Kids Ain't Cheap

But They Sure Are Worth It

Archives for 2013

Making Spring Cleaning Kid Safe by Making Your Own Cleaning Supplies

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heinz vinegar egg dyeI have to be honest, I’ve never been overly concerned about what was in disinfecting agents or cleaners. As long as they did the job and made my house smell clean I didn’t care much about what they may possibly contain in terms of anything hazardous. Things have changed though since having our daughter last year, especially now that she’s crawling and getting into everything. I’m more aware than ever about  the chemicals I use in my home.

Why Choosing a Cleaning Chemical Matters

Our nine month old’s favorite thing to do is pull herself up and practice standing. While watching her pull herself up this weekend, using the newly cleaned glass-top coffee table as leverage, I noticed she was also putting her mouth around the edge of the table. Forget that it wasn’t the safest thing for her to be doing,  just minutes before, I had cleaned the table using a regular brand named glass cleaner. Though the table was dry, there’s no doubt in my mind she consumed some yucky and potentially dangerous chemicals by licking the table. Next time I’m just going to buy distilled water.

Even the most attentive parents will tell your their kids get into stuff they shouldn’t. It got me thinking about having to lock our cleaning supplies up.  While it is important to start child-proofing my home, I have decided to start making my own cleaning supplies, packaged clean-scent be damned.

Making Your Own Spring Cleaning Supplies

To ‘make’ my own cleaning supplies, I will be using a combination of these ingredients. All recipes compliment of a phone call to my aunt, the green-cleaning queen!

  • Vinegar 
  • Water
  • Baking Soda
  • Regular Dishwashing Soap

A combination of these simple ingredients, will clean almost every surface of your home and contain no harsh chemicals. Though it may not taste very good,  if your child or pet gets into these supplies they won’t be harmed.

  • A diluted mixture of water and vinegar (equal parts of each) makes a safe surface cleaner and disinfects! Once the surface dries the vinegar smell goes away.
  • If you have extra tough grim to get off, a mixture of baking soda and water or baking soda and dish soap will cut through it easily since baking soda is an abrasive. Approximately six tablespoons of baking soda to every one to two tablespoons of water or soap, whichever you use.
  • Vinegar and hot water can be used to clean hard-surfaced floors as well. Approximately one cup of vinegar for every gallon of water.
  • Baking soda and dish soap mixture is great for cleaning both ovens and microwaves as well.
  • To clean and disinfect your toilets, pour full strength vinegar in the bowl, scrub with brush, leave sit for a few minutes (15-20) and flush!
  • Scrub the bathtub soap scum away with baking soda and water (or dish soap) paste mixture.
  • To freshen carpets pour baking soda into the carpet, let sit at least one hour, though ideally overnight, and vacuum up.

I don’t know why I waited so long to come to this decision. Not only is it safer for my whole family (pets included!) I’m sure to save a few hundred a year not buying fancy nice-smelling, commercial cleaners.

Do you make your own household cleaners for spring cleaning?  Any tips for a beginner? 

The Expenses of a Family Pet

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family petWe talk about how expensive our kids can be, but what about our fur babies?

I’m an animal lover of all, even the not-so-pretty ones, but my family pet of choice is a cat. I grew up with a house full of them (we had four at one point) and my husband and I currently have one spoiled three-year-old kitty we both adore. We were discussing eventually getting a dog, but it won’t be for a long time given how expensive our cat has proven to be.

 

Our Family Pet Expenses

Our cat was diagnosed with irritable bowel disease (IBD) a few months after we got her. This was an annoyingly expensive diagnosis to make. Outside of exploratory surgery, we had almost every diagnostic test done for a feline just to have the vet eventually tell us that the episodes of vomiting, diarrhea and not eating were being brought on my an irritation. Something we would basically have the deal with for the rest of her life. She was right. Every six to eight months we end up at the vets office having our cat’s episodic symptoms treated. It is not cheap.

This post isn’t about how expensive my cat is. It is to alert you that, though cats are generally a lower maintenance animal, it isn’t always the truth. We got our cat with a clean bill of health and no obvious issues only to find out a few months later she had a health condition that would ultimately end up costing us thousands. This may be true for any pet.

 

Why You Need to Budget for a Family Pet

It breaks my heart when I hear stories of animal neglect and abuse. It makes me even sadder when I find out the neglect is brought on because the owners simply didn’t have the finances in order to properly care for the animal.

