The rest of the bead board

A bit of background information.

House #1 - We had all enormous furniture. Really, gigantic.

House #2 - After Kyle was born I quit my job and we down-sized a little. We sold our gigantic furniture and bought some smaller pieces that fit our smaller house. In the master bedroom there was a window where our bed needed to go, so the window and curtains functioned as our headboard.

House #3 - We have some more room now, but just a mattress on a frame and our headboard is just a blank wall. I knew I did not want to buy a bed, but rather make a headboard from an old door or the like.

After our success with the bead board wallpaper in our entry, I immediately went to our bedroom and measured. Yes! We had the perfect amount of wallpaper left to make a headboard. Without any hesitation I pasted it on the wall and then restrained myself for an entire week before purchasing the trim pieces to complete it.

Total cost for the headboard was around $40. The big molding piece at the top was $23, the side molding was $10, the small amount of paint and leftover wallpaper amounted to less than $5. Not bad, I say!

House #2 window/curtain headboard

I wish I had a before picture, but you can imagine there was just a bed and a wall. The room is a work in progress, so focus on the headboard. You can also look at the wall color, the Pottery Barn Outlet curtains (I had originally purchased for our living room), and the three blue thrift-store pillows which match the curtains per-fect-ly.

One small step for frugality

You know the Softsoap Ensembles decorator hand soap dispensers? I was so glad when those came out. I kept looking at hand soap dispensers at places like Bed, Bath, and Beyond, but never could bring myself to fork over the cash for the ones I liked.

So I was fairly excited when I saw these babies. Until the first time one ran out of soap. I got out my Sam's Club gallon-sized soap refill jug and discovered how crafty the Softsoap people are. They made the bottles in such a way that it is nearly impossible to refill. It is not just an open bottle when you take the top off. Oh no, they are too clever for that, there are little tiny slits that take forever for the soap to drain down through. Most normal people would not spend the time it takes to refill it, cha-ching!

But I am no normal person. I spent forever refilling it the first time. Pouring in about a tablespoon at a time and waiting, waiting, waiting for it to ever so slowly drip down. Mike kept walking through the kitchen saying supportive things like, "Are you kidding me?" and "You are crazy." I said, "Oh no, I will not throw away my pretty soap dispensers and I certainly will not pay $3 for a refill jar when I can buy a whole gallon of liquid soap at Sam's Club for $6!"

I was determined. After spending roughly the entire afternoon filling that little puppy (okay, maybe not quite an afternoon, but it seemed like it), the next time I figured out that if you put a funnel in the jar and fill it with liquid soap it will slowly seep down (takes about 20 minutes without my needing to stay and babysit it) and be good to go. My funnel is the perfect size and it only takes one fill of it to do the job.

Three dollars for an 8.3 oz. refill bottle or $6 for a gallon refill jug? Let's test our math skills. Umm, I think I'll take the gallon jug!

Of course the funnel thing would work on refilling any hand soap dispenser (I always make a mess filling the regular ones too) and I'm sure most of you already had that figured out, but don't tell me, it will hurt my feelings.

Their website has a coupon for $1 off the dispensers.

Love a Bargain

I was super excited to find these two adorable pairs of shoes for Cade at Once Upon a Child today. The blue ones are Pedipeds and in the past I have paid over $30 for them. The khaki ones are the Croclings I mentioned in this post were on my "want list" for the boys, they retail for at least $20.

I paid $10 a piece and no one would know they aren't brand new except me (well and now you, but I know you won't tell anyone. Actually go ahead and tell, I love a bargain!) I'm still on the hunt for Croclings in Kyle's size and a nice pair of sandals for him, I love his little feet in sandals!

I didn't even have to use my "discretionary money" for these because I have an amount set aside each month in our Freedom Fund for clothes and these fell within that amount, woohoo!

Money, Saving, Holes in Pockets, etc.

I must profess my love for spreadsheets. Also for on-line banking, balancing the checkbook, creating budgets, and on and on. I eat it up. So when I read Debt-Proof Your Marriage and learned about all kinds of money management techniques I could hardly wait to turn them into spreadsheets and plug in our numbers.

It has been eye opening! We have had a budget for years, or at least I thought we did. What we actually had was a list of expenses and income which wasn't taken very seriously. When we "needed" something I would just buy it whether we had the money or not. We have a handy little crutch called a home equity loan. I would basically buy whatever I wanted using the credit card and pay the credit card in full every month. So I thought I was doing everything right because we didn't carry over any credit card debt.

But sometimes (probably most of the time) in order to pay the credit card I would have to borrow from our home equity account until Mike's next paycheck. Most of the time (or sometimes) when he got paid I could pay back what I had borrowed from our equity line, but not always. Even when I was paying it back we were basically living one paycheck behind all the time in a never-ending cycle.

As long as I paid our credit cards in full though, I convinced myself we were doing fine and not in debt. After I read that book it really brought some things to light for me. (I had also just read The Duggars: 20 and Counting! and it was very inspiring in many ways, but one specific thing is that they have no debt, not even mortgage debt.)

Mike does not really like to read so I summarized the book for him and we committed to stop using our credit card and our home equity line, period. That completely opened my eyes to what true needs are.

Prior to stopping our credit use cold turkey, when I would make a trip to Sam's Club I would pass the black olives and think, "Oh, that's a good price and we need black olives." I would throw them in the cart and there went $7. Well, that's great, we would use them, but a few more purchases like that would seriously throw my grocery budget out of whack when I really only "needed" one can of black olives that week which would last until the next paycheck when I could afford more black olives.

Even toilet paper is not truly a need unless you are out, but I would buy it just because I was there whether or not we were running low.

