Another Great "Free" Activity

Today, between an orthodontist appointment and a doctor appointment, my kids and I found ourselves with an hour of time to kill. Thankfully, on the way to the clinic, we spotted a great place to fill in our extra hour, all for free. We went to an exotic pet store, Hoffer's Pets.

Let me start out by saying we have been to Hoffer's many times. My middle child, Hannah, loves animals. We even had her 7th birthday party at Hoffer's. So, we were well aware of what we would find in the store, a well known Milwaukee treasure that never fails to please. Hoffer's is like a zoo. There are exhibits of animals that are not for sale throughout the store. For example, in the middle of the store is a tree with water surrounding it with turtles and alligators living together peacefully (I am not an animal expert, so I have to assume that the alligators are not turtle predators). There is another exhibit with big, beautiful tortoises. Other animals that we saw were snakes, rabbits, ferrets, birds, and large goldfish (which the kids can pet) and a man made coral reef. The one downfall to this excursion was my daughter's unwillingness to accept that we are NEVER EVER going to buy a rodent, reptile or bird as a pet. She spent the majority of our time at the pet store begging and pleading. Telling me that they deserved a better home. I disagree.

I am very grateful to have driven by Hoffer's and to have been reminded of it again. The last month has proven to be expensive, we seem to be hemorrhaging money this month. I need to get back to frugal living and utilizing all the free activities that are available to us. I am always open to suggestions from others about ways to fill my days with free or inexpensive activities, so if someone is reading this with an idea, send me a note.

Our Summer Schedule

The second week of summer is proving to be much easier than I had thought it would be. Here is a glimpse of the schedule that I have been maintaining for this week:

7:30 Breakfast

8:00-11:30- Summer School

12:00- Lunch

12:15-1:15 - Workbooks and Kumon Math work (Kumon is the greatest math program EVER!!, I highly suggest it to anyone who has a child struggling with learning math facts)

1:30-4:00 - Outings (library, pool, friends homes, errands)

4:00-10:00 - T.V. time, dinner, reading, etc.....

My youngest daughter has been at Girl Scout Camp all week, so we will see if this schedule holds once she is thrown back into the mix.

This week has been so hot. I don't want to let the kids outside during this heat wave for safety sake, so I have been trying to keep them occupied with cheap activities (library). We have a blow up pool that we need to set up for the kids, I regret that we were not able to set it up in time for this unexpected heat wave, but, I will be sure to have it set up for the next one.

Now that summer is here and I have more time at home, my intention is to get back to regular "frugal" blogging, photos included. I enjoy the blogging and always feel a little more organized after I am able to write my thoughts out, even if my current thoughts include dinner or how to save money on electricity.

I am going to sign off for now, need to crawl into bed and read "On the Road" for book club. I have about 4 days to read 300 pages, OUCH!

I'm back

Well, I am finally back to blogging after a week long vacation with the family. We traveled to Massachusetts last week. Friday we piled into our car and traveled this great country of ours with 3 kids in the back seat. I have to be honest, I was a little concerned about such a long car ride with 3 kids, but, they proved to be very well behaved without a lot of fighting.

This vacation was taken with a budget in mind. We were very fortunate to be able to use a timeshare that cost us $189 for the week. With the timeshare we get a full kitchen, so we made all of our breakfasts and dinners in our unit to save money. On the days that we were not taking advantage of the pool, we were sightseeing, so we ate lunch out on those days.

Last week was the first time we had traveled to New England. We all loved it. The countryside is beautiful and the history is so rich. We took a day to go to Salem and learned so much about a very short but dark period in our nations very early history. My kids enjoyed learning about it, as did my husband and I. In all honesty, we did not adhere to a very strict budget the day we were in Salem. That was a choice almost out of necessity if we wanted to get a full Salem experience.

Another area that proved to bust the budget was the fuel. Driving from Wisconsin to Massachusetts and back again is not easy on the fuel budget. We had to fill up several times. We also did a lot of sight seeing several miles away from our resort, because of that, we used more gas than we had originally intended to. I would be a liar if I said I don' t regret that, I do. Not only was it bad for our wallets, it is not exactly "green". But to dwell on that would be pointless because we had a great time with all the sightseeing. I have decided that in the coming weeks, I will be more aware of my gas consumption at home so that I can even things out a bit from vacation.

The last area in which we saved a little money was lodging while traveling to our destination. On our way to the coast, we had to stay in a hotel because we had gotten late start, and we lost an hour going from Central time to Eastern time. But, when it was time to return, we left early and decided to drive straight through. It was a 15 hour trip, but gained that lost hour and were able to return home at a decent hour. It was worth it to sleep in our own beds that night. I dreaded the return trip, fearing that 15 hours in an enclosed space with 3 kids was going to be brutal. But, they proved to us that they can spend time together without fighting. I was so proud of how well my kids behaved on the way home, they really behaved better than they had to considering the less than perfect circumstances of their back seat accommodations.

So, this years family vacation is over early and we had a great time. However, I do feel this is the best place in my blog to emphasize one point. The best part about traveling is coming home! There truly is no place like home.

Start of Summer Vacation

Tomorrow will be the last day of school for my children. Yippeee!! Do I sound crazy? Well, I probably am, mark my words, in 2 weeks I will be counting down the days to the first day of school. But, not yet. I plan on enjoying this summer with them. I predict that this will be the last summer that my oldest child, Alec, will willingly choose to do things with me and his siblings.