Until this cat, I’ve never considered pet insurance, but with her diagnosis, my husband and I seriously considered it for the first time. In our situation it didn’t make sense, given that they wouldn’t cover her pre-existing conditions, but you better believe it is something I will obtain for all future pets. I’ve had a look online at what’s out there, and found that there are so many options out there. Lemonade isn’t your traditional insurance company, for example, but could be a great option for you if you are looking for an affordable way to protect your pet. With our little fur baby, we’ve become pretty good at recognizing triggers and knowing what to do before it escalates into a full-blown (read: budget busting) episode so deal with them as they arise.

Ways to Lower Your Family Pet Expenses

In order for us to keep emergency vet bills lower, we have opted to maintain her on a more expensive diet. Our experience is that paying more for higher quality food causes less flare-ups, (one to two per year versus upwards of five). Yes, our monthly costs are higher in the ‘pet food’ category, but paying more for a good quality food leads to less emergency vet visits which have the potential to be extremely expensive. The same goes for all pets. It’s much better to invest in a pricier, nutritious food – whether that’s Badlands Ranch Dog Food for your dog or a similarly nutritious cat, rabbit, or fish food – to ensure their health, which in turn will save you money in other areas, like vet bills.

When you chose to add a pet to your family, it is only fair to the animal to care for it in every way required. You are choosing to bring them into your life, your family. If you can’t afford the proper food or vet care, maybe now isn’t the time to be thinking about a pet. I’ve had friends look at us like we were nuts when we tell them how much we spend on our cat, and ask us why we wouldn’t just have her put down and be done with it all. Why? Because we love her and have accepted responsibility of her. If it got to a point we couldn’t care for her we would do our best to find someone who could. We didn’t give up on her just because she costs more than a $15.00 bag of cat food every month.

Even without an emergency every arising, your pet will still need normal care. Everything from food, to common pest treatments, annual vet exams and treatments, affordable pet vaccinations, age or breed related illnesses, the list goes on. There is so much more to consider outside of feeding and playing with your pet.

If you’re thinking about getting a pet, or have one now, consider adding a ‘pet expense’ category to your budget so if an emergency arises, and you don’t have pet insurance, you have the funds without risking the rest of your family’s needs.

Do you have a dedicated category for your family pet in your budget?

Our Family Bed – A Solution for Sleep

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family bedThis is a post I never thought I would write. A family bed was a totally foreign concept to me before having a baby. I didn’t know that people choose to sleep with their child – that it was a thing. If you had asked me before having a child if they would sleep with us, I would think you were crazy and quickly answer, no. My husband and I didn’t intentionally set out to establish a family bed with our daughter, it just sort of happened.  I learned firsthand the importance of sleep and structure.

 

How Our Family Bed Started…

It started while I was in the hospital recovering from my cesarean section. Our new baby was in the bassinet beside my hospital bed, my husband asleep in his bed near my feet. Baby girl would wake and I would need to nurse her. Shifting, even a little after my surgery was difficult, only complicated more by tubes and wires. I didn’t want to wake my husband knowing I needed him on his A-game during the daytime. I had access to nurses but at 2am I decided their skills were better for new moms who needed them beyond passing a baby. I reached for her one last time and brought her into my bed, propped with pillows and tight in my arms, we both fell asleep almost instantly.

We came home and quickly realized I would not be able to sleep in our bed for a least a few days. Our bed is quite high off the ground and even with the help of a stool I couldn’t easily pull myself in bed. I decided to sleep on our couch until I regained more strength and have the baby in her bassinet beside me.

After about ten days, I was finally able to get into my bed and moved the bassinet in our room where we all slept. I knew I wanted our baby close for the first few months but didn’t realize how close I wanted her.

Our baby girl was very predictable, waking every three hours on the dot. She would wake in the night and I would lift her out of her bassinet, carry her to the chair where I would nurse her and rock her back to sleep praying that she didn’t wake as soon as she was out of my arms and back in her bassinet.

From the time we both woke until the time I crawled back into bed was at least  45 minutes. I didn’t mind initially, fulling expecting and accepting lost sleep with a baby. Problem being that baby girl was starting to wake almost every 2 hours with little sleep between wake times. We were both exhausted.

