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

Bird Legs, Mouse Poop, Pods

Harmless seed pod thingies

I avoided my basket of laundry all day yesterday because Mike would not come home to see if there was a dead mouse in it. When he got home I showed him the suspect object from the trash and he immediately knew what it was. Some pod/seed thing from one of our trees which had dried out and shrunk up in the wash. Phew! Strangely enough I had been frightened by these strange looking things a few days earlier when Kyle carried some in and said, "Momma, look bird legs." Logically I knew they weren't really bird legs, but they looked so much like them I couldn't bring myself to touch them!

That is the closest shot I could get with my camera, but can you see how I might confuse it for mouse poop?

Still unfolded laundry, but at least I am not expecting to find a dead mouse within.

It Couldn't Be, Could It?

I pulled the clothes from the dryer this morning and after the last handful there remained a tiny brown object. I reach in to retrieve it and upon closer inspection think, this looks like mouse poop. (I have never actually seen mouse poop before, but I am guessing this is what it looks like).

As a hundred things run through my mind, I throw the pellet in the trash. I stand there pondering what to do. I look to see if it was possible for a mouse to have entered the dryer through the vent. It doesn't look possible, there is a grate with holes smaller than a dime covering it. Maybe a baby mouse? But then it couldn't leave a pellet that size. Maybe the mouse got in through the open door of the dryer? No, I never leave it open because the light stays on until I close it.

Maybe it isn't mouse poop, maybe it is a ??? I can't think of another scenario. The trash can is empty because it's trash day so I reach down and pull the brown object from the trash, look it over, break it in half (gag!!). Okay, still seems like it is possibly mouse poop!!! Ugh!!!

Then I think, if this is mouse poop, surely the suspect couldn't have pooped in the laundry basket and then gone on it's merry way because the poop would have gotten washed away. Therefore, if the pellet is poop that means a live mouse was in my dryer and now it must not be alive anymore. Furthermore, that means there is a possibility that when I dump the clothes out on my bed I will also dump a dead mouse. (screaming in terror)

So my clothes are in the basket in my laundry room and I guess they will stay there until Mike gets home and can figure out where to dump them (or inspect the pellet and completely rule out mouse poop). Gross, gross, gross.

If I saw a live mouse in my house I would be very distraught, but if there is a dead mouse in my laundry, oh my. I hope those aren't any of our favorite clothes because they will go in the trash along with, possibly, the dryer. Please don't be mouse poop, please don't be mouse poop, pretty, pretty please!!

Letter Confusion - Any Ideas?

I am using this book to teach Kyle to read and it is going great. He is doing so well, but when he is sounding out the words he gets mixed up between lowercase b/d and h/n. It is frustrating for him and while I know he will eventually learn to differentiate, I wish there was a way to make the process quicker for him.

I made these little cards with the lowercase b, d, h, and n and inside the lowercase I wrote the uppercase of that letter (he has no problem with the uppercase). We cover the uppercase with a magnet and he says what letter he thinks it is, then uncovers it to check himself. Does anyone have any other ideas for how I can help him learn to differentiate these letters? A rhyme maybe? Or a different way of thinking about it?


You can order cards to go along with the book or you can make your own. I had a ton of index cards so I decided to make our own.

The Cake(s)

I spent a decent amount of time trying to come up with an idea for Cade's first birthday bash. I found a few different ideas, but nothing that was really screaming to me that it was THE idea. Then I saw Bakerella's blog for Valentine's Day. She did a fourteen-layer cake for the fourteenth and it hit me that doing a twelve-layer cake (one for each month of Cade's life) was just the idea I was looking for.

Normally making the cake myself is a big savings from custom bakery cakes; however, I definitely did not save money by home-baking this time. The canned frosting was a pretty big expense (3 colors at approximately $3.50 per can, plus $1.50 each for 2 tubs of buttercream frosting) not to mention the ingredients for the frosting in between the layers, the cake mixes themselves, the cake pans, etc.

Here is a picture to prove I actually did bake each of the twelve layers separately. I washed, dried, buttered, parchment papered, re-buttered, and floured each pan. That was fairly time consuming.

I used two cake mixes for the twelve layers and the "smash cake".

