The American population is revved up for the elections in a couple weeks and the economy is on everyone’s minds. While the candidates debate on how to best heal our economy, I thought it would be a good time to discuss our responsibility to ourselves, our families, and to our society to start living within our means. Our society has a “have it all-have it NOW” mentality and we are seeing firsthand what happens when individuals in our society and when our own government lives outside of their means.
Other than the good ole’ makin’-a-budget-and-stickin’-to-it plan, there are some small steps you can take to help yourself start living within your means. Not only can you use these ideas to help yourself to start living within your means, you can incorporate these philosophies into your parenting strategy. It is important for our children that we set an example of living within our means and that we teach them that they need to live within their own means.
Here are some philosophies we try to live out within our family:
“The Latte Factor”
- My husband discovered this term from one of the financial gurus he reads (I can’t tell you which one this phrase belongs to…). The basic idea is that it’s the “lattes” that get us in trouble financially. For some, it is literally the “lattes” (from Starbucks) that are making big dents in their budgets, but for others, “latte” is figurative for other little purchases made throughout the week. Most people don’t know where their money goes after they get paid and it’s usually these small purchases that is the culprit of this disappearing money. If you spend $1.18 a day on a diet coke (guilty as charged), that is $36 every month. I’m not saying you should stop buying your diet cokes each day, however those small dollar purchases can really impact your monthly budget. My husband is constantly grilling me about “the latte factor” and while it can be irritating at times, I appreciate that we are aware of where our money goes each month because we are paying attention to all of the transactions we are making.
- Parenting Tip: Encourage your children to keep a record of how they spend their allowance. If you know they are really anxious to buy the new Guitar Hero game, you can help remind them that when they buy bubblegum from the machine, they are delaying their coveted purchase that much longer.
“Do I really need it?” and “Can I afford it?”
- Do you really need 1,000 minutes and unlimited texting on your cell phone? Do you really need 150 channels on your television? Do you really need that gym membership that you’re not using? The answer will be “no” in most of the circumstances you ask yourself “do I really need this?”, however the follow-up question must always be “can I afford it?” I’m not suggesting you live a life of eating rice and beans every night and I’m not suggesting you get rid of your internet and use the library computer, however if you can’t afford something, you can’t afford it. There are many fabulous luxuries in our society, however there’s a lot of empty money spent on channels never watched, gyms never visited, and furniture never sat in. In order to live within your means, you have to be able to tell yourself “no” at times.
- Parenting Tip: Be honest with your children about your family budget and explain to them that if you add an expense, you will have to take away another expense. Explain to them that in order for your family to increase their cable channels, you will have to have dial up internet. Allow them to share their thoughts and play a role in your family’s budget.
Keeping up with the Jones’
- Right now, the Jones’ are facing foreclosure because the Jones’ were not wise with their money. Being the Jones’ may be fun for a while, but it will inevitably catch up to you. If you are unwise with your money because you are trying to have it all, you will eventually wind up not having anything.
- Parenting Tip: Remind your children that “stuff” is not what is important in this life. Volunteer as a family at the food bank or homeless shelter. Expose them to families who do not have very much. For Christmas, have your children give presents to children who are less fortunate than they are. Set an example to your children by not complaining about what you don’t have. Being around people who are less fortunate than you are will not only impact your children, but it will impact you and remind you of all of the things you have.
Stinky debt
- There are some debts that I feel can be classified as investments. School loans, mortgages, etc… can be considered investments, when under control. Buying a house that you cannot afford or pulling out as much in school loans as you can are not wise investments and can easily put you in a place where you are living outside your means. However, the stinky debt I am referring to is stinky credit card debts. If you are using credit cards and not paying them off each month, you are not living within your means. There’s not much more to say about that, other than stop using your credit cards. If you can’t get by without using your credit cards, eliminate other expenses in your life (cable, cell phone, move into a smaller apartment, etc…) so you can afford your bills and not be consumed by the credit card monster.
- Parenting Tip: The best gift you can give to your children is your example. Explain to them how credit card debt works and how interest can consume your monthly payments. If they ask to borrow money in between their allowances, show them how interest works and charge them interest on that loan. The main thing is to teach them why credit card debt is so difficult and show them the freedom of a family not living in the chains of debt by not being consumed by it yourself.
Delayed Gratification
- If you want to purchase something that is not a necessity, sleep on it. A lot of times you will not feel as urgent about purchasing that item the next day. Another great idea is to have those splurges be a reward for yourself. Set goals (financial, weight-loss, etc…) for yourself and promise yourself that you can buy that item once your goal is met. This practice of “delayed gratification” will not only help your wallets, it will also help you to be a more disciplined person in general. However, if you cannot afford to purchase a non-necessity, then you have to tell yourself to wait until you can afford it.