After a few weeks of rocking and praying for her to sleep, one especially exhausting night I couldn’t find the strength in me to wake up and move for our normal routine. I picked her up out of her bassinet, laid her down beside me to nurse where she ate and we both quickly fell back asleep. I could sleep on my side curled around her, it was great. In terms of comfort, the side is usually the best sleeping position, but can vary depending on the person. We all, husband included, slept great that night.

 

Getting Back Sleep With The Family Bed

This was the beginning. I would try her in the bassinet but usually ended up moving her in with us so we could all sleep. Baby girl and I would both continue to slightly wake when she would eat but never fully and never for long. It wasn’t long that we all grew to love our sleeping arrangement and I would put her down for the night in our bed, hours before my husband and I were ready for bed.

Today she is eight months old and this is still how we sleep the majority of the time. She now goes to bed in her crib but when she wakes during the night I don’t fight her. If I can’t get her back to sleep in a reasonable time, she comes to bed with us. I’ve accepted that there is no perfect solution for every family and for us, this works. She’s growing so fast I know I’ll appreciate the closeness that we’re sharing, as a family,  in her early days. I love waking to her slobbery kisses and blabbering.

Do you have a family bed at home?  Did you try it when nursing?

Read More:

Choosing a Bed: Sleep Number vs Tempurpedic

Easy DIY Infant Toys

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DIY Infant ToysLast week I wrote a post dismissing the notion that kids were overly expensive and today I’m going to elaborate on this by showing a few DIY toy ideas.

My daughter has many toys, from fancy jumpers to basic blocks. The toys she consistently plays with the most though? Ones that were made for her out of basic household items like pop bottles and baby wipe containers. My sister is an early childhood educator so I have to credit her with these ideas since they’re all ones she makes in the classroom. I don’t know what it is about these particular items but she continues to play with them over her store-bought toys so I thought I would share a few ‘recipes’ for DIY infant toys.

 

Easy DIY Infant Toys

  • Pop Bottle Shakers: Using a small pop (soda) or water bottle (500-750ml size), fill it will whatever you want as long as it makes noise and won’t break! I have one filled with colored pasta noodles, sparkles and sequins and another filled with small wooden alphabet letters (found at the dollar store), sparkles and more sequins of different shapes. If you can fit it in the opening of the bottle, the possibilities are endless!
  • Sensory Containers: Made from baby wipe containers, wash and dry the containers and fill them with things the baby can pull out of the opening and vary in textures. Ours is full of fabric swatches. All different textures, from denim to crinoline to super soft baby fleece. This tutorial took it a step further and stitched numbers and letters on the fabrics. You can again fill with small toys they need to dig to get. Baby wipe containers often, but not always, have a wide opening which is safe for little fingers but make sure there are no sharp edges before making this craft.
  • Taggies: This is the picture featured at the beginning of the post. I don’t know if there is a correct term for these but it’s a basic fabric square with ribbon loops stitched into it. I don’t know what it is about ribbons/tags but kids LOVE them. I’ve seen taggie books, fancy taggie stuffed animals but the basic square with a few ribbon loops seems to do the trick and if you can stitch a straight line you can easily make one at home.

Other things my daughter loves to do is splash water either in the tub or sometimes I’ll just pour a little water on her high-chair tray and allow her to splash and make a little mess, after all it’s only water and she doesn’t need a lot to entertain her, maybe 1/2 cup. Good ‘ol fashion bubbles are often overlooked. Bubbles have entertained her for what seems like hours.

There are many options out there for making your own toys for kids of all ages, more proof that kids don’t have to be as expensive as some will have you believe. You don’t necessarily need fancy store-bought toys, anything that encourages playing and exploration means you’ve succeeded in the making of your own ‘toys’. Happy crafting!

What other DIY infany toys have you made?

Getting the Most From Your Shopping Experience with Coupons

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Making The Most of CouponsIf you go shopping on a regular basis, whether it be for food, household items, or clothing, it’s a little pricy when you leave with a basket full of items. One of the best assets to have if your going any type of shopping, is to have some coupons. There are millions of coupons that get printed everyday, the trick is to get your hands on the right ones.

Along with all of the paper coupons printed in the daily newspaper, you can also find coupons online. Depending on what you are searching for, whether it be coupons or promos for clothing, deals that you can find and use on your groceries, the gift of floral arrangements, or even electronics, then there is a coupon that is available for you for whatever it is that you seek.

