Money, Love, and Change

I am really happy – I just got myself some “free” babysitting!  I have a neighbor who is studying for a math exam she needs to pass for teaching, and I offered to tutor her.  She’s got the concepts down, but just needs some help with test-taking strategies and finding some ways to solve the problems a little faster.

For me, it’s been some time since I have tutored math, and I have forgotten how much I enjoy it.  When my neighbor insisted on paying me, I felt that it wasn’t fair to charge an hourly rate, since we discussed our kids and other topics between math problems.  So we worked out a deal where she will watch the kid (she also has a son who is close in age to mine, and the kids play well together) in exchange for my services.

This is so great for my husband and I – we really can’t justify paying for a babysitter since money is tight, but we haven’t been out on our own in a really long time (I can’t remember the last time… definitely not in 2008!) since we don’t have family in the area.

Have you ever exchanged services?  Has it worked out well?

One luxury that we continue to splurge on is Direct TV.  Both my husband and I are huge sports fans – unfortunately for us, our favorite teams aren’t local ones.  Every year, we save up and budget for both NFL Sunday ticket and NBA League Pass.

We really like NBA League Pass – there is always a game on that we’re interested in watching every night (after the kid is in bed).  NFL Sunday ticket is a little bit of a different story.  Basically, we can only watch 2 games each weekend, but that’s a pretty big investment of time, especially since the kid is up when the games are on.

The Cleveland Browns are actually a decent team this year, so we will be able to see more games on local tv.  We sat down with their schedule last weekend, and figured out that we might miss five games total if we don’t purchase Sunday ticket.  It’s possible that we may only miss three games.  There’s just no way we’re paying $50+ to watch a game on television.  So we canceled.

I’m really happy with the decision, and I was a little surprised that my husband was too.  He’s getting annoyed with the fact that sports fans have to shell out so much money these days – we can’t even tune into Cleveland’s radio station (WMMS) anymore to listen to the games online without paying a fee.

I would like to get rid of television altogether, but we have over a year left on our Direct TV contract.  I don’t really enjoy watching tv a lot (except sports), and my husband doesn’t watch a lot of tv either.  I keep waiting for the SlingCatcher to come out!

If you’re a big sports fan, what do you do?

I was on Slickdeals.net this weekend, and came across this offer.  Basically, through 7/28, if you have never signed up for Amazon Prime before, you can use this link to get $10 off your next Amazon order when you sign up for a free one month trial of Amazon Prime.  Amazon Prime allows for unlimited two-day free shipping and no minimum order size.

This is a good deal because you can use your $10 credit and still get free shipping (usually you need $25 to qualify for free super-saver shipping).  Cancelling Amazon Prime before the free month is up is very easy as well – you can do it through your account settings online without any hassle.

The original post from Slickdeals is here if you want to check it out.  I got my son a book and Hot Wheels toy car holder for $4 out of pocket.  We’ll be saving both of these for Christmas.  If you take advantage of this, what are you going to get?

These days, I know that many people are trying to do everything that they can to save money (myself included).  Clipping coupons from the Sunday paper is one popular method of pinching pennies, but I am beginning to wonder if it is the best for me.

When I go to the grocery store, I usually pick up veggies and fruits, grains (rice, pasta, bread) and dairy.  I allocate $5 for junk food (cookies, chips, ice cream), and $25 for stocking up on items that are on sale (oatmeal, canned goods, etc).  I’ve stocked up on a lot of the bathroom essentials via CVS with little or no out-of-pocket cost.

After looking over the grocery totals for the past couple of months, I’ve found that I actually spend more when I clip coupons.  We tend to have more processed food in the house when coupons are clipped, and not as many fresh fruits and vegetables.  The items I buy when coupons aren’t clipped tend to be items that almost never have coupons (ie. organic foods).

Honestly, when flipping through last week’s Sunday circular, I had trouble finding coupons of anything I would normally buy.  Is anyone else in a similar situation?  What do you do?

If you’re like me, you buy the Sunday paper to clip some coupons and hopefully get a couple of good deals (or at least make up the cost of buying the Sunday paper).  I am always trying to make sure that I got all of the coupon inserts for the Sunday paper; in our area, the RedPlum insert is only in the larger (and more expensive) paper.

I just found this link from Slickdeals.net, and thought that I would share it.  It’s the 2008 coupon insert schedule, and it just made my life easier.  Hope that this can help someone else out!

We’ve been putting aside $25 a month for Christmas.  I know that this doesn’t sound like a lot, but keep the following things in mind:

1.  My husband and I don’t buy each other gifts for Christmas.  Seriously.  If one of us wants or needs something, we discuss it and then plan appropriately.  Besides, with the birth of our son, we both get more joy watching him open presents.

2.  We don’t spend a lot on family.  In the past few years, we have sent framed pictures or photo books as gifts using gift certificates and other discounts.  I plan on using Boomertowne gift cards for family this year as well.

3.  My son (who this fund is primarily for) doesn’t need a lot of toys.  Last year, we spent $150 (toys and clothes) and he had a wonderful Christmas.  We figure that a similar amount will be good for this year, especially if we shop ahead of time (which we didn’t do last year).

