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Posted by Erin E.,
under Erin E, Special Events |
08/10/2010
Last night I dreamed I booked a trip to the Bahamas. The nightly rate of $35 at the beautiful resort was all-inclusive, and as I checked in they handed me a plate of shrimp that had been prepared by my personal chef.
Now that would have been quite a way to spend my sixth wedding anniversary with Noah (which was on Saturday), but quite unfortunately I’ve yet to find a five-star resort in the Bahamas with a $35 a night rate. Trust me, that’s what I’ve been doing all morning.
Instead, we celebrated by going to a local minor-league baseball game, and our team won.
Yesterday also happened to be my birthday. We celebrated that by going to a movie. We saw Eclipse, and had a grand time whispering and joking about all the silly bits, which are many. And to cap it off, we bought Twizzlers and caramel corn to snack on.
Lately I’ve found it’s the small indulgences that mean the most. The caramel corn and the joking around. Or yesterday morning, when my two-year-old and I spent an hour in our little blow-up pool. A $50 check in a birthday card or a new outfit feels like a bonanza.
And I only had to quit my job and cut my income in half to start enjoying the little things.
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 No Comments | Tags: birthday planning, Erin E., Family
Posted by KEJONES,
under Family, General |
06/10/2010
I’ve gotten some questions about how we cut back so much on going out to eat last month. Well, to be honest, we sat down and looked at all the meals we ate out in March and tried to figure out what we were comfortable with. We found that A LOT of our meals out were really quick drive thru, fast food meals that were $10 here and there. My husband works out of our house, so many mornings he will grab a quick breakfast sandwich (McDonald’s or Biscuitville) and coffee after dropping our youngest off at preschool before heading home for work and then again at lunchtime grab a bite before or after picking him up. He was meeting his Dad, brother or friends and I know it was just more of a social thing for him than anything. There were very few “big” meals out. We settled on eating one “good” meal or two “easier” meals out a week as a family, along with each of us getting one lunch a week out. The “good” meals would be at places that were nice and often just the two of us-River Birch Lodge or Village Tavern, two local favorites of ours. The “easier” meals would be at places that were more family friendly: East Coast Wings, Qdoba or Mario’s Pizza…a few family favorites.
Brent realized that he could still stop and talk before going into work, but he didn’t need to eat out breakfast everyday. He still took Alex out for lunch once a week after preschool as a treat for the both of them. Honestly, we got so busy with baseball and other activities this spring, we didn’t have time to go out to eat as much. Plus the weather has made us more likely to be out in the yard playing. I think a lot of our dinners out during the winter months are just a way to get out of the house-a tough thing to do when it’s 30 degrees and dark at 5pm.
We’d plan one favorite restaurant a week for dinner and we stuck to it. Lunches were a little tougher. There are always the temptation of grabbing a quick bite with coworkers-or for Brent to get out of the house for a bit. I’m not sure that there was a “trick” to us feeling like we ate out more than we did. I think over the winter “eating out” was our entertainment and now that we are busy with the boys baseball and we are enjoying the yard more, so that’s become a bigger part of our entertainment.
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No Comments | Tags: biscuitville, budget, dining out, entertainment, Family, food, mario's pizza, mcdonald's, qdoba, river birch lodge, village tavern
Posted by Erin E.,
under Erin E, Family |
03/18/2010
In addition to recently cutting out our underused cable service, we’ve been finding other ways to enjoy our free time that don’t put a dent in our budget. And mooching off my parents is only one of them.
Some of these things require an initial investment, so to speak. For instance, bike riding. Last fall I completed a sprint triathlon and lived to tell the tale. One good thing I gained from the experience—aside from new knowledge of previously underused butt muscles—was a bike. I went to a local bike shop, consulted with one of their experts, and spent a couple hundred dollars on a Specialized hybrid bicycle. A couple of months later, Noah bought one too. Biking: not just for kids! Or be-spandexed semi-pro cyclists!
Now, though, we get some great exercise riding nearby bike trails and around our countrylike neighborhood. And Ethan, our two-year-old, absolutely loves sitting in his CoPilot Limo bike seat.
Another great investment was our membership to the zoo. Not only are you supporting the care and rehabilitation of animals—and at our zoo, the development of a huge, free-range habitat—the membership pays for itself after just two visits. Bring a picnic lunch, and you’ve got a day of fun and learning and enjoying beautiful weather for almost nothing.
Camping is another thing we’ve begun to enjoy as a family. (Noticing a trend? Outdoors!) We picked up some pretty decent camping gear on sale, and the cost of a campsite is fractional compared to a hotel. We haven’t worked up the guts yet to do a whole vacation with a tent for our home base, but it’s definitely something to consider three seasons of the year: For some added adventure, you can camp near a cool city or the beach and majorly cut costs while—as I learned reading Calvin & Hobbes—building character.