 

The Basics of Finding and Using Coupons

First you have to find the best coupons to use. There are a ton of different ways to get coupons.

The most common way to find coupons is in your local paper. Every day there are coupons, but the best coupon days are usually Sunday and Wednesday. In fact, that is why you typically pay more for the Sunday paper.

If you’re in the know, you can also buy inserts from the Sunday paper. There are typically outlets that will sell these in bulk. This is the “secret” that many extreme couponers don’t tell you. That’s how they get multiples of the same coupon.

Second, you can find a lot of coupons online. Most retailers put coupons on their website for you to print out. However, if the website you are ordering from does not have any coupons available, then you could use an online coupons site such as BrokeScholar where you can find numerous coupons for different shops including fashion brands like Zulily as well as ones for your grocery and many more.

We also maintain a list of coupons to print: Printable Coupon Page. We update the list regularly for coupons that you can print out online. Be sure to check back.

 

Saving Even More Money With Double Coupons

You’ve seen it on TV, but the trick to saving the most money with coupons is to double coupon. Most retail stores and grocery stores allow some type of double coupons.

At grocery stores, you can typically do straight double coupons – where you use two manufacturer coupons per item.

At retail stores like Target, you can double coupon with one manufacturer coupon and one store coupon (i.e. coupons from Target).

 

Combo-ing Coupons With Online and Store Discounts

The next big way to save is that you need to take advantage of the unique discounts that each store offers.

At grocery stores, this typically involves joining their club. Being a part of the grocery store club not only allows for special perks, but it get’s you special sales and discounts on products. You can then combine this club discount with the coupons you have for even more savings.

At retail stores, you can now find apps that are luring shoppers with savings. For example, Target has Cartwheel and Walmart has Savings Catcher. These apps provide special discounts which you can combine with your coupons for even more savings.

 

The Icing On The Cake: Partnering Coupons With Ads

Finally, the creme de la creme is to combine all of your couponing efforts with the store ad this week. This is how the best do it to save the most money.

Typically, the best deals you’re going to find involve buying multiples or buying something and getting a gift card. For example, you could find a sale for Buy 2, Get a $5.00 gift card. What if you could also find a double coupon that made the original item or very cheap? Then, you’re getting the $5.00 gift card on top of the coupon saving – which you can then spend later. That’s free money!

What other coupon tricks do you have?

Dismissing The Notion That Kids Are Overly Expensive

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expensive babySince having my daughter I continue to come across blog posts about ‘how expensive kids are‘ and comments like ‘I’ll never have kids because they’re money grubbers‘. While I’m not arguing that kids are expensive over their lifetime, some of the numbers I’ve read are just plain foolish. Baby Center has an online calculator to scare help you estimate your first years worth of expenses if interested. Now I realize I live in Canada, and have the protection of universal healthcare not having to pay any medical costs and am entitled to a full 52 week maternity leave, but even with these costs aside, eight months in and I am no where close to spending the estimated $10,000+ dollars most sites I’ve been to estimate for one child in their first year and my daughter certainly doesn’t want for much.

These are a few of the areas that, in my opinion, continue to get over estimated and parents can make up substantial savings.

  1. Clothing. Baby Center estimation $59.00/month. I always check the local thrift stores before ever buying new. Some of the favorite pieces that my daughter has worn were ones I found in thrift stores for next to nothing. Kids, especially infants, grow out of their clothes so fast the clothes are hardly worn. I’ve found GAP dresses, a brand new infant snow suit, many sleepers and onsies, all in near perfect condition and never spending more than $4 to $5 on any one item. 
  2. Toys. Baby Center estimation $35.00/month. I’ve found most success with online classifieds for gently used toys. Just last week I spent $10.00 and got a very large bag full of small toys (blocks and such) which I estimated were less than two years old (based on some of the characters), hardly used and retailed at over $100.00. When parents decide they want to regain their house from under a mountain of toys they will sell for cheap! I will continue to shop online classifieds as long as I can get away with it! Christmas too.
  3. Diapers. Baby Center estimation $72.00/month (disposable). Cloth diapers are a huge money saver but not realistic for all families, mine included. We use disposable diapers and I find buying in bulk and with coupons while on sale to be the best. One step further, if you have the time, write a letter to the company who makes your favorite diaper and tell them how much you enjoy your product. You might get a little surprise like a high-valued coupon (offering a free box of diapers). Worth a shot! We also had a ”diaper shower” where instead of a traditional girls only baby shower the men came too, drank beer and brought diapers for my husband. We received over seven months worth of diapers!
  4. Breastfeed. Baby Center estimation $105 and up/month on formula. For a million reasons and benefits I breastfeed (but respect those that cannot/don’t) but the cost savings on formula is huge. I also spoke about food savings a few weeks ago.

