We have had our first two wonderful days of “Summer Camp.” For several weeks this summer, Gabriel, Jacob and I will be hosting 2 other boys, who are the children of a dear friend. The boys are ages 1, 2, 3, and 4. They are having a great time, and keeping me very busy! We are searching hard for fun, free, interesting things to do to keep us all busy—the main goal being to thoroughly wear them out each morning, so that they will take good naps each afternoon! Yesterday we made lemonade from scratch, and created placemats for a little art project. Today we went to a park for a solid hour of play time, and when we got home the boys got cleaned up and played “balloon bop” while I fixed lunch. They were actually asking for a nap before we started eating! It’s amazing to me how easy it is to keep them excited and happy with just a few creative ideas. But then there’s the teaching them how to share—that feels like constant work and requires lots of patience! I am so grateful that we are in a position to be able to provide this special experience for our boys and their friends.

I’m also excited about the progress that this little bit of extra income is going to help us make toward our goal of paying off bills. We will be paying off our final credit card debt in just a few weeks! That leaves only our car payment as remaining debt, and we are thinking hard about the best course of action to eliminate it as well, so that we can get serious about building some significant savings. There are a lot of tough decisions and some serious sacrifice on our table right now...hopefully with the help and encouragement of our coaches and peers we can make some strong, smart choices and continue to improve our finances by the leaps and bounds that we are coming to enjoy and expect!

On a side note, my jewelry party went REALLY well! I was able to purchase some gifts for the ladies in our family using my half off discount, and also got to choose $412.90 worth of FREE stuff for myself! YES, that says $412.90! I can hardly believe it!! I think I am going to save most of the boxes when I get them to spread out the fun…maybe Michael can be in charge of treating me from the stash of free stuff to celebrate our upcoming successes!

After seeing some of the other families’ posts about how unexpected events can drastically change ones financial situation, especially medical issues, I thought I would share one of my own.

8 years ago I had been working for the Department of Labor for 3+ years. Our department was in the process of merging with the Agency of Workforce Innovation. At this same time, Diana and I were starting the process of looking for our first house together. During the merger of the two agencies it was decided that the manager of the other IT department would manage both of the IT departments and handle how we would merge. I was sad to see that all my friends and co-workers were let go since they were OPS (temporary positions). However, I had just recently been promoted to career service and was the only employee from my department that was retained. I took this as good news since I would be responsible for handling the move of all our users over to AWI’s building and servers.

Now for the bad news. While playing city league softball one day I broke my leg sliding into home. I guess “broke” is too light of a word. The doctor said it was a lengthwise spiral break in the leg (I guess that is really bad), and I broke my ankle in two places. They rushed me into surgery that night and used a 6 inch plate, 8 screws in the leg and 4 more in my ankle to repair the damage. I was bedridden for a week before I could even start walking on crutches. I reported back to work as soon as I was able to get around on the crutches. I wanted to see how I was going to be able to assist with the big move. Obviously I was not going to be much use moving anything myself. I got a visit by my new boss and was informed that since I was still under my probation period (remember, I had just gotten that big promotion) I was going to be let go. They said it had nothing to do with my broken leg. Obviously, I don’t have to type what I thought about that… To make matters worse, at the time of my promotion, I had gotten new insurance. It took the state almost 3 months to process my new insurance which happened to finally go into effect 3 days after I broke my leg. So without any form of health insurance we had to pay the $20,000+ medical bills. Plus I had to look for new work. So our plans of buying a new home were put on hold for a few years.

8 years after the accident, I have had 3 surgeries to try to repair my leg. I walked with crutches for many months and a cane for almost 4 years. I still don’t go a day without pain in my leg and I can actually feel the weather change (which I still think is kinda cool). But like most stories I think this one has a happy ending. I am working in a job I love with many great co-workers. I have two awesome kids and I can walk and run well enough to keep up with them. I have a great wife who doesn’t mind messaging my ankle at night while we watch a movie on the TV. So it is possible to recover from financial disasters—and time heals many types of problems.

I would like some new jewelry-oh, but I don't want to pay for it!

