Camp Rock

You have to watch this movie, even if you do not have kids. We chose this for Friday's family movie night simply because I found it for free on the On Demand Channel and Amanda had been asking to see it. This Disney musical is about a music camp and I just loved the message -- be yourself, be proud of who you are, and don't be a liar -- especially to impress someone. The music was great, the plot was strong, and the message was a good one. We liked it so much, we did a repeat on Sunday afternoon... and the whole family watched it again.

I'm so handy!

OK...quite excited. Today I not only climbed a ladder and cleaned out the dryer vent from the outside, I saved $160 by doing it. Of course, I had to tape a brush to end of a telescoping mop handle to create a tool to do this work. and I had to climb up and down the ladder a dozen times to actually do the deed properly ...but I did it! and collected a plastic grocery bag full of lint in the process. Where does all that lint come from? And if there is so much, why aren't my clothes thinner??

I followed this outdoor job with an inside one - I fixed the upstairs toilet. It kept flushing on its own...randomly...when no one was even near the bathroom. I went to the hardware store, explained the situation in my best plumber terminology and picked up a flapper thing for $2.50. I did have to put my hands into the water of the tank to take the old, yucky one off. That was a bit gross, though my husband assures me that water is clean. Then the hands plunged back in to put the new one. It took like five minutes and basically cost nothing. $2.50. I saved a plumbers house call of like $100.

Total savings today ...$260.

The perfect Valentine's Day

What a lovely day! My husband made me a beautiful card from our craft supplies and put it with flowers he and the kids picked up at the grocery store. I had told him to please not buy the bountiful bouquet of roses he normally gifts me with on Valentines. I told him I knew he loved me. No need for petal proof. And besides, I was not buying anything new this month so why should he? Anyhow,off to the grocery he went, kid in tow. After picking out the posies, he headed to the card wall. At which point our son declared..."Dad, why waste your money? We have plenty of stuff at home we can make cards out of!" Chastened, he put down the card and came home to the craft table. A few minutes later, the perfect card (which I will keep forever!) was next to the colorful bouquet. When I returned home from some morning errands, we dipped strawberries in chocolate sauce I had hanging around in the cupboard (who knew?!) and ate them watching a movie (Valentine gift from Grandma!) while opening all the cards from family and friends that had accrued in the toy mailbox we placed in the kitchen two weeks ago to collect such treasurers. What fun!! and so cost effective!

Important words

If I Had My Life To Live Over
by Erma Bombeck

I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.

I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.

I would have talked less and listened more.

I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained, or the sofa faded.

I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.

I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.

I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband.

I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.

I would have sat on the lawn with my grass stains.

I would have cried and laughed less while watching television and more while watching life.

I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil, or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.

Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.

When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, "Later. Now go get washed up for dinner."

There would have been more "I love you's" and more "I'm sorry's."

But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute…look at it and really see it...live it and never give it back.

Robert's Birthday

Fortunately, my sweet husband never wants a big fuss for his birthday. So the stack of cards (mine came from a collection of cards I have picked up over the year on sale), hugs, and homemade three-tiered Banana cake with Mocha Icing was right up his alley. As was the seafood feast I rustled up in the kitchen and the early-release from cleanup/bedtime kid duties that allowed him to slip into bed at the decadent hour of 7:30 p.m.

Great birthday. Low cost. High on fun for the birthday boy. I am so lucky!!!

The Staycation

Today, after dropping the kids off at school, I came back home, got a cup of coffee and the paper and climbed back into bed. There I stayed with Robert for one hour. The laundry was already going, the dishwasher and oven were self-cleaning. We watched CNBC Squawk on the Street, shared headlines and economy comments and sipped coffee. We were loud. No kids heard us. We spread out in bed. No kids to jump in between us! The paper was neatly folded. No kids to tear it apart in search of the comics!! At 9:45, Robert got up to shave and dress. At 10, I got up, got dressed and started my day. It was lovely. It was civilized. It was adult. It was free! I love the one-hour staycation!

Consignment Stores...more money!

Whomever coined the term "investment dressing" certainly didn't understand fiscal fashion. You don't make your money going into the dressing room -- you make it emptying out the closet.So that is why this week, I am combing through my closet with a fiscal -- as opposed to fashionable -- eye.

In the past, I have taken my gently worn clothes to Goodwill and or Hope's Closet and gotten a tax receipt for my clearing-out efforts. But this past fall, my friend Kristi introduced me to consignment stores -- not as a buyer, you see, but as a seller. In November, I trundled 25 fall and winter wearables --from slacks and skirts to dresses and sweaters -- up to her favorite consigment store. In exchange for my wearable goods, I was given a receipt and phone number in which to call two months in the future to see how much money I made by having them sell my clothes! Well, of course, I now no longer need to be altruistic with my designer and designer-like duds! I will find out tomorrow how much cash my clothes garnered...and I already have several savvy spring ensembles ready to head north to find new fashion friends.