In conclusion, yes kids are expensive but they by no means have to be as expensive as some people or companies will have you believe. Regardless of how much you choose to spend it’ll likely be the best spent money in your life because they really are worth every single penny.

Is Junk Food Tax the Answer to Childhood Obesity?

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Junk FoodI re-joined Weight Watchers this weekend (bye-bye baby weight!). At the meeting there was a 18-year-old girl who was a returning lifetime member trying to lose the 50lbs that has found her over the past three years. The first time she joined she was just 11 years old. This post isn’t about Weight Watchers or whether or not I agree with young children doing a structured diet program, I’m looking into WHY an 11-year-old would need such a program.



The Rise of Childhood Obesity

Childhood obesity is no secret. It is completely plaguing the developed world. There has been a lot of discussion in our local news about whether or not a ‘junk food’ or ‘fat’ tax is the answer to helping this growing problem. The logic being that parents will be forced to make different, ideally smarter, food choices for their family’s diet. Foods singled out are pop (soda), oils, cheeses, candy, chips, basically anything is highly processed or saturated fat-laden.

Do we really need this? Isn’t a tax just a way for the government to capitalize on our, albeit bad,  food choices? Shouldn’t we be forcing more education instead of punishing?

Thoughts on a Junk Food Tax

These are the types of questions that are running through my head. Instead of punishing a family’s food choices, why don’t we start at the very beginning and encourage affordable healthy eating habits in elementary school? Start the education when they’re young and don’t stop! If we drill it into our kids heads and explain the choices they have to make there could be an entire generational change. I know things in this area are improving but we’re not there yet. We need to educate our kids as well as their families. Some families may be reluctant to initiate the changes required or ask the required questions. If help was available in the form of things like healthy family nights, held at your child’s school, where a nutritionist could come in and do presentations aimed at the specific demographic, the framework for better decision making could be laid down.

Life is about choices, junk food included. We need to teach our children how to make good food choices through our knowledge and counter balance the not-so-good ones. We need to get this junk food tax idea out of our minds. It won’t work, mark my words.

What are your thoughts on a junk food tax?

Introducing Solid Foods

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baby solid foods
Source: <a href="http://www.free-funny-jokes.com/">free-funny-jokes.com</a>

We all know kids aren’t cheap, but I have to be honest, I was a little astounded when we were looking at store-bought baby food only to find out a very small 128ml jar was almost $1.00! Individually, not super expensive, but if you consider how many jars you’ll buy over the months that your child will eat non-table food it adds up!

 

Introducing Solid Foods with Baby Led Weaning

I have friends introducing solid foods via baby-led weaning (BLW), where from the very beginning, around six months, the child feeds themselves; no spoon-feeding by mom or dad, no jars or baby food to buy or food to mash at home. You hand the baby bite sized pieces of family foods and allow them to self feed.

The logic behind BLW is that babies learn how to chew first, then swallow. Where introducing fully pureed food first teaches the baby how to swallow, then chew.

People who are against BLW usually are so because of choking risks, mess, wasted food or not meeting nutritional needs.

 

DIY Baby Food

If you aren’t comfortable with the concept of BLW and can’t justify spending the extra money for jars of baby food, make your own! This is the main route we have chosen when it comes to introducing solid foods. In terms of price difference, I bought a 750 gram bag of frozen broccoli for $1.99. A far cry from $0.75-$1.00/ 128ml jar of baby food!

To prepare frozen fruits or veggies I simply steam, let cool, then puree in the blender. Once pureed, I re-freeze in ice-cube trays for portion size. I have also used canned fruits (canned in water only) and followed the same methods minus steaming. If the fruits are fresh and soft (ie. banana) you can simply mash it up prior to feeding. Meat is a little trickier because it requires adding water to thin it out while blending, but certainly not difficult. There are other protein sources if you’re choosing a vegetarian diet such as lentils, not only are lentils arguably more nutritional they are significantly cheaper, win-win!

