I know this may come as a shock to some of you, but kids can be expensive! Some surveys (apparently written by people who buy their kids EVERYTHING) tell you it costs $11,000 per year to raise a child. Unless you have a child with LOTS of special needs, I just can’t understand that. Anyway, that’s not what this article is about – since we’re expecting baby number 2, I want to piggyback off of an article Stacy recently published about how to be ready to take home a baby from the hospital without having payments in tow. She gave many good points (a few I’ll reiterate) and there’s a few I want to put out there as well. Two things let’s get out of the way first: 1) having a baby is NOT a financial emergency. Unless I’m missing something, you’ve got at least a few months to plan for things. 2) having a baby IS something you can plan for (financially) and should. Trust me, you’ll already have enough “stuff” to haul around with a new baby. It is amazing the quantity of stuff out there you use to care for something so little! Let’s not add a payment book to it too. So how do you plan for that baby’s impact on your pocketbook? Here are 5 tips: [Read more…]
Being a Stay at Home Mom: A Husband’s Thoughts
So here’s the deal. Stacy has been a stay at home wife/mom for most of our marriage. I love it! I think it is awesome when I come home that my wife has taken care of our house, our family and me. I didn’t really intend on writing about the merits (and problems) associated with being a (or having a) stay at home mom. Nonetheless, twice this week I was asked about it so here goes. [Read more…]
Moving To A More Natural Lifestyle – Ramblings of a Former Coupon Queen
I know there are some of you out there who are like me and fairly new to the “natural lifestyle.” By natural lifestyle, I do not mean that I don’t shave or wear deodorant…or live in a van down by the river. I simply mean a way of life that causes you to eat and use things closer to the way they were created – before The Man decided to make it “better.”
And I also know there are some of you out there who are intrigued by my new way of life. You’ve been with me since the beginning and you think I’ve lost my mind. You think this new way of life is cool, but not for you. Thanks for sticking around. The first step was to find some reputable moving companies that store your stuff when moving out of the city!
And to move also with the help of manhattan movers to a more rural area, closer to nature is great. We had a bit of a road trip with the movers taking our belongings to our new home so we could start the journey of our natural lifestyle. We found the best moving company austin texas and highly recommend them. Then, for moving to Melbourne, make it stress-free with Removalist Melbourne services from northremovals.com.au.
Then there are some of you here who have been at this game for a LONG time now…and you’ve totally got me schooled. And you’ve been quiet as I make all my mistakes and sound like an idiot. 😉
I’m very honored to have had the opportunity to guest post at Keeper of The Home – one of the most encouraging websites I’ve ever found. If you’re not subscribed there, you should be. My knowledge base has grown a lot just by reading all the fabulous material there.
I wrote a post there about our family and how we started on this journey to a natural lifestyle…how I got away from couponing, contacted movers like the ones on movingmod.com, and embraced my “hippie” side. 🙂 Our change has been gradual. Hopefully, this post will be an encouragement to you – to let you know you CAN make this journey…you just need to go slowly.
Using Money to Show Your Spouse Real Love
This week I want to keep up my theme of writing about money and marriage. Although I didn’t intend on turning it into a full-blown series, it has been fun to see the interaction it has created with readers and I truly believe it has helped many of you. I know it has helped me to formulate my thoughts well enough to be able to write it all out. This week, I want to write as a husband as much as a financial counselor. I know the demographics of readers on this site tell me it is mostly women who have clicked on here. But if you’re reading this and you’re not a man, you probably know one or two of them and could share this article. Plus, don’t you want to read something you can nod your head in agreement with? One last thing [Read more…]
Marriage and Money: Five BIG Things to Agree On
This week I decided to address another angle of what became a very hot topic several weeks back, “Marriage and Money.” My initial post discussed the concept of “His Money and Her Money” and boy did you have varied opinions on how to handle that one! Then I dug myself in deeper when I wrote about charitable giving when couples don’t agree. I figure I’m on a roll so this week I’ll see if I can redeem myself a bit by sharing some essentials for marital financial bliss.