My Dear Husband, as well as many other people who *knew me when...* are probably wondering, "Who are you and what have you done with Diana?" You see, before about six months ago, I had worn the same necklace, rings, and earrings for about 15 years! And when I say I wore them for 15 years, I mean it! I slept in them and showered in them, and only took them off for the rare occasion like a doctor's appointment or hair cut when someone asked me to take them off. And as I mentioned in a previous blog entry, I also never spent much money on clothes, wearing lots of hand-me-downs and ill-fitting thrift shop or clearance items. I remember having a few pair of scuffed up shoes, and that I could remember how certain marks got on them (dropping a marker on them during one of my first lessons at my first teaching job, for example) and I could "date" the shoes back 7 or 8 years! Is it normal to wear the same pair of shoes for 8 years?

For reasons unknown (or maybe unexplainable here) I recently discovered that I really enjoy looking my best, so I began putting much more effort into doing so. I found a website that helps a person identify her body type and outlines the right style and color choices for looking her best. (www.missussmartypants.com) So I have recently started shopping for clothes and shoes and accessories much more than I ever did before. No, the irony is not lost on me, that as soon as I discover "style," I also enter a contest where spending lots of money on clothes, shoes, and accessories is frowned upon...but the situation has its advantages, I suppose. Because we are now budgeting, I don't have the guilt I used to have for getting frustrated with having nothing to wear-heading to the mall, and coming back with a few bags full of clothes-only to be frustrated again a few weeks later because I still have nothing to wear! Now we have a clothes budget. I spend within it, being very selective, and when it is gone I stop, and wait until the following month. I'm now always sure to take good mental notes when I find myself standing in the closet saying, "If only I had a _____, it would go great with this ____." I'm definitely not wasting money on things I won't wear, and if I do come home with something that I later don't care for, I am diligent about keeping my receipts and returning things I haven't worn within a few weeks.

But I digress...free jewelry is what I'm supposed to be writing about-remember? So I have a dilemma. I want new jewelry-for cheap or free! (I want everything I want these days to be really cheap or free, actually!) So how does one go about that? Why, a jewelry party, of course! I never "got" the whole *have a party, get free stuff* idea before attending my first Pampered Chef party, but now I am into it! This is actually my first time taking advantage of this concept for myself as a host, though I love helping others get lots of free kitchen tools and recipes with Pampered Chef. So this is how it works: you gather your friends, a consultant comes to your house and shows off the products, your friends pick out some things for themselves, and you as host get free and discounted stuff in exchange for a little of your time and opening up your home! Don't worry about asking your friends to buy stuff-be sure to have a big crowd, so that no one feels pressure to buy, and then be sure they are all aware of the benefits of hosting for themselves! (There are usually extra benefits for the current host when friends from her party decide to host as well.)

So pick your pleasure, penny pinchers! You can get free make-up, spa products, jewelry, home décor, gourmet food, craft supplies, even lingerie! And of course my favorite-high quality Pampered Chef kitchen tools, and great recipes that will help you save TONS of money by making eating at home cheaper, easier and more fun! (Call me for a Pampered Chef party (850) 894-0027!)

It’s amazing how easy it is to maintain a good habit once you convince yourself that it is good for you. Its also amazing how easily your brain can betray you and put up a good argument for the opposite.

This weekend was a busy weekend for us. On Friday I wanted to take the boys to the FSU regional baseball game. However, the game was delayed due to rain so we decided to wait at Uncle Dan’s house to see how long the delay was going to end up being. At about 7:00 I decided that it was going to be way too late to even try to see any of the game so we headed home. My brain betrayed me and said the kids were starving and I didn’t have time to cook (all lies) so I should just pick up a $5 pizza from Little Caesars.

On Saturday, we decided to take the kids to St. George Island. Jacob has never been to the beach before and this would be Gabriel’s 2nd trip to St. George Island. We packed a lunch and planned on making it a short trip so we would not need to eat out at all. The trip ended up costing us about $30 in gas plus $5 to get into the park. Gabriel and Jacob both enjoyed the sand and water. On the way back we both had thoughts about going out to eat but with Diana there to reinforce my will power we did not spend any money going out to eat.

