Summer's over...time to start watching things

Well, summer is over folks. That's it. That's all you get. It has been an AWESOME summer. My friend Estelle says I overuse that word, but I don't care. It was AWESOME. Of course, I'll be paying for the awesomeness for some time to come.

This summer I've been bundling up large amounts of cash, say $200 a week, and lighting it on fire. Yes, folks, I'm talking about my grocery bill. I don't know exactly why I can't seem to get the grocery bill under control this summer, but steak and fresh fruit with Cool-Whip dip apparently adds up.

Another thing that adds up, apparently, is my weight. Don't try to tell me that there is a connection between the grocery bill and the amount of weight I've gained. That's just silly. Those two are entirely unrelated.

Seriously...I've packed it on this summer. It has been 6 months since my last weight managment effort and I've put on 10 lbs since then. That isn't maintenance mode. That is....I don't know...that is just...BAD. Especially when you consider that my last weight managment effort, during January & February of 2010, resulted in about 5 lbs lost.

So now I want to take off 10 lbs in the next three months. September 1st through November 24th...that's 12 weeks...and I get to end my diet the day before Thanksgiving. I usually just do some calorie counting, but this time I gotta step it up a little. I think my exercise effort is going to have to extend beyong my Wii. Running? maybe.

I think the BodyBugg is going to be my new diet "thing". I already calorie count like a champ, so adding the tracking of energy expended seems like a natural extension. Of course, I'm far too cheap to actually buy a new BodyBugg. They are $300, including 6 months of the website subscription. I've seen them on ebay and Craigslist for $75, but that is with no website subscription. I don't need a 6 month subscription though, three months should be plenty.

So, how 'bout you? Anyone else going to join me for some September 1st diet modification?

P.S. My husband is crunching tortilla chips in my ear. Several warning glances have gone unheeded. Someone may want to check to see if he is still living in a few minutes.

Saving my pennies

I just got the look. You know the one. That look you get when you are making a budget-friendly decision and the rest of the world thinks you are crazy. Maybe you don't know that look. I get it all the time.

I got the look the other night when I made a comment about buying second-hand linens. I've gotten it for not pitching in "enough" for a group gift. Today I got it for refusing to pay for white fillings.

I had to go to the dentist today to have 3 cavities filled. I checked in with the receptionist and she told me my bill was going to be $195.
Me: "Aren't I covered for this?"
Her: "Yes you are covered at 100% for the work but you have to pay for getting white fillings instead of silver."
Me: "I haven't discussed with the dentist whether I wanted white or silver fillings"
Her: "We prepped for white fillings, so we'll have to get things set up differently for silver"
Me: "I think Silver will be fine"
and that's when I get the look.

Now look...I'm not crazy. If my cavities were in the front of my mouth, I would have paid for the white fillings. But they aren't; my cavities are on my molars. And, as I told the doctor, if I've got my mouth open wide enough so you can see my molars, my overall attractiveness is already compromised. And I already have silver fillings on my molars from previous cavities, so I'm just making them a matched set. So I don't need the crazy look people. Apparently my choices were shocking, though, because they had to repeat "she wants silver fillings" in hushed tones to each new person that came to work on me.

So here I sit. I've got silver fillings on my molars and my mouth is all numb which makes it hard to talk. I'm a vision of loveliness to be sure, but at least I've still got my 200 bucks in my pocket.

Frugalista

Frugalista. I suppose that is a combo of fashionista and a budget freak. Sounds just like me! I just heard that term on a Target commercial.

And speaking of a love of shopping on a budget, I got the chance to visit 2 high-end consignment stores in the last week. The first one, called Between Friends, is fairly new. It is on 106th street in Bellevue. It has a limited amount of clothes, but is a pleasant non-cramped place to shop. They also have some cute new home furnishings. Check out their website at http://www.bfconsignment.com


Today I was in Kirkland, so I attempted to stop by an old favorite consignment store on Main street...but it was closed. The experience of pulling up to a store and realizing it is closed for good happens TOO often lately. So, I walked down to the main drag (Lake Street) to visit Rebekah's consignment. The store has changed names, and assumably ownership, to Serendipity Consignment Boutique. This store has 2 - 3 times as many clothes as Between Friends displays. It also has nice dressing rooms and really big mirrors, which is nice.

Anyway, I think you all should go patronize those stores so they are there the next time I want to go shopping! Please and Thank you. =)

What? Embarrass My Kids? Me?

