did email 3 different organizations, one that does smartgrowth, but she referred me to a coastal land trust. I emailed them, but have had no response yet. The other organization is part of a national one and I haven'tn heard from them either. The tricky thing about it is that the lake is pretty heavily used- motor boats and stuff. Not a ton, but there is usually a couple on a week in the summer. And 20 acres isn't a whole lot to save, and its not like its endangered species or anything (tho I might try to go out and discover some!). I think a lot of organizations go for the bigger ticket properties- over 100 acres of land, mountain tops and slopes, watersheds, etc... But, it would help keep this lake from being all built up. I was getting sad today, looking out the window at the trees and thinking this may be the only summer we get like this :(.

angel- where are you in Maine? we're in Rockland.

re: gardening. I love gardening and have been so stoked about finally having our own land to really put my energy into. But now this land thing has got me worried we might not be here as long as I thought and so its dampening my enthusiasm for putting a bunch of energy and money into developing the garden.

On the money side of things, we have switched to tracking all of our expenses in our check register- checks, ATM, and cash purchases, and adjusting the balance *every time* so we really know how each purchase affects our account. Since we are leaving for a big trip tomorrow, I have bought no food and we are really eating things down. all the "treats' are gone and our sugar cravings are kicking in! (though I scored some baking m&ms' at a friends' house who is moving. ate a ton and now i feel ill :irked: ). So, i'm feeling pretty good. Got to keep up with the bills while I am gone, which is a bit of a hassle, but I'm pretty anal about it, so we'll be fine.

Take care, everyone!
kelly

[kerc]

lots to think about/post about.

piglet -- a bathing suit in cleveland is not a luxury item. It is a way to really help your kiddo enjoy the summer. But don't kid yourself into thinking the maternity bathing suit will work for non maternity times :) But you could try to sell it on the trading post if you think you won't have a use for it post baby.

baby shower gift question -- are you sure she's going to cloth diaper? My fav. gift for those who are pretty sure about cd'ing is prefolds. Yeah, I know, boring, but also cheap. But everyone tells me they are still using them. And then I do a small toy when the baby is actually born.
I also do a small insert into the box with FAQs about cd'ing. Where to buy (i include the proraps 1800 number), how to wash, how many to get, etc.

purse. good to return it. i often have second thoughts about things i've bought. i know if i have second thoughts before the tags are even off, then I don't truly need it.

stroller. awesome that it is now working. I was going to suggest finding out what kind of tool you need and then looking for a smaller hardware store, taking the stroller in with all your kiddos in tow and asking for help fixing it. Sadly often I get better service at the hardware store when I am the helpless female.

gardening. yes we do simple gardening. some flowers on the side of the house and we have a large raised bed garden that usually is mostly weeds. this year we've planted lettuce, spices and a pumpkin. I love doing lettuce -- easy. just plant seeds, water and then when you need lettuce for a salad go out and cut it off. I should probably mention that you need to do leaf lettuce for this to work. We also have a tomato plant that we buy with flowers/small fruit on it for 10 bucks and leave planted in a large bucket on the warm side of the house.

If your kiddos want to plant flowers and you want a low-maintenance way to do it. Buy a large pot (or find a bucket) and some potting mix. Then plant something like impatients or petunias. Water every day, which your kids can do. My 1.5 yr old helps me.

Ok I had more to say, but can't recall...

[witch's mom]

Mentally fell off the wagon this week and began wishing we had a built-in pool. So sick of traipsing to the community pool, which is out in the blazing sun, and began envisioning a lovely shady oasis in our own backyard.

Of course, this would cost some $30,000 or $40,000, require regular maintenance and suck up a lot of energy. Not exactly the direction we want to be going . . .

So, back to real life now. Today is grocery day. Good thing, since we're darn near foodless right now. We've done pretty well with the once-a-week shop-up the past few weeks. Went a little over budget, but nothing like what we were doing.

Also, I'm committed to getting on that phone and getting some further quotes about our car and homeowner's insurance. I did the online thing, where I got comparisons from different companies, but now I need to actually take the step to getting us a new, cheaper policy. Been dreading this step because it'll take time and be loaded with annoying minutiae.