Any ideas for minimizing family entertainment costs while maximizing fun?
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Posted by Erin E.,
under Erin E, Family |
03/9/2010
A few years ago, my husband’s aunt and uncle gave us Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover. They had been in tremendous debt and used his methodology to become completely debt-free.
We took a few key lessons from the book, including how to create a cash flow chart for our family. But something else that stuck with me is Ramsey insists that charitable giving should be a planned expense that cannot be compromised. Of all the things in our budget that would be easiest (and has been easiest) to cut is charitable giving: In theory, it’s totally optional, so if we don’t do it, nobody will know. It’s not like skipping your mortgage payment; nobody puts a notice on your front door when you briskly walk past the Salvation Army Santa at Christmas.
And it’s especially easy not to give when there’s no actual person if front of you, asking for help.
I recently recorded an essay I wrote at the WFDD studio—our local NPR station. It was a fantastic experience (and they just so happened to be airing an interview with SimpliFi co-founder Brian Link at the time) but it really hit home how small an operation local public radio is, and how hard the dedicated few work to produce important programming. Public radio relies on donations to stay afloat. I realized how much I get from WFDD, and how little I give in return.
Certainly this is just one small, but important, example of why charitable giving is important. Friends who have lost children urge me to support the March of Dimes; my mother-in-law, dealing with a recurrence of breast cancer after almost two decades, is raising money for breast cancer research. A friend from high school, recently diagnosed with MS, is walking to support the National MS Society.
Part of why giving can be hard to prioritize is because you just don’t know where to start. My advice? Look around at your friends and family. You’re almost certain to find a cause.
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No Comments | Tags: charitable giving, Credit Card Debt, Erin E., Family, financial planning
Posted by Erin E.,
under Erin E, Family |
03/4/2010
I recently ran into a very nice young mother who invited me to a MOPS meeting—mothers of preschoolers. The group meets twice monthly and twice weekly for play dates. I can see how this is a great resource for parents, especially those who stay at or work from home. But it also got me thinking: How much scheduling should I do for my kid, and at what cost?
At this age (he just turned 2) my son isn’t involved in any “extracurriculars.” We’re waiting until he has some curriculars to begin with and an opinion on the issue to boot. Still, I’ve already started thinking about what he might be interested in and what kind of equipment those interests would require. Sports uniforms and shoes, instruments, art supplies…
When I was a kid, I didn’t do anything. I mean, I didn’t do anything that couldn’t be done with stuff laying around the house. I entertained myself. I played baseball in the backyard with my brother and Dad. I drew pictures on the back of data sheets my dad brought home from work for just that purpose. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I became a competitive Irish dancer, and boy did that cost my parents some cash.
Still, it seems that previous generations didn’t invest in expensive activities for their kids, nor did they pay tutors or private coaches to prep their kids for college and a hoped-for future in professional sports. Parents didn’t used to have a part-time job chauffeuring their kids around town, or so I’m told.
So I’m wondering, what did you do for fun as a kid? And what you’re willing to do—or pay—for your kids’ extracurricular pursuits?
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Posted by Erin E.,
under Erin E, Family |
02/18/2010
One thing I’ve learned about home decor—after several years of college and young-married life—is that you get what you pay for. And good furniture ain’t cheap. Can I get an amen?
After nearly two years of marriage we graduated from a crappy futon to a second-hand couch. When our puppy ate half of the second-hand couch, we employed some serious Dog Whisperer techniques, and then we invested in our first real piece of well-made furniture: a sectional sofa.
Now, we’ve got a spare room that we’re turning into a home office/guest quarters. Although we’re established enough to have caught the itch for quality, we don’t have the means to buy quality pieces. So we’re going to make them.
You heard right. I recently came across a quite incredible blog, Knock off Wood. The blog’s author, Ana, is an engineer turned stay-at-home mom in Alaska who has a knack for building furniture and a love for sharing her designs absolutely free.
We’ve taken this pile of lumber (about $35 worth)…
and we’re going to turn it into a desk. Actually, a modified version of this $600 farm table from West Elm…
Hopefully. However, we do have a young and talented apprentice helping.
Stay tuned.
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3 Comments | Tags: DIY, Erin E., Family
Posted by Erin E.,
under Erin E, Family |
02/16/2010
Today is my first official day as a stay-at-home mom.
Up first on the agenda: Go to Sam’s and pick up a pack of diapers. In an devious anti-parent move on the store’s part, the candy is located in the same aisle as the diapers. And naturally, Ethan had his first retail-induced tantrum when I wouldn’t buy a 14-pound bag of M&Ms.
Which leads me to my question. Buying in bulk—worth it, or not?