Sunday was mostly spent recovering from the beach trip. However, I still wanted to take the kids out to see one last baseball game this year. In the end only Gabriel and I went to the game to save a little bit on tickets. A student ticket cost me $5. We were planning on being back before dinner so we brought some snack food for the 4’o clock game. However, the game was really good and our food supplies ran out in the 4th inning so I bought Gabriel a popcorn for $2.50 (the cheapest item at the stadium) to keep him satisfied until we could get home. After the game

was over, around 8’o clock, we stopped at a Whataburger to use the bathroom and again my brain decided to attack my will power and convince me that it was so late that it would be better to just order something while we were there. I almost was able to say “NO” but my brain pulled out a coupon to “save” me some money. So a couple minutes later Gabriel and I were eating out for $5.15.

Luckily, none of my periods of weakness were spent via the credit card or even above our budget. They all came out of my weekly lunch money. So I might have to pack a PB&J sandwich a couple times this week to make up for it.

We’re tired. We’re dirty. We even stink a little. But we have BIG blue smiles! So even though we only have about 6 berries left in our basket, we consider our trip to be a total success!

Today we went berry picking. We tried this activity earlier in the week, with no luck. It seems you should figure out where the berries ARE before you try to take the (little) kids out for a berry picking trip. So I sent my dad out hiking around the woods near his neighborhood on a scouting trip, and this morning he was able to send us right to the best spot.

I must say the thought occurred to me to pull through a drive through for lunch afterwards. The kids were very hot and hungry (in addition to being tired, dirty, and stinky), and the thought of getting home 45 minutes past lunch time, then taking the time to cook lunch… I won’t say I was actually tempted, though. Even though I thought about it, I dismissed the idea immediately. We have discovered there are lots of advantages to having a big stockpile of cheap groceries. Even though we had planned on scrambled eggs, cheese toast, and potatoes for lunch, that would have taken too much time and energy (even considering it’s only about 15 minutes prep). So we got home, I put some frozen veggies in the microwave, pulled out a frozen pizza to bake up, and gave the kids a bath while lunch cooked itself. They were down for naps a mere 15 minutes late!

But I must excuse myself, because I need to clean up before heading to work this afternoon…

What a fantastic, fun, FREE day!

I am no longer Mommy or Diana--my nickname for the summer is Mona Lisa (because I want to always have a smile, and for people to wonder what I'm smiling about.) The kids are working on choosing their summer nicknames, and we are heading off to summer camp!

I was kind of worried about keeping up with 2 (4) energetic toddler/preschool kids over the summer-of course I want to keep them stimulated and active, but do it for cheap or free! The summer camp theme is my way of keeping it fun for me, something different for the kids, and giving some structure to our day. Here is my brain dump of ideas so far:

Rename our rooms and items in our house: bedrooms-cabins; kitchen-mess hall; playroom-rec room; family room-lodge; patio and backyard-picnic area and playing fields; beds-bunks

Lots of field trips: berry picking/trail walking; parks with playgrounds; parks without playgrounds for field games or nature hunts; library; movies (amc is doing $1 kids movies each Wednesday-we might do 2 or 3); feed the ducks/turtles; bike/trike practice (church parking lots are great for this on weekday mornings); picnic lunches with Daddy (creates an income if we pack a lunch for him ;)); museums, public pools, or state parks if we can get seasonal passes for cheap/free;

Other fun activities around the house: playing in the sprinkler or kiddie pool; obstacle courses; growing and caring for a few plants; kids cooking; arts and crafts; storytime (around the "campfire"); blanket forts;

Fun rainy day/too hot out ideas: water play in the tub or sinks; bouncy ball races;

As you can see this is not an exhaustive list, but a good start! Gabriel has a subscription to High Five magazine (a version of Highlights for preschoolers) (Thanks, Grammama!) Each issue has a kids cooking recipe, a building project idea, an art or craft idea, and an action rhyme, in addition to great stories and poems! A lot of the specific ideas will come from there, plus some research on the internet. Please share any ideas you may have to help make our summer camp super fun!!!

Since the beginning of this contest, she has been reading everything that has been throw at us. She has looked for and found a job. She has even spent a lot of time online looking for more information on ways to save money. One of them has been really paying off.