People against this method argue that it requires a lot of work (though I would argue this) and as mentioned, teaches the baby to swallow before mastering chewing which can lead to gagging issues in the future as more solids are introduced.

Whatever method you choose, remember that when time comes to introduce solids to your baby, don’t feel like you’re restricted to the few jar options at your local grocery store. Once you’ve ruled out allergies (which are significantly decreased if you wait until six months to introduce solids) there’s no reason you couldn’t quickly blend whatever the family is eating for supper or, should you choose, cut it up and place in front of them!

What methods have you, or will you use?

Baby Items I Could, and Could NOT, Live Without

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Baby Products I Couldnt Live WithoutHaving a seven month old I feel like I’ve got a pretty good handle on the ins and outs of baby stuff. I was near ripping my hair out when I was pregnant trying to figure out what I did and didn’t need. Being a first time mom, it is completely overwhelming trying to shuffle through the baby aisle deciding for yourself what items are actually useful and necessary versus the ones that are beautifully marketed but not needed or worth the money.

It certainly didn’t help when asking other moms for their opinion about something only to find their opinions were completely polarized, one couldn’t live without while the other was sad she had wasted her money. Like each pregnancy, each baby is a unique individual and as moms we adapt to their individual needs the best we can; and so, no one thing may have the same result with different families but these are the things I could and could no live without.

 

Things I Could NOT Live Without

  • AC and battery adaptable baby swing. I know not for everyone but this thing paid for itself ten times over within the first month alone. While my daughter slept pretty decently at night she was (and still is) a terrible napper. The baby swing was the only thing that would get her to sleep during the day. At four weeks old she went an entire day without napping at all. I gave in and accepted that at that young age, it was more important that she slept rather than where she slept. I specify AC and battery because only running on battery power kills them very quickly so having the AC plug option is key. I like having the battery option though for power outages or being too far from an AC outlet should you bring your swing with you.
  • Nursing pillow. I still use this pillow everyday it seconds as a soft prop for baby when they’re learning how to sit on their own. Even if you don’t breastfeed they can be useful for holding your baby while giving a bottle or as a prop for baby as they grow.
  • Baby bathtub. There are many styles/types but it doesn’t have to be super fancy of expensive. Ours fit over our double kitchen sink and was great until she started sitting on her own, around five months. I know moms who say they didn’t need this but I liked that it brought baby up to your height while bathing and provided a nice sloped, slip-free surface to bath a wet slippery baby. For $20.00 it was well worth it.
  • Baby sling/carrier. I love, love, love my sling. There are many types, my favorite being my ring sling, as pictured above. The thing I like about the ring sling versus other fabric carriers is that it adapts well as the child ages and grows. I also have a sturdier carrier I use for walks/hikes. The sling was invaluable in the early days when she only wanted to sleep, nurse and be close to me. With a ring sling I had a free hand and could get things around the house done. I could nurse in public and no one had any idea. At seven months, it’s still one of my favorite items.
  • Exersaucer/jumperoo. Kids love to jump. It gives us somewhere to put her down when we need a few minutes to get stuff done and she loves playing in it.

 

Things I Could Live Without

  • Diaper genie. I like the idea behind this, and it does work well, but I’m far too cheap to pay $10.00 for a glorified garbage bag refill that fills up very quickly.
  • Wipe warmer. This was given to us as a gift and is still sitting in the original box…
  • Diaper bag. While I use it because it was given to me, in all honestly a large purse would be more than sufficient.
  • Change table. It’s an unnecessary piece of furniture. You end up changing your kid anywhere and everywhere. We opted for a change pad that sits on top of her dresser.

 

Things I Could Have Waited On

  • Crib. We were so held up on having a crib before she came home I almost laugh now. I didn’t plan on it, but she stayed in our room for the first six months. We could have waited until after she was born to shop around for a crib/mattress.
  • Highchair. We opted for a space-saving chair that just sits on our normal dining chairs rather than a whole other piece of furniture which is great but again, she didn’t sit in it until six months.

 

Are there any items you could or couldn’t have lived without for your kids?