It was inevitable that my thrift-store shopping ways would eventually embarrass my children. I buy most of my kids clothes, probably 85%, from children's consignment stores. I occasionally will buy something new, but only if I haven't been able to find what I'm looking for second hand. My kids do get some new clothes because their grandparents often purchase clothes for their birthdays, Christmas, & sometimes new school shopping.

Luckily Spunky Girl hasn't caught on yet that there might be anything amiss with her wardrobe. I found these adorable white flats for her at Value Village. They were only $2.99 and looked like they had never been worn. She wore them to school on her first day. She and I were in the school office when the principal came by and stopped to compliment her on her super-cute shoes. When the principal asked where she got them, I was happy to reply that I got them at Value Village. Spunky Girl didn't care at all where I got them, she was just glad to have them.


At age 7, Sweetness is starting to care. I bought her a great pair of black boots. They were in awesome, like new condition too. She wore her new boots on her third day of school. When someone complimented her on her boots and asked where I got them, I replied that I got them at the consignment store. It was clear from Sweetness' face that my answer was embarrassing and she added that they were "Nine West" boots. Perhaps the name brand of the boots somehow redeems the second hand nature of the purchase.

I know when we go to the consignment store, Sweetness can certainly find things that she wants me to buy...so I know she doesn't TOTALLY hate the second hand shopping. I guess she just doesn't want me to be so verbal about our family shopping habits. Perhaps I should make it my mission to make Sweetness understand economics so well that she is proud to be frugal...or maybe I should just cut her a break and not blab where I got her stuff.

Pretty soon I'll be hanging out of my Rolls asking for Grey Poupon

I may not be able to stomach spending large amounts of cash on designer clothes (except for an occasional spendy pair of jeans), but I've discovered a new way to pretend like I'm uber-rich. I have my clothes tailored.

I've watched TLC's What not to Wear for ages and they always tout the praises of a good tailor. Of course, they also tout the praises of blowing 5 grand in two days shopping...but let's not focus on that. So, I decided to have a favorite jacket of mine tailored. The jacket was originally from Old Navy, but I bought it at a consignment store on Kirkland's waterfront. Does't that sound like the type of quality clothing that any tailor would love to work on? It was an extra large, but so was I following Spunky Girl's birth. It is the perfect jacket. It is an off-white/beige cotton twill with distressed features. It is the best jacket to wear with jeans and a t-shirt, which is my usual uniform.

I have slimmed down a bit in the last two years. When I was preggo with the Big Guy, I hit 200 lbs (a high for me...and a number I was both terrified of and secretly proud of). I'm now at a much more comfortable 145 and content to stay here awhile. I usually fit into size Medium, so my extra large jacket was looking baggy and boxish on me. I considered sending it to the Goodwill pile, but I knew it would be hard to find a perfect replacement at a cost I wanted to pay. I decided it was time to visit the tailor.

(I wish I could post a picture of the jacket here, but my camera is still marooned at Grandma's house 2 hours away. Drat.)

I got the jacket back yesterday and I'm super pleased with the results. The jacket fits just right, and you'd never guess that it wasn't the way it was originally made. And the cost? $20 Quite reasonable I thought, although I would have balked at anything higher. Now I'll think twice before tossing an ill-fiting item into the giveaway pile. Who knows? With a nip and a tuck, it could be my new favorite piece of clothing!

I found it!

Do you all remember my previous post where I was searching for the perfect sundress? (Yes, I know you all have better things to do that remember each blog post that I write, but I dare to hope that someone might.) Well, I found a darling one! Check out my new dress:


It is going to be a busy weekend for me and I wanted a cute sundress to wear to a variety of events, so I grabbed the kids that weren't puking and headed to Macy's. I liked this dress as soon as I tried it on, but the price tag of $59 was a bit off-putting. I know it is not THAT expensive, but I definitely stopped to consider whether I wanted to dip into my August and September clothing budget to do it. I heard my friend Melissa's voice in my head, encouraging to buy fewer things that I really like and spend less time scouring the clearance racks for bargains. I decided to go ahead and get it.

When I got up to the counter, I told the sales associate that I might have had a coupon at home but didn't bring it...so she rummaged around and found me one for $20 off. Yippee for me. $40 bucks for a dress that I love makes me happy!

Penny wise & Dollar foolish

Penny wise & Dollar foolish...that's a saying right? Generally it means that you find some way to save money in the short run, but you take it in the shorts in the long run (heh heh...laughing at my own joke).