For example, I keep seeing her at home going through all the newspapers and cutting out coupons most nights. A couple of times recently she made comments to me about how much time it takes to cut out coupons, but I know she was thinking about how much it end up saving us each trip to the grocery store. Then today I get an excited call from her. "Guess what I just did". I have been getting a lot of these the last three months. Almost all of them have been good so I said "what? Tell me". "I just saved more then I spent at Publix" Seriously!!! I think that has been her holy grail for the past few weeks. She had been getting close a few times. I think it's a game to her. She will find good "buy-one-get-one-free" deals at the store. Now the "normal" person would be happy with that and take the free item thinking "boy, I just saved 50%". Not my wife, She looks for that coupon she cut out last week and saves an additional $1 on EACH item. Usually this ends up meaning that both were almost free. I am so proud of her for spening her free time learning more about how to save money and for spending the time to actually make it happen.

to the right is the recipt she brought home today. We spent 59.94 and saved 78.63.

As of our last post we had quite a schedule coming up…well here are the (financial) results…

For graduation itself: we carpooled, and even though I drove, someone else paid the $7 parking fee at the civic center. I packed snacks and drinks for the kids, and even though they were checking bags to prevent outside food, we’ve learned that one advantage to having really young kids is that you can usually get away with bringing in snacks “for the babies,” at most events.

Graduation party: I bought $127.97 in groceries two days before the party, but this included some household groceries for the following week. If I had to break it down, I’d say the actual amount on food for the party was $60. We turned on our air conditioning the day of the party as well, so that cost a little on our utility bill…

Birthday party: Gabriel attended his friend’s birthday party on Saturday afternoon. We are pretty diligent about saving gift bags and tissue to reuse. Earlier in the year (before the challenge began) I bought a box of 10 kids birthday cards for $6, knowing that we would use them as Gabriel and Jacob began attending parties of their friends. So the boys went out and found a $5 gift that actually only cost $5, because we already had the wrapping and card. (I am notorious for spending the entire amount budgeted on an actual gift, then going over budget for the wrapping and card—if it’s an online order, forget it—shipping charges really blow my budget!)

Baseball Game: FREE! Thanks Florida Commerce! Gabriel had a great time pitching, hearing his name from the announcer, and receiving his birthday wishes! He even got to take home the ball!

Disney trip: We had budgeted $160 for the two day trip. Last December we purchased Florida Resident Passholder Tickets for Disney, which means we can go as much as we want for a year (a few blackout dates). I suppose we are technically still paying for these, since they were charged on our Discover card. For this trip, we originally considered staying 2-3 nights, which would have increased our expenses greatly, but decided we would gamble on the kids sleeping in the car (we lost that bet!), so we put the kids in the car at 4 am on day one. We arrived at the park in time for a full day, stayed one night in a value “resort” (GO ALLSTARS!), went to the park again the second day and left when the park closed around 6 pm. Both breakfasts and lunches, and all snacks and drinks were packed. These groceries were not counted in the trip budget because they were purchased within our regular grocery budget. We ate in the food court at the hotel on the first night, and stopped for dinner on the road the second night. (As an aside, we were both quite saddened to learn that both Fazoli’s in Gainesville and Ocala have been closed down since our last trip—how depressing! We really miss our Fazoli’s, and stopping for a meal on the road was a planned part of every Orlando trip, which I probably looked forward to as much as seeing Mickey Mouse!) We started the trip on a full tank, and made one interim fuel stop, then filled up again the day after our return. We realized that we actually had a little more than we planned to spend because Michael would not be eating lunch out at work on the days of our trip, and the typical Saturday lunch out with the boys didn’t happen because of the graduation party. Here are the numbers:

Disney 2009 budget $160

Actual Cost

Hotel: 72.32

Gas Fill up #1: 31.25

Gas Fill up #2: 33.85

Dinner Monday night: 16.58

Dinner Tuesday night: 14.45

2 Popsicles: 5.50

TOTAL $173.95

-Michael’s lunch mon 8

-Michael’s lunch tues 8

-Michael’s lunch wed 8

-kids weekend lunch 18

ACTUAL TOTAL COST $131.95

The popsicles were not planned but Jacob was sick during our trip and was not keeping a lot of food down (I’ll skip the gory details) so we opted to try a popsicle to get something into him.

