If I am trying so hard, why is my bank account still suffering? I took my child out of daycare and got a cheaper, by the hour babysitter. I put my little girl in cheaper, bus -them- to- field trips -yourself, day camp. Yet I am still using my reserve credit.
Okay, I fell off the wagon a little....
We had friends visit this weekend who are..well actually I think they are frugal, but they also make a lot of money. And spend it.
We had a $300 brunch. That's right. $300. I think it is the most expensive brunch I have ever had in my life. It was lovely. Nice fancy hotel restaurant with spiced pear martinis and and ocean breezes on the veranda where we sat- www.spicedpear.com. I had a great bloody mary and very tasty soft shell crab. Okay....so I blew $150 (it was $300 for 4 of us). But where the hell is the rest of my money? The babysitting, at least was free.
This may speak to the fact that I techinically don't have a food budget and even if I did, I blew it on spiced pear martinis last weekend. But I don't know what to do about "budgeting" for things like a nice dinner or in this case brunch with friends (especially when I have a free babysitting opportunity!). What do other people do?
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Learning to Love Mediocrity For the Kids
I am working so hard to be fine with things that are not great, but are good or at least fine. It's hardest with my kids and I am hoping they are small enough not to notice too much. I am sending my daughter to a camp that is down the hill from where our house this summer. No need to even drive (save on gas), full day (so husband and I can work) and cheap. Don't get me wrong, it's cute. They have nice black and white photos of kids on the walls and a pirate ship play structure out back and they are doing a whole section on farms and went berry picking and made the requisite camp tye-die T shirts. But, it's low budget..meaning that it turns out that to get to the field trip to the farm, I have to drive her there myself (sort of defeats the working mom thing) or leave her booster seat and another mom drives her. No bus, no cute matching camp t-shirts, no pool. My daughter also informed me that they eat popsicles every day and go out to the pirate castle playground 3 times every day.....so basically if I had 4 kids, a babysitter, a swing set and some popsicles, I could achieve the same experience. It's fine, it's fine I keep telling myself..and she's only 4, but I think of the camp at her pre-school which was literally twice as expensive and now over an hour away and feel like I'm jipping the kid.
And my little boy is home now with a very on -the -cheap college girl home for the summer who costs a fraction of what his daycare costs, but you can tell he's lonely and he cries when I leave because he's not used to her. She's fine...she puts sunblock on, takes him to the playground...but he's used to a nice air conditioned daycare center with lots of kids, story time and a yoga instructor. He's 2 and I am "saving" about $1000 per month for the summer months with the cheapy camp and cheap-ish babysitter. Please tell me I am doing the right thing!!!!
And my little boy is home now with a very on -the -cheap college girl home for the summer who costs a fraction of what his daycare costs, but you can tell he's lonely and he cries when I leave because he's not used to her. She's fine...she puts sunblock on, takes him to the playground...but he's used to a nice air conditioned daycare center with lots of kids, story time and a yoga instructor. He's 2 and I am "saving" about $1000 per month for the summer months with the cheapy camp and cheap-ish babysitter. Please tell me I am doing the right thing!!!!
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Clubbing
I remember very little of what my economics professor in school said. Shockingly little. But I do remember him saying very clearly, "If you can get an account in a credit union, do it". Of course I don't remember exactly why- economically speaking, but credit unions to me always seemed to be these quaint little things left over from the 1950s with things like passbooks and Christmas clubs.
Inexplicably, I am now eligible to join one because there is one in the lobby of where I work. Now mind you, it's for university employees (lots of professors work where I am) and I am not a university employee, but apparently, just working there is good enough for them and they happily took my ID and set me up with accounts.
Now they calll them Holiday clubs and they even have Vacation Clubs. I thought it was more exciting than it really was. Clubs always sound that way. But really, they are just savings accounts within your savings account (so I had to open a savings account). And then you choose a dollar amount to get pulled from your savings account every paycheck and put into your "club accounts." Holiday ones go November to November, meaning I have already missed 6 months of opportunity, but then at the end of November, my "club" money just gets thrown back into my regular savings. The vacation one works May to May, I guess assuming you are saving for summer vacation. That's it. It's sort of like hiding money from yourself. Anyway, so I chose $50 per paycheck for my clubs, which now I am realizing that since I was just talking as the lady typed it in (not writing it down myself) that I am not sure if I said $50 total or for each account. Huh. I guess I'll have to wait until the first statement because she didn't say how I could check on the amount- see what I mean by hidden? But, I might be having a pretty merry Christmas with all that cash! Okay, it might only be like $600 but still, I am proud of myself even if it does involve somewhat clandestine maneuvers to have my money join a club.