We've done GREAT keeping the A/C off or turned way down. There was one night last week when it was 100 degrees upstairs and no one could sleep. So we ran it at 82 degrees for an hour or so. I'm going to be really curious to see the energy bill after this month of sweating. One thing I'm noticing is that we seem to all be adjusting to living in a hotter house. No one's complaining as much, or cowering in the downstairs bedrooms quite so often.

I don't know, the idea of purchasing some open space for $35,000 sounds pretty good to me, especially if you can get neighbors to sign on to a plan that preserves the area.

I love gardening, too, and so do my kids. Especially this time of year when the tomatoes start ripening. We only have one small box and a bunch of pots in sunny spots around the yard. We have a pretty big yard, considering we're in suburbia (almost a third-acre lot), but most of it is shaded by huge oaks, so the garden is limited to areas where the sun shines for at least part of the day.

[bamboogrrrl]

Monnie: I think paying your mortgage off in 3-5 years is something to be super proud about. Most people stretch it out for 30 years or more, so congrats! We're in our second house, living with a mortgage since 1997, and I'm sooooo over having a mortgage payment. I figure that paying it off early is yet another way to pay ourselves first.

Isn't it cool that the whole frugal/simple living thang leads naturally to gardening? I looove hearing about your gardens. I do lots of flowers and shrubs and trees (not too frugal but huge in terms of enjoyment and home equity), and around our back deck we've got several raised beds. One is dedicated to tomatoes - unusually this year we had many seedlings sprout by accident, so I didn't have to buy plants. Another bed is for herbs and mesclun mix lettuces - I could eat my body weight in arugula! A third bed is mainly echinacea (hoping to make my own tincture when the plants become monsters) interplanted with some trumpet lilies and random sunflower scattered by the birds. I try to plant stuff that tastes better if it's homegrown.

Luckily, DH loves to putter in the yard, so that really helps when I have one of my "gardening visions." Every fall, I shop around to get the best deals and plant over 1,000 bulbs, and it's so much easier that he helps. My dad gave us a couple of beautiful Japanese maples that he grew from seedlings (they are about 8 ft tall now). I'm so excited because this year, dh rescued four seedlings from one of them, so someday we will have several generations of these trees. Slowly I am creating a small paradise...but I digress.

Kathsmom: I have the same weird thing about dirt - I HATE the drying feeling of it on my hands...hence my gloves are always on. I loathe weeding, and that's my downfall. Must cultivate some sort of zen endurance about it.

[kathsmom]

bamboogirl: I am glad to know that I am not the only one who doesn't like to touch dirt! DH and DD think I am just crazy!LOL! It sounds like your yard is just so pretty! We have a few trees and all they ever do is shed tons of leaves and make sure that the grass doesn't grow in the backyard. We did have 2 trees cut down and the rest pruned, so that has helped some.

witch's mom: Oh, I hear you on wishing you had a pool in your backyard! DH came home early to take DD swimming at the community pool. The bad thing about the community pool is that usually when I take DD, they end up closing it, because someone threw up or pooped in the pool. YUCK!!!!! I have some friends who just bought a house with an inground pool. They love it! When the pool people came to clean it out (the previous owner had not kept it up), he said that their pool (which is not large) would cost around $30,000 to build now. It cost about $10,000 to put it in originally. Also, that is great about your grocery bill going down. DS had been sick and managed to get the rest of us sick as well, so I have been getting takeout and just going to the store to get a few items at a time. I hope that your electric bill goes down with the steps you're doing to decrease the amount of time you use the a/c.

kerc: great idea about doing the gardening in a planter! I will have to get my act together and take DD to the nursery to pick out a pot and some seeds!

newmainer: I hope that things work out for the land around your home and that you hear back soon from some of the places you have contacted. I need to write down and balance my checking account each time I write a check or use the debit card. I used to do that, but have let it slide a lot lately.

angel: I think the cloth diaper and a couple of outfits sounds really nice.