- Parenting Tip: If there are things your children really want, tell them to add it to their Christmas list or birthday list. This will not only make these celebrations more exciting, it will also help steer your children away from a “have it all, have it NOW” mentality. You can also use these items they want as rewards for them. Buying them whatever they want, whenever they want will not only be bad for your checkbook, your children will never learn how to live within their means or discipline.
These are just a few tips I have for you. What areas do you struggle with living outside of your means? What steps have you taken to help yourself live within your means? How are you teaching your children to live within their means?
Mothers have a security gland and when that security glad is beeping it is hard to ignore. Some of us may fear for the future of our family and our nation, because the media is constantly over sensationalizing our nation’s current economic downturn. Here are 7 facts that you may not hear from the news outlets that will help decrease your fears of the future.
1. Today’s economic crisis is NOT like The Great Depression. Historians have deeply studied the problems leading up to the Great Depression in 1929 and we don’t have same problems today. The FDIC did not exist yet, we are now a service based economy versus a manufacturing economy, farming is not our main source of jobs, and trading between countries has become easier. In 1929 the unemployment rate was 25%. This past July it was 5.7%. For a more in depth look at how we are different today I would highly recommend reading this 1-page PDF.
2. Think long term when you look at your 401k and your investments. A lot of us have seen our retirement accounts and mutual funds take a dip. My only comfort is that investing is over a 5 year period. The market naturally goes up and down. We have seen bear markets in the past and on average they last 10 months. The only people who get hurt on a roller coaster are those who jump off midway through the ride.
3. The DOW only represents 30 companies. So when you hear that the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down, remember that it only measures 30 of the thousands of publicly traded companies.
4. The FDIC insures your money in the bank up to $100,000. As long as your money is in an account at a bank that is FDIC insured, then your money is safe. There is no need to pull it out and hide it under the mattress. Who of us has more than 100,000 dollars in one bank account anyway?
5. There ARE companies who are winning in this economy. We keep hearing about Wachovia, Washington Mutual, AIG, and other companies that are going bankrupt or being bought out, but smaller banks and companies are gaining from their downturns.
6. Buying single stocks are risky. According to Dave Ramsey, ” Looking back at the last 78 years, the performance of the stock market as a whole has averaged near 12 percent annually; yet the average return of the single stock investor is closer to 7 percent annually. “ If we play the single stock game, then we inherently have more risk to lose our money. Honestly, I don’t know any of my friends who are playing the stock market. If we keep to a good growth stock mutual fund then we will be alright.
7. You have more effect on your destiny than Washington. We live in a land of opportunity. We get to chose our own career paths. According to ‘The Millionaire Next Door’ 80% of America’s millionaires are first-generation rich. We have our personal responsibility to take charge of our lives and care for ourselves. Washington may not spend our tax dollars with wisdom, but we do have a say in our spend and earn our own money. When you have goals and plans for your money, you have a lot more peace about the future.
Additional Resources:
Putting ‘Panic’ in Perspective: 6 facts to help dispel the fear and 10 key reminders for investors
The 2008 credit crisis: A step-by-step look at how we got here
Investing a Bear Market
Having a Monthly Family Budget Meeting
We Are Not Headed for a Great Depression
A new Great Depression? It’s different this time
5 Myths of the Financial Crisis
Some of you moms scrapbook, others dabble in photography, others lead book clubs, others garden for your “me-time.” My “me-time” is spent in a classroom as a college student and I love it!
When I became pregnant with my first child, both myself and my husband were college students and working full time. I was majoring in education and my husband was a business major. During my nine month pregnancy, all of our energy was poured into getting my husband finished with school so I could stay at home when our child was born.
When my daughter was born, I was able to become a stay-at-home-mom like we hoped for. However, our lives were not filled with play dates, breastfeeding, library visits and pajama days as I expected. They were filled with physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, doctor appointments, and tube feedings. Her health issues and developmental delays opened my eyes to a world I never knew existed! Before her arrival, my knowledge of speech therapy was for people who stuttered or had lisps, or elderly people who suffered from strokes. Through first hand experience, I learned that speech therapists not only help with language delays, but they also are big time players in children who have feeding disorders like my child did. As my daughter grew and developed, we walked through some major feeding difficulties. We also introduced sign language to her to help her be able to communicate and are still working very diligently on verbal language. After the birth of my son, it became very clear to me that I wanted to be a Speech and Language Pathologist. Through talking with new moms going through similar feeding difficulties and sharing our experience and watching my child’s language develop, I have developed a passion for child development, specifically language and feeding development. I spoke to my husband about going back to school and received an enormous amount of support and encouragement from him. Darah’s speech pathologist, Angela was so sweet to give me all the nitty gritty details of the education program, tell me what speech pathologists were paid, and has cheered me as I have dived into finishing my degree!
