Back to Blogging

I have been away from my blog for far too long, but I was a little busy getting a degree, a new house, and a promotion.

I'm happy to be back and will be posting what Ive learned thru all 3 experiences.

Happy Cheapness!

Best Friends

Something this morning reminded me of a poignant story from Chey's youth. Chey had two "best" friends when she was elementary school age. Meg got her in trouble a lot but Dav was being raised with values more in sync to our family's.

I was trying to teach Chey that true best friends will help you to be a better person and not try to help you into trouble, but that was a tough concept for a 5 year old. Also, Chey felt very sorry for Meg who came from a terrible home situation.

So one day Meg helped Chey get into trouble again and Chey was punished. Later that week, we went to the mall with Dav and his mom. The big attraction for the kids at our local mall was a beautiful carousel. Chey LOVED it. We had lunch in the shadow of the carousel because it was in the center of the Food Court. At the end of the meal, Dav asked Chey if she wanted to ride the carousel. Chey looked at me with pleading eyes and I quietly shook my head no because it was part of her punishment.

"I can't Dav. I'm punished." was her sad reply to Dav's request.

"Ok, I'll wait to ride until you can ride too." And Dav slipped his little hand into Chey's as they skipped off in front of us.

So, today's question is, Who are your best friends? Do they help you stay on track? Or do they Lead you Into Temptation? Best friends will wait to ride until you can ride too.

Happy Cheapness!

Staying Warm

This could be a little late for those of you who have survived "Snow-magedon", but even when I lived in a colder climate, I was a champ at keeping the power bill down.

First of all, sweaters. Our grandparents used to make them because they were chopping the fuel to cook and keep warm. Can you imagine the amount of firewood they would have chopped to keep a 2,000 square foot home at the preferred 72 degrees?

My father-in-law would tell me about his mom giving him pages from the Sears Catalog. He used them to shove in the spaces the chinking was missing in the bedroom of their two-room log home. Lucky for him they were in Southern Louisiana and he shared the room with his brother.

I was reminded at a local football game of how spoiled we have become. We had an unusual cold snap (in the 30s in Arizona) and a local high school was in the play-off for state championship. Here were young people from all over the area in flip flops and hoodies. They were some seriously cold campers.

My child was embarrassed that she was wearing boots, a couple of shirts, a jacket, a coat, hat, gloves, scarf and a blanket. Dad and I left at half-time to seek warm shelter at Starbucks. Her (freezing) boyfriend commented that she was the only smart one and he wished he had dressed better............

Just like we wait until after sundown in the summer to cook dinner (our kitchen faces west), a little can go along way to reduce heating costs in colder climates. This may not be for everyone, but I noticed our power bills went up when I started home schooling Chey because we were home all day. I had hubby install a kit on our dryer to vent it into our small homeschool room that was actually a closed in garage. We didn't pre-plan it, but our washer and dryer were housed behind a curtain in the same area. We always had clean clothes and our homeschool room was toasty warm without raising our power bill. In the summer, we would re-attach the hose to vent it outside. We also installed a window AC in this room to cool it in the warmer months rather than run our large AC and pay to cool the whole house.

We have a blanket or throw on every chair in our home. My hot-natured hubby loves it and my sinuses prefer the lack of forced air. I made the heavy blankets on our bed which are layers of old quilts in a flannel sheet cover. If you think your kids will not adjust to the change, my eldest daughter swiped the first edition of the homemade blanket because she didn't think I would need it in Arizona. The one I made here is too heavy, so we are trading at the end of the winter. She doesn't run her heat either and finds that she and her husband stay healthier.

We warn people to bring a sweater and provide as many blankets as needed. Our $90 power bills are worth it!

Chores Will Not Kill Your Children

When I was growing up in the early 60s, there were many Catholic families in our community. They had a lot of kids. From my perspective, it was because they wanted a lot of help with chores.

We have less kids now, therefore, they need to do more work!

Think back. What were your favorite chores? Which ones did you hate? Did you die? What were your friends doing? We wanted something? We did extra chores to earn it.

I do not know how we as a society got away from chores, but you can see the lack of work ethic in a lot of today's younger work force.