Inexplicably, I am now eligible to join one because there is one in the lobby of where I work. Now mind you, it's for university employees (lots of professors work where I am) and I am not a university employee, but apparently, just working there is good enough for them and they happily took my ID and set me up with accounts.
Now they calll them Holiday clubs and they even have Vacation Clubs. I thought it was more exciting than it really was. Clubs always sound that way. But really, they are just savings accounts within your savings account (so I had to open a savings account). And then you choose a dollar amount to get pulled from your savings account every paycheck and put into your "club accounts." Holiday ones go November to November, meaning I have already missed 6 months of opportunity, but then at the end of November, my "club" money just gets thrown back into my regular savings. The vacation one works May to May, I guess assuming you are saving for summer vacation. That's it. It's sort of like hiding money from yourself. Anyway, so I chose $50 per paycheck for my clubs, which now I am realizing that since I was just talking as the lady typed it in (not writing it down myself) that I am not sure if I said $50 total or for each account. Huh. I guess I'll have to wait until the first statement because she didn't say how I could check on the amount- see what I mean by hidden? But, I might be having a pretty merry Christmas with all that cash! Okay, it might only be like $600 but still, I am proud of myself even if it does involve somewhat clandestine maneuvers to have my money join a club.
Monday, June 23, 2008
So Much for Doing Nothing
Dropped my daughter off at camp and then managed to drop $202 on mostly kid stuff at Wal-Mart. Oops.
Money for Nothing
I really do not spend a lot of money when I do nothing. I discovered this when I looked in my wallet yesterday and found the vast majority of the $100 I took out the other day. This is very unusual for me. My dad used to say that money burns a whole in my hand- he probably does still say this in fact and it is still true, espescially cash. My ultimate frugal tactic just might be laziness. Sure I went grocery shopping this week and that set me back a bit and we went out to eat once, but to a "family restaurant" at 5pm at a place that had a larger than life size Tweety Bird sculpture and I didn't even drink (though I was tempted to due to the Tweety Bird ambience) and I splurged on a large Frappuccino twice. But other than that- nothing. My little girl needs a new bathing suit, but she has a few that are fine "for now"- which probably means all summer. The weather has been great and we have a season pass to our local beach and I have officially gotten lazy. Which means doing very little work at work, including internet browsing (usually at my nemesis www.oldnavy.com) and I have no energy to attack places like Wal-Mart or a mall on off hours. If you just buy groceries and eat at home (except for Tweety Bird) and go to places outdoors like beaches and playgrounds you really don't spend a lot of money. Of course, my kid is wearing a stretched out bathing suit and because of the Frappuccinos and laziness, I am really not losing any weight, but at least I am not spending money!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Gold Digger
I am always looking for clues at my in-laws house. I poke around to find out if there is some secret to unlock that shows me how they are so frugal and so rich. Okay, I grant you, my father in law is a doctor, so it's not as they or at least he doesn't get paid well, but he also has a first wife whose alimony he still pays and had 2 kids to put through college and has things like malpractice insurance and other not small expenses. But, I know for a fact that they have off-shore accounts, millions in retirement, season tickets to everything musical event in the city and have gone on safari vacations with their own personal sherpa.
Over the years, I have seen my mother in law do a few quirky things that embarass me as well as her son. I know that she wraps the leftover sandwiches from office meetings and takes them home for dinner and saves used wrapping paper like a fiend. But the other day, I noticed an odd thing on her To-Do list, which read, "Find old gold".
Now maybe she and her husband are melting it down in their extra bedroom, but I feel as though I am missing one her "secrets" that would get me to closer to a vacation avec sherpa. I suspect that like stale lunch sandwiches and wrapping paper, she has found a second use for her jewlery.
I checked out www.GoldKit.com and if you believe that Good Morning America wouldn't steer you wrong, then it seems legitimate. Then again, it does seem sort of stupid to put your jewelry in a box and throw it in the mail.
Over the years, I have seen my mother in law do a few quirky things that embarass me as well as her son. I know that she wraps the leftover sandwiches from office meetings and takes them home for dinner and saves used wrapping paper like a fiend. But the other day, I noticed an odd thing on her To-Do list, which read, "Find old gold".
Now maybe she and her husband are melting it down in their extra bedroom, but I feel as though I am missing one her "secrets" that would get me to closer to a vacation avec sherpa. I suspect that like stale lunch sandwiches and wrapping paper, she has found a second use for her jewlery.
I checked out www.GoldKit.com and if you believe that Good Morning America wouldn't steer you wrong, then it seems legitimate. Then again, it does seem sort of stupid to put your jewelry in a box and throw it in the mail.
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