OK, I know I am leaving people out here! Sorry this became so long! Thanks again to all of you for your support!

[kerc]

kathsmom....one thing that grows REALLY well from seeds for me is nastrutiums.here's a pic (http://www.gardenguides.com/flowers/annuals/nasturtium.htm)
and the flowers are generally edible, they are also drought tolerant. the key thing is when the flowers are fading to deadhead (pick the flowers off) or they'll go to seed, which id cool for collecting seeds for next year, but....not so good for lots of flowers this year.

[georgia]

About the pool in the backyard---I suppose the grass is always greener ;). The house we bought has a pool. My dh fell immediately in :love. Me, OTOH, as much as I love the water---I HATE having a pool. The fact that I cannot go into the backyard with my dc w/o the CONSTANT fear of someone falling (or jumping!) in is not much fun. I can't garden w/o having someone else there to keep an eye on everyone. We have to keep the backdoor under constant deadbolt, same with our fence. The maintenance and expense of upkeep is killing us. Not to mention the time involved. YUCK!!!!! We bought a cover for the off-season so we could close it up and were set back a small fortune. We'll see if we even open it next year. So, as far as trade-offs go, I'd much rather trek on down to someone else's responsibility and splash around ;)! Hope this has shed some light on one pool owner's experience!

[Piglet68]

I had a nice little surprise this payday (which was yesterday).

I went and added some more tax credits in preparation for child #2, who will be born this tax year. DH kept bugging me to do it, and I was lazy. Well, for one child, I got an extra 3 credits and that added up to an extra $240!!!!!!!! on my paycheck (I get paid once a month). I cannot believe what a difference that made!

Still, I'm actually glad that I waited, because it means I may just get a RETURN on my taxes for the first time in years and years!!

The extra makes up for what we went over last time, so we'll be starting out in good shape this month!

:banana

I no longer feel guilty about the bathing suit. :D :D

[MerryOne]

Advice please.

I'm new to the thread so I guess I have to give my back ground, I'm 25 hubby is 29, one ds who does not live with us.
We just bought a town house and I'm wondering how good an idea would it be to get a loan and pay off all our debts, car, student loan, cc's etc, and do some work on the house, it needs new windows, I don't think the windows in this house have been changed since it was built, 1972 :irked: and also new doors, work in the kitchen that my dad has offered to do, so we would only have to pay for the supplies, and I would do the tiling etc
It would be less than the car loan which carries a 17.5% rate :angry
And that alone would allow us to not only save money every month buy also pay off both the mortgage and a second loan a bit faster, esp since hubby and some friends have started a business and any funds from there would help pay off debts early and I would get a job to help double the 2nd payment.
This said we don't love this house and would like to rent this out and buy another in a couple years which means that we would have both loans still but less month debt that when we bought this house, I hope that makes sense.
Is it a good idea? I would just keep the cc's but lock them away so we wouldn't use them for just use one for food and pay it in full to keep them going just incase.
Am I totally silly for thinking this?

[lilyka]

First I want to really advise against rental roperty if you are trying to pay off debt. we thought this was such a great id3ea, boiught a duplex and it has just about killed us. The rental income is 2/3 our mortage which is grat when someone lives there, when they pay rent and when it cost us less than thier security deposit to make it rentable again (which has never happened - and for the record we have had 5 renters, 4 law suits, and 12 months where it wasn't rented in the last 3 years. In those 24 months where people lived in it we only collected rent for about 18 of them) And it sucks to watch people dissrespect and trash something you have worked so hard for. It also really a drag to watch your property value decrease so rapidly. They have ruined the carpet, put highlighter floor to ceiling on the walls (which nothing will cover :eyesroll ), they have broken a 98 year old leaded glass window, they drilled holes and carved thier names into solid oak doors original to the house (also 98 years olkd - for 98 years people respected these things!), they stole the drawers from the original cabinets. these are things that cannot be replaced or fixed to match the original.. They have changed the entire look of the house. It just really sucks. So my advice there is unless you get it completely paid off SELL and RUN! My friends thought they had so totally scored by finding someone to take a 3 year lease on thier house and were crushed when they walked in with 2 little dogs (it didn't occur to them to specify in the lease no pets) and smoking a cigarette. They know that thier $300K home will be trashed at the end of the lease and that its value will be signifigantly decreased unless they poor tons of money into it for new paint and carpet and cleaning. totally sucks.