When Stacy and I got married I was clueless. Yes, I’m admitting in front of the thousands of people who will read this article that I was clueless about so many things related to marriage and how to be married. It was all new to me and I had to learn. I still learn something new every day and thankfully, Stacy has been gracious enough to learn along with me for all these years. Along the way, I’ve picked up some tricks when it comes to marriage and money that I thought might be of benefit to share. Fortunately, I haven’t made all the mistakes (hey, we’ve only been married for 7.5 years!) but I’ve counseled several couples who just plain didn’t get it and were/are headed for disaster. So what are my five top things husband and wife should agree on when it comes to money? [Read more…]
The 365 Project
Last year I was motivated by my friend Carla to start a “365 Project.” What is that? It’s taking a picture every day of the year – something you want to remember. I had already done that for the first part of Annie’s life, but I liked the challenge to keep it up. Now as 2011 comes to a close, I find that I have a picture of Annie for virtually each day of the year – and I’m tickled with myself! Annie loves to sit down at the computer and let me scroll through her pictures. I can tell it’s already important to her, but I know that as she grows it will be even more important – to her AND to Barry and me. [Read more…]
Annie’s 2011 Christmas Gifts
Last year I laid out for you how we approach Christmas with Annie. We’re not your typical family when it comes to Christmas. First off, we celebrate Advent with activities instead of gifts and we don’t “do Santa Claus.” Does Annie know about Santa? Sure….we read her fiction stories. This year we also read her the story of the real St. Nicholas and that’s a tradition that we hope to continue each year.
Every year Annie will get three gifts from us and her Christmas stocking filled with fun by useful goodies (insert link). The three gifts symbolize the three gifts that Christ received from the Three Wise Men – gold, frankincense, and myrrh. I think most kids get WAY TOO MUCH STUFF for Christmas – stuff they don’t need. We try to cut down on the amount of “stuff” that finds its way into this house. So, here’s a look at what we got Annie this year for Christmas. When she’s older and can read, I’ll have to do these posts AFTER Christmas…..because if she’s anything like her Daddy, she’s REALLY NOSEY (I hope you’re reading this Barry). [Read more…]
Relationships and Money: Charitable Giving When We Don’t Agree
Since last week’s post about his money and her money was so popular (and controversial!), I thought I’d tackle another sensitive subject this week – relationships and tithing/charitable giving. I’ve gotten several questions regarding the tithe and how it applies to us as Christians today. Even though Stacy wrote on what the Bible teaches about tithing a while back, one thing I would like to address is the issue of what to do when your spouse disagrees about a course of action when it comes to giving.
First off, if couples agreed about everything when it came to how to spend their money, it would be SCARY. So let me start by saying it is perfectly okay to disagree about money. In fact, I would encourage you and your spouse to have some disagreements about things every now and then. It will help make sure you actually communicate with each other about what matters to you, and that is always a good thing! [Read more…]
These are a Few of my Favorite……Children’s Toys
Here’s something you might not know about me……I don’t like toys with batteries. Something about buying batteries for toys just makes me want to go insane. And most of those battery operated toys are loud and, dare I say – annoying. Lest you think I’m a hypocrite, Annie does have some toys with batteries – an Elmo remote control, Violet the talking dog (I think it’s a dog), and Limbo Elmo. Do you sense a theme around here? Anyway, a few toys I don’t mind – but Annie’s toys for the most part are NOT ELECTRONIC. I don’t want her to have electronic toys. I want her to embrace her creativity and play with simple things…..and guess what? She prefers toys WITHOUT all the pomp and circumstance. So, today I’ll share my top 5 favorite toys for Annie……keep in mind, she’s 2 ½.
Confession – She does have some toys that Barry and I just never put the batteries in. Uhhh, oops? 😉 [Read more…]
Marriage and Money: His Money and Her Money
It is common practice among married couples to keep separate checking/savings accounts and then separate out the bills in some agreed-upon manner and operate the household finances that way. They’ll divide things up where he pays the mortgage and his car payment, while she pays her car payment, the electricity and the groceries…or something like that. This concept has never made sense to me, but people will fight and argue until they’re blue in the face that this is the right way to operate a household budget. I believe it is a dangerous way to manage your household finances for many reasons. I wanted to use this post to talk about four reasons separate accounts are a bad idea: [Read more…]