That's what I did. It may not cost me any dollars in the future, but it is sure to cause some headaches. I took the girls to Target to buy new underwear. I was going to try to wait until August to buy them new underwear as part of their school clothes, but I felt bad about my size 5 daughter wearing size 4 panties all summer. Anyway, we are at Target and, of course, the girls want to pick out the panties with the cutest designs. They are all about the same price, so I let them pick out the ones they wanted. Then I wandered into the next aisle and found that there were some clearance panties stuffed back there. We are talking $2 bucks for panties instead of $8 bucks. I sweet talked the girls into getting the cheap panties instead (by bribing them with new jammies with the savings). Of course, there was only one design that was on the clearance rack. So my girls each have 10 new pairs of panties that are identical to her sisters. Can you imagine the headache I've just caused myself?

* The girls won't bother to try to tell them apart, so they'll start wearing each others panties.
* I won't be able to tell at a glance who left their panties on the floor...and if I'm going to bend down to check the tag, I might as well pick them up myself.
* Hubby won't be able to tell them apart when he tries to put the laundry away (Okay, who am I kidding? No one, right? This would never happen anyway.)

So yeah for me; I saved $12 bucks and caused myself a ton of headaches. And, the jammies I promised the girls ended up costing me $20, so it actually cost me $8 more. I'm a genius.

I want to be a sundress-kinda girl

Since it has been an amazing 90 degrees lately, I want to wear a sundress. I've never pulled off the sundress look well. I either feel like my chest is hanging out, or my chest is showing through, or I end up lpoking too dressed-up. Oh, and then there's the "maybe she's pregnant again" look when I wear the empire waist-line ones. This is the look I want with a pair of barely-there flat sandals:


I like this look too, but it doesn't have that same carefree comfy look the other one does:


Somebody better remind me quickly that I'm out of my June clothing budget, because I'm about to head to Target. Maybe I can sneak this into the anniversary weekend vacation budget!

June 1st

Anyone else notice it this morning? I don't know if it is just because it was June 1st or whether it is simply a Monday morning...or whether it is because it is Monday, June 1st the first day of Spunky Girl's summer vacation...but today feels like a "let's get a plan" kinda day.

I want to get my month organized. I want to know when I'll be celebrating Father's Day with my dad, hubby's dad, and hubby himself. I want to know what I'm going to do with my freetime (which is hardly free, but I simply mean the time that I'm no longer spending going to preschool and back). Really, I want a plan in place for the summer. I want to know the time slot I'll be getting for the kids summer swim schedule.

I've got a few plans floating around for the summer. I know I'll have marriage classes to attend for the next 4 Thursday nights: The Love and Respect series (I've heard it is good). I know I've got park playdates with Spunky Girl's friends on Thursdays at 11 am. I'm hoping to get a women's Bible class started at my church on Friday mornings in the summer. I'm thrilled to have a mother's helper one day a week, but that won't start until July. Really...that is the beginning of a summer plan. I think I need to sprinkle in a few vacations and a lot of date nights and I'll feel ready to go.

I think it will be an awesome summer. I can't wait for bbq's, beaches, and summer clothes. Speaking of summer clothes, it is once again the beginning of a new month and I've already spent my June clothing allowance. I ran into a sidewalk vendor selling jewelry and had to have this daisy necklace...and then a friend bought some clothes that she eventually decided against and sold them to me at 1/2 off (rather than returning them to the store...how could I refuse?).
I love the white top, but I'm not sure I'm keeping the white pants. I'm afraid I'll always be tugging at the back of the white pants to keep my back end appropriately covered...and that can be annoying. They may end up on ebay. Besides, do I really need a pair of jeans with the brand name of Rich and Skinny? Seems like false advertising to me!

Wow. That is a dorky pose. Well, I'll leave you with that ridicuous image. Happy Monday people.

There is a mutiny afoot!

I don't know how I've been so blind up until now, but suddenly I can see clearly that dear hubby is about to blow a gasket. I got so caught up in what I think is right and good and responsible that I've been missing the super clear signs that hubby ain't happy.

Consider the evidence:
* Hubby went to Joes store, which is going out of business, and called to say that he was going to pick up a pair of snowshoes for me since they were on clearance. "Okay, make them my Mother's Day present. There is some money available in that category" say I. Silence is on the other end of the phone.
* Hubby has been talking about purchasing an awning for his construction business so he can create a workspace in people's driveways. He buys one and I make a comment about how it would be nice to have something similar on my desk to partially block the sun in the summer. Later, we are at the store and he puts one into my cart. "What's that for?" ask I. "For the deck" he replies, "you said you wanted one." "I thought I could just borrow yours" say I. "No, I don't want to have to take it down whenever I want to use it" says he. "But we don't have money in the budget" say I. Frosty glare. Tense moment...broken only by the sounds of Spunky Girl knocking over a display of skis and the Big Guy tripping on his own two feet.