Each person in your home needs to be responsible for their personal space. They need to transport their laundry to and from the central laundry area. With extra things needing to be done for the holidays, many hands make light the work. The man who coined that phrase did so in the 1500's. Don't you think those kids knew how to do some chores?

Now, most of us do not have cows to milk or fields to harvest, but those principles can be applied in our suburban homes. If you cook the food and buy the food, the people consuming it should tote it from the car to the kitchen and put it away. My people thought it would be okay to put it away any old place. We had a "clean out the pantry day" along with "clean out the fridge day". Since they were a little challenged as to where things go, I labeled everything for their convenience. If they were still challenged, they got to do it again instead of being driven to an activity.

My kids will tell you my favorite Mom-ism is: "We live by the Golden Rule, I make the Gold, I make the rules." You want a democracy, get a job. Please know that you are not being mean (well you are, but it is ultimately for their own good).

What skills do your children need to have to survive without you? Make sure you teach them along the way. Chores prepare our children for independent living and the work world.

Happy Cheapness!

Cottage Industry

I was so overcome with emotion about simple gifts, I forgot to BLOG!



Ok - not really. I went to IKEA with a friend who is new to the area and had never been to IKEA and then last night I cooked dinner and fell asleep.



What an exciting life I lead!



Ok - I come from a long line of entrepreneurs (thank goodness for spell check!)



I have photos of the convenience store my Grandmother had set up on the lower floor of their three story home on Marshfield in Chicago. I also have photos of the hair salon my dad's sister had in the same space.



To the best of my childhood memory, it seems that the people I was raised with were ALWAYS busy doing something that did not involve zoning out or playing in front of a TV or computer.



What do you do well? I mean really well? What do you really enjoy? Ken and I have had the opportunity to cater for different events. We talked about and decided that doing it for living would take all the fun out of it. That doesn't mean we aren't working in other areas.



Confucius said, "Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life."



It's true. I would recommend taking some quiet time (locking the bathroom door for 10 minutes is acceptable) and take an inventory of what you are good at, what you like to do, what people seek you out for and see if it has the potential to be a cottage industry.



You might be surprised.

We are in the process of downsizing as we prepare our last offspring to fly the coop into college. I am working on teaching Ken how to sell our cast-offs on ebay and craigslist.

Make sure you check your local ordinances about home-based businesses and please do not fall for one of those "Work from home" scams. Most are.

I once worked for a lady who started a website and got kicked out of her apartment because UPS was backing up the big truck to her door every afternoon. She said, "I guess I should have known this was out-of-hand when my husband, 2 kids and I were sleeping in the living room because all three bedrooms were overrun with product." Ya think?

I know another friend who kept body and soul together while she was going thru school by running a small ad on Craigslist to help computer novices set up and use their systems. She has the patience of Job and worked with seniors and recent retirees. They were sad when she got a day job. She was changing a nominal fee per hour (for something she did for family and friends for free!) and was able to keep a few dollars in her pocket during the notoriously broke college years!

Whatever skill you have that you love to do, it could be a source of income thru our tough econmic times!

Happy Cheapness!!!!

Simple Gifts

As a worked on the blog about simplifying Christmas I typed in the term Simple Gifts and it struck a chord in me and reminded of another time some 10 months ago.

We have cable TV at my day job so we had President Obama's inauguration on. When Yoyo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Anthony McGill and Gabriella Montero performed John William's arrangement of "Simple Gifts" I wept. Not only was I touched by the shear beauty of the music, I also knew this was a simple Shaker hymn written by a man in 1848 who knew and embraced the simple beauty of life.

Here are the words:

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gain'd,
To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.

I also wept because I live in America. While we are racing around, we seem to loose sight of the simple joys. We live in a special country. When we wish to honor the man who holds the highest office in the land, we do not bow before him and pay homage with costly gifts of gold and jewels. We play him a hymn called "Simple Gifts".

I pray you will have a blessed holiday full of simple gifts that will remain treasures over time.

Happy Cheapness!

Christmas and the Holidays

Ok - everyone curl you toes back and take a deep breath.

I was going to wait a little longer before I addresses this one, but the retailers are pushing the ads and the sales have already started.