Today we went shopping to get my husband the new Guitar Hero game (free after gift cards).  On the way home, we stopped at Toys R Us – I had heard that they were having a sale on Brio trains.  I was wrong – they were actually having a clearance sale!

For $60, we got our son a new train set with track, 2 extra sets of track, 2 stations (a conductor station and a repair shop), and 2 additional train cars.  This is going to be his “big gift” this year.  I’m really excited that we were able to get such a great deal, and we know that the kid loves trains already (he has a smaller Brio set).

The only thing I haven’t gotten ready is a good hiding spot for this year’s gifts!

Do you like Christmas shopping early?  Why or why not?

For those of you that are wondering, Bonnaroo is a live music festival that features a variety of bands.  If you want to go, it’s a little late, since it’s occuring this weekend.  However, you can still watch certain acts live (for free) thanks to the AT&T blue room.

We watched the Raconteurs earlier today, and are currently watching Les Claypool.  Metallica is playing tonight, and there are other bands performing over the weekend (Ben Folds, Robert Randolph’s Revival, and Yonder Mountain String Band are just a few).

Have a great weekend everyone!  Watch some music!

Until I had a kid of my own, I never realized what a great resource craft stores could be for toys.  Not only do they have some great hands-on gifts and crafts for kids, but most of the larger craft store chains will print coupons in the Sunday paper for 40%-50% off  of a single regular priced item.

Here are just a couple of things I have found:

1.  Christmas gifts for my niece:  She is creative, and always loves the things we send – I have been able to purchase the large art kits (with pens, markers, crayons, etc.), little sewing kits, and some cool stuff from Crayola.

2.  Every Mother’s Day, I purchase 3 (for the gramas and great-grandma) of the clay kits to make a handprint of my son.  The ones I get are really nice – they have a 2-piece frame (one side for a picture, and one side for the clay imprint).  They are great bridal shower gifts.  After a 50% off coupon, they are under $10 each.

3.  Melissa and Doug toys – Melissa and Doug make a lot of natural wood toys.  I also am a big fan of their cardboard blocks.  Our local AC Moore store has quite a large selection of their toys.

4.  All things Crayola – With a 50% off coupon, I don’t feel so bad replacing broken crayons and dried up markers!

Do you have a good craft store/kid find that you would like to share?

We are regular visitors to our local library.  A month or so ago, I was a little surprised to see Dolly Parton’s smiling face on a brochure at the children’s desk.  After a moment of wondering how Dolly manages to look exactly the same as she did 25 years ago, curiosity got the best of me and I picked up the brochure.

Dolly, bless her soul, has started a program called the Imagination Library.  This program partners with local communities to provide free books (1 per month) for any child under the age of 5 who signs up.  Here is an excerpt from her website:

Here’s how it works:

A community must make the program accessible to all preschool children in their area. The community pays for the books and mailing, promotes the program, registers the children, and enters the information into the database.

From there The Dollywood Foundation takes over and manages the system to deliver the books to the home.

The books are already selected based on the age of the child – each kid receives 1 free book per month until the age of 5.  To see if your community participates, you can check out the affiliates link here.

We filled out the form on our brochure (our community does not allow online registration), and received a confirmation letter.  We are still waiting for our first book, but I wanted to share this information now so that others can sign up.  Happy reading!

I have mentioned in some previous posts about how my husband’s old job is being relocated to China.  He recently found a job with the same company in a different building, and things are going ok.  The commute is still long though – about 70 miles round-trip per day.  He used to commute to work with a friend in the same department, but his friend had to find a different job as well.

My husband and his friend have decided to start carpooling again – their new jobs are relatively close in terms of distance, and are settled into their jobs to the point that things have become predictable in terms of hours.  This is really exciting for us for the following reasons:

1. We will be saving money on gas.  It’s a little tough to estimate exactly how much – the gas gauge on the truck doesn’t work, so my husband fills up when the trip odometer is somewhere in 300 mile range.  Some weeks he fills up once, and other times twice.  It costs between $35-$40 each time.  I haven’t been separating our gas costs by vehicle, so to be safe I would estimate that we will be saving about $75 a month.
2. Perhaps more importantly, we will be increasing the life span of the truck.  It’s getting closer to 200,000 miles, and anything we can do to cut down on the mileage is great.  Every time we take it in for an oil change, there have been small repairs.  The less we take it in to the shop, the better!
3. It’s good for the environment.
4. My husband won’t have to physically drive to and from work a couple of days of the week.  The drive is mostly scenic, but the last 10 miles is beltway and traffic jams.  Not having to be the driver a couple of days a week is a nice change of pace.
5. My husband also gets to renew a friendship.  Now that they work in different locations, it is difficult for he and his friend to get together.  This will give them the chance to catch up.

I am hoping that the money saved will counter the increasing gas and food prices.  I would like to think that we could snowflake some of the money, but I think it is more realistic to expect to break even.

Would you consider carpooling?  Why or why not?