Saving on Prom Expenses

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Prom Dresses

With the new year brings excitement for high school graduates. Acceptance letters coming in the mail and the excitement of prom on the horizon the title of this blog will likely come to fruition. When it comes to high school prom, the words kids ain’t cheap with likely leave your mouth.

My younger cousin recently posted a picture on Facebook advertising her prom dress for sale. She graduated last year, wore it the one time and is now looking to make some money off the dress in time for this seasons prom. What shocked me?

Prom dress for sale. Paid $800.00, asking $600.00 (firm)

$800.00 for a dress?! A prom dress at that?! I didn’t pay that much for my wedding dress!

It’s been a few years since I graduated but is this what I have in store for my daughter? Because if it is, she’s got another thing coming. I will not now, nor will I ever pay $800.00 for a dress.

 

Does Prom Have to Be Expensive?

I borrowed my prom dress, even in my youth I was always on the hunt for a good bargain. I understand that some girls don’t even want to entertain the thought of wearing a dress from last season but really? Does it matter? As adults we know it doesn’t but explaining this to a hormonal 18-year-old might be a challenge.

 

Money Saving Tips for Prom

If you want to help save money on the prom events try these tips:

  • Go to local stores to try on different dress styles but buy the dress (or similar style once you find a comfortable style) via online classifieds (craigslist, ebay) or other websites like amazon. Shopping online or shopping secondhand can potentially save hundreds.
  • Borrow the dress.
  • Borrow the tux from male friend or family member. Trust us boys, high school girls will not know the difference between a high-end, name-brand tux and a borrowed one, just make sure it fits properly.
  • Split the vehicle cost among friends. I know graduates get excited about rolling up to prom in style often renting fancy cars. Consider a larger vehicle like a limo or party bus and splitting the cost among many friends.
  • Don’t waste money on jewelry. The other thing my cousin did was go out and spend over $200.00 on earrings and a necklace! Stores like Claire’s offer great costume jewelry at a fraction that a jeweler would charge. Sites like etsy.com also offer beautiful handmade and vintage options (I used Etsy for all of my wedding party jewelry, great site)
  • Check out consignment shops for everything (dress, tux, shoes, jewelry).

I know it’ll be hard but try to explain to your child that it’s about making memories and in many years it won’t matter what they wore because it’ll already be out of style 😉

Promo Codes to Save You Money on Shopping

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online promo codesIf you are a frequent shopper and enjoy shopping a lot then you would have definitely heard about the term Promo Code at least once. For those who are not sure what there codes are; these are promotional codes offered to shoppers either by manufacturers, dealers, resellers or even by your local or online store. These codes are used to avail either discounts on a product or a free gift for buying that product.

 

The Purpose

With so much competition in the consumer durables industry with so many companies and brands who manufacture various products, it becomes difficult for a company to sell its products or improve sales on them. Thus companies and brands offer discounts, free gifts and gift coupons to attract more customers to buy their product(s). But these promotional offers are limited and can only be given at initial stage of introducing a new product or a brand. Hence companies give such special offers for certain time like a few days, weeks or a month at the most.

 

What a Promo Code Does

The fact about consumers is that they constantly look out for offers and promotions and expect it to be available every time they buy the product. But it becomes hard for manufacturers and sellers to cope up with long term offers. Hence they use promotion codes to attract and help customers to stick to the brand. These promo codes are usually in the form of a phrase or a word or a alpha numeric code that will require to be used by customers either on the next purchase or compensate with something else. Different company offer different kind of codes and they work differently. For example, a company will print the promo code on a product you buy and if you are returning customers for that product then you can use the code to avail discount on next purchase. Or the code will required to be sent to a specific number by a mobile phone SMS to get a discount coupon to a restaurant or a movie. Some high worth products also give promo codes that entitle you for a free movie ticket or ticket to a game or a concert.

 

The Trick of Promo Codes

But there is a trick here with promo codes. There will be a validity period for these codes for example, to avail discount to a product you need to purchase that in a specific given time like within a week or a month depending on the product. This validity is applicable to all kind of discounts and gifts. Some people though a promo code for discount is given may not intend to buy product within a week or a month and for such people the code simply vanishes in air. These promo codes are sometime offered without any purchase to simply promote the product. And such codes can be found either on the company website or on a shopping website. It would look something like promo code from sears for $5 off which offers discount of $5 on purchase of any product on sears.