When the first four cakes came out of the oven perfectly done and popped easily out of the pans I was thinking how cool I was and did some crazy move with my camera, the battery compartment popped open, and a battery flew into the batter of one of the small cake pans. Thankfully I had just enough batter left to replace the battery batter.

I am famous for burning the last tray of cookies so I did a huge happy dance when the last cakes came out and I didn't burn any of them!

I finished baking all the layers just in time to put the boys to bed and head back to the kitchen for the chocolate "glue" for the layers. Here are all the healthy ingredients for the chocolate syrup/frosting:

I started with a layer of cake and poured on a layer of syrupy frosting, layer of cake, layer of syrupy frosting, until I had all twelve layers. After I began stacking them I realized the importance of the step which had told me to spread the batter as evenly as possible. I had not spent much, if any, time attempting to get the batter level because I thought it would level itself while baking. Yeah, not so much. If I do it again I will definitely attempt to get the batter more level.

It took a lot of buttercream frosting to cover this cake!

Final product!

The smash cake had issues of it's own. I thought I was cutting the tops off evenly, but apparently not.
Cade's "smash cake" took an awful lot of frosting too.
He was ready to go!

Happy 1st Birthday, Cade!

One year ago tonight I was anticipating your arrival. I didn't know if you were a boy or a girl, but I knew I loved you and I couldn't wait to meet you.

One year ago tomorrow morning, at 9:08 to be precise, as you began to make your entrance your Daddy said, "I think it's a boy." Our doctor said, "I do too." and Mommy cried, "It's a boy?!" The answer I got was, "It's just a head now, but it looks like a boy." Moments later you were out and the doctor made it official, "It's a LAD! It's a boy!" Then in answer to my prayer you gave a good strong cry right away.

After you got cleaned up your Daddy carried you out to meet your big brother Kyle and many other family and friends who were anxiously awaiting your arrival. The nurse stole Daddy's thunder as someone asked, "What is it?" and the nurse replied, "It's a boy!" Oh well.

Your Daddy video taped almost every minute of you laying in your bassinet in the nursery while Mommy was in recovery, he knew I wanted to see all of it. And I did.

We took you home and couldn't believe there were four of us now. After all the waiting and praying you were here and it was so amazing. Daddy forgot to strap big brother in the car seat, the first of many times to come, it took some getting used to, needing to strap two kids in instead of one. But big brother was sure to remind us each time (not always in a cordial manner).

You were such a good baby, sleeping all the time, nursing like a pro. Between six and seven weeks you started sleeping through the night all on your own with no coaxing from mommy. Wow, a good night's sleep sure does wonders for mommy adjusting to two kids.

At first whenever we would go some place, while on the drive, Mommy would panic all of the sudden thinking we had forgotten you at home (we never had of course).

You figured out pretty early that you did not like your car seat and you made sure we knew about it. You cried pretty much the whole drive, anywhere we went, for the first few months.

You are a great baby brother. You generally go with the flow and things pretty much revolve around big brother, but you take it all in stride. You and your "Bubba" (what you call brother) adore each other and play together so well. Big brother's plans always include you (how you will live together when you are both grown, the jobs you will do, and the vehicles you will drive).

You definitely have your own personality and you smile and laugh all the time and you love being the center of attention when opportunity presents.

A lot of kids first learn to imitate a doggie with a "woof woof". Not you, you love to make the elephant sound complete with trunk (arm) motion. It's often the first thing you do in the morning.

You keep us on our toes, completely unlike your big brother. While mommy put groceries away within five minutes today you were into: the dog food, the trashcan, the things under mommy's sink, and the electrical cord on the lamp.

You do not like naptime, you cry every time I put you down because you were having so much fun whatever we were doing! But you settle down in less than a minute and then take a great nap.

Your favorite time of day is when Daddy gets home from work. You crawl to him as fast as you can and he lifts you high in the air, then you wave bye-bye to mommy as if to say, "Okay, Daddy and I can take it from here."

You are such a blessing and a joy to us and we thank God every day that he chose us to be your family. We love you Little Cade! Dada, Momma and Bubba

Cade, we pray that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. (Ephesians 3:17, 18)