Ahhhh Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Winter Solstice. Holy days of peace and love celebrated around the world.

Anyone remember the holidays of our youth? If you're around my age, do you remember seeing an add for a toy during the Saturday morning cartoons and that item became the focus of your little universe? How about the Sears Christmas catalog (I'm very old - it was the Christmas catalog, not the Holiday catalog) and the visit to the Santa at the Mall?

Welcome to marketing that seems to have started in earnest in the 1960s.

I have attached a copy of a picture in the late 1930s of my father's family's Christmas tree. Can you count the number of gifts underneath? 4 maybe 5. They were a family of 4. One gift per person.

I know. I know. But, but, but, but, but.

Well if you are in the same boat as me, we do not have the resources to fill the Christmas stockings of the retailers this year.

Christmas during The Depression was very simple. Homemade gifts. Stockings filled with fruit and nuts. And they used actual socks from their feet, not the 6 foot long red felt thing my daughter tries to con me into buying!

But the best part? Family without apology. Good Food. Warm Fellowship. Simple Gifts.

So now would be the time for you to have the conversation without the kids. What is our budget? No Credit Cards. No Overspending.

This is how we do it in our household.

1) After Christmas is over (last year) I make any notes about what is new about our extended family and friends and if I had any ideas for them. This goes on our master Christmas list on Excel.

2) Before Ken and I have our Christmas meeting, I update the list with any gifts I have found thru out the year and any notes from conversations I have had (new hobbies or upcoming travel, etc)

3) We set our budget. Our Christmas list and budget include the food gifts we give. Soup jars, cookie jars, breads, cookies and pies. At the end of Christmas each year, I note how many cookies, breads and jars I made and what it took to make them so I am not re-creating the wheel every year.

4) We make the decision on the list and divide up who is purchasing what.

5) Finally, we only use cash. Yep, green stuff. When it is gone, you are done. Very budget friendly.

After the adults in the household are in agreement, then you sit down with the kids. I try to make it a festive time around the table and we talk honestly about what can and can not happen. Our children are familiar with and comfortable with the conversation, so it is expected and there is no drama. If this is a new adventure for your group, it could be more challenging. I would say the most important part is to let your children have a voice and participate. We are really conditioned into having a very materialistic holiday. If you listen to what your children are saying they would like to do to celebrate, you might be pleasantly surprised.

I understand that extended family might present the biggest challenge. I can only encourage to you make your decisions and stick by them. My brother gets homebaked goods every year. I love making them for his family and he has always been very gracious with his thanks and praise. His family is thoughtful in sending us beautiful gifts each year. From the outside, it may seem unequal with my simple handmade gifts vs his beautiful gifts to us, but we are not keeping score. We are both grateful to each other for the thought.

Our house rule to keep Christmas in check is one "gift" per person. Yep - one. Anything else must fit in the person's stocking like body butter, socks, fishing lures,undies or candy. Also, new jammies on Christmas Eve. We unwrap them and do something Christmas-y on Christmas Eve and then all go to bed. We are a little flexible on the exact activities depending on where and with whom we are celebrating the holiday.

We do fun inexpensive holiday activities thru out the season. We are going to see snow at one of the malls on November 24th. (Quite an event in central Arizona!) We will spend one afternoon making our Gingerbread House from a $15 kit available at most craft stores. (note: put a shower curtain on the floor if you anywhere near carpet and make the kids take off their socks before they leave the decorating area. Saves a lot of time not scraping up the Royal Icing.)

We will have a time together making and decorating the cookie and soup jars. Kids participate in all this. We will work the time for baking into the schedule. OH MY! I almost forget! Part of the meeting with the kids is the CALENDAR. We mark holiday parties and church events on it and decide when the other activities are taking place. We usually have a "live" tree, so getting it in place and decorated is an important factor (we actually buy it thru our vegetable co-op!). We work together on the decorations - inside and out. And since our tree is a mish-mosh of handmade and heirloom ornaments, we talk about where they came from and why they are special.

We stay busy thru the holiday, but we all seem to enjoy it. Not having a raft of bills in January is the best holiday gift.

Happy Cheapness!