Gabriel’s birthday party was postponed due to illness (see above—he caught what Jacob had on the trip), so that is still coming up this weekend. Again, we budgeted $100 for everything, including gifts! So far we have spent $18 on a gift. Michael found a new kids bicycle at a garage sale a few months ago for $10, and bought training wheels for $8. We will either not wrap it, or dig around in our gift bags for something big to wrap it in. Michael was able to find lots of really cute little things at Target for the party favors (12 favors for $26) and we have started purchasing the food for the party as part of our grocery budget for the last few weeks. I am making the cake. I will have to come back and sum up all the totals, since we are waiting for a few more RSVPs before we buy the rest, but I’m sure we’ll be able to pull off the party under budget.

Our big family Mother’s Day dinner at our house was also cancelled due to the boys being ill, but we did get dinner out—from Qdoba where kids eat free on Sundays and Wednesdays. That cost $15.89; since our big family dinners are usually pot luck, we would probably have spent less than this on our contribution if we hadn’t had to cancel. The boys took me to Bed, Bath and Beyond for my Mother’s Day gift, which was purchased with a 20% off any item coupon, and cost $17.19.

So, on a graduation party, birthday gift, baseball game, Disney trip, birthday party and gift, Mother’s Day dinner and gift, we spent about $330, or less depending on how close we get to budget for the rest of the items needed for Gabriel’s party. Not too shabby!

Graduation, Graduation party, 2 birthday parties to attend, a baseball game (come see us pitch!), a Disney trip, and planning and hosting our own birthday party and Mother's Day dinner with our big family...all in the next 10 days!

So I really should be creating an invitation, packing a bag, mopping a floor, wrapping a birthday present, or making an appetizer…how much money do you think we’ll spend in the next 10 days? We’ll give you the run down next week.

Such as the value of time, managing a budget, birthday parties, family activities, Disney trips, tax refunds, and needs vs wants…see, I told you they were random!

How do you determine the value of your time? How much time should it take a person to check the sales and coupons, make a menu and grocery list, and get to the store for weekly groceries? If I spent that time contacting my Pampered Chef customers, would I earn more money in that time than I am saving by scrutinizing over each penny in the grocery budget?

How exactly are you all managing the budget from day to day? Is there software you are using to predict your income and expenses, plan them, and then go back and compare to what you actually spent in each category? How often do you look at these numbers?

Oh the birthday parties…Gabriel’s classes at preschool are grouped by age, which means all the birthdays are right together (now). We’ve received several invitations, and I’m starting to have anxiety about how much we are planning to spend on his party. And gifts. OY! I can feel a full length blog post brewing under that one!

We are doing more family activities now that we are consciously looking for free things to do. I think before we just assumed we would have to spend money to make outings with the kids, but since we decided to cut back on these expenses and started actively seeking out free stuff to do, we are doing so much more—I had NO IDEA how much was going on in our town for kids and families!!!

Remember how the FITtracker “leaked” that one of the families was planning a trip to a theme park? That’s US!! (But I heard we aren’t the only ones!) We are taking Gabriel (Jacob is tagging along, too) to Disney for his birthday next week. Chew on this: 4 people, two days, only $160. We’ll give you the break down later.

I keep reading all the blogs and feeling exceptionally blessed. We are doing really well at cutting expenses and paying off debt. We are getting a $3500 tax refund (I know we should adjust our withholdings, but an unpredictable income makes for unpredictable taxes—another blog?) that is going to pay off our Visa in full, and help with a few things that have popped up as well. My pie in the sky goal is to also have the Discover card paid off by the end of June. That will be all our credit card debt. Then we have to play the numbers to decide if it would be better to pay off the van or save, save, save!

Needs vs Wants: In our first on camera interview for the challenge, when we were just semi-finalists, Samantha Strickland asked us how we determined the difference between a want and a need. Michael’s hilarious answer was, “If she wants it, it’s a need; if I want it, it’s just a want.” All joking aside, we often struggle with determining the difference between a want and a need. Especially when it come to computer parts :p And clothes :) And then there’s those pesky medical expenses ;) The point really is that we can’t completely eliminate the wants, for any period of time. We have to find a balance between needs and wants, and find ways to get the wants as cheaply as possible. After all one of our wants right now is getting out of debt and building a savings account. We just have to decide which wants take priority over others. And whatever changes we make, old habits we kick, new habits we try to establish, skills we acquire, information we gain—it all has to add up to a sustainable new lifestyle. It will do us no good to kill ourselves to win the $10,000, just to feel so deprived getting there that we blow it on a major indulgence…

Enough random thoughts for now…