Simple Kids Give Away

Take a look at the website simplekids.net. The editor of this site is the author of one of my favorite blogs. The site is offering a free give away right now when you check it out:

http://simplekids.net/simple-kids-giveaway/comment-page-16/#comment-4139

You can find the Rockin Granola site on the blogs I follow section of my blog.

Frugal Acts - 2/1/10-2/9/10

Here is a list of frugal things my family and have done in the last 10 days:

1. Made homemade salad dressing

2. Family movie night using Netflix movies

3. Used library for book club books and videos

4. Leftovers. I can't say this enough, have a leftover night

5. Brought my own lunch to work

6. Husband worked from home one day, saving on gas

7. Paid cash for a major home repair, we got a discount for that

8. Let the last of my magazine subscriptions end

9. Had some meatless meals

10. Used cold water in all my loads of laundry, even those at the laundry mat

Tonight my kids really wanted dessert. I found that all I had in the freezer was about 2 scoops of ice cream. I like to let my kids have dessert, I think it actually helps in over eating and eating too much junk food. I felt that I needed to find a solution. Next to the ice cream was an old bag of mixed berries. It came to me, milk shakes! So, I used the remainder of the ice cream, the rest of the berries, added a splash of milk to the blender. VOILA! Mixed berry milk shakes. They were a hit, healthy and fulfilled their craving for something sweet.

Credit Cards

I recently received our credit card bill for the month of January. The balance was not a surprise, I paid for my tuition with our credit card. I will be paying the balance off next week, as we have the money to pay if off. What I was shocked by was the newest disclaimer on credit card statements:

Minimum Payment Warning: If you make only the minimum payment each period, you will pay more interest and it will take you longer to pay off your balance. This is not a surprise.

If I pay only the minimum it will take 23 years to pay of and I will pay $7,343 in interest! This is a shocker! If I double the minimum, it will take only 3 years to pay the balance off. What a difference!

No wonder people are unable to get out of credit card debt. This disclaimer also included a blurb that if we pay late our interest will go up to 29.99% APR. None of this was really a surprise to me. I knew all this. What was a shock to me was the fact that a relatively small balance take me 23 years to pay off, I will be 61 years old in 23 years.

I am a huge advocate for paying credit cards off in full every month. If you can't than stop using them and put yourself on a payment plan to get yourself out. I will not lie, my husband and I found ourselves in the credit card trap when we were young and just married. The idea of instant gratification was very attractive. If we wanted it, we bought it. We got ourselves into debt in our 20's and got ourselves out in our 30's. Our debt was paid off one bill at a time, taking a lot of patience and perseverance. We are lucky that we took care of it before everything came crashing down in 2008.

We do use our credit cards now. We pay them off every month. One might ask, why do we use them when we have no credit card debt and an emergency fund. We use them because to not use them will ruin your credit. We worked too hard to create a solid credit score, pay off our debts and build an emergency fund to have our credit score ruined by lack of credit. It is an unfortunate cycle, but it the reality we all live in, so why not embrace it and take comfort in knowing that if you ever need credit it is there.

Interview

Here is a link to an interview with an author who wrote a book about frugality. The interview is kind of boring, but the book looks very interesting. I might check it out from the library.

http://www.wisebread.com/the-new-frugality-consume-less-save-more-live-better

Astrid and Veronika

Just a quick blog tonight. I recently read the book Astrid and Veronika. If you are looking for a beautiful story, read it. Rarely does a book make me cry, this one did. In fact, while getting my hair highlighted (I used a gift card) I was reading this book and began to tear up. This book made me realize that in life it is never to late to make changes and restore relationships in your life. A lesson that I think we all could learn.

Saving Water

I am still here. Last week brought me sick kids 3 days, a pretty major clog in our plumbing and your normal life stuff.

When we had our plumbing fixed, we were told that our septic system is nearing the end of it's life. We knew this, but ignored the fact a bit. So, the plan is to "baby" the system until we can hook up to the city sewer. According to the guy who fixed things on Wednesday, if we limit the water and have the system pumped every 4 months we should be fine until the city allows us to hook up. So, we have decided to embrace the challenge. We are doing the following in an effort to save the system:

1. 2 minute showers. We have a timer. The kids are excited and trying to see how fast the can shower.

2. Water is not to be running when we are brushing teeth, washing hands, etc.

3. Water softener water is being redirected to drain directly outside. So is the humidifier.

4. I am going to use the laundromat for SOME of our laundry.

5. Dishwasher is being run only when full

6. Toilets have been fixed so that nothing leaks.

7. Toilets are not always being flushed.

That is all we could come up with. If anyone has other ideas. PLEASE forward them. We need all the advice we can get. I think that in the end this will prove to be a good exercise. We are going to really learn how to save water, save money and probably save a system that will eventually be replaced by a city system.

Graduate School

Last night was my first class as a Graduate Student. I am only taking 1 class this semester for a few reasons. First of all, I was accepted so late that my options were limited. Second, I have not been in school for a long time, I wanted time to adjust. Third, it is really expensive! Since we are attempting to do this without taking loans, I need to stay within affordability. Finally, I have a family who needs me now.

I am a little freaked out right now. I have to write a 25 page paper with footnotes included. I don't think I can remember how to do footnotes. The topic needs to be of historical significance since 1945. I am trying to think outside the box. In other words, the Civil Rights movement or the Kennedy assassination is plan B. While I value the historic significance of both these events, I am guessing that the professor has read a lot of papers on these topics. I want to WOW him. My husband has been coming up with ideas, but, they are all technology based. I am not really into technology. I was leaning towards something political. But, I am not sure that I would be able to be objective when writing. I have some strong opinions about the last administration (I am not saying if those opinions are good or bad). I guess I have some thinking to do.

I did practice frugality while preparing for school. Frugality in the way of textbooks. Before buying any of my books, I checked to see what was available at the library. Low and behold, the library had one of my books. I will be checking that out this week, and will renew it until mid term when I no longer need it. I saved $20.00. My remaining books were purchased used. I did do something last night at school that was not frugal, but will do every week. I parked in the underground, heated parking ramp. When I was an undergraduate at UWM in the early 90's I remember thinking that the "rich" people were the only people who could afford such a luxury. Well, we are not rich by any means. But, heated parking during a Wisconsin winter is worth the $2.75 per week I will have to pay. Imagine that, only $2.75, how one's perspective changes over time. I would bet that 15 years ago that rate would have been $1.50 and it seemed unattainable to me at the time.

Have a great day. I am looking forward to a day of working out, cleaning, laundry and studying.