Money, Love, and Change

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We’ve been working hard on the “please” and “thank you” concept with the kid.  He’s doing pretty well.

He’s also at the stage where he imitates everything we say.  For example, when we run out of something, like milk or dog food, he’ll say, “Milk all gone”.  I respond with the usual, “Yep, we’ll have to go to the store to get more milk” (or more dog food, or whatever).  This is almost always followed by, “Oh boy (I have no idea where he picked this up!).  Go bye bye car.  Go store, get more milk.”  It’s pretty cute.

Anyhow, tonight when I put the kid to bed, I remarked how his scab (aka boo-boo) had finally come off.  Here’s our dialog:

Me:  “Look, sweetie!  Your boo-boo is all gone!”

Kid examines his knee up close (cause 2-year-olds can put their eye up to their knee without giving it a second thought).

Kid (very serious):  “Ma-ma.  Go to store.  Get new boo-boo knee.”

Me: “Ummm…Well, honey, they don’t sell boo-boos at the store.  And it’s a good thing your boo-boo is gone.  It means you’re all better.”

Kid:  “Ma-maaa.  Go to store.  Get new boo-boo knee.  Peas (which is please).”

Well, at least he said please…

Have a nice weekend everyone!

I hope that everyone out there has a special cause that they are involved with. For us, we give monthly to St. Jude Children’s Hospital. I used to work with a pediatric neurosurgeon, and although the thought of a sick child is heartbreaking, seeing how they are still able to be themselves despite their illness is absolutely miraculous - there aren’t even words to describe some of the adversity these kids are able to overcome (sometimes against all odds).

Although we believe wholeheartedly in St. Jude’s cause, it is difficult for us to become more directly involved with them because of our physical location. At some point in my life, I would like to return to the bench to do some more science, and St. Jude’s tops my list of who I would like to work for. In the meantime, we’ve been trying to get involved with more local charities.

But St. Jude’s is super cool. They called us and asked if we would be willing to take part in their mailing campaign, where we sent out donation requests to close friends and family. Any donations are mailed back to us, and then we mail it back to St. Jude. I think that this is a wonderful way for us to encourage others to give without being too pushy. It also gets us more directly involved with their cause.

What about you? Do you have a charity that isn’t local that you are involved with? What do you do?

Within the past couple of weeks, we encountered 2 financial bumps in the road totaling $600.  This surely isn’t pocket change, and until tutoring starts up again, we really don’t have a lot of extra money.  However, I am going to try to come up with $600 without dipping into our emergency fund or vacation fund.  Here’s what happened:

1.  New car tires - We weren’t really expecting this one, but when we got the car emissions and inspection done, we were told that new tires were in order pretty soon.  We trust our auto mechanic - they have done a great job so far letting us know about upcoming maintenance ahead of time (ie.  belt changes, tire changes, etc.).  To date, we’ve been able to set the money aside ahead of time and then have it done at the next oil change.  Our total bill was a little over $300 (includes our annual inspection and emissions tests).  Usually, we just take the money out of our emergency fund and replenish it, but I would like to try to pay this without touching our emergency stash.

2.  Car rental for trip to Arizona in November - We’re going to Arizona in November to visit our good friends.  The flight is booked and paid for, but we have been discussing renting a minivan and splitting the cost 50/50 with our friends.  We plan on visiting Phoenix, Sedona, and the Grand Canyon - with 2 kids in car seats and 4 adults, getting a larger vehicle to save on gas (as opposed to driving 2 separate vehicles, 1 of which would still need to be rented) seems like a good idea.

My friend called me last week with a great deal on a minivan for the entire week from hotwire.com.  Our friends will pick it up and drop it off, and the cost was about $200 cheaper than what we had previously found.  I booked it - the total was $295, and I’ll be getting back $15 for using my Discover Card.  Our friends will be paying us their half ($140), but they are tight on money right now since they just got back from traveling themselves.  They are good for the money, but I want to pay the total amount off without dipping into the vacation fund.

I’ll be keeping track of snowflakes throughout the month.  So far, I should be getting $50 from RevResponse, and $25 from my credit union because I signed up for paperless statements.  I’ve got some other tricks up my sleeve for this month as well.

Do you have any small financial goals this month?  Do you think that I can do it?

We’re back from a weekend camping trip. It was a lot of fun, even though we got rained on for a whole night and part of a day. Trying to keep a 2-year-old contained in a tent while waiting for a storm to pass was challenging, but somewhat manageable. I have made a mental note to bring more books/toys in the event of rain (we try to keep it simple, but in this case having more than a dump truck and 2 books would have made life better)!

In general, I love camping because it is so simple, and there is a lot of time for reflection. One of the things I spent a lot of time thinking about is that we’ve actually done a good job over the past couple of years making life less complicated. Now when we’re camping, it’s nice to get away from the computer and phone for awhile, and cooking over an open fire, and sleeping on the ground. Other than that, camping is really not as different from home as it used to be.  My husband and I get to spend more quality time together now, and we’ve prioritized things so that we both spend a lot of time with the kid.

Camping this weekend did strengthen my resolve to working harder to become debt free. I would love to have freedom to camp and travel more often, but with my husbands limited vacation time, that’s not possible. We’ll see what happens…

What about you? Do you like camping? Why or why not?

Like most parents, I read a lot about how to be a good parent. I’ve come to realize that a lot of it is crap. Some of it is good, but a lot of it is not.

Four of my friends have recently given birth (to happy, healthy little ones - congratulations!). For some reason, I was asked for advice. Given that my friends have different nationalities, religions, and even political affiliations, I really thought about what might be some good universal advice.

I came up with 2 things:

1. Read to your kids - Both my husband and I read to our kid. We started when he was just a couple weeks old (prior to that, we were in total survival/adjustment mode). I take him to the library weekly, and he can’t wait for story time every week.

We always read before bedtime, and frequently throughout the day at his request. He takes books with him everywhere we go. I can honestly say that he loves books!

If something were to happen to me tomorrow, I would like to think that even though the kid might not really remember me, I would have left him with a love of reading that will guide him through life.

2. Spend a couple minutes each day reflecting on your role as a parent - I tend to spend a couple minutes before I go to sleep going over the events of the day. At this age, I usually end up asking myself: What did we have fun doing? What sucked? How well did I do at enforcing discipline? Was I too strict or not strict enough? If I could change one thing about the day, what would it be?

All of these questions help me reflect on how I can guide my son as he continues to grow. Kids change so quickly, and I think it’s a lot easier to appreciate them for who they are when we take time to really think about the role we should (or perhaps should not) be playing in their lives.

Do you have a universal piece of advice? I’d love to hear it!

p.s. Just to let everyone know, we’ll be camping tomorrow and Saturday, so I’ll be back on Sunday (don’t want you to think I’m ignoring you!). Have a nice weekend!