I have a lot planned for this summer. We leave for vacation on Friday afternoon. We are going to drive out to the East Coast and spend a week there. Visiting an area of the country that none of us have ever seen. We plan on driving through Canada and stopping at Niagara Falls. We are all looking forward to the vacation, as we all need to get away for awhile. My husband certainly needs a break from work, the kids are getting a well deserved break from school and I am getting a break from the duties of running a household.

The rest of our summer seems to already be planned out. I was looking at our calendar this evening and was shocked to see that the only weekends that we have free this summer are the last 2 weekends in August. We are lucky to have friends with cabins in Northern Wisconsin, we are able to visit them, enjoy the great outdoors and really appreciate how lucky we really are.

My children are also signed up for summer school, some classes at our local rec. department and summer camp. I remained very frugal when signing them up for classes, but had to set frugality aside in order to sign them up for camp. My husband and I both agree that camp is important though, we both attended the camp they are going to. They will have a fantastic time and will create some fun memories of a great childhood summer.

The rest of the summer will be spent in the back yard in our blow up pool, swimming in Lake Michigan or maybe seeing some movies on Wednesday mornings at our theatre when the kids flicks are discounted. Whatever we may choose to do this summer, I am optimistic that we are going to have a great time, and look forward to creating wonderful memories with my kids.

CSA

My husband and I join a local, organic CSA every year.  CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.  We have been long time supporters of local farmers and their products.  We believe that in order for a community to thrive, supporting your local businesses is imperative.  So every year, we do what we can in order to put that belief into practice, joining a CSA was is a great way to start.

The initial cost of the CSA can seem somewhat prohibitive to a family that is trying to be frugal. This year the cost of 26 weeks was $615.00.  At first glance, one might gasp at this number, until you do the math.  After calculating the math, the cost is $23.65 a week for fresh, local and organic produce.  While the first few weeks of the season, the box is a little light, that quickly changes. For the bulk of the summer, we are getting far more in produce than what we would get at a grocery store for $23.65.  By season's end, we realize that we have saved a lot of money over the course of the spring, summer and fall, truly remaining frugal.

This week our box included asparagus, romaine lettuce, bok choy, radishes, salad turnips, spinach and chives.  Of course, that will not be enough vegetables for the week, we will have to supplement with a few from the grocery store.  But at the height of the season, our box will be overflowing with a bounty of vegetables that will easily get this family of five through the week, without the need for any extra vegetables from the store.  Joining the CSA has also forced all of us to try vegetables that we would normally not try if they were not given to us.  For example, kale.  Never, in a million years would a purposely buy that.  But, when we get it a few times during the season, I do prepare a meal with it.  I have to be honest though, that is one vegetable none of us like.  I have found that it is best chopped finely and added to pasta sauce.  By adding it to a sauce, I am able to serve it to the family without wasting it.  Better yet, we don't have to taste it.  

As summer quickly approaches, we are looking forward to what is in store for us with our CSA. Strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, melons, etc.  The list goes on and on.  

Major Home Repair

Tomorrow we are starting a major home repair.  We need a new roof.  Yikes!!  What an expensive project.  Fortunately, we knew that this was a repair that was inevitable.  We have had some minor leaks, our gutters and downspouts are notorious for getting clogged and the shingles have started to curl.  We knew that if we have the same weather this spring that we had last spring, the roof could cave in during a torrential downpour.  Time for a roof.

Because we knew this project was in our near future, we saved for quite awhile.  I set up a separate savings account specifically for the roof.  It took a couple of years, literally, to save the money for this project.  We finally hit the magic number in the last couple of months for the roof. 

For anyone planning on a huge project like this, I would recommend setting up a separate savings account to cover the expenses.  Take out a little bit out of each paycheck and save, save, save.  Because we did it that way, we can do this project without a loan.  What a relief that is for us.  To know that when we pay for this project, we can be done with it.

Make no mistake about it though.  Saving for this was not easy.  Many times, I was more than a little tempted to dip into the roof fund for something fun, extra expenses or even day to day living.  It also took a really long time to save the money.  Sometimes, I would get so frustrated, because it seemed like we would never get there.  Whenever the roof would leak, it was more than a little tempting to just take out a loan, or God forbid, use a credit card.  But, we persevered, stayed true to our frugal roots, and saved.

Here's to a new roof!   We will be ready for the next downpour, that is if it does not rain while tear down is occurring.

Summer Project

My kids and I are doing a summer project that incorporates geography, history and writing. We are writing letters to people all over the world and requesting postcards with 3 fun facts about the place the post cards are from. When we receive the postcard we are putting a pushpin on the location on a large world map. It is a great way for the kids to find different countries, continents and regions of the world.

My kids were kind of apprehensive about this project, they really didn't want to take the time to write the letters and felt like it was a "geeky" idea. Well, I didn't care. I rallied my Facebook friends and requested addresses from all over world so that my kids could start. The response was fantastic!! I have friends who are emailing friends they have to just send postcards without a letter from us. Today alone we received 5 postcards from Poland!! The kids were ecstatic and are now on board with my geeky project. My husband even got on board tonight when he saw the postcards received in one day. He might even rally some of his friends.

Some may ask why I am doing this. Well, first of all, summer is a perfect time to continue learning about the world around us. Now is the time the kids can do what they want to do to expand their knowledge. My son loves maps, but daughter claims geography is dumb. This is proving to be a perfect way for him to study maps, while she gets excited because we are getting mail. Second, I refuse to raise American children who are ignorant about the world around them. When I hear the percentage of American school children who cannot locate the continents on the map, it makes me sad. There is so much to see in this great big world, we all can benefit from learning more about the world.

Wish us luck as we continue to write letters and receive postcards from around the world. I hope to post the cards as we receive.