* Hubby says we are years past the point where we should have had our septic tank pumped. "we've got to get that done" says he. "How do you recommend I pay for it?" says I. Husband becomes grumpy and just growls that we need to find a way.

* My parents offered to watch the kids for us for 2 nights while we sneak away for our anniversary. I was super excited about this so I figured out what weekend would work for everyone and then I called hubby's parents to see if we could borrow their mountain condo for the weekend. Apparently hubby doesn't want to stay at the free condo, he'd rather pay to stay somewhere nice...like the Edgewater.

Apparently hubby is tired of hearing about all my financially fiscal ways. He doesn't particularly care about finding a spot in the budget for whatever he'd like to purchase. He just wants to buy what he thinks we need (or what he wants) without thinking too much about it. He doesn't like it when I refuse to get a haircut because "I don't have money in the budget for it till next month". I think it must make him feel like he doesn't provide well enough, that he doesn't bring in enough money for our family. I feel just the opposite. I think he makes plenty of money and it is my job to use that money responsibility and respect his income by spending it carefully.

I think I've made budgetting such a topic in our household that he is sick, sick, sick of it. He is swinging the pendulum to the other side in reaction. It is enjoyable to him to enjoy the fruits of his labor without thinking about it too much. This is difficult for me. I work really hard to keep our household from overspending our income. He wants me to just buy stuff because I like it and would put it to good use. He isn't particularly worried that we'll fall into debt, although not paying off the credit card in full every month would fine with him.

I need to shut my mouth about the things that he wants to buy that are outside the budgetted amounts. The question of "how shall I pay for that" should only come up if I truly don't know what would be the best way to pay a bill...not just because it wasn't previously budgetted into a category. I'm tempted to say that if he doesn't want to live within the budget than I won't either, but that won't work for several reasons. First, I can't enjoy spending money if I think it is going to put us into debt. It sounds good to throw caution to the wind, but I know that in the long term I would regret any such decisions. Second, just because he needs a little emotional wiggle room when it comes to budgetting, I can still serve my family best by being conservative and organized with our purchases. I don't really need the emotional wiggle room. I can be the most respectful and appreciative of how hard he works by not wasting money.

Of course, desiring to keep my mouth shut when we overspend in a category and ACTUALLY keeping my mouth shut are two different things. Oh, and I should probably work on curtailing any negative body language about it while I'm at it. It won't do me any good to keep my mouth shut if I have to physically slap my hand over my mouth to do it. If I can be successful at this, I have all faith that my hubby with quickly return to valuing the budget as much as I do. Hey, a girl can dream....

A Shopping BLITZ

I don't think I ever got around to blogging about my shopping challenge. Perhaps that is because I think most people couldn't care less...but when has that stopped me from blogging about something?

The gist of the shopping challenge was this:
For 7 months, I committed to not shop for myself. No clothes, no shoes, no accessories, no jewely, no extraneous facial products, no fancy shampoos. I joined this challenge with 6 of my friends. We all committed to a number of months by paying in advance $20 for each month. Any person failing the challenge, by purchasing something they shouldn't have, forfeited all of their cash. The winners at the end of the challenge not only got their cash back, but they got to split amongst themselves the cash of those who didn't make it.

In addition to these rules, I had a special rule. Since I'm not the type to spend "too" much (whatever that is defined by) shopping, I had the extra rule that at the end of the challenge I needed to go on a shopping blitz and buy the things I liked WITHOUT worrying about the price tags. Since I am a budget-freak, I have been putting aside a little money each month during the challenge to add to my winnings so that I could afford the little blitz.

The challenge ended March 31st and I think it surprised no one that I was successful. I won $200 bucks from my friends (thank you very much for your contributions). I also have budgetted $40 per month for shopping in my household budget, so $40 x 7 is $280 more. I think I set aside another $100 during those 7 months, so my total available cash for my blitz was $580.

My first act of shopping after winning my challenge was to look through my friend Melissa's clothes that were headed for the consignment store. She was willing to sell me her designer clothes at a third of their original prices. I spent a total of $270 on her clothes, but I purchased around 15 items and she threw a few things in for free. I got several pair of designer jeans (Jeans for all Mankind, Big Star, David Kahn, Kut), several pairs of slacks, a few pairs of capris, 4 blouses, 3 dinner jackets, 3 skirts and a long dress jacket. When I started the challenge, I was wearing size 10/12 and now I am wearing a size 8 so the new clothes really helped my wardrobe.

