Works for Me Wednesday!

OK...so we've got 93 days until CHRISTMAS!

That's right folks. I said it. Christmas!

Have you started your shopping yet?

Are you one of those planners or are you the "wait until the day after Thanksgiving" or are you the last-minute, rush kinda person?

I'm a planner. Drives me absolutely nuts not to plan. Have to have an idea. Like two months ago.

SH on the other hand, likes to do all his shopping starting about December 23rd...IF he's planning ahead. Most times, he closes the stores on Christmas Eve.

Which drives me batty. I'm home cooking up a storm and he's running out and about for "just one more thing". It's an annual tradition at our house.

So I thought I'd pull out my favorite online shopping haunts to help you get started on your holiday endeavors. Here are some of my favorites that yield the very best bargains:

fishingfordeals.com This is probably my favorite. Start here to get tons of coupon codes, deals from all over the web, connections to all your favorite online stores and some really great bargains. I found Disney pajamas for the boys here 3 years ago and they are still wearing them today!!

DealsofAmerica.com is another site that yields high bargains. They have a little something for everyone. And check out the info on Black Friday! They really do a great job of letting you know what is coming!!

dealtaker.com Check out their forums to find the very best info on bargains! It's terrific!

slickdeals.net Again--find the forums to get all the latest bargain info. All of the best deals are usually passed on from bargan shopper to shopper. Make friends!!

And if you are me, you always check Craiglist.org to see if your list can be filled by someone else wanting to rid their attic of extra stuff.

So have you started your Christmas shopping yet? Where are your favorite bargain stops?? Let me know and then head on over to We Are THAT Family for great Works For Me Wednesday tips!

Frugal Summer Activities!

So we're still hitting the Dave Ramsey program as hard as we can. And SH's hours have been cut a bit more and we're expecting a cut and possible lay-off in the fall (did I sound calm? Really? Cuz I'M. NOT!). So we're trying to conserve our resources and not spend a bunch of money this summer. So it's got me thinking of our favorite summer cheap-o activities! Here are our favs:

1. Family exercise: SH & I grab the racquetball racquets, some balls and take the kids to the nearest court. We get in some exercise and the boys chase balls for us. Sounds silly and yes, it's absolutely free! We all love it! We realize we've only got a bit more time before they figure out chasing balls is not their idea of summer fun---so we'll keep at it until they do. LOL! Other things we do are bike riding, running while the kids ride their bikes, shooting hoops and whatever else strikes our fancy. Sometimes we just head to the nearest playground and we adults play like the kids. It's great frugal fun! We love that it instills the value of health with the boys and we all enjoy it. The boys like it so much they often are the first to suggest "Exercise Time"!

2. Movies: Our local Cobb Theatre does free kids movies three days a week. We love that! They are older movies and often we've seen them but hey! They are not in our living room and they are FREE! They offer this all summer long and change the movies weekly. Check with your local theatre.

3. Sprinkler Fun! We don't have a pool yet. And probably won't for several more years because of the initial cost and the maintenance. So we pull out the hose and sprinkler head and the boys go to town! They still really enjoy running through the sprinkler and then taking the hose and "washing" the vehicles! I love it because I can sit in the shade and read AND get the cars washed. Great exchange!

4. Head to the Beach! I realize this isn't an option for everyone. We live in central Florida so the beaches are relatively close to us. It can be a pretty cheap day if we pack our lunch, snacks and drinks. Most of the time, we hit a beach with free parking. So our only expense is the fuel to get to our destination. It's fantastic and a HUGE reason we live in Florida! If you don't live near a beach, is there a park with a lake?

5. Board Games: Our boys are just now getting old enough to learn to play board games. And they are enjoying them. We'll take advantage of this cheap entertainment for as long as we can!

6. Pull out the X-Box: Not my idea of a great time but SH and the boys really enjoy it. After the initial expense, using it over time isn't really expensive. SH usually gets games second hand so he spends very little on those. Big Boy is getting rather good at racing cars. We try to find games suitable for them and if I have my way, throw in a little education too. So I prefer things that make the boys learn their colors or counting. I will say that I ROCK on Guitar Hero though!

7. Arts and Crafts:: I try to do a crafty project with the boys at least three times a week. They love play-doh, painting, sidewalk chalk, water play, drawing, mazes....I could go on and on.
(all photos courtesy of flickr.com)
8. Hit the Library Honestly, before last year, we never went to the library. Maybe once in a blue moon, so to speak. But now it is an absolute staple every week. The boys love story time. We hang out in the kid's area for a couple of hours, reading books, putting together puzzles. Then we leave with a whole lotta books, movies, and books-on-CD. This is truly one of our favorite weekly activities. OH! And we always stop to feed the geese and ducks at the lake across the street!