As for the loan consolidating can really save you a lot of money if you do it wisely. If not it can just drag you into more debt. First be sure you are actually saving money on intrest and not just spreading out the payments. Seocndly attitude is everything. Once you have the savings you can use it to significantly reduce your debt (by making extra payments and avoiding a chunk of intrest all together) or you cna can use it to buy stuff you really need and use any extra to reduce debt further, or you can spend it on stuff you want but don't need the very thing that gets most people into debt. Without changing spending habits you will just end up in debt again. So if you do decide to take out the loan I would recommend thatyou look at your list and see what your really need. Some of the stuff could probably wait but some probably needs to be done now. Since you are questing the loan to begin with I would bet a lot of it could wait. I recommend doing only the work you have to do and doing iot as cheaply as you can (while still getting quality). Fixing your windows for example can save you a lot of money on your energy bill so if they are really bad you might want to change them. Ours are original (so that would be 98 years) and a towel stuffed to stop the draft works pretty well (especially once it freezes on ;) ) But then again we would be replacing over 48 window so that is no small chunk of change. You may want to call the energy company, the window people etc and see how much they will save you on energy cost.

Another thing to consider if you do plan on renting it out you have to decide how much will these improvement effect the price at which you can rent (although you also have to consider the neighborhood - ours appraises for $850 but because of the neighborhood the most we can get is $600). That will be something to weigh also. You don't want to go into debt/stay in debt over renovations you will only enjoy for a few years. However if they will considerably up the resale/rental value they may be worth it. perhaps you shoudl consult a real estate agent before deciding.

[Peppermint]

Lilyka gave you some good advice. We also had a rental property, we owned it for 4 years, 2 of which we lived in it (lived in the bottom floor and rented out the top). That house was good for us in a lot of ways, we were able to own a home where 2/3 of our motgage was paid by the tenants, living there was cheaper than renting anywhere else and we weren't "throwing the money away". When we moved out and rented both apartments, we were making about $150 a month over the mortgage for that house. We found when we didn't live there, it was much harder to "landlord". The tenants would leave Christmas decorations up until March, etc (and we really cared about the neighborhood). We realized it was getting to be about time for a new roof, which would've cost $5000 with dh and his brothers doing the work, we realized that would erase our profit for almost 3 years on the house, and that didn't count anything else that might come up. We decided to sell the house to the downstairs tenant, and we made a profit b/c of not having to pay a realtor.

Do I have a point? The windows. How much would new windows set you back, in comparison to the amount you'll make off the place when you rent it? I know here- new windows vs. old windows would make no difference in rental value and only a small difference in sales value. Our home has original windows and the house was built in 1925. We aren't sure we are going to stay in this house, so we haven't relaced the windows yet. Here windows run about $200 a piece installed, $75 a piece if you can do it yourself (these are minimums).

I would consider a loan to pay off the CCs and car loan (wow- that's high car loan interest), but as was already mentioned, to get out of debt, you MUST change your ways and make a serious committment.

ETA: we had GREAT luck with tenants, we were VERY specific- no pets, no smoking, must have 2 apartment references (b/c remember if they are awful, their current landlord may lie and say they are great just to get rid of them). Our tenants were NEVER late with rent and took very good care of the apartments (even if they did leave Christmas decorations up too long :wink ) I think we got great tenants, b/c #1- it's a small town where we know lots of people, #2- I am an extreme hard a$$ landlord (and they know this up front), #3- my dad was the sheriff- so criminals stayed away and people knew the sheriff's office handles evictions :D .