Going back to school has been important to me for many reasons. One reason being that I really don’t like leaving things unfinished. I started college and it’s very important for me to finish it. I also want to set a good example to both of my children. I expect both of them to go to college (Darah too!) and I want to make sure they know that I do as I say. Another reason this specific degree is important to me is I really feel like it will help me parent Darah. Her speech is one of the most important things to me and I really want to give her every opportunity to be well spoken. It’s also important for me to be able to work if I ever needed to. I am watching my mom have to enter the workforce after being a stay-at-home mom for 25 years and have been sad at the difficulty she is having. She doesn’t have the option to stay home anymore, but finding a job that will balance out child care costs for my very young siblings still living at home has proven to be nearly impossible.
It’s amazing how much better of a student I am now that I have some age, wisdom, discipline, and experience on me that I didn’t have as an 18 and 19 year old!
Here’s some tips that have helped me as I finish my degree:
- You’re a mom first! Just like with any extra curricular activity, I have had to make a conscious effort to not allow my school to take over my responsibility and privilege of parenting Darah and Connor.
- Online! Online! Online! I had about 38 hours that I needed before I could start my true speech pathology courses. I took all but 8 hours of these online in a span of a year. Unfortunately, of the 14 classes I have left, I can only take 2 of these online now. However, there are plenty of degrees that you can finish completely online!
- RateMyProfessors.com! By going to this website, you can type in any school in the country, the teachers name and find out the nitty-gritty of the teacher by student reviews. If you need to take a hard course, you can use this tool to know which teacher will be the easiest! Way valuable!
- Sleep when you’re dead! I’m kidding. Make sure that you don’t push yourself too hard and you recognize your limits. I’m an “all-or-nothing” kind of gal, and have had to try to pace myself. I’m really not good at pacing myself, but have a husband who has said “slow down” when I’ve needed it. If you have been out of school for a long time, or are just starting college, start out by taking one course online and start gaging what you can handle
- Apply for financial aid! Even if you will not qualify for free assistance, a lot of schools use the government’s FAFSA to determine scholarships that are based on academic merit and not financial need. Hunt for local and national scholarship opportunities!
- Be careful about loans. We are having to get loans to pay for my college, and while I believe that college debt can be a smart investment, do not take more than you absolutely need. If you cannot afford to go back to school without taking out lots of loans, then maybe you should take less courses at a time and pay cash for them. The luxury of being a stay-at-home-mom college student, is there really isn’t a hurry for me to finish, other than the rush I have placed on myself.
- Recruit some cheerleaders! My husband has been my biggest cheerleader through this process. I also have some amazing friends who have been cheering me on as I take finals and check off more courses necessary to finish my degree. Without my support team, I think it would be very easy to give up.
- Just do it! I talked about going back to school for two years before I finally did it. I had valid excuses, however it took that first trip to the counselor’s office to really get me to start. Making that decision was the hardest step of this whole process.
I am a big time sucker for the newest, greatest baby item! I am always drooling at the newest baby bedding, diaper bag, stroller, etc…! Let’s face it, anything “baby” is pricey! A few things I do when purchasing baby items is I shop for older models or prints. For example, the 2008 Maclaren Twin Techno stroller retails for $399 at Babies “R” Us, however I purchased the 2006 model (which is exactly the same, but a different color) brand new for $250 after shipping! Because of this “baby 
gear obsession,” I have accrued a lot of nice things that we have outgrown or no longer need. My husband and I had sold a few things on Ebay and had been pretty successful, so I started selling some of my gently used baby gear on Ebay as well. I have had major success!
The best thing about selling things on Ebay is the extra cash in your pocket to buy that newest item in the baby catalog! While this will in no way give you EVERYTHING you need to know to become an Ebay seller, these are a few tips that will hopefully make your adventure easier.
For the bigger items, use Craigslist!
- Unless you’re an experienced Ebayer, it’s best to sell items like high chairs, cribs, and strollers on Craigslist. Craiglist is an awesome, local, classified ad and it’s free for anyone to list items! You don’t have to worry about shipping items when you sell them on Craiglist, which is why you should stick to this avenue for your bigger items!
If you want to sell, you have to buy!