Now I am much more strict about only buying what is on my list and not buying things until we are out (unless there is room in the budget and I won't have to borrow from our future paycheck).

We have been through several different money management systems in our almost twelve years of marriage. For a while we were using our debit cards for everything so we could track all of our spending, but we would still pull out the credit card if it was a big purchase or we knew we were close to running out of funds in our checking account.

Then we went to a cash only (or cash mostly) budgeting system and that worked somewhat successfully for a while, but there were so many things we couldn't use cash for (bills for one thing and it is very inconvenient to buy gas with cash when you have kids with you) so we gradually fell away from it. The best thing that came out of the cash system was Mike getting a specific amount of cash out for himself with each paycheck. That saved us some fights because I knew exactly how much he would be taking out each pay period and I didn't have to see all the individual charges he made and get upset when I judged some of his purchases as wasteful. I never kept cash out for myself because I just spent all the money that was left.

Once we stopped using credit it took us about two months of watching our spending very closely in order to pay the credit card bill we already had without using our equity line and we did not spend a dime that was not absolutely necessary during that time. I am happy to say our spending plan is now working for us and we are living on 80% of our income (giving 10% and saving 10%).

As part of our spending plan we both get the same amount of cash out each pay period and we call it "discretionary money." (It's just semantics, I like the sound of "discretionary money" better than "allowance.") I got my first discretionary money last Friday and it is so exciting! I spent all the money I wanted before, but I always felt guilty for it. Now I know I have a set amount that I can spend or save in any way I choose and I don't have to feel one bit guilty about it.

I have only spent $5 so far, but I have been tempted many times to use it for Chick-fil-A lunches for me and the boys, but I know I would probably regret spending it all on food! So I decided instead to track a list of "wants" and it is has gotten so big that if I buy all of it at full price it will take me a year of saving. I have things on my list I want to buy for the boys (a battery operated ride-in jeep, Croclings, books), things for the house (pots and pans, a new vacuum, re-tile our fireplace), and things for me (Photoshop Elements, bedroom makeover, new purse).

The old me would have looked at almost every single item on the list and seen it as an immediate need (really, I am a pro at justifying: I would have thought the ride-on jeep was a need because the boys won't be little forever so we "need" it now. My sad little, 3-wheeled vacuum seems like a "need" as I'm fighting to push it around the house, but I'm not desperate enough to go into debt over it). The new me is going to save, prioritize, and look for the right opportunity to make those purchases.

The other crucial part of this money management system is a Freedom Fund. We save (novel idea!) for irregular expenses (car insurance, Christmas and birthday gifts, vehicle and house maintenance, vacation, etc.). I tallied up and estimated (on the high-end) all of those type expenses from the past year and divided it by twelve months then added it all up and save that each month. There is more to it than that, but it is detailed in the book.

Here is my spreadsheet for our monthly spending plan. If you like it and want to use it, but need help tweaking it to fit your finances, or have any questions let me know. I'd love to try to figure it out with you. Monthly Spending Plan Spreadsheet

No Brain Work Required

I have a new-found love for Aldis (which I recently realized is actually "Aldi" no "s," but I really like the way "Aldis" sounds so I'm not changing my ways and hopefully it won't terribly frustrate anyone).

I have been meaning to visit Aldis for a long time, but I knew I couldn't get all of the items on my shopping list there. That meant it would be an additional stop and I just couldn't bring myself to make two stops on shopping day.

But when gas prices hit their peak a while back and my grocery bill was getting higher and higher, I was desperate to find some ways to stretch our income.

So I went to Aldis and what an experience! There aren't endless options, which I actually like. If you get to frozen foods and realize you forgot something in the baking section it's not a ten minute hike back to retrieve said item. Every week they have new "special purchases" which I look forward to with anticipation (not that I necessarily even buy any of the special items, but just knowing there are new limited-quantity/limited-time only bargains is exciting!). And I never leave without my $1.29 Austrian dark chocolate, you know, because it has anti-oxidants.

It's exhilarating to spend $30 and get a whole cart of food (and maybe a really great candle or two - they have these Renwick Candles and they are the best - so fragrant! I'm burning a Creamy Vanilla Swirl now and it smells like wedding cake, yummy!) I was also saving over $1/half gallon on organic milk. I say "was" because they haven't had it the past couple of times, so sad. Hopefully Aldis won't start doing what Walmart has been doing for years: Walmart tracks my purchases and when I start buying something regularly they stop carrying it. Who knew I had so much anti-clout with the retail giant?

I still can't bring myself to haul the kids to two grocery stores in a row so what I've been doing is going to Aldis at night by myself and taking the kids with me to Walmart on Monday morning. Which is not a bad experience when I actually manage to get us all fed, dressed, and out the door by a decent time. Monday mornings before, say 10 am, the shelves are stocked, the aisles and check-outs aren't crowded, and we are all in a good mood!

And finally for the "no brain work required" part, I found this blog today with a shopping list and menu plan for Aldis. According to the blog's author, Aldis estimates you can achieve (there must be a better word choice, but it is escaping me at the moment) 90% of your shopping at Aldis, but she has personally made menus consisting of 100% Aldis ingredients. I'm excited to try it out! Even if you don't want to or can't shop at Aldis, just having menus and shopping lists is enough to make me happy!

I have been severely lacking in motivation in the kitchen lately. I'm hopeful this menu plan/shopping list will jump-start me back where I need to be. Because, incidentally, I have found a good way to not save money is to skip meal planning, list making, and a scheduled trip to any grocery store, then either eat out or make your poor husband stop at the store on his way home from work multiple times in a week. Here's to getting back in the groove and trying out the 100% Aldis' ingredients menu for one week. I'll let you know how it goes!