[kerc]

The tenants would leave Christmas decorations up until March, etc (and we really cared about the neighborhood).
:bag:

umm my xmas lights are still up on the front porch (unplugged) but for some reason i never got them down. oh yeah, I remember now, snow until april and then...forgot they were there. hmm. add to the list of things to do this weekend.

I had a great evening last night. I was on a business trip to minneapolis -- about 2.5 hrs away. There's a hanna andersson outlet there. I love hanna stuff. I'm picky about the way fabric feels and their stuff feels great. anyhow moment is I'm leaving the office and my dh calls to tell me we got a little postcard in the mail that said they were having a great sale. I managed to get on the road north (away from the store) and never even set foot in it. Even better was that I specifically thought that i didn't need a thing for my dd or myself to wear and that it wasn't worth my life energy to go there.

[Peppermint]

:bag:

umm my xmas lights are still up on the front porch (unplugged) but for some reason i never got them down. oh yeah, I remember now, snow until april and then...forgot they were there. hmm. add to the list of things to do this weekend.

:LOL
Didn't mean to make you feel bad Kerc. I suppose it's just a pet peeve of mine. And I suppose it depends on the kind of decorations, the tenants had these enormous Christmas bulb things that you put in the ground, you know the colored ones which are like a foot high- lining the walkway to the house
:eyesroll . It's funny- people around here (new neighborhood) keep white lights on their bushes year round- lighted. It looks pretty.

I so hear you on the snow until April (we're in Syracuse, which had the largest snowfall this winter for all cities in NY).

Great job with fighting the urge to shop needlessly- it allows me to let the Christmas light thing slide :LOL.

[kerc]

christmas light thing.I'm LMAO about it. Not offended in the least. and for the record we're talking small strand of white bulbs on the porch.

[MerryOne]

Jess I really have no idea about the windows, I'm from the caribbean my house there has windows from 30 years ago no problem, I'm worried about the winter light bill :irked:
I know the windows will be about 325 and up a piece and my dad's friend has offered to put them in at no cost and to find the best for the least amount of money for me, we only have 6 large ones 1 small and a sliding door, there's also the front door.
I'm a cheapstake my husband would say and blessed that my dad lets me shop at daddy.com, for my meats etc and I buy bulk for alot of basic foods, shop at farmers markets, and my aunt buys clothing and shoes for me, so I really don't spend alot, eating out gives me heartburn, it cost too much, I pay extra into the mortgage ever month also.

The car is high because my husband had no credit history when he bought it, and what little he had his mother had helped to ruin, so I cleaned up most of it with in our year of marriage and we managed to get a great intrest rate of 4.250% on the town house but the credit cards bug me and the car loan makes me cuss every time I pay it :angry

As it comes to renting it in the time to come, I grew up with my mother renting houses and land we own so I have a pretty good idea what it entails .
Thanks for the advice everyone, we're spending this weekend thinking it over and checking to see if this would really be the best thing to do

[angel04345]

WOW lots going on again!!! :w to all those who are new to the thread!!! Well we had pizza out tonight that was our big waste of money! :bag: But then I went into a couple of stores this evening and did so good! I didn't buy a thing! (by the way my weakness is baby clothes!) :D I did the grocerys too but I still have a birthday gift to buy! URGH :irked: It has been literally been every single weekend since mothers day that I have a gift to buy! That is our biggest problem! What will everyone do that doesn't cost a fortune for the 4th? Have a great holiday. Oh and thanks for all the great suggestions for the baby shower!

[witch's mom]

Two great things happened today:

1. I resisted the urge to go back to the grocery store for sandwich makings (for our 4th of July boating excursion), and simply recast my thinking to feed us out there with ingredients we've already got in the house: beans, cheese, tortillas and salsa.

2. I finally made that call to the insurance company that had the lowest rates on the insure.com site, got the real rates on auto and homeowners insurance and showed DH the numbers: We stand to save $1,000 a year on insurance once we make the switch, for the identical amount of coverage. I'll be cancelling State Farm on Tuesday.

Hope everyone's having a good, low-cost holiday weekend.

[kerc]

low cost holiday weekend:
i think we're grilling with friends and working on the basement refinishing. I totally WANT to do soemthing outside and more fun, but it isn't in the cards.