I used to take the kids' clothes to a local consignment shop, but I didn't feel like the clothes got the proper respect. So I stopped. Sounds funny, I know. But some of these dresses had smocking or lace detailing and I decided I would rather pass them along to neighbord friends who would wear them and then pass them on again than get $3-$4 for what was once a $40 holiday dress. It is much more fun for me to see a wonderful dress worn by two of her daughters my girlfriend handed down to my daughter be worn in turn by Katie, then her sister, Claire, then passed on to Faith, then her sister, Emma, then on to Meredith's daughter. That is better amoritization.

Besides, adult consignment shops pay a better percentage!

Found money!!!

In the spirit of the month, I gathered up two video-tv-type cables my husband had purchased at Radio Shack to fix something on our tv/dvd/cable connection. After stepping over the two boxes for two weeks, I asked Robert if he didn't need them anymore, could I return them? Sure!

Well, in the past, I would have just taken them to his garage workshop and left them on the shelf. Instead, I schlepped up to Radio Shack (sans receipt, of course) and asked for my money back. After some hemming and hawing, the sales manager acknowledged the boxes indeed said Radio Shack on them and had obviously not been opened. So, he took them back and gave me a gift card for $48.05. Found money. Wahoo....that's me doing the happy dance all the way back to my car.

There is so much cash laying around our homes that we don't even notice. I am not including change jars and coin piles in this, though our family has, on occasion, rolled up its fair share of coins into a bank deposit worth a couple hundred bucks. I'm talking about all those things we don't return (like video cables) or the on-sale shorts we buy for the kids that don't fit and instead of taking them back, we give them away to a friend with a child smaller than ours. I'm talking about all those frequent buyer points we never redeem.

A department store I occasionally shop at offers Incircle points. They "last" for a year and if you don't redeem them, you lose them. Well, yesterday I decided to check my balance and see what I could get for points I normally ignore. Good thing I checked! They expire in the next 30 days and if I had simply ignored the situation as normal, I would have missed out on the chance to change those points into a $250 gift card...

Add that to the Radio Shack bonanza and it adds up to almost $300 in FOUND MONEY just this week...Tack that onto the money saved from all my bill trimming this week and I saved/earned almost $1,200. Not bad for a week's work.

Oh, and don't forget the CVS Extra Care Bucks program. Now that I finally figured that out, I will never throw another CVS receipt away without checking how much money the company wants to give me on my next purchase. ECB will be a whole column on itself later because I am having such a blast saving money with ECB and coupons. Not to brag, but yesterday a smart coupon/ECB combo allowed me to save $25 on a $42 purchase of OTC medicine and toiletries...including three items that I actually got for free!

Why didn't I learn any of this type information in my Economics class at Cornell??

Feb. Fun continues

Making the decision to not buy anything new this month has been incredibly liberating. The JJill catalog comes and gets immediately recycled. Ditto LLBean, Land's End, Title 9, whatever. Not buying, not reading. Frees up a lot of time.

The kids were home sick the other day. Perfect movie time. But because it is February, instead of cruising the On Demand movie line-up at $5.99 a pop, we perused the home DVD library and watched five hours of Liberty Kids for FREE. Not only that, but we uncovered two new movies courtesy of Grandma still wrapped in plastic!

The kids also spent time looking in our own library for books to read. With the new Borders so close to our house now, we have been frequent shoppers. Now, I have told my two, we will become frequent readers of what we have on hand. Amazing how much we have that has not been read.

So, this mindset got me thinking -- where else can I find "leakage"... money just leaking out the door unnoticed. The cable bill -- called up TWC and got rid of $23/month of movie channels we never watch. SAVINGS...$276/year. Changed the unlimited phone line to one with 500 free minutes ...SAVINGS $48/year. Reduced the NYT delivery from daily (which, with three other papers tossed on our door daily, we never got around to reading) to just Sat and Sunday. SAVINGS $360/year. Tomorrow, I am getting rid of cable on another TV we NEVER TURN ON. $252/year.

GRAND TOTAL SAVED TO DATE...$937/year. And I haven't even looked at the insurance yet!

February Idea

In the spirit of the Valentine's Holiday Season this month, I am posting a picture of our lake house. I love how it is just the right color for this month! Even with the snow, I wish we were there -- but of course, there's no heat and the temp. is currently in the teens. Well, we'll just enjoy the picture.

Now, for the month's theme: A few of my girlfriends and I have committed to not buying anything new in February. Nothing...except for groceries and gas for the car. We were inspired to do this by an article in the Dallas Morning News. There is a reporter there who is trying all these cost-saving measures -- a buy nothing new month, eat only what you have in the pantry month, drive on one tank of gas per car month. The nothing-new month intrigued us most. So, in the spirit of this, I have dug out all the old valentines left over from seven years worth of taking cards to preschool and elementary -- as well as all the old valentine craft supplies so the kids can make new cards this year. Not only am I being thrifty, I am decluttering as well! Best of all, in the search to round up errant valentine supplies, I stumbled on to a cache of cards and gifts I bought last year and never gave out!!! Sooooo...I am already ahead here!!

I will report in on each nothing-new fantastic idea I have as the month progresses. Stay tuned!