I spent some of my blitz money on shoes. I purchased three pairs. The first is a pair of brown heeled sandals from Union Bay. Those cost me $35. My husband took me down to the Famous Brands "buy one get a second pair half off" sale and bought me a pair of Rocket Dog sneakers and a pair of wedge sandals from Sketchers. I'm including that in my shopping blitz totals, even though it was a gift from hubby. I think the bill there was $109 for both pairs.

Last night I went on the last part of my shopping blitz and blew the rest of my money. I went to the mall with Keri and Melissa for Melissa's birthday and bought some makeup at Sephora and Clinique. 3 eyeliners at Sephora was about $35 and powder and lipstick at Clinique was about $40 (but I got a bonus gift too!).

Then the girls went their seperate ways and hubby joined me at the mall where we did a little more shopping. We went to Hollister, Abercrombie & Fitch, and then to American Eagle. Of those 3, AE was a clear winner. Hollister and Abercrombie have the music up way too loud and their clothes are way too small for my body... and their prices were too high too. American Eagle has enjoyable music playing in the background, but not too loud that you have to yell at each other to converse. They actually have the size XL (unlike Hollister and Ambercrombie) but the Large size fits me fine. I picked up a pair of knee length shorts, 2 polo shirts, and a hoodie that will match my new Rocket Dog sneakers. It is so fun to shop with the hubby. He's great at handing me new things to try and he encourages me to get what I like (who wouldn't like that in a shopping partner!). We signed up for the AE store card to get another %15 percent off, so our total there was $109.

My last purchase was at the juniors department at Macy's. I know I'm not a "juniors" and haven't been for a decade or two...but the prices are so much better in the Juniors dept. I got a DKNY white sweater for $15 on sale...no way I could have bought anything DKNY upstairs in the ladies dept for $15. I also got a blue/green blouse for $20. I got an extra %20 off for charging the purchase to my Macy's card, so I think my total there was only $30.

So, drum roll please...it is time for me to add up my spree:
$270 for Mel's clothes (a great deal!)
$144 for 3 pairs of shoes
$75 for makeup
$109 for AE
$30 for Macy's
Total of $628 (as usual, nearly 15% over my budget. It is funny how it always seems to be 15%)

That feels like a really, really large amount of money to spend on oneself, but the shopping challenge was an extraordinary event and so the post-challenge blitz will not be something I make a habit of. Now I'm back to watching my $$ and trying to stay in my monthly budget. Hopefully no shopping for me for awhile!

Hope I haven't bored you too badly. Lisa OUT.

What's a little anxiety worth?

Spunky Girl is having a birthday in a few weeks, so it is time to plan her party. Natch...I start by going to the yearly budget to see what funds I set aside for her party. $100. Sounds quite reasonable.

Then I work on the guest list. I really need to invite all her preschool class if I'm going to invite any. Spunky girl plays with the boys in her class more than she plays with the girls and I think it would look WEIRD if I just invited the boys to her party to keep the guest list reasonable. So we start with 19 kids and work up from there...add 6 kids from her bible class at church...add 2 cousins...add 3 friends that we really like...plus her brother and sister...30. Really? Yeah. 30 kids. Too many. Way too many for the home party that I had in mind. It might be possible in the summer, but I'm not locking 30 kids in my house for 2 hours.

So a new venue is needed. We did McDonalds last year (delightfully cheap and easy). There just aren't that many options out there if you are trying to keep the cost down. I decided on a local park. At $80 to rent the picnic shelter, it makes coming in under budget difficult. I could chance it...not rent the shelter and just hope and pray that it is free the day of her party. That will make me anxious. For the next few weeks, I'll be worrying about what I'll do if someone else rents the shelter or just gets there before me to camp in it.

So, the $80 goes into the birthday party budget. A quick budget breakdown:

Evite invitations -- FREE
park shelter and playground -- $80
cupcakes and ice cream, drinks -- BUY w/WEEKLY GROCERY BUDGET
face painting -- $15 FROM DISCOUNT SCHOOL SUPPLY
party bags -- $20 A NECESSARY EVIL
cups, plates, banners, etc -- PREBOUGHT ON SALE

Total: $115 -- $15 over budget. Seems like I'm always 15% over on everything. I still think it is worth it to rent the picnic shelter, though. While it is nice to dream about not paying the $80 and having more cush dollars to spend on the party, it is better to have a solid plan in place.

I do like that my $80 goes to support our local parks, which I use often with my family. I should pay to support that. Of course, using that logic, NPR should get a check too. =)