- Ebay definitely takes practice! My number one advice to people who want to start selling items on Ebay is to start purchasing items. By purchasing items, you can learn the process of how Ebay works, build a reputation, and see what you appreciated and didn’t appreciate from the buyers perspective.
Check out completed auctions!
- By typing in an item, and selecting the “Completed Listings Only” box, you can see what items sell for. You can also compare shipping costs so you are competitive with your shipping rate. This will help you know what you can predict your auction to go for.
Watch out for shipping!
- The number one mistake people make on Ebay is underestimating the cost to ship an item. It can be so disheartening to finally sell your first item, only to learn that $5.00 of your winning bid has to pay for the remaining shipping costs. The US Post Office has flat rate boxes that will ship priority which can help you determine what to charge for shipping.
Media Mail-the best kept secret!
- Most people are unaware that the US Post office offers a cheaper rate called “media mail” for items like books, cd’s, DVD’s, magazines, etc… If you are shipping any “media” items, be sure to take advantage of this shipping method.
Be a good communicator!
- Make sure you contact your buyer once your auction is completed informing them when you plan on shipping their item. Remind them to leave you positive feedback once they receive their item.
Just do it!
- Pick an item that you think will sell and just jump in! Becoming a successful seller on Ebay is going to be trial and error. If you need a cheerleader or want me to answer some specific questions, let me know!
For much more detailed information on how to start your selling adventure on Ebay, check out this site!
Do you have an obsession with all things “baby?” What has your experience been with buying and selling items on Ebay and Craigslist?
Happy Earth Day! In honor of Earth Day I have composed a few easy things you can do to contribute to helping the earth be a little safer for our kids.
1. Next time you go to the store try buying Tide for Cold Water. Using cold water on all laundry uses less energy–thus reducing your carbon footprint. It will also save you about $65 per year on your electric bill.
2. Reuse those baby food jars! They can be used to:
- transition toddlers and preschoolers to a big girl/boy glass at the dinner table
- serve ice cream, pudding, or mouse in them for great kiddie sized portions
- organize your “junk drawer” for things like rubber bands, thumb tacks, paper clips, small watch/toy batteries, stamps
- put paints in for your budding artist to dip their paintbrush into
3. Break out those cloth napkins that you registered for at your wedding! I don’t know about you but I registered for cloth napkins and I never used them. We just went through our LAST pack of paper napkins and we are now using cloth ones. Buying or using cloth napkins reduces the use of energy and resources to make the paper napkins. You can also reuse old dishcloths and make them into cloth napkins. If you want to get creative you can assign each person in your family a colored napkin. You could also have napkin holders with each persons name on it. When the napkins get yucky enough you can throw them in the wash. They don’t have to be washed after every use!
4. Consider purchasing a reusable water bottle for every member in the family. 38 billion water bottles are put into landfills every year! A reusable water bottle will help decrease that amount. Sigg and Kleen Kanteens are great choices that are environmentally friendly and recycleable! They also make them in great kiddie sizes.
5. Turn your heat/ac up/down 1 degree. One degree won’t be that noticable and it will also reduce your energy bills and carbon footprint!
6. Arrange a Toy Swap with your other mommy friends. Toy Swaps help rid your house of clutter toys your kids have lost interest in and provide “new” toys for the kiddos to play with. It doesn’t necessarily cut down on toy clutter but it does help reduce waste from buying new toys. With 3 kids I have toys coming out of my ears. Sometimes the plastic toys make me feel like I’m going insane. I have a pile in the basement of toys that we have grown out of or have lost interest in and I am already planning on making a stop at good will or arranging a toy swap of my own!
I recently bought a book that just came out called Healthy Child, Healthy World: Creating A Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home. It is a book with tons of information about making your home nontoxic, recipes for air freshener, bubble bath and pet flea repellents, green gardening, how to avoid those scary toy recalls and how to choose safer art supplies, smart choices for remodeling your home and even a shopper’s guide for quality green products, brands, stores and websites. I haven’t read it all the way through but I have read most of it and have been impressed with the helpful information in the book. One thing I appreciate about the book is that each chapter covers the impacts of our choices on the environment. I know that the idea of being green and changing family patterns and habits can be overwhelming but the book emphasizes that any choice to go greener is a step in the right direction. I think it would be impossible to overhaul everything in our lives all at once. I know in our family we are taking one step at a time and it still feels like we are doing so little. I am trusting that my small contribution combined with others contributions will help make a big impact on making the world a better place for my kids and grandkids.
Being green is definitely becoming more popular and easy to do. What kinds of green things do you do?