[lilyka]

We have a uaual crowd we get together with. We each bring our own meat to grill and a salad and desert to pass. Everyone brings a few fire works that we pool together (thre are 4 families and this year for fireworks I think there woill be closer to 7 or 8 so if everyone spends 10-20 bucks that will be a ton of fire works). So all together it will cost us about $50 for an entire day of fun and hanging out. Not horrible. No great but not horrible.

[PikkuMyy]

I haven't read any but the first page but I just wanted to agree with all of the recommendations for selling books on amazon. You make way more than you would at a used bookstore, even after their cut. You don't have to descirbe the book or take a pic, just provide a condition. The set price they charge people for shipping is often a bit more than it actually costs so you make some of the amazon commision money back that way. We've been dealing in books for years and we're really happy with it. Once something doesn't sell twice, then we take it to a used bookstore. We do a lot of library sales so that our initial overhead is really cheap. When you've paid only 10 cents to a dollar, even getting $6 from amazon is more than you would from a used bookstore, and the profit margin is really high.

[newmainer]

Hey everyone-

i just wanted to check in and say hi. Dh and dd and I are with Dh's family in California and visiting friends, etc... for the month (dh working from laptop). So far we're doing great- IL's dont' let us pay for anything, and wrote us a check to help cover the trip expenses. HUGE help.

Oh, well, ok. I bought dd a pair of little bloomer shorts at Gymboree for $3.00 yesterday.

On the land update- we wrote letters to everyone in our neighborhood, andh have gotten great responses. Sounds like others feel the same way we do. We also learned there is another 10 acre adjacent parcel up for sale. This could work to our benefit, as it is easier to get larger tracts for greenspace than smaller. I am corresponding with a couple of organizations right now. We'll see!!

No other news for us. Stil committed... though being here in CA is hard!! We're in SoCal right now and it makes me want cute clothes, cute haircut,- all the things I don't have and dont' really feel the urge for when I'm in Maine and everyone wears jeans and LL Bean shirts (for better or worse)...lol! Well, ok, maybe a bit more variety than that. Make me really glad we made the move, though it was tough. I think environment definitely impacts one's ability to live simply. Some places are just more conducive to discipline than others.

Take care all..

[Peppermint]

Hi all.

Newmainer- so glad you checked in with us, $3 at gymboree? I think I would have to go for that one too. :)

So- dh did not get the new job we were hoping he would get, so- our 2 year get out of debt plan is in the toilet right now. At this point we can just make ends meet, putting nothing into savings and nothing extra on the credit cards. I will NOT let this get us down though, it is all the more reason to keep working at this, so I remain committed.

Did pretty well at the grocery store today- although I did buy $5 worth of water toys that we did not need, but kids need water toys right? OK maybe not. :innocent

[angel04345]

Hey group! I just wanted to check in! I got my sewing machine from my SIL. :D I of course don't have a clue how to use it! Plus I'm unsure if this is going to save me money or not! Won't I just make more diapers then I need? :bag: I did pretty good this weekend but I splurged tonight and bought some junk food! Oh and an idea, a women down the road from me told me that she walks anywhere that she can to save money! Even the grocery store with her TWO children! She gets in her excercise and gets her grocerys done! She told me that she walks to the post office, department store, bank, and restaurants! I think it is great for lots of things and I am going to make an effort to do it too! Especially during the summer! Well I have to get to bed. Oh and Water toys are wonderful! Of course they needed them!!!! Sometimes you have to just buy stuff you can't be cheap ALL the time! :thumb

[Piglet68]

sorry to hear about that job, Jess! :hug

hang in there...things change and your situation will too, I'm sure!

[newmainer]

that's a bummer, jess.... I know how frustrating it can be when things you are counting on fall through like that. I try and tell myself that its because something better is going to come along, I just can't see it yet. You have a great attitude though- so whatever happens you'll be fine. keep us updated.

[kerc]

hey i started a new thread you can find it here (http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?p=1719045#post1719045)