So there are a few of our favorite, VERY FRUGAL summer outings! It really Works for Me--spending time with the family without spending a lot of dough! What do you do on the cheap in the summer?

Head on over to We Are That Family for more great WFMW tips and see what everyone else is doing this summer!

One Year & Counting!

Shhhh....we have a secret! We are officially weird....yes, I'm well aware most of y'all knew that already, however......We have started doing something that few other people do. Want to know what it is? Are you just dying to know? Are you ready? I mean really ready?

It has been over a year since we ceased using any kind of credit card! Zip! Zilch! ZERO! Nada! Nothing! I just want to shout from the rooftops....WE DON'T USE CREDIT ANY MORE!!! WOO HOO!!

OK....a bit more serious now....It's been over a year since we seriously started the Dave Ramsey, Total Money Makeover. And we've managed to pay off a pretty sizeable chunk of debt!! Most importantly though, we made a conscience decision last year to completely quit accruing any more debt. And, that my friends, is a FANTASTIC feeling and what is REALLY working for us!

Ours is a No More Debt Life! If we cannot swing something with cold hard cash, it does not get purchased. That does mean that sometimes we eat more than our fair share of beans and rice! Sometimes it means that I'm making a LOT of laundry soap! It has meant recycling things throughout the house to satisfy a decorating dilemma instead of purchasing something new. And keeping the heat low and the a/c high...

We've discovered some really wonderful benefits to this new life as well. We spend a lot of time together, doing things that don't cost a lot of money! We enjoy movies together at home (RedBox ROCKS!) We exercise more, many times by taking the boys to the park or local b-ball courts, for free. We're teaching the boys how to play board games (we love a mean game of Skip-Bo!). We cook at home. When we see friends, we are usually hanging out at someone's house, grilling up some great food and playing a little Wii bowling! We've really learned to find the cheapest....ahem!....most frugal method of getting everything done!

We've established a solid Emergency Fund as well, as this is DR's #1 step. It has helped us tremendously. We've handled a few "Murphy's" (as in Murphy's Law....you know the one law that sneaks up on us all and bites us back there!) We're also working on another fund for a future vehicle, as we know we'll need a car within the next 3-4 years likely and want to pay cash for it too. Other than those funds, all our extra money is going into the Debt Snowball, or on to debts to pay them off faster. If you aren't familiar with the Debt Snowball, I'll explain it in another post or you can find it here.

So that my friend is what Works for Us! How about you? Have you changed your financial life in a small way or in a BIG way? What works for you? Let me know and then get on over to We Are That Family for more wonderful WFMW tips!

Our windfall

We received our income tax return last Friday. Now before all my frugal friends and Personal Finance gurus scream, I'll just come out of the closet and say that yes, it was a return and yes, it is a bit of a return. Before y'all scream at us about how we are loaning our government free money and how that is the number one sin in the eyes of PF'ers around the country....just relax. We understand all that. And we've discussed it. And we are keeping things just as they are, thank you very much! We've decided that what is best for us is that we will continue to keep our return the way it is. The interest that could be earned on the money, should we save it, would be relatively minor. We like having a "windfall". We like a little surge in the budget once a year. It is purely psychological and it works for us. So we're keeping it that way. Thank you for your concern.

Now....what we find as the most enjoyable part is the diversion of funds when we get our windfall. This is how we're dividing up our return this year:

-Some to our emergency fund to beef it up a bit.
-Property taxes that are not put into escrow.
-Homeowner's Association dues for 2009.
-Upgrade computer equipment to better accommodate the software for my husband's photography business.
-Pay off a couple of debts.

That is how we are doing it this year. And it feels really good to have some resolution to outstanding debts (the taxes, HOA dues) and a little extra for the computer equipment. We are followers, albeit not religiously, of Dave Ramsey's principles. Have you heard of Dave? He is a fantastic Personal Finance advisor and we use his principles outlined in the Total Money Makeover. Now Dave would really chastise us for loaning the government money and for that, we'll take our licks. We do follow his Baby Steps and think that his overall program is sound. We're on Baby Step 2--eliminating all debt. We've got a bit of all the steps tackled and did before joining him. Now we are trying to refine our budget and work on things in his method. If you haven't checked him out, we'd really encourage you to take a look! Check us out again in the future to be able to hear us scream "We're Debt Free!!"