These promo codes come handy and very useful for people who frequently buy any products repeatedly and within short span of time. If you have kids at home and you are buying a pack of candies, it will last for more than a week or month if it is just one kid but if you are family with two or more kids then it will last only few days. So a promo code provided for pack of candies works well for family with more kids and chances are less when there is just one kid.

My Wife’s Biggest Money Fear

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biggest money fearDealing with family finances can be hard, no matter what philosophy of money you fall into: keeping things in one pot or keeping things separate.  The bottom line is that everyone will have fears about money – not having enough, not doing the right thing for saving for retirement, or maybe how to raise a family on a budget.

For my wife, her biggest money fear is not knowing.  We fall into the philosophy of having a shared pot for everything.  Both our paychecks go into one checking account, and we pay all of our bills from it.  We also share two credit cards, so we can maximize rewards.  That’s where we do all of our spending.

However, because of the simple logistics of processing bill payments, sometimes one or the other just handles it.  But then the real questions comes up – was it handled?  How much do we have left?  Do you have a scheduled payment that I don’t know about, so we really don’t have $X in our checking account?

That’s a valid fear.  Here is what we’re doing about it.

 

Where Her Money Fear Comes From

Getting married is great, but it is also tough when it comes to money.  We were both two single people who managed our castles just fine.  We didn’t need help, and we had full control.  We both admit that we’re pretty Type-A, so giving up control is hard.  Even though we both trust each other 100%, it’s still hard.

My wife’s fear comes from a self-admitted place of not having control.  For example, before Christmas, when our spending was probably at it’s peak getting ready for family dinners and buying gifts, she was very stressed because she didn’t see every single transaction each day – I was spending too.  It was hard for her.

While I don’t get to the same place, I can relate to when she spends and I don’t know where the money is going as well.

 

Solutions for Overcoming My Wife’s Biggest Money Fear

Since overcoming my wife’s biggest money fear was the most important challenge in our marriage, here are some of the solutions that we’ve put into place that have been working well for us.  While they may not work for everyone, they have helped eliminate 90% of the fear.

Shared and Agreed Upon Organization

The first thing is coming up with a shared and agreed upon system for keeping everything financial organized.  A huge part of fear comes from just not knowing.  So make sure that you both put into place a system where you will know.

For us, we rely on two key systems:

  1. Quicken
  2. HomeFile

For Quicken, we have all of our accounts synced so that in one update, either of us can get a clear picture of where we stand financially.  Quicken is great for our household finances because it will pull from all of our accounts, and show all of our recent transactions.  Plus, it has a lot of great reports that either of us can view, so we can really get a clear picture of our spending.

HomeFile is our way of organizing all of our records and financial documents.  It’s basically a filing system, that has tabs and organization for everything you need for your records.  For my wife, I wanted to make it easy for her to find anything, say insurance papers or auto records, should anything happen.  With the HomeFile system, we can both easily file everything, and find records as needed.

Now, neither of us must depend on the other to handle financial stuff.  This relieves some of the fear and stress around our finances.

Open Accounts and Passwords

With trust and transparency, it is important that we both have access to each other’s accounts.  When we got married, we gave each other Power of Attorney for Finances for all of our accounts, and we also gave each other access to our passwords.  Sometimes, you can’t always see pending transactions in Quicken, or investments take several days to post and update.  As such, we have a list of all our accounts – even our not shared ones like IRAs, with passwords, so we can both access them as needed.  This eliminates any fear of manipulating Quicken numbers or deleting transactions.  If either of us wants to, we can always go and look online for ourselves.

Clear Understand of Expectations

Finally, we both have setup clear expectations for handling money with each other.  For example, we’ve agreed that we can buy food and lunch whenever we want – no need to discuss anything with each other about that type of spending.  However, we’ve set limits on buying things for the house – like furniture or electronics – unless we both agree on it and setup a plan for action.

The bottom line is that we both have solid expectations for each other when it comes to spending money, and so we know what is good and bad to do.

 

Remember, at the end of the day, a happy wife is a happy life.  As such, it is essential that we work to solve my wife’s biggest money fear and make sure she is comfortable with the family finances at all times – whether she physically pays the bills or not.  Sitting up and wondering or worrying is not healthy, and doesn’t make for a good relationship.  This is what worked for us, what has worked for you?

How have you overcome family money fears?

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