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Posted by Erin E.,
under Erin E, Family |
01/28/2010
I’m totally psyched to be just two weeks away from being a stay-at-home mom/grad student. Before I had my son, I didn’t see myself as the domestic type. Possibly because the only other time in my life that I was unemployed as an adult—a couple months after college—instead of creating a warm and welcoming home, I laid on our futon all day eating bad food and watching bad TV. Seeing as we no longer have that crappy futon and we’re about to cancel our cable service, that’s no longer an option. Oh, and there’s also the issue of the active, inquisitive 2-year-old. I suppose I could teach him to bring me the Doritos, but strangely I’m more inspired to create a fun, safe, comforting environment for him—one that will most definitely include daily dance parties.
I’m the kind of person who tends to stress out about things until I write them down—what I need to pack for a trip, what I need to buy at the grocery store, and so forth—I recently put together a list of things that will actually be fun about a new, thriftier lifestyle over at Secret Society of List Addicts (where I’m the Friday contributor).
Here’s what I came up with:
Foraging for/making your own stylish clothes. Going to Goodwill and finding something awesome for approximately nothing? Yes, please. Reinventing an old button-down to make it look very a la mode J. Crew? I’m for it.
Eating better. I said it, and I meant it. Growing your own veggies and herbs, and making weekly meal plans that rely on purchased items with fewer than one bazillion fake ingredients, can definitely be cheaper and yield way healthier results. Rice and beans aren’t expensive, yo.
Inspires the inner crafter/handywoman/carpenter/quilter. It’s so much fun to find solid, vintage pieces of furniture on Craigslist and refinish them yourself. It’s incredibly rewarding to fix something yourself. And making something from scratch is always a self-esteem booster. Plus it ups the inherent value of your stuff.
Having fun the old fashioned way. For free! Picnics, dancing around the living room, movie night on the couch, games, books, hiking, biking, going to the park. I mean, what’s not fun about any of that?
I must admit, the list has me excited about the possibilities.
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Posted by Erin E.,
under General |
01/21/2010
Hi guys! I’m Erin E. and I recently plunged my family into financial ruin.
Okay, so it wasn’t that dramatic. What really happened was I quit my job to stay at home with my 2-year-old son and pursue a master’s degree. My husband and I agree that quitting my job was the best decision for our family, but that also means going from a two-income household to one—and his is a police officer’s salary.
These days, I know there are a lot of you out there just like us—whether by choice or not.
See, even though we’ve effectively halved our monthly income (I’m thinking of taking my act on the road: Watch as I make oodles of money disappear!) my husband and I still have financial goals. We just wanted to keep our goals things like “Vacation” and “Savings” as opposed to “Dodge Creditors” and “Assume New Identities.”
It’s no secret around our house that I’m not…how shall I say it?…adept at crunching numbers. In fact, I tend to puree them. When my friends at SimpliFi heard about our new situation, they thought this program might work for us. I hope it does, since one of our new goals is “Avoid Debtors’ Prison.” They still have those, right? Never mind. I don’t want to know.
I also write over at The Fierce Beagle (click here to go check it out), but I’ll be chronicling our new journey on this blog as well. I hope you’ll join me—and don’t forget to leave comments! I love hearing from my online friends because [cue sentimental music] one thing I’ve learned since starting my personal blog nearly two years ago is that there’s a community of people out there, ready and willing to support each other.
Aside from leaving comments (I’m not trying to be pushy, but LEAVE COMMENTS, ahem), you can also contact me through Fierce Beagle or at ErinE@simplifi.net. I’m no expert, for sure, but I’m great at commiserating. And subsisting on rice and beans. Just kidding!…I hope.
Talk soon!
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No Comments | Tags: budgeting, Erin E., Family, Financial goals, financial planning
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Definitely a great way to save on furniture.
As a kid I had much more freedon than my children do. I played outside all day in the summer, only checking in once or twice in 6-7 hours. I am the mother of 3 (18, 14, and 7) and this would not be acceptable behavior for them. As parents today we have different safety issues than our parents did. I was allowed to travel alone to places I needed to go. My children cannot do that therefore I am chauffeuring them to their various activities.
I have a nearly 3 year old daughter, so I can relate to your thoughts regarding
“extracurriculars”. Life is full of finding balance and I think I’m going to approach
my daughters extra curricular activities the same way. I am going to encourage my wee one to try everything: sports, drama, art, writing etc etc and hopefully she’ll find something that she has a passion for. At that point, I will
invest as much as needed so that she can enjoy her passion to whatever level
she wants.
On a related subject, I coach a youth soccer team, so I certainly know how much parents spend on sports for their kids, and I think that for the most part it’s ridiculous how much it costs. As adults we have really taken the fun out of kids sports by adding too much cost and our egos into the mix. Kids sports should be exactly that “KIDS” sports.